Shell Guy: The New Story - From Constructed Space to Collecting Shells

After much debate and dialogue, our group has come to the difficult (but I think good) decision to put our nature film on hold and pursue the life and story of "shell guy." The nature and constructed space idea still really intrigues me. I would love to explore this issue in the future. But my group and I realized that the film idea we had was good, but far too abstract. When we tried to storyboard the film, we kept coming up with nothing. We don't have the time or skills to make the film we want to make. Our idea would take many hours of interviewing, exploring locations, and filming all to be cut down to a 20 minute film for this class. We could not portray everything we want to portray nor create a good story in 20 minutes, maybe an hour, but not 20 minutes. Since the Fall semester is nearly over and all we have is one interview with Shawn, "shell guy," and a few hours of nature footage, but still no story line, we decided to reevaluate the film and move in a new direction.

The first step in changing directions was contacting my other contacts at the parks. I felt like I was letting them down by pulling out my interest in their organizations. I still think they do great things, but that won't be our focus. I politely thanked them for all their help and said I would contact them if our film changes again. I shouldn't have been worried, because Darren at Partners for Parks was very gracious and just happy we found something to focus our movie.

Our first interview with Shawn went really well. We were cut off because his parents asked us to leave, but we were left with many questions and ideas to pursue further. When we showed our class pictures, they agreed that "shell guy" was really intriguing and they wanted to know. So just wait - you will know more :) We don't have a plan of action, but we will start by finishing our interview with Shawn. Most of the interview was in his bedroom, which is also his office space. We will do more there, but we also want to get footage of him talking about how he does things and sharing with us while he does things including sorting shells and hopefully diving. I am excited to start storyboarding, because I can finally see how a story can develop. We all plan to attend his monthly shell club meetings and hopefully talk to other shell collectors and learn bits and pieces of their stories and passions.

One of the biggest struggles I had with changing our story was figuring out the point. I don't want to tell just another biography of a random guy. I want something that will interest people, get them excited and make them think. We will start with Shawn's story, but I don't know what else we will encounter along the way. We might explore ideas about this specific use of nature, the story of a dying hobby (shell-collecting), the reasons people have hobbies and so much more. As we learn Shawn's story, I hope our story develops more so that Shawn's story can be every one's story. Everyone has something they are passionate about and reasons for it. I hope somehow our story will find those areas and help everyone relate to "shell guy."


Shawn's Favorite Shell

- Rachel

Impressed with your progress

Hi All: I feel like I have bailed on you all, but I have had my prorities shift and have spend the last month and a half restoring a rental condo...which has gone from bad to worse as I have discovered more damage in the unit. (too bad I didn't pick this as a topic for my film...as I have some great footage of lots of rusty pipes etc.)

In any case I have been reading your blogs and I think you are all doing so wonderful with your projects, even if some of you feel you are not as far along as you would like to be. I think you are really making lots of progress. I hope to be able to get to calss next semester and see some of your work. In the meantime I want to thank you for welcoming me to the class, and wish you allthe very best of this holiday season.

cheers, Patricia

Grain Project: Bringing The FARMily Together.

This Saturday morning was unlike most Saturday mornings I have known (not because I was up at 8:00 am) but because my group and I got to enter into the Jerome Park Garden and actually witness the great things that happen there. All the magic that mystified us into the direction we're taking with our project came quickly flooding back. When we arrived Dr. Nick Spain and fellow Grain Project-eer Shody (hopefully I'm spelling that correctly) warmly welcomed us and were ever eager and helpful to us.

We got there bright and early so we could conceptualize camera angles and possible narratives without having to worry about budgeting our time. We spent a good 4 or 5 hours within the garden gates, and I think we left with great footage and ideas for future footage. During those hours the two Grain Projectors welcomed neighborhood children, some who came with their parents and some who came with their siblings (all of whom have already been there previously). Lauren, Nikki, and I listened, watched, and interacted with the children as well as Nick and Shody and truly got a good feel of what the goal and message of Jerome Park Community Garden is.

Children don't just come to this garden because they have nothing else to do, they were upset that the garden hadn't been open the week before. The kids remembered which plants were doing well and were ready to start planting the next batch. All of these children came to get involved, dirty, and to learn. When a child was seen asking a question, the answer wasn't just given to them, Dr. Spain, having a teaching background, would try and get the children to figure out the answer on their own whether it be spelling "radish", reasons for having a rock in the bird bath, or what earthworms and other bugs do in a garden. This garden is serving many purposes and teaching the kids to think about nature in a practical way is a huge one.

The children seem to enjoy tasks that were surprising to even the Grain Project volunteers. While we were there we saw children weeding, shoveling compost, watering empty plant beds and other laborious tasks. These kids weren't forced to be there and were definitely not forced to do any of these jobs, they simply wanted to help and be involved. The parents we saw were also very happy to have such a positive outlet for their kids and mentioned how much better they view this kind of activity as opposed to video games and television.

The Grain Project has great optimism and I can see them accomplishing great things. They surrounded themselves in a highly urbanized area with low income housing, schools, churches, and a community center. They want to remind people that farming isn't going "back to the past" but rather "going back to the future" and how this type of living is beneficial to all and not just a past reflection of how we, as "urban-ites" lived. I, as well as my group, are very supportive of this project, not just because of film interest, but because we truly believe in what they are all about. As a way of giving back to our informants we will be contributing to a fund they are raising money for. They have monetary increments that allow you to sponsor a child or a family for a year's worth of gardening. We would like to see the Grain Project grow and flourish and are willing to get down and dirty to help and see the community benefit from them and blossom.

The Grain Project Blog-Lauren

First off, I would like to agree with the blog below that this semester has gone by very, very quickly. That being said, I have a feeling the winter break ahead of us will go by just as fast, and we will be back in class, Tuesday January 27th for a new semester of old faces, and a new set of challenges.

The passing of the Fall to Spring semester is always a bit off-putting for me. Due to the Winter Session, those of us who aren't enrolled in a three-week course, are sort of in an educational limbo for three weeks. Now, don't get me wrong, I usually put these weeks to good use with vacations, extra hours of work, and new year's resolutions (that quickly fade).... but what does this mean for our films? I know we are not exactly "required" to do any work or filming over the break, but how can we not? I am terribly anxious about our film, working with an outside organization, and working with the elements. I am terribly anxious about taking days off of work (and the others in my group doing the same) in order to film and getting rained out and postponing the footage we need (for our pending teaser, film, etc.).

Despite my anxieties, after our first "official" day of filming in the Grain Project's Jerome Park Garden, I couldn't be more happy. Not only did we do some nice filming, it was a perfect day of participant observation. Yes, that's right, we worked in the garden too! I'll leave Mike or Nikki to talk more about that, but basically, Nick Spain, the Grain Project's agricultural director (and former anthropology professor), is amazing. Simply amazing. He, like any good anthropologist, tends to know everything about everything. I especially enjoyed what I will call his "walking lecture" on the garden's native plants.

It feels odd that our first semester of the class is almost over. Its all gone by so fast! But, there is still SO much work to be done. Our first major interview went very well! We got a full tape (roughly an hour) of interview footage with a bit of B-roll footage for doing cut-aways. It was a long day. Up and on the freeway by 6am on our way up to Bakersfield to meet Stacy Macross, my friend and informant. Once we arrived at the house, it took us roughly an hour or so to figure out where and how we were going to shoot the interview. It took us some extra time to figure out how to shoot using Tin's mirror technique that he showed you all last week. It took a bit of work to get the mirror the right distance away from the the subject so we would have room to frame the subject in a manner that we liked. After that, we were off to the races!

We've gotten a green-light to film in Dr. John Walker's surgery clinic! The deal is that we will provide the clinic with all the footage that we shoot so that they can use it in whatever manner they see fit. This is much better than creating an entire separate film for their clinic. We don't have anything scheduled as of yet, but we hope to do a good deal of shooting once the semester is over and Tin and I have more time on our hands. We hope to be filming one of Stacy's botox sessions within the next month or two as well.

New pathways have been opening up for us on this project!! We're excited about where its going, we just worry about having the time to do it all.

Team Green: "Imagining" the ECHS film

In thinking about how to best approach a documentary film on a high school I’ve taken the time to look at two documentaries on the educational system that Steven suggested.
One was called The First Year (2001). It’s about five first year teachers instructing in South Los Angeles classrooms at five different schools ranging from grades kindergarten to 11th grade ESL. In the film there were no formal talking head interviews or narration to guide the viewer and frame the narrative. The filmmakers did use title frames to string the teacher’s similar experiences together. For instance, “I’m having a problem with one of my students,” preceded the filmmakers showing each teacher's struggle with a student in their classroom.

The second film was called I Am A Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School (1993), which won an Academy award. This film centered on an “inner-city” elementary school in Philadelphia made up of all African-American students. The filmmakers primarily followed the principal who often complained about the lack of funding the school received and highlighted the faculty’s difficulty with constantly having to discipline the students while attempting to teach them. This film employed the use of narration and was filmed over the course of one school year. At the end the principal leaves her position at the school citing lack of support from the school district as the reason.
Both films gave me tons of ideas about what I like and also what I didn’t want us to do with story development and cinematography. They both grazed the surface and it appeared as though the filmmakers didn’t take ample time to get to know the participants. During interviews some people seemed uncomfortable or the off camera questioning seemed off the cuff and didn’t probe enough to get more thoughtful and in depth responses.
As anthropologists we have a unique advantage of being able to hang out, develop a great rapport with participants, take field notes and watch the potential for stories to unfold right before our eyes. And I think this was the element missing from the documentaries that I watched. We can get in there and make space for people to open up in ways traditional documentary filmmakers may not.
With the semester drawing to a close I contemplate on what kind of film my group will produce. We’re still in the stages of contacting teachers and getting their availability so we can start to make trips to the school. It hasn’t been an easy process. The issue of how to distribute permission slips to any student we happen to get on camera has been a source of frustration for us. Yet, we’re beginning to talk about ways to remedy that and still move forward with our project.
So, back to this issue of how our film will look and feel. Honestly, I’m not sure yet. After this semester I still can’t see the images we intend to capture or the type of stories we plan to tell that will come from the students. With filming during winter break and through February since we have to start editing in March we don’t have a lot of time.
As we begin to look ahead and plan for the upcoming semester we need to remember that we have methods available to us that can assist with getting at the stories we’d like to develop and can help us to produce a potentially meaningful film.

Nature and Constructed Space: Making Contacts and Making Stories

It’s been a few weeks since I blogged for our group. I feel like a lot has happened, yet not much has happened at all. I met with the people at El Dorado Nature Center and went on a nice nature walk enjoying the “naturally constructed nature” of the center. I think that phrase is an oxymoron, but it makes sense to me, because I found out that everything there was planted, but some of it has taken over and grown on its own. So, the nature center was constructed and is maintained by people, but plants are given as much free range to grow as possible.

Anyways, the more exciting part about my trip to the nature center was the contacts I gained. I met a couple who has walked there every morning for 25 years. Donnie (my tour guide) told me that the nature center has been therapeutic for people overcoming illness and trauma in their lives. So there are lot of people that really enjoy and appreciate the nature and I hope to interview some. I also met the nature center stewards, volunteers who come multiple times a week to maintain the nature center. They help plant “native” California plants and take care of different areas. Donnie told me that all of these people have unique interests in nature. A couple of them have replanted their own yards with native California plants. Others are very knowledgeable about butterflies or another specific area of nature, kind of like our shell guy. All of them seem like they would have interesting stories to tell, but that leads to our group’s dilemma.

How do we take these different aspects of nature and tie them into a story? Can we focus on people’s “nature” hobbies and still explore our idea of nature and constructed space? Nature is all around us, how do we focus our filming so that it is not so broad we never reach a point, nor is it so narrow that we miss something? Finally, how do I, as a director, proceed forward trying to get these people to talk to me without giving up every day of the week volunteering just to build trust and a relationship so that these people want to share?

I can’t believe it is already December. Our film has so much great potential, but there are so many other things happening, I don’t know how we will get it all done… It still seems so abstract to me! I am hoping in January I will have a little more time to volunteer, film and do interviews, but we’ll see. Somehow, we will construct this film as naturally as possible to explore the issues of nature, space, and people’s unique stories.

Classic 3-Point Lighting - A Visual

Key - Where to set it up










Fill - Where to set it up










Backlight - Where to set it up

Lights, Lights, Lights, Yeah...

As I sit here at my desk this morning at Ye Olde Botox Shoppe (not the actual name of my office by the way…but sometimes I wish it were), I realize that with all the excitement of Tin’s lighting workshop, I completely forgot to blog on behalf of our group! First, I’d like to start by saying thank you to Tin. Your workshop was both fun and highly informative. Although we were all a little silly at times (I think we all had a case of the pre-Thanksgiving holiday jitters), I think we all really did learn a lot. Although our group doesn’t plan on doing any indoor set interviews, it is always good to have a little bit of knowledge in your back pocket in case the occasion should arise.

Also, I highly suggest Tin does researches getting a patent on his technology or a copy write on his idea for the contraption he showed us. You can do this at www.legalzoom.com, which provides self-help legal services. I learned about this site by listening to Joe Escalante's Barely Legal Radio (http://barelylegalradio.com/pages/index.php), which is a program at 9:00 a.m. every Friday morning on Indie 103.1. It is a fantastic source for information about the legal issues of the world of entertainment (film, music, books, etc.).

As far as filming goes, our group had its first day of filming in Santa Ana this past Saturday, November 22nd. This day served as our location scouting/ guerrilla filming day. Unfortunately, due to the schedule of the Grain Project, they were not having a community garden session that day. But, that didn’t stop us from driving around Santa Ana, filming Santa Ana signs, empty lots, Jerome Park (the large city park in which the garden is located), filming the garden (from the outside—the gates were locked), and eating some mango. Although Saturday served its purpose, we are very excited and anxious to get started filming INSIDE the garden and talking to people. Our first day for that is Saturday, December 6th. Although I love this rainy weather, I am keeping my fingers crossed for clear skies and good natural lighting on that particular day.

Visions of Post-Production

I am very anxious to start editing. I feel like the more time we are spending in the production stage, the less time we will have for editing. It is hard, in general terms, for me to enjoy the process of being within a project, rather I enjoy completing projects at least 10 times as much. I guess I need to start seeing the smaller projects within this large project, so I can experience some smaller joys in the process.

I have a vision of many late nights in the lab. The colder the weather gets, the more I am filled with dread. I will probably bring blankets to try and cozy up with the computers.

While we are thinking a little about post-production, check out this royalty-free music that Moby offers for non-proft and student filmmakers. It's quite good. 

Jessica Steaffens

Take your vitamins.

I'm sick. And it couldn't come at a worse time. So, don't be like me. Take your vitamins and get lots of sleep!!! But all that aside...its movie time! Shooting cut-away/B-roll footage this weekend was an adventure that I definitely should have thought more about before I did it. I didn't realize how personal the topic was until I had ask random people on the beach if I could steal images of their purposefully-altered body and use them in a documentary that doesn't really have a strict focus, but only knows that it will, in some way, deal with cosmetic surgery and/or elective physical enhancement. I realized that I had to be very careful in how I worded my 30-second pitches to these individuals so I didn't come off as some creepy dude with a camera. It helped that the release form had "CSULB Department of Anthropology" written on the top, but I didn't always get that far. Many people who were willing to be filmed, became un-willing when a release form was mentioned. At that point, maybe they assumed that it was going to be published and broadcasted to the masses and didn't want people in Skokie, Illinois judging them. Not that the great people of Skokie, Illinois would do such a thing. I just thought it interesting.

Tin and I will be shooting our first formal interviews this week and weekend. Hopefully these will give us an idea of where our film topic will lead us. There are so many possibilities of where this film can go, its time we let the film, and our informants, take the proverbial reigns and guide us. I'm hoping that Tin and I can handle all of the technical aspects of our shoots with our two-person crew. I think that we can, it's just going to take planning and some extra time.

A good documentary to watch to observe how simple lighting and a simple background can create drama and tension in an interview...The Fog of War. Its a good flick. Great use of Dutch Angles.

Take your vitamins! Don't get sick!!! Turkey day is no fun with a fever!

scheduling conflicts....

Lauren, Mike, and I are very excited to be working with the non-profit organization, The Grain Project. We really believe in the work they are doing and can't wait to start filming, interviewing, ect. BUT due to scheduling conflicts with The Grain Project we are unable to officially film at our "site" until December 6th (I am not complaining and I do not want it to sound like I am bashing this organization because we feel so lucky to work with them and we have all the respect and understanding for their obligations).

However, our 3 minute teaser is due on Dec 2nd, which means that we will not have any footage of our actual site. Sooooo, as the editor of this film I am becoming very uneasy about the prospect of editing the teaser (and creating  a finished product that my group and I are proud to show) in a matter of, what, a day? Not to mention I will also have about 100 pages of other papers due at the same time. Hmmmm...we are definitely going to have to figure this out.

Are any other groups having any troubles? Frustrations?  why don't we all blog about it......it's good for the soul.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL PHOTO GALLERY

Nature and Constructed Space: Filming, Fallbrook, Fires, and Finales

Where does all the time go? This question seems to be at the top of my list. Time flies, and flies, and flies like a beautiful little bird that will never stay in one place for too long.

Fallbrook: Since time is such an issue for each of us in our group, we have chosen to be very creative about how and when we can film. Two weekends ago, I was in Fallbrook scouting and planning at my wedding location and brought the camera along to get some shots of “nature” and human development. It was great practice for me as I tried to capture landscapes, trees, houses, clouds, abandoned rod-iron wheels with greenery growing through it, tractors, wind rustling through the trees, etc.

Fires: This past weekend, Rachel took the camera to film while she was hiking in Chino Hills, only to find Chino ablaze like the rest of Southern California. When you do a film about “nature” and human development, it seems you can find a story idea in anything. Though Rachel was not able to capture the destruction of the flames taking their toll on our human, constructed spaces it got me thinking of yet another way to tell our film's story.

Finales: I watched the final celebratory episode of the iconic TRL (Total Request Live) last night on MTV. I am already someone who loves history, memories and talking about ‘the way things were’, so to say I went into ultra-nostalgic mode last night is a big deal.

As I watched pop music videos on TRL reveal its tiny history for the past 10 years (1998-2008), I was blown away by the transformation of style, popularity of artists, shifts, and movements of not only the music industry, but myself and the broader culture we live in.

Taking such thoughts of one, measly decade of change a step further (since I had 3 hours to think about it during the TRL finale), I thought about something our Shell Collector said during our interview with him on Wednesday evening last.

Context: the Shell Collector was discussing his presidency of the Pacific Conchological Club. Discussed at one of their recent meetings, there was an article that talked about the different reasons why shell collecting clubs have diminished in membership and why young people aren’t interested in collecting shells. Some reasons included:

• restrictions on collecting live mollusks
  kids are less interested in outdoor activities and more interested in video games
• kids don't want to hang out with adults and grandparents
• shell clubs are boring
• climate change has led to dearth of shells in many places
• life is too busy to have a hobby like shell collecting

You'll notice some reasons given have social roots while others deal with environmental changes. My connection between the finale of TRL and the slowly-fading shell collecting hobby was simply about "all things" having a life cycle.Eras come to an end, empires fall, babies are born, people get married, people get divorced, fires consume, plants grow, TRL ends, and Wii replaces the hobby of shell collecting for youngsters and families.

Career Day At ECHS by SZB

Monday November 17th was a busy day for Team Green Members, not only did we deliver a successful proposal getting many teachers and staff members on board with our film, we also got a chance to make first contact with the students, by coincidence it happened to be ECHS's Career Day. After having a introductory chat with Sal, not myself but the Director of the Consulting firm who was responsible for organizing the whole ching-ding or chen-dig, which ever one you prefer.

Anyways there were many organization on campus to appease the environmental appetites of these young conservation go-getters such as Body Glove, Heal the Bay, The Department of U.S. Forestry, Smokey the Bear included, and most prominently (I hope that's the right word) Planet Green's resident "Eco-MacGyver"Darren Moore, co-host of Altar-Eco, which aired last night. Last nights episode, Green Teens, showcased ECHS Green Ambassadors Program.

The episode mainly focused on Jordon, a young female ECHS student who is part of a group of 15 ECHS students on their way to Costa Rica for a week to learn about environmental sustainability. The idea is to bring the knowledge back and apply it here in the U.S.

Back to career day, overall the students appeared to be really interested and were not shy about inquiring about specific careers and organizations. Although I did not get the chance to talk in-depth with any of the students about their experiences at ECHS I was able to get a few photos and names of a few willing and able bodies who agreed to participate in our film. Some day I will learn how to upload the photos so you can check them out for yourselves.

Questions

It’s late at night and I’m toast. What is all this about, this topic of beautification? Where is it leading us? At this hour - I don’t know - I’m so tired I don’t even care. Ryan and I spent the whole evening preparing for our first formal interview. We’ll drive to Bakersfield to do it. What is it going to be about? What are we going to learn? Are our questions going to define answers? Are we defining the film by our hidden presence in it?
But the questions spill over the brim, endlessly, mercilessly.
Why are we fascinated by the topic of beautification?
Is it true that not conforming to norms of beautification is social suicide?
Is it true that we communicate by our looks?
Can we find answers to these question?
Who are we - we the filmmakers? How are we related to the topic?
No pictures yet, no film, just questions.
We can’t hide ourselves behind the camera. We can turn it around and the subjects of our interviews will be us, giving a dissection of a dialect of the same language everybody speaks: beautification. The observer and the observed is one and the same.

Urban Community Gardening

As humanity progresses and "modernizes", it seems we start to lose that connection with nature that is within each and every one of us, its like denying our primal instincts. This could be due to lack of time, funds, space or other social or economic issues. At Tanaka Farms we were hoping to find people trying to reconnect with nature and understand better where food comes from and the process of it all, being so near their homes in Irvine and other Orange County cities. Yet, that doesn't seem to be what we found at all.

Luckily though, through some connections in class *wink* aka ;) (I can't believe I just did that), we got in contact with a group called The Grain Project.


What the Grain Project is is a non profit organization based out of Santa Ana which in the past hosted and organized a farmer's market. This took a lot of coercion of the city of Santa Ana and its mayor. After they were allowed to conduct their farmer's market the resources and funds didn't cover the cost, so they had to temporarily discontinue it.

This setback led to a new door opening which is a plot of land near Jerome Park (near an elementary school, a senior center, and several apt. complexes) that is a quarter acre in size which is all dirt. From this dirt Dr. Nick Spain and his key volunteer Laura have turned the plot into a community garden. Unlike other urban communal gardens though, this one is not rented or sectioned off to individual plots. The community is able to come tend any crop in the garden and is welcome to eat any of the "fruits of their labor" (see what I did there?).

This has lead to educating the youth of Santa Ana on plants and the growing of those plants. Also it has allowed for the older generations who might have small scale subsistence farmed wherever they lived before immigrating to Santa Ana rejuvenate their past knowledge. A bridge is forming connecting older generations to new ones and the connection to nature is being reborn and stories are being passed down while children can get their hands dirty and farm just like grandma and grandpa did.

We have yet to visit the site, but have seen pictures of the construction and first harvest (they've had the lot since March). It looks very promising, people from all age ranges come to contribute. The Jerome Park Garden is only open on Saturdays, due to lack of volunteers, but hopes to have enough resources to open more often in the future.

We plan to explore the growth of the garden and the community of its participants. Interviews would include The Grain Project administrators, kids, parents, teachers, possibly city council members, and other non-profit organizations. It is definitely a nice story which would develop into good narratives as we do our fieldwork documenting THEIR field work.

Nature and Constructed Space: Blue Planet and my love for Christmas

While I enjoy buying dresses and snazzy shoes as much as the next person, I am mostly a consumer at Barnes and Noble. I recently purchased the documentary series by the BBC called the Blue Planet: Seas of Life to accompany my copy of Planet Earth. Needless to say, both documentaries are filled with breathtaking video.








Tonight, it seemed appropriate to watch Blue Planet since I have also started filming for our own documentary about "nature". As I watched what could have potentially been boring, repetitive shots of ocean waves (except that each shot was utterly captivating and would most likely be boring to someone who thinks only white walls are pretty to look at),



a fear crept into my mind. I thought about how even the most beautiful of locations can look flat, unmoving, and dead if the shot isn't framed/set up well. As a infant cinematographer, I am bound to make such mistakes...repeatedly. I do believe the the assured way to get better, familiar, and lucky, is to be filming as much as possible. If not filming, then at least remembering to ask, "Hmm...I wonder what this would look like if I were able to frame 'it' like this?" So that's my plan.


On a more philosophical note, I also watched A Charlie Brown Christmas tonight (that's why it's so late - and my roommate is telling me a fantastic story about Dinosaurs being alive in the Congo - and if you want to visit the dinosaurs, you need space suits because its too toxic).





As Charlie searches for the true meaning of Christmas, we are searching for the meaning of "nature". Charlie is unsatisfied with the seemingly self-centered and commercialized nature of Christmas. In fact, one could argue that Charlie is deep down, an idealist - one who hopes the world is different than it seems. Anyway, Charlie is lucky enough to have a prophet in his life named Linus who explains the true meaning of Christmas to Charlie. Somewhere in this film process, I hope we find a Linus who will simply explain the underlying meaning of humanity's complex relationship with "nature".

The "Culture of Beautification"

Things are cruizin' right along! We've welcomed Nicole as a new member to our film family!! She's already proved as a great asset to the development of the film! We're really narrowing down what it is this film is going to be about! Its exciting now that ideas are coming together!

It looks like we'll be conducting our first formal interview next Friday in Bakersfield. We first thought this consultant would be a source regarding the experiences of botox, but this has changed. As it turns out, she has participated in breast enlargement, rhinoplasty, and mentoplasty (chin augmentation)! We're excited about interviewing her, as she'll provide great insight into the motivational factors behind cosmetic procedures, as well as being able to express how her thoughts changed as she progress through what we're calling the Three Levels of Cosmetic Enhancement. Non-invasive (laser hair-removal, dermabrasion, etc), Semi-invasive (botox, tattooing, etc), and Invasive (liposuction, breast augmentation, etc). The consultant has requested to see some of our questions before hand so that she can think on the questions and provide us with a better interview. I personally think this is a good idea, but that perhaps some questions should be left out as there may be certain questions in which we want to be answered spontaneously. And, of course there will be questions that will be spontaneously asked during the interview.

The camera.

As a photographer, I like this camera a LOT!!! I got the chance to explore it over the weekend, I must say that its a gem! Some of my favorite features are the on-board sound mix, and the focus ring. The sharpness of this camera's lens is amazing! This is a good thing, but it can also cause you problems. Its imperative to make sure you're in focus when shooting. If you're out of focus in the slightest bit, it WILL show.

"The Eyes Have it All"

In portrait photography, it is standard to focus on the eyes,as they are what express the most emotion, as well as sit in a good position to provide a good plane of focus so the rest of the face is sharp. The expression, "The eyes have it all" could not be more true. When one eye is closer to the camera then the other, be sure to focus on the eye CLOSEST to you. Here is a link to some basic portrait photography technical guidelines that may help.

http://www.picturecorrect.com/photographytips/207/better_portrait_photography.htm

You don't necessarily need to shoot so close that you can see the detail in their eyelashes, but zoom-in on the eye to focus, then zoom out to your preferred framing. I think these basic principles of photography can help. They certainly can't hurt. Just remember, that everything you do in regards to framing, focus, lighting, etc., guides the viewers eyes and influences how they'll interpret the image. I'm sure Steven talked about this, I just wanted to reiterate how important it is. If you have any questions feel free to ask!


Happy shooting!!!
Ryan

Environmental Charter High School

Since our last post, we have been focusing on putting together some wordy contracts between the school and ourselves to ensure creative control of the project. We are also trying to figure out our approach to creating a symbiotic relationship with the teachers, faculty and staff of ECHS! Here are some photos to give you all a better idea of what ECHS looks like....

Personal Liability Insurance Info.

Hey there everyone, I just spoke with my aunt about personal liability insurance. Steven recommended I blog this information.

As I mentioned in class, my personal liability insurance is tagged onto my renter's insurance, for which I pay $13.50 per month. For the personal liability insurance portion of my plan there is no deductible. Meaning, if I were to be out in the field with the camera, and, due to my own personal negligence, drop the camera off a ten foot wall, 100% of the value of the camera would be covered. But, if we were to have the camera, and another group member (or total stranger for that matter) were to damage the CSULB property, my insurance would not cover it. In addition, if the camera were in my apartment, and someone were to steal it, it would not be covered by my renter's insurance because I do not own it.

My aunt recommended that if people want this sort of insurance, it is more cost effective to tag it onto a renter's insurance or auto insurance policy (to just get in individually is about $10 or $11 per month--I think). She recommended people in the class to call their local insurance agent (State Farm, etc.), or, they can call her office to write up a policy through Driscoll & Associates, which is located here in Long Beach (technically Signal Hill). My aunt's name is Carleen Armstrong.

Driscoll & Associates

3150 E. Willow Street

Signal Hill, CA 90755

Phone: 562.595.5355

Fax Number: 562.427.6069

I hope this helps! Personal liability insurance is kind of cool to have. For example, if I were to be shopping in a store, and break a large and expensive vase, it would be covered. Another example my aunt gave was that if I were have a dinner party and serving a walnut salad, in the case of someone chipping a tooth on a walnut shell, their damage would be covered by my liability insurance.

Tanakatainment Photo Supplement

Gail handing off the launch controls...

and...blam!


The corn looked suspicious...

Tanakatainment? First day of filming

Mike, Lauren and I had our first day of filming at Tanaka Farms on Sunday 10/26 and I have to say...everything went pretty well. We filmed three interviews (one of which we will probably not use, but was useful practice for filming and setting up the interview shot and sound) and also a number of cut-aways. 

We were all under a lot of pressure to capture footage that day since it would be out last opportunity to film during the "pumpkin patch/Halloween season", which may be taken down after friday to begin setting up for Christmas tree season.

One problem that we did face while filming had to do with the audio from the external mic. We had set up our interview, prepped out interviewee, and were ready to film when we discovered that the only audio we were recording was from the internal mic (and there was way to much external noise). After about 45 minutes of fussing with it, we finally were able to figure it out with the help of our interviewees father (who happened to be a filmmaker). 

Another small problem we faced was that many people we talked with did not want to do interviews with us. The environment of Tanaka Farms is very crowded and busy, and many families with small children don't have enough time to stop and give us the time needed for a proper interview. We ended up finding individuals who were stationary. For example, out best interview was a father whose daughter was having a birthday party at the farm, which allowed him free time while the kids were playing and eating cake. Another great interviewee was a volunteer who manned the "launch pad" which shoots pumpkins out of a large cannon toward a target at the other end of the farm. 

Anthropology News: March Issue

This is from an email I received from AN. I just wanted to throw it out there in case any of you might be interested in submitting commentary on the topics they're addressing.

-Ryan


I’d also like to let you know that March AN will focus on the theme “Ethnography across Media.” Series topics will include (1) Multisensory Anthropology across Media and (2) Visual Ethics. If you are interested in submitting a commentary piece for this, please go to www.aaanet.org/issues/anthronews/callforpapers.cfm for submission details and guidelines.-

Botox Anyone?

Things are coming along in the world of cosmetic surgery!! We've established some great contacts in the last week, and what was looking like a dry river of access has turned into a flood of information and willing consultants!! Hopefully this deluge remains throughout the project.

As of now, we have a woman who regularly undergoes botox treatments, and has participated in botox "parties". She is willing, and practically pushing for us to film one of her treatments in the coming month! She may also connect us with others who undergo similar treatments. Thanks to Patricia, we have a consultant at a local salon who is willing to give us an interview and perhaps give Tin a facial. Speaking of Tin, his hard work has put us in a great position to capture the innards of the cosmetic surgery industry! Through a physician friend of his, we hope to gain access to, and film a surgical procedure!! We'll be pitching our film at his facility this week in hopes of acquiring permission to document a tummy tuck/face lift/liposuction/breast enlargement/etc. procedure! There is also the possibility of a contact within a penis-enlargement office!!

Now we just need to narrow down our angle and pin-point how we're going to drive this train to make an interesting and personal documentary. I will admit, this class is turning out to be formidable. There are times when it seems overwhelming, and I'm sure its going to get even more so. But, I'm really excited to see what's going to happen in the coming months.