6/13/18- Daily Log- 2nd Day of Film Festival

In class today, we continued our film festival from yesterday. This time we watched two documentary type films, one in a news broadcast format about Water Wars called "Water Wars Broadcast," the other about cars and parking in the high school called "the lot." Just like yesterday, we wrote tweet length reviews of both films on note cards. The review had to be objective and specific, i.e. it had to include some choice and its effect. 

We watched "Water Wars Broadcast" first, which I and the rest of the class enjoyed. It had a TV news, CNN, feel to it which I enjoyed, from the animated globe opening, to the anchors dressed in formal dress, to the "Breaking News!" scrawl across the screen. It also featured insightful interviews with Water Wars organizer, Quinn, and disgruntled participant, Conner, who got shot but claims it wasn't legitimate since he was on work. Although I couldn't quite understand what Conner was talking about (a friend explained to me afterward about EMT volunteering), his frustration and anger at Quinn for his call was entertaining. The only criticism I have is that I think I would've liked to see shorter clips of both interviewees and more focus on that particular incident, so that I get more understanding about what the conflict was and what the position of both sides were.

After that we watched "the lot," which I loved. It features interviews with various people (adults and students) about their experience with driving, the parking lot, and traffic. Several of the interviewees expressed their experiences dealing with traffic and other drivers in a hurry. While that was entertaining in itself, the interesting part of the film was the extra stuff added. There were extra clips of mess ups, frustrations, goofy moments, and unsuccessful attempts to solicit interviews (there were a few clips of people saying "no" and walking away). These supposed to be off camera moments added humanity and charm to the film, making it as much about the students' journey making the documentary as about the parking lot itself.

This kind of off-camera personal moments enhance a lot of other, more professional, documentary films. For instance, the film "Defamation," about Israel and anti-semitism, includes little "are we off camera?" moments from some of the interviewees. The creator of the documentary included moments from his travels with the people he interviews that one normally wouldn't include, like the walking down halls, stressful moments, candid jokes about the interviewer and his camera, etc. This style of documentary lets the viewers in on the personal motivations of major players in the topic, letting us understand their humanity.