Hollywood Reflections: Week Three

     This has been quite the productive week for my team. All of our footage, music, and voiceovers have been imported and edited. Our rough cutt is complete. Our audio has all been panned and adjusted to -12dB as well. Now all thats left to do is figure out the special effects and video transitions. On the side, we also still have to finish our title slide and finalize our credits, although they look pretty good. 

     Throughout the video editing process this week, I have spent my share of time cutting down the clips. I also fixed most of the audio problems. Finally, I started messing around with some of the video effects and found some interesting ones that my group may like. So far, everything is coming together very nicely.

  

Hollywood Reflections: Week Two

     Today marks the end of the second week of editing my group has been doing on our film Every Last Drop; a thriller about a woman who poisons her husband and is faced with a dilema when her son begins taking on similar abusive characteristics.
     This week has been quite productive but our film is still in it's rough cutt stage. We got some new footage last week and imported that. All the clips look nice and work properly so that's not a problem. However, we are having difficulty cutting down all the clips to fit into a four minute time period. I've been doing my best to pick and choose only the best and most vital clips to put in. However, there is a ton of footage we still have to look through and somehow organize into our timeline.
     We did manage to finish almost all the voiceovers though. I'm especially proud of this because we'd been having some technical difficulties when we'd tried, on several attempts, to record in the past.
I think some of the important things we need to focus on for next week are finishing our rough cut, polishing the voiceovers, importing audio/sound effects, completing the credits and opening, and just continuing to cut down the clips. If all goes as planned, we will definetly be able to have a decent movie completed in the next couple of weeks which we will then be able to polish even more with the extra time.

A Shift To Thrift

     In my film class, we recently completed a long-term project in which we made a documentary focusing on a topic of our choice. As the whole process came to a close, I wanted to write a small reflection on what I've been working so hard on for the past couple of months.

      For the assignment, my group of five created a documentary exploring the changing attitudes towards thrift stores over the past few years. Through interviews and research we also tried to determine the reasons why thrift stores have suddenly become so trendy, especially among teenagers. Initially, we had though of doing a project on either on the evolution of candy stores or the meaning of dreams, but we realized thrift stores were more relevant and new. I think this was a really good choice. Even now, after our documentary is done, I'm still interested in the topic, and would actually be interested in finding out more about some thrift stores my interviewees mentioned. I'm also really pleased with the freedom we had in choosing the topics. Although I haven't seen many of my peers' documentaries yet I think the fact that we had so much say in choosing our topics will result in a much more varied and interesting bunch of films.

      While making our documentary, the biggest challenge my group faced was getting all of our footage imported into the computer. At first we had difficulties getting the footage onto the computer because we had forgotten to put the camera into mp4 mode before we began recording. Unfortunately, we had already spent two class periods repeatedly trying to import footage before we came to this realization. Once we figured that out, we had to put all of the footage onto the teacher's laptop and use some movie software to convert all the video. Even after that though, the computer refused to recognize the footage so we had to switch computers. After that everything seemed to work fine until we began trying to edit the interviews which refused to render. Finally, we re-imported the interviews and everything turned out fine.

      When we started the film, I already thought I knew everything about thrifting because it seemed pretty self explanatory. Throughout the process, however, I did learn a couple more interesting things on the subject. For example, I learned that thrifting can be a career, and a very successful one at that. Two of our interviewees, Phoebe Verkouv and Brandhyze Stanley, are both avid bloggers about thrift stores and have gained quite a bit of fame from it. Through making this project I also learned that there is a pretty cool man called Macklemore who has a song about thrift stores. Finally, I learned that there are way more thrift stores in this area than I thought. In many of the interviews, people named at least five stores I'd never heard of.

     If I had the chance to create another documentary I would let someone else handle the camera. When we went out to get B-Roll of Value Village and Unique Thrift, we spent around four hours running around trying to get nice shots. These four hours ended up being a complete waste of time because throughout the entire process I'd been hitting record when I should have been hitting stop and vice-versa. We had to go backto the thrift store because the only footage we had was of the floor and people's feet. If I could do another documentary I would also try to get a more varied group of interviewees. When I started editing the film, I realized that all of our interviews were of people within the CAP program. I think that this made for more biased film than we would've wished for.

      This was generally a really great project which gave us an opportunity to learn both about a topic of interest and documentary film making. However, there are a few things that would have made the process smoother and more manageable. First of all, I definitely think that we needed more time. The snow days, British kids' visit, and other complications often interfered with our projects and took away time that we really needed. I also think there should have been more training prior to beginning the project. Many students had forgotten how to edit either partially or completely since the film class we took last year. For this reason, they were unable to help with editing because there wasn't enough time to learn how to work with Final Cut Pro. Giving the class some quick lessons on the basics of the program would probably increase the quality of the films and decrease the amount of stress put on the teachers and each of the group members. Besides these couple of things, the project was very enjoyable and educational.

               

Binocular Kid and Goggle Girl: A Love Story

Before our British kids returnd to their native lands, I was fortunate enough to get to meet a great handful of them. This is a short video masterpiece we made with the help of one of the British girls  who I miss very much because she was absolutely splendid. Anyways, jolly good, enjoy the show.

 

Link on Yotube: http://youtube/uVuCzOTfkmg

Interviews, Juggling, and Other Shenanigans

The British are coming!!! So I'm not exactly sure what's going on  in this video but whatever it is, I like it. As always, enjoy.

If you want to see it on Youtube, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ4jqRaXZ4Y&feature=youtu.be

Roughly Seventy-Two Percent Of Our Planet

     Water is the single-most important building block for all life, fact. Without water we'd die, also fact. Roughly 70-72% of Earth is composed of water, fact again. But get this, almost 97% of the world's water is either salt-water or otherwise undrinkable. On top of that, 2% of the remaining water is frozen in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves around 1% of drinkable water in the world. Guys. If that minuscule 1% becomes polluted as a result of constant abuse, humanity is done for. The fact that a human can survive around a month without food but only three to five days without water is proof that life could not be sustained without it. When most of you go home everyday, you take it for granted that clean water will stream out when you turn on the faucet to wash dishes or brush your teeth. Unfortunately, the ability to take those things for granted is considered a luxury in other places. I'm not here to send anyone on a guilt trip or depress them for the rest of the afternoon but seriously, appreciate what you have.
     In America, the average cost for 5 gallons of water is only a penny. Yet, instead of taking advantage of those low costs and trying to conserve water so that those prices can remains so low, people choose to use and abuse water. In fact, the average person uses 160 GALLONS of water a day, both directly and indirectly. In a week, the average person uses 9, 340 pounds of water. That's heavier than the weight of a full-grown elephant. And that's just individuals. In addition to that, U.S. industrial factories use more than 20 billion gallons of water each day, U.S. power plants use 136 billion gallons of water each day, and U.S. agriculture uses 142 billion gallons of water each day. Water is required in huge quantities for things you wouldn't even think of. For example, it takes 300 million gallons of water to produce a single day's supply of newspapers. These numbers are insanely overwhelming. With so much demand, imagine how much water needs to be filtered and purified by water plants every day to ensure the population of just one country can get the water they need.
    It's all okay though. If the entire nation were to make certain efforts, we could produce even bigger, more impressive numbers. For example, if everyone conserved one gallon of water per shower every day, the nation could save around 85 billion gallons of water a year. Alternatively, if everyone flushed the toilet one less time a day, the nation would save an amount of water equal to a one mile long, one mile wide, four-foot deep lake. Finally, if one in four people declined a complementary glass of water when dining out at restaurants, the nation could save more than 26 million gallons of water a year. Oh, and also fixing a leaky faucet can save you 3,000 gallons of water a year. The question then is, why haven't we done these things yet? The answer is simple. It's because not enough people know, or care to know. Obviously Justin Bieber's drug habits are much more concerning. Obviously.
   But seriously,  other than the fact that it's essential to your survival, there are plenty of other reasons why you should care about water. In general, water is insanely cool. Did you know that by throwing boiling water into the air at sub-zero weather you can make instant snow? Super cool. Also water can only come from nature. An infinite number of companies can put water into an infinite number of container with an infinite number of snazzy designs, but they still won't be responsible for creating it. Water just goes around and around in an endless cycle and whatever we put into the water goes around and comes back into our glasses. In a certain aspect, that's kind of gross to think about when you realize all of the disgusting things that get mixes into water throughout the day. On the other hand, you can choose to think about how in every glass of water you've ever drunk, there have been extremely diluted dinosaur molecules. So technically, you could have, at one point in your life, ingested parts of a T-Rex. Who's at the top of the food chain now? Rawr.

A Look Into America's Food Inc.

 This afternoon I sat down with my two younger brothers to watch a documentary film called Food, Inc. I first learned about this film in my Journalism class and, although many of my classmates had already heard of or seen the move, the title was completely new to me. At first I was hesitant to watch this film because I'm a squeamish and impressionable person, especially when it comes to animals. The picture of a cow with a bar code stamped onto its side on the cover of the film did not do much to sway my interest either. In the end, I decided to give the film a chance, because I wanted to know the truth, even if it came at a cost. What I found in this film was astonishing. Both myself and my brothers sat attentively with our jaws literally hanging open at times as we became enlightened as to where our food came from. As I was watching the film, I couldn't help but think to myself how amazing it would be if every single person in the world were required to watch this movie. Although there would be immense skepticism, it would be impossible to watch this film and not feel inspired to make a big change in your community. Entertainment Weekly did an excellent job at summarizing Food, Inc. stating that, “More than a terrific movie—it's an important movie.”

The movie Food, Inc. takes it's audience on a disturbing but incredible journey as it seeks to “lift the veil” that massive food industries have placed between consumers and their “kitchens” or production plants. This documentary is both expository and interactive as the the filmmakers, Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein, are trying to inform the audience on an issue while still making themselves present in the on-screen action. Food, Inc. explores the issue of food and worker exploitation by dividing the topics up into subcategories. The film first gives a short introduction on supermarkets and labels before moving into its first topic: chicken. The storyline then transitions into corn, then soybeans, spinach, cattle, pork, etc. Throughout each of these subsections, the filmmakers give the audience a deeper look into the issue by shooting on location at farms controlled by major food corporations like Tyson, Smithsfield, Perdue, and Montansto. Each subsection also includes interviews with farmers and workers, captions, footage from hidden cameras, close-up shots of the animal and worker abuse that goes on in factories, and snippets of background on how the food industry has changed over time as demand has rapidly increased. Suspenseful music and different cartoons are also added in to set the mood and explain different concepts to the audience through animated visuals. The lighting and characters, however, are all kept authentic. Only natural light seems to be used in the film. All of the characters are presented as is, without any makeup or costumes. The conversations appear natural and unrehearsed as well. Using all of these different little details, the filmmakers are able to slowly reveal the horrors behind the extreme industrialization of modern day food production. But not all the film is set in such a morbid tone. The filmmakers chose to spend the last 15 minutes or so of the documentary reviewing what the average person can do to help stop this serious issue and made sure to end on a positive note.

I would highly recommend this film to anyone and everyone, especially the younger generation. Because sometimes the truth, although not easier, is necessary if we wish to flourish as a planet and achieve universal harmony.

The movie Food, Inc. is rated PG for some thematic material and disturbing images. It has an approximate running time of 91 minutes

If you are interested in learning more about this movie, the film's official trailer and website are both posted below:

Website: http://www.takepart.com/foodinc

Trailer: