Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWQssDFuV5E

The argument for my documentary was if Facebook could help people from losing friends, especially since many have just left home for college. I chose this topic mainly because many of the friends I talked to everyday in high school, I have not heard from since I left for college. So I thought with this topic I could see if other students were having the same problems as me. I wanted to find out how they were using Facebook to get out and meet new people or as a crutch to stay inside their dorm rooms.   

I think my documentary succeeded in getting my point across at the beginning so there was no way to miss the whole reason for it. Also, I was able to interview people who were able to prove me wrong because I thought everyone would be having this problem with balancing old friends with new ones. I had some pretty nice shots of the library, but I wish I had more time to get some other shots to add variety to the documentary.

I think my narration was the best way to present my topic because it allowed the documentary to flow and allowed the viewer to be led to what I want them to see and understand the point I was trying to get across. I think I might have fell short in the creativity in my layout. I usually take a very long to get my desired product in a project, but because of the time constraint I had to accept what I had with little time to change much if I did not like it. I feel like I could have made it perfect, or my idea of perfect, I had more time for trial and error to get something I went all out on.

Even though I did not have a lot of time, I still like the way my documentary came out. I succeed in getting some good shots of places were students would typically use Facebook and good interviews with students who felt comfortable enough to share their personal info on camera. I am glad I was able to achieve a simple way to get my idea across while keeping the viewer entertained with some lively music and ok transitions. They were only ok because Windows did not have much of a variety so that area was left a little bare. Overall, I feel like my documentary on Facebook and whether or not it could help keep friends was a success.

Shooting Schedule

For my documentary, I plan to start shooting on Monday since I will only have one class that day. I want to get shots of places where people are usually on facebook like my dorm and the library.

Tuesday through Thursday I will interview my subjects on how they use facebook to stay in touch with their friends. I will ask them questions like how often are they on facebook, if they always talk to old friends do they feel that facebook keeps them from going out and making new ones, if not do what has facebook encouraged them to get out and do.

Also, I will add some narration to it because I think it will help the documentary flow and will be a great way to start it.

Proposal Final Draft

For my documentary, I am going to determine how UK freshman use Facebook to keep in touch with friends back at home or at different colleges. By now I believe that all college kids have made some new friends in their two months in college, but no matter who they are, I know they haven’t forgotten their olds friends.

 

The audience for my documentary is UK students who use Facebook as their primary way to keep in touch with their friends and family. The purpose of my documentary is to remind students to not only make new friends while in college, but to also remember their old ones.

I plan to get some shots basically anywhere people use their laptops with an internet access. So I will probably get some in my dorm, the student center, outside of classrooms, and especially at the library. I will try to get some interviews with students who traveled from far off and compare it to a student from Lexington or close by.

 

Since many UK students are on Facebook, I think my documentary will be able to relate to my audience because everyone has at least one Facebook story. Hopefully my documentary will be able to open some eyes to how much Facebook keeps students in touch with old friends.

Proposal

For my documentary, I am going to determine how college kids use Facebook to keep in touch with friends back at home or at different colleges. By now I believe that all college kids have made some new friends in their two months in college, but no matter who they are, I know they haven’t forgotten their olds friends. I am probably going to find out that many students are up to date with their friend’s lives because they use Facebook as a way to procrastinate on homework or to relax in their down time. And for those who don’t use Facebook to keep in touch with their friends, they probably use twitter or one of the many other social media websites online. I think there might even be a small percentage that actually sends letters through the mail, who knows.

The audience for my documentary is college kids who use Facebook, but maybe I can use some professors or graduate students in my survey. I guess anyone could be the audience of my documentary as long as they use Facebook to keep in touch with friends away in different places. The purpose of my documentary is to find out how people use Facebook to cope with being away from their loved ones for extended periods of time.

I plan to get some shots basically anywhere people use their laptops with an internet access. So I will probably get some in the game room of Haggin, the student center, outside of classrooms, and especially at the library. I believe that nine times out of ten the people I interview will already be on Facebook so finding people to shoot shouldn’t be too hard.

I also want to find out how college kids react when their friends post themselves doing something crazy. I think it will spur the student to go and get involved with something on their own campus. Or maybe they will see their friend’s activity and have to scold them on their behavior. I have got a couple of those friends. Also, there are a lot of different pages on Facebook to like so maybe some students have friends who changed during their short time at college already. Since many college students are on Facebook, I think my documentary will be able to relate to my audience and hopefully be able to open their eyes to how much they really use Facebook to keep up with old friends while making new ones at college.  

Dark Days

The documentary “Dark Days” was a great documentary that made its thesis very clear to me from the very beginning. I didn’t know much about homeless people, but this video did a very good job showing the struggles that the homeless go through. The video is shot around the lives of four main homeless people and basically gives them a chance to tell their story. I think it is safe to say that their own stories are the narrative for the entire documentary. It starts off by each homeless person telling how they got down there and the reasons were never good. The bulk of the story is just the homeless people surviving. They just went from day to day doing different stuff to make money or fix up their homes until they were finally able to move out.

The documentary had many characters, but they were all built up in different ways. The main way was through their own stories which they told themselves which were all filled with emotion. It was clear that the bad decisions they made in their pasts is what caused them to end up underground and speaking it aloud usually came with solemn looks and tears. For me, this shows the characters as not only homeless, but people who are striving to survive in the world like all the rest of us. I think that juxtaposing their current living situation with their past mistakes really establishes a good pathos and evokes sympathy from the viewer.

Overall, this documentary had way more shots than the other two we watched combined. I could understand many of the shot selections like the shots of the different homes from the inside then seeing what it looks like outside. This leaves you with the impression of how they got their homes to look as well as the do. There were also shots of the tunnels to show the filth that they constantly live in, but then would contrast it with a shot of them living comfortably in their homes. This concept was furthered by the constant shots of rats and trash, but that wouldn’t affect them because they were used to the rats and they used the trash to make a profit. However, not all shots made sense to me. For example, the shot of where they took dumps and how they cleaned it out. The shot was eye opening but it was very unnecessary. To me, it didn’t serve a purpose past showing how nasty homeless people can be. Another example is when Brian was taking a shower. It was just another unneeded shot because we were already told that they didn’t have running water in the beginning. Most of the shots did make since and further the point of the documentary.

Between the documentaries we watched I think this one got its point across the best. They all had characters that had something to overcome, but this one was most relatable because we will meet more homeless people in our lives than the world’s largest record collectors or NBA draft picks.  

Proposal Ideas

My ideas are how Facebook keeps you in touch with your friends, how people use facebook to procrastinate, or how people don't protect their facebook.

Remix Video