February 2012
8 posts
8 tags
Citizen VJs in Syria →
Citizen video journalist Rami al-Sayyed was killed today in Syria. He maintained this Youtube channel, similar to other Syrian VJs (like Danny Abdul Dayem) who have been risking their lives to share information about the assault with the outside world. The last video posted on Rami’s channel is of his own body.
With reporters being banned from the country, these citizen journalists are our...
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"There Are No Rules": On Errol Morris
Yesterday I went to a screening of documentarian Errol Morris’ debut film, Gates of Heaven, which was made in 1978. Errol’s films raise important question about the nature of reality and representation, with his documentaries blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction. He relies on many unusual cinematographic techniques that draw attention to the constructed nature of his...
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“For the most part, documentaries address and entertain educated middle and...”
– “What’s Wrong with the Liberal Documentary” by Jill Godmillow
Peace Review; March 1999; 11, 1
January 2012
12 posts
16 tags
Philip Glass Turns 75: A Compendium
I’m so excited for Philip Glass’ birthday tomorrow, for no other reason than it gives me a reason to shamelessly post a million things online about him. He’s one of the most important and influential composers of the last century, and without a doubt my personal favorite. A quick list of accomplishments courtesy of NPR:
Philip Glass turns 75 tomorrow. Impossible, you say?...
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WatchJust some fun (via NPR’s All Songs Considered).
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A Hacker Manifesto
Currently reading A Hacker Manifesto by McKenzie Wark. Not to be (or to be?) confused with The Hacker’s Manifesto/”The Conscious of a Hacker” by The Mentor, which appeared in a zine in 1986 and is also worth reading. Anyway, here’s a few excerpts from Wark’s book:
[135] Information may want to be free, but it is not possible to know the limits or potentials of its...
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Mad
Update:
Watch
December 2011
1 post
HTML Assignment →
November 2011
3 posts
Seltzer Works: PBS Short Films →
REVIEW:
This short documentary by Jessica Edwards is about Gomberg Seltzer Works, a seltzer bottling plant in Brooklyn. It is an interactive documentary, as it incorporates interviews with the plant owner, Kenny Gomberg. Attention is also drawn to the filmmaker’s presence, with Kenny twice interrupting the interview by asking his own questions. First, he repeats the interviewer’s question (“How...
LUMIERE FILM
Our first film assignment was to make a short one-minute doc of an ordinary event/story unfolding within the frame (no editing or camera movement). The Lumiere brothers’ films were the inspiration for the assignment.
October 2011
5 posts
Audio Project
Featuring the voice of Martha Larson, I edited her story of an adventure in Istanbul.
Just the voice audio:
Martha’s Istanbul Story by kslininger
With more edits, and sound effects by me:
Martha’s Istanbul Story (Complete) by kslininger
ASSIGNMENT SIX - SOUND STUDY
Audio recorded during the Occupy Wall Street global day of action, on October 15, 2011. We started recording at Zuccotti Park, continued on the march to Washington Square Park, then finished up at “Occupy Times Square.”
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October 15 Day of Action
I took the raw sounds (which I’ll post next) of Occupy Wall Street and edited them into more of a sound landscape.
ASSIGNMENT 5 - SOUND STUDY
I went to Occupy Wall Street with Rebecca, to listen to the sounds that make up the atmosphere of Zuccotti Park. Here are our notes from three minutes of just listening to the occupation:
\flute//hand slapping leg (keeping beat)\drums!drums!drums!//cymbals\indistinguishable voices//shout!\flute//police whistle\drumsticks on drumsticks//indistinguishable...
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WatchASSIGNMENT FOUR - Occupy Wall Street began on September 17, and I was on that first march to Zuccotti Park. Since the occupation began, news coverage and public perception of the protesters (or whatever more appropriate term applies) has fluctuated and varied, but I wanted to portray a less common side of Occupy Wall Street. Instead of only focusing on the major events — the marches, the arrests —...
September 2011
5 posts
7 tags
Assignment Two - Lighting
With this assignment, I had to experiment with different lighting - hard, soft, diffused, flat - while shooting the same object:
Assignment One - Still Photography
[updated] My first assignment was to find five photographs I like, and five I dislike, which we then discussed in class. It helped us start thinking creatively and critically about photography.
LIKE:
I just found this photo during a Google search. The black-and-white-shot-of-someone-walking-in-the-rain is a little cliche, I know, but the flipped perspective makes it unique. It reminded me of...
The Beginning
Welcome everyone! I don’t have any material to post as of tonight, but I figured it would be best to start off with an introduction…
I am currently a grad student at The New School in New York City, working towards a master’s in Media Studies. This blog is going to be my platform for posting projects and assignments for my documentary production course this semester (and...