Concerned Citizen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYHggsb9tJM

This project was the most frustrating so far.  Firstly, it was pretty tough to think of something that both of us wanted to do.  We both had different ideas that we thought would be worth pursuing but it was tough to reconcile these differences at the beginning.  However, once we really began to look more closely at the ideas we settled on the idea of a look at a volunteer at the Humane Society.  I felt this would be something a little different as most people think of helping in their community as helping people.  The Humane Society helps both people and animals by finding homes for orphaned animals and helping a family find a new member.

Something from the reading by Goldbard that really stuck with me was “We understand that anyone who wishes to make significant headway on a social problem or opportunity must engage with people’s feelings and attitudes about it.”  When I read this, I thought of Sarah Mchlachlan singing “Arms of the Angel” over the faces of the injured and sad-looking animals.  The ASPCA wants to make significant headway in solving a problem so they are engaging with the emotions of the people. This is one of the reasons I thought of shooting at the Humane Society.  Though this was an inspiration, I wanted to show more of the good sides of being at the Humane Society.  I wanted to tell people about the good things that can come of it instead of just the sad because that is usually all people hear.  Also, I helped organize pet food drives in my hometown and I had always thought about volunteering but could never get myself to do it.  I really wanted to hear what inspired others to do it and why they continued to do it. 

Secondly, the process for this project was rather hectic.  I first began calling different animal shelters in the area to set aside a time for me to come in with a camera and talk to someone who volunteered with the animals.  However, many shelters told me that I could not get footage of the animals or that they did not have time for me to come in.  In order to get the footage I had to drive to Murray on Sunday and just walk in a talk to someone.  Once I did that, I was golden until I realized that the mic equipment I had rented didn’t work and I only had an hour to get all my footage.  This presented a problem to get good sound on the interview and I kind of had to rush everything to get through it in time.  

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Protest Poster

Hopefully, the above picture is clear enough to communicate my position on a topic.  If not, I believe that government should not be involved in the marriages of the people.  I believe that requiring a marriage license is unconstitutional since it is a private agreement between people.  Now that you know my stance on the issue, maybe you should go look back at the poster to really get it.  

Did you look?  Good.  Or bad if you said no.  Alright.  So now that you get it, this is a perspective that is rather old but one that many people do not consider in the present day because most are too worried about the legality of gay marriage.  During the numerous gay marriage debates that have occurred I had often wondered if there was a solution that could satisfy both parties and this is the only one that I see as viable. I began to think that laws didn’t seem to fix questions of morality , it was talked of by some candidates for the republican primary like Gary Johnson and Ron Paul.  I found it to be a thought-provoking idea that I had not really thought of before so I did research on the history of marriage licenses and I have become very interested in this issue.  Ron Paul wrote about this idea of separation in his book Liberty Defined.  He talks about marriage being a religious or private institution so there should be a separation from the government.  There are news stories and articles that I’ve found on the internet that also support this.  John Fund’s article in the National Review titled “Why Not Separate Marriage and State?” talks about how this idea would end some of the social warfare having to do with marriage rights.  This is one of the main reasons I support the idea. 

I went to my old reliable Photoshop to create this project.  I actually got the idea of using a wedding topper from images I saw supporting gay marriage.  Many of them had two men or two women as the toppers and they became very iconic so I wanted to use this type universal icon in my poster.  The color scheme is obviously just the same as the color scheme of the  American flag.  This I did because in my experience people seem to accept something easier when it is seen as patriotic.  The decay I added to the poster is something that is just reminiscent of old propaganda and protest posters I’ve seen so I decided to add that in.  The wording I used was intended to be somewhat clever, hopefully it came out that way. I liked the psycho shower scene poster we saw so I wanted to use few words that would be topical but somewhat witty as well.

After posting it on Facebook I got quite a few comments with a number of them being from me as I was having a discussion with our very own Seth Owens.  I was hoping for more feedback from people who were not involved on this project in class because I wanted to know an outsider’s perspective.  Though some people did comment and say they liked it or disagreed it would have been nice to get more participation.  I think if I would’ve timed it better I could’ve gotten better results.

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Webspinna Reflection

This was probably the most challenging assignment we've had this whole semester.  It was something that we are just not used to.  Each assignment we've had before is something that we present after it is is finished.  We are able to make it look how we want and show the rest of the class a finished product.  The Webspinna was just the opposite.  We were showing people the creation of the product.  The product wasn't the important part.  It was the creation of it that was important.  I have to admit that it was a very frustrating project just because I was pretty unsure what I was going to do and I didn’t know exactly what my partner would come up with either.  

To start this assignment, Brandon and I first had to come up with personalities that we could use to inspire the sounds that we would use for the Webspinna battle.  After watching the fire and ice example in class I first thought of dark and light.  They are polar opposites that are general enough to allow for a lot of different soundbites and songs to be used in the battle.  Once we had the different identities to use, we both did separate research to find pieces to use.  It was tough to get much time to practice together and work out our sequence because we were both quite busy.  We were able to work out a few things like the sequence of our songs but we wanted to leave a little bit to simply be improvised.  This is why we left out the soundbites and quotes in our practice.  I thought that this would really be in the spirit of the assignment as it is very nearly an improvisational art form.

Inspiration for this assignment came from a lot of different places because everything I used in the project was used for inspiration.  Harry Potter was a big influence because of the use of the name the Dark Lord for the villain Voldemort.  Star Wars was also very influential because of the existence of the dark side in the series.  The reading we read by DJ Spooky was very interesting in its progression as it didn’t have a clear beginning, middle and end.  Brandon and I didn’t want to be this ambiguous with our project so we decided to start with something that would introduce both personalities and to end with a soundbite that would act as a good closer.  We also wanted some parts to be able to flow together better than other parts that cut together just to experiment with the different feel in the sequence.  I found this project to be a teaching project.  I found that I had to let go of control and be comfortable with it which is something that people wanting to be filmmakers don’t want to do.  I just wish there was more time to really get a more concrete identity to portray and to practice more in order to create a better battle.

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Webspinna of Darkness!!!

Thriller

Embrace The Darkness

My Songs Know What You Did

Darth Vader

Killswitch

Dark Lord Shall Rise

Voldemort Scroll down to Going to Kill you

Better with the Lights Off

Star Wars

Sith Lord

Excorcism Song

Grudge

Golem

Not Nearly Frightened Enough

Learn the Dark Side

No Mercy

Halloween

I Love the Dark

Saruman - Oppose Us

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