- the Christian Brothers of St. Louis (Matt C.)
- measuring the success of PETA protests (Scott)
- people who suffer from epilepsy (Sean)
- how technology is impacting the lives of middle school students (Liane)
- inside the competitive world of turtle racing (Mike)
- conflict between an oil company who is trying to buy land from a group of climbers (Max)
- expansion of Boystown (Jermane)
- conflict between a coal miner's union and the young people needing jobs (Ranell)
- the communal living scene in Chicago (Erin)
- examining the market flows of consumerism (Matt M.)
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Interesting Ideas
At the end of last class, you all pitched ideas for a possible documentary project. Here's a very brief rundown of the subjects pitched (and the people who pitched them):
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11 comments:
Competitive turtle racing sounds intriguing because so many questions come up. As with any niche, it's exciting to find out something new, and all the W's about it. If I has one question about it, it would be to tell me a little more. Where does this take place? Are there certain turtles? Are there championships, fanatics? All the things that come with like a King of King type movie.
I am very intrigued by how technology is impacting the lives of middle school students. I really like this idea because I remember how hard it was for me to adapt to the new wave of technology when I was in middle school in 1999. There are so many directions you can go with this topic and I think it is going to be hard to find a central focus. There are so many things to cover: cell phones in the classroom, laptops, cable internet, etc. If it is narrowed down to a specific argument I think it would be easier to cover, for instance, "is new technology helping or hurting middle school students?"
I would probably be most interested in the conflict between and oil company who is trying to buy land from a group of climbers. This idea is interesting to me because it is the typical large corporation attempting to destroy nature. It seems like it would be a constant uphill struggle for the climbers (no pun intended). The main question I have is what are the climbers doing to stop the oil company and what will they do if the oil company is successful in purchasing the land?
The most interesting story to me was Matt's ideal about the church and theology. I was really interested in what he was trying to prove and I am very interested in the subject. I have been questing my religious beliefs and doing research of my own. I would love to see how he would take this documentary to another level. My question is what ways would you address this subject and when you start working on it, can i come for the ride.
I was most interested with Liane's subject: how technology is impacting the lives of middle school students. I remember learning how a computer works when I was in elementary school... and it expended to word documents, proper form, ect. I think it may be interesting to study technology in high school as well. For me, I went from public school, to a new private high school. This new school was taught totally on IBM laptops, and no chalk, no whiteboards were seen in the classrooms. Everything was emailed, and done on a SMART board. Very interesting teaching technique! I guess the most important question: how effective is technology on learning/middle school students??? Does it improve?
The idea that most interests me is Erin's idea of examining communal living in Chicago. Excuse the French alliteration but fucking fascinating. I feel like this is a really fresh topic that would be awesome when captured on film. I know very little about the communal living scene in Chicago, and personally had no idea of it's existence. Where do they live, who are they? I can only imagine that a such a lifestyle would produce some great characters perfect for a documentary. There are a few questions that come to mind on this topic. How would you capture this lifestyle on film, would you have a focus on anything in particular? And how would it be presented to the audience 'a day in the life' sort of thing, the commune as a whole, follow a subject/family?
I was interested in Max's idea of the conflict between an oil company who is trying to buy land from a group of climbers. Probably because of the one key word in the pitch: Conflict. I was really fascinated by what he had to say about the climbers who had given up their lives within society's norms to explore climbing and revolve their lives around that passion. I imagined a lot of great characters and some really amazing stories to come from it, and I felt like this pitch could almost be a secondary story line that introduced a conflict for the climbers in this area. I guess some questions would be What are the climbers doing to protest this? Who has the final decision and how could it affect the climbers specifically if the land were to be sold? and How could you possibly combine those two pitches for one kick ass documentary? I think it can be done.
I'd like to see further into the communal living situation in Chicago. Although I'm familiar with a few of these associations further West I would be interested to see how the situation would pan out in a densely populated urban area like Chicago.
I am also intrigued by these Christian Brothers. I would like to know more details, but it seems as if you have a reverse Grey Gardens thing going on, and i can dig it. I am just curious as to where the climax/drama of the film would be. I mean something has to happen, like the possible eviction of the ladies in Grey Gardens due to unsanitary conditions of the house.
I am most interested in Erin's idea of communal living in Chicago. How many people are involved? Are there families involved in this or is it just individuals? What is their goal in creating this communal living community? Why Chicago?
Damn. Did you see that picture of Alicia Silverstone? Before I opened the blog I hadn't thought much about PETA (despite being a vegan) but that sold me. Whats up with Peta? Why is it that their intentions are so good but they always seem to rub people the wrong way? I guess I wonder most what angle this doc would be taken from... its kinda hard to make a doc about a corporation like PETA without it seeming either funded from PETA and biased or funded by someone who hates PETA, and biased.
I'm also interested in consumerism and do wonder where the money is going, and how it divides the way it does, but I get nervous about preaching to the converted with topics like these. Also could totally get down with some competitive turtle racing if the racers were interesting enough characters.
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