- Maker: Carlos Rodriguez Rosa
- Genre: Audio Eulogy
- Level: Graduate
- Program: Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
- Course: WRIT 5340: Multimodality & Digital Media
- Instructor: Dr. Eric Mason
- Semester Created: Winter 2021
Description:
This project builds the In Memoriam page webpage of the fictional grief support organization Where We Go Now. The website is a paratextual artifact set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe between the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The organization is centered on the support group Steve Rogers led in the beginning of Avengers: Endgame, exploring how an organization of this kind would operate within the fictional world.
This project also serves as an extension of a previous endeavor in the Transmedia Theory and Production course, where I had composed 27 eulogies intended to be user submitted content. The two audio eulogies depict the submitters narrating pieces to honor and tell the world about their loved one.
The audio eulogies recorded involve canon MCU character Robbie Reyes (Ghost Rider) and original character Milo Douglas.
Reflection:
In the beginning, I thought this project would be easy. As I was just planning on diving deeper into a previous project, I had a lot of the structure, brainstorming, and content already done. I knew what the purpose and audience was, and I knew exactly what I wanted it to be. However, when it came time to record, I was lost as to what a recorded eulogy would sound like.
Many of the audio eulogies I found online involved monotone voices and somber music. Each website had a distinct sound and cadence, but the narration was universally the same. As the purpose of Where We Go Now In Memoriam page is to compile community submitted content, I didn’t see it feasible nor appropriate to separate emotion and variety from the content. In other words, there wouldn’t be much uniformity because there would be little to no control over what is submitted. However, I did choose background music that served as the constant within each recording and believe I provided some consistence within the many variables.
As I composed this product, I had the opportunity to record a narration myself, as well as have a colleague provide one. Given that I had control over how to produce a recording, I had to think deeply about how I would perform it. I worked on narrating the eulogy for the original character Milo Douglas, which was submitted by his fiancé Sydney Klein. I asked myself questions such as: How much emotion should I invoke? Am I overacting? Would someone actually say this?
Great consideration as also taken to the writing itself, which I found had to be heavily revised to make it more conversational. I had to simplify some language and lean into the fact that the recording didn’t have to be perfect. In their own way, both recordings have personality and emotion, depicting the gravity of their loss in a way that fulfills the organization’s intention for the page.
Milo Douglas
(LINK HERE)
Robbie Reyes (Ghost Rider)
(LINK HERE)
