Documentary

I am really excited about my documentary. Before we went on our trip, I was nervous that I wouldn't get enough stimulation footage or that I would only get shots/stories that only the girls on the team understand. When I began editing, I had 20 minutes of footage that I liked, which made me feel confident that the footage would be solid. Right now, I am down to 8. With just the footage, I think that the trip shows about 60% of what I want to convey. I want people to see that although we have fun, the trips are exhausting, painful, and stressful. I am attempting to convey this by using slides with times and dates on it. I also have to make sure when the girls are talking about these things, I have the audio at the correct level so the audience can hear. Aside from the team, I hope that people like it and that they are able to get a glimpse of what its like to be an NCAA athlete and the sacrifices that we make.

God's Architects

God’s Architects, by Zack Godshall, was an hour and a half long documentary about 5 extraordinary men who “blindly” built different structures for God. Each man had a different story, and a different reason for building their specific structure. Each man was religious, some more than others, and each building was built with a specific reason, history, and purpose.

The film was not broken up into 5 separate chapters, but the stories were inter-woven with each other. I like this film structure much more than “1, 2, 3…”. Most of the shots were not choreographed, it was a lot of him walking behind the person and letting them do what they wanted. I like that we were able to see the men actually building their structure, rather than them just talking about it. We first saw the structure, but then we were able to see and learn the process that goes about making it. My favorite was the God’s Mountain because I got to see the process of making adobe and all the hundreds of paint buckets the man had. He really wanted to send the message “God is Love”, and the shots let us see all the messages the man wanted to send out to the world.

The actual editing was very basic. There were no fades or transitions, just regularly cut shots. I think it would have looked good either way, but I like his choice. The music was original, and really didn’t play that big of a role in the film. It came in during the emotional scenes, for example, when the dad was telling the story of Lacy, his daughter. I really like that the music was original and it shows that he was willing to go the extra step instead of just using someone else’s music.

I really liked the film, and it was much more interesting than what I originally thought. It was simply done, with a simple message about God. We were also able to learn more about the film after when the Q and A. It was a good film and I would gladly recommend it to anyone.

New Documentary Idea!

My original idea was to interview and investigate the pay cuts in the Jackson Public School System. After a week of sitting on this idea, I have already come across a couple of problems that I will not be able to avoid. I have already used these kids in a video, which took up a lot of their school time. I can’t ask to do that again because the principal and the teacher won’t let me. If I was able to use them again, I couldn’t because they are testing for the majority of the rest of the year.

What I plan on doing now is doing a documentary of the softball team. I thought it would be interesting to film what it is like to go on a road trip, with ups and downs. Fortunately, we leave Tuesday March 16^th and staying there until the 20^th. I think this will be interesting because people don’t realize how rough it is to go on road trips and the toll it takes on your body, routine, and school studies. I plan on interviewing the team during all parts of the day (waking up, before a game, at night, during studying, etc.) I think it will be funny and easy, but it will also show people what we do on top of schoolwork.

Documentary

I’m still not sure what I want to do for my documentary, but my idea right now involves the Jackson Public School System. They are currently making a lot of budget cuts, and that means, art, music, and physical education. I know this really frustrates the teachers because they feel like they should teach their children these things since no one else will. This means they have to spend a great deal of their own money on art supplies, PE equipment, DVDs and CDs. I would really like to interview the teachers and children and get their thoughts about the pay cuts to the arts. I would also like to ask the children what they wish they could do in school that they have not been able to.

Trimpin

I knew roughly what Trimpin was going to be about, but within the first 10 minutes, I was really surprised. The first thing I notices about the film was its simplicity. I think it fits very well because it states early on that Trimpin has no cell phone, website, email, or anything. He is a simple guy with a complex mind. I really like that they included the facts about him in the beginning because it really makes you think for the rest of the film “Wow! That’s awesome!”

I think the filmmaker did a really good job of capturing Trimpin’s own “mind”. All the shots of him in his studio and shopping for parts were hilarious because you think “This guy is crazy”. The shots really make you want to get inside his head because even though the shots are simple, Trimpin makes them interesting and thought provoking.

I know Trimpin is really interesting guy with a brilliant mind, but I almost wish there was someone else major in the entire film to kind of bring it together. I would have made it more interesting and easier to watch because you didn't have to have your attention on one person the whole time. It got a little easier when he began working with the Kronos Quartet. That performance was really awesome.

I liked the film and I thought it was interesting, but it was probably one of my least favorite out of the Southern Circuit Films. I just want a little more action, conflict, or people in general. It was good, just not my favorite. For anyone who is really musical, I would definitely recommend this film to them.

Idea for Experimental Self Portrait

So I think I have an idea for my project. I am going to talk about playing drums in a Christian band, why I do it, and what it means to me. A lot of people just think that playing an instrument is getting up on stage in front of your bands and playing music. They don’t realize that it is so much more than that. I am going to narrate the whole video, and use visuals of the drum set and me playing in various places. I am also going to tell a couple of short stories about playing – some funny and some very real. The whole thing is going be religious, so its going to be pretty personal. I think it will a big thing for me, and hopefully other people really enjoy it too and learn something about me.

Experimental Self Portrait Ideas

So I can't say that I have a definite idea, but I have a couple of ideas that could go different ways.

I didn't mention in my stream of consciousness blog that I have been playing the drums for almost 8 years. I love music, especially because drums are sort-of a heartbeat. I could use a heartbeat for my passion for sports for how a team's heart has to beat as one. I can imagine some really intense "heart beat" shots with black in between and a girl throwing/catching/hitting. I don't think I want to do a "This is my life as I play sports" type of thing. Not like a MTV type of video. I can also picture some type of narrative where I talk about something in relation to drums, but film myself playing drums in totally different places. I could tie in my childhood with the different places that I go.

I really, really liked the idea of making a video as a letter to my future children. I can definitely think of the narration, but besides home video, I can't think of any solid video that would go with the narration. I wrote a paper in high school that went from me playing softball as a 6 year old and traveling through my life until I was a parent watching my daughter play (the paper was like a circle). It's the best paper I've written in my life, and I was thinking about reading it as the narration. I just don't know what I would put as the video.

I don't think this is going to be a video where I have a "lightbulb moment". I really think I am going to have to work through it and I might produce something that isn't exactly what I want do to, because I don't know automatically what I want to do. Videos like these scare me because they are a little outside my box. Hopefully, I can come up with something that really catches people and shows who I am.