Reflection Week 1

Week 1 Reflection

            Our group finished collecting footage on location last Saturday. We went to Tastee Diner with our camera and microphone and got some pretty decent shots to use in our film. When we went back though our camera roll, some of our shots were out of focus, but most of them had really good quality. There were a couple of shots that had weird lighting since we weren't able to set up lights inside the diner. It was a problem when we only had one take of a certain shot and there was some sort of weird back-lighting  We had to rush through our shot list because our cinematographer had to leave early and we wanted to be as efficient as possible so we weren't there during the dinner rush. We've already started brainstorming ways to color correct some of our footage and place cutaways wisely so that we can do without some of the shots we took that were out of focus.

            Since there have been a lot of computer problems, it took us a couple of days to finally get our clips onto a machine. We've just started assembling the rough cut. As the artistic director, I've been sitting with the editor at the machine making suggestions as well as going between rooms to look at the progress of our music searching and poster-making.

            In the next week, we hope to finish our rough cut so we can get ahead of schedule. We want more time to tweak our footage and add in extra inserts shots of the purse/gun scene that we didn't have time to shoot in the diner.

The Leather Forecast

Recently, a lot of designers have been presenting animal-cruelty-free collections to appeal to the growing market of vegetarian fashionistas.

So what.

Sounds pretty foolproof, if you’d ask me.

But is it really? Whereas animals are getting the good end of the deal on this environmental movement, are the costs beginning to outweigh the benefits?

First let’s look at some of the different types of vegan leather:

Pleather- This term was coined by Amy Bach of Mills Clothing, who needed a way to market a new form of plastic-based faux leather. Though the material is much lighter than leather, it won’t be able to decompose as quickly.

Poromeric Leather- This describes a type of synthetic leather created by layering polyurethane or other plastic coating on top of a polyester fiber base.

Koskin- Translated from Swedish, Koskinn literally means “cow skin”. Koskin is a form of fake leather, usually put on laptop and phone cases, that is made to look and feel authentic.

Leatherette- This textile is created by covering a fabric layer with a thin layer of PVC. Leatherette is often found in clothing, books, and car seat covers. This fabric is more durable, but not very breathable and can be extremely flammable.

Pretty dry stuff. But all those long “poly” words are significant. These synthetic substances could be even less eco-friendly than real leather in the grand scheme of things. They go through extensive factory processing with loads of chemicals that probably aren’t helping our smog-ridden cities.

The future of humanity?

It’s a choice we have to make as trend connoisseurs. Does one buy the faux leather motorcycle jacket to save the animals, the real leather motorcycle jacket to save the atmosphere, or no jacket at all? Because what’s the point of wearing a motorcycle jacket if it’s not leather? Or what’s the point in wearing any jacket that’s not leather? I should just start a leather/faux leather revolution and we’ll all just walk around looking like Trinity from The Matrix. That or I should teleport back to the fifties and join a motorcycle gang. Decisions, decisions. 

Documentary Reflection

Documentary Reflection

            After going back and forth between several ideas, my documentary group decided to make a film about thrift stores. Over the past few years, more young people have taken an interest in thrift store clothing. At the local Value Village, where shirts are sold anywhere from $1.99 to $9.99, the low prices aren’t always the main appeal among the younger audiences. Of course, students on a tight budget are known to be shameless bargain-seekers, but people are also drawn into “thrifting” because of the unique styles and high quality garments. Even people in the upper middle financial bracket are skipping designer stores and going instead to scour the racks at the thrift store to find trendy vintage clothing. Our group was curious to seek out the appeal of shopping at the thrift store by interviewing students, customers, and fashion bloggers. I think it was a solid idea to start with this broad scope and narrow down our topic as we learned more from filming. I know Mr. Mayo was very skeptical of our idea to begin with, but it worked out well to have a lot of freedom in the planning process.

            We started out the filming process by sending small groups to Value Village to collect B-roll footage. We ended up trying on outfits and interviewing customers as well while we were there. I learned that we probably should have planned our filming schedule a little bit better because all of our clips were really disorganized and hard to put together. During the production, we found out about a site called Thrift Store Runway, a fashion contest sites that judges the best thrifted outfits under $50. Mr. Mayo gave us the idea to sumbit a few of our looks to the website. We didn’t win any of the prizes for the month, but we were still able to feature our experience in the documentary as well as interview a couple of expert judges from the site. In addition to that footage, we did a lot of interviews with students at Blair.

            By the time we finished uploading all of our footage, we had 90 minutes of film to go through. That was probably the most challenging part of this project for our group because the computers were slow and it took a long enough time to watch each clip and erase what we weren’t going to use. It took a few weeks, but we were eventually able to cut down our footage to fit within the time constraints. If I went back to remake the documentary, I would make a better storyboard and stick to it. Our group got really off track and we ended up with a good product, but we should have started out with a stronger foundation. For next year, I think the documentaries should be slightly longer, maybe 5-7 minutes. Three minutes was only enough to scratch the surface of our topic and there was so much more that could have been developed if the time frame was expanded. I think we should have had more checkpoints during the process at well so we could meet with Mr. Mayo and discuss where we were in the process and get feedback.

            Overall, I was really pleased with the final product. It was a really long process and I feel relieved to be done. It was really stressful especially towards the end when we were trying to make the due date with our final film. I hope that MCPS improves the computer system for next year because that was the stem of a lot of our technical problems. I didn’t know much about interviewing people or editing in final cut before this project and this was a really important milestone in my CAP career.

            

Bye British Kids!

So this is going to be a really short post but I really wanted to say bye again to all the British kids. I had a really great time hosting Abbey and meeting everyone else. We all got to be such close friends in such a short amount of time and it really feels like a family! It was fun to have British kids in all of my classes as well as see them outside of school. It was nice to get to show them our world and it was really convenient they were here for the Super Bowl which is about as American as it gets.

Our short film was never exported but if I ever get time I'll upload it to YouTube. It was a bit of a crazy week but our group was able to accomplish a lot.

Here's a photo of the farewell luncheon at Mr. Freeman's mom's house (which is a really nice house). We were all crying by the end.

Video Challenge

Enjoy!

Supersize Me Review

Supersize Me is a Morgan Spurlock film about how fast food chains such as McDonalds are greatly contributing to the increasing population of obese Americans. In this interactive documentary, Spurlock takes on the “McDiet” in which he must only eat McDonalds for an entire month. There are many other aspects to this diet. For example, he must purchase everything on the menu at least twice and order a “supersize” when offered, hence the name. He also cuts down his workouts to remain constant with the average American’s 5000 steps per day. Before he starts his new diet, he has a weigh-in and overall physical fitness test. Spurlock is above average in his body-fat/muscle ratio and seems to be in excellent general health. He consults with many different doctors as well as a nutritionalist and a personal trainer and asks how much this diet will affect his current health. Most of the doctors say that unhealthy habits will have minor side effects, but nothing particularly harmful. By the end of the first week, Spurlock has already gained a significant amount of weight and he is experiencing symptoms such as depression and lethargy. On the 21st day, Spurlock has heart palpitations after gaining even more weight. When he made it to the 30th day of the challenge, all of the doctors were surprised by the dramatic changes to his body shape and some predicted that his previous heart troubles could have irreversible effects. His girlfriend, Alexandra Jamieson, a vegan chef, helped Spurlock create a special de-tox diet. It took him 14 months to lose all of the weight and regain his health. This film was eye-opening. Since I am a kinesthetic learner, I thought the demonstration of how fast food really affects the body and mind really resonated with my learning style. The facts really stuck with me as I was able to see the changes in Spurlock’s drastically deteriorating health. This film is intercut with many interviews and images that help illustrate Spurlock’s research about obesity. This helps the viewer digest the sometimes incomprehensible statistics. Statistics about obesity and perception of fast food were motifs that helped give the audience a break from Spurlock’s gross objective. The film a little grainy and the filmmaker used mainly natural lighting. I think this made the film seem more personal and homemade, especially the parts in which the camera was wobbly. In some cases, Spurlock was filming himself in his car or outside the restaurant. I felt almost as if I was at the restaurant with him every day, and every day he seemed more and more out of it. I would definitely recommend this film for anyone that doesn’t have a weak stomach (It can get a little gross at times). It definitely gave me a different perspective of the fast food industry and really made me question some of my diet choices. You can watch the entire video on Hulu for free:

Fashion Trends that Irritate Me- Uggs

Uggs- I apologize in advanced to those of you who own a pair (or pairs) of Uggs. And for those of you that have been living under a rock since the 90’s, Uggs are a “unisex style of sheepskin boot made of twin-faced sheepskin with fleece on the inside and with a tanned outer surface, often with a synthetic sole”. Yes, I just quoted Wikipedia. Not in an attempt to plagiarize from The Worst Website Ever (preached by every teacher since third grade), but to give an objective definition. I can barely type the word Ugg without shuddering in my boots (Steve Madden combat boots to be exact). Wikipedia later states that this type of shoe originated as a “utilitarian boot” purely for “warmth and comfort”. I wish it stayed that way. Anyways, ever since the 90’s these boots have been everywhere. And I mean everywhere. During the dreary winter months, I see so many girls in the hallways at Blair wearing the typical shapeless sweatshirts, yoga pants, and of course, the infamous grungy camel clubfooted clompers known as Uggs. And boy they are UGGly (that was not trying to be original; I realize that so many people beat me to that joke). They make every girl look like they have thick calves and duck feet. The cliché chestnut color and cheapie suede do not flatter any outfit. I realize that many girls wear Uggs because they are easy and comfortable, but I would really rather see everyone show up in their fluffy duck slippers. At least it would be more interesting. It’s like looking at clones as they file down the hallways, the parade of plain t-shirts, Uggs, and leggings. I mean there have to be some other options for comfortable boots. And some girls are CRAZY about their Uggs. Anyone in their right mind would be after spending TWO-HUNDRED DOLLARS on cheap looking shoes, but they take so much work to maintain. One small drop of water could make a giant stain and then they’re ruined. I saw a local dry cleaning business that advertised “Ugg Cleaning”. This means that people are paying even more than $200 if they are going to get them cleaned on a regular business. I’ve seen dirty Ugg boots and they are even less attractive, though I never thought that would be possible.