Sarah 2009 Documentary Film

Evaluation

            This documentary film fulfilled its purpose pretty good. I feel we did a good job informing people about what sustainable living was. I think we informed ourselves a lot more than we informed other people. Most of us didn’t know what sustainable living was. Some just knew it had to do with recycling and some of us have never heard of it. What I found out was it is way more than just recycling; it has to do with your products you use and your everyday lifestyle. We could’ve done better on persuading. It wasn’t enough to persuade people, especially when most of the population doesn’t even know what it means to live sustainable. The information was good, and the way we showed how people on the streets only some knew what they were talking about and majority didn’t they just had a slight clue to what it is.

            Everything worked pretty well in the film, except we could have edited it a little better. In the film it had voiceovers in the wrong spot because we waited to long to put the voiceover in play. For example, in the first segment we had a quote with a voiceover and we put the voiceover in the wrong spot so it was overlapping with the interview. Then there was the volume, some parts were softer than others and some were much louder. Like when the interviews were playing those were so much louder than the voiceovers the groups put in.

            The way we shot it could have worked better. I think if we had better camera angles and in some spots weren’t so shaky it could have been better. Throughout the film we had a lot of the same angles; there were only a few parts that used a different angle. If we would have been more creative with angles and used more of the angles we talked about in class, I believe that would emphasis more things that we were trying to say.

            I learned a good amount of things by doing this documentary film. I learned everything from filming, blogging, working with others and even more about the topic in general. I learned how to be a good camera person, such as things with the different angles, head room, and steadiness. Blogging I didn’t so much learn about. It was just a great experience to be able to blog all your assignments for this project, and your classmates could read it there and comment, and just the fact you had other people out there that read what you wrote. Working with others, it became hectic at times because not everyone agreed when it came to making a decision. But since you were a team you had to come to some kind of final decision so you had to cope with the others. Last the topic overall. I never heard about living sustainable before we did this. When we first started doing this project I also thought it was just about recycling. I had no idea it was more than just recycling.

            In the future I can use the information by actually putting it to use. By this I mean I won’t just keep the knowledge in my head, I will recycle, and buy the products that can help the environment such as the washers that use less water and more. When you know the information, it will never help you unless you put it to use. Unless you put this information to use and actually take action to use what we learned in the process it won’t help that much. I say this because anybody can hear about what can help the environment but whether you choose to use it and do something about it nothing will change.

Our class is finishing the final product this week. We have worked hard. And its finally are almost ready to show it. We are having the documentary show at my school (Parkway North) at 8:00 a.m. on May 22. Hope to see you there.

1. What is sustainable living?
2. Do you do anything sustainable?
3. How sustainably do you live?
4. Do you focus on living sustainably?
5. If you live sustainably do you think its expensive?
6. Why do you think people don’t live sustainably?
7. Are people ever going to go fully sustainably?
8. Would you ever change your house to live sustainably?
9. What have you done already?
10. Why do you think people don’t care?

This article talks about why we don’t think green.

• should we really spend around $5 billion on wind powered energy sources such as wind turbines.
• the mental process shapes the way we think and our behaviors and attitudes.
• proceeding risks:
• 1. consideration of costs and benefits
• 2. primitive and urgent reaction to danger
• 3. personal experience
• best way to avoid failure is to collaborate it together.
• climate change is a long term problem that we have to study

On Monday we took a field trip to Alberici to get some expert interviews. The trip was cool we got a tour around the building. The building has some unique ways to be green. Some things they had were the venting system, windows, and everything around the building (such as they plants and the grassy area) The grass area was like a prairie land. Prairie land is somewhat natural in Missouri. When we actually did the interview it was very professional like. The lady we interviewed was alot of help. She explained her answers in enough details but not to much to were you got bored with talking to her.

Then after we got done at Alberici we went to the Zoo and got some on the streets interviews. These were wierd. I didn’t like how some people just blew you off, but that’s just how it was. Some people were really nice about it. I liked how we got a variety of different interviews. Some people had no idea what we were talking about, some knew alot and some knew only a little bit.

Preparing for street interviews:

• want to explain what you are doing.

-high school student

-doing a documentary

• how to hold the mic.

-don’t let the person you are interviewing take the mic

-don’t hold it right up to the mouth

-hold it far away but close enough so you can hear but can’t hear wind

• DO NOT CHEW GUM WHILE INTERVIEWING.

Actual Interviews:

• make sure you are ready.

-check all your stuff make sure it works

-Do you have your questions?

-Do you know how to work the equipment?

• Don’t get frustrated.

-a lot of people don’t want to take a little time to interview

-don’t give up after a few people said no

-you  have to keep trying

• The way you dress.

-don’t have to dress up

-but look good

• Do’s And Don’ts

- Do: get your point across fast, let them know you or other people disagree, keep them talking, help clarify information

-Don’t: get mad and yell, don’t say: “This is what I think” “I think this..”, Don’t give up

Questions:

Divide up roals:

• interviewer
• sound person
• camera person

We watched a video by Matthew Needleman. It was called Film School. It was about different angles to shot the video. It showed alot of different angles. The way you shoot the film emphizizes it. For example the different angles such as from the top, showing two people in the interview, showing only a little bit of the actual shot. One main thing I learned from the video was about the rule of third. In the rule of thirds it is 3 rows vertical and 3 rows horizontal. It helps you position the way you want to see the shot.

The visual metaphor that we could film would be the walking out of the room with the lights on .

Have someone walk down the hallway into their room.First they turn on the light. When they go in the room they turn on the t.v. watch it for like a couple seconds make time go by a little and then walk out with everything on. And then its over.

Or another one I liked was the grocery bag one. We could film someone walking out of the grocery store with a kart full of groceries with plastic bags and lifting one of them up to put it into the trunk and the bag breaks. Vs. a  person with a few of the  reusable bags that won’t  break.

We are looking at different camera shots. And we are predicting why you use these different shots.

• Wide Shot: I think you could use wide shots for like a description. Like instead of describing what they have on you have a wide view and you can see their whole body, and you see for your self what they have on.
• Medium Shot: I think medium shots are like to focus somewhat on the upper part of the person. More towards the face and body position of the shoulders. Its like close but not real close to the face.
• Close Up: I think this shot is to show details about the person’s face. It focuses on the face, but it isn’t to close. Like it shows you but doesn’t show everything on the person’s face.
• Extreme Close Up: This shot I think shows all them emotions on the person’s face. Its like you can really see the eyes. And its like you can see the person’s emotions in the shot.

On thursday we made our first call. We called a guy named John thats like an environmental lawer. He was very nice. Franni was the one who called. They had a nice conversation. He didn’t try to rush her off the phone, like i thought. He was really nice. They stayed on the phone for about 10-20 minutes long. They gave eachother e-mail address so they could follow up with more. It really shocked me that it was the first call and he didn’t be mean and be like sorry no. I think this man is going to help alot.