Just to reiterate what I said already, ever since I was in elementary school, I always got bad vibes from documentaries. They always left the same impression on me. Sure, there was a rare occasion where I found one that I actually really liked but other than that, I didn’t really care for them. I didn’t care for the ones especially the in History and English class. Those subjects were always my worst and I think it was partially because of the topics we focused on.

Additionally, so frequently I would hear different backstories from friends, and even strangers, about why they chose this odd eating style, that some call vegetarian, vegan, etc. “I watched a documentary called (blank).” You could fill that in with: Food Inc., Cowspiracy, Forks over Knives, and Supersize Me. I’m sure there’s more that I haven’t even heard of. As you can see, all my knowledge was of documentaries were English, history, and saving the animals. Not a great basis if you ask me.

Interestingly enough, two of my closest friends were in this class at the start of the semester and I needed something for my humanities, so I decided to look into this class. From what they had told me, it sounded pretty interesting. Sure enough, I was enlightened by things I never imagined. I was faced to tasks on path I would have never otherwise ventured down. This class showed me another side to documentaries that changed my perception. Now when I hear documentaries, I don’t necessarily want to cringe. I wonder what it might be about, and whether or not it’ll fall into the “Seems interesting to me” category. I appreciate this new idea I have about documentaries because now I can be more open to new subjects.

I think the film Newtown was a pretty good film. I really appreciated the fact that the author decided to focus on the victims as opposed to the shooter himself. Someone actually made a point of that in the question-and-answer session. I believe that the fact that the author made the film about the victims sort of gave the whole thing a new scope. In order to really focus on the subject at hand, she chose to focus on the children and the families and the community of Newtown. In addition, I appreciated the fact that we were able to really see the aftermath of the whole incident. Sometimes when things like this happen, after the person is killed or discovered the whole situation kind of goes under the rug. They sort of just forget like the people around the world would tend to forget about what happened on that incident: how many people were taken away, how many innocent lives were lost? So with this film it kind of made people remember and really recognize them for what they’ve done in this world and that we did lose some really amazing lives. It also showed how the community of Newtown came together to unite and support one another. Even though they may have not known each other they still decided that the only way to get through this was together as a community. On another note, I was amazed, to say the least, about some of the shots that were taken. I think the movie opened with the video from the police car that was on the actually on the scene. They were driving somewhere and then they got the call so then they reported to the school, Sandy Hook; we could actually see that all in the police cam. There was another shot where the director of the movie decided to get an aerial shot of the whole town and I just found that pretty neat just because it’s not a typical shot you would see. It was of the area of Sandy Hook in Newtown and you can see the whole community, including the housing developments. Another shot if I recall correctly was the shot of the shooters house and I guess it gave us an idea of what was essentially going on in their mind. We could get an idea of how they were thinking and how they were acting. You could see that they had a lot of bullets laying around there’s a gun in the closet so it was no surprise honestly. Overall, I really enjoyed this evening.

When I was growing up, I played little league baseball for my town from first grade all the way up to about the beginning of fourth grade. I was never really good though, but I think it was because I never wanted to practice outside of our scheduled practices with the team. However, I was convinced I was going to play in the MLB when I grew up. Eventually I left that phase.

Then in fifth grade I started playing recreational basketball at the Boys and Girls Club. Again, I wasn’t very skilled and no one every passed me the ball. So essentially, I rode the bench, but our team made it to the championship, so I couldn’t really complain. That ended shortly thereafter but I would play pick-up at the courts after school and it was always fun.

Once I got to high school, I really started getting involved in sports. I went to a boarding school in Pennsylvania, and, like most boarding schools, I was required to play two competitive sports each year. Freshman year I played soccer, basketball, and baseball. As the years went on I kept up with basketball and baseball. The baseball team was small, so we only had enough for a varsity team. I ended up riding the bench until junior year and by senior year I was starting in outfield. As for basketball, I never made it up to Varsity, considering my school recruits for basketball and we had players who are projected to be top 10 in the NBA draft next year only after one year of college. Still, I became captain of JV basketball junior year and again for senior year. I really appreciated being forced to play sports because it allowed me to enhance my team building skills, learn to work as a team, and, in general, improve my skills in various sports.

With that being said, over these last view weeks, I have been struggling. This seems like a challenge never seen before. There have been a lot of up and downs within my group and I feel like everything I’ve learned and put into practice has vanished. I find myself getting frustrated and disappointed at myself for not being able to understand and perform like I usually do. It’s sort of scary because it seems as though I am missing a part of my identity. Teamwork is one of my stronger qualities, and right now, it doesn’t seem that way. I am going through a constant battle, that eventually I will overcome.

The Hype: Lehigh students enliven campus with their music

This is a short video that was made by the Brown and White, Lehigh’s school-wide newspaper. I really liked this video for multiple reasons. I think, to start, there is a strong hook especially for someone who appreciates music and is fascinated by the art of being a DJ. At first, you cannot really make out what is going on, but then you see. It seems like a lot of trial and error just to see what works.

Additionally, considering I know everyone featured in the video, I enjoyed hearing their side of the story. In most cases, students don’t really know the backstory. All they know is that they are a DJ on campus, that they see at parties and Lehigh events. We take for granted how much time and energy go into doing the work that they do. Sure it is probably fun but you have to prepare and definitely know how to cater to the ground. What good is a DJ that no one dances to because they aren’t feeling the music.

Moreover, on a more documentary making point of view, I liked how the video was put together. The b-roll, especially during the parts with DJ Mike and DJ added to the video. We saw where DJ Mike was in his natural setting, and the was a clip of the strobe likes focusing in and out that was pretty cool. Then, with DJ Zen, the pictures of her during her gig were cool, because we saw her where she was comfortable.

Finally, I was had a question. I liked the part where they showed the Blackbear video, especially for those who may not know who he is. But, is that an ethical violation, to include that video in this piece? Would you need permission to do that? Or since it is for educational purposes, is it totally fine?

Courtesy of David O.

As you might know, I chose to do my interview project on my computer science professor. I reached out to him via email and planned to meet on a certain day for his office hours. Already I was hesitant because he would not be able to leave his office. At that point I was just hoping his office looked pretty cool. I decided to get the camera immediately before I went to him, which was probably not the best idea. When I went to the digital media studio they said all the cameras were already lent out. So obviously I couldn’t do the interview then. Still, I went to his office to get help with the coding assignments.

His office was, in fact, extremely boring, so I began freaking out a bit. I no longer wanted him to be my interview subject because this wouldn’t make for a great video. He was not going to be as helpful as I would have liked so I needed a new plan. I began thinking about other people I could work with. I never really thought about talking to any of my friends in the first place, only teachers and faculty. After some thought, my friend Raahil popped into my head.

Raahil overall is a pretty interesting guy so I figured it might be cool to talk to him. We were already friends, so I knew a few things about him. He hails from Tanzania, avid cricket player, dancer, and just a friendly cool guy. Looking forward to seeing how this video turns out.

To say the least, the B-roll project was no easy task. One of the main issues was the fact that we had very little time. Considering some of us in the group have extremely busy schedules we had to find a way to work around that. It was nearly impossible for everyone to be involved in every single part just because of our busyness. We ended up meeting on a random day during the week after classes. The first set of shots were all done at Lafayette and after we got going the idea of the video was coming together. I was in a time constraint but we left with a decent amount of footage. Turns out that wasn’t so true after all.

We met again on the weekend to edit and that was when we realized. We just didn’t have enough for a long enough video. So we had to go back out but luckily the Bacon Festival was that weekend. We managed to get quite a few shots of the people around there and some of the building we walked by. After getting enough footage we went back in to put it all together.

For some odd reason, I was under the impression that the editing would only take an hour and some change. That obviously wasn’t the case. After about three hours I was complete. I was very happy with the way it came out. I feel as though, with the idea we have in mind, the b-roll shares that story very well.

I really enjoyed watching “F-word”. Like someone already mentioned in class it was easier to keep up with when it was broken up into segments. Just like a typical cliffhanger, once the segment was over I wanted to watch the next one. They were short and right to the point. I read the summary beforehand for each episode just to get a glimpse and I found myself looking for each point in the videos.

Additionally, even though this is sort of a serious issue, they made the videos light and fun. I loved the part when the “soon-to-be parents” had to get their home inspected. They brought in some kids in order to child proof the house. The kids did well too, and gave some essential points about things grownups probably don’t think about as much.

There was something, too, that I kept thinking about during the movie. Before I share, I’d like to mention that when I was growing up most families were pretty average. Mom and dad with one or two kids, sometimes three, and there was often a pet who lived with the family. I never really saw much variation from that. Then when I got to my high school, which happened to be liberal, I started to see differences that I had never seen before. I saw different genders, besides the general binaries, different sexual orientations, and many other different identifiers. Mind you, this was in high school when I’d say I was already mature. With that in mind, I want to share, throughout the videos I was thinking about how the baby or child would reaction and adjust to a same sex couple. In fact, I was hoping they would ask the two men who adopted a son. I can’t imagine someone in foster care would typically see a same sex couple adopting their peers so I just curious how they might handle it or what questions they might ask. I also wonder if the parents think about that and worry at all or is that not even considered?