First Day of Shooting

Tomorrow marks the first day of shooting for the DIS team.  We will be shooting both classes for now.  we decided that it was better off to go ahead and film both for our sake of learning and also to see the reaction of the student once we start film.  It should be an exciting experience.  There are pros and cons of each class but that is to be expected when dealing with 30 some odd relative strangers in a class together being filmed.  Brooks and I also decided that most of the filming will be done spontaneously and only plan a couple of shots per class.  It seems that in our own studying we have found that documentary style film is best produced when the shots come to them and then only supplemental footage added after the main in class footage is taken.  Again the emphasis is on what happens inside of the classroom more so than the individual stories of the students participating.  Although that would be nice it is hard to say what will unfold in the ensuing 17 weeks of filming and editing.  Thus the intentions of Brooks and I to stay away from planning to many shots and coming away disappointed in the days work.  Hoping you are having a beautiful day.

-Troy A. Stehlin

Welcome from the authors.

On the behalf of Dr. Schmid and Brooks, we want to welcome you the blog that will be the point of contact to check on the progress of the Directed Independent Study that Brooks and I are embarking on. I would like to take this time to indulged in some  goals that we hold for this project.  Firstly, we are hoping to learn from the participants that are involved in the project of ours.  We are more less letting the project come to us with only a lite skeleton to work from.  The skeleton consist of a thesis and some artistic goals.  The thesis is to find out via the medium of film why students choose, or for that matter why not, to think philosophically when exposed to the questions that are asked of them.  This is mostly an aesthetic project, meaning that we want to find the vein from which philosophical thought comes from based on the person and their beliefs no raw data will be collected along the lines at this point.  The skeleton is also crutched by the openness we hope to have with the participants.  The ability for the students to be open with us on camera will be key.  Their opinion one way or another hold the most dire importance to this project.  The third part of the skeleton frame work we have is the narrative.  The narrative is going to be based on the syllabus that Dr. Schmid has produced for his class.  But the real narrative will come from the students and their personalities that come through the camera.  

Equipment being used: A Sony HDR FX 1, Sony Handycam and directional mics.

All that being said stay tuned to the blog for more updates including thoughts from Dr. Schmid, Brooks and myself about the progress and the philosophical underpinnings that occured in class or were captured on film.  We are hoping to have some sneak previews as well.  Have a blessed day.

-Troy A. Stehlin