Brad 2009 Documentary Film

This is the end. We finished the film, and took our final exam. Thank you everyone for taking time to look at this blog, and read what I had to say. Maybe one day I will do something like this again? I highly doubt it. But if that day ever comes, I’ll continue doing a blog like this. Thanks again everyone! See you all next year!

Bradley Austrin
English II
5/22/09

After watching the documentary film our English class worked on nearly the whole semester creating, filming, and editing, there is no doubt that I would take some time to evaluate the documentary as a whole. Every documentary film has its upsides and downsides. Our documentary, The Future is in Our Hands: Live Sustainably, is no different from any other documentary in this very way.
A documentary is created as a way to inform the viewer about whatever subject is being covered. I feel that our documentary has fulfilled this task only moderately. Throughout the film, the class presented a tiny amount of facts in the film, some with narration, others with images and video that always attempt to appeal to a person’s pathos, like when facts about deaths due to our environmental mistakes were shown near the middle of the documentary. However, I do not believe that it was enough to persuade the viewer into actually making enough change in their life. Sure, the viewer may say they will change, but not enough strong and convincing facts were given to enable a total realization in that person’s mind. Although little information is given at times, a viewer’s pathos would most defiantly still be slightly tickled. This is seen especially during some of the film’s visual metaphors, when the viewer has to infer what is going on based on the visual being displayed. When that person realizes what they are seeing, it helps them gain knowledge, and they learn something from that clip. If a human were to gain an emotional thought from something they watch, it is a good thing. It also means that the film has done enough justice to make a decent persuasion in the mind of the viewer. I believe that our documentary has done just that, and in some ways, it has done it very well.
The documentary, like a PC, has many things that work, and slightly fewer things that did not quite work as well as it were suppose to. Throughout our documentary, we had many bright moments. This is most apparent in the camera position seen in the film. The camera work went very well, as it would stay mostly steady, keeping what needs to be seen on frame on frame. The students in the class were able to follow the rule of thirds, and most importantly, being sure not to allow anything on frame loses position or gets even the slightest bit cut off. I also feel we did quite well with our visual metaphors. Each visual metaphor in the film was creative, and very unique from another metaphor used by other groups. Our metaphors were also mostly easy to understand. This is a great thing to have for a documentary, as it helps the viewer obtain a larger pathos then with a generic metaphor with little understanding. Another thing that I felt worked truly well in the film was the presentation and flow of the entire thing. Transitioning into another topic worked, and worked very smoothly, without any problems present. The flow of the film was very steady, while staying interesting, and never getting to a dull moment. For the most part, our documentary worked quite well.
Nothing is ever perfect. Everything has flaws, even if it is the slightest little detail. Our documentary is no different, and contains many flaws that can easily be fixed. The first flaw that I noticed was the cutting from interview to fact. The transitioning here was seen as a bit on the choppy side, sometimes cutting audio away too fast, keeping audio too long, or just a rough move into the next screen. If the groups took a bit more time on this problem, it would have defiantly improved. The second problem I noticed was quiet narration. At times when someone spoke narration during the film (most specifically during the “What is Sustainable Living” group), it was too hard to hear, and typically blocked by background sound. This problem also had a potentially easy fix, though that fix was never used. The final problem I noticed was that the text used at times was a bit hard to read (very apparent in the “What is Sustainable Living” group). Though not a big problem due to narration in most parts with text, it could have easily been avoided. Overall, the documentary had many problems, mostly quite minor, and not too bad enough to affect the overall message presented.
After dedicating a great amount of time to this documentary, I have no doubt learned a great amount from everything I have done in the past couple of months. I had never known that the world was in such bad shape as I have just researched for the documentary. Usually, the things I hear about the earth are only “tiny problems” with the world. The bigger facts about the earth and its environment are more enclosed away, almost waiting for someone to find them, like a treasure locked away in a treasure chest, which can only be opened with a specific key. I also learned that the world does not make the larger problems in the world more known to the public. If people were to make it more known, then the problems kept away would be lessened to the amount that is actually told and known to the public. While using the camera, I learned how to film things better. If I wanted to become a director, or even a film editor, I would use the knowledge I learned in class to my advantage. Our documentary also taught me how to be more organized. While editing the film, I had to set up a work schedule for time I would put into the project, whether after school, in class, or even during Academic Lab. This would be a fantastic tool for me in the future, if I am ever in charge of a project. The final thing that I learned is that working with a larger group is harder, and takes a lot of work to get things to work out. Most of the time, you have disagreements. However, in the end, everyone comes together at last, to finalize the project. This documentary has practically taught me a whole lot of information that I could use for the rest of my life.
The things I have learned from the documentary are practically too large to count. There is no doubt that I would put them to good use in the future. Wherever my fate rests, I will be sure to think back to this project, and not make some of the same mistakes made here. I have gained a great amount of knowledge for organizing a large project. Instead of being completely clueless on what do do with a future project, I will think back to some of the things I learned here, like a better way of organization, and lead to a more successful project. I always like to think “One failure in life leads to a larger success down the road.” I want to see how this quote will come true, at a time when I use the mistakes made this semester, and some of the things I should have done from the start while working on this documentary.
Our documentary film, The Future is in Our Hands: Live Sustainably, will always be an important landmark in my life during education. I have learned a lot about the environment, organization, how to prevent mistakes, how not to work with a uncooperative group, etc. I feel that in the future, the knowledge I have gained will become very valuable to me. The future will look brighter, with more mistakes in my life possibly prevented due to this great learning experience

As the year comes to a close, our documentary suffers the same fate. This Friday, we will be screening the documentary first thing in the morning in Mrs. Pomerantz’s room. Every single viewer to this blog is invited, as long as they are able to come in on friday morning! Hope to see you all there!

Fact: If every U.S. household replaced just one roll of 1,000-sheet bathroom tissues with 100 percent recycled ones, it could save 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space and 155 million gallons of water
Source Here

Fact: One Hundred cows are killed daily in India from discarded plastic bags.
Source Here

The Following Write-Up is a summary of an article found here (CAUTION: This article is very, very long. It is suggested that you read the basic summary below, and skim the real article).

Interesting Facts:
1.Americans said climate change was President Barrack Obama’s last priority
2.Mental Processes can have an effect on how people feel about the environment
3.Most studies on environment are physical or biological studies rather than emotional studies
4.There are different ways people process and make decisions
5.One system works to make a careful consideration of costs and benefits. The other experiences risk as a feeling, usually based on a personal experience
6.People tend to think about now rather than the future, which makes it hard to get people involved and help to change the environment
7.Scientist typically focus their brains on the unknown and questions
8.Working in groups causes an increase in a person’s participation
9.Stern explains that human-dimensions work usually falls into one of three categories: the human activities that cause environmental change, the impacts of environmental change on people and society and the human responses to those consequences
10.People tend not to change their minds until a realization or an experience happens in their life
11.Weber believes decision science isn’t only about structuring choices or finding the right frame to get a better outcome; it’s about identifying useful information that can be used for innovative products, policies and scientific studies
12. Obama is taking action by making a carbon tax
13.Republicans rejected this tax because the energy crisis will not affect them until they are older or even dead
14.People have a harder time seeing benefits that are so far in the future and benefits that are unpredictable
15.A Person might take action too late because people usually wait until it is too late

Response:
I feel that this article has proven some of the things that I had always thought about. For example, I had always thought not living sustainable was due to great amount of lazyness. According to the article, that is basically the case with most people in the world. It is sad how being lazy changes possibilities a person can have. I also really liked some of the experiments that were preformed, and the statistics that the author had written up. I really learned alot about the human brain from the article, especially how the brain can’t change until a person comes to a realization. It reminds me of the movies where a character must realize something in order to awaken from a coma.

Happy Earth Day Everyone! I hope everyone who views this has at least done something eco-friendly today! If not, throw a piece of paper in a recycle bin!

The following write-up is a summary of an article found here.

Interesting Facts:
1.$18,000 were charged to a Battle Ground Printing company for allegedly discharging silver-bearing photochemicals, ink and solvent wastes into the sewer system.
2.Hazardous materials were apparently being entered in the sewer system
3.An inspector noted that toxic sludge had built up over time in pre-treatment wastewater vaults on the property

Response:
I feel that it is a great thing that people are doing things to help prevent harmful toxins enter the environment. Things really are changing recently for the better to the environment. I believe it is due to Barrack Obama as president, and the different things he is passing.

1.Do you know what “sustainability” means?
2.Do you think that people should be concerned about the environment?
3.Can you come up with at least five people that you have met in your life that have done something unsustainable before?
4.(To The Above Question if Answered Correct) Are you surprised by this number?
5.Do you think the world could be more sustainable if the possibility was more known around the world?
6.What can the people do to help make people care more about the environment?
7.Do you recycle, buy or use “green” products?
8.Why do you think people choose to do something, such as throw away paper in a trash can, rather than throw it away in a recycle bin?
9.Have you ever done something that could have been more eco-friendly, but didn’t bother doing it that way?
10.(To the above question) Do you think many people make the same mistakes?

Follow-Up to Interview:
Currently, we have nothing. We are working on grouping with the other group at this point, if possible. If not, we may have to go hunting for some more numbers to call.

-You always point the mic to the person talking
-No chewing gum
-Don’t let the person that you are interviewing take away the mic
-Have questions together
-Have both batteries charged before interviewing

What to Do In An Interview:
-Get people to keep talking
-Let them know if you have some kind of disagreement
-Don’t Argue
-Be creative with questions
-Follow up on information given, not just paper questions
-Clarify for the interview if the person you interview does not understand
-Hold the mic at a reasonable distance from the speaker
-Have a steady position for the camera

What Not To Do In an Interview:
-Don’t get angry
-Don’t chew gum
-No “uh” or “like”

After watching Matthew Needleman’s video, Film School For Podcasters, I have learned a great amount of things to do when planning and filming a movie or documentary. Matthew Needleman describes how drawing a storyboard, without having a pre-made worksheet set up, is the best way to make a story board. I feel this is a very smart idea, making the story board the way you want to. He also talks about using the rule of thirds, instead of centering subjects on camera. This makes the scene look more artistic, in my opinion. I always liked doing things that way, without knowing about the rule of thirds. I felt that the video was an enjoyable experience, and would like to watch some more of Needleman’s work.