Documentary Blog 10

Progress:
We've been in and out of MTN editing quite frequently. We are happy with the project so far and are excited to see it when it's finished. I've had people calling me from the School of Rock asking where and when it's going to be screened, and it's advertised on the St Paul School of Rock's facebook! I've invited many people who were featured in the filming and hopefully will have a bit of a fanbase there to see it.
That said, I have been doing pretty much all of the work on this project. I guess I'm the only one truly invested in it. Zack and Ian don't have the ties to the school of rock that I do, so it's harder for them to care. I've done all the editing, and was the only one at 3 out of the 4 shoots. But I'm not complaining, just thought I should say it.

Reading:
I don't really have any emotional connection to this reading, me and all of my family are white and have been in America for quite some time. But I can understand how it would feel to be looked at initially as being from somewhere else. That is one of the first things noticed quite often. The piece showed the author's feelings about the subject well, and was pretty strong.

Blog 9

The last few weeks for us were productive and exciting. We finished all of our filming, got a magical interview and began compiling our clips into iMovie. I have a much better feeling about where our project is now than I did the last time I blogged. Now we must just venture deeper into the realm of editivity. We've been working together much better and zack and ian are contributing reasonably.

Reading:
Cuba is a place with less civil liberty than our home country. Their freedom is restricted and their actions more or less controlled. This piece did a good job of conveying one difference, that of free speech. Newspapers are controlled and shut down because of the political viewpoint they have. I think that somebody should slap some respect into them young commies and tell the to treat people right!

Semester dos blog six!!

Reading: As I read, I thought it would be a cheery story type passage. But it was not at all. I feel that the message of the text was that others tend not to conform at your command. Accept that not every person you have interactions with will be a desirable type. And that for each person there is a negative relationship, there are more who do not shed a dark light on the situation.

We shot 40 minutes of footage at the school of rock this Wednesday. Our topic has shifted to how involvement with the school of rock program influences your choices and life path after discontinuation with the school. We are taping a rehearsal next Wednesday and I have many videos of previous shows with both me and the people I interviewed.

Blog - January 28th

We decided the change the direction of our documentary to how the School of Rock organization affects how teenagers grow and make decisions through high school. We will be using the point of view of the parents and students, not any instructors. I will be discussing the short film with the people who are in charge of the program to ok the idea. I think this will be a gold topic because it will involve strong personalities and characters. I will also be able to have a good set of questions for the interviews. I will not be the one conducting the interviews, however, because I don't want the fact that I am asking the questions change the subjects' answers.
Reading:
I never really considered the fact that you could be an aspiring documentary filmmaker and not be a people person. Therefor, it may be tough to get solid and entertaining interviews out of your subject. I don't so much like the idea of directing the participant, because that holds them back from telling their whole story. I want to see comPlete honesty and truth in a documentary. This seems hard to come by in the world as it is today. However, in the case that somebody does not want to go too deep into a subject, it is a good idea to guide them. It's a way of possibly getting them to tell their story without saying it up front. Interviewing in a relevant location is key. They will be more comfortable that way and more prone to giving the answers that you want to hear.

Documentary blog post 3

This week, as everyone did, we pitched our documentary to the voices class. We hadn't done much in the research stage, so I'll admit that it may have been a bit weak. The point that John made about keeping it visually interesting as well as telling the story that we want to get across was the most valuable piece of information I received from the feedback. I am leaning towards focusing on the school of rock, usig one or two of the important people in the business to get the message across about what they stand for and if they feel they have been successful up to this point. I have a strong personal connection to the place and the people, so I feel like we would be able to get good quality interviews.
I regret to inform you that I did not read the reading we got. If I could, I'd like to request getting it on the first day of the week. I will indefinItely do it if that happens!

Documentary blog post 1

The group is chosen, the topic approaching. We're on track so far, getting along and enjoying poking at different documentary ideas. Me, zack and Ian are together in a group this time, chosen because I enjoyed working with ian, and have known zack since kindergarten so I'm confident in his work ethic. Zack was also a bit less than pleased with his group members' cooperation on his PSA.
We are thinking at this point that our topic will be on the history of one or a few local musicians. Not so much their history, but their story. I'm very excited to dive into this project and hopefully get some really good material.

December 3rd Blog

We are beginning the filming of our draft today. We reserved the camera again for next monday and tuesday, and will be re-shooting what we need or filming the scenes we don't finish today and tomorrow. The draft has not been started yet, but with the filming and editing we're doing the next few days it should be ready to go by monday!