Digital Video - Week 9


13/05/2020

Davidoski, T., Davisson, J., DiCaprio, L., Guirgis, M. T., Krapels, M., Packer, J., & Ratner, B. (Producers), & Stevens, F. (Director). (2016). Before the flood [Motion picture]. National Geographic: RatPac Documentary Films.



Themes - nature, corruption, humanity, science vs capitalism

Before the Flood is an insightful, engaging and informative documentary on the subject of climate change, how it is affecting the world, the Paris Agreement, and famous people put their ten cents in on the subject. The information that expressed in this documentary not only of An Inconvenient Truth, but also of the information that shocked and intrigued me concerning climate change.  

It delivers a strong message about our society and economy blindly ignore climate change and outside our own backyard.

The documentary essentially applies conventional uses of aspect ratio. It primarily uses 16:9, but also uses 4:3 for the sake of archival footage.

Opposition represented by conservative and biased media, misinformation, and right-wing politics

Conflict and drama in interview subject e.g. discredited by the media, death threats

I was surprised to see Elon Musk in this documentary and hear his take on climate change and carbon tax

New working title (Steamed from the Industrial Revolution): The Green Revolution
Much more powerful working title than Climate Fever, but sound like it shouts on the lines of anarchy

Due to budgetary restrictions, I don't think I will have as much reliance or amount of stock footage or image like this documentary

Surprised to see a glimpse of John Key (then-Prime Minster of New Zealand) at the Paris Agreement signing

The documentary address the positive and negative impact and perspectives on the Paris Agreement e.g. significance, but also its flaws like not enforcing a carbon tax.
I could do the same with the school climate strike movement to make the argument two-sided

DiCaprio even talks with a Republican (a political party with a majority of conservatives and climate change deniers) who believes that climate change is a real threat and that a carbon tax should be enforced in the United States.

Fun Fact: Martin Scorsese is credited as one of this documentary's executive producers

The most open and natural interview of a power figure I have seen. DiCaprio and Obama walk, talk, and stand in the gardens of the White House. I don't see myself implementing something like this for my documentary at this stage because of covid-19

I could try to interview Sir Tim Shadbolt and ask him about his views on climate change and the school climate strike movement and how he would compare it with social movements in his youth e.g. opposing Vietnam, nuclear disarmament, Apartheid in South Africa.

I think I saw Helen Clark

The closing credits gave me more ideas for interview questioning like ending fossil fuel subsides, investing in renewable energy, and a carbon tax

A carbon tax was included in the documentary's budget through CarboTax.


New potential interview subjects
SIT Environment Management - tutors and/or students
Dr Liz Craig
Southland District Mayor
Environment Southland councilors
Extinction Rebellion Invercargill
WWF New Zealand
UN Youth New Zealand
Greenpeace New Zealand

Beat sheet
The origins of the organisation
Organizing strikes
Day of the strikes
Greta Thunberg
Carbon tax
Climate emergency
The impact of covid-19
The online strike
Going forward, what's next
New Zealand government efforts on climate action
Opposition on being taught at schools


James
He gave me an extended couple of days to complete my AV first draft, which I had forgotten about. Nevertheless, he seemed fine with my progress


14/05/2020

Capotosto, C., & Ma, N. (Producers), & Neville, M. (Director). (2018). Won't you be my neighbor? [Motion picture]. Focus Features: Tremolo Productions.



It relies a lot on archival footage which is feasible for this documentary because 9of the subject (Mr Rogers)

Most archival footage that would likely had been 4:3 has been enlarged to fill a 16:9 frame. Some like the first episode of Mr Rogers' show is still shown in 4:3 in the documentary and not enlarged to fill 16:9. This is used quite randomly throughout the documentary.
Finding a reason for this really racked my mind. I cannot find a reason or purpose for it.

It's an interesting personal profile on Mr Rogers, his life and career. The documentary is nothing special, but this great figure of empathy is special. 
The drama comes from a minority of this documentary e.g. the odd self-doubt, controversies and hate from conservatives and biased media because of his personality and inclusiveness.
It's horrible to see and hear. He's a type of person the world needs at the moment. Jacinda Ardern is closest person we have of that type.

I think I was expecting a bit more or something that is missing, but I can't put my finger on it.


Meeting with Duncan
I showed him the video that I had complied for the exhibition at SIT. He was quite impressed with my editing skills. Duncan was interested in my progress, but the ,meeting was cut shorter than last week because Duncan had not much advice to offer because he's not familiar with making documentaries and AV scriptwriting

The benefit of recording interviews with Zoom is that I can do them without needing to rely on sources in Invercargill. With Zoom, it can sources all round the country. I just need to come up with questioning, which I have organised the subject of them in the beat sheet.



AV script

http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/programme_doc_documentary_script.pdf

This source I will read later. It talks about the story format of a documentary, plus it had an example of an AV script. It wasn't easy finding an example of AV script example for a documentary, but I could find plenty of them for television and web commercials.

https://support.celtx.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038992353-Multi-Column-AV-Script-Editor#h_99bf04d1-4189-496d-827a-017a28eb5698

I had a massive writers block in putting the AV script. I did some research and found that it is a completely different format than I thought. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't taken that for granted and researched what an AV script is. 
I bought a monthly subscription to Celtx in order to use their AV scriptwriting feature.
I managed to get a good start on it. The structure may seem dull, but that's because I cannot predict what the interview subjects will say, what stock footage and images will look like, and it's hard for me to communicate my editorial vision into a scriptwriting format, whether it is the conventional way or AV. I read and watched a tutorial on how to use AV scriptwriting on Celtx.

I colour coded each element of my documentary - introduction, introducing discussion (the movement, Greta Thunberg), b-roll discussions (carbon tax, climate emergency in Invercargill), organizing the climate strikes, the events of the climate strikes, the impact of covid-19, and what's next for them. Not all of them may get included in the final cut potentially because of the short runtime. 

Chat with Duncan
I showed him the video that I had put together for the exhibition and he was really expressed, especially with my editing skills. 
The meeting was shorter than last week because there was nothing much to discuss because it's a documentary, but he did encourage me to start coming up with interview questions.


15/05/2020

I submitted my first draft tonight. It was incomplete, but it was the best I could do and it was better than not submitting at all. I am determined to improve my AV scriptwriting for my final draft submission.


18/05/2020

I spent over an hour this afternoon brainstorming interview questions for the main subject, Ashleigh Putt-Fallows. I ended up with generating many pages of them. 
The content of the first draft script help me lead into coming up with the interview question.


Interview questions - Ashleigh
What is the organisation?
What is your outlook on leadership?
What is your views on Invercargill as a city

Greta Thunberg
What do you think is the general view of Greta Thunberg in Invercargill?
What do you think is the significance of Greta Thunberg?

Cliamte emergency
Why should Invercargill be carbon neutral


Organsing strikes
Any conflict or drama within the local team in Invercargill in the lead up to the March and September protests in 2019
What is the process you and the local team undertake to organise a climate strike?

March strike
What was your role for the Invercargill protest in March 2019
Your thoughts on Enoch Surrendran as a person and his efforts
Reaction to Enoch's comments to Mayor Tim Shadbolt and that it was mentioned in Parliament?

September strike
How did you take over from Enoch in organsiing the School Stike 4 Climate movement in Invercargill?

Impact of covid-19

NZ government

What's next?
Any conflict or drama faced from the public or social media since the protest in March 2019




What inspired or influenced you to speak out on climate action?
Why is climate change is important to you and your generation?
Have you ever been criticized from a person with opposing views. If so, what was their argument and what was your answer?
How has your activism affected your mental health?
Do you believe climate change is just as much of a critical issue of today as mental health, the living wage, the world recovering from covid-19?
What is more important? The economy or the environment? Please elaborate
Do you believe a thriving economy co-exist with a carbon free environment?
Do you believe this movement is inter-generational or has it divided generations; them being between baby boomers and millennial.
Do you think this movement is on the right side of history and could please elaborate?
Are you optimistic about a carbon free New Zealand and is it realistic?
There have been public opinion that teenagers like yourself and Greta Thunberg are too young and have not enough life experience to be experts or lecture the world on climate change. In that sense, do you think there's been a great deal of age discrimination towards how the media and general public perceives the movement?
How long have you been interested in climate change for?
Do you believe New Zealand is doing enough on climate change, especially compared to other countries?
What does the movement mean to you?
Do you believe a carbon free New Zealand is inevitable?
Do you get along with other organisers nationwide, how do you communicate with each other, and how does that affect organizing the protests in Invercargill?
What is the strangest thing that happened on the day of the climate strike in March?
What is the strangest thing that happened on the day of the climate strike in September?
What is your recollection of the day of the climate strike in March?
What is your recollection of the day of the climate strike in September?
What was the aftermath of the climate strike in March?
What was the aftermath of the climate strike in September?
What recommendations would you make to the New Zealand government on climate action?
Does climate change initiatives like the Paris Agreement, abolishing plastic bags in supermarkets, and the Zero Carbon Bill go far enough in making effective climate action?
What is your view on Environment Southland refusing to declare a climate emergency?
What is the importance of Invercargill and the Southland region declaring a climate emergency?
If a climate emergency was declared, how could local government be held accountable?
What were the original plans to the Invercargill climate strikes in 2020 and how were they progressing, prior to covid-19?
How has covid-19 been good or bad towards climate change?
Any drama or conflict about the future of the school climate strike movement in New Zealand during the covid-19 lockdown?
Despite covid-19, do you believe climate change is still an important issue and why?
What were some of the creative solutions that were being developed in response to covid-19?
What was your contribution to the online strike?
How effective was the online strike? What was the response?
How much do you believe that covid-19 has had an impact on climate change and the school climate strike movement?
What's next for the movement in Invercargill and the rest of New Zealand?
What is School Strike 4 Climate? Their demands? Their values? Where in New Zealand is it situated in? How and when was it established it?





Looking at the trailers of Michael Moore's documentaries, I should use as an influence when producing a trailer next semester for my documentary



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BSA731 - Exhibition 2

Image
22/06/2020 'Buffering' Exhibition We forgot about having the exhibition map done and sent to Kathryn last Friday. We will keep that in mind for our next exhibition. I reminded the groups, especially the design team about the sandwich boards at the RAW Gallery that could be used to promote the exhibition There was confusion over submitting prints to be printed for our exhibition. I wasn't sure where to send it to for printing, to Rachel (like the L7 animation students) or James. I did however send the TIFFs of my prints to James just in case. Rachel informed us about placing our prints on foam core, it's a type of foam board that also sticks to the wall. There is a catch though, we have to cut them and stick our print(s) to the foam core ourselves. I gotta say that a print looks better on foam core than on its own. Rachel also warned us to have confidence while cutting the foam core or otherwise the edge will look uneven and rough. This will be quite challenging ...
Read more

Digital Video - Lockdown Week 4

Image
15/04/2020 I heard back from James and gave his advice on my concerns, which is that I look for images and footage of the climate strike by school student and use that as B-roll.  B-roll is not always meant to be of a good quality. I may research into potential ethical considerations on consent for using other people's work.  James reckons I will be fine with going ahead with this as long as I focus on what the subject is about and interviews with key players. I could use their work and have interviews in voice-over, however I will consult with the course outline to double check what is required of me to do for my film project. He also reckons my main concern is not being able to film climate strikes, which was only part of the problem. However, the B-roll could still convey drama and urgency depending on its content. I will email James back and ask whether he could call me and we can talk about it properly like I did with Traci.  James is a...
Read more

BVA703 Research - Lockdown Week 3

Image
10/04/2020 At midnight brushing my teeth, I suddenly came up with options to capture amongst the crowd stuff to convey urgency of my subject, what if it could achieved with green screen or animation.  Green screen would be a big undertaking and would require each person being filmed individually with a long lens, which would be potentially too consuming on time and resources. A long lens would be necessary to feed into post-COVID-19 health and safety. Animation would require at least one animator depending on the time needed to animate sequences needed. The sequence would ideally be in a sketchy style similar to  Stay Close  or  Dear Basketball .  I would need to think carefully about this since it would need to not disrupt the style and tone of the live-action parts. The animation would need to be in sequences to limit the workload of the animator and I don't want it all animated because that's beyond me and letting animation students ...
Read more