The Journal

Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: LifeStyle

Media Credit: Stephanie Powell After dabbling in several fields, senior Jennifer Becker found she had a love for experimental video.

She grew up quickly at 15 years old. Taking on a motherly role, senior Jennifer Becker watched over her two younger sisters, who were eight and 11 at the time, while going to school. Their dad worked to make ends meet. Their mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a disease that affects the central nervous system.

"She would have seizures and completely bite through her tongue," said Becker, a video production major. "Your body attacks itself."

Becker, who used to be outgoing in her younger years, found herself more withdrawn at school since she was spending so much time taking care of things at home.

"Talking to people scared the hell out of me," Becker said.

Higher education

After high school, Becker said she wasn't eager to be in college.

"I originally did not want to go to college at all," Becker said. "I was more than carefree in high school. I just wanted to disappear and get away from it."

With motivation from her high school art teacher, who said it would be a disservice for Becker not to attend college, Becker enrolled at Webster in 1996.

"I felt pressured by my parents to go to college," Becker said.

She started off her college career as a fine arts major. But she soon found herself running ragged and tired of being creative.

"I was kind of going back and forth, doing my classes, staying at home raising my sisters and taking care of my mom," Becker said.

After failing her portfolio review, she knew it was time for a change. Since she was struggling with her mom's illness and relying more on her faith, Becker decided to change her major to religion. She did a complete switch - earning a bachelor's degree in religion and a minor in fine arts. Becker developed a love for Eastern philosophy, which impacted her creativity.

"It started helping me to become more creative again," Becker said.

Although she completed both a major and a minor, Becker wasn't satisfied. She decided to pursue script writing. However, after taking a media production class with Van McElwee, a professor in the electronic/photographic media department, Becker knew script writing wasn't for her.

"The first semester as a script writer, right when I picked up that camera, a few weeks later I went and switched," Becker said. "It was that strong for me."

Video nut

That one class is what led Becker to her current degree in video production, with an emphasis in experimental video.

"When I came into the degree, I really wanted to do motion pictures," Becker said.

When she realized the cost of film was more money than she wanted to spend, Becker decided to take a film class, but get a degree in video production.

"If you're gonna make even a short film, it's gonna be money," Becker said.

She gets a thrill from experimental video.

"Not only are you experiencing the piece, but you're experiencing yourself," Becker said.

By plugging in one end of a cord into the audio/video outlet of a television and the other into a camera, senior Jennifer Becker is able to record the feedback from the two appliances. Whining, gurgle groans and an alteration of colors make the medium seem alive to Becker.

In addition to toying with feedback, Becker has created a number of experimental videos herself, including one called "Spine."

"Most living things have a spine," Becker said.

Becker, who has scoliosis, was able to make an X-ray of her spine on screen through feedback. The resulting image was brilliant blue, with a 3-D image. Becker said it took hours of editing to achieve the final product.

"It was almost like a living being itself," Becker said. "It created it on its own."

Often, friends and family help with the piece, which sometimes serves as a stress reliever.

"Both making it and watching it can be a meditative experience," Becker said.

In relation to her mom's illness, Becker created a still life video about living with death.

"It was looking at growing through childhood to adulthood and having to deal with death on a daily basis," Becker said.

In addition to childhood memorabilia such as teddy bears, Becker also included rotting fruit and deer antlers. Becker chose deer antlers because each year a deer loses its antlers, but they grow back, symbolizing that it's not a true death.

"The shedding of something living to where you can continue living," Becker said of the antlers.

Jack of all trades

With various degrees to her name, Becker said she doesn't plan on using her video production degree right away.

"The funny thing right now is I'm leaning more toward writing," Becker said.

She is currently working on a book and putting her religion degree to use by bringing Eastern philosophies into American culture. After graduating in December, Becker is going to take time off to focus on her writing before pursuing a career. She and her boyfriend Shawn, have been stashing cash in hopes that Becker will get published.

"If not, I will go ahead and look for a job in video editing," Becker said.

Her dream job is to do a little bit of everything in the communications field like writing books, plays, making movies and entering film festivals.

"I would have all forms of communication open to me," Becker said. "I'd like to be a freelancer of everything."

Through all she has experienced in her life thus far, Becker found herself evaluating the way she looks at life. She believes in the saying "everything happens for a reason." Becker lives out this motto by using the hard lessons she's encountered to help others. In addition, she is a firm believer there is no track to life.

"It happens a lot of crap has happened to me and it has no meaning," Becker said. "Anything bad that happens to you isn't really bad. All the things that have happened to my family and I have made us better people."

Becker also said in dealing with her mom's illness and caring for her family, she found herself and determined her own values.

"You get to the point where you can get past your own pain and you can grieve," Becker said. "You kind of become more of yourself. Little things don't really matter anymore. It's hard to get really mad over things. It gives you a different perspective to where you're just happy to be here."

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