Reflection Essay

I think the biggest struggle I had in this project was always time management, especially when we tried to go to the indoor arena where the eventing team rehearsed. Since none of us had a car, transportation was always a problem especially that cabs over here are really expensive and bus timings were not always on track. One of the aspects that makes me most proud is the footage that we got, we might have not gotten enough footage but the footage we got were remarkable. There isn’t really anything I would change in our documentary except for the fact that we needed more b-roll footage but everything else was exactly how the group and I imagined it, I couldn’t be more proud of the outcome. In the group, I was responsible of the group meetings and interview coordinator, I think I did I really good job with the job I was given; I always made sure that group was in contact, I set up a group message and I always tried find out when the group was free so we can set up meeting times. I think the best thing about our group is that we were all really close, if we didn’t agree on some stuff we talked about it and we were honest with each other, we were always engaged in a conversation, there was not any tension between us. I wish I contributed more ideas for the group project, I feel like I could have helped with the editing but I probably would have ruined all the footage that we took.

Throughout the semester, we have talked about so many ways in which we can analyze a particular subject, now when I read or watch anything I try to analyze it more by reading in between the lines or looking at different shots. The project I worked on made me view the community on campus differently. It showed me once they are devoted to something, they will pour their heart into it. I believe that my public speaking methods have improved over the course of this semester, I believe I am more confident in speaking and I don’t speak as quickly as I did before; I take my time. I definitely enjoyed learning about the different styles of communication and I am glad that we did not have to write four essays. I really enjoyed the style that was used in the course, it was really helpful, and I liked the fact that we did not use a book as a form of direction. It’s really hard to think about things to make the class better because I believe that it is already a pretty good class and that there is no need to change or add anything. One thing I would change about this course would probably be the timings; I wish that we had more time to work on the documentary because I believe it would have been better. This class was one of my favorite classes this semester because of the way it was taught and I would like to thank you Mr. Owen for that, your method of teaching and communicating with the class was very helpful and that is how I believe that most teachers should be. Thank you for a great semester!

Attendance Photo

The Eventing Group
Editing Day 2 :D

Storyboard

Eventing Team Bibliography: Kaelyn, Shelbie, Najwa, Ben

The documentary will open up with the 2001: Space Odyssey Theme. For each single beat, there will be a still, close up shot establishing horseback riding. For example, hooves on a horse, riding boots, an empty saddle, the horse’s head. For the elongated note, the long shot will be of the horse and rider standing still. For the drumbeats, we will insert a tracking and panning shot of the horse and rider trotting to the beat (this will need to be edited to fit the beat). From here there will a montage follow a transition to the voice over with the question, “What does eventing mean to you?”

After, we are going to show short clips of interviews, we are planning to interview three people, a freshman, a junior and the professor. The interviews will be dispersed throughout the documentary.

We are then going to show some of the training videos with a voice over explaining what is happening. Afterwards, we are going to try to attach a Go-Pro to one of the rider’s helmet and film them riding a cross-country course.

We are then going to end the documentary with a long shot with the rider and the horse walking away from the camera and most likely a fade out.

Music Video

The music video I chose was Bella Ferraro's 'Set Me On Fire'.

The beginning of the video shows a pan shot of her playing the piano, then directly changes to a close up of her hands playing the piano. Most of the shots go from a medium shot of Bella playing the piano, to a close up of her singing, to long shots of her walking through the woods then to extreme close ups of the nature. The shot that had the longest time was a close up of her singing which lasted about 6-8 seconds.

Born Into Coal

     This short documentary, Born Into Coal, leans more towards human-interest than narrative. It talks about how coal mining is such a big part of some of the family’s lives in West Virginia. It also speaks of the coal queen pageant and how it represents the pride of coal-mining families. The documentary is a human-interest documentary because it follows the families into their home and expresses their feelings about the coal mining industry.

     These two shots really stood out for me because they show just how incorporated 

their job in coal mining is aligned with other aspects of their life. In the first photo, the coal miner is watching his daughter in the pageant and his fingers are stained with the coal dust from where he works.No matter where he goes or what he does, he can not escape from what he does for a living. 

     In the second photo, it reemphasizes the theme of working in coal being included in other aspects of life, it also speaks to how a strong sense of family is reinforced in coal-miners home lives. The apparent normalcy of the scene in which the shot is taken is slightly disturbing; it appears that the family does not find the fact that the father is covered with coal from head-to-toe in coal dust at dinner the least bit odd. In regards to recreating the first shot, I could recreate it without much difficulty, however, recreating the second shot, while not impossible, would definitely be difficult to do.

The Last Meal

I found that the presentation of “The Last Meal Project” was more compelling than “No Seconds” because it provided more visual rhetoric. In the last meal project it provided more information about the convict: his/her name, their last meal, the reason they were convicted, the state they lived and the time and day that they were executed. What I mostly liked about The Last Meal Project was the font the author used on the text, the color red as a font, and they way the paper was presented: ripped and crumbly. With all the information given and all the photos presented, it made me feel like I was there, like I was the one giving the convict his last meal, it made me feel like I was watching everything in person rather than seeing it all online. In No Seconds, I liked the way in which he portrayed the pictures; he was showing how each meal was presented before it was given to the convict, but it did not really feel like it was the meal of a convict; it was more luxurious and fancy. The one similarity I have seen in both was the font used to explain the meals; the two made me feel like I was reading the actual paper that was used. However, the author of The Last Meal Project used more visual rhetoric than the author of No Seconds.

I believe that the author of The Last Meal Project did a better job in describing the meals than the author of No Seconds; he succeeded in representing the information of the convicts and he used more visual presentation and he was able to connect with the readers through these visual presentations.