In this seminar we looked at the introduction to abstract. After having a genealogy recap with James we were asked the question "what is an abstract?". We learned that an abstract is a brief summary or overview of the context. An abstract is usually between 250-500 words, and its purpose is to give the audience an idea of what is going to happen in a short and sweet paragraph.
After talking about this, James went on to show us some clips. We had a task to split into groups, and each of us had to summarise 20 seconds of the clip. When each of us had summarised our short bit of the clip in one sentence, and added it to everyone else's sentences, we created an abstract. However it did not flow as an abstract should because everyone thinks slightly differently.
After watching the clips, we watched a clip from casablanca. This is not a film that i have seen before, however have heard of it. It is meant to be a good film and is classed somewhat as a classic. When watching this clip, i noticed that it was a very good example of an abstract. Each of the characters were asking the right questions in order for the audience to know what is going on. When one character says "two exit visa's" and the other character asks "why?", this introduces new characters into the scene, Questions like this in films are what keep the narrative moving, and allows the character to give an abstract.
Finally we were shown a had example. This was a clip from a film called "the room". I have never heard of this film personally, and after watching the clip, i never intend to watch it. In the clip, none of the correct questions where asked for the audiences benefit and things where shown that had no relevance to the storyline. An example of this is where the character pats the dog on the head. This brings attention to the dog, however it has nothing to do with what is happening in the scene. The speech isn't vey informative either, and nothing could be taken from the quick conversation that both of the characters had. This would be a terrible example of an abstract. I can defiantly tell the difference when comparing the clip from "casablanca", and the clip from "the room".
A tip that James gave about writing an abstract was to start off strong. This will set the tone for the whole essay, therefore you need to make it interesting, in order to intrigue the reader into reading on. I found this seminar interesting, and think that i now know what an abstract is and what are good things that i should do what writing an abstract, and bad things that i shouldn't.
