Time to get serious here on a story you might like to film.
For instance, I could do a documentary style film on a favourite Main Street fruit and vegetable store, called Logan and Jade's for the owner's names (but not that officially). Logan is known for his signs that detail things like why he cannot afford to sell ripe avocados and why, no, he does not have riper ones hidden in the back of his store. Whether he'd agree to be filmed is another story . . .
I have the idea of filming a short (2 to 3 minute) documentary on the memorial for children (especially babies) at Mountainview Cemetery. The memorial combines a small stream channel with rounded stones, each one representing one child. Some have names on them; most do not. Surrounding the memorial stones is a landscaped garden. To accompany the images I want to have a voice over narration of the following poem:
ReplyDeleteReturn Baggage
The cemetery plot for tiny graves.
We, the long-lived, pass by furtively,
like wealthy people passing slums.
Here lie little Zosia, Jacek, Dominik,
prematurely stripped of the sun, the moon,
the clouds, the turning seasons.
They didn't stash much in their return bags.
Some scraps of sights
that scarcely count as plural.
A fistful of air with a butterfly flitting.
A spoonful of bitter knowledge—the taste of medicine.
Small-scale naughtiness,
granted, some of it fatal.
Gaily chasing the ball across the road.
The happiness of skating on thin ice.
This one here, that one down there, those on the end:
before they grew to reach a doorknob,
break a watch,
smash their first windowpane.
Malgorzata, four years old,
two of them spent staring at the ceiling.
Rafalek, missed his first birthday by a month,
and Zuzia missed Christmas,
when misty breath turns to frost.
And what can you say about one day of life,
a minute, a second:
darkness, a light bulb's flash, then dark again?
Kosmos makros
chronos paradoksos:
Only stony Greek has words for that.
—Wislawa Szymborska
Translated from the Polish
by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
I feel you have a purpose for this paticular subject. Are you wanting to do something more with this choice, than to simple learn how to make a movie? It is a deep and sad topic. I would also be willing to narrate, I love poetry, and it should be read a certain way.
Deletei think it would be great!still don't know what to do for my video project, though........any ideas?
DeleteI don't think making a memorial video is a good idea. I agree with veronica, it is a heavy and sad subject--plus feeling not good to interrupt the souls rested in peace. So why don't we make some video for fun? I have an idea; we can go to Richmond Stevenson area. There are two sites worthy of making video. One is the Stevenson fish market called Stevenson wharf--- usually opened during weekend, not sure for weekdays. The other is ship yard called Britannia. It is old ship yard site with a museum. You will see the time bitten houses and wooden deck and some rusty tools, giving you a sense of history.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link of an video of fish market(quite good, I thought), and a website for the information of ship yard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tng047N2vtE
http://www.richmond.ca/culture/sites/britannia/about.htm
It should be Steveston Village, sorry for the spelling mistake.
DeleteHi Linda! Just to clarify: I don't mean for the class to take on this video project. It's what I wish to do personally. The idea that we can do a field trip to gather footage in Steveston is a very good idea, however. We could then all have access to the footage and make our own film (separately) or we could make one together. I'm hoping we can do both--a personal project and a group one, too. Veronica, I'd be happy to have you read the poem for the voice over work on my video. Thanks for offering!
DeleteI was thinking for a while about it and came up with something. I'm thinking of making a video about "Downtown Vancouver". The idea is to comparing the day time to the night time life.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it interesting.
(And the only thing I'm wondering is if its okay to have my camera with me in downtown while recording).
As far as I know you are safe to film in public but I'm not sure if that means you can publish that film on YouTube without anyone's permission. I'll check into this issue and let you know by March 8.
DeleteHi Farzad,
DeleteI found this web link that makes it pretty clear that it is okay (but done politely) if you film only in clearly public places.
Filming in Public
I'm thinking about making a film about my day of first generation of Korean Canadian, or my birthday without anyone to celebrate? I don't really know if either of them could be interesting to watch. What do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteI think we need more detail on the idea Esther. A day in the life sounds like a big project (but interesting, no doubt). It might work though, especially if you have good tripod (for doing self filming) and/or an assistant to operate the camera. Why don't you shoot some representative footage before class next week and let us have a look?
DeleteIn fact, everyone should shoot something interesting to show on March 8. We'll have our editing software in place by then and can see it on the big screen, too.
I think choosing pet as a theme is an idea for a short film. We could suppose a pet as a kid ( in somewhere, puppy’s intelligence equal to 3-4 years kid) in a new place (such as school, park or somewhere else) and record its reaction with some personified language. I had a puppy before. So I know puppy is very funny when it responds in some new circumstance. Maybe I could find some inspiration from Youtube.
ReplyDeleteOk, I have decided to just film my family. Introduce each member, including my pet's.
ReplyDeleteCould be boring, but I do not know what else to do, as I do not have much time to focus on something else.
I have finally decided, yey!!!!!!!!!! a day of my volunteer, but my volunteering only happens on Saturdays which is bad because I think I need to film something by this Thursday, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteFilm anything that interests you before then Esther. Try something new; take a look at Videomaker.com and do a shot you've never tried before, for example.
DeleteThanks for the suggestion, I'll try to do that! See you tomorrow, and have a nice day......^^
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