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.