Final Blog Post

As this class comes to an end, there are many things I will take with me as I move on.  First and foremost, it has been very insightful to see and hear everyone’s thoughts and views on the topics discussed in class. In all honestly, it has helped me think through me own thoughts and opinions of digital media. I enjoyed all the in-depth conversations about story telling and the “no bull shit” tone of this class. I always felt like Leeper was being “real” with us about the films and the topics and themes they portrayed. Although sometimes rough, I felt it made me think more in depth of my career and where I want to go with it. Two of my favorite films we watched in class were “Fridge” and “Indie Game.” What drew me to these films was the rawness they presented. In “Fridge” although sad, I felt that it conveyed such an emotion to me that stayed with me. Films like those are ones that open my mind and make me think so much about my life and the world we live in. “Indie Game” also had a large impact on me. Seeing the struggles of the independent game makers made me think of filmmaking right away and allowed me thought about it to translate over. Seeing the struggle of what it takes to make a game just made me think where I want to go with my films and what I want out of them. Overall this class was a really awesome experience, and I am glad I was able to take many things from it!

Why I Can't Travel The World For Free

I have been an adventure addict my whole life. In fact, I have withdraws, even, if I have nothing to do. I love being busy. I love having a schedule that always keeps me doing something. Filmmaking has played a big role in that for me because I am always thinking about what I can do next. And I guess that’s why I love documentary filmmaking so much is because I love the adventure and unknown of what can become. A filmmaker I look up to significantly, Casey Neistat, posted an article about traveling the world and having a company sponsor it. Deep down, I always wanted to believe it could happen, and it does. But it doesn’t happen in the way that most people think and the way I once used to think it did. For me to once have thought this way is lunatic. For someone to think that they can have this huge dream of having a company pay him or her to travel is something that some would consider crazy. I used to think this way, and after reading Casey’s article, it hit me. It’s a wonderful dream to have, it truly is, but something like this just doesn’t happen. It takes times upon time to develop your craft as a filmmaker and only then do companies start to hire you. Even if they hire you, it doesn’t mean traveling the world for them is something you will do. That’s why I am so in love with documentary filmmaking I guess. The possibility to travel all over the world increases because of where you have to capture stories. It’s not easy to become a documentarian, but that’s what makes it excited and worth the adventure. Something Casey said that I will not forget is this: 

“Do the work first. Create the following and the audience first. Prove your value first. Demonstrate your understanding of an industry first. Do all that then and only then maybe will a company have the confidence in you to provide the freedom and creative latitude for you to do what you want that will ultimately benefit them and their bottom line. It took me 14 years to understand this.”

 For me, I need to stop worrying about trying to get picked up by all these big companies and media houses and just work. I need to create the work I want to create and make people come to me. If there is one thing I have learned from experience, it’s not making yourself look cheap and like a beggar. No one likes a beggar.

Read Casey's article here: https://medium.com/@CaseyNeistat/how-to-travel-the-world-and-get-companies-to-pay-for-it-25aac0bdfd35#.fl0u4bjxa

Genuiness in Documentaries

Someone else had written about documentaries having to be genuine, and I couldn’t agree more. From watching many documentaries, I have developed the ability to pick out documentaries that are genuine and the ones that are not. In actuality, it’s not difficult to pick out documentaries that are genuine. Documentaries are meant to convey a story of a certain topic. Topics can very from level of emotion, but one thing that all documentaries have in common is how they are told. Ones that are genuine will capture the reality of the word the filmmaker is filming in. Settings cannot be made up, scripts cannot be written, and interviewees cannot be actors. Documentaries require genuine rawness from everyone involved. The best documentaries are the ones where a thirty second bit in the finished product, took tens of hours of footage to get. Projects like those take so long because there are layers and layers of a story that have to be unraveled for the true emotion to come from a topic. Being genuine allows this process to happen and develops patience to understand complexity of a topic at hand. As filmmakers, we must allow the people who deal with the topic at hand to express themselves to the camera. We cannot force or put thoughts and ideas into their heads about what we want to be said in an interview. People see right through these tactics and it makes for a cheap looking finished piece. As documentarians, we have the power to change and influence the world through our work, but it’s not our job to create these stories. What is our job is to tell the stories of the people that have these

interesting topics and situations everyday, in the most aw-inspiring and genuine way possible.

You Won't Always Get What You Want

After reading today’s article, it got me thinking about how we perceive people and their accomplishments. We as a society, it seems, recognizes accomplishments more if it comes with a struggle of some sort. Getting something easily and without effort is not as respected as it once was. I’m okay with that. It has always bugged me to see people get everything they want, with little to no effort. Whether that includes items or money, or even if it is a job or media gig, they get it without even trying. That pisses me off for many reasons because there are people working their asses off every day, in case, creating work, that go unrecognized and unappreciated. I could spend weeks to months working on a project that only a few people can see while a poorly made video can be made by some amateur and get millions of hits. It bugs me that our culture values publicity over production and I’m tired of being turned down because I don’t have the number of followers a business wants or they have already found someone, even though I contacted them before an event even became known of. And as I write this, I do realize I contradict myself in a sense about how society views this topic. Although there are occasions when people always get what they want and are recognized for it, there is nothing better than seeing someone get what they want because they put in the work and struggle to get to where they are. For myself, I feel that at the end of the day, if I’m not putting out work that makes me stressed out and emotional at some point, I’m not doing enough. I like having to work hard for what I get, especially in my craft, because it holds more value to others and me when I tell what it took to get where I am today. Life wasn’t made to be a blow off, but some treat it like it is and somehow succeed by doing that. I’m not okay with that and I’m not sure I ever will because I have been so used to fighting for what I want. I enjoy the challenge.

Rat-Like Attention Spans

After watching an online video for a full minute, 44.1 percent of viewers will have clicked away, according to Visible Measures. But an outsize slice of that loss occurs in the first 10 seconds, during which 19.4 percent of a video’s audience defects. This phenomenon, known as “viewer abandonment,” is of intense interest to those who make online videos or advertise alongside them. It’s no news that music videos have begun to have more and more of a story to them in the recent years. And it’s no news that American’s attention spans have decreased significantly over the years. The connection between the two, has become seemingly obvious, looking deeper into the matter. The days of watching a straightforward video with just a band singing to a song in some fog are no more. That’s too boring of a concept for viewers to watch. We need more to a video in this day and age. Music video creators are conceptualizing harder and harder to create videos that contain a story or some sort. Whether it’s a dramatic or sad story, or the weirdest, wildest one imaginable, creators have to create content that can hold viewers for the entirety of a video. If they can’t, they essentially lose view, which in turn brings in less money. Although our attention spans are because of this, it doesn’t necessarily mean this is a bad thing. For one thing, it has forced creators to have more of a story behind a song, which allows viewers to connect better with both the song and the video. These new forms of music videos have allowed us to connect with music and their counterpart videos on a more, deeper level, which allows us to have a more respect and appreciation for a piece of work.

It Doesn't Matter

There are a lot of content creators of there. Whether filmmakers or photographers, there is one question we get asked more than anything. What camera do you use and what lens do you use are two of the most common. And from what I was told growing up in this field, I can completely agree with what I am about to say. It doesn’t matter. It honestly does not matter what gear I use for my work. Now, I don’t mean that as a snarky response, I really do not. What I mean is that too often we get concerned that we need all this fancy, expensive equipment to produce good work. This has created what is today’s biggest pitfall for aspiring digital media artists. As artists, we are meant to go out and capture this world in the most aw-inspiring way possible. This doesn’t mean we need thousand dollar camera and lenses though. Use what you have. Make art with whatever you can. That’s what challenges us to get better at our craft. Anyone can create a nice piece with a $5,000 camera, but the real artists come forward with work done from equipment that everyone has access to. It teaches us as artists to truly understand the art and technical form of what we do and it forces us to think in a more creative way. I also believe that when someone worries about getting the best gear, it keeps him or her from creating the work they would or should be creating. My response to this question will be “it doesn’t matter” from now on. Not to be unhelpful, but in fact helpful to someone, because they won’t have to worry about the numbers of a certain camera. Just get out and create.

Why Filmmaking?

Filmmaking for me is more than just a video posted somewhere people can view it. It’s not just the moving pictures and pixels of a video that is amazing to me. What is amazing to me is the story and tale a video has the power to tell. It’s all about the story and how you tell it and that’s what I want. I want to be able to tell a story that makes people laugh and cry and every emotion in between. Nothing is more gratifying to me to hear someone say, “Wow! What a great video”! 

And they go into detail about what made it so great. Whether it was the story or the certain angle that made a person have that amazing feeling, I thrive from that feedback! It makes me want to continue to make films and tell so many more stories. I want to make issues and topics that may not have been known, or well know in that matter. It has always been about taking that risk and going for the adventure in my life and that is where I am truly happy. Filmmaking. Nothing else makes me as genuinely happy as filmmaking does. So when I am asked that question like I am being asked now, I get a jolt of excitement that shoots through my body because I know no matter how much I tell them about my love for filmmaking, I can’t fully put how I truly feel about my love and passion into words. That story is still waiting to be told.

Jónsi, Sigur Rós - We Bought A Zoo

There are not many artists/songs that get me really thinking about life the way Sigur Ros and Jonsi do. Jonsi may be unfamiliar to some since we didn’t listen to his music in class, but his music is very similar to Sigur’s. I first heard theses amazing artists when I watched, what is today one of my favorite movies, We Bought a Zoo. These 2 artists had created the soundtrack for the movie and I have never been so moved by a soundtrack before, making it my favorite movie soundtrack. The funny thing is, their music isn’t understandable in terms of lyrics. They use their voices for sounds and made up words, but for the most part, their music relies on other instruments and sounds. Their music takes me to a

different state in my mind where I almost feel like a kid again, the days where I never feared of doing something and my dreams were endless. Their music makes me think about my life so much because it relaxes and takes me to another state of mind. It’s a state where I can truly think and let my ideas soar. From the aspect of the movie itself, it communicated the sense of adventure and fearlessness that I have always inspired to have. This soundtrack has brought me to tears many times before because of how raw and inspiring the meaning behind the music is. It reminds me how to be fearless again and not worry about the hard times in life. Hearing some of Sigur’s music in class brought back so many memories from when I first heard his music and this just goes to show that we can still have those days where we just want to feel like a kid again and imagine.