Final reflection essay

The Project
My biggest struggle during this project honestly was being able to meet with everyone as often as we did. I went home a couple weekends through this semester because I live so close. We met often and a couple meetings I had to miss because of this. I'm really proud of the way our team was able to work together through the project and enjoy our time. This was a group that I feel we are all friends. We had a lot of fun together and we got along through the whole time, no arguments or anything. I couldn't have gotten luckier with another group of intelligent and happy people. I learned a lot about the filmmaking process and definitely gained a lot of respect for people who work in that field! If I could change anything about our documentary, I wish we could've been able to get to meet a family that a service dog was placed with. I feel like that would've been really touching and would've added a whole new dimension and feel to the documentary. But I'm still very proud of what the five of us came up with.
As for what I was personally responsible for, I was behind the camera most of the time. Most of the footage we used, minus a couple of b-roll shots or the interview with Ally (we used the media depot's camera), was with my direction and angle. I was responsible for getting the angles right and the shots thought out. I was a visual person and worked with Betsy, who was the main editor and worked through the computer with the Premiere program, to get the shots to look right. I was also in charge of making sure we had the equipment we needed such as the camera, the tripod and the SD card that those images and videos went on.
With our group, there really was no effort needed to keep the group work peaceful and stress-free. We worked well together. We met for lunch to discuss the documentary, met at the library and in the media depot, had a group chat on facebook to keep up with everything. Everything with us was very amicable and, as I previously mentioned, I couldn't have gotten luckier with a better group to work with. I feel like we all did our equal share of the work, except maybe Betsy; she was a superstar and edited the whole film. I wish I could have been at all the meetings we had and I wish the footage I got was better quality and wasn't so shaky at times.

The Class
In this class I learned a lot about film. I learned a lot about the time and effort that goes into making a film. We made a five minute video and it took us umpteen hours of filming, meeting and editing. I could not imagine the struggle that movie makers and music video producers have to deal with. As much fun as it was, the time consumption was a lot more than I expected. I definitely gained a new respect for filmmakers and will never again question why, if there's a trailer out for a movie, that I have to wait another 4-6 months for the actual film to be ready for viewing. As for how I view campus, I can definitely see how many different groups there are that cover their own little sphere on campus and how they impact different individuals in different ways. It's kind of crazy to think about. Makes you think about just how diverse our campus truly is.
Public speaking has always been a fear for me. Always. In this class, I learned just how insecure I show everyone I am when I speak to a class. I look at the ground, I'm quiet, you hear the shake in my voice and even when I think I'm using effective hand gestures, I am still fidgeting. The public speaking made me rethink my major actually. I was going to try to go into Law but now, I'm not so sure how well I'd do arguing in front of a judge and another lawyer. I guess we'll have to see. I suppose I'm more of an essay person but I appreciated the experience, no matter how nerve wracking it was and how much I hated it. (sorry.)
I feel like you were an excellent instructor. You really know your stuff and you portrayed it in a way that was easy to understand. The work load worked and the class was enjoyable. I don't think you need to change anything in the way class works. But if I could change one thing about the course, I would probably not do those on the spot speeches because those are terrifying and I have never been so nervous in my life. Especially since I apparently read my situation wrong.....

Thank you so much for a great semester!

Presenting: the Dogumentary ;D
Provided by the 4 Paws documentary group:
Alyssa Hiser
Betsy Evans
Lynsey Bates
Gabrielle Passidomo
Reacheal Dawson

Give Me Love -Ed Sheeran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOjdXSrtUxA




The longest shot in this music video is the opening scene and it's 8 seconds long.

Homework for 10-14

In relation to the presentations, I was more drawn to No Seconds. I like that what one presentation did not have though, the other did. For example, No Seconds showed the age of the criminal and what they did to have the death penalty placed upon them while The Last Meal Project did not. On the other hand, The Last Meal Project has photos of those given the death penalty as well as when they were executed while No Seconds did not. I think that if the two presentations were combined it would make a more chilling presentation than the two already are by themselves.

I loved the artistic aspect of No Seconds. As a photography nut, I enjoyed how extravagant or empty the plates looked. You almost get a sense of the person just by how Hargreaves sets up the food, silverware and table settings. Hargreaves wants the audience to see the food and relate it to the criminal and what they stood for, how they thought of themselves and how they were in general. They are all very distinctive to the individual and when you put the photographs together with the age and reason they were given the death penalty, it all draws a bigger image for the audience.

As for The Last Meals project, I liked the aspect of the mug shot of the criminal and the time that they were executed. You can see that they’re just people. Plain and simple. They’re people just like you’d see anywhere. The time shows us a more likeliness aspect (I think that’s what I’m trying to say anyways) if this were to happen. For instance more recent times, it’s not as prominent as it was in the past. Another technique that was brought into The Last Meals Project was that of outside information. It tells the audience what the Lethal Injections consist of, how the executioner’s position is, the normal meals of inmates on death row, facts about the death penalty, the race of homicide victims that resulted in a death sentence, countries ranks with executions, and how much is spent on the death penalty each year. That, to me, adds another more educational aspect to the presentation. 

Speech reflection

On my presentation I was extremely nervous. I practiced it so much that I think it made me even more nervous that I would forget what I wanted to bring up. I have horrible stage fright and it's something I really need to get over. I think I did a pretty good job with movement and not staying in one place. I think I made eye contact fairly well and better than I expected that I would (I thought I would probably stare at the walls most of the time to be honest). I watched the video and honestly I'm not sure if what I was doing with my hands could be considered fidgeting. It could go either way and I need to work on that some as well. You told me I need to work on my volume and my rushed speech. I now realize that the more I just want to get public speaking over with and done as quickly as possible, the faster I speak. I need to learn to breathe more once I actually get in front of people and I need to project to the back of the room. What I really should work on that I feel would make public speaking easier in situations like this is the confidence I have going in. While watching the video of myself I could feel the anxieties all over again so I'm sure that everyone else in the room could too, which is NOT good. I will try my hardest to get better at public speaking and work on what I need to to improve.

The Rise of the NBA Nerd

Honestly, I'm not much for the NBA or rap music so I couldn't really catch on or relate to what the article was talking about. The author talked about the shift in black culture and what celebrities can and can't wear acceptably anymore. It talked about the complete 180 with the way a style has been portrayed. The nerd and sophisticated look has been changed to be acceptable in black culture whereas in the 90's and early 2000's, it was looked at as looking to get bullied. These are the looks similar to Carlton Banks and (somewhat) Steve Urkel. They used to be synonymous with being a nerd, gay, white and just were not acceptable when those characters were around. I honestly hadn't looked very deeply at why celebrities had begun to dress this way and the fact that it didn't use to be okay not too terribly long ago. I never saw it as proving a point or trying to get a voice out to say it's okay. I know that I'd heard people talking about it being a sell-out move by celebrities and that they were no longer proud of the heritage and culture that they'd grown up around. Maybe they do actually just enjoy the new style coming out. Maybe they're being made to wear the more sophisticated and "white" clothes by publicists and coaches. I'll definitely have to pay closer attention to what's going on around me in that aspect from now on.

Ted Talks homework

http://www.ted.com/talks/zak_ebrahim_i_am_the_son_of_a_terrorist_here_s_how_i_chose_peace

Zak Ebrahim does a great job with the way he speaks. I think he spoke clearly, he projected, he didn’t fidget, and he made eye contact properly. The only part about his speech that was a little off for me was how he just stood in one spot the entire time. Was he engaging? Yes. But honestly, I feel like if I were in that crowd, I would have had a hard time keeping alert. The topic was very interesting and he made great points but the fact that the level of his voice didn’t change and he stayed in one spot may have lost me a little. He didn't use visual aides. I can maybe see why his volume didn't change at all though; he stayed on a serious subject and didn't give an option to change the way he addressed his audience. I think that part of what made the speech okay to watch and engaging was the camera angles and how they moved around.

http://www.ted.com/talks/isabelle_allende_how_to_live_passionately_no_matter_your_age#t-302985

Isabel Allende makes an all around great speech. She projects and speaks with a purpose. Isabelle connects with her audience on a personal level and uses a topic that is relatable with everyone: aging. She uses serious points and uses humor to get her point across. Visual aids and photos are utilized to better put her point across. Her eye contact is effective and she locks onto individuals in the audience and interacts with everyone to some extent. She uses a friendly and almost conversational tone while changing her volume levels and using appropriate transitions between ideas. She just did a great job overall with her presentation style.