POV in a documentary

“I don’t think anybody can be objective or nonpartisan. My take on this is that everybody has a point of view, so what’s wrong with expressing that point of view? But it seems to me, and this is a line I remember from Marcel Ophuls, the guy who made The Sorrow and the Pity, who said, “I always have a point of view, but in my films I like to show how hard it was to come to that point of view.” In Taxi, I tried to be as muted and dispassionate as possible, but I don’t think there’s any doubt where my sympathies lie.”

-Alex Gibney, producer of documentaries including “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” “No End in Sight,” and the soon to be released documentaries “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” and “Taxi to the Dark Side.”

As quoted in “Making Must-See Documentaries” in Studio Monthly.

Fox News Debates

Has anyone else seen any of the Fox Republican Debate from last night? I caught the tail end (with Guiliani refusing to stop talking),?and then watched the focus group afterwards.

Was it just me, or was it incredibly fake? I’ve never seen such solidarity for one candidate (Thompson) and against another (Paul). The responses were canned.

I’ve really been fascinated to watch how much control media has over the election. They can easily just say “This person is not electable,” and it suddenly becomes true. This is happening on both the Republican and Democrat sides.

Won’t this just cause us to get more of the same, as the front runners are decided before it ever gets to the polls?

I do, however, really appreciate the roles the fringe candidates are playing in pushing a variety of views more into the mainstream.

End of Year Wrap Up

I thought I’d do a bit of a year end by the numbers wrap up:

• 0- Number of resolutions made for 2007
• 1- Computer that died and so far is still unreplaced
• 3- Countries visited
• 6- Major moves
• 15- different video projects worked on for 5 different clients
• 16- flights taken
• 30- hours of footage shot, give or take
• 43- different beds slept in (an average of a new one every 9 days or so)
• 130- blog posts, averaging between 2 and 3/week

I doubt any year in the future will be quite as insane for me (not that I’d complain, necessarily). I moved constantly, spending no more than 4 months in any one place. Who knows what the next year will hold for me? This is what is in the works:

• Buying a Mac Book Pro and Final Cut so I can freelance easier (feel free to donate a few bucks to the cause by using the PayPal Donate button on the side)
• Editing the school paper, The Record
• Graduating from college, barring anything major
• I have a couple freelance possibilities up my sleeve- I’ll let you know
• Moving somewhere. Don’t ask where. I don’t know yet.
• Killing this fruit fly that keeps buzzing around (short term goals are important, right?)
• Getting the Socially Aware Media Group up and running

Anyways, have a great new year.

MediaStorm Doesn’t Go Far Enough

The reason most journalists are journalists is this desire to help people- to tell their stories. MediaStorm has found a way to tell these stories in an innovative way. Their focus is “social documentary projects incorporating photojournalism, interactivity, animation, audio and video for distribution across multiple media.” Social documentary? Sounds right up my alley, right? Well, yes… but I have some qualms about their method, which I’ll get to later.

First of all, the story telling is amazing. Pieces are generally 10 minutes or more, and according to founder Brian Storm, most people who start the pieces end up finishing them- a rarity, even with much shorter videos. Love in the First Person is one great example of their story telling, showing the life of a college couple who find out she’s pregnant.

Another thing that sets MediaStorm apart is their use of photography in video. At first, I asked, “Why not just use video?” But I’ve come to the conclusion that photos can do a lot that photos can’t do, as they are able to capture just one moment in a way that is much more artistic than with video. Iraqi Kurdistan uses photos to show the daily life in that part of the world. This story was the result of a photojournalist who, after taking all of the pictures, wanted to make a video with them. The photos are used almost as a flipbook in places, showing motion.

Another stylistic thing I picked up for my documentary, “The Other Side of Paradise”, was the use of white text on black to move the story. This helps avoid more narration, which can be rather distracting. MediaStorm uses them well in their documentary on AIDS, BLOODLINE.

A few other good ones they have are Finding the Way Home, The Marlboro Marine, and The Ninth Floor.

Now while their style and storytelling is very well done, I have one major qualm: What is the point of the stories? It doesn’t inform, at least not of anything bigger than a few stories, removed from the rest of reality. It definitely doesn’t educate on any issues. It doesn’t try to persuade the viewer of anything. It does entertain. But is this enough?

While watching these videos, I felt like they got close to touching on big issues, but they never quite took that extra step to actually do it. No larger context is given, so it isn’t really known if, say, there are places like the ninth floor all over New York, all over the US. It makes it seem like an island. And if someone is persuaded to do something, what can they do?

MediaStorm presents the stories as an end, where I think they would function better as a means to an end.

A Few Christmas Presents

Hope your Christmases are/were as merry as mine. And I had ham balls- how can it get any merrier?

Here’s a few presents I thought I’d give you, hopefully bringing you
enjoyment, challenges, and my latest video project (in that order):

1. Crayon Physics- I got to play this on a Smart Board. Amazing experience, let me tell you.
2. MacHeist- A wonderful puzzle that is truly
   a fun challenge. It’ll take an hour or two at least. The prizes are Mac
   software, but it’s worth figuring it out anyways.
3. The Other Side of Paradise- Here’s my
   latest video, uploaded for your viewing pleasure. Check it
   out!

Welcome Diggers

Welcome to the hundreds of people already streaming in from Digg to check out my tutorial on how I pulled off the Dorm Room Door illusion.

It made it to the front page of Reddit a few days ago, and now is on the front page of Digg, with 1850 diggs, having just passed the news that the Telecom Immunity bill was pulled (says something about our priorities, sadly).

If you want to Digg the tutorial, please do so here.

A bit about the site- I’m a student doing Socially Aware Media, mainly videos and writing. So check out a few videos, and feel free to subscribe to the blog!

Arming the Churches for Christ

When Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard, shot a gunman at New Life Church in Denver on Sunday, she was lauded as a hero by law enforcement and her pastor.

And my first thought was… she had a gun? In a church? And this is being thought of as a good thing?

For the record… I will NEVER attend a church where there is armed security.

Guns
do not make me feel safe. I don’t care whose hands they are in. And why
should they be in the hands of the church? To keep out the bad people?
I thought that was who needed the church the most…

(Sorry for not posting for awhile… I had finals, then moving home, and starting a new job. I promise to try harder.)