The 11th Hour

The 11^th Hour tells the freaky story of our Earth’s natural resources and how they are being abused.  The Conners, co-directors, made a very educated and qualified argument with loads and loads of qualified interviewed professionals.

The directors were effective in their approach, using various cinematic techniques to accompany the argument of the content itself.  Dramatic music and cutaways were constantly played between interview pieces. These shots and the score created a sense of urgency, fear, and high stakes.

The elements mentioned above created such an atmosphere that viewers are inclined to be engaged heavily in the matter.

I didn’t feel too manipulated because most of the arguments mentioned were factual. There were also representatives from numerous agencies. If there were only interviews conducted with one organization, one university, or one agency, then their argument wouldn’t have felt as valid or accredited.

Unfortunately, I worry this film even with it’s great message of warning is not much use to the consumer world. This that could be of much better use among the industry changers. The government, oil companies, factories, etc.

Fit for the Kingdom

Fit for the Kingdom is a beautiful series of autobiographical and observational short documentaries about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here are some thoughts about 5 of these films.

MIKE

            Mike is made instantly relatable as we follow him through the grocery store. We hear about what he eats, what he thinks about as he shops, and we become instant friends. The filmmaker used such mundane tasks to help us see his character as one that could be any of us. As he continues to walk through the store, he tells of his difficult family life. Hearing about his parents disgust with his choice to join the church is a much stronger emotional experience because of our investment in his character so far. I found myself really caring more about the expressions he shared because of the setting and style of the film.

KANJANA

            Even though Kanjana’s life is probably one of the most unique and difficult stories you will find in the Fit for the Kingdom series, her film gets a little long and I don’t find myself as interested. I would have cut some pieces out and tried to heighten the stakes by asking some more interview questions. It sounds more like a list of experiences in her life which we might find hard here in the states, but for them, that’s a completely normal life. I would have loved to hear about a difficult situation where she transcended.

BECKY

            Becky’s story is intense and engaging. It was full of great visuals to help us get a feel for the space we were in and her life. I didn’t feel like any parts of it were ineffective. The headstone leaves a lot of questions about his involvement in the marines and the effects of his service on his addiction to alcohol, which is cool! Throughout the film we think “what a terrible father!” but perhaps we don’t know what he’s been through.

PRIMARY

            The South London Primary. What an awesome film! Such interesting characters and such interesting development of the story. I didn’t feel manipulated but it was interesting to see how we teach the gospel in the church to those at such a young age. Im a big fan of the new youth teaching program. The ending to this is spectacular because we see the rowdy kid praying and it’s a nice way to bring all the crziness together into something tender and beautiful and makes it all worth it.

LISA

          Lisa’s story is beautifully told through the filmmaker’s use of about 70% action and 30% interview. The action says so much more and flows so nicely. We don’t have to just hear about Lisa and her baby girl, but we get to SEE it. I love the filmmaker’s decision to praise women who choose to be mothers.

Alma 17-24, Jacob 4:13, D&C 50:22-25

The account sons of Mosiah and their missionary efforts found in chapters 17-24 of the Book of Alma are rich with saving doctrines and unsurpassable storytelling. The scriptures found in Jacob 4:13 and Doctrine and Covenants 50:22-25 provide extra thoughts and further doctrine about the role of the Holy Ghost in our lives.

Ammon walks straight into enemy territory, is bound and brought before the king Lamoni, only to offer himself up a servant. Even if that was it, the whole story of Ammon, it would be insanely interesting. He would have a deep character. But that’s only the beginning. He is King Lamoni’s best servant he’s ever had. He even manages to bring a platter of arms to the king of men who tried to scatter his livestock.

If that doesn’t get interesting enough, he attributes all his success and power to his God and teaches Lamoni by the power of the Holy Ghost about simple truths resulting in the conversion of the King and ultimately the entire kingdom.

Through the telling of their experiences over 2,000 years ago, the sons of Mosiah relate to us testaments of eternal truths and doctrines. For example, Aaron preaches the most basic doctrine of Christ’s atonement and ability to grant us freedom from the sting of sin and grief of the grave. Ammon teaches the creation and helps illustrate how we can communicate with the spirit. When his time to leave the land of Middoni comes, he is warned that King Lamoni’s father would try to kill him.

Jacob 4:13 and D&C 50:22-25 are incredible passages of scripture that teach us about the importance and power of the Spirit. The spirit will never lead us astray. It only speaks truth. Anything else would go against the laws of heaven.  It gives us light, and the more we adhere to that light, the brighter our lives will become.

Fireside Chat

The Fireside chat was such an inspiring experience. It was really eye-opening to hear what our class had to share. When I read through the assignment, I thought we would end up hearing a lot of the same stuff we are used to hearing at church and in Sunday School. Being at BYU, we all have very similar beliefs for the most part. But as we listened to each of the presentations, I was excited to hear some really cool and unique ideas. My presentation about happiness was pretty simple. Plain happiness. It was interesting how there were a couple others who had similar beliefs to mine. Kelton's song about being happy as you sing a song was one of those.

When I planned out my presentation, I planned on just expressing by feelings about happiness. Where it comes from and how I believe happiness is gained and lost. The morning of the fireside chat, I woke up thinking 'tonight I am giving a presentation on happiness, so I better be happy!' I listened to the song 'Happy' a cover of Pharrell Williams by BYU Vocal Point and it definitely started the day off on a happy note. Throughout the day, I found myself looking for things to do that I knew would make me happy. I helped people with anything I could. I texted my mom just because. I did all kinds of little things. Throughout the day, as I was doing these things, the more I learned that the happiness I was experiencing was so tangible and so available for me to create for myself. I got to thinking. Why don't I do this everyday?

So my presentation changed a little bit and I decided to emphasize on that. I also realize that there are very serious and very real conditions that make it really difficult to be happy. For those people, I hope they can recover. Depression and other emotional disorders are definitely real.

The song is by Vocal Point and the writing on the board thing I did kind of reminds me of their Brave music video. I decided to use their version instead of the Pharrell Williams version because I know a lot of those guys personally and they are super happy, good guys.

Thanks to everyone for an awesome semester!

Concerened Citizen

"If our higher purpose is to develop societies securely

grounded in possibility, compassion, and connection, our

task is to collectively imagine these things. There is no

more powerful way to do that than by making art that

rehearses the future we wish to help into being."

-Arlene Goldbarg

When we sat down with James Christensen I was immediately intrigued by his artsy personality. He was creative with his words, with the style in which he conversed, and wow! His house was full of such interesting artwork! When it comes to highly influential people, I think there are two different types. First, there are those who set out to change the world, have energy and a desire to make a difference in the community by getting involved in certain jobs, volunteer positions, etc. Then there are those who are quiet yet exemplary. They are fascinating in their own way and usually very humble. I didn't get to know James Christensen as well as I would have liked, but he seems to fit into the second category.

As a renowned artist, Christensen creates pieces of art that don't follow the norm. He said in his interview "I didn't follow the New York City standard, I just painted what I liked." As a film student in a very mainstreamed and standardized culture, it's inspiring to hear an artist like James Christensen. Of course, he was influenced by northern renaissance painters, but in the end, he was able to create his own style.

It's interesting-I haven't gotten so caught up in editing a film like this one for a long time. I found myself in a completely different world, really excited about making this a quality short documentary. I wanted it to be perfect. It was something that I wanted to be proud of for years, and I think I can attribute that to the level of respect I have for James and his artistic example, which is why I decided to name it Artistic Resonance. His personality and example of spiritual and artistic maturity resonates both in his art, with his viewers, and especially with me. We hope that this film does the same for those who get to see it.

I looked around at a couple different artists with similar videos about them and this one about Audrey Louise Reynolds and her fascination with color stuck out to me. She takes colors from plants, rocks, and other natural resources, and uses them to color more artificial things such as clothes.

What I take away most from Christensen's video we made is his last comment that encourages artists to immerse themselves and find out what strums their heart strings. What a cool metaphor and what a great idea!

Game for Change - Socialism

Make a Free Flash Game

Lately we have been studying the relationship between media and society. So here's a video game. Why a video game? These texts have a very unique aspect that other mediums cannot match. In a video game, unlike any other medium, you are in control of the character. You might not be able to control obstacles or consequences, but you can move him/her around and feel much more connected to his/her goals. In fact, when the character looses, you loose. When the character wins, you win. No other medium has that power. If Ender wins the battle against the buggers, that doesn't mean you win too. If he dies, that doesn't mean you die. But in video games, your loss is your own to bear. In order to share a viewpoint on the currently arising social issue of socialism, i've created this video game.

The first level is simple. You walk to the right. You win $1000. It's easier than eating ice cream. This level represents those in society who reap the temporal benefits from socialism without having to do much at all. These are those who don't work hard to get an education and don't spend time developing marketable skills outside of college. 

The second level is not so simple. There are obstacles. You might fall a couple times, there's a lot at stake here. You might fall and die, but you'll work at it. Learn the things you need to do in order to survive, and in the end make $1000 dollars. It will take you much longer, and require much more work. This level represents those who work to pay for themselves and those who don't work. Of course, the payments are exactly equal and exaggerated in order to prove a point.

As a missionary, having lived for 2 years in a socialist foreign country, I saw this happen with my own eyes. The poor weren't determined to get out of poverty because they had nothing to fight for. Everything was paid for. Food. A brand new home. Health care. It's all there at the doorstep just waiting for you. You can even spend the money the government gives you on more drugs if you want. I noticed that these people were handed loads of things but didn't even take care of it. The brand new houses the government built for these people were barely maintained. You can't give a lazy man a hard working man's increase, and expect the lazy man to turn into a working man.

After a couple years of socialism, high schools began to fail. Only 50% of students completed high school. Probably because they knew that they could either:

1. Work hard. Go to college. Get a solid job. Get a nice house. But then give a bunch of that money to the other half of their classmates who didn't finish school and sustain their living.

2. Drop out. Still have money. Still have health care. Still have a nice house.

Working on this video game helped me realize that both society has influenced my use of media and that the media I create can influence society.

Webspinna Battle

NACHoooOOOooooOO!!!!

When Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre get together, you better bring some toast and tots because it's going to be a good time. Especially when they summon their eagle powers, learn some sick dance moves, and yes, even wrestle in tights.

Nick Ritter and I put together a little webspinna battle, as we like to call it, in which we collected and mixed sounds from various internet sites, dressed up like our characters, and performed a scripted battle of both sounds, music, dancing, and acting. When we started searching for sounds to use in our performance, we found that we could use music to reflect character's intentions, goals, and voices. Personally, I was surprised to hear so many songs at the webspinna battle. I was sure that people would use more dialogue and movie quotes. Soundboards that quote movies and put a collection of a certain group of songs can be found for a lot of different topics, stereotypes and movies, but music is definitely the most present sound medium on the internet, so it makes sense.

The performance itself was a performance like I've never experienced. I've sang on stage, acted, danced, played sports, all in front of groups, but this was completely different! It was like I had to use my internet navigation skills (which I use way too much every single day already) to present entertainment. Just like anything else, I guess the more you practice, prepare, rehearse, and perfect your performance the more flawless it will end up.

Throughout the semester I have noticed a commonality in my own projects as well as others. When we are given an assignment, I tend to naturally lean on a comfortable medium, genre, text, or interest that correlates with my personal interests. Nacho Libre is one of my favorite movies and I quote it everyday. Neal Butler is a huge sports guy and his character was a jock. Neil was a woman. He likes girls. It's easy math guys. We have voices and when we are given the opportunity to express them through art, we seize them and awesomeness happens.

Rythym Science Webtake shares an interesting perspective:

"Future generations won't have a 'dependence' on technology. They will have technology as a core aspect of their existence - as much as the languages we speak, the air we breath and the food that we eat are all aspects of technology"

I wonder how art will be influenced. I wonder how competitions will be influenced. Will new sports be invented with the rise of technology? Will new art mediums be invented? I think it's inevitable.

The Hunger Games is definitely an extreme politically radical example, but that's a huge technology-driven competitive sport that reflects one author's idea.

Webspinna just made me think about how there can be different forms of media and entertainment and how a lot could change the more society and technology changes.