I am really happy to be finished with this project. I will say that I wish we had more time to do the research but all in all I say that the effort put into this project was greater than any project I did this semester. I am now more at ease with Windows Movie Maker and Whole Foods. Both which I've never touched until this semester.
From this project I've learned that I have more say in my food choice than I once thought. Even though I live at home and my mom buys most of the food I eat; I have the oppertunity to go out and buy my own food. I like the all natural and organic food. it gives me a better connection to where my food has come from and what's in it. Even if its just little changes in my eating, I enjoy having more control over what I eat and buy.
I'm glad that I did this project with Sharon; she is so passionate about eating healthier and having more of a connection to where her food comes from. Her energy was contagious and her williness to walk me through the stores and process of finding the right foods made my descion much easier.
I do not think I've worked so much on one project in my entire school career. I've literally spent over 24 hours, researching, filming and editing this project.
At first is was hard to come up with questions because of our broad topic. Once we narrowed the focal point, our project took off. I liked having the freedom to do the topic in our point of view. It makes the researching easier and the content more real.
Going to the supermarkets were an interesting time. Once we got over the silliness we felt while recording, we got down to business. In the video you can hear a couple people talk to us. Some guy asked if we always took pictures of chicken. A butcher from Whole Foods gave us a lot of information about their air chilled chicken. People were more interested in us then the food.
I also like that we had two choices when creating this project, we could write a paper or make a video documentary. Sharon pushed us towards the video making and I'm glad she did. Now this is my second experience with Windows movie maker, as I become more familiar with its layout, I become more creative with my videos. I am also learning that editing is not easy and you have to be dead on with your timing when you split a video so words do not get cut off.
The excerpt of Eric’s Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation: Why Fries Taste Good” explains where the French fry came from and why it is so popular today. This popularity comes from a lucky farmer in the 1920s, John Richard Simplot, who became a potato/ fry manufacturing machine by making good deals with the people and companies he knew. The popularity of the frozen fry happened during J.R’s reign of the farm and potato empire.
The article, “The Pleasures of Eating” by Wendell Berry talks about what people everywhere, not only in the city, can do to make their lives and food healthier and to support American farms. Farms are becoming a thing of the past in a bad way; no longer do people care where their food comes from, all they want is something quick and easy. One’s health is a major concern when it comes to food, yet people do not make the effort insuring that their food is fresh, clean and came from good healthy animals or soil. It’s for people to take a part in knowing where their food is coming from and what kind of food they are putting in their bodies. America needs to focus more on quality than quantity.
The movie, Food Inc talks about America and its unhealthy obsession with producing cheap food fast. A nation run by a select few companies is in danger of hurting themselves; no longer do these companies care about the quality of product (mostly food) that they put out there. The production of food has changed greatly in the last fifty years and the new technology helps efficiency, but the quality of what is being produced has slipped out of consumers hands into the hands of money hungry corporations.
1. Is there a time limit?
2. Am I putting too many details or themes in my video?
3. Should I be added a gate way to the next section of the interview?
4. Should make one big video or put separate themes in separate videos?
5. Do I need to type out an actual introduction?
6. Is a conclusion needed?
The most rewarding aspects of conducting the interview was learning more about my manager whom I see everyday and do not think much more about other than are you making my customer's food? Bill spends about 60 hours a week working so it was good for me and who ever else watched the video to see another side of him. He is a lot deeper than most people would give him credit for. I already liked him for the funny things he would say, now I appreciate him for the more morbid stuff he says and writes about. Bill is not just that funny guy, there are different levels to him. So now I get to enjoy all sides of Bill that I may not have experienced if I didn't interview him.
Another rewarding aspect of this interview is I got to see Bill be more human and less manager. While interviewing him, we were on the same level; he didn't know the kind of questions I was going to ask and I didn't know the kind of responses he was going to give me. I learned that as a interviewer you need a good theme or set of questions you have in mind or wrote down for you person of interest. I do not think I would have been able to achieve my results if I just placed my camera in front of Bill and asked him to start talking about whatever he wanted.
One of the more struggling aspect of an interview is first of all finding someone I found interesting enough to interview. I know interesting people but I needed someone I knew who could talk without being too awkward in front of the camera. Once I figured out that it was going to be Bill, I told him about the project. Then he became a little anxious and started asking me questions and specifics about the interview. I tried to answer these questions as best as I could. His anxiety rubbed off on me and made me struggle with picking out what project I wanted to do. Originally, I was going to do the creative non-fiction but Bill and his own words became a much better story than I could think of on my own. My last and latest struggle is my pc, I have never used the movie maker program but I am willing to put the time in to edit my videos and put this project all together in a nice package. It's already taking some time finding the exact moments again but I am sure I will succeed and be proud that I've acquired some new skills.
Themes for Bill's Oral history
His background plays a big part in the interview which is what I'm basing my themes on.
- his schooling or lack there of(racetrack).
-how he got started writing.
-plays are his favorite form of writing and he loves to direct.
- his best moment as a writer
- his documentary
-his published book and performed plays
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