Though I have not officially declared a major, I am tentatively planning to major in accounting. In addition to my eventual major I am a part of the Lehigh Global Citizenship Program, through which I have learned a vast amount about active community engagement and sustainable development. I have a unique perspective. Unlike most business majors I have taken many courses related to the humanities, and I feel this gives me a more well-rounded understanding of the problems we face in the world than other business educated students. My business background allows me to approach big issues from multiple angles and vantage points, which ideally will make me a more effective problem solver in the future. I always enjoy stories that relate to culture and community, and I hope to have my work go in that direction. If I had to tell a specific story about the valley it may involve the surge of Syrian immigrants/refugees into the valley in the past few years.

General Reflection:

After class, I thought a lot about what was shown throughout the class and what was discussed and I realized just how important perception is. For example, how someone perceives the class homework, what someone thinks are human sounds versus made sounds, how someone interprets an Instagram video, all of these differ because of people’s perception. When I did my Instagram video on perception I contrasted the viewpoint of a human versus a farm animal, but perception can be so much deeper than that. Perception can change the way one views a subject and therefore how one presents it and creates the biases we see in media today. We have talked about how all media, even documentaries have a vantage point or something they are trying to argue, ultimately perception shapes these ideas and biases and is the ground for most creative work.

Cameraperson Reflection:  

“Images filmed by any individual on the planet impact all of us…” this quote from Kirsten Johnson was the most powerful to me because as the world around us becomes increasingly more globalized and connected documentarians can touch many more lives more easily. Compared to years ago when getting a message even across the country was hard, now it is easy to get a message around the world within minutes. With this ease comes many more responsibilities because more people’s lives are affected at a quicker rate. Anyone with access to post any type of media needs to keep this idea in mind as their actions can affect many. Realizing that your work is going to impact many people, even people who are not your intended audience, is something that seems like common sense but may often be overlooked. Johnson realizes that all of the dimensions that she lists come together to impact herself and her audience and makes her decisions off of those dimensions.

I really enjoyed the last class we had because we finally had the time and go through the blog to look at everyones work. It was interesting to see other students styles and approaches to projects. It made me realize how different every creative method is for every different person. I enjoyed watching everyones work and I am excited to see what is to come for the future and to work with everyone.

As a documentarian I would describe myself as one who tries to bring light to potentially under served issues in a way that audiences can appreciate as both entertaining and informative. I have been know to document anything from everyday events to special occasions.With the representations I create I try to stir up certain attitudes or emotions in my audience. I enjoy seeing people react positively to the ideas that I cultivate and eventually share. Additionally I enjoy informing people in an accessible manner.

After seeing everyone’s Instagram stories and creating more of an image in my head of what I wanted to show using Bernard’s text, I decided to film some things I did around campus today and throw it together on iMovie. The Farmers Market is always a huge hit in our campus square every Thursday, so I took one lap around it just filming the people and different booths and tents set up. I also incorporated my walks to class, the library, and my quick stop in the dining hall. I broke up my lap around the market with the inserts of these clips, and I’m happy with how it turned out. It wa a nice project to do on such a beautiful day. Enjoy!

I felt inspired, confident and validated in my pursuit of the Doc minor after reading Kirsten Johnson’s statement. She spoke boldly about the qualities of her work, bringing attention to the nuances of documentary I never would have considered this early on, but of which now seem so imperative to know sooner rather than later. I noticed there was a sense of power as a cameraperson that seemed to underpin most words she chose.

I have never been one who favors power in a sense that I need to feel ‘in charge’ and make demands of others in any career path. However, Kirsten shed new light on the necessity of having to confront tough decisions.

Having no control would result in a counterproductive workflow. However, here I think she is alluding to a deeper, more raw and organic principle of power when it comes to her work. Her hints to power in this reading are not so much an exertion of control of every circumstance. I understand this sense of power instead as acting like an organ, a brain, or perhaps more clearly, the innate brain ‘power’ of a documentary, what dictates the film.

She offers instances where action is necessary for the documentary to live beyond the moment of filming when she says, “I can and will leave a place I film (a war, a refugee camp, etc.) when the people I film cannot”. The brain of the operation tells her it’s time to leave. She also says, “I alter the balance of power by my presence and act on behalf of one side or another in a conflict”. Being the person with the camera gives her a presence different from how she is without it, the brain telling her what to concentrate on. She writes, “My work can change the way my subject is perceived…” It holds the power to alter other brains’ perceptions, to make change happen in others. “I fail to see or follow stories the director I work for hopes I will follow”, the brain wants what it wants. “I get to share profound intimacy with the people I film”, a vulnerable moment the brain yearns for, “…pursue remarkable stories…”, allow the brain to wander and wonder, “…be at the center of events as they unfold…”, the brain is always hungry for more. Yet, the brain is also required to make technical choices, “how to frame, find focus, choose the direction to follow”.

I suppose this was all so striking to me because it reaffirmed my suspicion about filmmaking being a career in which the learning is endless and the rewards are all the more fruitful because the road to finality is arduous, and creative when the dedication is so wholehearted.

Hey guys! I just wanted to post a list of the different equipment we have discussed so far and other more or less essential gear.

Cameras:

1. Nikon DSLR
2. Canon DSLR

Camera Supports

1. Medium Tripod
2. One and Two Hand Shoulder Mounts
3. Rolling Dolly and the Dolly with a Track
4. Glidecam

Sound Equipment

1. Lavalier Mic (Wired and Wireless)
2. Shotgun Mic
3. Boom Mic (Haven’t discussed yet)
4. Tascam Audio Recorder (larger black one)
5. Zoom Audio Recorder (smaller grey one) – needs an adapter for the SD card

Other Equipment:

1. Headphones
2. External Hard Drives
3. Different lenses, including 50mm primes lenses (not discussed yet)
4. Lighting Gear  (not discussed yet)

Editing Programs:

1. Final Cut Pro
2. Adobe Premier

“I traffic in hope without the ability to know what will happen in the future.”

This line most definitely struck a cord with me. It forced me to truly consider the power of documentaries, and how so many have the potential to promote change through raising awareness; however, regardless of the how influential and captivating the statement of the documentary may be, it is unknown whether or not hope will prevail and change will occur.

The goal of many documentary makers is to bring to light topics or issues that many are unaware of, and thus to evoke a response from the viewers. There are some that emanate feelings of hope, leaving viewers with the belief that there will be progression made in the situation, while others end with no real “answer.” For this reason, this line resonated with me; it made me reflect on the fact that while we sit behind a computer screen or television in the comfort of our homes watching these films and experiencing emotional responses, these are all just moments of real stories with real people who often cannot escape their immediate situations. The most that documentarians can do is tell their story and hope to ignite change and promote action on the behalf of their subjects. As viewers, it is our duty to take the ideas and challenges presented to us and take action to advocate for change.

Our group, Shreya, and Lisa had a lot of ideas about how to go about this assignment and we recorded multiple sounds for each category. For the bad interview sound, we recorded at Lower when everybody was leaving and chatting by the front doors. Shreya was asking me a question and Lisa was recording on her iPhone. Our bad interview sound was made “better” because we had somebody turn on their radio and play music. This was a coincidence that made it almost impossible to hear me. For the human world, I suggested the sound of me eating an apple because I had casually brought an apple with me, and I love the sound of biting into a good apple. When we played it back it had a satisfying feel to it and we went with it. For the nonhuman world sound, we used crunching leaves and wind. When I heard the audio back it sounded like a saw to me. Nature sounds are tricky to work with because they can sound like various things, and they’re out of your control. For the made world sound we put a plate into the microwave and let it heat up. I wasn’t sure how the sound would come out because I thought it might be too much or get distorted. However, the sound ended up great and I could imagine someone warming something up. When you can imagine it in your head, you know it’s a success.

Doing this exercise made me realize how much people’s opinions on ethics differs. One of the papers I picked up said, “Not inviting subjects to your public screening.” I thought this should be in the lower middle because it was something bad but not as bad as other things. However, one of my team members thought it was just as important as the paper about making women look dumb. This caused a small debate among our group because we saw not inviting subject to your screening as not inviting someone to come see the film they had been included in at Buck Hall. We didn’t think about not inviting someone to something big like The Academy Awards like our team member did. This gave us another perspective that we hadn’t thought about. Another paper that I thought was important was, “Using music without permission.” A lot of people didn’t think this was a big concern but I thought it was. One, you could get yourself into a lawsuit like Michelle Phan did with her beauty videos up on YouTube. Two, it’s wrong because you’re using somebody’s hard work without giving them the credit they deserve. It’s as if someone used a part of your film in their film, or for their music video, and gave you no credit at all. I think it’s a bigger concern than most people thought it was. I enjoyed doing this activity because all of the scenarios on the papers were hot topics and I was able to see perspectives I hadn’t thought about.