Class Photos!

What a great semester!

2pm Class

3:30pm Class

Semester Final Reflection Essay

In class on Thursday (12-11) you will write a short essay response to the following questions. Although we will work on these in class, you do not need to post your essay to your blog until the Friday of exam week (12-19).

Please frame your answer in complete thoughts and paragraphs (not as a bullet-point list). Feedback is essential to helping me shape this course in the future, so I appreciate your honest responses to these questions.

Please answer every question in detail:

The Project

• What was your biggest struggle during this project?
• What aspect of the documentary makes you most proud?
• What aspect of the documentary would you have changed?
• What aspects of the project were you personally responsible for? Please be specific as possible.
• We can all agree that group is frustrating. What did you do to try to promote a healthy group atmosphere? What more do you wish you had done to help the group?  Do you feel like you contributed a fair amount to the overall project?

The Class

• This course is designed to help you hone your critical thinking skills. Did any of our readings or films cause you to think about your world differently? Did the project cause you to think about the campus community differently?
• Another goal of this course is to challenge you with new technologies and communication techniques. How did your public speaking ability change this semester? Did you enjoy learning about how different styles of communication function, or would you have preferred writing 4 essays?
• My goal as an instructor is to help draw out the abilities you already possess, and focus them into new applications. Was my style helpful? Would you have preferred more lectures? More discussion? More homework?
• What can I do in the future to make this class better?
• If you could change one thing about this course, what would it be?

First Cuts Day 2

The Main Event

Hockey

Study Abroad

Bodybuilders (Callie, Savannah, Randi)

Bodybuilders (Chase, Jon, Alex)

First Cuts Day 1

Tattoos

Chili

Dodgeball

Keeneland

4PAWS

Eventing

First Cut Presentation Time

Thursday
Tattoos
Chili
Dodgeball

Keeneland
4Paws
Eventing

Tuesday
Hockey
The Main Event
Study Abroad

Bodybuilders (Callie)
Bodybuilders (Chase)

First Cuts and Documentary Guidelines

Each Film Must have:

• A title (not "WRD 111 Documentary" but an actual title)
• 5 minutes of footage
• End credits (each group member's name and primary responsibilities)
• Citations (interview subjects; any footage, sounds, or images you took from somewhere else). Use the Purdue OWL as a guide for citing sources.

Each First Cut Presentation must:

• Feature a full-length, finished documentary video. This is not a "rough draft"
• Feature a brief spoken element from each group member (how you divide this task is up to you)
• Cover most or all of the questions below in the span of three minutes, and include a Question and Answer segment. Each group will paired with another group who will ask questions.

Questions to consider for your First Cuts presentation:

• What is the thesis and focus of your documentary? 
• What is the scope (why did you choose to focus on certain elements and ignore others? How did you decide what to cut and what to keep?)
• Who is the audience for your documentary? What do you want your audience to leave with intellectually and emotionally?
• What rhetorical choices we talked about in class did you incorporate in your film?
• What areas do you feel work best?
• What areas do you feel need improvement?
• What types of feedback would like? In other words, on which sections or elements of your documentary should we focus feedback?
• What were some elements or shots you wanted to get but couldn't? This will help us to not suggest shots that you've already considered.
• If you had an extra six months to work on this project, what would you have done differently? This is a fun question to talk about, because it lets us see the ideas you had that never made it to the documentary because of time constraints.

This is not an exhaustive list, nor is it a strict guideline; rather, use these questions to give you an idea of what your First Cuts presentation should cover.

You will also be assessed on your presentation skills. Taking into account the feedback you received from me on your Shark Tank Proposal, think about how to improve your:

• Tone, volume, and projection
• Eye contact, posture, and hand placement
• Pacing, spacing, usage of the room, and movement

Group Meeting Schedule

Tuesday
2:00 Hockey Team
2:20 Chili Cook-Off
2:40 Study Abroad

3:15 Service Dogs
3:35 Bodybuilders (Randi)

Thursday
2:00 The Main Event
2:20 Dodgeball
2:40 Tattoos

3:15 Keeneland
3:35 Eventing
3:55 Bodybuilders (Jon)

Remaining Schedule

As our semester comes to an end, I thought it might be helpful to outline how our remaining class periods will play out. At this point, we are done with any lecture-style class periods, and will spend class time working, meeting, or presenting.

November 6:
Schedule Group meetings. Group work time. Filming Day.

GROUPS SHOULD HAVE SOME FILMING DONE

November 11:
Group Meetings, part one. Each group needs to bring as much footage as possible for us to watch during class.

November 13:
Group Meetings, part two.

GROUPS SHOULD HAVE ALL FILMING DONE

November 18:
Editing Week. Any groups who wish to work at the Media Depot (or at home) must post a group work photo from that day. This is for attendance purposes.

November 20:
Editing Week. Any groups who wish to work at the Media Depot (or at home) must post a group work photo from that day.

GROUPS SHOULD HAVE FINISHED EDITING

November 25:
NO CLASS, Thanksgiving holiday break.

December 2:
Group presentation guidelines, presented by Eleanor. Schedule First Cuts presentation times.

GROUPS SHOULD HAVE PRESENTATIONS SCRIPTED AND OUTLINED

December 4:
First Cuts presentation, day one.

December 9:
First Cuts presentation, day two.

December 11:
Food party day! We will have some snacks and you will complete evaluation forms for this class. Please bring your laptop/tablet/device so you can complete all evaluations in class.

Finals Week:
NO CLASS. Final Cuts of your group's documentary, as well as your personal reflection essay, will be due by December 19 at noon. Anything submitted later than this will earn a zero.

Homework for 11-6

For Thursday, beyond continuing to work on your films, please read the chapter "Using Evidence" from our course textbook: The Town Branch Writer. Chapter 10 begins on page 310. There is no blog post associated with this assignment, simply read and think about the evidence (interviews) you're collecting, and how you might use it.

Interviewing Basics

As you begin filming, here are some tips and techniques for conducting successful interviews.

Class Canceled

Class is canceled today (October 30). Your storyboards are still due on your blog by this afternoon. Your only homework for this weekend is to begin filming. Have a safe weekend!

Filming and Editing Tips

Here are three tips to think about as you begin filming.

What's in a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a way for your group to outline and visualize your entire project before you begin filming. The outline will help you construct and follow the narrative of your story and think about which scenes you need and where they will go.

The storyboard, however, contains more than just an overview of your story arc-- it contains specifics about shots and transitions as well.

Student Documentaries

Puppies for a Purpose

Paintball Team

Mathews Garden

Homework for 10-16: Born Into Coal

For the weekend, please watch and respond to the documentary short Born Into Coal. In particular, pay attention to the narrative style. Is this Human Interest? Standard Narrative? A mix of both?

Pay attention to specific shots. I would like you to break down AT LEAST one shot in detail. You can/should screen capture this shot (so we can see what you're talking about) and embed it in your post. Explain why you chose this shot, what made it stand out to you, and how it works in the larger context of the film. Is this a shot you could re-create?

What is Documentary?

Documentary is a subset of the non-fiction film genre. There is no one documentary film style, which means that it's not possible to talk about what documentaries "look like." It is also not possible to talk about how long a documentary is supposed to be, how in-depth the research needs to be, nor what narrative style frames the film.

MAJOR PROJECT 2: Research Memo

Research Memo

Your next major project is the Research Memo. As this project is simply a compilation of information and planning, you will only receive a credit/no credit score. Each group needs to submit each entry only once.

Homework for 10-14

For Tuesday, I'd like you to write a 350-500 word blog post in which you consider Visual Rhetoric. Visual Rhetoric is simply the application of our rhetorical model onto visual spaces. The follow websites construct an argument, using visuals, about the death penalty.

Avoiding the actual issues (your beliefs on the morality of the death penalty), discuss the rhetorical choices each author made. Do you find one presentation more or less compelling? What other presentations may have been possible? How does each author's aim/goal affect how he presents the images and text? Are there any other elements besides the photographs that contribute to the visual presentation (think text, color, layout)?

No Seconds
The Last Meal Project

Understanding Film Terms

Below are some key terms and explanations (with examples) of key film concepts and terms. 

Groups

For Thursday, I'd like to put you all into groups for the rest of the semester. I will continue to update this post as people email me, but here are the groups so far:

The Main Event
Mike Eilerman
Taylor Hamilton
Caroline Alexander
Shannon Stauffer

Dodgeball
Jared Smith
Justin
Brian

The Great Chili Cook-off
Sidney Forester
Beth Harper
Sabrina Walker
Lina Miscia

Study Abroad
Anna Montero
Monique Thomas-Whitehurst
Rana Ghazala
Emma Njuguna

Tattoos
Alex Hamilton
Shelby Napier
Elizabeth Brooks
Sam Heiser

Ice Hockey
Zack Flynn
James Holt
Mason Lubay
Seth Adams

4 Paws 4 Ability
Lynsey Bates
Betsy Evans
Alyssa Hiser
Gabriella Passidomo
Reacheal

Horse Eventing
Kaelyn Chick
Ben Lu
Shelby Vaccariello
Najwa Abu-Taha

Bodybuilders
Randi
Savannah
Callie
Justin

Jon
Chase
Alex
Leon

Keenland
Jimmy
Oakley
Megan
Noah
Daniel

If you do not yet have a group, you have two options:
1. Before class, you need to email me and tell me which group you're interested in joining
2. Come on class on Thursday and get put into a random group