Short Documentary Blog:"Art Works"

The short documentary called "Art Works" by Natalie Hon and Emily Munoz
from Freestyle Academy won first place the SI DocFest 2010. These two people earned 10,000 dollars, and I say they deserved it. They made this documentary to explain the non profit organization The Image Bus Project. This documentary showed how kids love doing art, and it relieves them from school, and makes them express their feelings. I believe the theme of this documentary is that art is full of color and a world without color makes everything dull. This organization helps many kids be creative everyday, and the kids love doing art work. I thought that the narrative was well showed because we didn't see the same people talk and talk, we saw a variety of people. We saw the kids talk about what they think about art, a parent, and the organizers of this organization. I also thought the camera work was interesting because I saw different perspectives on everything, like the kids playing with the clay and the teachers talking.
I also liked the first shot of the documentary because it showed the school as dull and an  unhappy environment, but when they showed the kids drawing or playing with clay, the shots were filled with color and the environment was happy.

The sound wasn't that interesting, I mean it wasn't unique, I feel like I was familiar with the type of music they were paling, but it didn't affect the narrative of the film. The sound was fine, but what made me like the film was the use of different perspectives. I just liked how they should different opinions about the organization from its members to the parents and to the students.

Jen&Jen's Fencing Short Documentary Treatment

In class, we watched the movie "Baraka" and it inspired Jenna and I to make a short film documentary. Jenna thought of the idea to do a short documentary on her fencing club, and I decided to go with this idea because it sounds interesting. I also wanted to do this topic because I don't really know what fencing is about, so during this project I will be learning and having fun making a short documentary. Jenna's fabulous idea is now going to turn into a short documentary.

Purpose: The purpose of this documentary is to inform people about the true life of a fencer and what fencing really is.

Contacts: Peninsula Fencing Academy: Jay Choi (fencing coach),  John Stayner (fencer)

Interview Questions:

1. What is fencing really?
2. What kind of protection gear do you have? 
3. What does it take to mentally and physically prepare for a tournament?
4. How has fencing become such a major part of your life? 
5. How big of a part does it play in your life?
6. Does fencing cause stress? If so, why do you continue? 
7. How do you cope with stress?
8. What goes through your head as you're fencing a bout?
9. How does your coach influence you and what do coaches try to do for their students?
10. What does victory mean to you?
11. What does it feel like to lose? 

General Flow: We are introduced to the main coach who talks about what fencing really is. They are in the Peninsula Fencing Academy on a break from coaching. As they talk, there is a typical class in session. Then there is going to be a private lesson going on in the background. As the coach talks about protective gear, all of gear is shown laid out, we see a fencer putting it all on.

Next the fencer is introduced and we learn how fencing plays major roles in their lives. So we see John enter the club. Then we see him leave hours later (clock). We see the particular fencers in medium close-ups working on skills with their coaches during adult classes.

We hear the coach's perspectives of what they try to do for their students and then we see the coaches helping John work on his skills. During this time there is a fencer having a private lesson on the fencing strip while coach is explaining how to do something to John. The fencer than does the action.

Next, then John talks about how he deals with stress (insert b-roll). John states why he still fence, even though it causes him stress (insert b-roll). John tells about his particular case where he got injured, but is still willing to fence in the upcoming tournaments.

Now Jenna catches a plane to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a national tournament is going to be held. We are introduced to the rather huge venue, where all fencers are preparing for the tournament. At this time, we hear how John mentally and physically prepares, as we seehim warm up before the tournament begins.

Finally, John is ready to fence, and we see him all dressed up in their protective gear before his bout begins. We hear what its like to be on the fencing strip, and what it feels like after a bout. Through the mask see their expressions on the fencing strip. The two opponents are fencing in slow motion, but as one of the fencers hit, it cuts back to regular motion. We need a couple of more touches in a regular motion.

After the fencing tournament, we see John taking off their protective gear as we hear if they won or lost the tournament Also how it feels to win or lose. We see the last shot of the camera zoomed in to the protective gear than zooms out while a coach says that's what fencing is about.

Baraka Film Review

Today in class, we watched a film called Baraka. The film is shot in 24 countries and it shows the different cultures, geographical views, and social diversity in the 24 countries. This film was made in 1992 and took over 13 months to get the shooting done.

 



Foreground, midground, backgroundshot



 

high angle shot

In the beginning of the film, it felt like it was going to be a boring film to me, but it swept me off my feet. In my opinion, I never seen good cinematography in a film, maybe that's why it took over 13 months to shoot it. There was long shots, and in the majority of shots there was foreground, midground, and background. The shots weren't just fast edits, images were panned or dollyed. For example, when we saw shots of the mountains covered with snow, the shot was a dolly shot. All the shots were so interesting, I never saw anything so beautiful. In the shots, I saw a pattern, it was that all the shots were seen from high angles, or the camera would pan up to be in a high angle shot. Since this movie doesn't have actors or a plot, it didn't make sense to me. The shots would just come in and it jumps from one country to the next. Its hard to tell where each place is. The director of this film should have inserted captions so the viewers, like me, won't be confused. Another thing I disliked about the film was that some shots took forever. What I mean is that one shot would take about 4 seconds to pan up to the object than it would take 4 seconds on that image. This drove me nuts because some shots were so boring that it took really long to see the next shot.

Baraka means "breath", I think that this film was named this because Earth has many people of different cultures, religions, and social diversity. Everyone on Earth breathes and if all people stop breathing they will die. When everyone dies, Earth will die. I believe the point of this film is to show how people's different cultures and social diversity changes our planet.
After seeing this film, I learned many new messages from this movie. One message is that everyone in the whole world is living differently due to culture differences and social diversity. For example, Baraka showed how people sleep in Japan, how there is many cars in New York, and people in Nepal do rituals. Another message I got was that people shared religion. All over the world people practice Christianity, Buddhism, Muslim, catholic, and other types of ritual sacrifices.
The only reason why I disliked this movie because their was no narration or text throughout the movie. There was music. The music and sound effect flowed with the shots but it didn't help me understand what is going on. If there was a voice or text heard or see, the film might be less confusing.


Poor villagers



I got to admit that this movie inspired me. I am glad that I watched this film because the shots were so professional, and it makes me want to have really nice looking shots in my next film. I would have never thought to see a movie like this with each shot having a foreground, midground, and background. That inspired be so much. I saw so many beautiful shots of different places in the whole world, yes it makes me want to travel to those places.

The music was very unique because as seeing beautiful shots there was smooth calm music, but when I saw the scene where all the men wave their hands and dance and yell words out, the music was different. After that scene there was a transition of music to a sound effect of boom. And the boom was form a volcano that erupted.



baby chicks bing squished



In the beginning of the movie we see lots of poor people in rural areas. I think that this movie is trying to show how different cultures and social diversity affect poor people. Poor people are also living near dangerous places, for example, near volcanoes, and that affects their health and economic status.



humans being sqished



Overall this movie was interesting and I encourage everybody to watch it, because it MADE INTERSETING PARALLELS BETWEEN BABY CHICKS AND HUMANS. I thought that was we see baby chicks being squished and humans at a substation, people are jammed and squished as walking around. I think these parralles tell us that humans and animals are the same becausewe both live on the same planet and have many things in comen. I consider everyone who read this, go watch the film now!!