X-Gen goes back to college, part III: A Team of One.

So you’ve decided to return to college and get that film degree that you hope will be your launching point into the world of film and video production. At your first class you look around and realize that you are nearly twice the age of the majority of your classmates. They look at you with suspicion and curiosity, wondering why you are sitting in the audience as opposed to standing at the front of the classroom teaching. Soon it becomes obvious that you are not a professor but a student, there to learn just like the rest. It is here that the similarities between you and your classmates end and where the age difference and generational gap between you begins.

Being a Generation X in an I-Gen world can be discouraging given the almost instinctual mistrust that the younger generation has for its predecessors. It’s nothing personal, and chances are you had similar feelings towards your elders when you were in your early 20s and late teens. But it does make it challenging when you are expected to work with the I-Gens in order to complete your coursework objectives. The key to your success will depend largely on how you approach your fellow classmates and in your ability to work independently.

Over the past three years, I have run into several Gen X that struggled to gain any real benefit from teamwork assignments because they were too afraid to engage their younger counterparts. Feeling isolated and overwhelmed, they often looked to their professors for assistance only to be once again frustrated by the seemingly universal lack of support. As a result, they were left out of important opportunities to participate in various hands-on and group oriented exercises.

Since much of the knowledge we need to graduate can only be acquired through collaboration, it is important to bear in mind that, regardless of your age difference, you and your classmates are there to learn. Thus it is crucial that you focus on the task at hand and not worry about winning any popularity contests. Moreover, don’t expect your professors to intervene on your behalf, as it is likely that they are equally puzzled by your presence and unwilling to show any favoritism, despite being closer in age. It is up to you, therefore, to decide your level of involvement. If you are respectful and yet refuse to be excluded you will find it much easier to get what you need from a learning perspective, and may even garner some good will on the part of your fellow classmates.

Of course, sometimes you are going to be on the outside regardless of how hard you try. The primary reason for this has more to do with the fact that college is, for better or worse, still a young person’s culture. While you are at home taking care of your adult responsibilities, your classmates are formulating friendships and liaisons that extend well beyond the confines of the classroom setting. It is in these moments of extracurricular association that the students begin to develop the network of support that they will use throughout their college tenure, and more specifically, to produce their senior thesis. Thus, you may find yourself having to work more independently at times, but don’t be discouraged! Having lived two decades longer than most of your classroom contemporaries gives you an important advantage in that you are most likely better prepared, more disciplined, and better organized. These skills, along with sheer determination, will prove invaluable especially during those times when you find yourself at the helm of a team of one.

The college experience for older students is often a mixed blessing. The age difference between you and the other students, the ambivalence of the professors, and the general lack of support, can sap your enthusiasm for learning. But again I say, do not be discouraged! If you can keep your eyes focused on your goals and remain resilient in the face of adversity, you will succeed. Never forget that no matter how awkward you may feel being the oldest one in class, your classmates are probably just as self-conscious as you are. Reach out to them, engage them, but don’t be too disappointed if your efforts prove unsuccessful. Ultimately, you are there for a purpose far more meaningful and important than the acquisition of friends from amongst the I-Generations.

The Monster We Created: GenX goes back to college part II.

My first foray into higher learning was over two decades earlier when I was in my early twenties. Back then most students did not have a cell phone or a laptop. AOL with its creepy, “You’ve got mail,” sound notification, was the number one content provider on the web. Netscape was in a serious battle with Microsoft for browser dominance, and Yahoo was just starting to establish its reputation. Apple was only a niche player in the PC business, known primarily for its excellence in graphic and sound editing, and its commitment to academics; it was by no means considered mainstream.

Fast-forward to today and the world of higher education has changed dramatically. Technologically speaking, the kids are a lot more savvy as a population than we were in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Unlike all other generations before them, they were raised with an awareness of the Internet. Many of them have had email accounts, their own computers, even their own cell phones, since they were in their early teens. It is not unusual for college students today to have a laptop, or a tablet, and of course, they ALL have cell phones and use them obsessively.

As for manufacturer of choice, Apple is king. Their decades old strategy for selling into the educational market and their marketing of that segment have been brilliant and lucrative. While Apple has always had a strong presence in academia, the popularity of the IPhone, IPad, and applications like IMovie and Rock Band, amongst the Internet-generations* (I-gens) has given the brand an even greater foothold into the creative mind space of that population. In other words, Windows may still rule the business world but not if the I-gens have anything to say about it.

The reason I emphasize technology is because higher learning, and its student population, have become so technology-centric. Everything from registration, admissions, financial aid, and even the coursework, is conducted online. As a result, much of the communication that occurs between students and professors, and students and their classmates, is electronic. At times this makes life as a student easier, especially when you have familial or work responsibilities in addition to your academic tasks. However, it can also make things more challenging on a personal level when relating to your younger classmates.

While I have no statistical evidence to support my claim, my own sense is that the emphasis on digital methods of communication has stunted the ability of our young people to effectively communicate face-to-face. I have literally sat at a table conversing with a half-dozen 20-somethings during which time not one of them took their eyes off their cell phone displays for more than a few seconds at a time. Thus, the increased role of technology in higher education can be a blessing and a curse.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of returning to school was the realization that the gap between X and I has increased dramatically. Even though we, as Gen-X, have helped to influence and establish many of the fundamental cultural elements of I-gen, the fact is that we are not contemporaries. The age-old rule of “trust no on over 30” is still alive and well. Despite our numerous, cultural similarities, the bottom line is that the kids don’t trust anyone who is the same age as their parents. Changing your style of dress or personality to better fit in does not work; if anything, doing so will probably make them even more mistrustful of you.

So how does a Gen-X navigate through the technological and cultural changes and challenges prevalent on today's campuses? How do they succeed in this environment given that they will more than likely need to rely on their I-gen classmates to get a good grade? That will be the topic of my next post in this series. Enjoy your week.

*Internet-generations refer to all generations who have been raised with an awareness and practical understanding of the modern Internet.

Going back to film school, Gen-X style.

As I rapidly approach the last semester of my college tenure, I thought I would share some of my thoughts and experiences for those of you considering college as the beginning of a second-career, or any Gen-X that are thinking about getting a film degree.

My own journey back to higher education had more to do with starting a new career in the creative arts. I had worked for Corp America for the previous two decades and was yearning for something more imaginative. The first thing I did before making the leap was to research the cost of the schools closest to me. I found that even though it is still comparatively inexpensive to attend a public junior college, it is not cheap, especially if you intend to go full-time. Four-year colleges are even more expensive.

In other words, if you are not independently wealthy, and your credit is average or below, and you want to attend school full-time, start doing research into everything from loans to grants to scholarships (www.fafsa.ed.gov). Money and time are the most important factors to your success as a student. If you want to do well in school and you have not been in a true academic environment as a student for 10 – 20 years, chances are that you are going to need some time to re-adjust to not only your studies, but the change to your daily routine, your relationships and perhaps, your standard of living. For me, going back to school meant a decrease in salary, (I was making $90,000 a year at GE and now make about $24,000), and adjustment in living arrangements, (I used to live in a 3500 sq. ft. house, I now live with a roommate in a 1200 sq. ft. apartment).

While these may sound like extreme changes, to me they were just the cost of doing business. I wanted my return to college to be as unencumbered as possible and was willing to sacrifice to make that goal a reality. The result has been a cumulative GPA of 3.85 over the course of my re-entry career, and a body of academic achievement that should help me to land a decent job or internship after I graduate.

Of course, this does not mean that you can’t achieve as much or more by devoting less time and effort to your studies. Or, that your experience in college will require any change to your daily routine or circumstances. The point is that returning to school is not as simple as enrolling in classes and paying the tuition. It takes time, effort, and some measure of sacrifice to succeed regardless of the type of degree you are pursuing. I have seen more re-entry students fail because they could not adequately adjust their lives to the demands of their educational goals than for any other reason.

So before you get out the course catalog and start choosing the classes you will take next semester, take some time to assess your current living situation and support network; try to identify areas that will require adjustment and then make the necessary arrangements. If there is one advantage that we have as mature adults over our Gen Y, Z classmates it is the ability to anticipate and plan for problems before they arise. You will find that this skill will come in very handy throughout your re-entry career but never as much as before you attend your first class.

Next week, I will share my impressions of the college experience as a whole and some of the challenges we face as older students in a Gen Y and Z world.

Found Footage Documentaries in the Digital Age

VALTER AND THE POOR from matumatik on Vimeo.

Found footage documentaries have long been a favorite of experimental filmmakers interested in the stories that can be produced exclusively from archival or library footage and photographs. As has been discussed in previous posts, technological advancements in video and audio capture, non-linear video and sound editing, and the ubiquity of footage, images, and audio on the web, have combined to form a creative environment in which found footage documentaries promise to play a more important role in the evolution of the documentary art form.

As a film student I can tell you that, here in Northern California, the popularity of web-based, found footage docs is growing in popularity amongst the next generation of filmmakers, and that its popularity can largely be attributed to the ease with which a simple but compelling story can be told without the cost and challenges associated with producing a documentary from scratch.

The video below is a trailer of a found footage doc posted by a student in 2010.

It is also due to an awareness on the part of faculty members regarding the importance younger generations have placed on the moving image as a fundamental characteristic of modern storytelling.

As an experiment, I decided to see how easy it would be to produce a short, found footage documentary from content downloaded exclusively from the web. I chose as my subject Tony Bennett. The results of my efforts are below. 

The entire piece took 10 hours to complete, which includes the time it took to research his life and story, write the script, record the narration, and then assemble the final cut. All of the images and audio were downloaded from the web (except for the narration). While it is by no means perfect it ably demonstrates how incredibly easy making found footage documentaries has become. 

What role found footage documentaries ultimately take as part of the new age of digital communications is still yet to be seen. Given the resources now available online, there can be no doubt that they will continue to develop and evolve beyond their experimental roots.

Another piece posted by a student, this year.

'Eye of The Dawn' found footage documentary piece. from Nazare Soares on Vimeo.

Define or Inform: Examining the media’s use of imaging in the Trayvon Martin tragedy.

By now, most are aware of the tragedy that occurred in Sanford, Florida, this past February, in which Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old male, was shot and killed in what many believe were suspect circumstances. When the story initially broke, news media outlets like CNN, Huffingtonpost, and Reuters featured photos like the ones you see below.

These photos were used when very little information was known about the circumstances surrounding the shooting and the individuals involved. They characterizes Trayvon as a vivacious and happy child, an innocent cut down in the prime of his life. And yet, they are misleading.

At the time of the shooting, Trayvon was 17-years old, and no longer the young child we see above. Still the media used these images instead of something more contemporary. Why?

Now take a look at the photo below. This image came into popular use around the time that it was revealed a police report of the incident confirmed that Mr. Zimmerman had sustained injuries consistent with his claim that he had been assaulted. No longer the happy child seen in the previous photos, this image is of a much older Trayvon scowling at the camera. Again, why did sites like CNN.com choose this photo instead of the former, more ‘positive’ images of Trayvon?

In the case of Mr. Zimmerman we see a similar misrepresentation in the media’s selection of images. The picture you see below was used early in the story’s genesis.

It portrays Mr. Zimmerman as an unhappy, overweight, criminal, someone perhaps capable of the brutal and senseless murder of a child. However, just like the photos of Trayvon, it is misleading. At the time of the murder, Mr. Zimmerman had lost a significant amount of weight and was not incarcerated but worked as a volunteer for a local neighborhood watch program. Why did the media select a photo of Mr. Zimmerman that was both out of date and misleading as to his physical image and legal circumstances?

The photo below was used around the time that the “angry” photo of Trayvon was first introduced. Like the photo of Trayvon, it is more contemporary to the time of the shooting and suggests a shift in the subject’s attitude and demeanor. Not only is Mr. Zimmerman in a suit and smiling, he is much thinner than in the mugshot photo.

As documentarians we recognize the power of images to influence public opinion. In fact, we rely on it. To suggest that the media’s use of these photos, and the timing of their use, was arbitrary would be naïve. Thus, the issue becomes whether or not their use was part of a conscious effort to shape public opinion, in my opinion, yes. But in doing so, has the media crossed a line of journalism ethics? Is it unethical for the media, and by extension documentarians, to manipulate images to in effect ‘tell’ the public what to believe or how to feel about an issue? Not necessarily.

While one of our primary functions is to inform it is also to interpret. Even the most non-invasive, fly-on-the-wall documentaries are edited with an underlying theme or tone. In other words, it is impossible to be totally objective about a subject. The fact that we choose one event over another represents our personal interest, or the interest of our employers, and by definition that makes the work subjective, but does that mean we have the right to mislead the public? Should the media have used the photo of George as a thin and smiling man when the story first broke, instead of a mugshot? Or, in the case of Trayvon, should they have used the photo of him as a grimacing teenager instead of the smiling child?

In my opinion, it is the seriousness of a particular issue or story, and its potential to polarize the public that requires that we as interpreters of events be as objective and unbiased as possible. Why couldn’t news sites have used photos of Trayvon and George that were contemporary and neutral as to their demeanor? The fact is they could have, and should have, but didn’t, because they wanted to create controversy. 
This is one of the major problems with contemporary media and its propagandistic approach to controversial issues. By focusing on the controversy, instead of providing a balanced interpretation of the facts, the media is, in effect, telling the public what to believe and how to feel. Thus, they are no longer informing so much as defining the way a story should be understood.

The Video Revolution, Part II: DSLRs and Hybrids

Watch Battle for Haiti on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Last week we discussed the impact of the Millennial generation on the use and popularity of video content as an enhancement to information consumption online. They, along with the ubiquity of broadband and the Internet’s unique position as a visual medium, have contributed to the growing popularity of non-traditional video capture devices like DSLRs*, smart phones, and hybrid camera-corders. The effect of these devices has been nothing short of revolutionary to the filmmaking industry, and non-fictional film in particular.

While professional filmmakers continue to rely primarily on the traditional camcorder, many are beginning to include these alternative devices in their work because of the exciting possibilities they present as regards the kinds of footage they are able to capture. A good example is the world famous cinematographer Mrinal Desai.

Last year, I had an opportunity to ask Mr. Desai about the equipment he used for the Frontline documentary, “The Battle for Haiti”. He revealed that in addition to using the Sony F800 HDCAM, his team used the Canon 5D MKII to shoot much of the B-roll you see in the clip above. The footage is absolutely breathtaking and demonstrates one of the many reasons why professionals are beginning to experiment with DSLRs in their projects.

Some may argue that Mr. Desai also used expensive lenses and other equipment to produce the high quality images we see in the clip above, and it’s true. However, the fact that the DSLR cost about one-fifth the price of the HDCAM makes it a compelling option for any independent documentary maker on a budget.

Still, some worry that the image form factor of these new devices is not “motion picture” quality, and again, they would be right. True “motion picture” quality requires a larger resolution than many of these devices are capable of, but that is beginning to change.

The growing popularity of DSLRs has forced manufacturers like RED to introduce “hybrid” cameras that are capable of large format image capture but cost significantly less than the majority of professional grade camcorders. Take a look at the clip below shot with a RED Scarlet-X (http://www.red.com/products/scarlet, retail $9700 body only).

Thus, for less than a third of the price of a RED Epic-M, you can buy a hybrid capable of “motion picture” quality footage.

While the price of the RED Scarlet-X and Canon 5D MKII may seem appealing to professionals tired of paying tens of thousands of dollars for a single camcorder, it is still way outside the budget of many independent doc makers. For those seeking an even more cost effective alternative there are numerous cameras available that provide high quality imaging at a great price. One in particular, another hybrid, is the newly released JVC GC PX-10 (http://camera.jvc.com/). 

A recent addition to their line of camera/camcorders, the PX-10 offers full, progressive HD quality for about the price of an entry level DSLR (retail $899.95). The clips below were taken using the PX-10. Note, that the second clip is shot at 300fps. 


Normal frame rate:

300fps:




The bottom line is that the evolution of alternatives to traditional camcorders continues at a rapid pace and that we, as indie filmmakers, should not discount them as unsuitable simply because they are not “motion picture” quality. For many emerging and seasoned pros these devices offer a cost-effective means of capturing high quality images for their projects. If the goal is to see your work on the big screen, there are still alternatives like the RED Scarlet-X that offer 4K resolution at an affordable price. But for the rest of us that are content with the small screen format of TV and the Internet, there are now a myriad of options available that are capable of delivering beautiful images without draining your bank account.


*The term "DSLR" refers to a type of camera in which the subject of the image is viewable exactly as it will be captured, unlike a camera which relies solely on the viewfinder. In addition, the format of DSLRs is typically equivalent to 35mm film but may also include medium format imaging that uses a smaller sensor. In other words, DSLRs are what professional photographers use as digital replacements for their 35mm film counterparts. 

The Video Revolution

Video is everywhere. At no other point in human history has so much emphasis been placed on the moving image as an enhancement to how we receive and interpret information. From CNN.com to Reddit, the appetite for original video content continues to grow by leaps and bounds. If you are wondering, “who is to blame,” you can lay all the praise or condemnation on the Internet.

The web has evolved from its early roots as a method of transmitting text to a multimedia-rich, visual medium of communication. Just look at what it has done to politics and journalism. Check any mainstream political or news site and you will see lots and lots of video. Why is video so pervasive? Well, one reason is because of the ease with which even the novice can capture, edit, upload, and distribute video. Add to this the ubiquity of broadband and it suddenly becomes obvious why our culture is being inundated with video content.

While some may argue that it is the Internet that is driving the rapid development of cheaper and better quality tools for video production, others insist it’s the other way around. I say it is a convergence of the two with a third important element: the emergence of the Millennials as a consumer base. The Millennials are those individuals born between 1982 and 1995. They are the first generation of Americans raised with an awareness of the Internet, and are also the first culture whose primary media source is TV. More than their predecessors the Millennials are the ‘video’ generation.

All of this has led to an explosion in the production of video content for online consumption. Whether it is Huffingtonpost, Reddit, or CNN.com, everywhere you look it seems as if anyone and everyone with a computer, smartphone, or tablet is making videos and posting them online.

How then does this new reality affect us as documentarians? First, it means that we now have a lot more competition. Second, it suggests that the old philosophy of buying the best camera that you can afford may not be true anymore. Why would someone lay out $20,000 for a RED when they can pay $5,000 for a DSLR and still maintain a high level of visual quality? Sure, some may argue that a video camera is not a still camera, and vice versa, but the evidence indicates that the line between what we consider “professional” grade and “amateur” is blurring to the point that, as Indie doc makers, there is compelling reason to seriously consider the latter when determining which camera to buy for our projects.

But it’s not only the price difference that makes these new video devices an interesting choice. It is also their form factor. The fact that I can record video on a device as small and easy to carry as a DSLR or smart phone presents intriguing possibilities. Oftentimes, interviews happen in places that are unaccommodating to large camera cases and equipment. DSLRs, smart phones, tablet computers, make it possible to capture footage in ways and places never dreamed of even a decade ago. Moreover, all of these devices record in a highly compressed HD format. With most manufacturers claiming a resolution of 720p or higher, this means that the video quality from these devices is as good or better than most of the non-fictional, TV programming of the 80’s and 90’s. Take a look at the video link above. It is a short documentary shot with a Canon DSLR and some prime lenses. The entire production cost less than $5K to create.

Next week we will take a deeper look at some of these alternatives to traditional video cameras, and how they are revolutionizing the documentary art form. Until then, have a great week.