Julia 2009 Documentary Film

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Overall, I feel that the film was a success. We all work really hard and I think we were able to inform people about sustainable living. I thought that the expert interviews were great because they gave lots of research and really helped telling the story in each segment. I personally thought that Brad’s group expert interview was great. She really knew what she was talking about and I feel that she informed people the most out of all the expert interviews. I felt that my group did a great job at informing people by giving ways people can live sustainably, such as changing one simple thing like light bulbs! Overall, I think that each group did their job on informing our viewers about the topics they had. I think that the persuading part could be worked on a little bit more. I feel as though we were giving more facts than actually persuading. We could have used those facts and change them to be more persuading. I thought that the facts being used were effecting change rather than persuading. Daniel’s group did a great job at effecting change. Their visual metaphor of the earth exploding was a great visual that can allow people to see why it is important to change. I think that overall, we did the best at informing people of the information.

I thought that a lot of things worked really well in the film. The expert interviews worked great because they really knew what they were talking about and helped tell the story. Each expert brought something different to the film and I think that the class did a good job at making it so people can understand what the experts were talking about. I thought that the visual metaphors also worked well. They helped get the message across in a way that telling the information would not do. I thought that Brad’s group with the skit was cute and a good lead way into their segment. I also thought that Amer’s group and the exploding earth was probably the most powerful visual metaphor in the film. Each group I felt as if they introduced their topic in a good way, which helped the viewers know what was coming. Each group had their question written out which kept things organized. The research was great that we found, and really told a story. I thought some of the facts were shocking but yet important to viewers to know what really is going on. I thought that Daniel’s group had some great camera angles at the beginning of the film when they were shining a light on the earth. They shined the light at different angles really adding meaning to the part. I think that each group had a lot of good but at least one thing they could change.

Even though we worked really hard on the film there was still things that did not work well in the film. I thought that the first group (What is sustainable living?) had a lot of shaky filming. I also thought that their text was very hard to read when they had that long quote. Also, at that long quote the narration was not lined up right and so there was talking over their street interviews. The next group was Brad’s (Why Should We Care about Living Sustainably?) and at the beginning when they were doing their skit the filming was a bit shaky. They also had a black screen when they were doing a voice over and that could have been filled with a picture. The next group was Joey’s (What are the Economic Effects of Sustainable Living?) and their visual metaphor/skit was confusing. I did not understand what the message was with the scene from the library. I also felt that they could cut their expert interview a little bit more because it got long. The next group was Daniel’s (What are the Environmental Effects of Sustainable Living?) and they wrote after some street interviews that the person was wrong. I thought that they could skip out on those interviews and use the information that was right rather than saying they are wrong. I also thought their interviews were not covering their topic. The last group was my group (How can we Live Comfortably While Using Fewer Resources?) and we could have re-done the voice over about the light bulbs. It skipped a bit and my voice got quieter at the end. I also think that we could have changed the music and make it throughout the film like Joey’s group. Another thing I would have changed was cut out some more of the street interviews and add in more information from other interviews. Overall, each group could have changed some things to make the film better.

I learned so much from this project. I’m not a big technology person and I learned so much about the movie program we used. I learned the different angles of filming and the correct amount of space that should be above a person’s head. I also learned about zooming in to get different meaning in the film. I learned the correct way to interview people and to approach people on the street. I learned a lot about researching from different search engines. In school we are always researching things and I feel now that I will be able to find better research because I’m more familiar with the search engines. I also learned how to find correct and usable information off of google. From my topic I learned so many new ways to help the environment, some that are so simple too! I learned that recycling is not the most important thing in living sustainably. I learned that blogging can be fun and that it is fun to know people are reading my work. I learned about organizing a film to having it tell a story and that organizing helps the film make sense. I learned that the order of things are very important and can change what type of message you get off from the film. Also, I experienced some struggles with working in a group. I learned how difficult it is, and how important communication really is. I also learned how to take better notes from articles that are organized. Staying organized the whole way made finding research a lot easier in the end. Overall, I now look at films differently and respect film makers for their hard work in producing films.

In the future, I will use so much of this information I learned. I know I’ll use how to research the correct way all throughout life. I will use the organizing skills I picked up from this project all throughout life as well. I will also use the correct way of taking notes on homework assignments in the future and when I do research on other topics. I will use this experience to improve my future experiences with working with others. I struggled the most probably with working with others and realizing that they can help me too and that I do not have to do all the work. In the future I will use the information I learned from my classmates and my research to help the environment. After this project I realized I want to be involved in saving the environment. I hope that next year I will join the Parkway North environthan team and gain more knowledge on saving the environment. I plan on doing the little things I learned such as turning off the lights and unplugging appliances to help the environment. We only have the earth to live and it is our job to take care of it.

Finally the film we have been working on is almost done! Everyone is welcome to come to watch it! We will be showing it in Mrs.Pomerantz’s room on May 22! That’s this friday! The film will be played around 8 A.M. so if you are not busy feel free and drop by and see what the class has been working on for 8 weeks!

So this is the script and the ideas or what should be said for voice over on the film.

Recycling Visual Metaphor:

• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours — or the equivalent of half a gallon of gasoline.
• Americans use 60 million plastic bottles each day. Most of them end up in landfills or incinerators! Waste Management World. May/June 2006.
• An all-time high of 56 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. during 2007 was recovered for recycling. This impressive figure equals nearly 360 pounds of paper for each man, woman, and child in America.

Progress is being made on how much is being recycled and what can be recycled. Recently, We learned about single stream recycling which is combining the 2 types of recycling into just one bin. (Everything you recycled, no longer has to be sorted by you making it easier to recycle). You can find out if you have single stream recycling by your recycling bin!

**Bullet points are typed & the paragraph is the voice over.

Somewhere in the film a voice over will have: A study as shown people tend to think about now rather than the future, making it hard to get people involved and changing the environment.

Light Bulb Visual Metaphor:

•  every household replaced its most often-used incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), electricity use for lighting could be cut in half
• GE energy smart glass-covered CFL bulb $6 (Compact Fluorescent)
• Soft White Light Bulb $2

**Will be on voice over: An ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.

After everyone’s interviews for how do you live sustainably? I will add a voice over and have either the ducks, trees, or one of those scenic backgrounds for while someone from the group is talking.

** Unplugging appliances, Turning water heater down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, taking shorter showers, doing the dishes when the dishwasher is full, doing laundry when washer is full. The average U.S. household uses 350 gallons of water per day and over 25% of it goes down the toilet. By using more efficient water fixtures and regularly checking for leaks, water use can be reduced by approximately 35%. (type line above, while reading about water) If you need to warm up or defrost small amounts of food, use a microwave instead of the stove to save energy. Microwave ovens use approximately 50 percent less energy than conventional ovens.(write it!) Carpool and take buses. One regular bus takes 36 cars off the road.(type it!!!) Turn off lights! Keep tires on your car inflated. Check them monthly. Save 240 pounds of carbon dioxide and 840 dollars per year (type it!) Reuse what you can

**Energy– solar planol talk about energy stuff:

 It’s important  not to waste energy, so there is enough for everyone.

Unplugging appliances, Turning off lights, Using microwaves instead of conventional oven, Energy saving products such as flouresent light bulbs, energy star products, etc.

After the street and expert interviews for What are some enivronmentally friendly products?

**(voice over) Shower Heads to conserve water, hybrids, recycled materials such as paper, plastic and glass. Organic and all natural products such as for clothes, make up and hair products. Using vingear and baking soda for cleaning products.  Reusable cups. Reusable grocery bags

We can use these facts as voice over and also as educating the viewers with ways to help improve their home. Of course there isn’t enough time for all of these, so my group and I will decide on a couple that we like and think are helpful.

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours — or the equivalent of half a gallon of gasoline.
www.epa.gov
 
Americans use 60 million plastic bottles each day. Most of them end up in landfills or incinerators! Waste Management World. May/June 2006.
www.container-recycling.org
 
Almost half of the average home’s energy consumption is used for heating. Improperly sealed/caulked windows can account for up to 25% of total heat loss from a house. We can do our part to seal windows and doors to keep in the heat and keep out the cold.
www.energystar.gov
 
If every household replaced its most often-used incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), electricity use for lighting could be cut in half. www.energystar.gov
 
If you need to warm up or defrost small amounts of food, use a microwave instead of the stove to save energy. Microwave ovens use approximately 50 percent less energy than conventional ovens.
www.oeb.gov.on.ca
 
By turning your water heater down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, you can cut your water-heating costs by 6-10 percent.
www.epa.gov
 
The average U.S. household uses 350 gallons of water per day and over 25% of it goes down the toilet. By using more efficient water fixtures and regularly checking for leaks, water use can be reduced by approximately 35%. American Water Works Association.
www.drinktap.org
 
Animal agribusiness generates more greenhouse gas emissions than cars and other modes of transport, including SUVs.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. www.fao.org.
Worldwatch Institute. www.worldwatch.org/node/4925
 
An all-time high of 56 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. during 2007 was recovered for recycling. This impressive figure equals nearly 360 pounds of paper for each man, woman, and child in America.
Paper Industry Association Council, 2007.
www.paperrecycles.org
 
There are approximately 1,500 recycling businesses in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area employing over 15,000 people.

“‘One regular bus takes 36 cars off the road,’ Wellington said.” Helps with less exhaust fumes

“‘Thirty-eight billion plastic water bottles are thrown away every year,’ Wellington said. “According to tests, they’re made of petroleum and are nonbiodegradable”. Use a waterbottle and wash afterwards instead of getting a new plastic bottle each time

All of this stuff I got off my blog, from my notes or I went back and looked on the websites. I think that telling the story will be shown through what people know by street interviews and then maybe explaining more with the facts. After have an expert interview and sort of have a review type thing on how to live sustainable comfortably, the groups top 10. I’m hoping everything will work out, because this is getting stressful only a week left till the final product is due!

I’m taking notes on an article from New York Times called Why Isn’t the Brain Green?

• Americans said that climate change was the last priority for Obama as president
• At Columbia University there was a 2 day conference on the environment
• “A branch of behavioral research situated at the intersection of psychology and economics, decision science focuses on the mental proces­ses that shape our choices, behaviors and attitudes.” — this can also affect how people feel about the environment
• David H. Krantz and Elke Weber examined decision making related to environmental issues
• Most studies on environment are physical or biological studies rather than emotional studies
• There are different ways people process and make decisions.”One system works analytically, often involving a careful consideration of costs and benefits. The other experiences risk as a feeling: a primitive and urgent reaction to danger, usually based on a personal experience, that can prove invaluable when (for example) we wake at night to the smell of smoke.”
• People tend to think about now rather than the future– making it hard to get people involved and changing the environment
• Scientist focus on the unknown, example: How much are the oceans rising? When maybe it would be more helpful to focus on what is known, that the oceans are rising.
• Columbia has a lab where test are being done, mainly on students there
• When asking people being studied about wind turbine questions the familiar variables were all there: uncertainty, time, potential gains, potential losses.
• Working in groups increased people’s participation
• Another test done on people discussing what too do, they were going back in forth from thinking and feeling
• When making decisions as a group and then individual or the other way around you have different results to the answers — which deals with the decision making process and how it can be changed depending on the situation
• “There is no such thing as true preference.” — people have many goals and want it all, things can change minds to change what we want
• “…description for studies on how individuals and groups interact with the environment” is about 2 % of the money used on research for science — other 98% is for physical & natural science
• Stern’s the guys work being studied– ”work includes looking at how people consume energy in the home, told me that human-dimensions work usually falls into one of three categories: the human activities that cause environmental change, the impacts of environmental change on people and society and the human responses to those consequences.”
• With problems and getting people involved they tend to not change their minds until a realization or an experience happens ex: Alaska seeing how much ice is actually melting –community begins to change their ways of thinking– However even with that it still doesn’t change many minds and some still see the problem as a long-term problem that needs more research
• Many people think ‘If you don’t think or feel there’s a risk, why change your behavior?’
• “frames are just one way to nudge people by using sophisticated messages, mined from decision-science research, that resonate with particular audiences or that take advantage of our cognitive biases (like informing us that an urgent operation has an 80 percent survival rate). Nudges, more broadly, structure choices so that our natural cognitive shortcomings don’t make us err. Ideally, nudges direct us, gently, toward actions that are in our long-term interest, like an automated retirement savings plan that circumvents our typical inertia.”
• “Weber says she believes decision science isn’t only about structuring choices or finding the right frame to get a better outcome; it’s about identifying useful information that can be used for innovative products, policies and scientific studies.”
• Obama takes action by making a carbon “tax” democrats for but the republics do not want the “tax”
• Republicans rejected the tax because the energy crisis will not affect them until they are old or dead
• Harder for people to see the benefits that are so far in the future and unpredictable
• Some experts feel that nudging is OK as long as its an option and they can get out of whatever they are being nudged to do
• action might be taken too late because of how people will not take action until it is too late

Reflect:

I thought the article was pretty useful in understanding why people don’t help out with the environment. I found things that were very true in myself as in some of the experiments they held. I find myself to participate more when I’m in a group just like the 50% of people who did as well in the experiment. I thought it was weird about how the information is presented can have a different result. Thinking about that I realize that in a way that is true in many cases. I also thought that how Thaler and Sunstein said that you have to give people the option to do something was how I feel. I think that if you push people into helping the environment it would make them want to push away and not do as much about it. It kind of reminds me of the beginning of this project how a lot of people didn’t want environmental issues to be a topic, just because it was pushed on people so many times. I think people need to be informed but only too a certain point, because if they are pushed too far they will push away and that will not help the environment.

Alright so I’m doing more research and I found some ECO FACTS. I plan on using these in the documentary to help better support the research done. With the libraries help I then found a website with helpful links on going green/living sustainably. Perfect! So I checked out the websites and found out they were organizations to helping awareness and helping the environment. I wrote down a couple of numbers and hope to get in touch with some people tomorrow and possibly set up an expert interview for the weekend. So clicking around on the library website I then found a website about energy. Where I found a fact sheet on energy! With that I would a link with summer cooling tips. Summers almost here so that might be helpful to some people. Continuing looking around I then found some more ways to be energy efficient in your home! Alright, so my research is coming along, especially with facts!

I feel a lot better prepared with finding some more websites. I know I will come back to this and use this research to back up the street interviews and hopefully the expert interview. Tomorrow I will try waste management, the botanical gardens, and gateway greening. Over the weekend there is so much to be done and hopefully one of my group members will be available.

Off of my RSS feed I found this website. My RSS feed is from google and going green. This particular article is about going green for kids. It has the top 10 tips for going green and living sustainable. I think that this can be used for our film.

1. Save water

• Turn off water when you are brushing your teeth. Simple things like that can save lots of water in the long run

2. Save electricity

• Turn off lights and applinaces. Also unplug things.

3. Be a picky eatter

• Eat organic fruit and veggies, free-range eggs and hormone-free meat

4. Compost

• Leftovers on the plate can go down your compost –less trash being used

5. Take the bus to school

• “‘One regular bus takes 36 cars off the road,’ Wellington said.” Helps with less exhaust fumes

6. Play outside

• Today people have lost sense of the outside world. Feeling connected with nature makes you want to help out with nature more

7. Play in the dirt

• Make a garden

8. Rethink your drink

• “‘Thirty-eight billion plastic water bottles are thrown away every year,’ Wellington said. “According to tests, they’re made of petroleum and are nonbiodegradable”. Use a waterbottle and wash afterwards instead of getting a new plastic bottle each time

9. Support cruelty- free companies

• Do not use animal tested products

10. Clean without chemicals

• “All you need is a box of baking soda and a sponge. Pour baking soda into a bowl, add water to make a creamy paste, and start scrubbing” –but watch your clothes when cleaning

RESPONSE: I’m not sure what eatting organic has to do with living sustainable, but the rest of the article was pretty useful. Most of the things I’ve already heard before though. I think some of the facts would be good for the film. Earlier this week I was having trouble with statics, and there were a couple in the article. Also, I think some of the things they suggested are easy things for people to do. They said that living green is a lifestyle and it is a lifestyle everyone can live.

Street Interview Questions:

1. What is sustainable living?

2. How can you make your home sustainable?

3. Do you know how to recycle?

4. Do you know what can be recyclable?

5. Do you know where to recycle?

6. What is the easiest way to safe energy?

7. How do you live sustainable if you do?

8. What are the effects of living sustainable?

9. Do you save money by living sustainable?

10. How is living sustainable helping the environment?

 11. What is your favorite environmental friendly product you use?

12. What are some resources that you over use? (ex: gas)

Following up on expert interviews:

So, right now, my group still has gotten no phone calls. Recently I went the library and saw they are doing a program on sustainable living for the month of April. I figured they have to have experts for the presentations being made. I checked their homepage and it has nothing, but I will be running to the library by the weekend so I figured I would pick up a flyer and then do some calling over the weekend. Hopefully, there will be someone I can talk to or someone I can get together with for an expert interview.

Street Interviews:

• Explain what you are doing when you approach something
• If you say what it is for you have a better chance at getting people to stop
• The microphone should be point towards to the person and not too far away from them. Don’t let the person doing the interview take the microphone
• Also, NO GUM CHEWING!

Conducting Street Interviews:

• Check camera and stuff before interview! Make sure you have everything and have your questions
• Have patience, people will walk away

Evaluating street interviews

• Dress nice
• Make people feel confident about their answers so they continue talking
• If they say something you do not agree with, do not say your opinion
• Make it clear to the person if they are talking about something else

Planning: I have to keep in mind that not everyone is going to want to stop. I will need to be patient with the people walking by and not too guide them in a certain way to get a certain answer. Some roles for the group would be: sound, interviewer, filming, and making sure everything is in place such as the slip is signed, the lighting is OK, just to make everything run smoothly.

I learned from Matthew Needleman about the rule of thrids. He showed us that most films main subject are not centered because it makes it more boring. He taught us to draw out the shot you want before you film it. But then he also said that you should not just go by that. You should use your drawing as a plan but it may not go the way it you drew it. He also talked about the angles and how important they actually are. With the angles, you can show emotion and keep things hiden. You can also make things larger than they appear or smaller than they appear. Matthew was very helpful.