I was fortunate enough to have a group in which we all worked well together. It felt like a safe space and we all shared different roles throughout the exercise. It was great to see that even though they didn’t know much about DACA they were willingly to participate and wanted to know more. I thought it was important to share my story because if I don’t raise awareness about what it’s going on they won’t ever know. Sometimes people care about issues because they’re trending topics at the moment. However, people should know about what’s going on because behind every political issue there’s real people and humans suffering for the ignorance of others. I think film is a great outlet to educate others and it’s part of the reason why I want to pursue film.

             I found the pet videos entertaining and I liked how every group went about it in a different way. Some of my favorite shoots were the close up of the legs shaking and hands fidgeting. Those shoots added to what the person was saying and made it feel more authentic. All the groups had amazing projects considering the time allotted and the fact that we just meet our crew.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1O0xULdLAqBNkNtWEo4djNnZXc/view?usp=sharing

Photos Taken from Flickr

9/4/2017 Reflection:

Monday’s class was interesting, to say the least. Had someone told me that I would be creating a minute thirty documentary about a politically charged topic such as DACA, I wouldn’t have believed it. The idea of being in front of a camera talking about anything is intimidating, add in that I would be talking about a topic I am not well versed in and it seemed impossible to me, but in hindsight was an amazing experience. I learned things about my four group members faster in that three-hour class then I could have imaged. It surprised me to see how all of our traits worked so well together. We all had weaknesses that were complemented by another one of our strength, making this stressful assignment a little less stressful. I believe I was able to learn about my group mates strengths and insecurities because the situation forced us to be vulnerable almost immediately. I would say the hardest part about this project was balancing what we wanted to put in our video versus what we had to put in the video in order to get a good grade. In our mind, Andrea was our story that we wanted to highlight but everyone in the group had to be on tape. What we grappled for most of the editing process was how can we utilize the other members of the group to heighten Andrea’s story. See we all wanted to A, but at one point in editing, we saw the story loose its impact because of such grade requirements. While it was hard in the end, our group was able to work with all the confines of the assignment to create what we thought was an intense 90-second video. It warmed my heart when Luke pulled Andrea aside to tell her that her story is amazing and he wanted to acknowledge that even in the midst of getting this assignment in on time. I was really proud of our final product because everyone was so candid and encouraging.

I thought it was interesting how a lot of the other groups chose the pet option and while they did have the same topic all of the videos had its own direction. Even though those films were had the same topic none of them felt repetitive because they had their own twist on the subject.

Week 9/28/2017 Blog post.

As a documentarian, I’d say that I am still young, with little experience. Which makes answering these questions intimidating. I question if I am qualified to even talk about what I want to document, how often I want to, and what I get from it because I have so little experience. What I can do is talk out what I intend to do, what I think I will get out of it, and who I hope to touch the world. I would like to document like the guys in grizzly man because his passion for the subject was very apparent.

I hope to combine all my passions through documentation. I want to be able to show raw scientific evidence for climate change, species extinction, and genetic variation decline in a way that no matter what discipline you are you have impacted you and will understand the problem. From biologist to teachers, to financial analyst, I want to inspire all to take action. I hope to show that there is no other excuse for the things that are happening to our planet, we cannot sit by and just wonder what is going to happen in 2100, we have to be certain.

As a biology major, I see everything from the deer in your back yard to the fungi under your porch to the coral in the sea as alive contributing to everyday life. This makes issue such as global warming and species extinction mean more to me then maybe another audience member. With documentaries, biologists can reach a wider audience and be able to show, in more tangible ways, that these issues are not only real but also need to be paid attention to. A lot of people know of conservation biology but don’t know that it is a crisis discipline that often won’t have all the information before action is necessary, that’s why getting what is known out to the public is important. Hopefully, through documentaries Biologist can make this clear and hopefully convince skeptics to take action.

During the thirty-minute frame exercise, you could say I felt uncomfortable. Not only was I walking around campus with a piece of cardboard up to my face but I was also uncomfortable because I saw how the frame really does matter. How big or small the change is can alter how the audience sees the scene. It was interesting to think about how the shot can be manipulated to show part of the story or the full story, giving the director a lot of power.

Going into this assignment I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was really surprised that as soon as I held the frame out and began walking I felt like things right in front of me became more focused.
I was looking down at the sidewalk something I tend to not really ever pay attention too. It was strange because immediately I notice these high weeds sticking out between the cracks in the side walk. I stopped and thought for a second how crazy it is that those little weeds found a way to grow through concrete. From then on I really became fascinated by the side walk. I never really noticed how the side walk cement sometimes just randomly change. There are so many different shades of gray sidewalk, and some sidewalk wasn’t even completely gray. I found myself stopping multiple times and staring at this sort of speckled sidewalk, which look although there were almost rocks trapped inside.
I just walked and walked. In way it felt like I was in the video game Mario carts. I felt this sensation that I wasn’t really walking I was almost floating. I have terrible eye sight and I have worn contacts since fifth grade. I really don’t like wearing my glasses because I feel as though I lose all peripheral vision and can only focus on the things in front of me. In a way it felt as though I was wearing my glassing when I look inside the frame. In a way it’s like you are inside a tunnel and just focusing on what was is front as you walk and you can’t really tell how fast you’re moving until you look outside the frame. The assignment made me notice things I usually overlook and think in depth about the simplest things like cement and weeds. I enjoyed it!

I am a dual major at Lafayette in Environmental studies and Economics. I am interested in these two fields of study for many reasons. Two of the biggest reasons, being my interest in how society interacts with the environment and the issues that arise when we fail to take in consideration the effect of our actions. Environmental studies focuses on both how people interact and these affects, but I feel as though to have the full picture you need to understand why people act the way they do and that is where economics comes into the picture.

Economics in its purest sense focuses on why people do what that do, centered on the principle of maximizing benefits and minimizing costs. Through an economist perspective the world functions because people act with their own self-interest as the top priority. This ides is important when addressing issues in the environment especially one’s involving human rights, and issues like water quality. To solve these problems one must not only look at societies actions, but the motives behind these actions.

So where does documentary come into play? In my opinion documentary, is the one of the most powerful tools to address environmental issues and human health concerns. Not only can it be used as a tool to educate, but allows for all sides of issue to be brought together. In regards to environmental problems, documentary allows you to expose not only the issue but the reasons behind the issues. It goes further than a single disciplinary, and allows a full picture to come together that incorporates both the environmentalist and economic perspective.

There are so many environmental issues that I would like to bring to light through a documentary based in the Lehigh Valley. The first one that comes to mind is lead paint crisis Pa. To further explore the issue and maybe even bring more awareness to it. I am not sure specifically where to start, but I feel like there would be a lot to uncover.

When pick up a camera I find it difficult to put it down. I document everything from my shoes to the sky because I don’t want to feel as though I missed a part of the full picture. Especially, when I am in nature I need to have a camera with me or I feel like I am not fully prepared. My favorite thing to document is the outdoors, more than people or even life events. Whenever I travel or plan a hike, I pack two cameras just in case any batteries die or something gets lost. After a trip, I am always overwhelmed by the amount of photos I took. At times I have tried to cut back on the amount of photos or videos I take. I have tried to not document and instead “to make every shot count”, but I feel like this leaves me feeling as though I missed something.

Even if it can be overwhelming I rather take hours sorting through photos or film, then feel like I missed something. Sometimes the shots I felt like were unnecessary in the moment end up being my favorite. In that way the camera allows me to see something that I didn’t fully appreciate the moment I took it.

Documentary represents more than just a photo or a video it is almost a memory. Part of the reason I document things, is because I have a terrible memory and I want to be able to remember experiences more vividly.

I was lucky through school to visit some of the most breath taking places.  Documenting these moments gives me a way to relive the experience, but also gives me a way to share the experience with others. I have taken footage from some my favorite hikes and made a short video recently. This not only allows me to preserve those memories, but share the experience in a more personal way than I could ever explain with words.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDRGA5HIg7QQl9kaW1laWl5UE0/view

I am a person who thinks fast on their feet, so getting this assignment first thing on Monday was really enjoyable for me. I think the best part of the entire process was being able to work with classmates that I did not know. All of us were from different schools, so we all had something different to bring to the table. Some of us specialized in filming, while others specialized in editing. It was a really nice combination of different talents. One thing that I really benefitted from this exercise was learning the fundamentals of Premiere. Over the past two years, I have learned how to edit on Final Cut Pro. Now that the FAMS Department is switching over to Premiere, it was nice to get a gist of how to work this software. Annie, a student from Muhlenberg, uses Premiere so she was able to show me how it differs from Final Cut. It was really nice to be able to learn this in a small group.

As for the actual experience, it was very enjoyable. All of us worked together in order to come up with an idea. I knew that people were probably just going to talk about their childhood pets, so I thought it would be interesting to do something unique. We brainstormed ideas and came up with pet therapy. As we filmed, we then thought of the idea to do a spoof off of the television show “The Untold Stories of the ER”, hence the title of our short film being “The Untold Stories of PT”. I had a great time working with everyone and I hope we can do something similar to this again. Attached is our film. Enjoy!

When doing the framing assignment, I decided to use a smaller size frame, similar to 4:3. I wanted to see how framing the world around me would be different if the size of the frame was to be smaller. I found that when looking out into a larger part of the scenery around me, that it was easy to see a lot of things in front of my face. For example, looking at the quad I was able to fit a lot of things into the small frame that I had. In turn, when doing more of a close up shot, it was difficult to put even one thing into the frame, seeing as though it took up majority of the frame. I tried, in turn, to use things like rule of thirds, and different angles to see how changing it would allow more room to fit more things. From that assignment, I was able to see how easy it is to get more detail oriented shots with a smaller frame. It also makes you think more about what you want in the frame because you don’t have a lot of room to play around with.