Reflection Essay

During this project, the biggest struggle in my opinion was trying to figure out one thing to focus on. Another struggle that occurred was that when we were starting to take film, the black student union was done with having their weekly meetings. Because this happened, we had to figure out how we were going to film the black student union in action. After talking to one of the leaders, they told me that I could film their events that were going on the following week. This was the biggest struggle for the group because we were not sure what else we should do since there weren’t any more meetings and we were not sure where we should go from there.

What makes me most proud of the documentary is how we were still able to find some action on the BSU that we were able to film. I was worried about the way it was going to turn out but I am proud of the fact that our group was able to find an alternative solution of not being about to go to a meeting. We filmed shots around campus, put it into the documentary where it would fit the best and it turned out better than I had expected. I was able to film events that made the documentary interesting at the beginning and the end.

The aspect of the documentary that I would have changed is the main focus of the video. We wanted to focus more on the issues involving with the black student union. The three people that we had interviewed did not give us much information on the issues that went on in the organization, so we had to just work with what we had. Therefore our thesis had to change a little.

If I had six months to work on this project I would have interviewed more group members to find out their opinions of issues that are involved with the organization. By doing that we probably would have found a main issue to focus on. If we had longer time to work on the documentary, I would have wanted the video to have more shots and more voiceovers. If we had more time to work on it, we probably would have gotten a chance to sit in a meeting where we could have filmed them talking about issues.

For this project I was responsible for the filming and the interviews. I checked out the camera and did a lot of the filming and shots. I was responsible for setting up the interviews and going to the events to take shots. I helped a little bit with the narration and putting the video together but my overall job was filming and setting up interviews.

To promote a healthy atmosphere, I had everyone’s email and almost everyone’s phone number so contacting someone was not a problem. I was always nice and asked everyone’s opinion on whether they liked this better or that better. When deciding on something I made sure everyone was okay with it. We were always emailing each other about times and places that we were going to meet so there was no confusion. I feel like I contributed a great amount to the overall project. I think I put in a good amount and really helped out. I don’t think there was more I could have done because I feel that I had done a lot with this project. Overall, I was satisfied with how our documentary turned out.

BSU Documentary

http://youtu.be/XFtWVFxVGNM

Korean Netiquette

After watching the Korean Netiquette I had seen that this is a lot different than the “The Archie” and the “The Anxiety”. Unlike the two documentaries that we watched in class, this one starts out in a classroom with the teacher talking in Korean with subtitles at the bottom. The Archie started out showing records and The Anxiety went straight to the point. The lighting is more realistic in the Korean Netiquette and not dull or a dark tint like“The Archie”. There are a lot of voice overs in this one. When the teacher is being interviewed and she is talking in Korean, the reporter voice overs in English. He should have just used subtitles instead. Unlike the other two documentaries this one doesn’t have any background noise which makes it feel like this is real life. This documentary in my opinion feels like something that will be on the news. It doesnt feel like a set up. It feels like the camera is not even there. The two we seen in class is set up in a scenario type of way. Unlike the other two documentaries the reporter is seen in this one. This is different and don’t know if that was really necessary. In the Archie and the Anxiety you know that they are there but you just don’t see them. This is a reason why the Korean netiquette feels like a news report. The background noises in the Archie and the Anxiety makes it feel like a scenario. The Korean netiquette ends with the Korean kids singing a song. This makes it seem like it was set up and not as realistic. The Anxiety ends with a cliff hanger and the Archie ends with you feeling bad for the guy. The Korean Netiquette is different by the way that there are no one on one close up interviews. There are just shots of the kids in the classroom and shots of the hallways of the school. This documentary overall has a more realistic feel to it.

BSU Podcast

https://soundcloud.com/tyler-cockerill-1/bsu

Interview Plan

My group has decided to do a Podcast on the Black Student Union (BSU). The assigned jobs are
Host: Cameron
Interview: Whitney and Brandon
Editing/ Audio Tech: Tyler
Scriptwriter: Brooke
I emailed the president yesterday and I am still waiting on a reply. When I do get a chance to talk to them we are going to be asking them questions about the groups purpose and any issues or struggles that they had to face with being involved in this group.
I am also thinking about interviewing the advisor and some group memebers.

Scene Depiction BSU

            The Black Student Union, also known as BSU, is one of the many organizations on campus. BSU’s purpose is to educate the university’s community about the contributions of African Americans. They also offer assistance and guidance to incoming black students and provide guidance for members of the Union. This organization hosts cultural, social, and athletic events all around campus in which anyone can come and participate. I chose BSU because I have attended a lot of their events around campus like the Apollo, Step Show,  Fall Feast, and Mo Betta Basketball Game just to name a few. I have been interested in joining this group but I just haven’t really looked into it. I enjoyed attending this group meeting and made several observations of my experience.

            I emailed the BSU advisor Rebecca Comage and asked her when their next meeting was. Their meetings are held every other Wednesday at 4:34 in room 230 of the student center. It is not a private meeting. Anyone is welcomed to come and join.  I was wondering why the meeting starts at such an odd time so I emailed the president Unique Young and she gave me an explanation. She said the reason why it starts at this time is because of a negative stereotype that started years ago. She told me that students felt like the population of the meeting would be late on purpose thinking that the meeting was going to start on time at 4:30. So instead of saying 4:30 pm the executive board changed the time to 4:34 just in case students came late.

Taken from http://teressehawkins.wix.com/blackstudentunion#!__gallery.
This is the room they always meet.
 

            I walked into the meeting and took a seat towards the back. It was still a few minutes early so there weren’t a lot of people in there yet. As people started to come in, they were all socializing with each other. Everyone sat in the front of the room. The meeting started a little late since they were waiting for people to come in. There are about one hundred people who are in this group, but there was only about twenty that attended the meeting on this day. The room was a decent size. It wasn’t too big or too small. The room was full of chairs. There had to be at least one hundred chairs in rows which did not get filled up. Everyone sat together towards the front of the room instead of being scattered around the room. They appeared to be a close group that gets along pretty well. There were five people who stayed in the front of the room facing everyone. Two of them were sitting down, and three of them were standing. These people were the President, Vice president, and three freshman representatives of this organization. The president and vice president were the ones sitting down and the three freshmen representatives were the ones standing. The representatives were the ones who were giving the presentation at this meeting, but the same people don’t give the presentations all the time. They switch it up. There are six freshman representatives in all in this organization.

            Waiting for the meeting to start, I was looking around the room and I expected that the members of this group would only be black since it is the Black Student Union. Even though the majority members of this group are, I noticed that there are a couple people who aren’t. This organization welcomes anybody.

Once the meeting started, we participated in an activity that involved everyone getting up out of their seats and interacting with each other. The president, vice president, and freshman representatives put a number on everyone’s back. These numbers were from one to five. Then, they gave everyone a cup with water in it. Most of the water was clear and some water had color.  Only four people had a cup of water that had some type of color. The activity was a demonstration of how fast sexually transmitted diseases can spread. Everyone joined in and socialized with each other.

During the STD activity.

During this activity, the president would call out a number between one and five. You go to that person who has that number on their back and mix your water with theirs. We did this until all five numbers were called. We took our seats and looked at our cup to see how much the water color has changed. Everyone’s water changed. This showed how fast an STD can spread and according to this activity, everyone in the room caught an STD. The four cups that had the color water were red, blue, green, and purple. These colors represented different types of sexual transmitted diseases like HIV, Herpes, Aids, and Gonorrhea. I participated in this activity and was one of the people spreading a disease so I received the green water cup which was gonorrhea. 

When the activity was done, we all sat back in our seats and talked about it. We went into the discussion after that. The freshman representatives stood at the front and gave the presentation. The three females stood at the microphone together while the president and vice president sat down beside them at a table. They were all casually dressed. The three girls had good connection with the group members and knew information about the topics. They asked questions and encouraged discussions. The representatives had everyone’s attention. These girls appeared to be outgoing and very sociable. Everyone contributed to the discussion with no problem. The room was not quiet. There was never a moment of silence.

Beginning the Open Activity

The first part of the discussion was the open discussion. They asked us questions before starting the actual presentation. These questions required an opinion. For an example, a question that was asked was why do you think people don’t use condoms and why do you think people are afraid to buy them. Members gave their opinion and moved on to the next question. The members were very into the discussion that about five people were all talking out loud at once that the people at the front had to quiet them down a bit.

When the open discussion was done, we got into the presentation. The presentation was titled Sexually Transmitted Generation. This presentation talked about different types of sexually transmitted diseases and infections and how they can be treated and if they can be treated. They showed pictures of some possible symptoms of diseases which were very graphic. People in this meeting had to turn away from the pictures because they were so disgusted by it. The president, Unique, seen the way some members were acting and told them they don’t need to act that way because we are adults. The members straightened up after she said that. This presentation went into a good amount of detail about the common diseases among college students and the best ways to avoid catching these from someone. Members shared their comments on all the slides as they were presented to us. There was no limit or boundary in these opinions. Everyone was very open about things and didn’t hold back saying anything. One of the members made a little announcement of how there are places on campus that give out free condoms so you don’t have to feel embarrassed about buying some in front of anyone.  

 

When I was observing the meeting, I noticed that they have a particular topic that they are going to talk about and have open discussions about it. These discussions are important and informative for us as students because they inform us of things we should know and be aware of. In this meeting, they discussed sexually transmitted diseases and allowed everyone in the room to contribute to the discussion.  Everyone in the room was able to contribute to the discussion with their thoughts and opinions. Mostly everyone in the room showed an interest in the topic. They were all engaged and contributing. They had the freedom to say anything and express their opinion. There were rarely anyone in the room who was on their phone or iPad or didn’t seem interested in the presentation and discussions. I noticed that they respected each other especially the leaders. The president and vice president, who were sitting down in the front facing everyone, were also contributing. I noticed that even though they were in charge, it seemed like they let others lead the discussions. The meeting lasted for an hour.

After an hour, the presentation came to an end. When the presentation was over, we talked about how important it is to use condoms and get tested. The representatives, president, and vice president closed this meeting with highly encouraging and recommending that everyone should get tested since lots of students walk around campus having an STD and not knowing that they do and that the testing on campus was going to be free. I looked at people’s faces when they said this and they looked like they are unsure if they want to do that.

The meeting had officially ended and members hung around chatting with each other for a little bit then started heading out the door. I got up from my seat and asked one of the representatives a question about the group that I was concerned about, then I headed towards the door to head back to my dorm.

peer review feedback

As an author, I just gave my laptop to my partner and let her read it. She had a question about the scene since I worded it a little bit confusing. I just slide my laptop to shawnee and let her read it and waited for her feedback. I didnt talk about the whole paper with her but I told her that I started out the paper with some background information which she thought was a good idea. I told her that because I wasnt sure if that was a good way to start my paper.
She didnt have her paper that day so I didnt have anything to look at. I just had mine looked over.
She contributed a lot to my paper and gave me plenty of helpful feedback that I can use. She told me what kind of details to add and how to switch it up so that my paper flows and is less confusing. In my case the peer review was very effective. I appreciated the advice she gave me to make my paper better.
Next time I think we should have a longer time to review each others papers because it felt like we had to rush a little bit at the end.
I was okay with working in a pair but it might be a little bit better to work in groups of three.