After going through all the possible topics in class, I have decided that I would love to work on “The Loss We Can Gain”. Food waste is a huge problem in America and I have never seen a documentary before that has focused on food waste in our country. It would be interesting to interview students at Lafayette, Lehigh, and Muhlenberg as well as some faculty that work in the dining halls. It’s amazing to me that so many people are willing to throw food out in our country while so many other countries would kill for the food that we throw out every day. I really look forward to working on this project.

In Kirsten Johnson’s short film The Above, viewers are able to identify different view points of a blimp. All of the information that was explained in the short film was new to me, so it was very interesting to learn something that I wouldn’t usually learn about before. I believe the message in this documentary is that this blimp tells us so much information about the world. It can fly over many different countries, but it still has the same meaning. I really enjoyed the different shots that she took of the blimp. Seeing it at different angles was extremely interesting, because sometimes I had to look in the frame to see where the blimp actually was. I am left with a sad feeling after watching this, because this blimp can really show us how this world could possibly change for the worse.

Before going into see this film, I didn’t really do my homework on the film, which I probably should have done before going into it. I knew that Kirsten was a very talented documentarian, and I was extremely excited to view her work. After viewing Cameraperson (2016), I was taken aback by how good it was. My favorite part about this film is the amount of symbolism she portrayed. Someone in the class beat me to it, but I was going to ask her “why hands?” What I loved most about the scenes that portrayed hands was the fact that the hands told the story within itself. If the audio was muted, viewers could still tell by the hands what the person was feeling. I also loved the fact that there were many cultures involved in the film. There were countries portrayed in the film that I knew nothing about, and it was interesting to learn about them.

It was also really interesting to see Kirsten put in film from her personal life as well as her traveling lifestyle. I thought she did a great job meshing the two together to create this film. Most of what she filmed must have been hard: from filming her mother who had Alzheimer’s, to the hospital in the middle east. I couldn’t even look at the screen when the nurse was holding the baby by its leg. I have no idea how Kirsten was able to film that without showing her emotions about it. I loved how she told us after that “the speed that’s happening in you is different than the world”. I really appreciated her personality and her willingness to learn who we are, even though we have a lot to learn from her. I very much enjoyed her film and I hope to view her other films soon too.

It is easy to tell from Kirsten Johnson’s Director’s Statement that she not only is a talented documentarian, but that she is a strong and determined person as well. The two lines in her statement that stood out to me are, “I follow stories the director I work for does not need and/or want me to follow” as well as “I fail to see or follow stories the director I work for hopes I will follow”. In these two lines, she is basically saying that she wants to follow her heart, and although someone might be telling her to do one thing, she wants to follow her ideas and her thoughts. I thought these two sentences were eye-openers because this shows that Kirsten doesn’t want to do what she is told. She wants to show her creative side to her audience. I have heard of Cameraperson, but I have never seen it. I am really excited to watch the film and hear Kirsten’s view on how this project came together.

As I read the list of potential topics, I realized that all of these are really strong ideas that could turn out to be amazing stories. One of the stories that stood out to me the most was the story called “Bad to the Bone” about animal abuse and animal shelters in the Lehigh Valley. I love animals, and I believe getting the view of volunteers at the shelters would be such a great story, because many people probably don’t show interest in the shelters. However, it would be extremely sad to film these animals that are dying because of abuse and negligence.

Another potential topic that I find interesting is the one titled “Easton–To Infinity and Beyond”. The city of Easton is growing at a very fast pace, and it would be fun to listen to the views of people who live here. Downtown Easton as well as the College are making some changes, and not everyone has the same view points on it. Interviewing the mayor as well as owners of the restaurants downtown and professors are just some of the people who could be included in this documentary. Either way, there is so much to explore in the Lehigh Valley and I believe there are many possible stories that would be great to produce.

My Movie 1.mp4

Natalie Acopian and I worked on this project together. The hardest part of this assignment was determining what we wanted to record. We had different ideas at certain times, but after little while we knew which sounds to record. I took a Sound Theory class last semester, so I had some sort of idea how we wanted to go about this.

For the bad interview, the interview recording isn’t that bad, but the fact it was recorded on an iPhone makes it bad.

The non-human sound is the sound of the insects, the wind, and walking outside.

The human sound is girls in our sorority talking after a meeting.

The made world sound is the sound of an air conditioner.

Enjoy!

Monday’s class was very interesting in many different aspects. I really appreciated the fact that there was someone who already took this course, because the whole class was able to learn a lot of insightful information from him. After watching one of his documentaries, I realized how much all of us can benefit from this course. He is very talented and all of us can learn from him.

I also really enjoyed the activity where all of us put the offenses in order. It was nice to collaborate with other people to see what their opinion on these topics were. It was interesting to look at other group’s work and to compare to their opinions to my own.

instagram video

I did my video on a Satisfactory Ending. Enjoy!

The frame that I made is extremely small, making me focus on the smaller things in life instead of the bigger things. I walked through Lafayette’s campus looking through a frame with one eye. I focused on the individual bricks that I was walking on, the trunks of different trees, and people walking at a distance. This assignment showed me that the camera can pick up on the smallest angles in the world. Ir proved to me that I need to focus on details when I film, and that I don’t always have to think “big picture”. I kind of felt like I was Alice in Wonderland for a second because I was seeing everything from such a small frame. I definitely feel like I need to focus on specific details next time I film something.

I am a Film and Media Studies major and a Writing minor. When I came to Lafayette, I instantly knew that I wanted to be a FAMS major. Film and Media has always been my passion and I am so excited to pursue it. I would say that I see the world in many different ways. I try to keep an open mind in life because I truly believe in the quote “everything happens for a reason”. I think that something good comes out of situations. I also like to live life to the fullest, because no one knows what will happen in the future. I love making people laugh, so I try to always bring joy into other people’s days. Before I approach issues, I try to think about it first. I am the type of person who has to think before they speak sometimes. I try to play out situations in my mind in order to generate ideas. I love the news, so I honestly love any news story. However, my favorite kind of stories are on crime. I love shows such as 20/20 and Dateline. I find it so interesting and always feel like I am kept on my toes. I am really interested in exploring the different crimes that go around in the Lehigh Valley area, and how they are affecting our community. I believe that crime documentaries are filled with so much information that interest tons of people, and would make for a great story.