TMA 273 Post 3

OT: Our Town

I must not be very well educated because I'm not familiar with the play Our Town. I liked how this film was structured. Separating the preparation for the performance into the same three parts used in the play made a nice connection to the theme: People, and life in general, stay consistent. The ideas present in the play - life, love, death, inter-human relationships - are present in Compton. Each one of the youth in the film have great potential. They need to see it in themselves and others need to see it in them.

I understand that when shooting documentary you often don't have control over lighting. Many of the shots, though, were either blown out or over exposed. That was a bit distracting.

I wonder how much of the film was scripted. It looked like there were multiple interviews, but it appears that they had the main interviews with the kids after the show and had them respond to the questions as if they had just barely experienced key points in the film. I got this impression because in the interviews, the kids seem to wear the same two shirts.

Let's pretend that the interviews were all scripted, I still think it was true to the nature and feel of the film. I've been in plays before. I know that things can get pretty stressful. I can only imagine how things would feel in the situation they were in - no budget, no stage until the day before their performance, no drama program - and yet they were able to pull off a performance and start a new legacy for the school.

Good film. Certainly worth watching.

TMA 273 Posts 2

Beehive Stories: Tooele County

I liked this doc. The subjects were rather interesting, the B-roll was very well done. I particularly liked the 25 MPH sign with the racer speeding through the background.

I've been to the salt flats on a number of occasions, but for some reason I had forgotten that they are in Tooele. I've never stopped there when people are trying for the land speed record. I liked Rick's explanation that the salt flats are the safest place to drive in the world. His story of rolling the car going 300 miles an hour was the perfect example.

I appreciate how wise the editor was to withhold the information that the subjects had taken the land speed record until the very end. It was nice building up the car, the fact that it was made by Rick's father and that it had been rolled and damaged in other ways in the past, before letting us know that it is also the fastest car on the planet. Well done.

TMA 273 Posts 1

Man on Wire

This was an interesting documentary because of how heavily reliant on reenactment it was. There were several parts that felt rather Hollywoodesque due to the way the reenactments were filmed. Like Brad mentioned in class, the beginning seemed like people were committing some nefarious act - almost like watching a band of terrorists enter the Twin Towers. There was one long sequence of reenactment during which people were hiding under a tarp or blanket while guards patrolled the floor.

With Philippe's interviews, they had him near a curtain, which he used to dramatize his storytelling of hiding under the tarp. He was certainly the most animated character being interviewed.

The stylized, well-lit black and white sequences are obviously reconstructions. I'm not so sure about the film with the Super 8 feel to it. It seems almost too convenient that they would have footage of Philippe arguing with his friends or teaching them how he's going to manage the extra movement of the cable.

I think the dramatizations helped the film in that it was engaging and drew the viewers in initially, but I also think that it hurt the film at the same time. Even though the climax of the film is done beautifully, I felt jipped because they didn't have any video of Philippe on the wire. They had quite a few stills, which they used quite well and complimented with excellent sound design, but after viewing so many stylized, perilous sequences the climax seemed a bit flat.

Still, overall I think it was a well made film and I enjoyed watching it.

Fireside Chat Artist Statement

Artist Statement:

I was unsure at first if the type of story I wanted to tell would work, but I came to realize that it is similar to Tillie Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing.  Olsen’s work does follow some type of chronology, but instead of focusing strictly on time, it’s more of stages of life and the emotions and difficulties that are accompanied by it.  It is a thematic reflection more than an Aristotelian structured narrative.

With the piece I produced, though I did follow things in chronological order (with one flash back), really I was just sharing my process of discovery as I came to learn more about the topic I’ve presented.

I purposefully chose to have more of what I often felt and could not easily express large on the Power Point behind me.  Some of it was a bit exaggerated, but that was intentional as well.  My initial point is that because emotion is so hard to express I often hyperbolize.

I was a bit worried about the picture of the cow pie I included.  I wasn’t sure how people would react to it and if it would be inappropriate.  I’m glad I kept it though, and actually liked the response I received.  I make sure not to stay on it too long.

I was a witness again to the importance of sharing ideas with others.  I didn’t have a concise ending to my thought process until I spoke to my friend Joslyn about my idea.  That was when she told me that she and her boyfriend had had a similar conversation with her boyfriend and the conclusion they came to that love needs to be involved in order to best show emotion, there needs to be love for the other person.  That brief conversation gave me the ending I needed to my presentation.

Concerned Citizen

http://youtu.be/EgNVrr5dJw4

Artist Statement 

The Master of the universe, He who has, “all power…in heaven and in earth” (Matt 28:18) still took the time to meet with people on an individual level.  He met with those who were despised, sick and otherwise afflicted.  He showed mercy upon sinners, rebuked those who were quick to judge, and instructed those of higher social standing.  He has the power to instantaneously administer to the cosmos as a whole, but has always decided to work with individuals and be personable with the one.

Most individuals do not have the momentum backing them up to invoke large social change.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The fact of the matter is that all different types of people are needed to create a working community, and some are needed to direct the masses while others are to administer to others on a one-on-one basis.  If everyone who was capable would do that, we would all have someone helping us.  No one would go forgotten.

It seems to me that the elderly often feel forgotten.

Our concerned citizen didn't start out playing music hoping to someday perform for old folks homes.  He started learning how to play the penny whistle just for his own personal enjoyment.  He had already participated in multiple performances before his first concert for a group of senior citizens.  The warm reception he received made him aware of how important it was to bring a little culture, a little human contact, a little spark of Christian service to these people who are otherwise generally cooped up and separated from the world and community as a whole.  It was enlightening and invigorating and ended up changing his life for the better.

            As was mentioned in Goldbard’s, Human Rights and Culture: From Datastan to Storyland, the right to culture was defined as such in 1948, and has largely been granted to the public by artists.  Much like the diagram you drew on the board, art (or media) has a give and take relationship with culture and civilization.  Artists either create according to their perception of the world, or how they think the world should be, and the recipients of their messages then have to decide how to respond.  In other words, as long as others perceive their words, artists are constantly either capturing and/or creating culture.

            Blaine Elliott’s band Tullymore is doing just that.  They have not written any original songs.  They capture culture based upon what other artists created before them.  But, because the music they play is not current and mainstream, the echoes of the past create a new culture for the hearers, and they appreciate it.

            We often associate well-known humanitarians with real service, such as Jesus Christ, Mother Theresa, or more recently President Thomas S. Monson. While they certainly have made huge contributions to society in their efforts, that does not lessen the value of the common man's service. At the end of our piece we include a quote from President Monson. We did so not to sound didactic but to draw a clear connection between the works of a world-recognized leader and an average man.   

            Touching the lives of those around us is a divine gift.  There is much good we can do.  If God notices even the sparrow’s fall, nothing and certainly no one is without significance.  As we follow the examples of those around us, normal people who are just trying to lift the spirits of fellow beings, we will be emulating the Savior of the world.

Protest Poster

Artist Statement: Many Americans have a skewed view of the government’s role in the economy.  The only two people who commented on my poster were my roommate and brother, and they both agreed with me.  Here are my views.

I took a course on the culture and history of Spanish America.  It was fascinating to me to learn about a number of different countries that all seemed to cycle through the same history.  Almost every country has implemented either in the past or at the present time, socialistic or communistic policies in government and finances.  Those policies have failed time and time again.  Even in Cuba during the dictatorship of Fidel Castro, who was very particular in remaining a Marxist, was reduced to bringing capitalism back in for short periods of time to bring money back into their economy.  In spite of this clear pattern, we are heading down the path to repeat history yet again.

Evita Perón was born into a lower class and rose to an upper class though her marriage to socialist Juan Perón, who became the president of Argentina.  Evita did many good and great things for the lower class and women’s suffrage, and some of those actions have had lasting effects.  Many of the free things she gave to the lower class and institutions she started failed because they were taking money from the upper class to fund them and, contrary to common belief, the upper class does not have an unlimited supply of funds. 

In a youtube video, Lies, Propagand and the Election of 2012 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lzol3Vx2Io), the narrator makes a valid point:  Since when is it the government’s job to provide jobs?

In Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, he refers to “the invisible hand”, that is the relationship between consumer and producer, that would for the most part ensure that the economy is stable.  He did mention that there would be times for the government to step in and protect against unfair business dealings, but those government actions were supposed to be the exception, not the norm.

Our current president has promised to provide many things, essentially “free”.  In the president’s very own American Jobs Act, it states:

5. FULLY PAID FOR AS PART OF THE PRESIDENT’S LONG-TERM DEFICIT REDUCTION PLAN.

To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.”

          (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/jobs_act.pdf)

When have I heard that story before?   People don’t like losing funding, yet the money needs to come from somewhere.  Do I smell a fire burning though America’s wallet?

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad made an important observation.  The public school system does a good job of creating good employees.  It does not do a good job of creating good bosses or teaching how to create wealth and creating profitable circumstances instead of being dependent to the financial environment.  If the government does have a responsibility in the workforce, it is teaching us how to become financially indipendant.

I am surprised when I talk to people about wanting to obtain sources of residual or passive income and I get asked, “What is that?”  We have some work to do.

In the TED talk that we viewed, Chimamanda Adichie said, “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, they are incomplete.  A single story creates stereotypes.”  I am sharing a single story.  Maybe if I were impoverished I would be telling the evils of capitalism.

Is capitalism a perfect system?  Of course not.  It is the system that promotes the most individual growth, freedom of choice and possibility to those who are willing and able to learn the system we live in.

Gone Missing

In many ways, Gone Missing was a live/multimedia version of the Tiny Stories assignment.  Essentially, the only thing that kept continuity within the several different parts of the performance was the overarching theme.  Granted, some stories were longer than others, and I don't believe any of them were 30 words or less like the tiny stories assignment, but none of them were long enough to be considered a play in and of themself.  They communicated a message, often with an unspoken, inferred backstory which must have existed because all the dialogue was taken from actual interviews being re-portrayed by the actors.  I think that is a good reminder for future scripts that I will write – I need to have a back story I can allude to, but it will appear more lifelike if I don’t tell it explicitly unless I have to.

The way the stories were arranged was almost in a collage or montage format.  One story would start and take a pause while the other stories took their turns, then the first one would continue again where it left off.  Some of the musical numbers, in particular the one with the dancer who lost her cell phone, it was similar to the music mosaic assignment – telling some type of story or communicating an idea or emotion via images.  The way the constructed the tweets told the importance of the phone.

I am so grateful to TMA 102 which taught me about un-linear narratives.  There have been several films that I have come to think are beautiful that I would have slighted had I not understood their methodology for telling the story.  I feel similarly with this theatrical performance.  My Dad liked it, but said it was interesting.  “I just went to see a play with no plot” he said, and really, he’s right.  Plot wasn’t part of the story structure.  Theme was.