Multiple Narratives, Editing, and Repurposing

This collection of sites was produced by students in the Winter 2000 Digital Collections of Still and Moving Images course taught by Howard Besser at the UCLA Department of Library and Information Studies, in collaboration with the UCLA Department of Film and Television.

All students used the same set of several hundred digitized snapshots, commercially available images, and bootleg CD covers from Vietnam made during the summer of 1999. Each student created a fictional narrative and a fact-based narrative that incorporated a selection of the images.

(See also IS287 students' final term projects.)

Fictional Narratives

• Lost and Found, portraying the search for identity undertaken by a young Vietnamese girl who was raised in the United States, by Christina Gammell

• A Vietnam Diary includes text from Howard's diary from his trip to Vietnam in August 1999; A Vietnam Diary - North Vietnam includes entries from Howard's trip to North Vietnam. By Karen Baxter.

• Have You Seen Me? a fictional newswire story of a missing person, by Nina Schneider

• Saigon, a first-person narrative about a hardboiled down-and-out expatriate, by Snowden Becker

• A Day at the Races, a narrative about Howard winning a national boat race, by Heather Sabin

• My Trip to Altoid, a site about a made-up trip to a place called Altoid (anonymous)

• The Vietnam Tales: A Quest of Enlightenment. Riffing off Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, this fictional narrative focuses on Howard as leader to a ragtag group of pilgrims in a mystical journey across Vietnam in search of the Eastern Oracle, a Holy Grail-like artifact that is supposed to bequeath the seeker with sacred knowledge, etc. A dramatic adventure with its comic moments, by Lindy Leong

• Vietnam - Where the East and the West Meet. Vietnam was portrayed as a joyful place welcoming both eastern and western cultures. The environment, ethnic as well as religious, cultural, and economic, is spotlighted.

• KW's Trip to Saigon. Aiming to entertain as well as inform, this "diary" weaves interesting facts into the account of a fictional trip to Vietnam (anonymous)

• The River Monster, a low budget horror movie about a doomed expedition in search of the sao la. By Heather Cleary

• The Beast, in which a traveling American seeks a mythic beast in Vietnam, by Rich Gazan

• Travel to Vietnam, a promotional site for travel to Southeast Asia from a fictional travel agency, by Rina Vecchiola

Fact-based Narratives

• Travel and Tourism

  • Information for Visitors to Vietnam, a look at the culture, economy, and tourist industry in Vietnam, by Rina Vecchiola
  • Tourism in Vietnam, an attempt to understand the appeal of Vietnam as a tourist destination and the pitfalls of the tourism industry in that country, by Christina Gammell
  • Transportation in Vietnam, a look at the types and costs of various modes of transportation for travelers in Vietnam, by Rich Gazan

   

• Ho Chi Minh

  • Ho Chi Minh: The Early Years, about Ho's youth and political activities until 1945, by Heather Sabin
  • Uncle Ho, a brief profile of the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh (anonymous)
  • Vietnamese Independence, a photo essay on Vietnam, independence, and Ho Chi Minh. By Heather Cleary

   

• Miscellaneous

  • Rice Paper, by Nina Schneider
  • 2 Facts: Descriptions for some of the Images from Howard's Trip to Vietnam (anonymous)
  • Communist Iconography and Vietnamese Elitelore: Evidence of Collusion in Visual Culture. An analysis of the creation of elitelore via the dissemination of iconography, especially in the context of Vietnamese politics and culture. A brief look at consumerist culture in conjunction with the use of iconography and political positioning is touched upon in this effort by Lindy Leon
  • Vietnam - Where East and West Confront. Vietnam was portrayed as a miserable place full of anti-imperialist sentiment. Emphasis is put on the background/impact of the American trade embargo (a side effect of the Vietnam War), and copyright issues.
  • Landmines in Vietnam. Excerpts from a United Nations report on the problem of landmines in Vietnam, with web resources for other sites regarding landmines. By Karen Baxter

   

IS287 students' term projects--summaries and links to final projects