Final Project, Final Blog

To discuss how the final project reflects my goals as a Mormon artist, I guess I should first have some goals as a Mormon artist. I've talked about what it means to be a Mormon artist, and about what an artist's general responsibility is, but I don't suppose I've ever actually thought about my goals specifically. I don't think my goals as a Mormon artist are particularly Mormon in nature. They're probably not much different from the goals that any other artist has, unless of course there is an artist whose goals are anti-Mormon in nature. At any rate, I guess you could say that my goals as of right now are somewhat selfish. I hope to, by learning about other people and their beliefs, be able to establish and solidify my own beliefs. This project fits perfectly with that goal. Did the project partly inspire this goal? Maybe. But it's a valid goal nonetheless. In addition to the fact that this project was purposely constructed to help us learn about the beliefs of another person, our documentary subject was particularly interesting in this regard. She is a BYU professor that taught a class called "This I Believe," where she guided college freshmen as they attempted to find their beliefs for themselves. Her interview was very thought-provoking. She talked a lot about paradigms and paradigm shifts. She talked about the importance of time spent thinking about beliefs. This project, for me, was a little more than just a school project. It was somewhat of a mentally challenging, if not spiritual, experience. I learned things about myself and was able to understand the viewpoints of another person. I’d say this pretty well fits with my goal as a Mormon artist.

I really did learn a lot about what I’ll need to know in the future and what I should learn in the film program at BYU. I don’t know anything about Final Cut Pro, for example. I should probably learn how to use that. I also noticed that I tend to think very simply. I don’t really think a lot about the different sorts of shots that I’ll need before I start shooting, and even then I usually just pick one and stick with it. It was good to get some varying ideas from my group members. It makes things more interesting. Really, I need to learn more about almost everything, but it was good to pick out some things specifically to focus on.