3. Documentary Outline

I want to film your traditional A roll and B roll but it depends on what kind of footage i can get and what type of responses i get that will control what it shown. I like the aspect of having people in the background talking about something but you can't see their face. My concept is all about growing up so i feel like i could have a story unfolding as people continue to talk about the topic of coming of age.
So I'm gonna sit down with people and talk to them about the subject and get their opinions on the subject then base my B roll on the narration i can compile.
I need to film some childish things then progress into a more mature action. Almost to show a resistance in growing up. So maybe a playground, people doing arts and crafts, coloring, etc.
So when they start to grow up i should film them being miserable doing what they are. hating the fact that they are not what they used to be. I think of the catcher in the rye. Like someone of something trying to catch these kids as they are running towards the edge of a cliff.
So possibly i would like to have a storyline laid out in audio and be able to shoot a visual according to that story.

Documentary Idea

The Coming of Age: Loss of Innocence

15 things I know:
Everybody grows up (technically)
People's concept of growing up are different
other people influence someone's growth
situations with society influence it
public school has a certain influence
life at home has influence
basic exposure to anything can effect your innocence
story of adam and eve
loss of innocence leads to the need for hope
It's not the same for everyone
My father and family life is what pushed me out of innocence...i think
Religion has influence of innocence
Realization of concept of death can change things
Musical (pop culture) influence is huge (it was for me)
People advocate the loss of it


15 things i dont know:
When do you lose innocence?
is it a moment or a process?
Is there a trend of it in the generation gap?
Does innocence still exist in people my age?
What has the biggest influence on people's innocence?
Is the concept of changing with the new generation?
What is innocence?
How do people cope with the loss?
Is innocence being sheltered?
Is it necessary to lose innocence before college or the real world?
Does innocence exist in the "real world"?
 Are kids other places in the world where we are in terms of innocence?
Are some teacher's working to maintain that innocence?
Should teachers help students maintain that or is that the parents and students choice?
What is disease's influence on innocence?

Big Idea Reflection

How did you decide your big idea? 

Well for my big idea i wanted to do something that could be pretty relevant for everybody but also something that I had a connection to.

So I thought and thought, and decided to do sort of a peer pressure video, but the peer as society.

How did you choose to show your Big Idea in video?

Well my original idea was a result from some stuff i have done before. I had this app called cinemagram

where you would only have one part of your video moving with the other staying the same, this is where i got my mirror idea from.

What Video concepts did you decide not to do? Why?

I thought some rodioscope would be cool but for my time alloted i couldn't manage to finish it. And i'm not awesome with flash.

Do you feel you effectively showed your Big Idea in your video?

Yes i think so. I think my plot is remotely evident but you can also take more from it.

What was the best part of the process for you and Why?

hmm, well for me, not a lot of it was great. I don't think i had as much time as i would have liked, and i didn't really have a video in mind that 

I wanted to do. It was kind of frustrating without as much motivation to do it.

What was the best part of choosing your big idea compared to me picking it for you? the worst?

I liked the freedom, but i feel that my mind wondered too much and i couldn't focus on one idea. It became a cluster

of ideas and it was difficult to refine them.

Purpose another Big Idea:

There's a new song that really makes me think about things. It's called Eyes like Sky by Frank Ocean

I guess i would be kind of making a music video to the song but I think the message is a cool one. 

There's a (blind) boy. blind from his ignorance to the World and what he hasn't experienced. He sees a green girl

riding through her dream life in a green car. She goes to a green club and talks about saving the World from itself.

Then the boy also sees a blue man riding the bus home from his blue job. Even though he's always been blue, it hasn't been

the same since his wife passed. Even though the boy doesn't know anything, he still finds the medium and is able to describe a 

Yellow perfectly. The boy grows old and keeps this innocence and yellow in him and is happy and content although all this is going 

wrong around him. 

So i would film a boy seeing these two different people and see the two spectrums. I could filter over the video to show their color.

The girl driving her car around and the man riding the bus blue.

cut to the boy looking around and a yellow filter coming in.

fast forward to the boy a grown man watching the news as a war goes on. 

Ask him about the war and he responds, "War is for those who can see it, but what good is a border to me?"

Then I tell him, I wish you could see the ocean. He says "I wish you could see hope."

I asked have you ever seen the mountains? he says "No, but my faith could move those."

Finally i say i wish you could see the stars. he told me "I should see love."

fade to shots of the ocean and filter in a shot of the stars and the sky. fade to yellow and scroll credits.

Ideas for Big Idea

One central character. Conflict is internal. Emphasis on identity confusion and twisted perceptions.

Sleeping. Main guy wakes up but is still inside his dream (He doesn't know). Apply focal filter to hint at it. Have him up walk to his mirror. Washes his face with water. and looks back up to himself. Animate so the only things moving is his reflection. He looks at himself making poor decisions. Drinking, smoking, throwing up and coughing, then last vision is him holding a gun to his head. Gun shot and he wakes up startled.
see two people standing on each side of his bed in masks. They grab him and continue tying him up, putting pillow case over his head and throwing him in the trunk.
Cut to the vehicle in front of the school.
cut to guy being uncovered  (cover camera in the pillow case).
pan out to him sitting in a classroom with one desk in the middle of the room that the guy sits in.
Cut to the front of guy's face.
tape is ripped off his mouth.
turn to the opposite side looking at masked figure. masked figure asks, "Are you ready to comply?"
turn back. Guy spits in the face of masked character.
They re apply tape and secure his head upward and eyes are forced open.
Cut to projector turned on and lights are turned off. Projector displays a mix of today's pop culture and television as guy is forced to watch.
Close up of guys eyes being forced to watch the projector and then cut to black.

Answers to big idea

Who Am I? Am i who people think i am, or what i perceive myself. Have others influenced me to believe what they think about me is my own self image. A video concerning somebody's self image. How you perceive yourself and if that reflects the image your peers gives you. Or if how you see yourself is how you really are. How we convince ourselves of anything we can imagine as long as we believe it our self. How you can have a happy medium of controlled influence with the maintaining of yourself.
ideas. looking at myself holding a "mirror" of myself. im looking at myself as other percieve me. it can be a green paper with anything on

Big Idea Project

1. A.Decide on a Big Idea that intrigues you. This should have personal interest to you and a lot of potential for exploration. Don’t choose something that you can’t personally connect with. Next, select potential Topics that narrow the focus of the Big Idea. These can change later. Be specific.
   
   My example:Big Idea: Mystery
   Potential Topics: Lack of knowledge. Knowing where you are, who you are, who you're around, what you're hearing, even what you're tasting. Lack of perception or distortion. Something that isn't so easy to just comprehend.
   
   

2. B.Generate a few “Essential Questions” that can lead to investigation. These questions might directly lead you to a work of art. They may not. That’s okay too.My example:
   
   

What is mysterious?

How can you be confusing repeatedly but stick to a main idea?

Who am I?

What makes people think beyond what they actually see?

What is Religion?

What's the difference between knowledge and belief?

What is something people usually don't understand?

Is there an answer for everything?

Is it alright that there isn't? (last question)

Do things have a meaning before we associate a feeling with the object or thing?

Are everyone's feeling unique? They have to intersect at some point?

Are people's thoughts parallel to each other?

Why do mysteries always have to be solved? 

Are some things better left off unknown?

Is intelligences the solving of mystery?

Can we as people convince ourselves that our beliefs are knowledge?

100. C.Generate at least 10 statements about the Big Idea in the following way:

    ____________ is about ____________.

    My example:

Mystery is the unknown.

Mystery is needing further comprehension.

Mystery is complex.

Mystery is the opposite of ignorance.

Mystery is longing for acceptance.

Mystery is avoided.

Mystery is attractive and intriguing to people.

Mystery is life.

Mystery is something knowledge can solve.

Mystery is attainable.

Ideas for Intervention

Ideas for Interventions :
Fake iPhone give away (take one)
big sign hung up at the mall
Homeless man with the inspirational sign
Bad Caricature artisit
Buying dinosaur

Intervention Statement

Artist Statement:

Your typical person may have a pet. A cat, a dog, a hamster, whatever it may be. Although we consider this animals to be inferior to us we hold them at such a high regard. I know if my dog died today I would be bedridden and immovable. Most people consider their pet to be family, but we still shop for them like we’re purchasing a new car of sorts. So i wanted to display this visually.
First off, my idea was to have my friend dressed as a dog and have them run around and play with others at a park as if it was normal. Well i live in a place with unpredictable weather to say the least.
That plan fell through so i thought it might be just as good to act like you could purchase another person at a store. This plan included a dog costume as well. Of course my friend didn’t find this costume before hand and showed up to the pet store with a dinosaur costume. This was a bit off from my message but funny nonetheless. So I was looking forward to a worker’s reaction to someone attempting to buy an extinct animal from their pet store.
So I didn’t exactly choose for this method of intervention but it ended up being about just as rewarding. I had my base concept in tact but strayed a bit due to inconvenience. So overall I am pleasantly pleased with this intervention I have performed.

Foley Ideas

Sounds I need:

Rain

Breathing

Yelling

Climbing over a seat

Dino Rawr

Car being rammed

Plastic of car being smashed in

What I need to do to make sound:

Water through strainer onto a tin baking sheet

Smash pop cans together

hitting plastic together

somebody breath/yell

wrestling of handling 

etc.

Animation rubric

Animation: Character AnimationAnimation: Character AnimationCopy and paste this onto your blog, then answer the questions. MAKE SURE TO LOG OUT OF YOUR HILLIARDSCHOOLS.ORG ACCOUNT BEFORE YOU LOG INTO BLOGGER!


Describe a challenge (or set of challenges) you faced in planning for your sequence.
One challenge I encountered was finding a way to display something I was there to witness.


How did you meet the challenge?
So imagery was something I had to produce from tone of the persons voice and work with what i was given to produce an series of images to mirror his story.


Describe your rationale for animating what you animated, and for using the method (stop frame vs cut paper vs handdrawn vs rotoscope etc) you chose.
I choose to cut paper and make it appear they were moving. I was a bit lazy and unable to draw pictures to display what actually happened in the video.


What was the best part of the project? The worst?
Best was brainstorming stories and getting to hear other people's stories. Worst was probably not getting to use rotoscope because that's something I really wanted to do.

Protagonist vs. Antagonist Brainstorm Writing

Copy and paste this onto your blog. (command C, command V)

You will write details about six characters; three antagonists, three protagonists.

Begin with one character, a protagonist. Write down their name. Write their current desires and motivations in life. Write down their childhood/backstory. These are the most important pieces.

Now write down their physical description, physical quirks, personality flaws. This is secondary to the motivation and backstory. It’s the icing on the cake, and it’s still important.

Now write that character’s nemesis using the exact same process (desires, backstory, physical and personality quirks, etc). Think about why and how they are blocking the protagonist from achieving their goal. Is it malicious? Accidental?

Repeat this with two other sets of characters.

NOTE: You do not have to use all or any of these characters for your video if you don’t want to. It is an exercise to get you thinking about character building. On the other hand, this may trigger some brilliant thought that leads to a wonderful video project. You won’t know unless you put your heart and head into it.

Protagonist #1: Antonio Bisutti; Italian immigrant. He just wants to reach his american dream and provide for his family. As a kid his dad was always gone and he was never sure of what/where he was. He was never told how to be a man. He's hardworking and would do anything for his family. He's short with combed over hair, looks really clean. the fact he cares so much for his family is one of his most important qualities but it might as well be his downfall.
Antagonist #1: Also an italian immigrant. grew up in the same town as Antonio, but they took seperate routes when antonio left italy before him. He continued to get involved with the wrong people then ended up coming to america when he was a teenager. He becomes part of the mafia in the city he immigrates to which happens to be the city Antonio lives in. He is out to ruin the city and get his way. Antonio gets in the way and they have a problem.

Protagonist #2: R

I Remember...

Taking naps where i would lay there in silence unable to sleep
Eating soggy, tasteless, microwave ramen for lunch
Looking into a corner for countless hours when i got in trouble
Riding my bike around my neighborhood to my friends house
staring at my tv for hours during the night
driving to waffle house on random nights with my dad
mom mixing cake together and licking the bowl clean
playing my ps2 for hours upon end not even blinking
gearing up and lacing my cleats on for soccer
sitting behind a catchers plate and playing a game i used to love
laying on the golf course at night listening to the sounds from the trees and the ponds
staring at the stars from my roof top
playing basketball in the driveway until we were drenched in sweat
watching soccer and going to try the things i saw
a loud house where it seemed like it would never get quite
putting my eye black on and forcing my helmet on to go to football games
Riding through walmart in the top of a cart glaring at everything i wanted and begging for it
climbing my dresser to change the channel and the tv falling ontop of me

Antagonist vs. Protagonist Script

Opening Scene: (old Italian music running in the background) camera view: table with cigar sitting in ashtray with smoke rising. Filming black and white in like an older type feel.

Introduce the “godfather”: he pick up the cigar and puffs through it a few times.

Phone is in the frame on the table. It rings and he picks it up. Camera to split screen to talking with his henchman.

Henchman “The bird has left the nest.”

Don: Feed poly his cracker

Henchman: “oh okay..wait what?”

Don: Put the turkey in the oven!

Henchman: what are you talking about?

Don: Clip the birdies wings. I don’t want em flying no more!

Henchman: boss I really don’t know what your saying.

Don: Kill him you idiot!!! Just kill him! (hangs up the phone angrily)

Henchman frowns sniffles and says “hes always so mean to me.”

Cut to a man driving in his car. Shot from passenger seat.

Cut to shot from the curbside. Car pulls up to the sidewalk.

Cut to shot from the man’s point of view. Bag covers his face (the camera as well). There’s an apparent struggle and you hear gasping for air. Two gun shots go off and you hear the body hit the ground.

Cut to the don in his office. He kicks his feet up on the table while smoking his cigar still.

Enters our protagonist; Luke Bisutti.

Luke walks in and slams the door behind him. He begins  to yell, “what do you think your doing?! You can’t solve all problems by just killing people!”

Don: I don’t know what you’re talking about Luke. You had a problem and I fixed it, what’s the problem?

Luke: It was my problem and I was gonna fix it myself. Now someone’s dead and the feds will be sniffin’.

Don: You’re pops told me to look after you and that exactly what I intend to do!

Luke: But your not my father so stay out of my life!!

Luke swings the door open. And stomps out.

Scene cuts when the door shuts. Cut to Luke walking. He wipes the tears off his face and begins to observe his surroundings (from his point of view). His breathing begins to get heavier and cuts of scenery are constant. They being to cut through at an increasing speed and the trend is followed by his breathing. (insert memories of him and his father in the mix). Cuts in between real life and memories are like blinks. Images stop suddenly and you hear an alarm ring. Luke sits up in his bed and wipes his eyes off.

Knock at the door. Luke gets up to answer.

Door opens and the Don is standing there he says “Come for a ride.”

Luke: Let me get ready real quick.

Luke exits back into his house. Cut to them driving together in silence. Don stops the car and they walk to a bridge.

Don begins, “Your father was my best friend. When we were kid you couldn’t find us apart from eachother. I got so used to it I thought we were one. And when he passed, a part of me did. Before he took his last breath he asked me to look after you. There’s no way I could let him down.”

Luke just looks at him. Almost a blank stare. He finally responds, “Have you ever just thought of ending it? Thinking if there was any chance of being with him again that you would take that chance. I dream of it every night.”

Don grabs and hugs him. And the camera pans back and up into the air. And then it fades to black.

The END

Why Don't You Dance: Raymond Carver Response

Why Don’t You Dance?

The man waved his hand at this preposterous question.

 "Name a figure," he said.

 He looked at them as they sat at the table. In the lamplight, there was something

about their faces. It was nice or it was nasty. There was no telling.

Arms about each other, their bodies pressed together, the boy and the girl moved up and down the driveway. They were dancing. And when the record was over, they did it again, and when that one ended, the boy said. "I'm drunk."

Weeks later, she said: "The guy was about middle-aged. All his things right there

in his yard. No lie. We got real pissed and danced. In the driveway. Oh, my God. Don't

laugh. He played us these records. Look at this record-player. The old guy give it to us. and all these crappy records. Will you look at this shit?

1.What kind of details does Carver choose to describe the “place?” 
Described it as a random assortment of items that would be part of a house. The “candy-striped” pillow, buffed aluminum kitchen set, and the way he just set up the whole scene so you could imagine everything exactly where it is.

2.What do the following passages tell you about the place? 

“The girl sat on the bed. She pushed off her shoes and lay back. She thought she could see a star.”

“Lights came on in the houses up and down the street.”

It’s set almost in a suburb with a decent sized neighborhood. It was far enough from the city to see stars in the sky but enough neighbors to be worried about being seen.

3.Now look at the passages that you chose. How do they talk about the place? Why are they important or unimportant? 

It’s really backwards the way the girl talks about the place and what happened in the last paragraph. The feel, and the way it seemed the girl was acting at the time was almost a complete opposite. She was filled with curiosity and indulging in everything provided for her. She describes her experience as a one to be laughed at when she was most likely the one to provoke the whole thing. Maybe it was the alcohol, but she was in a different state of mind.

Evaluation Criteria - Group Project

Criteria: Group Movie Project


Describe your role in the production of the class movie. How did your contribution make things more efficient? How did you help make the movie better? What specific contributions did you make? Did you go above and beyond, or simply show up? Be honest.
My role during the majority of the project was acting. I also helped brainstorm ideas and edit the video we shot. I also taped a short transitional scene. I think I was willing to do whatever to get stuff done and that helped the process be more efficient. I think my acting obviously made the movie better...maybe. I believe I went above and beyond by dressing up everyday and doing everything I did.

Describe one or more things you learned about the writing process that you did not know before working on this project.
I don't think i fully grasped the whole drafting concept. I liked how we split into groups and collaborated ideas.

Describe one or more things you learned about the production (filming) process that you did not know before working on this project.
One thing I learned was how things can really slow down if we're not efficient. You really have to have someone running things so everyone gets done.

Describe one or more things you learned about the post-production (editing, sound, etc.) process that you did not know before working on this project.
One thing I learned was how stacking audio can make it louder. 


Are you satisfied with the final product? Why or why not? Be honest.
I am semi-satisfied with the final product. I feel like my ideas/hopes were a bit too big for the means we were provided.

Suggest one improvement for next year’s class. What could I do to make it easier/better/more informative/more fun?
I think the way the project was made it a lot of fun. How we collaborated ideas and had everyone involved. I think the project just depended on how you made it.
Evaluation
Individual Contribution to Pre-Production Excellent    |    Good     |    Average    |     Poor

Individual Contribution to Production Excellent    |    Good     |    Average    |     Poor

Individual Contribution to Post-Production Excellent    |    Good     |    Average    |     Poor

What is Creativity?

What separates man from animal? There is one thing in my mind that brought man from its' primitive ways, creativity. One day an ape roaming this Earth had the idea of swinging an object through the air and making that object come into contact with another. This ape showed one of the first signs of creativity. Creativity is the ability to transforms ones deepest thoughts and ideas into a product. From something as simple as swinging a random object, to your latest favorite song, it all takes creativity to make it possible.
Humanity as it is would be nothing without this ape's first thought, which was different from the instinct he once knew. This same creativity has put man through everything, good and bad. So I guess you could say creativity has its' ups and downs. Ups such as Christopher Columbus discovering that you couldn't just fall off the face of the Earth if you went too far West. Downs such as an uprising of arian nationalistic nature which led to the death of millions of people. Both events that occurred were ones of a creative nature. They started with a thought that defied the norms.
Through everything, creativity with give us prosperity, and could very well be our downfall. Although, one must admire the effect one single concept can have on everything that exists beside the natural World around us.