Doc Mode Activity - The Young American Rock Band

I include a photographic record in an observational mode.  I shot this last year and I never got to do anything with this, until now. One is a collage that follows a rock band for two days. The other is a mixture of how I though my work would look like due to the illegal drug the members of this band would surprisingly use to compose music.  I was merely the cameraman who wouldn’t interrupt or mess with their reality.  I believe the place, their clothe and the things they would drink would all make a statement in a very popular tendency on a regular American band. This band dresses just like a band from the eighties-Things literally do not change.

I felt tempted to stop recording or to just not be in that place, because I felt like I was partaking of that, why?   Might be Ethic?  I don’t partake of drugs or similar stuff, why would I be interested on this.  The fact that I was recording all the time, and specially looking for some sort of thing to happen might have put me in a place in which I was there to mingle. Although I wasn’t involved or interacting with people.  I was interested in the fact that I could see a sort of change in them that I could portrait over film or pictures.

This band at the beginning has their regular breakfast, and after that during rehearsal, they used some drug that looks like a candy, swallow it really fast, and then continues composing some music. Practicing some songs for their performance at the Velour. Although, I didn’t see a big change, only found that they were a bit loopy and apparently hyper.  Later at the Velour, they are told not to drink alcohol, so their way to get away of that is mixing Coke with alcohol in a plastic bottle. 

In the concert, they connect with their audience who kind of looks like they are all part of the same group of friends. The members of the band and their friends didn’t seem threaten by the cameraman, they act according to me, very natural.

Stylistically speaking, I edited and pick the photos and place them in a sort of chronological order. Hoping this order can make and give the audience a big picture of this whole situation and story in which they get to performed in this popular place who helps local bands to show their art.  Also, the colors and the decision of doing a collage instead of placing each one of the pictures is because the details in this performance and the set make a whole difference on this band.  

Although this is not the War Room-not a lot of tension. I believe there is a sort of truth and crude reality of a world that still keeps maintaining the same traditions and component of young American bands. I couldn’t see a great difference in the effects on drugs in their musical performance, and I feel that there should be maybe a more scientific approach to this matter.  And personally, I remembered part of my childhood, and the time when I would watch documentaries of Woodstock with my dad.

https://soundcloud.com/ricardo-quintana-4/night-at-the-velour

The Observational Mode.

Now it is very clear to me that Observational documentary style is not only to set a camera in  a place without interrupting anything, just like a security camera. The observational mode is purposefully intended to tell a story without intervene, although frames and the course of the story and the time frame this all serve to shape a story in the documentary. According to the dictionary the word observe means watch (someone or something) carefully and attentively. With this small definition I’ll support the idea that leaving the camera recording is not enough, but to look attentively for a story without interfering letting the subject matter to follow the action as spontaneous as it can be.

Given this definition, the different films already watched such as the War Room  portraits how Clinton got elected, more than Clinton, how their staff helped to got him elected. I believe the director didn’t completely intrude, instead he showed how these people passionately work for this candidate. There are several examples of certain kind of tension or some highlights in this documentary, like the introduction of James Cartville, and the issue with the acussation Clinton had of a women who used to work with him, and the Bush campaing working in Brazil. All these little things compose a well-crafted summary of an exiting time in which the director leads the audience to this war room. I also think that partiality was key to presents this topic, because more than a pro Clinton documentary, it was about the campaign and the staff in itself. How these people reveal their character and individuality in each one of the scenes without being voyeuristic about it.

The other documentaries such as Les Racquetteurs, show in a very less aggressive way how a group of Motrealers enjoyed games in the snow. Although is a different treatment, this film also take you to the place and put you in the front line of this events. There director engages the audience with familiar and quotidian scenes of these games in the snow. Celebrations, competitions, and others are depicted by these images. Observational documentaries prove to be another interesting way to tell a story with hours of footage and a smart editing  it can be created a great way of representing reality, for some a fake and “spontaneous” reality, for others is to put a scope even closer to the subject than in any other style, seeing the true colors of the characters the film. 

The Expository Mode

In this documentary style the voice of the documentary is one of the most popular ways to continue doing documentaries.  The expository mode emphasizes the impression of objectivity and a well supported perspective.  This doesn’t mean that it won’t have a voice in itself. Editing, Sound, and other matters will all influence still in the film.  As Nichols explained, “ The fact that documentaries are not a reproduction of reality gives them a voice of their own. They are instead a representation of the world.” This means that even an expository film will have a voice, or a style that would give a certain message that the filmmaker wanted to remark, and not merely an exposition of two ideas.

In the Manufacturing Consent with Noam Chomsky the director doesn’t use a clear omniscient voice, but still follows a certain exposition of ideas trough the character and the different interviews he would give around the world. The director places each one of these interviews in an order in which there is a progression of an idea. At the same time there is a juxtaposition of images and information than can invalidate Chomsky point of view.  One example is when he Chomsky talks about how important is the ability to communicate at a regular basis to one another, and how this separates us to other animals, and following that remark the director chooses to show how in the news broadcast that  chimpanzees  might have the ability to communicate. Then there is this comparison about having fail on communicating this little chimpanzee “Nim Chimpsky.”

Another example of expository films in which a voice of authority or voice of God was clearly highlight was in The Vampire, and the Love life of the Octapus  in which the narrator plays a relevant place on the film. He guide us trough the images to learn the information we need about this animals, the bat and the octopus. Although, there is an exposition of information with a well supported perspective. In the case of The Vampire, the filmmaker to prove a point mixes a fiction film Nosferatus compared to the Bat,  to illustrate how similar and scary this animal can be. The juxtaposition of these images are not forced, and support what the narrator is explaining about this animal.  In the other documentary,  even so is still a believable  voice of authority, the stylization of Love life of the Octapus,  wouldn’t be completely objective. Music and the description of the animal would make us think that this animal is not part of this world, but an alien. Still, as a viewer I believe and follow the characteristics and the information that this scholarly voice was explaining.

In short,  the voice of an expository film would  be one of the most believable voices in these different styles.  Even though, it can’t be a completely objective view of a topic, the well informed voice of God,  or the pattern of presenting an argument seems to have a great impact on the audience. 

Fireside Chat

I believe that this last assignment was one of the coolest activities and experience I’ve had during this year. It took me a while to figure it out what belief and story I would say to the class, because I think I have many beliefs, and many stories, so I wanted to share something appropriate that could transcend.  Once I figure the topic and the style, I thought that talk about my traditions, and background would be interesting to share with my good class.  I decided to dance because body language can be as powerful as any other kind of language. Combining my black and white video with me dancing was a melancholic way to introduce my topic about the importance of traditions.

“I believe in the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, I believe in the power of traditions.”

I only focus my performance on one tradition, maybe a different one to the rest of the class, but with this I only wanted to point out that my tradition can be a powerful as any other tradition.

For the rest of the presentations, I’m speechless; they were so thoughtful and clever. I think that we all try to do our best, and if bearing our souls was necessary we did that.  I’m so grateful that we were in a safe environment in which we all felt comfortable to share sacred things for us. There were some performances that were very simple in terms of media use. Although, the story and content of the information was so rich! Probably anything else could have polluted the whole thing. I enjoy doing this presentation, and also I believe I got to know better each one of my classmates. A couple of times during the performances, my heart rejoiced for the wonderful amount of truth in only one room. 

Concerned Citizen TMA112

Our documentary "Driven" is about Pablo Quintana from Santiago-Chile, and currently an American citizen. Pablo lives in Salt Lake City and is on of the executive directors of a non-profit organization called Hispanic Community Connection (HCC).  He saw a need three years ago. Pablo found out that Latino community needs help passing the driving test in English. Himself and other associates founded the non-profit organization - HCC, that helps people from Latin community of different ages to get a driver's license teaching from the driving handbook in English and Spanish. This program not only help Latinos with their driving license, also help them to be more integrated to society here in Utah.  Pablo Quintana designed a teaching method based on a year of experience and many other ESL programs.  He realized that older Latinos have some limitations that were not considered on ESL programs.  Because of that He invested many hours with the Latino community working with other professionals figure in out the best way to teach this specific group of people.  This small initiative changed Pablo’s life and the life of those who have taken this course.

We called this short film “Driven” because it shows how one person can make a different being driven by one cause in order to help the Latino community.When we were shooting we decided to shoot some of the students to portray their frustrations and maybe how Pablo feel about them.  Also we shot some sheets of paper in the wall, which had some words on them- like "Learner", "Failed", etc. That also adds to visual language of our project. Furthermore, we wanted to make a picture of the kind of room this people is preparing themselves and how they react to it.  We did some sit down interviews with Pablo, we asked him to tell us how he feels about what he is doing, about his hopes and expectations for future, and how it all started for him. We struggle a little bit with the location, Latino Mall was one of those location, and the other one was the DMV He told us that at first he didn't even know if this initiative was actually going to work.

When we went to a location (Latino Mall) where students were getting ready for the test, we filmed some clips of the environment to make the audience feel closer and more understanding to what must feel these people. First time we saw the students we thought that they looked very friendly and in their eyes we could see this urge of this little but important thing-getting a driver license. As we were working on the project we could see some of the happy students going out of the DMV, the ones who passed the test and the way they looked at Pablo, I could tell how big of a difference he is making in their lives, we could tell it's especially making him happy.

 We think this issue is very important, but we don't think a lot of people even think about its existence. We hope our documentary will help some people to understand something new and to appreciate more what they have, since for these people even such a small thing as driver's license is crucial.

PROTEST POSTER

I selected the issue of Sexualizing Children on Fashion because I have a niece who is five years old and loves to pose for pictures. I made this poster and posted with privacy settings to discuss with a couple of adults, also in the TMA 112 class. I even hesitate on posting this picture because; even though I took it I don’t think is a picture that should be posted freely on the web because of the provoking pose of this five years old girl.  I love taking pictures, and I’m usually looking other professional’s work related to photography, I’ve started to realized how media, in especial the fashion industry is sexualizing children with the style of pictures. Make up and the poses represent a far more adult person than a child. Also, nowadays children are promoting teen and even adult clothe, depicting a fake reality of how a woman should look, or the size it should be compared with the size of a little girl dress like a grown woman.

With that information in mind, I looked different organizations which support this issue, the one I came across is www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org that is concern of many issues including the “End of Sexualization of Girl and Young Woman in the Mainstream Media.”  One popular case of this is the young girl Thylane Blondeau who poses for the Vogue magazine in very questionable poses and clothes being 10 years of age.

In short, I had many different reactions about this picture, since the effects on kids of working on the fashion industry leading to anorexia and an early sexual activity to the effects of these kind of publicity or pictures on pedophiles.  Serious consequences that for others commenting on the web, talking about my project, did not see the great deal on this, and they even liked the picture. I guess it depends with what kind of eyes a person can look at this picture, although I believe that thinking that all people would be able to see only what we see is also very naive.  Innocence cannot be represented with make up, as well as a child shouldn’t be depicting a grown woman. 

Webspina

Restaurant

http://www.inbflat.net/

Ode to salt

American Sabor

Webspinna was the BOMB! I had to confess the process of looking for different sounds took me more than I expected because I started listening a wide range of different sounds, and later I realize that I got nothing… After having fun with my homework I started to feel very frustrated because I couldn’t find something that show something that I wanted to shared with the class. I finally decided to kept it simple and I used the sound of a restaurant, bflat.com website with a poem of Pablo Neruda “Ode to Salt.” After that, I utilize some tropical rhythm to complement this more reflective and calm moment with a “Murga sound” or a Latin rhythm.  Making the transition was really hard, but I tried to kept the flow of the whole piece as part of a whole in the class, and furthermore ending with some restaurant sounds. My piece was about: a different culture, food, and serenity. I looked at these elements to balance my composition and also a way to portrait the importance of balance in life.

Even though I rehearse a couple of times before “performing,” it was a bit difficult to manage to control volume the mouse and other buttons to push and to make things work.  I realize how well some of my dear classmates did, there were some remarkable presentations for me as was Camlyn. I believe her presentation told me a lot about herself, with some blues and street sounds, I kind of went to Chicago or a big city in a small neighborhood with her presentation. Daniel’s webspinna was very intense, and I was glad to hear that kind of intensity and almost pain on his selection of sounds, I found that there is a lot of energy and constrained in Dan’s personality. I believed art can be a great mirror, or maybe an exit to show feelings and maybe  a different reality in a healthy perspective, even though it can get us out of our comfort zone.   Kristin did an amazing job on mixing sounds, as well as Scott.  There where other presentations that were plain fun such as Gina’s webspinna that made me want to dance, and actually I did dance on my chair though, but still isn’t it? I really enjoyed the informality of the event, as well as the respect of most of our classmates, staying and paying attention to the different presentations. Now I wonder how really sound the whole piece… I think we should all have it!