Looking at things Differently

It's been a few weeks since I shot video for the Obaltimore Project and my "Day in the Life" project for Matt Durington's Life in the City course. That week was a whirlwind of getting things finished, so I had little time for reflection. However, I did keep a lot of lessons in mind from that week that I want to share now.

I chose my friend David to do both projects on. We have been friends for the past year or so, and have gotten very close while making film projects and being in a fraternity together. I felt I could get honest answers and a comfortable vibe from him. He grew up in Baltimore city and is an artist, so he was a great fit.

The Day in the Life project was done on a day David had a lot going on. He had to finish and start up a project in his ceramics class, then had to go shoot a Dance for the Camera segment in the same building. While I knew the assignment called for it to be done in the city, there was little I could do to control that situation. I was running out of options, and honestly I wanted to shoot with someone that I had built some kind of relationship with.

With my nifty HD Camera, I did my best to try and capture David being as natural as possible. I hadn't shot anything all semester, so it was fun to experiment with angles and positions of the camera around David. I found that David didn't behave any differently than if it was just me and him in the room. The camera made very little difference in his actions. During the dance shoot, I was limited to a very dark space with silhouetted dancers in front of a mesh curtain. I decided to shoot into the light, as that was the only way I'd capture any image. For the amount I needed to edit down to, I was able to capture some great stuff, especially with choreography and David's involvement in the piece. The handheld style I had as well as the addition of silhouetted dancers, I believe, helped this piece paid homage to the piece David was helping produce with his partner, Biz.

After that shoot, we went back to his house in the city to do the Obaltimore Project and interview for Day in the Life. This was where I started becoming incredibly aware of my questions and the ethical side to documentary filmmaking. I didn't want to stop David from answering any of the questions. I also didn't want to influence any of his answers. When I asked the question regarding Urban Housing, David was confused and didn't know if his answer was legitimate because his didn't know much about the topic. I couldn't honestly elaborate on the topic as well, so I told him his answer was his answer and is what we needed for the project.

Then, when I asked him the question about what he would want to ask Obama, I could not stop his answer, no matter how inappropriate. I didn't think something regarding Marijuana use would be advisable in a project like this, but it was David giving an honest response. If I was to sway him from answering like that, it wouldn't be honest. What is more ethical? Allowing a free flow of ideas? Or censorship?

Then when it came time to film his Day in the Life interview, I decided on a different and more intimate approach. I tried to film him as though I was just standing there having a conversation with him, and the camera was by my side to perhaps initiate the sensation of my relationship to David. I'm glad I was recording when David explained his approach to the interview, because it would be a more free flowing explanation of his life to an audience, and I would be a spectator. I added this into the final cut to retain a sense of reflexivity.

David is one of my close partners that I work on film projects with, so at some point in the night, I was trying to explain to him my new mindset and approach to filming from an anthropological stance. I found that it was extremely difficult to explain myself, as this style is still forming, and I'm still wrapping my mind around how exactly to ethically and realistically portray one person or idea, but I think the formalities and principles are continuing to brew.