"Devotional Cinema" Response (Joshua)

The idea that film can be powerful and even scary is something that has stayed with me for most of my life. The beginnings of such a power began with my father and his collection of Star Trek episodes on VHS. Considered hokey by today’s standards, the story and action of certain episodes affected me on a visceral level back when I was child. While filmmaking technology has progressed by leaps and bounds since then, cinema itself still holds the same power that it did back when I was young. This is what inspires me in my own filmmaking, a singular experience that brings together unknowns and evolves them into something that is known.

There have very few films that have changed the way I look at the world and how it works. I can count on my hands how many films that have done this. The idea that Dorsky puts forth in his book regarding how cinema changes how one sees the world is something that is lost in today’s cinema. In my filmmaking I hope to broaden this idea and make it more accessible to the viewing audiences.

Too many films are on the extreme edges of what they wish to represent. One side is the experimental genre, which alienates a majority of the viewer public, and the other is the soulless moneymaker of big budget Hollywood. Through his view on how cinema can be viewed, it is my belief that films can go between these two extremes and can be both entertaining and enlightening, and be able to reach a broad audience. In my present and future filmmaking I hope to achieve this. I see the benefits that the two extremes can have. When put together they can create an experience that resonates and changes a viewer. Films have had and still have the power to change the way we view the world, it is my hope that my filmmaking can propel this change to both new and old audiences. 

Devotional Cinema Response (Philip)

    In Devotional Cinema, Nathaniel Dorsky emphasizes how film form, more so than content, are largely influential in how we experience film.  Throughout the book he uses dramatic imagery and even stories from his childhood illustrating how impacting a few hours in a dark movie theater can alter ones perception of the outside world.  Before becoming a film student I always thought about movies in terms of “is this story believable and entertaining.”  Now in my Senior year as a Film Studies major I view films with a more discerning eye: “is this the best shot or the best cut to use in order to tell this story in the best way it can be told.”  After reading this book I am more aware that I need to pay just as much detail to the production of my own films as I do when watching others.  As a result, the experience of our film’s audience will be enhanced.
    Unlike in narrative, documentary film-making consists of fewer formal constraints in how to tell a particular story.  This book has brought to my attention that no matter what category of film-making, every shots composition in the frame and every cuts position on the timeline is important to telling a story.  The sky is the limit when it comes to the production of our film but we need to understand that every decision is vital to the experience of our film.  Even if there is a shot specifically placed in our film to describe something literally, if that placement breaks the spatial and poetic bounds of our film than we should setup another shot or re-cut that part of our film. 
    In shooting this documentary our film team could ‘get away’ with not being as meticulous in our production but instead by paying close attention to detail throughout the process, our story will not only be much more poignant but it will also be more effective at building a positive viewing experience for the audience.

"Devotional Cinema" Response (Anthony)

After reading Devotional Cinema by Nathaniel Dorsky, I was unsure how to react to his view of filmmaking and viewing. He expressed thoughts on subjects that were probably out of my league. For me, I’ve always had a “Neanderthal-like” train of thought when it comes to making films: Camera. Subject. Story. Done. Granted, I do put more thought than just that into the process, however, Dorsky’s book goes to a whole other level.

Early in his book he mentions how after a six-hour movie-going session the details in his eyes and mind were amplified as he walked out the theater. “All those little details were presenting themselves to me in a way I was unused to”. As he described the experience I realized that I should take advantage to acknowledge detail as he does. Because, in filmmaking you always have a “big” picture played out in your head, which is healthy so you have a general idea of beginning, middle and end. However, to accomplish this process in a more fascinating way, details must be embellished narratively and visually.  In the case of our boxing documentary, I can’t be satisfied with just HOW the coaches have changed the live the young men at the gym but WHY they chose to help change their lives when, after all, all they just wanted to learn how to box. And to have these details revealed I must be proactive in my awareness of them rather an relying on subtleness to all of a sudden jump out at me one day.

Another topic Dorsky touches on, Shots and Cuts, was also enlightening. He talks about how “cuts seem to work in a hierarchy”. With so much detail, I’ve never analyzed cuts to such a degree. First, cuts have to have to work on a visual level and each cut has to “create a visual freshness for the psyche”. When a cut works visually, he mentions two after shocks may occur, dream connectives or literal implications. Though I think that could both work simultaneously to some degree, either must be accomplished per cut. With the boxing documentary I must keep this in mind during the editing process. Every cut has a purpose. Visual images can’t be put together because I like them. They’re must be a reason why I leave one cut advance to the next.  

Project Description (updated)

Project Description:
In 2008, Wilmington Coastal Boxing was established as a city-sponsored boxing center by coaches Lyle Booker and Deryll McCaskill. Over the last four years, the nonprofit, sponsorship-funded and volunteer-maintained gym has been a crucial part of the of downtown Wilmington's revitalization as an after-school, "keep kids off the street" type of program. "Outside of the gym, both coaches are easygoing and friendly. They're as likely to joke around with their trainees as they are to offer advice or motivation. But when it comes down to boxing and the personal virtues it can instill, they take their work very seriously" (Bill Donavan-Star News). Both coaches say boxing changed their lives, as youth, to where they became humbled and were taught discipline and respect. Today, the coaches pay forward they're lessons and values to the kids, in hopes that they turn out to be gentlemen as well.
As for the film, it will focus on the history of the two coaches and the present careers of several kids who train regularly at Wilmington Coastal Boxing. By creating a parallel between the coaches lessons/stories and the kids careers, the film will broadly show how mentors are crucial to kids and young adults lives. Furthermore, the film will specifically observe how these relationships were built through boxing.

Treatment:
The film will be a combination of observational cinema, interviews and found footage. We will film the kids throughout the semester as they train and prepare for their "championship" which is the Azalea Festival Boxing Tournament on April 14th and 15th. There are also fights scheduled prior to the festival, so we plan to show the progression (or digression) the kids will make in boxing and life up until that point. 
Most of the footage will be shot on the Cannon 60D, 7D and Nikon D5100. However, if we raise enough money we would like to shoot on 16mm film as well. With the 16mm we would use it for our intro or credit sequence most likely. But if we have more funds than we thought, then we could use it for filming the Azalea Festival matches or the interviews. 
The sound design will be critical, especially when it comes to the sounds of boxing (hitting, shuffling, grunting, etc). Having the proper mix will really help the pace of the film. 

Target Audience and Distribution:
With the film being sports related, the audience I will be targeting will be sports fans and athletes, especially that of the young adult male population. As far as distribution, I will be submitting to festivals that favor to short, sports documentaries. Along with submitting to festivals, I will also be submitting my film to multiple funding programs so that I can expand the film into a feature length documentary.

Funding Strategy:
For the production part of the project, the needed funding will be minimal. For any film that we buy and get processed, we plan to pay out of pocket. For cost of festival submission, however, we will utilize a funding website such as “kickstarter” to raise money (once we being shooting and putting together clips to show donors.

Boxing Doc - Project Description

            Over the past couple weeks, we have been getting everything in order to begin shooting. Last week we met Chris Cromartie, a 22 year old amateur boxer who trains at Wilmington Coastal Boxing. Chris gave us a tour of the gym, which he also manages, and filled us in on the recent history of it. Today we had a meeting with the coaches/gym owners and pitched our idea:

-Initially we thought we would be doing a documentary solely on Chris, but the coaches requested that we make the documentary more the gym than just him. We have no problem with it so, instead, we will be following multiple young, amateur boxers throughout the course of the semester. (Chris and the coaches are contacting the other boxers now to see who would be interested. I think they have 2 or 3 others who are already interested)

-As far as following the boxers, we will shoot several hours (on several occasions) of them training at the gym and sparing with fellow boxers.

-We also have a dates arranged to conduct sit-down interviews with the boxers and coaches. These interviews will be "planned to the T" with lighting styles that will accentuate a boxing equipment or posters behind the interviewees.

-Throughout the semester, we will be following the main subjects to their boxing events as well. Along with our footage, one of the coaches will be giving us footage from previous matches that the guys participated in (depending on the content this will be useful when it comes time for editing!).

-Towards the end of semester we will also be attending and filming one of the biggest events for the boxers which takes place during the Azalea Festival. (we will be editing by this point but we're hoping this footage could be a nice ending to the film)

-Aside from boxing footage we hope to have some sort of access to the subjects' lives outside of boxing so that we can have b-roll that appropriately fits over the interviews.

Since we have to have a completed product by the end of the semester, we plan to have 90% of our footage already shot by the end of March so that we have all of April to edit the film.