Reflection Essay

 My biggest struggle during this project was working together as a team. We have a lot of type A girls in this group and so the power struggle was constant.The aspect of this documentary I am most proud of is the finished project. I think it looks amazing. The aspect of this documentary that I would have changed would be some of the photos. I think we should have gotten a lot more b-roll. I was personally responsible for interviews. But also this whole project was really a group effort. We all worked together. Everyone contributed to each aspect of the project. It made everything so much easier.  As I said previously our group had a lot of power issues. In high school we were the girls people cheated off of and hoped that we would just do the whole project. However this is college not high school and it was hard to transition from that. It took us a few weeks to realize what we could count on each other and we could work as a team. I honestly believe that everyone put their full true effort into this. I am so proud of the way each person took time out of their daily lives to meet and discuss our next move.
The class: I think this class did help improve my critical thinking skills for two reasons. The first is that I had never made a documentary in my life so learning how to edit and film was huge. The second was trying to figure out how we wanted the end result of our documentary to look. We all had different visions but in the end I think all of our visions were made into one. Now in all honesty I don't think that any student would rather write 4 essays than learn new technology. I am really happy that we worked so much in the depot downstairs in the library. Everyone can write as essay but not everyone can edit a green screen or cut out scenes and add music. That is a skill only learned if wanted. In all honesty Owen you're an amazing professor. (and no I'm not just saying that because you're from the best state in the country.) You don't treat us like kids. You relate to us, talk the way that we do, etc. I would much rather have you as a professor than an 80 year old man who smells like old tobacco and just moans on about chemistry. I liked that you handed us the key to our own project and our own fate. I liked not having homework but in all reality we kinda still did. This project was a daily piece of homework that had to be worked on or we would have been screwed.
What you could do to make this class better? Simple. Bring tacos. I'm telling you your future class will be so happy that you brought tacos instead of pizza. But on a serious note you really couldn't make this class better than it already is. Why mess with perfection? But if I had a gun to my head and had to change something about the class I think it would have been that you could show more example documentaries. It was really helpful to see previously made student examples. But I also love movie days so it's really a win win for everyone.
BTW
Thanks for everything. Every student you have is lucky to have you as their professor.

Born Into Coal

. This documentary strikes me in three different ways style wise. First of all I like the way that they used filler scenes while the interviewer was speaking. That way the viewer was not just watching a person speaking the whole time. Also it gives background information about what a mine looks like and how the family lives in a mining home. The second technique that I enjoyed was the close up's of each individual being interviewed. They weren’t breaking the fourth wall by staring at the camera. That can be a very intimidating view to the audience. So having them look away from the camera but still be close up on them gave a more personal view on their interview. Thirdly I enjoyed the pan shots throughout the documentary. These gave a more outward look on the environment and the surroundings. It also brings the viewer more intimate with the story itself.

If I had to storyboard this documentary it would be easily done. Each box could be filled with just the main parts of the story and then in between I could write the filler shots. Because this documentary has so many pan shots of what is going on behind the speaker, the boxes are more easily filled with just simple locations.  The filming of this documentary was done well. So in short my first four boxes would:

1: View pageant

2. Pool side with beginning interview of mom and daughter separately.

3. View of home and life inside

4. Coal mine

The War Between Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters

There will forever be an ongoing war between which is more hipster: Forever 21 or Urban Outfitters. I’m just in this war for the cute sweaters but alas it’s an ongoing fight. Competing styles, prices, and more forever bond these two stores as sworn enemies. However, I will continue to view both sites, as I am as I type this, and that will never change. I am though noticing a few things about each site that due differ.

Urban Outfitters and Forever 21 have an ongoing message and purpose being sent from their clothes: I AM MORE HIPSTER THAN YOU AND YOU SHOULD BUY ME! Awesome. I love seeing hipster kids who don’t shower and don’t brush their hair walking the streets of Lexington. (Thank god for sorority girls who only wear polo). Secondly their models, as usual, are stick thin and look like they can’t breathe. Now this is a message that teen and young girls see every day. That in order to be a model you have to see collar bones, have a huge thigh gap, and that you aren’t skinny if you can’t see ribs….Ew. This is not a message I want my future daughter to see or hold true. This is why I think it’s a brilliant idea that their clothes are now being shot toward older ages like 20 +. Not saying that once you hit 20 you are no longer self-conscious but at 20 there are a few things better than when you were 15. First you have more money. Second you have an idea of what style you like and need. And thirdly you should have a little higher of self-conscious so seeing those ads should rip your heart apart.

Both sites remind me of each other for a few reasons. The first being their models all look the same and the layout at which they display their clothing is identical. The layout is usually one page, 5 models across, 20 models down, and each wearing some sort of obnoxious fur with high camo boots. They all have this ghastly look on their faces that somehow we in turn understand it as “smizing” or smiling with your eyes. These sites differ though because forever 21 has a much brighter, colorful feel to it which attracts happy-“popular” girls, to their site. While on the other hand Urban outfitters has a more earthy, hippy feel to it, which attracts college girls and older. Both sites are my favorite however and I will continue to love them

Visual Rhetoric

The No Seconds project in my opinion was very compelling. Because I am an art minor I love the strong white background because it so highly extenuates the contrasting colors. It makes the viewer see each picture, each color, and each piece of food individually. The fact that he also has the description of each convict and their crimes also helps the viewer imagine what each man was like and why he choose the food he did. Crime has always interested me so when an artist pulls both art and crime together it will always grab my attention. I just enjoy the fact that each picture is so abstract and vivid in their colors and it really shows how enthusiastic the artists was in the actual last meal of each killer.

The Last Meal Project differs immensely from the No Seconds project. This project has the picture of each convicted killer with their last meal choice drawn in front of them. In my opinion there is much more emotion in this project than the last one because you can look in the eyes of each convicted killer. There’s an emptiness and a loneliness in each killers face. And their food choice differs obviously per person. I like the way the artist also has facts about the death penalty every few slides. This stops the viewer from constantly staring in the face of killers and to have background information regarding the death penalty. I like art that includes writing and facts. It makes learning more fun in my opinion.

Both projects are similar and different in many ways. They are similar by having white backdrops which emphasizes the food in each slide more. They also have descriptions of each killer and or their crimes and ways of death. This gives a historic feel to each project. However they differ on what they are trying to emphasize on. The No Seconds shows the food more predominately and incorporates the art side more than the Last Meal Project. While the Last Meal Project emphasizes the convicted killers and facts about the death penalty. Both projects however are breath taking and very interesting.