Cinematography Workshop

Last week I attended a cinematography workshop led by Ariana Allensworth  that introduced me to different angles of film making . During this workshop I watched a clip of one of Michael Moore films who is a documentary film maker, He has made films such as Bowling for Columbine and Sicko . In the Workshop Ariana led a couple classmates and I to watch two different Clips and describesd how each clip had a different  type of film angle . The first film was called Favela on Blast by Diplo this film was about a man living in a very poor part of Brazil called Favela the film takes you in a day of this man  life and experience some of his struggles living in a poor community.  In this film Diplo made a lot of wide shots to show how the neighborhood was looking and made you feel that you were here , Diplo also used some close up shots to give the viewers a more intimate feel.

To Be Heard Review

 

The film To Be Heard was very compelling , it was based on three ( one many and two females ) Bronx teenagers dealing with the family problems and problems being  a teenager . Somehow these three students manage to over come these struggles threw poetry . They have formed a group called the tripod , the tripod to them meant doing everything together and succeeding in all their set goals in life . Even though achieving these goals were very hard these three teenagers have gone through many obstacles to get them .  The film shows all their  different  hardships and has made me  have a different view on teenagers today .

Who am I?

  This a poem I worked on during a workshop with power writers  an organization that helped with tthe film To Be Heard , the poem expresses my thoughts on how people think about me and how I really am as a person .

What people perceive me to be is not the real me
I am more then those 8 letters
D O N N E T T E
soo much stronger than that
soo much more than that but
I am still weak
my pride is held high
nobody can ever abuse me
verbally nor physically
my only weakness is letting some one know i have one
the real me is behind what all of you seem to see
I am more than my outside appearance
they say looks can be deceiving
well I guess I have deceived
you ALL.

The Ninth Floor by Jessica Dimmock

In an apartment above Fifth Avenue, some thirty young people live in a vortex of drug addiction and despair. In The Ninth Floor, Jessica Dimmock enters this world, exploring, in human terms, what has been lost and what may be recovered. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/the-ninth-floor

I watched a very interesting film that I found on Mediastorm.  It opened my eyes to a lot of things that I never knew about addiction. This short film was about two drug addicts and how drugs have affected their lives. The filmmaker used b-roll, lots of still photos, and interviews to show a day in the life of these two addicts.  Rachel and Dionn were a couple that was addicted to methadone because of  the heavy drug abuse.  The couple constantly fought and had arguments eventually that would lead to them making love.  Soon after, Rachel discovers that she is pregnant.  It was very likely that their child could have been born an addict, so doctors gave their new born opium.  Opium is a a medicine that can help treat babies with possible addiction they get from mothers who use drugs during pregnancy.  At the end of the film, Dionn was working to get into school to make a better life for his new daughter and family. 

This film shows the hardships of people battling with serious addiction.  It opens up my mind to think as if I were an addict and not to just judge.  I was able to get past my assumptions about addiction because I felt like I was there with them.  The filmmaker did this by using photos that were very detailed, personal, in the moment making me feel like I was a part of their struggle. Also, the interviews were very personal.  You could tell they were being really honest.  The music was very sad in the beginning to go along with the sadness of their addiction, but then when the baby was born it changed to more happy music because you could tell something different was going to happen.  I'm glad I watched this film.  Best wishes to all.