This documentary was very different in style compared to the other’s I’ve watched for this class. It was mostly interview based and driven. The style and content was not as exciting as Cameraperson or Grizzly Man. There was a decent amount of back and forth about who actually murdered woods and who didn’t. There was back in forth about who was driving the car or who was in the side seat. It related to the style of he said she said. It was interesting to see Adams and Harris speak in the film and I thought it was great that the film was able to include that footage. The style related more towards the documentaries I’ve watched in history class back in middle school. But, obviously the topic was more interesting than the topics those would have been. I found it unusual that they were so distraught and baffled by the question of who the killer was that shot officer Woods and that there was an entire documentary made about this one case. I found this interesting because I constantly hear about shootings and murders and maybe there are certain cases where the murderer isn’t identified, but I do not see anyone dedicating an entire documentary to a case like those. I think there is a huge cultural difference nowadays versus in the past about shootings/ murders and especially those of the death of police officers and I think this documentary shows that because it was made a long long time ago so the difference was obvious.

I appreciated several of the topics Brooke Gladstone brought up in her talk last week. Beginning with the discussion of the event in Las Vegas the previous day was important, especially because of Gladstone’s extensive experience as a journalist. This was exemplary of how adaptive those in the media world must be in order to stay on top of stories.

I liked that Gladstone spoke about reliability of news sources as well. In today’s world it is imperative that we understand the sources and credibility of the constant news we are receiving. She emphasized the importance of taking the time to find these credible sources as well as having multiple sources, so that you can view situations from different sides and try to understand opposing views. Her advice to sometimes put down the phone or shut the laptop was also interesting – In a world where we can literally live through our phones, it’s important to remember to connect with our immediate world and take in where we are.

Opioid addiction is a national crisis; and its effects can be seen first hand in the Lehigh Valley. As a person who has not been affected immediately by opioid addiction, it is important for me to learn the ways I can assist in the fight to combat this epidemic. I want to become more informed about the state of opioid addiction in the Lehigh Valley and share what I learn in a compelling way. I don’t have a solid idea about the way I want to approach this project but I want to go about the story in a way that is unique. First and foremost my goal is to tell the story in a way that respects all those affected by opioid addiction. Besides that  there will be certain constraints. One I expect to run into early is trouble  gaining access to first hand accounts, but just as any good documentation my group mates and I will have to find ways around the constraints working against us.

Kirsten Johnson’s  “Cameraperson” is an amazing work. With just discarded clips her documentary provided stunning insight into her personality, and strung together an overarching narrative about her life.  After watching the documentary I truly felt inspired by something KJ said during the Q&A. “Do something you haven’t seen before” she said this is the idea that drove her to create the documentary. To me theses are words to live by. When we strive to create things that are unique we enrich our world. “Cameraperson” enriched our world, and will inspire others to create things they too haven’t seen.

• The Monday discussion with Brooke Gladstone was a very interesting talk, to say the least. Ms. Gladstone spoke on a lot of different topics that all came together and focused on a much larger message, “The media is a very misleading thing, based on how you perceive it, and its up to us to construe it the best way we can in order to successfully and efficiently retreat the information that is presented unto us.” All in all, A problem with media results in problems with us.
• To go into more specifics of it, she blatantly says: “Don’t trust anonymous sources”. Her reasons to why are reasonable; for instance, she points out that most of those sites are full of “He say/she say” material or just a copy of an original news source. Therefore when it comes to those situations, she informed us to really pay attention to language.
• That is one of the biggest things that stood out to me in that talk.

“To tell outstanding stories from the real world, you will need a ferment of ideas about life and living, the courage to go where angels fear to tread, and most of all, personal and inventive ways of using the medium. Do this well, and you will catch people’s attention and make them wonder, laugh, become spellbound, or even weep. Your reward is to move hearts and minds—and maybe change the world a little. Filmmaking is a beautiful and involving art form, one that synthesizes practically every other art form invented, and that makes learning a lifelong adventure. Most significantly, making documentary means you are learning about yourself, and becoming a fuller human being.”

Excerpt From: Rabiger, Michael. “Directing the Documentary.”

This quote from Michael Rabiger’s Directing the Documentary resounded with me, as it nicely captures what it is and what it means to be a documentarian and filmmaker. Filmmakers are not working in self-interest, but rather in the interest of others, hoping to tell important stories, spread messages, and evoke emotions. It is more than just shooting and editing for a final product. It is a process through which we get to better understand ourselves and out world. It is important that we have a clear understanding of our surroundings us so that we can properly tell stories and capture the attention of viewers.

I love the line that filmmaking “makes learning a lifetime adventure.” There are an overwhelming amount of places to explore and stories to be told, so, as a filmmaker, there is no such thing as reaching a limit in terms of learning. I am someone who loves the idea of never settling and continuing to learn as I go, so this short passage definitely resonated with me and reaffirmed my goal to pursue a job in the future in the media involving filmmaking or production.

Before attending Brooke Gladstone’s talk, I was very excited to hear her speak because I read her book “The Influencing Machine” during my freshman year at Lafayette in FAMS 101. Although it has been quite a while since reading her book, I do remember the impact she had on me as a first year FAMS student, and I was very excited to hear her speak about what she is so passionate about. Throughout her talk, she made some very solid points: she spoke a lot about fake news and how it is able to control people’s minds. She also touched on how people should not get their news from Facebook. I found this point extremely interesting because I do indeed get some of my news from Facebook. It’s easy for anyone to go on the app and just scroll through the billions of posts a day. She not only said that Facebook is taking over, but technology is. What I also found interesting is the fact that she told us to delete one app a day. Although I do not completely agree with this, I did find it interesting because more apps are being created every day, and some of them can be very beneficial to a person’s life. I especially enjoyed when Brooke spoke about the power of radio and how powerful a human voice is. I cohost a radio show on WJRH, and I really appreciated how she talked about her life in radio and how it had such a great impact on her life. Overall, I really enjoyed her talk, and it was so nice to match a book I read in class’ author to a face!

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.

hi guys!

On monday I talked about the LV topic, Lead Posioning in the Lehigh Valley. I was think more about it.

I know a documentary can’t just fix the problem of lead paint posioning of children in the Lehigh Valley, but a dcoumentary can bring light to the issue. Informed people can take action, and there are programs availabe to Lehigh Valley residents to help better prevent lead poisioning and understand how they could or their children could be at risk.

I have done some more research and found some information about a program known as the:

LEAD HAZARD CONTROL PROGRAM
The LHCP is a lead abatement program intended to protect the residents of the City of Bethlehem from the harms of lead poisoning. Income-qualifying residents with children in the home under the age of six years are eligible to enroll in the LHCP to have their homes tested for lead and, if needed, abated for lead. For more information about this program, please contact the Bethlehem Health Bureau.

And I think the Bethelehem Health Bureau would be a good place to start when trying to uncover the full story of why lead posioning especially in children is such problem in the Lehigh Valley.

There is also this hotline provided by the PA health Department: http://www.health.pa.gov/my%20health/infant%20and%20childrens%20health/lead%20poisoning%20prevention%20and%20control/pages/default.aspx#.WdVpILGZNPM

The are ways to uncover the story of lead paint posioning in the lehigh valley, and I think it is important that community memebers and our peers are aware of what is going on in this community.

I think it is an issue that should be talked about and I just wanted to make another pitch for the project before everyone submits their preffered scenarios since there are so many good ones!

Thanks! Lauren