Montagnard Documentary: Music

This documentary was a challenge. My friend's camera was hard to get and thus I came to the meeting ill prepared. And setting up the camera was a challenge since I didn't have much time to learn. After the footage was captured, my computer lost the footage and the cable to the camera broke so the recapture had bad sound. With all these problems I had to stick with the music part and less on the dialogue. I tried to remember what was being said, but it was very difficult. All in all, all instruments were incorporated into my video and that was my goal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljMUST9E4Ng

Week 6: The Digital Frontier, is it bad for us?

The digital frontier, mostly tiny clusters of information swerving around the world with the use of the internet. Is it bad for us? Well there are many positives and worries, which are also negatives such as the "worry for control over information" and "worries about the future of secrecy and privacy". This all tags with the government, but there are also other worries. Should we be worried about the future of digital media? Yes, but not everyone.

There is a central fear that the younger generation will be too attached to the internet. Now, students and younger kids get online many times at a day and for large quantities of the day at a time. They never leave, sometimes I am one of those people. Their dependence keeps them out of contact with the real world and physical contact with other people.

Another fear is the fast widespread of information throughout the world. News papers, news videos, or informative documents can be downloaded within seconds of contact on the internet. Soem say its a good thing that everyone can now access information, but what if one wrong story was distributed, then it is hard to tell what is truthful and what is not. When googling a certain story, you can find numerous websites listed that have different point of views, stories, and sometimes personal accounts with what you are looking for. A negative would be assembling what is true throughout the recourses available. Facebook is now being used to spread information. To the right of the screen or more widely now, people are posting stories all over the Facebook walls and so people are finding everything out much faster.

In my opinion, digital media has lead to a lazier society. In places where internet is not as widespread or available, you find more traditions, such as in Mexico where internet is available but considerable more expensive and unreliable, you find that more people go out and do work and help others instead of sitting inside all day. It is true that we have become more dependent on digital media, and I am unsure how it will effect the government negatively, but the dependency puts a negative impact on society as a whole.

Week 5: More Examples of Digital Art and Artists

Digital art has become a wonderful tool for artists. Artists such as Issa Reinvents and Radiohead have used the internet to distribute their music recordings outside of the record labels. They sent their music on to websites where buyers can purchase the songs each at whatever amount they want. For most it remains around a dollar each, but for a rare circumstance, some fans have given donations as large as $10,000 to all of the their songs. A band was seen on a subway playing their music live by using iphone apps for instruments such as the electric guitar, bass and drum set. Their instruments were reported stolen and a quick and simple solution with the use of their digitals, they were able to continue to perform their same songs with many applause. Digital media has rose to the aid of artists. Although it can limit someone's imagination, it can also extend their grasp of reaching other people about their art and such as the band on the subway, it can show talent and creativeness towards getting around tight situations which are almost inevitable.

The media can also help with people who want to outreach but have no way of getting their message across public television. I watched a very well done video by a woman who was telling the public about the dangerous toxins that are found in cosmetics. Although I do not fully agree with the message, I do agree that she did a very good job with video and the internet was a great place to put it out there.

Now that all of this media such as propagating videos and music have dodged the record companies or other companies that normally finance such media are losing money and the recent several copyright charges prove that they want their power back. It is understandable that someone does own a certain art and to use without their permission. A comical graphic novel called Bound by Law seems to parody the frantic charges by companies over small matters such as a ring tone or an important documentary that could be educational about the Civil Rights Movement. Instead of outright attacking, it uses comedy and humor to show how ridiculous these laws get.

Project Brief

The Montagnards: Music

Recently, my class has been studying and familiarizing with the Montagnard Culture and learning to prepare for a documentary project. I have chosen to focus around the cultural music of the Dega people. I have always been interested and find myself listening to foreign music, not all of the time, but for serious part of my life. Since hearing about the Dega people, I would like to
understand and get exposed to their music.

Many of the Montagnard instruments include basic ones that we know of today such as gongs, bamboo flutes, and stringed instruments. They are most always accompanied by traditional dances that tell tales of their survival.. Their popular songs are not only for entertainment but to preserve their custom traditions.

Video Remix

My remix consisted of taking footage from a great documentary style film called Baracka. It starts with a dolly onto an old woman and then switches to over two boys playing together against the wind and then to a traditional style of dancing. This reflects how the old woman wishes and wants to view the youth as still traditional and not conforming to the contemporary style of dancing. After those segments, I cut to a club dancing and with a few cuts in between I was able to show what kids are doing now which is going to clubs, getting crazy and with the music, it feels kind of sad how they have transitioned over to the contemporary or modern style of dancing, which is how the old women feels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA78hNbct_A

Week 4

Digital media is just the storage of all media in the world.  The entire world is connected by one system call the internet and with that system, anything can be sent and received in a matter of minutes.  Media has been around and changed especially after the invention of the printing press, but the global internet has changed it completely in all ways more than any other device.  Every piece of media is not on the internet and can viewed by anyone with access to the internet.

Because of this, there is a rise in notoriety from the internet.  Everything can be accessed. Anyone's work, art work, music or film.  There is a problem in copyright issues including the fact that someone can downloads a movie or music for free instead of paying for it, which is illegal, and has been a problem for musical artists.  Because of the digital age, every person can access any music and take it for themselves.  I don't know how much money is put into the purchase of music discs, but there are some bands such as the Avett Brothers who encourage the free download of music, because what is worth the money in their opinion is their live performances.  The band Radiohead placed their CD on their website and asked people how much they wanted to pay for their disc and that is how much they could pay.

Creativity is less defined in my opinion now days.  There is not much original work as anyone can just take footage off youtube or any other site and put it together with something else in a video or photoshop file so that it can look cool with other pictures.  Is this creative?  There are many who think so or just use this as a tool for playing around with friend's pictures, but I don't believe it is a serious art.  If the Mona Lisa painting had been just a compilation of many other pictures or paintings, instead of Da Vinci's hard work at painting, it wouldn't be as notable now days.  Art is suppose to be original instead of taken images put together in order to act like it is original.  A good use of photoshop and taken media is for propaganda.  It can be used to make signs or promote someone who is a key figure in society.  Or exploit someone's failings to gain aid by other people who would see the edited picture.  

Framing

This week I learned about framing situations.  I was given an example that really reflected how I feel which involved driving.  When ever I am driving on a high way, I normally come across a "scoundrel" that stays in the left lane, or fast lane while going slower than the speed limit and I get aggravated, because I am sure they understand they are going slower than they need to be for the lane and have not gotten over.  During this period I am also trapped from the other lane because someone who is going at regular speed is in the right lane blocking me from going around this "idiot" and I seem to focus on the fact that this is a personal attack on me.  While driving this past afternoon I came across that very situation and I framed the situation differently.  Maybe the person going absurdly slow for the fast lane has been traveling for hours and he or she seems to forget their speed and zone at just concentrating on going straight which happens to me often over long distances.  Maybe this is an older person who is scared of the "speed demons" such as myself and don't think to get out of my way.  I framed the situation that way and it calmed me down.  It was no longer and attack on me, it was just a normal person with different circumstances than I was used to.

Framing is used in advertising also.  Advertisers understand society even more than the people themselves. They have mastered how people look at things and are able to frame certain advertisements so that people will emotionally connect with the AD.  For example, car commercials used to just advertise the name, now everyone owns a car and commercials have to be mor creative.  They started to film movies, especially BMW, that were placed on the internet and starred famous actors for the appeal.  I looked at advertisements on my own outside of the PBS documentary to test my own knowledge.  I took a look at the two leading computer competitors which are Personal Computers (PC's) and Macintosh.  PC's are much more affordable and user friendly so they take advantage of that and advertise how much more affordable they are to the public and easy to use.  Macintosh advertises that it doesn't crash as much as PC's and are more advanced and "hip" for younger people as the look of the computer are more appealing with the white/black thin laptop.  The two competitors still lead in the industry today.

Self Portrait 2

Hello Dega people,


I am Nathan Swann from Mount Airy, which is almost forty-five minutes west of Winston-Salem. Right now I am attending the UNC School of the Arts located in Winston-Salem and have been for two semesters and have just started my third.


My father, David Swann works as a CEO for Cross Roads Behavioral Health Care in an office located in Elkin, NC and controls the Health Centers and hospitals located around Surry County and Iredell County west of us.  I am not sure when his parents located to the United States, but my family's history on his side can be traced back to the colonial time, so they have been around for a long.  His family came from England.  My mother, Joy Swann, is a teacher at Dobson Elementary School located in Dobson, NC in the middle of Surry County west of us. Her family is from Germany and immigrated to the United States just after 1900.


The Global Village is ever expansive and I tend to connect and learn from other cultures using the media to its advantage.  Newly arrived teenagers should avoid driving without a license. I had friend that never received a license and was pulled over by police officers and his fine was very high, which doesn't include the cost of a Lawyer if you want to have it dropped.  The United States likes to be called authentic in a variety of cultures, but in food, you may find the most authentic American food is fast food such as McDonald's. 


Two summers ago I went to Italy and visited Rome, Florence, Milan and also stayed in some mountains near Milan called Lake Como.  I enjoyed my stay there and the food was the best I ever experienced.  The best meal I had was in Lake Como and after ordering the fish, the cook would go out on a boat and catch it for me.  This meal took quite a bit of time, but that is one of the differences from the United States I enjoyed.  Italy's meals was paced and long while in the United States they are fast and even in some places it seems the cooks and servers try to rush me out of their restaurant.


I grew up in a small town called Dobson, moving there from Charlotte when I was five years old.  At the same time, there was mass immigration of Hispanics from Central America and I had a hard time literally fitting into a school because there were so many kids suddenly coming into the school.  Since then, I have made friends with the Hispanics of my community, I might can even say that the majority of my friends of from Hispanic back ground.  Many people back where I live expect me to speak Spanish fluently or at least know quite a bit of the language, but that has not been the case and my friends have done nothing to teach me.  I do enjoy having friends of different cultures and love the cuisine of Central America.  Their families have invited me over for many classic and authentic meals from their culture.


I would really like to travel the world someday and visit, not every country, but most, and try their food. I think I can learn a lot about anyone's culture by eating their food.  What matters to me in this world is that I am an informed person for the world.  I don't want to be ignorant of my culture, someone else's culture.


I look forward to learning a lot from this class as I enjoy learning and valuing other cultures.