Saying Too Much

Looking back on the way people my age are raised, I feel like people should be scolding us.  Many people say "don't hate our generation, look who raised us," but honestly I feel as if people in my generation took it upon themselves to raise themselves.  Not saying parents aren't parents, it's just that times have changed.  When my mom talks about how she was raised I imagine an organized family and everyone had a schedule and a way to live, and if you didn't live how your parents wanted you to, you had harsh consequences and knew better than to disobey your parents.  Now, I feel like people my age say and do whatever they want, without thinking, myself included.  My mom always taught me, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," and she also taught me conversational manners; Never talk about money, politics, or religion.  I feel like in all parts of society those "rules" I was raised by are broken and people are bound to say something that is not necessary.  It seems no one knows how to be polite, how to hold a proper conversation,  or how to think properly in social situations. 
Maybe we act the way we do because, yes, the era has changed.  We aren't raised the same way our parents were, and things in society are much different. Parents won't kick you out of the house for being disrespectful like they would when our parents were growing up.  We don't communicate in all the same ways.  I hate to say it, but for people my age, the most popular form of communication is via technology.  Whether it be facebook, twitter, email, text message, phone conversations, etc., we don't know how to have a decent conversation in person.  The world is changing too fast for people to keep up and adjust to it, and we are blurring the standards of right and wrong ways of communication.  I feel like none of the conversations I hear lately are about relevant issues in society, or even important things happening, they are gossip, arguments, and dumb things; Not only are they poor conversations, people don't know when the right time to stop gossiping, arguing, or talking about dumb things is.  It seems like our generation is saying too much, rather than not enough, but about all the wrong topics.

Onion Article

Man Sued for Impersonating Statue of Liberty

   Fred Liberty was arrested early Monday morning for accusations of impersonating the Statue of Liberty.  Drivers and pedestrians on Lake Street had been complaining for weeks about a man advertising his Tax Offices in a Statue of Liberty costume on the corner with an American Flag.   

    Liberty claims to have had the costume since he was born, and it had been handed down through his family for generations.  "I didn't know I wasn't allowed to wear family heirlooms while at work," said Liberty.  The board of New York is suing Liberty for over 35 million dollars for counts of impersonation of the Statue of Liberty, a landmark that New York is known for. 

    Liberty has plead not guilty to the case, because he claims he has been a part of the Liberty family longer than the Statue of Liberty has even been around.  New York board is arguing the case and petitioning all around the United States in honor of all Americans that have come to this country at one point or another.

   Further investigations show that Liberty has been in therapy for identity loss for over 10 years.  "Liberty suffers from severe identity loss and has been attending my office weekly for the last 10 years.  He has no idea who he is, or where he came from, so he creates his own identities to help him feel complete.  3 years ago he was a distant relative of Donald Trump," said therapist of Liberty, Dr. Johnson.  Dr. Johnson is a licensed therapist for people suffering from identity loss and has worked with hundreds of people.  

   The trial is set for May 3rd, the New York board is hoping that Liberty does not change his identity before then because then all arguments and the case will be gone. 

Blog Uno

     This morning when I woke up I was feeling a little under the weather.  I had the sudden urge to have a cup of coffee and eat a donut but I couldn't decide where it was coming from.  I don't even own a coffee maker nor do I eat donuts.  I decided to get ready for work and stop for coffee on the way.

     But, to my surprise, I opened my closet to a whole new wardrobe.  All i saw were blue uniforms.  These aren't my J.Crew pants... Where are my Vince Camuto's? What is that smell? WHOSE DOG IS LAYING ON THE FLOOR?

I was in shock.  There was a dog on my floor and the only shoes I could see were all black sneakers... I couldn't help but ask myself, "did I just wake up as a k-9 police officer?"

     The first thing I discovered while on duty was my dogs name, Bali, and that he gave a real mean look. 

     It was about 12:30am and Loveland, Bali, and I were just patrolling neighborhoods.  We saw 3 men come around a dark corner and at the same time we saw a car driving down the street with all doors open.  They were trying to be the bail out car apparently.  Very low key.  We pulled the car over and asked the driver to step out.  Bali was going crazy.  I asked him where every one was, and he claimed his doors were just broken.  All four of them. Yup.  So we continued to question him, but apparently the locks are broken and they never remain closed.  

     There was nothing we could do at that point but let the guy go.  So as he gets back into his car, he closes all the doors. They closed.

     The crazy things k-9 officers have to deal with! All I could think was that was some adventure, huh?  I had never dreamt of waking up as a k-9 officer...

DIEZ

In the reading, "She Must Be From Another Country," I think the poet was using the phrase as a metaphor.  A metaphor for being different.  She uses the phrase at the end of each stanza to wrap up her idea of how she is different.  I think it shows a strong message that people need to be more accepting of people who don't think the same way as the "country" or the "whole."  In the second to last stanza, she talks about how people get the right to pass judgement so quickly and decide the rules.  This leads me to believe that she is living freely and unique in her own eyes, but being judged by people around her and this is the point of the poem, that she wants to live in a place where there are no "requirements" and people are able to live how they want.

Last Sunday, my group edited for 6 hours.  We got really far and after a lot of time found stuff that we could use from our main interview.  He said a lot of stuff so it was hard to go through it and choose the most important things to use.  He also had a really bad stutter, so it was hard finding pieces that we were even able to cut and use.  We put everything in order and chose our b-roll, transitions, adjusted all the audio, and added music.  We were saving throughout the whole day but at the end of the day at our final save at 6, which was all the final touches the computer froze and we lost all of the good stuff (usable interviews, transitions, adjusted audio levels, and the music.) So we went back on Monday and re-edited it all and found even more interviews that we could use.  We realize now that we need one final interview to tie it all together and we have a few people lined up to do it it just depends on their availability.  Once we get the last interview we just have to cut it and insert it and we are done since everything else is all lined up and ready to go!

Nueve!

We have been editing all week during VOICES, we have some ideas of which interviews we want to use and we have sorted everything out in terms of what their subject is.  I think that once we're done organizing everything deciding what to use will go a lot smoother because we got a lot of b-roll. Even if we didn't get enough b-roll...we have a lot of pictures off of flickr from the event.  I think that if we keep editing everyday our draft should be done by Monday.

The reading was interesting.  Freedom of speech is an important amendment, and something that I think everyone should honor.  I didn't know that in Cuba there was an issue battling freedom of speech.  I like in powerful readings like this when the author questions society and the beliefs we have, "or is it that in order to save our national liberty we must begin by suffocating civil liberties."  I thought that was a really powerful message because it's true! I feel like in order to accomplish a bigger goal we usually ignore smaller goals that fit into the bigger picture.  I liked the article because its aim was to send a positive message. 

Blog

So far we haven't done anything new with our documentary.  We haven't been able to go edit because we've been too busy and the snowstorm last weekend didn't help... but! Next week we're going to try to go like 3 times in the week to edit during class since we all work on the weekend and then do the same thing the following week.  We have all of the info for the interviews we want we just have to find b-roll to cover it. 

Reading:

I thought this piece was really meaningful. I think you chose it because of black history month. Maybe. But, it's something I never read before and it sends a powerful message through a story.  I think that King is a really humble man, that wants to spread his ideas to people who don't share the same opinions through not only story telling but mixing reality in with it.  I think King uses specific names in the story, to get a full understanding of the type of people he was working with.  He considered them to be people that didn't have their heads on straight because of the environment and society they were put through.  And he completely changed them.  He goes to show that you can help people be more understanding and not everything has to be resorted to violence.  He took some people who he considered to be very dangerous and taught them that violence was not the answer.  I think the point is to show that if he could do that with them, anybody is capable of it.

Blog

Last night we attended our event for the documentary. It went really well except the interviewing attendees part... We didn't think that anyone would say no with our approach, but surprisingly a lot of people did! That part was really frustrated because we were worried we weren't going to have enough interviews to fulfill what we needed to.  We ended up interviewing 4 different people, and we got a good piece from each of them so I'm sure we have more than we need. B-Roll was also difficult because the lighting in some places was darker, and we wanted the images to have a lot of people in them but people were dispersed throughout the museum, so we had to find groups.  Another thing, was we weren't allowed to have the camera in the actual gallery, where a lot of people were, so we missed out on some good footage there. Otherwise overall I think it went well. And there was a really hot drummer in the band who I fell in love with.


I'm at work so I don't have the reading. OOPS.

Blog 4

For our documentary project we have discussed some shots and angles we want to get and we want the documentary to come off very "artsy."  The subject of the documentary is very artistic. It incorporates classic, cultural art and modern activities that can relate to any age group.  We want the documentary to be visually pleasing and portray the event in the way that it should be.  Tomorrow we will call to set up interviews with the director of events and hopefully start on some questions!

Interviewing
The article was helpful in talking about interviewing and relationships.  It is important to have a good relationship with everyone in your group.  The relationships will shine through the documentary.  If you have a strong relationship and are agreeing on much the work will be done very well, however if you don't have a good relationship, the creative ideas might clash and that will be visible in that everything doesn't flow smoothly.  It is also important to develop a good relationship with the person you are interviewing.  Break the ice before you start interviewing so the questions and answers don't seem awkward.  Try to make it like a conversation and keep it flowing, that way you get a lot of information. 

Blog 3

For our documentary we are NEARLY officially set... We finally got ahold of someone from the Institute and she is all for the documentary.  Now she's trying to set up interviews for us and the ability to document a little bit of the set up.  So everything is a go and we don't have to stress about a topic, or our topic not working, needing a plan b and such.  Once we get the official okay we are going to start thinking of questions for the interviews and develop a plan for our shots and what our main focus is going to be. I'm excited about this because I really like our topic and I think we could make a good short documentary out of it!

I didn't do the reading.

Response 2

Today my group decided on a topic for the documentary... I'm super excited about it because it's something interesting and it's something that I know we're gonna have a lot of fun doing.  It was really stressful not having any ideas or topics, so we decided to do something that is like documenting the process or actual event.  It would be an easy thing to do because we'd only have to do 1 maybe 2 days of filming and it would be a narrow enough topic that we wouldn't get side tracked or have to focus on getting tons of extra background info as we would for another subject.  So far we are working well together and we are all on-board with the topic, now we just have to wait for a call back to make sure we can do it!

Mrs. Hodge I just want you to know that reading this particular article almost put me to sleep you can't make them so long!! BUT...

I thought it was interesting how the author questioned the reliability of the documentaries we see, and how we should wonder if it's really the truth that they are telling us, or if there are some underlying themes and lies incorporated into it.  I've never really thought of that because I feel like all documentaries are supposed to be informational, how could they lie?
I thought the section about "A Film Unfinished" was really interesting, the topic seems a bit controversial yet really appealing.  It's something that I'm actually interested in viewing.  It states in the section that he blurred the line between propaganda and reportage, meaning some of it could have been true, while not the whole of it was true, or vice versa.  It makes you think, is that how all movies are nowadays? They say its based on a true story, but do they just take the story and then BS lots of details to turn it into the creation that they find appealing? I understand that you have to please the viewer but I feel a documentary has to be about the truth and revealing the truth and if people are going to start bending the truth then it's not the same.
I was also really interested in the section about the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity... those are the types of movies that are funny/interesting to me.  Up until this point I thought Blair Witch Project was real! But I knew Paranormal Activity was totally fake... it's just interesting that they can make some people believe that it is the real thing and that that really happens, when it's all a lie and a stunt done for entertainment. They lied to me... I really liked that whole theme thing going on with the Blair Witch.

Anyway that's all I got to say right now...

-BAILEY