Wrap up & next week & beyond.

Hi all,

Well, we managed okay with only half of our class today! Final projects sound exciting and diverse. Diversely excitingsome! Excitingly diverseful!

FOR NEXT WEEK:
You can choose between two very different videos to watch on library reserve & blog open-endedly about whichever you choose.

1. THE WAR TAPES In March 2004, just as the insurgent movement strengthened, several members of one National Guard unit arrived in Iraq, with cameras. THE WAR TAPES is the result – a uniquely collaborative film from a team that includes Director Deborah Scranton, Producer Robert May (THE FOG OF WAR) and Producer/Editor Steve James (HOOP DREAMS). Straight from the front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES is the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves. It is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed by Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist Mike Moriarty and other soldiers.
2. WHAT I WANT MY WORDS TO DO TO YOU offers an unprecedented look into the minds and hearts of the women inmates of New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. The film goes inside a writing workshop led by playwright and activist Eve Ensler, consisting of 15 women, most of whom were convicted of murder. Through a series of exercises and discussions, the women delve into their pasts and explore the nature of their crimes and the extent of their own culpability. The film culminates in an emotionally charged prison performance of the women's writing by acclaimed actors Mary Alice, Glenn Close, Hazelle Goodman, Rosie Perez and Marisa Tomei.

Also, we will be engaging some sort of in-class video editing project for the next three weeks, and it will be your job to decide exactly what it will be. The objectives are that you will be working together (i.e. in small groups, in pairs, as a whole) and you will be working during class time on Final Cut Pro (which Rick and I will teach you). During next class, you will decide as a group what the assignment will be. Ideally, you'd be making something(s) that we can watch by the end of class on 11/24. So bring ideas if you can!