Blog #4 Mitch

My group has narrowed down the topic that we want to focus on. However we are still open to the videos direction to take a turn. The challenging part has definatly been deciding on what to focus on. It was hard but brainstorming worked well. I think that we need to finalize the storyboard. We have been working well and effective. We need to continue working hard and it should turn out well.

Blog #3 Mitch

We are set on the topic of how soccer creates community for our documentary. This has probably been the most challenging part so far. However it has been hard to create a narrow focus for what the documentary will prove. This weekend we are getting together to chill but also to create an outline for how the video will be put together and what we want to include. I am still not sure who we are going to interview. There are a lot of people that we have access to but we keep hearing from speakers that it is better to have fewer people as subjects. The process is effective it just needs a little kick start to get us rolling. We need to plan plan plan and everything should work out.
The one thing that I keep hearing from both the readings and the speakers is that you have to be interested in your topic. Nothing was surprising because this reading was really just a summary of what all the speakers and John have been saying. I didn't have any questions so it wasn't possible for anything to be answered. It isn't possible to make a list of something that doesn't exist. These answers that I didn't come up with for the questions I didn't have were very satisfying. They were satisfying because they didn't exist. The problem I had never considered before is how much work it really takes to focus on reading something that is so generic. Reading it could easily be compared to reading an instruction manual. YES fortunately the problem could be solved by just not focusing. No.They aren't. There the same.

Blog #2 Mitch

Today in class we worked on filling out the spread sheet that you gave us. It was helpful to start thinking about all the aspects of the project that will need to come together. The most challenging part was thinking about everything that needs to be done and in what order we should do it. The developement of our projects theme is coming into view and that has probably been our biggest accomplishment. The group work has been pretty mutual but it has been hard for us to all focus. The biggest thing that needs to change is that we need to find our motivation.
The article really illustrated that the documentary is where truth comes from. Documantaries are reality and movies are inaccurate and missleading. The movie social network is supposebto tellthe story of mark zuckerberg's journey in making facebook. However the movie portrayed him as an awkward anti social guy, while in real life he was social and had a girlfriend for most of the time in real life. So "based on a true story" is an extrmely loose definiion.

Mitch Blog #1

Well the project is really still in the early stages of production. The hardest part has been making our group of three and that is the only thing we have accomplished. I think we have narrowed down our topic to either break dancing or the shoe culture in Minneapolis. The process is working great; it is just that we aren't working. We just need to step up our game and everything should be pretty smooth!

Reading:
My primary question going into the reading was what exactly a documentary? I learned that a documentary is not easily defined but it can be said that a documentary "explores actual people and actual situations". There are no rules really in making a documentary. It is a reflection of reality but you can use fiction and acting.

I imagined the filming process to be very calculated and concrete. However, I was surprised to learn that most screen directors operate from gut reactions. Making documentaries is more of an artistic process than I expected. Now I understand why Kevin said that group projects are only good if your group has the same vision because making art collaboratively* is very hard.

The video making process is similar to the real life process of a carpentry project. It starts with an idea. Then you need to think about how you are going to pay for it. But it takes artistic planning and is done in steps.