Ways you’ll be able to help others in the class:
-I have a good eye for editing
-I’m a great listener
-I love to give feedback
-I have a photographic eye, so if people needed help setting up sets or getting a good shot of something with cinematography
-I am willing to help in all aspects, want everyone to succeed
I agree that collaborating with the other students in class is very important. We are all in the same boat and could use as much help as we can to make our Capstone’s possible. I know I will want some help in the editing room! I have already helped Matt McCann set up an interview with my mom in late September for his project on Greek Life at Lafayette. I also can brainstorm with Abby and Fabian about our scripts, because we are doing more personal projects that include our voiceover. I think it would be a good idea to meet as much as we can together. Jess’s project is about empathy- and I have definitely been referred to as an empathetic person- not to the extreme but I could possibly be interviewed as the happy medium between the two types of people she is studying. I don’t necessarily love being in front of the camera, but would definitely like to help other students on shoots- whether it’s sound, camera work, etc.
5 Ways I Can Help Other People:
Hey All,
This is my Proposal for my capstone Idea!
Logline – A young prince who shows no care meets an inspiring young woman and grows into a respectable warrior just in time to help save his kingdom from utter destruction.
In this short film set in the fantasy realm of Odingard, second heir to the throne, Protus, sets off on an adventure after a reckless encounter leaves him ashamed of himself which leads him to help save Amorelai, which drives him to further improve himself after witnessing her own natural talent. Protus gains a sense for his own agency and steps up to address his father, Soladon, just as the kingdom is attacked by Scarabak, the ruler of the Aracites: underground spider people.
The reason this project is important is because, to me, it is a form of catharsis that satisfies my own personal agenda on many points. I have wanted to write a script that features action and revolves around a world of my creation, where I am the auteur and I choose what visuals are seen, what characters look and act like, what actions the camera is taking, and other choices that come within the parameters of auteur theory. More importantly, I want to write this story because I have consumed so much entertainment in my childhood and into my young adult life that I have fund countless sources of inspiration that I want to emulate and expand upon in my writing. Through television and since meeting a variety of people in my life, I have an understanding of various “character types” seen across all walks of life, whether in reality or as constructs within stories that share common plot tropes. To emphasize that point, having grown up in New York City, I have been exposed to many different cultures and communities that both interact within themselves as well as co-mingle with each other on a daily basis, providing a lush variety of different personas to meet and learn about on a personal level.
Issues that I have observed, participated in, and have ultimately dealt with are aspects of my life that I want to bring to my characters, each of which has their own personality and outlook on life and their world that reflects the traits of people that have been important to me and have shaped me into who I am today. How I want to address these issues that are important to me is by applying them broadly to the world I create. For example, the “Occupy Wallstreet” movement was impactful to me in high school because of how close I was to the action and how it better revealed the disparity across Americans, making me conscious of my own standing on the “wealth meter” and piquing my interest to show how I felt, and how I feel now, about a situation like that, all within the context of my own story to demonstrate my point of wealth inequality and what that looks on a street level. From race relations and privilege, to dealing with my autoimmune condition, to understanding and maneuvering social dynamics have all been influential in shaping my beliefs and politics, and I want the most positive of those aspects to shine through in my writing.
I like to think that in a room of people who are involved in a lot of drama, I am the calm individual who understands the drama, but does not understand why it is so hard to resolve it quickly and happily. It seems to me that people involve themselves in petty squabbles for the joy of it, which encourages anger and malicious intent from at least one party, and so when I find myself in drama, I try to end it as quickly as possible so that, instead of fighting with someone for some extended period, acting and feeling like a bitter child, I can rather just sit with them and enjoy the time we spend together. My story is important because ultimately I want it to be a guide in ethics and reducing the amount of collateral damage, whether it be physical or emotional.
The preparations I have made towards understanding the course of my story has been through highly introspective reflecting and critical analysis of my life to determine what factors have been the most important in my life. When I have consumed media, I have tried to remain conscious of the various techniques artists take advantage of when crafting a movie, a television show, a cartoon, a comic, an animation, a video, or any other form of media, to know and understand what aspects of those techniques were the most effective in making me feel something as a commercial visual content consumer. My perspective as a writer formed through my economic education of basic supply and demand; what sort of stories do well with a young audience vs and older audience? Why do they do that? What shifts the quality of media that is prevalent in the markets for consumption? I found that people like action, romance, and nuanced spontaneity, to name a few, and from the narratives I’ve read and watched, it’s through finding the beats that best help the viewer synchronize with the wavelength of the piece, whether emotionally or physically. If you can leave someone in disbelief of what they are looking at or watching, and maintain the illusion of the story, that’s a step towards understanding my audience.
My audience is anyone ages 15 – 35 who are frequent movie goers, dedicated fantasy fans, action adventure fans, and anyone who enjoys more independently produced films. The story itself is just a smaller arc of a larger story, so ultimately this is a series to be thought of, an array of stories that each add to the last. This screenplay is the first of four stories, each working towards a master arc. This story will appeal to viewers who are interested in serial, episodic content.
5 ways I will be effective in other’s work will be:
-Providing Capture Card assistance to Carly to convert her analog video to digital
-Mic/cameraman for Li’s film
-Interviewee for Jess’s documentary
-(WIP1)
-(WIP2)
Cassidy Taylor
Corinne Peabody
Nick Tassoni
Kathleen Nolan
Chris Aresco
Matt Saporito
Corry Pressl
Enfeng Zhou
Andrew Tuck
Samantha Volk
Lauren Young
Jess Eggers
Andrew Morra
John Ottinger
Carly Loveman
Abby Perham
I found this reading extremely motivational. I particularly enjoyed the story about the theatre troupe who went into rural Polish villages to try to preserve their dying traditions. While I know this blog is partly intended to record the process, I also want to use it to help re-inspire myself and see where I was at different periods of this process. So I’d like to just pull out some quotes from the reading that struck a chord with me and I can go back to and read through and draw inspiration from later on.
“Audiences around the country seemed to crave being in a room together, moving communally through a fictional experience that harmonized with their present ambiguities.” (p. 8)
“The dark places of the soul that haunt our dreams are understandably matched by the tendency to shut out the issues with the busy work of the daylight hours.” (p.11)
“Words are powerful. Specific words and combinations of words are the keys that will unlock realms that seem closed off.” ( p. 18)
“If you cannot say it, point to it,”- Ludwig Wittgenstein (p.21)
“Stand up and articulate what you are, rather than what you are.” p.25)
“There is no need to come up with anything new…. If you recognize that your voice contains all the came that came before you, then you will realize that when you speak you do not speak alone. All the people who made you presence possible on earth speak with you. ” (p. 28)
“Place yourself in situations where you are most likely to receive novel signals” (p.33)
“It is imperative that you define your very own version of success.” (p.47)
“Accidents are one of the most valuable commodities in the creative process.” (p. 48)
“The more you know, the more you can imagine. Art is always an expression of philosophy and point of view.” (p. 48)
The entire idea of “hold on tightly, let go lightly.” (p.48)
Ideas of Context Editing and Sausage Party
Sausage Party is easily one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. My style of humor matches perfectly with this film. I was reading an article about how Seth Rogen made the movie so funny and found it extremely interesting in the context of this class. Rogen screened the film in simple drawing form but with the entire script already written. He’d read it to audiences who would then give him feedback on his jokes -were they too insulting, too far, too overplayed, not enough, ust falling short. He’d then go back and rework the film. He called in his friends in comedy and have them critique it. It was reworked and reworker until it finally seemed ready to premier at South by southwest. And I personally think that this level of revision and collaboration is what made this film so funny to me. In respect to this class, I think it only proves that we will all really need to work with each other to be successful. If a man known for his comedy still turns to his peers to edit and adjust his work, so should we.
Nyree Spearman
Joanna scotti
Hubert Lavie
Mathew McCann
Megan
Scott Kovas
Lixiang Zhang
Fabian Rogers
Agbe(wt) is a dramedy series about a stressed out Ghanaian mother and her children who must deal with the challenges and tribulations living in a low income Bronx neighborhood. Modeled after the narrative structure of Charles Burnett’s breakthrough film, Killer of Sheep(1978), this web-series will follow the lives of the four main characters showing their lives as they endure live and learn from their experiences and actions. Taking care of her two young kids while her eldest boy is in prison stresses out 52-year-old Eureka Adu. Even though Eureka has been in America for almost 25 years, she still retains a lot of her African heritage and tries to pass it onto her younger kids Kwame and Kwajo. Nii, her eldest son is almost done serving his 3rd year of a 5-year sentence at Rikers for a felony “Possession of a hand gun” charges. Viewers become part of the family and lives through their tragedies as they move forward through life.
Growing up in a Ghanaian family and environment for 18 years, I think of this as a passion project because it will incorporate many aspects of my multiple cultures. Growing up I often found myself trapped between two lives; one influenced by American culture and the other by Ghanaian culture. For that reason, the social commentary in the series is present to help audiences think critically about the ways that certain people in the United States live. In preparation for this screenplay, I’ve spent the last two years talking to many people about their experiences growing up in the New York City, taken classes about the Black and African Family structures at Lafaytte as well as doing my own outside research on different communities and their interactions. When written and filmed I would like this project to work as a good reference for people of all ages and backgrounds to understand one potential life experience of a New York City first generation Ghanaian family.
5 ways to help classmates
-Technical work as cameraman or lighting on film shoots
-Be a table reader or stand in actor
-Talk about documentary techniques or styles
-Organizing and setting up Art Direction
-Provide my Watson court as a room to shoot in
TimeLine for project
Writing
Sept. 5,7 – Finish part 2 of 3 Script.
Sept. 12,14 – Start part 3 of 3
Sept. 19, 24 – Finish Part Spec script
Sept. 26,28 – Convert script to Full Script
Editing
Oct 3,5 – Send script for review (10 people outside of class)
Oct 10 — Grammar and Punctuation check, turn in
Revising
October – November
I am making a 20 minute documentary on empathy called [Home]. It will start out with my voice over and family photos and home videos on the screen. I will talk about how I am an empath, as well as my mom and grandmother’s empathy. I will then dive into the subject of the homeless that populate the streets of NYC. B-roll of the homeless will be accompanied by an interview with my coworker, Alexa Burger about her experience with the homeless.
Ever since I can remember empathy has been a part of my life. My grandma, who I call Neenee, has been the most influential force of empathy in my life. I grew up behind the lens of her constant worry. Ultimately her strong sense of empathy became too much for her. She now barely leaves her home. She sits in the dark most days with my grandpa by her side. Together in their two arm chairs they hide from the world. She didn’t always use to be this way though.
While raising my mother and my aunt Jill she volunteered on a suicide hotline. She would talk people down. She gained a reputation as one of the best hotline workers on Long Island. By the time I came along we had an instant connection.
I’ve heard this story time and time again. I was standing up in my crib when Neenee walked up the stairs to my room. She greeted me and told me a story about Jill’s friend Aviva who is currently in med school. That day Aviva fainted from the site of blood. She ended the story with the lines “hush, hush don’t tell Aviva!” I burst out laughing and fell over in my crib kicking my legs. Neenee turned to my dad in shock, “How did she know that was funny?” My dad had no idea.
My connection with Neenee is the single strongest connection I have with anyone. We can be sitting in a large group and have a whole conversation just with glances. She is the most important person in my life.
My sophomore year of college Neenee had a heart attack and a stroke on her birthday. For some reason I knew this would be a big birthday for her so I wrote her a giant card divulging just how much she means to me. That night she went to the hospital. My grandpa made her a copy of the card to clutch to her heart. By the time I found out about the heart attack it was the day my family thought would be Neenee’s last. Her heart stopped beating four times that day. My dad called me in deep despair saying “If I want to say good bye to her I better get on the next bus to New York.”
I did. By the time I got there Neenee had experienced the hardest day of her life. She was clutching a heart pillow and a crumpled version of my card in her hands. Walking into the room my family looked as if they were wilting but Neenee looked strong as ever. She had a big smile on her face. Somehow I knew she would be okay.
Just when we thought things were on the mend she had a stroke. She lost her ability to speak and walk. That didn’t stop her. She walks all around her apartment and she never stops spewing advice at me. This woman had a heart attack and a stroke and still lived.
Because of all she went through I do understand her current recluse lifestyle. It’s difficult to see her this way. She dresses in all black when she use to be a walking rainbow. She’s very quite in-group conversations just absorbing her families words with the occasional glance my way. When I need her she is so clear. No word is stuttered. She never lost her brain, she just lost the ability to convey what is in it.
I care about empathy, because it has shaped the person I have become. Empathetic people are necessary to keep everyone sane. They are critical to humanity.
In order to prep for this documentary I read several articles about empathy and its significance. I spent three days watching Ted Talks on empathy and how vital it is to the individual story as well as group dynamics. Most social circles (if they are lucky) have at least one friend who is empathetic. The audience is adults 18+. Anyone who has experienced enough of life to see the importance of empathy would benefit from seeing my film.