forgot

also forgot I had this one uploading to Youtube, one I did a while back and forgot to do anything with. Short intro to my car and a problem I was having at the time.

The American Way: Steroids?

The documentary "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" exposes a new side to the raging steroid controversy. Presenting the issue in a very fair, unbiased, and wholesome way was a noticeably prominent goal of the director, Christopher Bell. The documentary is centered around Christopher Bell and his family, which includes two bodybuilding brothers currently on steroids. From this center point, the documentary unfolds and tackles the broad issue of steroid use in sports, recreation, and jobs. Christopher Bell plays a very active role in the documentary being both in front of the camera during interviews and leading the camera through the world of the documentary.

The documentary's focus was on two main issues: how American's idolize athletes such as Hulk Hogan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and film stars such as Sylvester Stallone; and how there is a lack of consistency in defining what is a performing enhancing drug. The film questions, for instance, Tiger Woods' laser eye surgery to have 20/15 vision or how musicians and fighter pilots take adrenaline boosters to perform better. The question is where does one draw the line.

The documentary did a terrific job interviewing a wide variety of subjects: opponents, proponents, doctors, users, athletes, etc. This gave the documentary a well rounded foundation of information that the viewer could then use to make judgments of how they felt about the use of steroids. Each subject gave an opinion or a piece of information that Christopher would then look at in greater depth and often pose a question to the viewer in regards to what was said. This style kept the viewer engaged in the film by participation.

In the end there was no final judgment presented by Christopher about the use of steroids in America. The film ended with a question and left it up to the viewer to navigate their own feelings. I felt that the film, to a minute degree, and inadvertently, accepted the use of steroids and performing enchanting drugs as part of an American lifestyle. Americans are being torn by two conflicting ideologies: the idea that one should never cheat, and the American desire to be the best, and the result is what is seen in this documentary.

Another production report

Just did an interview with my father and finishing up most of that footage. Just posting up all the production videos I've gotten so far that I never posted.

The American Experience

This week I had the pleasure of seeing a documentary entitled "The American Experience: Coney Island". It was not very long - short, sweet, and to the point. This is probably the first documentary I've seen in a couple weeks that wasn't centered around a personal story at some point. Most of the documentaries that I've seen this semester have been about a certain someone's personal journey or insight into a situation that very little is known about. This film was about Coney Island as a big picture. It went into deep detail about the history and first days of the Island as an amusement park and narrated everything that was important or monumental in the years prior. It wasn't much longer than an hour but it was an interesting look at how people were made in spectacles. An example of this is the Midget City, the Bearded Lady, siamese twins, people with all sorts of fascinating deformations and diseases, and so on. All of these attractions are what made Coney Island what it is and I recommend this film to anyone interested in knowing what's up. -pruitt

Clip from My Untitled Car Doc

I've gotten all my footage for the car documentary. Shooting went really well, and I'm busy editing. The following clip is not an into, even though it's titled so. It will come after the intro, and serves to provide context. Some of my narration is a little low, and will be easy to fix.

Note: This is not really finished. It will be a good while before I get any sort of rough cut together, but I just wanted to post something.

This second clip is of my dad decorating the birthday cake. It's also not finished, but i wanted to post it just for fun.

Production Report #2

Alright, so I've progressed a little further (thankfully) with my project...I actually managed to edit the first minute-woo hoo! But I've suffered writer's block the past couple of days. I know what's my message...I know what I want to say, but I'm having trouble finding the words and style in conveying it without it sounding too cliche.

So to remind everybody once again, my topic is simply to help recall the aftermath of natural disasters like Hurricane Ike and Katrina in the US, then use that experience in understanding the disastrous situation in Iraq and perhaps other war-torn regions, especially in spite of the framing by the administration and media (referring to Iraqi reaction and response as "rebellious," etc.)

The first minute of my doc is a montage of audio clips from Hurricane Ike...I transition into Iraq with a quote from a blog about Hurricane Ike: "48 hours of this was already tiring me out. 4 days of powerlessness is making my friends and neighbors angry and upset. Months and months or years and years would fuel a rebellion."

My idea is just to use voice-over to reflect some of my thoughts like the ones above...like an open diary. But I'm not sure if that's the best approach. I have no interviews, just some footage clips of Iraq, Katrina...and what I have isn't enough I believe. So I thought maybe I should work with pictures as well? The next question is what pictures could I legally include? A lot of the good ones are from Associated Press...but if there are any other suggestions, I would really appreciate it! I'm really trying to look for imagery of everyday life in regions like Iraq (lack of electricity and water for example)...

Any advice would be really helpful in general...thanks!

-Huda

Alborosie - Soul Pirate cd

Alborosie - Kingston Town

I just wanted to spead the word on some new reggae I found. I know some people on this message board are into reggae.

He's an artist named Alborosie. He is originally from Sicily and was in a reggae band there. He moved to Jamaica and has become a full Rastafarian. He had just completed a disc called Soul Pirate. The problem is that this disc is not on itunes or even available is the US yet. From listening to the songs on his My Space page, I ordered his disc from Europe.

http://www.myspace.com/alborosie

This disc is so good that I think it will be as big as Damian Marley's Jamrock or Stephen Marley's Mind Control or even Sean Paul's Trinity disc. With songs like Herbalist, Precious, Kingston Town, Waan the Herb, Sound Killa, and Natual Mystic featuring Ky-Mani Marley it can't help but be a big hit in the reggae world. It sounds like old school reggae while being brand new. The song Bad Mind sounds a little like a 311 song and there is a little bit of the Matisyahu sound as well.

I don't usually get excited about new music, (It's all been done before) but I really like this disc.

Project Change

My subject has disappeared from the face of the earth. She was supposed to come up to Austin the Friday before last to pick her father up from the airport after he flew home from Iraq. I was going to meet her and pick up some home video footage for my doc project, and I never got a call/message from her that night. Since then, she hasn't responded to emails, calls, text messages, facebook death threats,  and even her friends haven't seen much of her. So...I don't know what's going on.

My first idea was to team up with Jason on his Sutton documentary, which I'll still help him with, but with Jason and my girlfriend's thoughtful advice, I've decided to edit an 8 minute (or less) piece out of footage from a road trip that three of my friends and I took last January. They want to see a final cut of the "feature-length" version sometime over the next week, so this will push me to turn this in instead.

Only problem...there's canned music in it. I'll see what I can do.

The Thin Blue Line- Errol Morris

      Morris transforms an inaccessible past into a reality by merging narrative and documentary in this powerful film. The overarching theme throughout the Thin Blue Line is the concept of truth. Morris presents the so-called “facts” to the viewer, just as the witnesses tell them, and leaves it up to the audience to determine the verdict. Of course, we all know who is in prison for the crime. Morris encourages the viewer to correct the deceptiveness presented through the film’s characters. Morris’ uniquely constructed re-enactments in The Thin Blue Line provide the viewer with a quality and understanding that has been historically difficult for documentary film. Using these re-enactments, Morris’ is able to provide the clarity needed to understand the case.

      While many filmmakers struggle with the impact of film on social change, The Thin Blue Line proved a successful challenge. While this may or may not have been Morris’ intention, it sets an example and inspiration for many aspiring filmmakers. The impact of this documentary actually resulted in the exoneration an innocent man, Randall Adams. 

Production Report #2: Speech and Debate

So this weekend I drove to College Station to shoot Joe in a speech tournament on Saturday. I'm broke as a joke so I thought I'd save a buck and just sleep in my car Friday night... Possibly the worst idea ever, don't ever do it. I curled up in the fetal position in the back seat of my Honda Accord at 1am and tossed and turned all night until my alarm went off at 540a. Worst of all I'm a terrrrible packer and I forgot blankets and it was right during that cold front that came in over the weekend. Good call, Alex.

Anyway, I woke up, set up my equipment, and starting shooting at 620a. Everything went smoothly. It was my first speech tournament, so I was still learning the ropes, but I was able to capture Joe throughout the day and get some solid interviews during his breaks. It's funny how much easier it is to interview someone who does speech recreationally. Every question I asked him was a perfect, natural response. Loved it. Anyway, the awards ceremony didn't end until 1030p so it was a long day for everyone. But that was the bulk of my shooting for this project. I have a few more days scheduled for this week so hopefully I can wrap by then. We'll seeeeeee.

I'll post some footage from the weekend on this post tomorrow.

weekend wrap up...I think.

Seems as though I've shot all of my locations. I've yet to capture footage, which is always the deciding factor on whether or not I'll decide if I'm done. I've decided to go with night time shoots for all of my scenes, and I'm going to work with low light as a thematic element in the project. Although at first I was frustrated with not being able to fight the dim lighting, I'm starting to like it. It's becoming more and more relevant to the story. Tatsu, my character, does the majority of his work at night. It's coming together. : )

Rough cut for class attempt 3!

Here we go! This is a rough cut of my intro! Enjoy!

Jesus Camp

Ummmmmm... dear GOD.. get it?? It's like a joke? 

This documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing andRachel Grady, is one of the most provocative and, frankly, frightening films I have seen in a while. This film chronicles the children of the evangelism movement and what/how they are being taught.

75% of all home-schooled children are Christian Evangelists. They are taught strict creationism and that global warming is a hoax. Additionally, according to the film, praised George Bush for bringing credibility to the Christian faith. Apparently, Bush is the shining beacon for Christians. They urge the children to join the fight against abortion and pray that George Bush will be able to overturn Roe v. Wade.

One of the children that they followed is named Levi (how appropriate) and is probably one of the most articulate and well spoken children I have seen. He is a phenomenal public speaker and he frequently gives sermons to children and adults alike on the wickedness of the world and how they are the generation to save humanity. It will be very interesting to watch his career and see which religious movement/cult he leads. 

The children are being taught to be warriors for Jesus and become prepared to give their life to the cause. Some of the things the camp director/creator said about the way we should raise our children are unbelievable. She believes that we should focus on training our children because the "enemy" is doing the same thing. 

In one scene, one of the girls goes up to a group of elderly black men in a park and asks them if they know where they would go when the died. After one man replied, "Heaven" she quested if they were sure and when they said that they were she responded with, ".... ok" and walked off. She then said under her breath, "I thought they were Muslim!"

This is a must watch! There is SO much more I could say about this film but I don't want to bore you or ruin the film. 

Rough Cut for Class

So I have my rough cut and I'm trying to post it but I'm having a lot of trouble. The file is too large, so I've tried to compress is with quicktime, embedding it with photobucket, etc. I'm going back to the DML today to try and work on it some more. It's coming! I just need to learn how to use a friggin computer. :)

Born Into Brothels

Born Into Brothels (dir. Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman) documents the filmmaker's experience with the children of the Calcutta Red Light District. Their parents are prostitutes and they have been ignored by society. 

The filmmaker's teach the children photography and encourage them to document their experience and neighbors. They are able to get access to the residents of the red light district who are very reluctant to have their photo taken as everything they are participating in is illegal. As the students begin to excel in photography, the filmmaker's help them sell their artwork to help raise money and attempt to find boarding schools that will take them in. As the filmmaker's become more invested in these children's lives, they become more dedicated to finding a school that will accept the children as education is their only hope to escape a life in the red light district. 

I really enjoyed this movie but I was a bit frustrated with the beginning of it as there are no subtitles and many interviews with the children speaking Bengali. I felt anxious each time the children would speak because I really wanted to know what on earth they were saying! However, I do think it was an interesting way for the filmmaker's to tell the children's story through their photographs alone. 

I do think this film is a good example of how a documentary can bring awareness to an issue. Without the help of the documentarians, the children who were able to go to a school would have never received that opportunity. I also think this film provides a great example of how important artistic exploration is. Through their photography the children were able to find a sense of who they are in relation to their world. They had a way to explore their feelings about their situation through an artistic medium. 

In short, I think this is a good movie but I wish there were subtitles. 

Class Rough Cut 1

This is my first attempt at posting my rough cut. For some reason this is not the full sequence. There is more interview at the end and the beginning starts later. I will fix this and post it later today.

Kibbie makes her film debut!

So earlier today, I went down to my hometown (New Braunfels) to help my father move his 100 year-old car (which he's named Kibbie) out of storage. I had a really great shooting day, and things are going quite well with my new documentary. I think it's going to be a whole lot of fun to put together. I already have a good 2+ hours of footage, and I think I'm ready to do some edits. The big event (that is, the car's birthday party) is a weekend away. I can't wait to film. The only problem I might run into is camera availability. If anyone knows they will have a camera checked out next weekend that they don't need Saturday, I would greatly appreciate borrowing it (just for that day). Otherwise, everything is going great, and I hope to have some footage posted soon (once I start uploading). Maybe i'll even bring a rough-cut to class this Thursday.

Erika La Güera - AWFUL Video Posts

In lieu of a 5-minute (or less) edited scene for class tomorrow, I'm posting two videos:

First, a "trailer" of sorts for my doc project. It's awful, awful, awful. My audio sucks...but there's not much I can do about it now. Something should still come out of it...Did I mention it's awful?

And second, a clip from my interview with Erika that I don't think I can use but I want people to see because the story's awesome.

Production Report - Pruitt. AND BIRTHDAY INVITATION!!!

Wuddup. So as I mentioned before, I've recently changed my topic from a nature mockumentary on housecats to a personal doc about spinning fire aka dancing with poi. I must say, I am very happy with how it's going. I've had my camera on or near me constantly for the past couple weeks and I have a lot of good footage. I just haven't done interviews yet. The actual fire show that I've been preparing for with my Co-Op is this saturday at the 21st street Co-op and YOURE ALL INVITED!!!! ITS OUR BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!! It's going to be insane. I will need some crew help from one or two people in the class that would like to come to the birthday party but not get too trashed. I just need someone to walk around with the camera and not let anybody else mess with it. SWo, if anyone is interested in helping me out in that aspect, let me know. I'll ask in class, too. I would need someone to be here at the Co-op during the day and evening. But aside from that, I can't wait to edit everything together into the finished product. Dancing with fire is scary.

The Price of Pleasure

I attended the Price of Pleasure by dir. Chyng Sun and Miguel Picker last night with the Director Q&A session in the thompson center. That is why I had to leave class early last night to make it across campus by the music hall at 7pm. The documentary is all about the pornography industry and how it objectifies women. Professor Robert Jenson is a professor from UT who has been following and analyzing the pornography industry from a feminist perspective for over 10 years. He was in the movie and also at the screening. So basically, the pornography industry has gone from being in the back alleys and dark crevices of America, into accepted mainstream America. Porn Stars are glamorized and have been interviewed by every major media outlet. An interesting fact I was unaware of was that these same major media outlets such as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, HBO, Showtime, etc. all profit (in the millions) annually from the pornography industry. This could help to explain the recent emergence of porn into the mainstream media; it's simple cross-promotion. The Doc then went into how the pornography industry objectifies women. Most porn stars have little to no education, and are basically forced into prostitution/stripping/pornography as a viable alternative to making money to support themselves. They could make more in a day at a pornography shoot than they could make all month as a waitress or at any other entry-level job position. Pornography filmmakers take advantage of that and force these girls to act and fake pleasure in their films, while the girl is often extremely not happy to say the least. She just does it because it is a job. The filmmakers often make these girls do "fantasy" type things that are far beyond normal sexual acts. This causes some pornography consumers own sex lives to be extremely twisted and perverted, usually destroying their relationships with their wives and girlfriends. The industry makes over a billion dollars a year. All in all this was definitely an interesting documentary that I would recommend to anyone in the class. Mahalo

Production Report #2

Last Monday I went to Cottonwood, TX to get some interview footage with Ken. I ended up getting 1.5 hrs of interview footage and learned a lot about Ken. I hadn't taken into account the daylight savings change and didn't have as much good natural lighting as I hoped, but the footage that starts to become darker is where I had planned on using only the audio over footage of the show. 

Now it's time to start editing!

Production Report #1

On Halloween day, I went to San Antonio to film the 999 Eyes Freak Show. It started off a little shaky as I had a major brain fart. The schedule I was given said that the show started at 21:00 and I wrote down 9:00 on my calendar, but stored 11:00 in my brain. Needless to say, when I decided to look at the venue's website and realized that the door's opened at 7... and it was currently 5:30, I freaked out. Luckily, I got there in PLENTY of time because they didn't end up going on stage until 11 anyways. 

The venue was very small and intimate and didn't lend itself well to filming. There wasn't a way for me to get above the crowd so anything that happened near the floor of the stage is hard to see on film. The show lasted 2 hours and I got a lot of great footage. They talked about the history of freak shows and helped to inform the audience what their mission is with their show. In a very cool way, they are trying to educate the public about certain "medical anomalies" by playing with the history and form of the freak show. The "freaks" have taken on that label and defined it as someone who is BORN with a medical anomaly and wishes to showcase themselves.

Spellbound

Spellbound is an incredibly engaging and entertaining documentary. This Jeffrey Blitz documentary follows the journeys of 8 children towards their goal of winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. 

You can't help but fall in love with each character as each is truly dedicated and determined to be the last speller standing. It reminds each viewer of their own inner-dork, allowing the audience to relate to at least one of the kids. It's a dramatic tale of victories, losses, friends, and family. 

One of the kid's stories inspired the movie Akeela and the Bee. Not only is her story compelling, her personality and character is inspiring. 

This is an amazing film that manages to integrate 8 main characters into a seamless narrative while keeping the audience engaged the entire time. 

Hockey Moms Against Palin

I am posting this video for the dude who is doing a doc on soccer moms. Enjoy.

Sutton, the Minister

I remember at some point when talking to Sutton about his status as a minister him mentioning that he actually performed his first wedding ceremony recently. After prying further, I discovered that Sutton actually peformed the ceremony for a local tattoo artist, known as Katzen. Katzen is quite the character herself, and she is tattooed from head to toe in tiger stripes. Anyways, today, I stumbled upon the actual footage of her ceremony. The footage isn't that great (youtube quality) and the audio kind of sucks, but I just contacted Katzen to see if I can aquire the actual footage. I plan to incorporate it (in some form) into my documentary. I'm also trying to get still photos, if possible. Should be interesting. Who knows what can of worm I'll open up if I actually make contact with Katzen. Ahhh, the fun of documentary filmmaking!



Interesting Note: Sutton is wearing one of his chef uniforms as he performs the ceremony!

Self Promotion/Exposure

Last week I found out that pitchfork media was contacting this band, harlem, asking for a copy of my music video. I am pretty pleased. The reason they found it was because a blog called gorilla vs. bear made mention of it two weeks ago and then it was viewed by about 1,000 people in one day. The reason gorilla vs. bear mentioned it was because they stumbled upon it on youtube and the fact that I had been pushing the video on myspace and facebook gave it more views, making it easier to stumble upon. Anyhow, I don't get any money but I do get a bit of exposure.

Here is the link:
http://pitchfork.tv/videos/harlem-witch-greens

CELEBRITY SPOTTING!

Ok, so everyone should go check out the Cookie Lounge in West Campus (http://www.austincookielounge.com/) if they get a chance and love cookies.

The Cookie Lounge is the last place Jason and I did a "restaurant" review for our TV show, and tonight, as I went to go pick up some late night snackums, Robert Rodriguez and three of his r-named sons hopped out of their dumb H2 Hummer and went into the aforementioned Lounge of Cookies. So, if Rob Rod buys his pastries there, you should, too.

Come on, he made Sin City...the man knows sweet.

portrait of my friend shane

this is terribly compressed but hopefully still enjoyable

Full Frame Vol.3 RENT IT!!

So I recently checked out the Full Frame Vol.3 from Spiro's rentals. It is a dvd compiled of several short documentaries that I think you should all check out. The topics range from a search for the best Philly Cheesesteak (Hilarious characters, a tale of two vietnam soldiers falling in love while being trapped in a fox-hole, all the way to my favorite, the last meals a handful of death-row inmates selected.

All of the short docs on this dvd are unique in their own way. I believe that it would be beneficial for us to watch this dvd to not only entertain, but I believe that it can help you analyze and stir up some ideas to incorporate into your docs. Since we don't have all the time in the world to express our interesting subject, I think we can model our work after the structure of these documentaries.

Obama!

Scrabble Championship documentary

so if any of you out there are really into scrabble or the scrabble national championship, you may like WORD WARS!!!! Word Wars is a documentary that follows six contestants in the 2007 Scrabble National Champion and it pretty much documents their crazy study habits and lifestyles that they devote completely to this game. i saw it tonight with some people that i live with and it was pretty dope. the filmmaker was not there for any Q&A, though. one of the guys that was a part of the competition actually took a vitamin cocktail everyday for his brain and another dude would meditate all the time and it was pretty creepy. another guy would also practice reading his word cards while driving. i thought that was pretty fuctup. anyways. its awesome. check it out

change of mind update!

hey hey there. so i was originally starting my documentary off as a nature mockumentary on housecats but turns out that i have changed my mind on my topic. i simply don't have the time limit freedom i wish i had to work with animals. they're just not very cooperative. anyways!!! on November 15th my residence (21st Street Co-op) is having a birthday party. (&&& YOU'RE ALL INVITED!!!) every year, this party brings thousands of party-goers to one spot in west campus to experience one crazy night of debauchery. it's pretty ridicuslous. last year there were 30 kegs, over 2,000 people, and helicopters and the fire department showed up. anyways. one thing that we all put together is a fire show. this includes spinning poi, spinning staff, fire blowing, and various other dangerous verbs. ive recently started to learn to spin poi and im going to spend the next two weeks learning to fire dance. my documentary is going to document this learning experience up to the fire show on November 15th. im actually very excited. stoked, in fact. here is a video of some really good fire dancers. the girl in the video is spinning a staff while the guy is spinning poi.

This could be one big, awful disaster as well. it's going to be interesting to get this all on camera.