Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The Muppets!

This video project turned out much different than I ever expected it to. The types of ideas I had originally went over in my head before I had a set partner were to film actual places on campus that might possibly have a history (like the English building, or Altgeld). However once I got into a group with Farhanah and Glenn, deciding on something to do wasn’t so easy because of time constraints and creative differences (including talent differences). After discussing everything from filming the history of corn to the basement of the English building, we decided on something a little unconventional and random: The Muppeteers. What makes our video and the process it took to create it different from probably most of the others is the fact that Glenn had footage from a few years back of a “convention” style show of the Muppeteers and the people who perform them making the focus of our project not to film something, someone, or some place and put it all together but to take something that was filmed years back and making something useful out of it. Personally, at first thought, getting a message across with this film was challenging for me because #1 it was not my film footage and #2 though I am a fan of Jim Henson and the Muppets, I have not watched or paid attention to them since childhood. However, after going over to Glenn’s to watch and start organizing all of his footage it was easy to go back in to my childhood memory and relate things that I have saw and heard with what I was watching on his projector, almost as if 12 or 15 years had not gone by. One of the things I like most about our project is that we incorporated written text (in the form of quotes), actual home video footage of a meaningful event, and music to make one creation. The quotes were needed to give direction to the footage and our overall message, while the music selection “The Rainbow Connection” connected all the missing pieces. As far as the editing project went, Glenn definitely had way more knowledge of using editing software and took charge with helping Farhanah and I get the hang of it. We used Vegas Studio Pro 8 which seemed a lot more difficult to use than iMovie. One of the things I was in charge of doing was inserting text in between clips, messing around with the sound track (lowering it, raising it, snipping it out), and inserting fade ins and fade outs with the music. I think the first thing one ends up realizing during the editing process is how tedious it is. To fix one mistake you have to rewind and pause, fix, check the fixing (which requires rewinding and pausing again) until you get it right. Depending how picky you are and how much knowledge you have of the software, this can take hours. Once you fix something the way you want it, the overall completed project is quite rewarding and makes the tedious work worth it. I’m very satisfied with our video project and dam thankful that Glenn offered to let us use his footage and was nice enough to show us how to use the software and get a good feel for the video editing process.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Ede questions

1. Ede says that authorship as in individual activity is central to Western cultural tradition. What are some examples (your own) that legitimize this statement?
2. What are some of the challenges of collaborative authorship?
3. Could one argue that most texts now all over the world have a definite author as a result of the Western world's influence?

Monday, October 27, 2008

10 things

1. 14 ciggarette buds in a 3 by 3 foot side-walk square outside of th Obama headquarters in Chicago (233 N. Michigan)
2. 19 empty water bottles on the side of the 290 expressway within a half of a mile distance.
3. 4 or 5 wads of chewed pieces of gum in the seat in front of my in a lecture.
4. 3 missing ceiling panels missing in another lecture.
5. An orange "DO NOT TOUCH THERMOSTAT" sign on the wall.
6. A small crack in the kitchen counter closest to the window.
7. A missing tile in a stall in the bathroom floor of undergrad
8. Missing pannel (half of it) from the blinds in the "living room".

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Response to Hampe Question

1) Hampe says 'editing is at the heart of documentary.' Since editing is obvious done post-shooting, how does this separation take away from a actual depiction of reality? Or could this editing
enhance it?

Editing can take the actual footage and organize it in a way to get the original message across. There are no actual scripted lines or detailed descriptions of what those who are in the film are supposed to be doing at a certain time (at least there isn't supposed to be...) so editing is the only way you can turn reality into becoming coherent... this can take away from what actually happened, and it can also manipulate what actually happened into something that's not. But at the same time, it can just make more clear of what was going on at the time the footage was being filmed in the eyes of those filming/producing it.

Hampe Questions part 2

1. Do you think the opening scene of a movie with using a metaphor is or is one of the most powerful ways to set the tone for the rest of the movie/documentary/program?

2. Hampe writes "Audiences have the perverse habit of assuming that
the way they think you are communicating is the way
that you intended to communicate. As far as they are concerned, the
message they get is the only ~essage there is. And you have no
opportunity to defend yourself-to revise, clarify, or explain what you
actually meant." Do you think we usually get the message of any piece? Can the point of a book, article, movie, documentary, interview ever be really understood without knowing and talking to the creator of the piece?

3. Hampe writes you're supposed to edit your footage to communiate your message "honestly, directly, and forcefully - what you know about the event." Do you think its easier to manipulate your audience with editing or is it easier to be honest with what happened (even if it goes against what you wanted your original message to be)?

Monday, October 20, 2008


This is a picture or computer animated drawing rather than partly inspired me to do my audio project. It seems that it is almost considered common knowledge that Muslims were to blame for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and that is just so far from the truth. Yes, the terrorists claimed to be "Muslim" and said they were acting out in the name of Islam, but if anyone were to take a few moments to research the religion that is Islam they would know that anything but "Islamism" was to blame for this tragic day. In my audio project I wanted to get across that there needs to be more tolerance, sympathy, and less ignorance when it comes to humanity and our suffering as a whole. This picture depicts the ignorance I was talking about.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

One Love

Audio Project

I did a few test runs with my recording and different songs. Because my project has to do with September 11 and its various tragedies, it was really difficult to decide on which type of song to use. I considered using a few songs to represent the different religions, but three songs mixed together didn’t seem to fit the needed mood and tone of the recording – its too serious of a matter. I chose to upload the version with U2’s “One” in the background. I ultimately chose this version because I feel that the words to this song helped the most in getting the overall message out – that us, as humans, are all “one”.

My audio project is a combination of victim stories and one survivor from 9/11. The individual cases I chose, to me, helped show the diversity of the different groups yet the similarity of their pain. Adam, who is a Christian survivor of the World Trade Center attack was similar to the rest of the people I mention in that he had a family or significant other, he felt extreme emotion during and after the attack, and he/his family will be affected by 9/11 for the rest of his life. Adam and the comments he made are extremely interesting to me…the pain and suffering he will forever feel is definitely real and understandable, but what I found so fascinating in particular was his “message” to the terrorists. After such a tragic event that he experiences first hand, Adam relates 9/11 to democracy and freedom rather than concentrating on the pain and suffering of the nation as a whole. He calls 9/11 “the ultimate failure of terrorism against The United States”, stating that the first plane crash he experienced was when “democracy won”. To me this sounds almost ignorant, like a competition almost, America or democracy vs. the rest of the world. Ignorance however was one of the points I wanted to address… ignorance not just pertaining to 9/11 and what happened then and for the future, but ignorance to the rest of us around us who suffered too.

I’ve gotten various emails in the past 7 years about stupid conspiracies that have to do with no Jewish people going to work on 9/11, somehow everyone of the Jewish faith planned behind everyone else’s back to not be part of such a horrible day. I chose four Jewish people who were either married or getting married and who left families behind. This was a direct response to those who forget or don’t think that Jews too were part of 9/11 – their family’s pain and suffering, just like Adam’s and his family’s, will live on forever.

Muslims living in America no doubt had to deal with a drastic change in the way their fellow country-men and women looked at and treated them after 9/11. In fact, they might possibly be the easiest group to forget in about when it comes to suffering in regards to 9/11. The ignorance surrounding 9/11 and Muslims in general has left Muslims who suffered first hand this day to feel pain and loss as well as hatred from others around who unfairly blame or associate them with the terrorists who were responsible for this day. My point in mentioning Baraheen, Mohammed, Rahma, and Haleema were to clearly show that just like the Christians and the Jews, Muslims were victims of 9/11 – not only that, their pain was just as real and traumatic as anyone else’s would be. Almost to say, hey not only did Muslims suffer on this day, but they’re human too!

The ignorance we all naturally have as humans is something that can be dealt with. It is easy to forget that those around us have real problems and pain because we get so caught up with our own. I wanted to create something to remind anyone who listens to it that not only did ALL types of Americans suffer on 9/11 (and still do), but we have to make a conscious effort to take our “blinders” off and feel for one another on a human level to get somewhere as “one”. The U2 song, in my interpretation preaches love for all and reminds us that in the end we’re all part of the same race, the same world, the same planet. For there to be distinctions among us, especially during times where we need to come together (as we did on 9/11), there will only be hindrance of the process to recovery. None of us come from the same roots and same place but that does not mean we can’t act as if we do. Maybe that’s the point, maybe being “one” is what we’re here for. Here’s my message in the form of lyrics from “One”:

Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other…