Weekly Journal 10_22_07

Reading Response to Hampe Documentary
I thought that this reading was a good way for me to get into this project. It really told me a lot about what are good and bad ways to interview people. It also really got me to think about thinking about all the little details before starting my interview. About purposeful shooting and what I need to do before I get into the process of shooting and talking with the interviewees. Also about how to shoot with the intention of a final product. I really think that I do this, but I don’t usually think about all the little details with this process. I also liked the last part with the two most important questions that should be asked to the interviewee at the end of the interview. I thought that this reading was a really purposeful piece.

Movie “Soldier’s Pay”
I thought it was a very interesting film and the content of the material was good, but that some of the shots were unnecessary. I thought some of the changes in the video were bad and the angles were inappropriate for the video. I thought that one of the interviewee’s shots were varied while the other soldier was very much the same in all of his shots. I thought that there could have been more consistency. I also thought that some parts of the film had very different audio in the different shots. I felt that there could have been more consistency in the film for the audio. I felt that there was such variations in everything that it wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, but maybe this was the intention of the filmmaker.

Brainstorming:
Chad - Delivery, following delivery people and seeing who they meet and what they experience. More well known buildings, beckman institute, memorial stadium, and finding a professor or people that know it and getting at the bottom of what it is all about.
Hatim - Rare book library
Kate - Dance performer and musician, how he got into music and originally wanted to ask him about autism. How to represent autism on film. Use autism as a characteristic of him, not who he is. Video as a representation of him, not a video about autism.
Shera - Radio, but turned to Midwest landscape, visual representation of the midwest.
James - White people who think they are really hot, but are not. Chiropractor and how some people think it’s a junk science, what is it about.

Aesthetic Storyboard

Aesthetic Storyboard

10_14_07 Weekly Journal

A documentary for me is representing people in a non-bias way. It should be looking from an outside perspective without altercation of the subject. Questions towards the subject should be non-leading and should be clearly stated with the intent to be informed and not with the intent of persuasion. Documentaries should also inform the public about the subject in a manner that the subject wants to be displayed, so in a sense bias from the subject, but I feel that the subject should have complete control over how one is to be displayed by the public. Also another way a documentary should be made is through collaboration of many different sources so that it forms a non-bias complete idea. If it takes many different perspectives it makes for a more sound story.

The video “Stranger in her own city” was a really well made documentary. It portrays a young girl and how her actions and thoughts are outside of her town. I think that the film maker chooses to be non-bias in the making of the documentary. I feel that although the film maker was very active in the life of the child, she was also very distant. The film makers words were not leading and she only asked to get the feelings and opinions of the subject. She would follow the girl in all kinds of ways, the night life, the afternoon, the school, and everywhere the girl when the film maker when also. I think that the film maker was very effective in making it a non-bias film, the film maker was able to be very informative about the subject and about how she lived and how people felt about the way she was living. The film maker made a very informative and non-bias film about the girl, by being “behind the lens.”


Journal/Brainstorm for Representing Others Project
How to Survive in the Wild - How to use the stars to get places, the wind flow and directionality, and good nature tricks to surviving in the wild. The basic survival skills necessary to make it in the wild, with somethings, and also if we had nothing.

Cooking - how to create a meal from random foods and make it appealing to the eye while at the same time appealing to the senses. How spices go together and what makes a spice go with or not go with another spice.

A girls mind - what a girl thinks about on a daily basis, how a girl’s thought process is like.

Price difference in clothes - why some clothes with the exact same material, but with a different brand can vary so much in price. How much of the material and craftsmanship go into the determination of the price of the final product. What brands are higher and why?

Music - Understanding why people write the way they do, what inspires lyrics, what makes people write?

10_09_07 Aesthetic