Documentary Final: Connecting to Cloud Nine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySaPrZUpE-0

The Documentary was a real challenge to complete from the beginning. Since the choice in topic was limited to Facebook, it was difficult considering i barely use the site. My topic was facebook as a distraction. I interviewed a limited amount of people and asked them a total of six questions each. i used music primarily from apple Inc. on the macbook's iMovie as a background music theme. And to take viewers eye away from just people talking, i added some of my own pics along with one pic from the internet and recorded my voice explaining a little more of what i was going for. I also repeated pics by introducing them in one section and using them back at the end to add a little effect. 

        The hardest thing about the project was filming. i encountered many questions during my filming. One of which was how to get someone to talk on camera long enough for me to gather enough footage. Another problem was arranging the videos in a way in which my topic made sense. What really ended up working in the video is the transitions from clip to clip. it wasn't as choppy as i thought it would be a came out making sense in the end because the transitions i added made sense as well. What didnt quite work as well as i had hoped was the audio. Some of the audio in the clips i tried to fix by messing with the equalizer and sound reduction. however, some of the footage just came up short for me in terms of sound quality because of the camera and background noise. In the end, i made it work by reducing some sound although some footage is a little fuzzy. 

       I myself and not good at composing things of this nature because i have never done anything like this before. i barely even take photos of anything much less videos. My ability to just learn and adapt definitely got me through this project successfully. Even though the video hadn't come out to the best quality that i wanted it in, i still was able to put together a video which made sense and was fluent. I achieved most of my goals by sitting down and reviewing writing down ideas. i wrote down my voiceovers, numbered the questions i asked in the order i wanted to place them, and trimmed all the clips to the desired length to make them run together. I spent most of my time figuring out some timing issues with voiceovers and things. in the end, i ran the video several times to make sure it was in a good enough quality to understand and no video was too much or lacking. 

      Getting all the video was the hard part. putting it together was simple for me since i separated each question into one shot each. Overall, i didn't run into any major issues and i was able to do the film without having to redo a section. All the pieces sort of just came together. 

shoot sched

I will start all of my shooting and interviewing around wednesday because i have exams to study for. So starting on wednesday i will start interviewing people around my dorm. i plan to capture as much footage as possible within three days of starting and composing the video later.

 i plan on interviewing several people. Some that i know and some that i don't. i plan on finding people who are addicted to Facebook or maybe just certain aspects to it. So here is my schedule.

Sunday-Tuesday: Nothing or work on a little story mapping.
Wednesday-Friday: filming
Saturday: construct filmed footage with music and effects. also figuring out a little layout.

proposal

   My documentary is going to focus on how facebook keeps us connected to the world. We all know facebook as this socializing medium to talk to friends, share things to stay in touch, and it also keeps track of events and your organizations. Facebook actually does a lot of things and i believe that it has so much to offer that it is often overused. Facebook in this sense becomes addicting because it offers too much capability. I know every time i walk through the library, i find more than one person on the site checking statuses rather than doing work. And i catch myself doing the same thing sometimes. This can become a problem to full time college students or working people because it becomes a distraction rather than a helper. It could contribute to things like messaging while driving or keep you from doing what needs to be done because of its entertainment value.
  For this documentary, i would like to focus on the student body, more specifically, freshman. This is because it gives me a chance to not only see the effects of Facebook on people, but of my peers. i plan to investigate how invested people are to the site and what they use it for.
  Most of my video clips are probably going to be primarily interviews of Freshman. i plan to capture what people say about it on impulse rather then sit down and interview them. The documentary will probably not have much musical elements to it because i feel like the it doesn't need the sound to enhance the meaning through out. The color will probably remain normal most of the time. this is because i feel no real need to have color altercation because it wouldn't really effect my piece significantly. Of course, i might change up these effects as needed to obtain my final product.
   i plan to interview people around my dorm and a few other freshmen. i plan to ask some of the following questions
  - what do you use facebook for?
- Do you keep track of things through Facebook?
- how often do you use Facebook for these purposes?
- Is Facebook Beneficial?
- Do you think Facebook is harmful in any way? why?
-do you enjoy all that Facebook has to offer?
    And ill etcetera. i will probably come up with different questions along the way but for now i feel this is all i need.
    What i want to point out is that Facebook can become a problem if used too frequently. It connects us to the world by keeping us in touch, but we tend to use these features too much and it does tend to distract us. Id like to uncover what Facebook means to other people and what it can be and how it should be used in moderation. The question i would like to resolve in other words is how can we use Facebook correctly without it becoming an addicting problem.
 

Dark Days

Dark Days was shot well as it portrayed the lives of the people in the tunnel. The first thing that stood out to me was the black and white coloring through out the video. The black and white sort of made the story seem more sad. i believe the absence of color just makes it seem like there was little or no hope. it just didn't seem bright and warm. There was little sound as well. the only things you could really hear was the sound of the tunnel, the people talking, and the occasional train. i noticed as well that they used transitions just like the ones we watched but in this one it was a train.
     The shots were good too. the story seemed more natural then the other videos we watched. like to me, it just seemed like they were just tagging along for the ride it was almost like the documentary we watched over the basketball player.  At on point of the film, one of the homeless people asked surprisingly "you're still here" which made me believe they didn't even know when they were going to be filmed or for how long. And it appeared more natural because they would take shots of the people talking about random things, but i fill like that was kind of framed mostly cause they talked about the problems of the tunnel. It also didn't focus on just one persons perception of the tunnels, but it focused on the whole group.
    all these elements mixed into video made the life of being homeless seem more real. There was hardly any interaction between the crew and the homeless which made it seem more natural. the way the documentary was framed actually made it look worse and worse from scene to scene. like in the beginning they were just chilling out, then it showed them recycling, but then it showed them dumpster diving. and after all that a guy came on and talked about the dangers of tunnels which really added to the situation of tunnels from what was seen. overall, it showed that organizing shots really play a role in effectiveness.
  What really made Dark Days more interesting then the other two documentaries is that it could relate to anyone. the story can actually link to people in that we could end up like that. I mean the first one we watched was about a guy who was having trouble selling his old records which people barely have nowadays and the second one was about a basketball player who had to fly a lot and was scared of it. the thing is anyone can be homeless. It was a more deeper issue and thats another reason i think it was in black and white as well. When we see colors, it can sometimes take away from the meaning of the message. So when we see black and white, we have no choice but to focus on whats being said rather than whats in the shot.
 

documentary stuff

1. Facebook more than a social site. (organizer)
2. Facebook connecting people to the world.
3. Facebook keeping track of your life. (timeline)

final draft: Light

video games

My interpretation of art is that it depends solely on the person observing. Art is what we as an audience choose to get out of something. So to me, anything could be art especially video game.
    What art really does for the mind is open it up to interpretation. For example, i could look at a light post outside my dorm and find some natural beauty in it. Video games tell a story through a series of elements. It sets a story and incorporates elements such as sound, dialogue, and video representation.
   The "rock" concept to me sort of hit me more as foundation. The story set by the creators of a game is that foundation, but its elements that bring a game to life and make it art. For example, video games tend to use songs to add the intended emotional response. I think of final fantasy games from nowadays which have actual composers incorporating this sort of passionate music which in my mind the sound makes me think of troubles i experience and hope that I've acquired. Again, this is off my interpretation of the sound though. An artist doesn't necessarily intend to make their art effect everybody. To me this element is art, to others it could just be some noise in the background.
  The main goal of artist of all calibers try to achieve is to connect to an audience. Video games do a great job of this. I totally disagree that dialogue takes away from a video games art. In some cases, the dialogue could actually reach an audience. Some games carry some inspirational messages through the dialogue. Although it isn't the first thing that comes to mind when we think of art, words can be art in themselves. As Santiago said, art is an arranging of elements in a way to appeal to emotions. So why cant words be art? It doesn't take away from the meaning of a story or the art. The words actually might add clarity to the art. I cant really think of a specific example of a game, but the music in coherence with a character talking could actually enhance a deeper meaning in what the game is trying to convey.
 And again, these meanings from the game are all perception from the audience.
  the main thing that i think qualifies games as art are the visual representation. When i play futuristic games i tend to think of what my future will be like. When i play a game that displays beautiful scenery in high def, the art pops out at me and makes me think of places I've been to. The visual aspects are what make the game art. Even though the gaming art isn't as visually striking as genuine art done by hand, it still finds a way to connect with the audience in ways nothing else can.
   All of these elements together combine to form what i believe is art. However, it is truly up to an audience to decide what they want to take from any art piece. The problem with most games nowadays is that they are in some ways just mindless fun instead of providing some sort of emotional attachment. And isn't that the point of a game? It is important to realize though that not all games are the same. As one of the articles said some art is good and some are bad. Video games do a great job at combining multiple elements to grasp an audience and tell a story. i believe anything can be made into art. Art is purely perception.