"Annabel Lee," a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, is given a face-lift in the above Camtasia-produced video. By combining a slightly eerie musical rendition of the poem with its audio narration and classical footage of Ireland, the video attempts to reveal a the isolated pieces of the work. In a sense, the video serves as a "deconstruction" of Poe's poem — allowing the audience to appreciate the individual emotions evoked by each aspect of the artistic work. 

Writing "live," drafting in a stream-of-consciousness style is an experience so interconnected with creative writing for me. This has traditionally been the circumstance where the pace of my thoughts often outruns my seemingly weighty typing fingers. So writing as you go is realistically, the only way to come up with something uncontrived, something honest. 

But the variables of individual YouTube clips, a background of moving audio, and the sound of layered narration in the background certainly add a new and challenging element. I knew from the outset I hoped to include an audio narration of "Annabel Lee," allowing the audience to instead focus a majority of their attention making memory associations and visual connections — rather than reading text off of the screen. Still, it took quite a few (6 to be exact) takes before all of the elements decided to cooperate to their fullest. 

Interestingly, even utilizing a simple archive of video footage yielded significant confusion when YouTube ads began to join the intended content on the screen. In the end, the project felt an awful lot like orchestrating a group effort, whereby you could direct but not necessarily control the elements involved. Each take was distinct — the second count differing, imagery shifting, and audio amplifying. So enjoy this live e-poem, and know it will never be repeated in exactly the same manner.