Final thoughts

The only way to overcome an illness is to treat the problem, not the symptoms.  To accomplish anything of substance, we need to identify what the root of the problem at hand is.  I have heard people complain back and forth about politicians and political parties.  One might be upset because they do not want to see gay marriage approved.  Others might fight endlessly to see a ban on certain guns.  It would not bother me at all if it didn't always seem to result in personal attacks.  I hate bumper stickers, online images, t-shirts, videos and so forth that are anti-Obama.  I hated during the last presidential election being told by online images and posters that I hated Big Bird if I voted for Romney.  Ads and other material like this is nothing more than anti-american propaganda, loosely disguised as mock patriotism.  As much as I may hate these symptoms, I can not hate any individual that posts them.  I can only wonder what the true underlying problem is.  

I believe that the issue most people have with politicians is the same issue that can be seen in almost every new organization today.  The issue is that everyone has their own agenda.  When I see any political figure making extreme promises, I always wonder what is in it for them.  I generally consider myself to be an optimist, but I can see myself starting to harvest some very cynical feelings.  Without innovation, progress as a species would not be possible.  However, I believe that not all advancement has true innovation.  Some people will only feel accomplished in their lifetime if they leave their mark in the history books.  For politicians, this could mean passing a huge bill that may or may not truly rise our country to a better plane.  For journalists this sadly often comes in the form of breaking the story first, even at the expense of confirmed truth.  

From the standpoint of a consumer of news, it is very exciting to watch a story unfold.  For hours we will watch news reporters telling us there is nothing new to report just so we can be watching live when they give us that all too important update.  I realized something about myself recently.  When I watch news unfolding in this manner, I have many of the same feelings that I used to while watching the Jazz in the playoffs.  It was exciting, I wanted to know what would happen next, when bad news came in, I was hurt and when good news came, I was overjoyed.  The problem is that this kind of mentality gave me no real human connection.  It became all about the energy of the event and to conversation pieces to keep up with my friends.  Years ago I decided I could not continue caring about things I truly did not care about like this.  I stopped watching sports and I have been much happier since.  Once I connected my feeling for sports translated into my feelings for breaking news, I tried an experiment.  for the last 6-8 months, I have not read any articles about breaking news until about the second or third of coverage.  I am just now going through and reading the reports from Boston.  This is not to say that I try to stay ignorant to the world around me or that my heart, thoughts, and prayers are not with the victims when things like this happen, it is quite the opposite.  I now spend the first few days thinking about the victims, pondering about the human side of what happened.  Once I do start to read the articles, I feel more connected to them.  I can appreciate the situation better looking at the details once I feel for the people.  One of the best benefits I have found doing this is that it gives time for the story to find validity.  It give me time to not only see tragedy the same way that I would treat a work of fiction.  This probably would not work well for most people, but it works for me.  

With all of that said, there are principles that I wish we could see incorporated into the modern news world.  It is not wrong to want to be first, we rely on speed and accuracy from our media.  I would hate to be in a world where we didn't know when things happened in our own country for days or weeks.  But if we take the time to treat people as people, we would have less false reporting.  If I were asked to write an article about my brother and a possible connection he might have to the mob (fictitious example), I would make sure to confirm EVERYTHING before releasing that article, he's my BROTHER.  We should treat everyone that way, as people.  It might take a little longer and we might not always be first, but we will be the most accurate and show the most integrity.  

At the heart of all ignorance lies social media.  The other day I opened facebook and counted how many of the top 10 posts by my friends were reposts or shares of images with sayings printed on them.  Of the 10, eight were shares all of which were politically and ignorantly charged.  I heard a stand up comedian (I believe it was Jim Gaffagin) once to a bit about greeting cards.  He opened up a card and read the caption and then said "yea, that sounds like something I would say."  He commented on the fact that we have become too lazy to even write our own comments on life and rely on sending out others words.  This has become amplified exponentially due to social media.  We share words and images with no original thought by simply clicking "share".  The worst part is many people don't even think through exactly what they are saying by doing this.  Propaganda masked behind humor is still propaganda.  

As it relates to news, social media is exciting and an amazing way to get second by second coverage of the world around us.  In the podcast we listened to, we could hear his almost sense of remorse as he talked about getting caught up in the spreading of unconfirmed information.  At the same time, I could tell he loves what he does as a whole.  Having tools to spread the word so quickly is amazing!  As long as we can always be aware of what we say and when we say it, I think we can make a difference using the tools of our time.  

Feature - USF '51

In 1951 the University of San Francisco was in danger of loosing their football program.  Funding all throughout the school was tight due to the drop in numbers of student body as a result of the war and economic hardships.  In order to keep the program alive, the administration put all their hopes on a bowl invitation since that would bring in enough money to sustain the program for five more years or so.  They ended having a miracle season, going undefeated, having eight players go to the NFL, 3 of which became All-Americans.  An invitation to a bowl game did come, but with the stipulation that they leave their two black players at home.  They immediately rejected the terms, lost the invitation, and lost their football program.  It is now 62 years later and they still do not have a football team.  Over the weekend we went to San Francisco and interviewed many of the remaining players and key staff from the '51 season for a documentary telling their story of standing up for what is right.  This is in preparation for a feature narrative to be filmed showcasing their amazing story.

Hard News

Students represent DSU in a state-wide film competition

A select group of students have taken the challenge to show the state of Utah what our film program can do.  For the competition, all teams are given a list of locations that they must film in and given three weeks to write, produce, and edit a five minute movie.  The theme for this years competition is "anything is possible" and the films are required to have a western feel.  This challenge is being hosted by Kane county and sponsored by the Utah Film Commission.  All films submitted will be shown and judged on April 12th in Kanab.  The Utah Film Commission will be in attendance and assist with the judging.  This project is being produced entirely independent of teacher or CMI assistance.  This short film is being made entirely by DSU students.

Studio Portraits

All pictures were shot at 135mm.  

 This is the same picture as the one before it.  I couldn't decide if I liked it more with the desaturated tone or not, so I posted both.

This last picture is only to show my lighting setup.  The light on the left (closest to the camera), worked as the key light.  I added a scrim to help defuse the light.  The back light was bounced directly off of the back wall.  On the floor, I placed a third fixture and turned on only one bank.  This was used as a kicker to help add depth to camera right.

Portraits

these were shot at 135 mm.  The sun was the natural back light and a reflector was used to bounce light onto the front of Daniel's face to fill it in.

tight

These were not the tightest shots, there were taken with a 50mm lens.  However, this lens was enough to show the assets I was trying to emphasize.  With a tighter shot, the subjects and action is compressed into a single shot.  This helped in the first and last shots to add a sense of closeness and intimacy.  In all three shots, in combination with the aperture, the focal length helped to have a shallow depth of field.

Bracket