Fireside Chat

            I don’t think the finished product showed the effort I put into it. I’m a little disappointed. Most to blame is likely my fear of performing and my fear of editing. I’m afraid of both for the same two reasons, I don’t enjoy the process of either (unless its film editing or editing other peoples writing) and I’m afraid of the dishonesty that feels somewhat inherent to both. “Listening is an Act of Love” appears to be candid and therefore un-manipulated. Its just people talking with no prompting and the animations just are them and what we here is in order, nothing omitted, etc. It’s overly cynical and fearful of me in this specific context, because the video is awfully kind and it’s not nefarious at all. I just feel hesitant, especially as soon as I’m the one doing the making.

I like Mark a lot. What he’s done to fight the trafficking of children is incredible. But, I think that making documentary and activism palatable via narrativization and entertainment infusion and cool packaging is dangerous. By heading down that route, I think we put a bandaid on the problem which is Errol Morris’ claim that people have a stake in not facing the truth. Entertainment as the deliverer of information and donation of funds as the action performed in the face of domination, power, and oppression keep people passive. It makes activism a commodity, a bartering of money for an eased conscience. The world can’t be permanently bettered, opposition in all things, utopias are impossible. But I want to be on the right side of all of this. People need to be made uncomfortable and not in a comfortable way.

None of that really makes a strong argument for why I had a lackluster performance. It was an assignment and I should have just sucked it up and tried my best to perform like I did for the Webspinna Battle. Instead, I tried to write a script that fit information, that I think changes the world if people accept it and act accordingly, into a time limit. I should have tried to be creative in the scripting, in the punctuation of the information by images, etc. There are documentaries like Luc Moullet’s Origins of a Meal, which present information in a strange manner, with performance of some sense involved, in order to further discomfort rather than generate comfort through entertainment. Some of the other students in the fireside chat pulled that off and I’m really proud of them. I wish I’d done more.

Concerned Citizen

Video Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NDAAsb8KzqPclFNkgixk5qLejNOEvkeM/view

A few years ago, Brennan met AB while eating at Johnny Rockets in Lehi. After talking with him a bit, he realized that this was someone who was incredibly special. When the prompt for this project came up we talked in our group about many different subjects we could have for our documentary, but in the end we all really wanted to learn more about AB.

As we talked to him on the phone before the shoot and during the shoot, he told us that when he was offered arm transplants at 15 he decided to turn them down because he knew he could do more for the world that way. He has intentionally worked in the restaurant business his entire life (even though he’s had offers in other industries) because he knew by doing so he would be face to face with people all over the community every day. By showing them that he was able to function as well as he can without arms, members of the community would leave their meals motivated to push through their trials with the gifts they have been given.

For our film, we learned a lot from watching episodes of Beehive Stories and the States Project. We clearly learned functional, structural lessons. We emphasized our subject above all else, letting him speak, keeping our voices out of it, developing visual interest in a back and forth with images that showed illustrated the point of what he was saying. AB’s concerned citizenship is his active presence, and we showed him in that active state. His words were meaningful, but by showing what he meant, showing him helping people and interacting with them in his disarming way, we helped to show the audience what AB really does. In another sense, we invert the approach of Brad’s film projects, making location very secondary. It’s clear that we’re at a restaurant and if you’re paying attention you’ll see the signage. But we don’t open with it. And we don’t hammer it home.

       Our film has a degree of the quality that the NFB documentaries headed up by Colin Lowe and his compatriots had – a simple emphasis on the concerns of a voiceless person. In those films the images are composed and rather beautiful, and yet they are simple and plain and almost naïve. The films get out of the way so that the people can speak to an audience. I think we headed a little in that important direction.

The technical aspects of the project include two cameras (A camera and B camera). Camera A was the camera AB was looking at. It was a close up from his shoulders. Camera B captured a wider shot of AB with a view of the restaurant. B-Roll included footage of the restaurant, both interior and exterior. Footage of AB working at his job was integrated as he was talking during the interview.

Aspects and techniques of documentary filmmaking were incorporated throughout the 3-minute video. Our goal was to attempt to tell AB’s unique and powerful story creatively and visually.