A Concerned Citizen

 Artistic Statement: A Concerned Citizen

Being a concerned citizen does not have to mean just giving stuff to people. Sometimes it is just as important to know HOW to give or how we can improve how we help. This wasn’t the concept we expected going into the interview, but it was just right for making a compelling and insightful little documentary. It is having things develop naturally like this that makes developing our artistic vision more interesting.
One thing we wanted to do with our presentation is invite a calm and reflective environment for the audience and the speaker. Thankfully, the speaker had such an environment in the house she was staying at. Partly this served us because it was easy to access, but we felt it really served the tone of the narrative. When we think of someone who does service for communities, we picture a humble home and lifestyle that reflects their work. Complimented by the unflashy lighting and leisure flow of the editing, we hoped that the setting of the piece set the tone well.
However, this does not mean we just wanted to do a “gather around for story time” video either. As sweet and calm as the speaker and environment are, there is still a sense of fun to the things she does to help in Bolivia and the other countries they did work for. To reflect this, we added a few creative choices into the mix. One of those choices was the Latin music in the background. It is just subtle enough to not be distracting, but light hearted enough to add some enthusiasm. The other big choice was the inclusion of some lighter moments from the taping. Jordan’s hands serving as a clapper, some of the speaker’s comments, some moments where she can just laugh, etc. It not only rounds her as a character, but it adds depth and personality to the narrative.
Ultimately, all of these decisions and manipulations of the film are to portray an honest picture of the speaker. She is a very humble person. She is a funny and lighthearted person. She is informative. Through the way we assembled it, we wanted to give respect not only to the advice she gives on how to do service well, but respect to her as a concerned citizen.

Protest Poster - Medicinal Marijuana

 

Artist Statement

            This is a protest poster against legalizing medicinal marijuana. This is hot topic for some states as the elections are taking place and the option to legalize marijuana is an option for states like Oregon, Colorado and Washington. 17 states have already legalized it. Colorado is actually the number one producer of legalized medicinal marijuana in the country and are looking to completely legalize it – medicinal or not. Within the city there are 204 places that sell it using a green cross as the symbol of where you can find it. This is 3 times more places than there are McDonalds and Starbucks combined. This is an interesting topic because the states are legalizing it but it is still illegal with the federal government. So, technically the federal government could come into these states that have legalized it and lock everybody up. But, they’re not doing that – their focus is on the drug lords, not the medicinal marijuana providers.

            I don’t think we should legalize marijuana because of its implications. Anytime something becomes legalized, immediately the use of the drug across the country skyrockets. This is because now its “ok” according to the law. When prohibition was revoked and people could drink alcohol legally again, the use of alcohol by citizens shot up drastically and created all sorts of problems that we still deal with. The same thing would happen with marijuana and we don’t want a bunch of people walking around on marijuana. It’s addictive and doesn’t put people in a very cognitive state that allows them to function like a normal human being. I also don’t think that it’s ok to legalize it because if the country were to legalize it, it would be telling everyone that it’s alright, and I don’t believe it is because of the negative effects it has on people and the dangers it presents.

Webspinna

 Webspinna link:

http://soundcloud.com/kartchner-films/webspinna-jordan-kartchner

 

Artist Statement: Webspinna

            This was a really fun process to go through. I thought it would be really neat to take a walk through some big events in American History all provided by the Internet. I thought the first soundtrack provided a good ambient feel for many of the sound clips but eventually transitioned into a sound used for a skydiving video in French. The sound clips used started out with Martin Luther King giving his famous “I have a Dream” speech – this was mostly to capture people’s interest and give them an idea of what the theme of the whole piece was going to be. I wanted to make the rest of the presentation chronological as we moved through American History so I next went into a reading of the Declaration of Independence by celebrities. Next was the bombing of Pearl Harbor report by the president Franklin Roosevelt, then the recording of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon, Nixon’s resignation speech, Reagan’s call to Gorbachev to tear down the wall, and last the live report of the 9/11 attack on the twin towers as the second plane hit.

            Because much of my sound clips were people talking, I had to make sure to fade one audio clip out as the other one was played. I set this up by setting the volume of each clip at a fairly high volume. When I felt it was time to play that clip, I would hit play, then go back to the previous sound clip and fade that down. This provided for some interesting mixes of music, sounds, and dialogue. Before I live mixed the audio clips, I found the clips that interested me, then had to watch through much of them to find the right place that I wanted to start recording. This way, all the sound clips were cued so I could just hit play and fade the previous audio out. I felt it was important to get the first two sound clips fairly well synced to encourage some emotion between the song being played and the sound clip of Martin Luther King. I practiced this a couple times until I felt fairly confident of the timing – but when it came time to record it was all done impromptu.

Links to audio Sources:

1.)   Ghostwriter: rjd2

a.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKJeLG8-M5I

2.)   Martin luther king Jr. : “I have a dream” speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs

3.)   Declaration of Independence

a.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyttEu_NLU

4.)   Nixon Resigning

a.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEOGJJ7UKF

 

5.)   Landing on the Moon

a.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4

6.)   Reagan – Tear down this wall

a.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8

7.)   Pearl Harbor Presidential address

a.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf74fsE

8.)   911

a.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVhhu5OjMf8