Future Film Topics

In my college prep class we had to come up with a topic for a film and actually write the film out as a story and probably we can film it over the summer. I choose a topic that is really debatable. 

In the beginning of the “One Race” documentary you will witness the globe.  The globe is

symbolic because it is where physical life itself began. The next scene then illustrates the many

interactions of the human race.  Then, archival film clips highlight some of the major civilizations

of the world.  These civilizations include: the Chinese empire, Egyptian empire, Greek and Roman

civilizations, the Ottoman Empire,  Native Americans, and my native ancestry-- the Tainos of the

West Indies. After that scene the next five minutes will contain a montage of paintings of all those

civilizations, narrated by an overview of their cultures.  The camera will slowly pan outward to a

complete picture of the globe, then moderately zoom back into a shot of the continent of Africa.

This then starts a series of quick cuts to ancient graphic footage recreating an older civilization and

art from that time period. This will give all viewers a quick background of their cultures in an effort

to begin to draw all viewer demographics into the more unified message of “One Race”.  As the

screen begins to fade to darkness a voice narrates this with the following questions,

“Does your DNA or your parents determine your race? Does your environment determine your

race? Let’s think about this for a second.”

One Race will focus on these two questions-- What is race? When was the concept created? The

person who inspired my curiosity about this topic was my music production teacher.  One day

during a break we were all in the kitchen.  I was preparing my food when a friend noticed that  I

was the only “Spanish” girl in the program.  The other people in the room began to make

comments like “only Spanish people would do that” or “Spanish people say things like that”.   My

music production instructor overheard us talking and quickly interjected,  “We all originated from

Africa, and as time progressed we migrated to other parts of the world.”  This immediately shedded

new light on what I thought of when someone mentioned the term, “race”.

I began to conduct research to validate my instructors comment.   I discovered some very

interesting facts that continued to escalate my curiosity.  I discovered an article that talked about

skin tones and the many shades of brown.  The article stated that there are many shades of brown in

the world because of our changing environment.  The people closest to the equator have darker

skin because they have more Vitamin D.  As people began to migrate and settle northward in

regions now know as Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, they began to get lighter because the

Northeastern hemisphere receives less of a radiant from the sun.  Lighter colored eyes was a natural

evolution due to having to survive in places with dim light and less natural sunlight.

One Race will be shown to people at college and high school campus’ across the country.

Everyone should begin to have to conversation about race.  Understanding the concept of race will

bring people closer together and encourage self-reflection.  People who have a greater sense of

their history, has a greater sense of purpose in the world.  I hope to make a positive impact on

others with this film.  I want this film to have an impact on how we deal with racial stereotypes.

Don't Let Me Drown

I've seen this film in a college prep class for film in Borough of Manhattan Community College (bmcc).  We're watching some independent films and learning how a film is set up. From the shots to how the music makes a connection to whats going on in the film, to how each scene plays a big part in the movie. The first film we watched was Don't Let Me Drown. It takes place in brooklyn New York. The stories are centered around two teenagers, during the time of 911. Both of the main characters have there own conflicts at home but when their together they're the highlight of eachothers day. This film basically shows that "the only thing to help them from drowning can be love".

The protagonist is the male character Lalo, he's family struggles with poverty, they're always short on the rent.  The family immigrated from mexico, so Lalo's father was treated with less respect he was a janitor in the twin towers building but then when they collapse they offered him a job cleaning up. his father suffered a lot he was being to cough out blood and being very ill because of his job, Lalo barely got to see him since he was always working. He didn't even get paid enough for it. the people who lived with lalo was his dad, mom and uncle. his uncle seemed to be more like a brother figure to him then an uncle. They had a brother like bond.

The antagonist of the movie was Stefanie. She was a half dominican half black teenage girl who's cousin was lalos best friend that is how they met. during the film her family just moved in her cousins building in brooklyn because her older sister crystal who worked in the twin towers died. Crystal seemed to be a huge part of the film although she wasn't actually there. her family had to move to brooklyn from their apartment in the lower east side that he sister rented. crystal was basically supported her family. so her lose was a tragic thing to the whole family. Crystal is also dealing with her alcoholic father who is always beating on her mother. Stefanie is also antisocial she doesn't have friends in school she's always eating alone at lunch. but she's also a tough girl she doesn't like receiving pity from people.

This film was interesting to watch just because if been where the movie takes place. its not just a sobby love story. It also centered around 911 a lot, its really amusing to see how much new york has changed and recovered since this tragedy. It just shows how new york changed over time in general. For the class one of the assignments was not for entertainment it was to find out the structure of the film and to notice how many shots were in the first scene and what does the music set the tone of each scene. this movie connects with my film because in most of the movie you do see graffiti in the back round it was filmed in new york. They also shot is some of the places we're going to go and take pictures of the graffiti .

Here's the trailer of the independent film.

Cope 2

 

This video is on cope2 telling his story and his relationship with graffti. It is qa very interesting and dope video to watch. 

King of New York

Cope2 is an graffiti artist from the borough Bronx.  Fernando Carlo(cope2's real name) work has gotten recognized and known all over new york city. In this video he is talking about his style his arm, his inspiration, how he got his tag name, and his influence in his graffiti. He talks about his experience bombing.  Also he tells the story on his first time getting "almost" caught bombing. 

Brief Video Review

Mondays at Racine—Official Trailer from Cynthia Wade on Vimeo.

This video was very touching. I got emotional when she began crying when they shaved her head. this video is on woman who suffer from cancer and the process of getting there head shaved.

Our Trailer..

This is the first draft of our trailer, Im not really satisfied on the way it came out. I feel like we need a lot of more ending to do. The film was to shaky, and I didn't like the way it transitions from the interview with Jesse back to the roof, I find it kind of boring. We just need to make our video more creative and different. Our task should be to capture the viewers attention. 
I mean it isn't really bad for our first trailer, we just need a lot of improving to do and with dedication and participation i think my group and i can do it.
My First Project from Mediastorm New Design on Vimeo.

The Road Forward

The film my group and i are in the process of making is called rooftop legends. In the first semester, my group and I have taken footage of the rooftop, we have taken pictures of the art on our schools rooftop. We have also taken work shops on editing and how to work a camera. I learned how to properly use a camera. How to set the settings depending on what are we taking footage of and how to prevent having the video shake. Its better to use a tripod or even a skateboard to make our film less shaking. I learned what B role is. A man came to teach us how to properly shoot an interview. How we have to shoot the person you're interviewing from different angles. In the editing workshop Arianna gave us random clips of a footage and we had to take what we have been taught and edit the clip, honestly the only thing I learned whats a burns affect. we've also interviews our dean Jessie,

  

                        this is the curator of Seward Park High School and dean of New Design high school

By the end of quarter 3, a task for us is that we think it would be a good idea to get an interview of one of the artist that have done work on the rooftop. One thing i was thinking is to ask the other students and teachers how they feel about the rooftop. Or to even get them doing a piece of art work on the roof. since all the footage we have of the roof is in the morning during school hours, it would look even more beautiful when the sun is setting just around 5 or 6 o'clock eastern time example of the kind of lighting above. Since most of the film and pictures are done in fish-eyed and wide angle, we should try to get the art work in different angles. Another challenge for our group and our mini milestone for our self's should be coming up with a story or a meaning behind our film not just a video of cool art work. Our first intention was trying to show how the rooftop art work evolved over the years and how graffiti art is a actually an admirable thing.

What would be key for us to success with this film is to make sure everyone is in school and on time. Also on task and for everyone to share with us any ideas they have for the film. The more the better

                                                     "Got New York on your back."