Jaylah’s 2009 Documentary Film Blog

Jaylah Greer

English II Final

The documentary fulfills its intended purposes to effect change. Our English II class started of by asking everyday ordinary people walking the busy streets of St. Louis, what is Sustainable?,  Most People weren’t aware of the word Sustainable and definitely didn’t know that it could lower the causes or prevent a global issue soon to come. With a little bit of research, I came up with the conclusion that Sustainable is going green, reusing resources, producing your own products and not relying on consumerance.

In our documentary film we had many segments that worked and other that just needed more work. The criteria that played a good part in the film for the most was the visuals, the camera for most of the film was parked at nice angles and didn’t cut the top of the interviewer’s heads. The music sounded great, it wasn’t to fast or to slow and it made documentary viewers, stay attentive to the film. The Segments of the film were organized in order, what is sustainable? How to live sustainable, do you precede to these ideas at home? , how it can help economic wise? And letting the world know we need to change and stop the issue.  

The criteria I feel we could of went back and changed, was the volume. The volumes were to loud when doing the interviews and the volumes were to quiet when doing the audio voice over’s. The font and style was another division that could have been better.  The font and style didn’t bring enough appeal. Also, we left out some interesting facts that we maybe should have added on, like telling how Albericie lives Sustainable or what resources and products made a good cause in their going green building.

During the documentary product I learned I can make a difference and get involved with the issue too. Research helped a lot when my group was giving the topic, we had no idea what sustainable meant, but after reading through a few articles and definitions. I had an idea and was aware of the issue. I was involved a little before knowing what the topic meant, with my everyday life style, separating the bottles in my household from the trash can and also recycling around my school. I learned that I can be more sustainable by reducing energy sources like taking shorter showers, use certain light bulbs, buy local grown food and composting toilet paper.

From my experience with the long hard working project, I learned about an issue that I can take care of and add to my everyday life. From the blogging, to the interviews, to the field trip to just learning the new things in class, I learned that there’s needed to be a difference in our world and there are still more people to make aware and get involved. I will use the issue I’ve learned in the future for my home, school and future businesses I have. Sustainable living will help my economic life, healthy environment and energy power use.

Increasing demand to a renewable form of energy

ways to do that would be using wind and solar energy.

Power lines are needed to be repaired  and the vice president of government affairs at solar energy company is taking action on the issue.

MY respond to the issue would be, limiting the energy flowing through from house to house, business to business etc. Also put on the news or make commercials on how important the issue is and more people will then probably take action, By using less light and think of more natural sources to save energy.

REflection on the contacts made in my group-  The call went great, the speaker in our group spoke clearly, asked what was needed to be ask to recieve the right information. The contact was so interested and gave other resources to help us. Also, gave good advice on who else we should contact and knowledged us about other environmental issues going on right now that he was taking action on.

The follow ups  would checking  the email for resources , programs and other issues that need to be acted on.

• My experiment on our field trip was really interesting and it sort of influenced me to live Sustainable to the fullest. Reasons why I would want to now, from what I learned, I would be using less energy and saving money, also saving my environment.

When interviewing I learned you have to be patient and know what your talking about. I also learned everyone isn’t familiar with issues going around today. There were some people that were aware of issues , but did not feel like it was a real big issue to take action for.

• When creating questions, I learned that I should be specific about what I’m asking and make sure  the questions I asked were not so demanding.
• I learned to try to Start off my question with a fact , maybe and ask whats their opinion about the issue or fact.
• The difference with the experts interviews than the street interviews, the experts knew exactly what they were talking about and had great advice on how or what are the best ways to live sustainable. Also the experts were taking action on the issues and were aware of the issues of the environment and economic crisis for sustainable living. The street interviewshad some people guessing , some people weren’t even aware of the issues and some were aware ,but did not feel the need to take action. 

Carbon taxes and house hold energy use can seem insidious

Weber contended that there is no neutral, “value-free way”

Different lab rooms are taking action to the climate change.

environmental choices communities etc. used were building code and vehicle purchases

They had many experiment’s and the percentage rate of participant’s raised up.

wind turbines – test and experiment, listened to different people opinions on whether they should choose project A or project B

the Obama administration began working on regulations for carbon-dioxide emissions

 many economists favor the simplicity of a carbon tax

 United States government agreed that a cap-and-trade policy in which carbon emissions are capped and firms can buy and sell credits was preferable.

Feed back or what I learned from the video I’ve just watched

Conducting a interview   

 you want to let the interviewers know what they’re doing a interview for

do not put the mick to close to the speaker

don’t let the speaker take the mick

don’t chew gum while taking an interview

READY FOR STREET INTERVIEW

Check to make sure you have every thing before interviewing people.

- check for headphones

-microphone

-cords

-make sure the camera is charged as well

- make sure your prepared with the questions you want to ask.

- don’t get frustrated when people reject your interview

-use a good persuasion to pull the interviewers in 

- be creative with the questions you ask, and if you seek something very interesting , follow up to keep the conversation going.

From the video I’ve just watched , I learned The rule of thirds is the best angle to use when shooting a video, because it makes a more interesting shot. Also it’s best to use a cord mick for better sound. If you want the person in the video to look more larger, shoot from a low angle and if you would like the picture or people to be smaller in the video, shoot the video from a more higher angle.

In our class we are looking at Camera shot and saying why they would be good to use while recording and when would we use each shot.

Wide shot – the wide shot would be great to use because you can see everything from top to bottom and leave nothing out in the background. The wide shot would be good for showing the background if important. Also looking at body emotions as well.

Close up- you can really seek the person’s emotions and your focused on them because, the camera make the face the target or the center of attention.

meduim shot- meduim shot provides a little bit of everything , from a nice focus, to the background and the person’s emotions. the meduim shot would be good if you wanted close up , wide shot  at the same time.

Extreme close up- main target , to point out something or showing the main focus and emotion

Taking pictures of landfils  and recylcing

Showing people walk out a room with electronics still on

wind turbings

Trash cans with recycling products inside

video of someone walking to throw away a bottle and throws in the trash can instead of recycling bin

people using unlimted amounts of plastic bags

plastic bags broken

overflowing trash cans of how much wasted paper being used

a way to reuse paper , if a mistake when writting on paper with a pen , instead of throwing it away, mark it out with white out to reuse it.