Fratbooking

         

       
           http://youtu.be/tUOAVbYJIB4

          The goal of my project was to show how Facebook influenced fraternities decisions on potential members. I wanted to find out if a person's Facebook was a reason to not give them a bid. I ended up finding out that there's actually have been some cases where active members of a fraternity decided not to give someone a bid based on what was shown on their Facebook. They look for inappropriate pictures displayed, cursing in status updates, and his overall character online. I was actually surprised to find that someone's social identity could influence someone's judgement of them so immensely.

          If I had another month I would definitely go out and film some of the process of spring rush to show exactly what happens. I would have liked to have shown what actually happens during formal rush. For example, I could have shown some of the conversations that happen, as well as the selection process and what the actives specifically look for. I could have also shown some footage of how Facebook goes into planning our philanthropy events. We are planning one now to involve a kickball tournament, so I would have like to have filmed the event and put some footage of it in my documentary. I should have interviewed some sororities to ask them what kind of things they look for when teaming up with a fraternity to do social and service based events. From a technical side, the editing was very difficult and if I had more time I could have refined it a little more to make it flawless. There are some awkward pauses and parts where the audio is too soft. Also, I should have taken my lighting into better consideration. The interviews ended up being very dark, so I went with a black and white theme. It would have looked better in color. The only other thing I wish I could have done better was making more of the film footage based instead of just a bunch of interviewing. There's too much of just people talking, and not a lot of action. I feel like if I had another month, I could have added some quality footage to make the film much more exciting.

         Overall I am pleased at what my film came out to look like. Obviously some changes could have been made, but I like the finished project. I think it gives very good insight to what fraternities use Facebook for. I started out not knowing exactly what I wanted to do besides something involving my fraternity. After interviewing a lot of members, I decided that it  would be interesting to see how they judged my pledge class based off of our Facebook's. I also observed that Facebook was an excellent tool in helping us interact with different Greek communities, so I touched on that aspect as well. I hope my video displayed some aspects of Facebook that some people did not know, and will take other's opinions into consideration before uploading questionable photos.

Shooting Script Plan

I will be doing my documentary on how Facebook aids communication throughout a fraternity. I want to demonstrate how different our events and plans would be as a whole would be if we did not have Facebook to organize it. We have a Facebook page that gets probably fifty posts a day from both new members and active members simply posting events they’ve heard of, and basically getting word out that we should attend it.

                What got me wondering about Facebook’s influence on fraternity life was talking to my dad about the events they would put on when he was a Sigma Chi at Louisville. They actually had to advertise in person and use phones! Crazy right? I want to explore the positive impact that Facebook has had in this era.

                I plan on doing this by interviewing my dad and other alumnus of my fraternity who weren’t as fortunate to have the accessibility of Facebook. I want to know how they planned events and let people know about them. I also want to know what they think would have happened differently had they had Facebook.

                Along with that, I plan of interviewing active members, more importantly the executive council to see how they use Facebook to promote our philanthropy and other events such as, alumni/parent tailgates, social gatherings, and service projects. Being a pledge, I realize that Facebook is going to be crucial in developing the fraternity into something better than it is now.

Project Proposal

           My topic is how Facebook connects my fraternity to one another. I want to investigate why Facebook is so crucial in accomplishing goals that deal with the philanthropic and social aspects of our fraternity. I feel like without our Facebook page, it would be very difficult to spread ideas quickly, which is why I want to truly investigate it whether it is actually a necessity.

           I plan on interviewing other members, specifically the Elite Council members because they have been the most involved in important activities. I plan on filming specific events which have been planned over Facebook. Events such as, social gatherings, philanthropy events, and service projects. These shots will be informative and show a different aspect to fraternity life than most people are used to. I will also use snapshots of our Facebook page to show what all we discuss on it.

           As far as style, I will be shooting in color with a pretty upbeat attitude throughout the entire film. I’m not positive on the specific songs I will be using, but it will definitely be country. I want to interview people either in the KA house or where they live. I could also film our evening library studies or interview people in the library as well. I think I’m going to be filming our Habitat for Humanity service project coming up, or wherever the opportunity arises over the next few weeks.

           The people I want to watch this documentary are students that are interested in Greek life because it is going to give good insight to what a fraternity is really like. There is so much more to being in a fraternity than people think and I would like to change that stereotype. Basically I am targeting all incoming freshmen that feel like a fraternity is just a bunch of guys who get drunk together. I want them to change their opinion after seeing how much more to a fraternity there is than what they think.

           Overall I want this film to be very informative on what a fraternity is really like. I want to change people’s opinions. Along with that, I want it to have an upbeat feel to it. I don’t want it to be too serious, but at the same time I want it to be something that will make you think about what you previously thought. I plan on doing this through solid interviews and a good flow to the entire documentary.

Project Proposal

          My topic is how Facebook connects my fraternity to one another. I want to investigate why Facebook is so crucial in accomplishing goals that deal with the philanthropic and social aspects of our fraternity. I feel like without our Facebook page, it would be very difficult to spread ideas quickly, which is why I want to truly investigate it whether it is actually a necessity.

           I plan on interviewing other members, specifically the Elite Council members because they have been the most involved in important activities. I plan on filming specific events which have been planned over Facebook. Events such as, social gatherings, philanthropy events, and service projects. These shots will be informative and show a different aspect to fraternity life than most people are used to. I will also use snapshots of our Facebook page to show what all we discuss on it.

           As far as style, I will be shooting in color with a pretty upbeat attitude throughout the entire film. I’m not positive on the specific songs I will be using, but it will definitely be country. I want to interview people either in the KA house or where they live. I could also film our evening library studies or interview people in the library as well. I think I’m going to be filming our Habitat for Humanity service project coming up, or wherever the opportunity arises over the next few weeks.

           The people I want to watch this documentary are students that are interested in Greek life because it is going to give good insight to what a fraternity is really like. There is so much more to being in a fraternity than people think and I would like to change that stereotype. Basically I am targeting all incoming freshmen that feel like a fraternity is just a bunch of guys who get drunk together. I want them to change their opinion after seeing how much more to a fraternity there is than what they think.

           Overall I want this film to be very informative on what a fraternity is really like. I want to change people’s opinions. Along with that, I want it to have an upbeat feel to it. I don’t want it to be too serious, but at the same time I want it to be something that will make you think about what you previously thought. I plan on doing this through solid interviews and a good flow to the entire documentary.

Dark Days

          I was awed at how my opinion of homeless people changed after watching this film. Before, I had sort of felt bad for people in their situation, but this actually made me realize that a lot of their living situations were their own decisions. The people that live down in that subway are very proud of the situation they have made out of relatively nothing. Obviously each person represented in this film has reasons for ending up where they have, but the ending provides hope for the character. One says the he will “never ever ever ever never ever go homeless again. Being homeless was a nightmare.” After moving into their apartment, their attitudes changed. One evident example was the woman cleaning her room and making her bed. These people care about themselves, they were just in too unfortunate of a situation to do anything about it. I commend this director on his ability to show the change in these people over the course of the movie.

           As far as the film was actually shot, I really enjoyed the black and white view. It worked especially well in the subway, because it didn’t really matter what everything looked like. The purpose of the filming was to make us familiar with the people that we don’t’ know much about. Yes, we were supposed to notice the terrible living conditions they stayed in, but the black and white camera view made us focus more on their words rather than their surroundings. It provided a more meaningful purpose to the film. The dark contrast also provided eerie moments in the subway. In many of the scenes, the darkness fades out the walls of trash that are placed behind the people who live down in the subway. Again I believe the filmmaker wanted us to notice how it didn’t seem to bother them as much as one would think. Of course they noticed and hated the trash, but they still carried forward as if it was almost in the darkness to them.

           I would have really liked for the filmmaker to have switched to color at some point during the filming. It would have been very effective had he switched to color once everyone had moved into their apartments. I feel like I could have become more attached and personal with the characters, had the last ten minutes or so been shown in color. Color adds a sort of personality to a person, so when the video is only shown in black and white it keeps a side of the viewer in the dark as well. I can see why the filmmaker would have wanted to do this, I just don’t agree with it. I wanted to get to know the characters on a deeper level that I believe only color could have done.

Essay Remix

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWUNXoNq1is&feature=plcp

Video Games are Art

          Aside from the video being very difficult to understand with her constant stuttering and rapid changing of topics, I agreed with her statements overall. I can see video games as a form of art, but not entirely in the way she described. When I think of art, I think of the great portraits made by Michelangelo and Da Vinci, or the beautiful cathedrals and buildings of old Europe. Art always begins with an idea or statement that the artist wants to be known, which relates to Santiago’s idea or art being a form of communication. All the ideas presented above required time, effort and ultimately had the same goal in mind: to display the artist’s ability and to awe the spectator. When art is described as this, I find it very easy to call a video game art.

A video game always starts with a storyline and a main objective. In other words, the game designer has an idea for the game and he or she wants the world to try and tackle his or her idea through an interactive form. It’s almost like attempting to “play” your way through the Sistine Chapel using a controller. When playing a video game, we are trying to play through what the designer wants us to accomplish. We have to think abstractedly in order to complete the levels of the game. This type of thinking is what we do when examining a piece of art.

The man hours it takes to produce a video game is simply mind numbing, as well as the talent it takes to bring the conceptual game to life. Any artist will agree that every great piece of art requires a vast amount of time to correct mistakes and perfect their work. With so much time spent into a creation, it’s almost an insult to not define video games as art.

 As far as the articles concerned me, I was that baffled Ebert was attempting to call something that he had never experienced firsthand a non-artistic form of expression. If he does not have the desire to even play one entire video game, I don’t see how he is qualified to criticize their creation. That would be like me telling you that the food you made for me was not up to my standards without even trying it. To me, he seems line an arrogant asshole that doesn’t appreciate our generation’s definition of art. He would rather sit on his pedestal and judge what we love as unacceptable art.  I have no respect for this man as he has no validity to be arguing this subject. All is not lost though, as his follow up article he for the most part went back on his earlier statements because of all the negative feedback he was receiving. At least he can accept other people’s views. Other than his ability to change his point of view, I still believe wholeheartedly that Roger Ebert is an absolute idiot that needs to spend his time criticizing he actually knows something about. Burn in hell Ebert along with your narcissism.