What`s up, DOC? Day 1

First day of filming...

Actually, first day of filming together, as Joe has been capturing some of the shots we have discussed last week, thus successfully checking-off our shot list some of the shots from outside Nottingham.

We`ve followed the shot list for today, mainly in the city centre area, and then added a few more shots on the spot. I will try and review the shots and see what needs to be added (I have this most uncomfortable feeling that we haven`t planned for enough shots).

Anyways...tomorrow, another day out in the cold, this time going to Hyson Green and Broadmarsh station area. Hollie is trying to arrange for us to shoot from the flats near Victoria Centre, for the bird`s eye view shot, and I`m also trying to track down (hunt down, would be more like it) our interviewees. No luck so far, but we still have enough time.

Ok, to cut a long story short...animations by Joe and Production stills by Lindsey:

What`s up, DOC?

No update for quite a while now...

What happened lately to my gratious self? Well, we`ve been assigned new groups for our next project, the 10 minute documentary. Our working title is `Black Ice`, and the process of getting the subject right has been interesting and subject to debate in the group. Originally, being my usual politics geek, I suggested having the use and abuse of the environmental issue by left wing and right wing party, green movements and corporate politics as our main guiding line, but given the complexity of the subject (basically, if you read through the lines....people found this stuff booooooooooring...sheesh, who would have thought?!) and the brevity of our documentary, it would be better to look for a different approach. So, change of plans, and the new (and improved) documentary is:

A tale of scientific fumbling, seasoned with cruel intentions to create one of today’s most sizzling topics, in other words…

A historical perspective on the development and transformations of the notion of the greenhouse effect and its consequences (global warming, climate change). The journey from a scientific curiosity to a hotly debated issue that has found its way into politics and popular culture.

Sounds sexy, I know!

Anyway...

In terms of visuals, besides the interviews and some B Roll footage that we`ll have filmed in a `realistic` manner, we have agreed to have some cut-out animations. Soud treatment will rely heavily on cartoony effects, to match the animated sequences, keeping the `realistic` tone in the adequate shots. 

The crew:

Diana Sabau - Director, Researcher, Writer

Hollie Taylor - Producer

Joe Lau - Director of Photography

James Pratt - Editing, Camera Assistant

Hugo De Morais - Sound, Lighting

Lindsey Puylaert - Sound & Lighting Assistant, Runner

The big O

Yes, do make fun of me as much as you like...but I have this dirty secret. I like my opera and my classical music every once in a while. I am one of those who mostly get it through recordings, but hey!...

So, it seems that one can work on THESE little babies: adaptations for the screen of operas or of classical music (a sort of video clip if you will). I know I should be more coherent and make a critical assessment of these, and I will try to sometimes later....but for now...it`s just....WOW:

 

Two documentaries it`s NOT wise to miss out on

Yes, my beloved and loyal blog followers (as I am sure there are many of you out there, listening to this voice of mine that thus does not resound like an empty echo!) I know I have kept you waiting for such a loooooooong time, post-less, seduced and abandoned by my enlightening, life-saving (if not giving) musings. BUT, fear no more...because your benefactor is back, and she has brought you (by the mercy of....herself...praises be unto her!) two documentary series you SHOULD NOT miss out on (at least, not those of you in the geek segment, which I`m sure you are plenty).

So, I bring you our old trusted friend and chosen practitioner for the SPP essay: James Burke (we`ll have a post on another project of his, Knowledge Web, soon). The Day the Universe Changed and After the Warming deal with Mr. Burke`s main theme (or obsession...but the good kind of obsession): how technology is influenced by changes (societal, climate) and how in turn, it triggers changes that act as feedback and here we are going round and round in an ever expanding circle of madness (but the good king of...hmm...).

What I would like to point out, is that in The Day the Universe Changed, although Burke seems to adopt one of postmodernity`s most ill-used concepts, i.e., that of no view of the world (whether mythical, religious or scientific) is better than the other, in that they are all equal and do the same, he does highlight in the concluding episode of the series the basic difference between them (one that is soooo often overlooked INTENTIONALLY ): if you admit that you are creating the universe according to the frame set you have developed any given time, and that it is a version of the truth you are presenting, and not a portion of a yet-to-be-discovered incontestable truth, sooner or later you will come across the holes in your cheddar...I mean, your Weltanschauung. And when the plot thickens, you can either change the storyline (as has been the case with science) or you put some cotton balls in your ear and hope it will go away. Now, whether one or another of these methods is more beneficial to man, it is in itself a long and heated debate...point is, the difference between these views had to be highlighted, so kudos for James!

Thought bubble of the day...

In the beginning, is the scream. We scream.

The starting point of theoretical reflection is opposition, negativity, struggle. It is from rage that thought is born, not from the pose of reason, not from the reasoned-sitting-back-and-reflecting-on-the-mysteries-of-existence that is the conventional image of  `the thinker`. 

We start from negation, from dissonance...An inarticulate mumble of discontent, tears of frustration, a scream of rage, a confident roar. An unease, a confusion, a longing, a critical vibration.`

John Holloway, Change the World Without Taking Power, Pluto Press, London, 2002