Why I Chose This Scene
For my creative captions assignment, I decided to choose the graduation speech scene from the TV show, Gilmore Girls. Gilmore girls is my favorite show and this is one of my favorite scenes of all time. I love how emotional and heartwarming this scene is. This scene comes after a long buildup of Rory (the valedictorian) changing from a public school to one of the country’s finest private Catholic schools and working hard during her high school career to accomplish her dream of getting accepted to an ivy league university. At first, she has a hard time adjusting to her new school and even ends up getting a D on her English paper. However, over time, due to her incredible work ethic, she ends up improving and becoming valedictorian. It is an incredibly proud moment for her, her single mother Lorelai who had her at 16 and never got to finish high school, and her grandparents, Emily and Richard, who helped pay for her high school.
My Process
This scene pulls at my heart strings every single time I watch it. I believe the audio is integral to absorbing the scene fully, and because of that, I wanted to make the captions as heartwarming as the audio as much as I possibly could. I wanted to replicate the feeling that the audio gives me through captions for people with hearing disabilities.
Gilmore Girls includes humorous and witty characters who speak quickly. This scene shows an example of that. Because of this, I wanted to color code the captions and match them to each character depending on what they are wearing.
In these screenshots, you can see each character’s captions are correlated with the color they are wearing. Additionally, you can also see that I included some character actions that I believe are important details when a person is reading the captions. For example, the woman in the purple shirt, Sookie, has the phrase “*Holding back tears*” in her dialogue, which helps you visualize how she would sound while reading her words.
This scene, as well as the rest of the show, includes humor and drama. It shows the perfect balance of comedy and seriousness. Because of this, I wanted to incorporate animation to some of my captions to show the emotion behind the words.
What is the theme of the work? What is it you aim to express?
The theme is graduation, growing up, and the relationship between mothers and daughters. I aim to express nostalgia while keeping the comedic tone.
How is that theme particularly expressed through the modality of the week?
That theme is expressed through the modality of this week through captions. I tried to mimic the tone and emotion of the characters’ voices with the captions. By adding text animations and color coding the captions to keep up with the fast talking, I was able to express this theme.
Which elements of the work are beautifully/wonderfully/perfectly expressed through the modality?
The crying voice is expressed through wobbly text animations. It makes the captions have emotion.
Which elements are lost or inexpressible through the modality of the week?
Sometimes, the moods change too fast for the caption animations to keep up with.
Who does this project exclude? Who would not be able to interact with this work ? Who is this modality not accessible for?
Even though I included captions, I believe they are hard to read for people who may not read as fast, since the characters also talk very fast.
Now that you’ve identified who is excluded, what is one way you could remix this piece to include another population? (You don’t have to make this part, but think about it and write about it)
To include this population, I would include pauses in some scenes to slow down the pace and give the viewer time to process the words.