Blog post and reading response #1

Blog: Now it is time to switch modes from PSAs to documentaries. I am very excited to start learning about this new art form. My group hasn't accomplished that much, but it is still early. Sarah, Leah, and I have thought about doing a documentary on adoption having Leah's family be the main focus. We all think that this would be a good idea so I believe this is what we will do. I don't think we will have procrastination problems, we are all focused and dedicated to making an effective documentary. I don't see any big problems with either the members of my group or the work that we will do. I am mostly excited to see the classes end results. The PSAs blew me away and I can only imagine that our documentaries will be even better.

Reading: Michael Rabiger, author of "Directing the Documentary", gives many details in his introduction chapter as to what a documentary entails of. I found it very helpful to myself in that it will help me organize my thoughts better and how I should draw in the attention of the audience. The point that stuck out the most and surprised me what when Rabiger stated "lower production costs and an increased outlet should mean increased freedom for the individual voice". I know that I knew this was true in the back of my mind but it really hit home when I read it in the article. I have never thought about how lucky we are as teens to have so much technology available to us that we can have freedom in the media. We can make videos from our phones and cameras and post them on youtube on the same day. Whatever we want to be seen or expressed has the potential to be seen by millions of people very quickly. This is something that my parents would never have been able to do as teens. Rabiger also tells that company executives, who choose what is aired on television, do not always show what should be. Corporations are able to subtract documentaries that may hurt profitability by offending some audience members. With expanded media sources such as cable, internet, or video facilities anything can be broadcasted. This connects with what I said earlier about this generation being able to post videos, and even documentaries, that are important to us and know that they can be seen.
The most important thing that I got out of this article was what exactly a documentary is. I never imagined all of the work and thought that goes into creating one. I learned that the best documentaries are those that are passionate about their topic and find that way to show the familiar in an unfamiliar way. I also learned that documentaries come in a range of forms. They can be spontaneous, silent, controlled, you name it. I am excited to start to work on a documentary knowing that the choice is all mine to make whatever it is I want to make. There is a lot of freedom in accomplishing some sort of order and cause and effect with options like these to choose from. Having a clearer definition of a documentary in my mind will definitely be useful when starting to develop my idea for a documentary and when shooting.

Blog Entry #7

I learned many things from doing this PSA project. I learned what it really means to work as a group, how to use a camera, and how you use your camera makes a huge impact on what comes across in your footage. I learned a lot of this from Alex and Jon, but some of it also came from my other group members. I think we all learned a little something from one another. The most challenging aspect was the due date. It seems like you have forever and then suddenly the PSA was due in a couple weeks. There could be a little improvement but not much. I liked that we had to have our storyboard and pitch approved before shooting to know that we were on the right track. I wish that those dates would have been sooner though so more time could be used in the end to film and put the perfect touches on the PSA. It was also hard that the camera training dates started later on in the year. That made it hard to begin filming if you hadn't had the training yet. Overall though I am happy with this project and the work that myself and my group did.

Blog Entry #6

I believe that my groups PSA is effective. I think we chose a topic that is really important to be shown to high school and college students in particular, but also everyone else. Some people don't even know that Adderall is taken by people who don't have ADHD let alone what this drug even is. We will inform a majority of the audience about something they don't even know is going on in their society. Our PSA will also show those that do try and use/abuse Adderall for focusing and such in school that it is not a good idea to do this and hopefully persuade them to stop.

Blog Entry #5

My group doesn't have our draft done yet, but we are almost finished so I am pretty content. We have all of our footage taped and have done one editing session. I feel that compared to other groups we are donig well. I wish that we would be done with it now, then we wouldn't have to be worried about time this weekend. I know that it will be done by Monday because we have started and know what is needed to complete the draft. I'm confident that our draft will be presentable and ready to be shown to Alex or John by Monday.

Blog Entry #4

I think that my group is a little behind in the video process. I know that a lot of other groups also haven't began filming, but I am mostly concerned for my own group. We haven't filmed any material yet. We had one day set up but that fell through. We have a whole PSA to make, including filming and editing, to complete in a little over 20 days. My group knows when we want to film though and are motivated to do so which is good, it just hasn't happened yet. I think our strength is the fact that we are motivated to make this PSA and are all interested in presenting our topic really well. The obstacles are getting everyone together at the same time by fitting our schedules together and where to begin. We need to organize what to shoot first, not just go in order of the storyboard since that changes so fast.

Falling Polar Bears blog

Three points stuck out to me from this article. One was that you have to get the audience into physical action, not just have them be more aware of your topic. Another was that your message should still be able to be conveyed if the t.v. is muted. The last point that stayed with me is to pull at the audiences heartstrings. I believe that my group has thought of these three things when creating our PSA. We have a strong message that Adderoll is only for people with ADHD. It is a prescribed drug and shouldn't be passed around from student to student. Also if the t.v. was muted I think that our message would still get across. We have a story going on throughout our PSA and hardly have any audio going on. Our PSA depends on visuals so we have this idea covered. We also pull at the heartstrings by the PSA being about a student, a lifestyle that our target audience can relate to. I may want to think more about the walking the fine line rule. We may be going too far by showing the girl pass out in the end of the PSA. That may be unlikely and push our topic too far. I will discuss this with my group. I believe that my groups PSA will be very effective because we put a lot of thought into our topic, and are showing the effects which will leave an impact on our audience.

Blog Entry #3

For me, the most challenging part has been having everyone in our group agree on what should be done in our PSA. We all have so many ideas to put forward, but we can't include them all otherwise the PSA would be too long. It's hard to say yes to someone's idea and then no to another's because they are your friends. I want to make everyone happy, but when working in a group I feel that it is almost impossible to do that. We are doing really well it's just something that I have noticed. When one of us brings up an idea and it is shot down it is hard to witness. Also if we experience this ourselves.