"Why do pitbulls get a bad rap?" Pretty much the same question as why do pitbulls have their stereotype from earlier.
Other than that slight note, good mix of questions. You definitely know what it is you want to ask and what, overall, you are looking for. I think these questions will get some really good stories out of people for your documentary.
Pictures
You're lucky, in the sole fact, that people LOVE animals. You're gonna have a real easy time getting people to respond emotionally by putting a cute picture of a dog or that of a vicious or sick one. You'll really be able to tug at people's heart strings with this. Just be sure your b-roll is just as good as the pictures you put up. I don't think you'll have any problems with your subject and areas in which you are filming.
I really like the junk yard shot paralleling the junk yard do stereotype and all that neat stuff.
I like your mix or just regular dogs and then pitbulls in comforting situations. I also really like your plan to mix the city with these dogs, it, to me, will allow you to give these dogs a humanizing quality as they share an environment with us.
Pre-interviews
Your good story does a great job of showing a positive pitbull experience. Only thing I would make sure, is if you used this and showed imagery, make sure to show how small and adorable yorkies are, just in case some people don't understand how small in comparison they are to pitbulls. But, this story did a really good job. Put a big smile on my face :) good job
I feel like your bad story should have been more specific and more personal like your good story. I'd be interested to see how you manage to show the very good and terrible things these dogs have done, and wind it towards your message. But I feel like the fact that this story wasn't personal, it was kind of a short changing. Here we have this really great, cute and personal story about a pitbull and then we don't really have a story at all, but instead a number of general facts about pitbulls when they're mean. Be careful, if you do this in your documentary, you could come off as biased and if people pick up on that, it could hurt your cause.
I also think you have a good start here. It obviously looks like you have done your research and know where you want to take this project. Some other questions that I came up with were...
What were the pitbulls parents like? Where were the violent or non-violent pits bought from? A store, breeder, etc. How often are their caretakers around? Is the dog spayed or neutered?
All these questions are just my two cents, they could possibly strengthen some of your arguments if applied in the right scenes.
I think someone mentioned in the last delivery cycle about maybe interviewing someone that has been attacked by a pitbull. I also think that might offer some interesting material.
thanks for your input so far, and absolutely those are good questions lucas, if anyone can think of anymore that would be great. I only want to strengthen my piece from here
Just finished looking at your 2nd AKA Updated Treatment for CAGED. Its looking good.
You clearly have a set idea/ direction that you want to go with this. When you first pitched this idea in class a few months ago, I wasnt quite sure how this whole project would turn out, but I am glad to see it has a set goal in mind. You seem to have done a lot of work since last Delivery Cycle, and I now have a clearer imagine in my head of what to expect out of all of this.
The pictures in the Treatment were a welcome addition... really helped support the ideas/ themes your going for! I didnt have very many issues with this film, but I want to address a few quick notes I had.
- In your question section, you ask "29) Do these dogs do any volunteer work?"... What exactly do you mean by this? I am not very familiar with what kind of charity work a dog could do (like go to a firehouse fundraiser or something?). You may want to make your question more clearer.
- On page 23, you mention you want to show people walking away with small dogs/ puppies, and leave pitbulls behind... but you may want to address why they do this. While I am sure some people by puppies/ small dogs for the cuteness factor, I think that most people do it because they have longer lives to live with them... versus adult dogs who have already lived their lives. I want to get a dog pretty soon... and it will be a puppy because I want it to grow up by my side, not because its cuter.
Other then that, I dont know what else to say that Chris didnt already address (I agree with him on you having to approach this subject very carefully, as "mean" vs "personal" facts may damage your film).
Overall this is some good stuff to help me see what you're thinking for your doc. The pictures pretty clearly depict the shelter/descriptive images content you plan to use and I think as long as you use everything in the right places at the right moment you'll be in good shape there.
The questions as well should yield some good information and more importantly hopefully some good stories. What do you mean by when you ask if any of the dogs had done volunteer work? I feel like that is something you could ask another question about to explain that as it could very well be a relevant part of your argument if it helps to paint a good picture of the dogs. The only other thing that comes to mind when I read over your questions is I wonder if they are all too direct. I'm interested in hearing different stories that could help bring out emotions in your interviewees, and if you just ask straight on questions that can be answered too simply you may not get enough of that. Now, I haven't done too many docs so how/what questions you ask is dependent on your style and approach - that's just what I thought of when reading yours.
The pre-interviews. Why no video??? The good story is, well, good. It is a strong example of a well-trained/behaved pit bull and helps your argument for sure. However, the bad story was more general than the good one. To make a balanced, unbiased doc you're going to probably need at least a little bit of real, specific examples of a bad story involving a pit bull to correctly explain their stereotype. Not having a specific enough bad story could come off as you possibly being somewhat biased and not getting both sides of the story.
I'm curious about how you plan to structure the doc. That's probably another deliverable, but I'm just thinking/typing out loud now...have you given it any thought yet? Or, or you more along the line of planning to shoot it and find your structure in post? I did get some idea of the structure based off your pics and their order, but it only gave me so much, obviously.
Courtney, Awesome questions work really well with you’re topic. Very focused on pitbulls and I think you can get some really good answers from you’re interviewee’s. You definitely have a set plan of what you want to get from you’re interviews. I like you’re ideas for pictures, good that you want to show the good and the bad sides of how they’re portrayed. Will definitely bring out emotion for people. Very good contrasts in the pictures of the pitbulls, Are you going to be finding all different kinds of pitbulls to shoot? You should actually see if the shelter would let you film the dogs; maybe some abused dogs and healthy ones? Probably could add to the reality of your piece. I also thought you’re interviews were very well done. Could really feel the emotion in the first, try and bring that emotion in the bad one as well. Good job so far ☺
Courtney, Awesome questions work really well with you’re topic. Very focused on pitbulls and I think you can get some really good answers from you’re interviewee’s. You definitely have a set plan of what you want to get from you’re interviews. I like you’re ideas for pictures, good that you want to show the good and the bad sides of how they’re portrayed. Will definitely bring out emotion for people. Very good contrasts in the pictures of the pitbulls, Are you going to be finding all different kinds of pitbulls to shoot? You should actually see if the shelter would let you film the dogs; maybe some abused dogs and healthy ones? Probably could add to the reality of your piece. I also thought you’re interviews were very well done. Could really feel the emotion in the first, try and bring that emotion in the bad one as well. Good job so far ☺
Great mix of questions here. I think you do a good job of building the next question on the previous one. Are questions 8 and 31 the same?
A lot of the photos you chose have a good way of pulling at a person's emotional strings. They either make you sad that the dog is stuck in a cage or that you are glad that the dangerous animal is "behind bars" so to speak.
I like your analogy photos (i.e. the junkyard to be associated with the evil junkyard dogs). They are good references to people's stereotypes of dogs.
Very cool idea about using the city landscapes to intercut between the interviews or images of dogs. When you say "shots" do you mean actual video footage or photos? Because that is a lot of B-footage you'll have to grab. Do you have a "city" you would want to use?
Vimeo clips (neither had video) Good-nice use of a credible source. Her story helps show how people do not associate well behaved or nice dogs with the Pit bull breed. Good choice. Bad-Is this the same speaker from before? The trainer? Her story is more like a general precaution to anyone considering a pitbull saying they should do some research. So is she saying that pits can be bred not to be killers or that once a pit is born they are a natural killer.
i like that you want to use establishing shots of the houses of the people you are interviewing. i think this will tell the audience a lot about the person being interviewed. do you tend to start with the negative and end with the positive or the other way around or are you going to mix negative and positive stories. I think this could be very important in how your audience feels at the end and should be thoughtfully considered.
Have u heard of the dog whisperer? It would be SO COOL if you could somehow pull some strings and get his input...if you dont know who he is look up Caesar Milan on the Discovery Channel.
Some of your pictures are soooo cute! lol. But I know those are just to give us an idea for now.
I really like the imagery you have in mind. Like the juxtaposition of the city, the junkyard, people in the park, etc. I definitely think you'll be able to get a lot of emotion out of people with all of that put together. I think you also have some strong questions. Though I worry about some of them since a few are only supposed to be for 1 person. I wouldn't want you to come up short of questions for someone else. But I know you don't have too many of those.
I personally think both of your interviews are good. I am all for being biased in a documentary. As long as it's done well and not too blatantly. I mean Michael Moore does it all the time and isn't even that subtle and for some reason and look how much money he makes! I definitely agree you need to have the negative viewpoint but I don't think you should have to do it exactly 50/50. You're trying to give your viewpoint in this film as well.
just so you all know, the interviews were supposed to be audio only, or only audio was required. these are just short little pre interviews. andrea, if i could get cesar for my capstone i think i would die. haha BIG fan. Rest in Peace, Daddy :( (the pitbull)
A lot of these questions can be condensed into single, multiple answer questions - for example, questions 9 and 10 - just ask the interviewees to talk about lockjaw in respect to dogs instead of wasting an extra question.
Most of the later questions you have are about facts and numbers - you can get these numbers online, I think if you're going to have interviewees who have great personalities you need to play that up and get them to talk about personal stories - if they're just reciting facts then it's like you're completely missing this awesome aspect to them as characters. Does that make sense?
"Why do pitbulls get a bad rap?" Pretty much the same question as why do pitbulls have their stereotype from earlier.
ReplyDeleteOther than that slight note, good mix of questions. You definitely know what it is you want to ask and what, overall, you are looking for. I think these questions will get some really good stories out of people for your documentary.
Pictures
You're lucky, in the sole fact, that people LOVE animals. You're gonna have a real easy time getting people to respond emotionally by putting a cute picture of a dog or that of a vicious or sick one. You'll really be able to tug at people's heart strings with this. Just be sure your b-roll is just as good as the pictures you put up. I don't think you'll have any problems with your subject and areas in which you are filming.
I really like the junk yard shot paralleling the junk yard do stereotype and all that neat stuff.
I like your mix or just regular dogs and then pitbulls in comforting situations. I also really like your plan to mix the city with these dogs, it, to me, will allow you to give these dogs a humanizing quality as they share an environment with us.
Pre-interviews
Your good story does a great job of showing a positive pitbull experience. Only thing I would make sure, is if you used this and showed imagery, make sure to show how small and adorable yorkies are, just in case some people don't understand how small in comparison they are to pitbulls. But, this story did a really good job. Put a big smile on my face :) good job
I feel like your bad story should have been more specific and more personal like your good story. I'd be interested to see how you manage to show the very good and terrible things these dogs have done, and wind it towards your message. But I feel like the fact that this story wasn't personal, it was kind of a short changing. Here we have this really great, cute and personal story about a pitbull and then we don't really have a story at all, but instead a number of general facts about pitbulls when they're mean. Be careful, if you do this in your documentary, you could come off as biased and if people pick up on that, it could hurt your cause.
I also think you have a good start here. It obviously looks like you have done your research and know where you want to take this project. Some other questions that I came up with were...
ReplyDeleteWhat were the pitbulls parents like?
Where were the violent or non-violent pits bought from? A store, breeder, etc.
How often are their caretakers around?
Is the dog spayed or neutered?
All these questions are just my two cents, they could possibly strengthen some of your arguments if applied in the right scenes.
I think someone mentioned in the last delivery cycle about maybe interviewing someone that has been attacked by a pitbull. I also think that might offer some interesting material.
thanks for your input so far, and absolutely those are good questions lucas, if anyone can think of anymore that would be great. I only want to strengthen my piece from here
ReplyDeleteHey Courtney,
ReplyDeleteJust finished looking at your 2nd AKA Updated Treatment for CAGED. Its looking good.
You clearly have a set idea/ direction that you want to go with this. When you first pitched this idea in class a few months ago, I wasnt quite sure how this whole project would turn out, but I am glad to see it has a set goal in mind. You seem to have done a lot of work since last Delivery Cycle, and I now have a clearer imagine in my head of what to expect out of all of this.
The pictures in the Treatment were a welcome addition... really helped support the ideas/ themes your going for! I didnt have very many issues with this film, but I want to address a few quick notes I had.
- In your question section, you ask "29) Do these dogs do any volunteer work?"... What exactly do you mean by this? I am not very familiar with what kind of charity work a dog could do (like go to a firehouse fundraiser or something?). You may want to make your question more clearer.
- On page 23, you mention you want to show people walking away with small dogs/ puppies, and leave pitbulls behind... but you may want to address why they do this. While I am sure some people by puppies/ small dogs for the cuteness factor, I think that most people do it because they have longer lives to live with them... versus adult dogs who have already lived their lives. I want to get a dog pretty soon... and it will be a puppy because I want it to grow up by my side, not because its cuter.
Other then that, I dont know what else to say that Chris didnt already address (I agree with him on you having to approach this subject very carefully, as "mean" vs "personal" facts may damage your film).
Good job!
Overall this is some good stuff to help me see what you're thinking for your doc. The pictures pretty clearly depict the shelter/descriptive images content you plan to use and I think as long as you use everything in the right places at the right moment you'll be in good shape there.
ReplyDeleteThe questions as well should yield some good information and more importantly hopefully some good stories. What do you mean by when you ask if any of the dogs had done volunteer work? I feel like that is something you could ask another question about to explain that as it could very well be a relevant part of your argument if it helps to paint a good picture of the dogs. The only other thing that comes to mind when I read over your questions is I wonder if they are all too direct. I'm interested in hearing different stories that could help bring out emotions in your interviewees, and if you just ask straight on questions that can be answered too simply you may not get enough of that. Now, I haven't done too many docs so how/what questions you ask is dependent on your style and approach - that's just what I thought of when reading yours.
The pre-interviews. Why no video??? The good story is, well, good. It is a strong example of a well-trained/behaved pit bull and helps your argument for sure. However, the bad story was more general than the good one. To make a balanced, unbiased doc you're going to probably need at least a little bit of real, specific examples of a bad story involving a pit bull to correctly explain their stereotype. Not having a specific enough bad story could come off as you possibly being somewhat biased and not getting both sides of the story.
I'm curious about how you plan to structure the doc. That's probably another deliverable, but I'm just thinking/typing out loud now...have you given it any thought yet? Or, or you more along the line of planning to shoot it and find your structure in post? I did get some idea of the structure based off your pics and their order, but it only gave me so much, obviously.
Everything's looking good, though!
Courtney,
ReplyDeleteAwesome questions work really well with you’re topic. Very focused on pitbulls and I think you can get some really good answers from you’re interviewee’s. You definitely have a set plan of what you want to get from you’re interviews. I like you’re ideas for pictures, good that you want to show the good and the bad sides of how they’re portrayed. Will definitely bring out emotion for people. Very good contrasts in the pictures of the pitbulls, Are you going to be finding all different kinds of pitbulls to shoot? You should actually see if the shelter would let you film the dogs; maybe some abused dogs and healthy ones? Probably could add to the reality of your piece. I also thought you’re interviews were very well done. Could really feel the emotion in the first, try and bring that emotion in the bad one as well. Good job so far ☺
Courtney,
ReplyDeleteAwesome questions work really well with you’re topic. Very focused on pitbulls and I think you can get some really good answers from you’re interviewee’s. You definitely have a set plan of what you want to get from you’re interviews. I like you’re ideas for pictures, good that you want to show the good and the bad sides of how they’re portrayed. Will definitely bring out emotion for people. Very good contrasts in the pictures of the pitbulls, Are you going to be finding all different kinds of pitbulls to shoot? You should actually see if the shelter would let you film the dogs; maybe some abused dogs and healthy ones? Probably could add to the reality of your piece. I also thought you’re interviews were very well done. Could really feel the emotion in the first, try and bring that emotion in the bad one as well. Good job so far ☺
Great mix of questions here. I think you do a good job of building the next question on the previous one. Are questions 8 and 31 the same?
ReplyDeleteA lot of the photos you chose have a good way of pulling at a person's emotional strings. They either make you sad that the dog is stuck in a cage or that you are glad that the dangerous animal is "behind bars" so to speak.
I like your analogy photos (i.e. the junkyard to be associated with the evil junkyard dogs). They are good references to people's stereotypes of dogs.
Very cool idea about using the city landscapes to intercut between the interviews or images of dogs. When you say "shots" do you mean actual video footage or photos? Because that is a lot of B-footage you'll have to grab. Do you have a "city" you would want to use?
Vimeo clips (neither had video)
Good-nice use of a credible source. Her story helps show how people do not associate well behaved or nice dogs with the Pit bull breed. Good choice.
Bad-Is this the same speaker from before? The trainer? Her story is more like a general precaution to anyone considering a pitbull saying they should do some research. So is she saying that pits can be bred not to be killers or that once a pit is born they are a natural killer.
I like Lucas' questions as well.
i like that you want to use establishing shots of the houses of the people you are interviewing. i think this will tell the audience a lot about the person being interviewed.
ReplyDeletedo you tend to start with the negative and end with the positive or the other way around or are you going to mix negative and positive stories. I think this could be very important in how your audience feels at the end and should be thoughtfully considered.
Have u heard of the dog whisperer? It would be SO COOL if you could somehow pull some strings and get his input...if you dont know who he is look up Caesar Milan on the Discovery Channel.
Some of your pictures are soooo cute! lol. But I know those are just to give us an idea for now.
ReplyDeleteI really like the imagery you have in mind. Like the juxtaposition of the city, the junkyard, people in the park, etc. I definitely think you'll be able to get a lot of emotion out of people with all of that put together. I think you also have some strong questions. Though I worry about some of them since a few are only supposed to be for 1 person. I wouldn't want you to come up short of questions for someone else. But I know you don't have too many of those.
I personally think both of your interviews are good. I am all for being biased in a documentary. As long as it's done well and not too blatantly. I mean Michael Moore does it all the time and isn't even that subtle and for some reason and look how much money he makes! I definitely agree you need to have the negative viewpoint but I don't think you should have to do it exactly 50/50. You're trying to give your viewpoint in this film as well.
just so you all know, the interviews were supposed to be audio only, or only audio was required. these are just short little pre interviews. andrea, if i could get cesar for my capstone i think i would die. haha BIG fan. Rest in Peace, Daddy :(
ReplyDelete(the pitbull)
A lot of these questions can be condensed into single, multiple answer questions - for example, questions 9 and 10 - just ask the interviewees to talk about lockjaw in respect to dogs instead of wasting an extra question.
ReplyDeleteMost of the later questions you have are about facts and numbers - you can get these numbers online, I think if you're going to have interviewees who have great personalities you need to play that up and get them to talk about personal stories - if they're just reciting facts then it's like you're completely missing this awesome aspect to them as characters. Does that make sense?
Fantastic work! You are off to a great start.
ReplyDelete