Here is our final! Jennifer Thomas, Mack Robins, Erin Meeks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOW-5WfOPwg&context=C496743dADvjVQa1PpcFOIQ5EcqW-DakOJA659CgADbpHriEEcoaY=

Mary Beth Lofgren

Mary Beth Lofgren, Utah gymnast, documentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX_LiTHkpr4&context=C4dac509ADvjVQa1PpcFOT0sNuXKJn3eGXqeAWTt5j4YEBGudD7dw=

Final Doc

"This I Believe"

I am a BYU Counselor

Here's a video.

Final

http://vimeo.com/40506480

Yay. Here is our final.

Blog 10

Our film explores identity and belief because while our subject was deaf, we did not just focus on her and that aspect of her life. We strove to figure out who she really was, what she aspires to be and how her beliefs influence that. Her beliefs are closely tied with the church and so we asked her questions about how her mission helped change the way she thinks. We actually organized the clips and stories she talked about into a chiasmus. The topics are as follows: Freedom she gets from rock climbing, why she decided to go on her mission, her beliefs on Christ, what she wants to do with her life now and how the freedom she feels from rock climbing is the like the feeling she gets at the temple. First the two were separate, the rock climbing and the beliefs, and then she tells us how they are related in the end.

One of the huge strengths of the film is the subject matter. Shantel was a very inspiring person. She’s accomplished so much in her life already and works really hard at becoming the best person she can be. Everything she does in her life is to help her achieve and accomplish. We just had a lot of great stuff to work with. What an interesting and unique experience!

The main thing I learned about identity and belief was how much her beliefs were infused into everything she did in her life. You can’t do something without believing in it. Everything you do is inspired by what you believe! Shantel rock climbing was an extension of the values that she held close to her heart. Her ideas about happiness and how she wants everyone to be able to have that are evident as she plays with her little sister, experiencing the true happiness that only the gospel can bring. We are what we believe.

I didn’t maybe so much learn this, as I did wonder. I wondered how my beliefs influenced my actions. How was I outwardly showing what I believed, and what did the things I do influence the way I act? I think I just made the goal to really figure out what a documentary on me would have looked like.

Interesting Audio Stories

Patrick McManus Audiobook Sample - from The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw

The most important part of an audio story is the story itself. In other media, various other senses are stimulated, but the audio story only has our auditory sense to stimulate. So first and foremost, the story must be good, it must captivate. This is why yarns and mysteries make for such great audio stories, as far as fiction goes. Plot is paramount. A pitfall that is important yet difficult to avoid is simply recording someone telling a story. The medium of audio for the distribution of stories has it’s own conventions. One cannot simply record a written story and expect it to captivate. The voice of the story is important in this regard. A good voice will go a long way. The printed story is written in a printed tone. The audio story must be recorded in the tone of someone telling a story. When your grandpa read you a storybook, you probably fell asleep, but when grandpa told you a story, you were captivated. It’s not that grandpas have better stories than story books, it’s the method of distribution. It’s the conversational tone. I don’t mind listening to podcasts about current events or special topics, but the audio stories that resonate with and captivate me the most are yarns--real life tall tales.

I love the stories of Patrick F. McManus. They conjure memories of the long car rides of my childhood and adolescence. I became so used to the narrator, Tom, that when I was given a printed copy of one of McManus's books, I couldn't read it. I wanted to hear the stories, not read them. We had several of his audiobooks and listened to them on road trips--which were frequent during my childhood. The combination of a clever writing--mostly comical yarns--and creative and engaging narration made for fascinating audio stories. Whenever the term "audio stories" is spoken, many people think of the old radio mysteries before the popularity of television. I instantly think of listening to Pat McManus audio books. What makes them great--beyond the stories themselves--is how captivating Tom Stechschulte is, not just a narrator, but a true voice actor. Listen to the short audio sample, and you'll be want for more. 

Reflection

My goal as a Mormon artist is to be a Mormon and an artist. I don’t plan to produce content for the church--although I’m certainly not against it. I want to produce technically sound and aesthetically pleasing content which is wholesome but never sugarcoats the realities of the human experience, with all it’s struggles and beauties. The interview with Kelly addressed this subject. There is a definite and important place for religion and faith in personal identity, but we must also address and come to terms with our primal nature. The field of psychology is fascinating and can answer many of the questions we have about ourselves, and should never be discounted or made subsidiary to religious teachings. Kelly put these two supposedly opposing fields into a nice harmony. I’m a naturalist and a Mormon. I recognize the contradictions, but it is possible for two contradictory theories to be true at the same time.

The collaborative process has always been a difficult thing for me. John Jacob Astor said that if you want something done, hire someone; if you want something done right, do it yourself. I have a hard time letting people help me. Not because I don’t want help, or because I think I can do a better job than others could, it’s because I am very particular about what the work that I produce says about me. How my work represents and portrays me is an important issue to me. I would rather not turn something in than turn something in that is mediocre and not an adequate reflection of my ability and creative motivations. By that same token, I want my work to be a representation of me, and not diluted by the contribution of others. I must get rid of these ideas if I am to progress in the BYU film program, as collaborative as it is. This project was good practice. I had my idea that I pitched for the project. I had it all planned out, and felt like I could have done it alone. However, it didn’t work out, and I was back at square one. Luckily, I was in a good group and we were able to plan and produce the project together. I enjoyed the experience.

Person, Places Photo Essay

For a few years in my past I had the great joy and privilege to work in the anechoic chamber of BYU. Being an audiophile, this naturally appeals to the geekier side of me. In this chamber that was specially commissioned for the University, it is so quiet that you can literally hear your heartbeat as well as the rush of blood pulsing through your veins.

The truly soundproof room.

There are complex foundations at work here -- perhaps a metaphor?

You cannot hear someone speaking if they are facing away from you or behind you. Everything in this room is either to absorb or deflect sound using awesomeness.

Within this room many high-profile experiments are conducted utilizing many extraordinarily expensive microphones.

You are suspended roughly 20 feet in the air on a large suspension lattice that can support a large amount of weight, all in the attempt to isolate and then diffuse the sounds within the room.

The effort of this room is complete isolation and silence. It even has its own foundation. Much in the same way, I have come to feel that we, too must have a place of solitude, but still firm in a foundation to move among others. Life can be hard, but beautiful if we so let it.

Mormon Artist Podcast -- Aaron Barlow

Mormon Artist Podcast

Podcast: Aaron Barlow

What are your project's strengths and weaknesses as a podcast?

I feel that while the music in the podcast echoes the sentiment that the artist is describing, it may become distracting to others. I can see, however, also how the subject was entertaining to speak to and is clearly passionate about his life and his work, that perhaps I could have focused more in the final interview questions less about his family life and beginnings as an artist and focused more on his goals as to where he plans to go from here. All in all, I feel good about it, but I recognize that there are clear areas that could be improved upon.

What did you learn about yourself as an artist while creating this project?

While creating this project, I learned that each person has their own set of struggles and hopes in achieving their artistic dreams and expressions, and it has made me ponder more upon what I must focus on in order to achieve such lofty goals. I always respect stage musicians who are down to earth, because they remind me that we need to be people first, and then become an artist naturally and fluidly through coming to achieve our own sense of being.

What does it mean to you to be a Mormon artist?

I believe that our system of beliefs become manifest regardless of the artistic medium. The more that we find of ourselves, then the more of ourselves that we can then find in our work. As a Mormon artist, it seems unnecessary to always write or sing songs about church, but instead one can tell the story as it is, unfettered by obtuse and poorly drawn human artistic integrities. We are who we become, and this has taught me that we must have a clear vision of our future if we are to redeem our past.

The Collaborative Process

The collaborative process while in both this class and those that accompany it have taught me that no great work or endeavor can be undertaken alone if it is to achieve glory in reaching out to other people. It seems folly to believe that one person is the mastermind behind such great works of art that give us breath and feed us life. As we learn quickly in an artistic field of expression, we must take from others what gives us life so that we, too may internalize it and utilize such glory in our own works of art.

This final project has helped me in my goals as a Mormon artist so as to help those around me to understand that there is more than meets the eye to many people – I, for one, have often felt judged at first glance for many things that have happened in my life. Nevertheless, I am grateful for these more infrequent experiences, as they helped to primarily shape my youth and have had rippling effects throughout the rest of my life. In my final project, I was able to interview someone who was extraordinarily well-spoken and well-versed in a topic that I knew nothing about: Hebrew and how it pertains to the field of Law and Linguistics. Such an intricate mind is evident only upon getting to know someone deeper and find out truly what their passions and belief systems are. I hope in the future to find more people of all kinds all over the U.S. and learn about why they believe what they do. I feel that this kind of individual exposure to unique individuals and common but misunderstood conditions in our country can help others to release the stigmas that they might have about fat people, mental illness, or any number of things that make us different. Everyone has a story, and when will we be able to tell it’s most interesting parts? Some of these people just need someone to help them tell their story, and that is what I want to be able to do, at least in some small capacity – tell the stories that make up why the world is so phenomenal and people are so great at being what they are and believing with a fire in their hearts and a passion in their spirits.

Giving and Receiving Feedback

Feedback, especially in an artistic community, is the gateway to true artistic expression and growth. Many can paint, sculpt or write while exercising their craft, but without the opinion of others, how can we influence them for good, or they do so to us? We are left to eat the dust by such ignorance, trapping ourselves into a heart-shaped box of self-indulgence or self-destructive denial until we are broken of one of our shells through constructive criticism. It is only by the means of being in a sharing community that we may achieve these goals.

This class has primarily taught me about being aware of others more in an anthropological-artistic clash, as well as being more willing to accept the criticism of others. While I know that I need to improve in my own ability to take constructive criticism well, I have appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with so many open-minded artists of a large myriad of backgrounds. Each element has helped me to succeed and given me new outlets to seek for help and criticism.

Blogging was something foreign to me prior to this class. While I most likely will not create my own blog right now, I do appreciate the opportunity that it provides to easily share and then almost instantly receive feedback from the populace about my works, and on the same note, to post feedback and learn to give better criticism to my peers about the things that could work or not work in their own projects. These things have helped to make me feel at home among artists striving to improve by lifting one another in an environment of learning. At the same time, we must watch our own criticisms to make sure that they are not laced nor riddled with our own bigotries, all the while not standing down from our beliefs for the sake of being true to ourselves first, and yet still being a positive and helpful source of feedback for those around us.

Representing Belief

In Marilynne Robinson’s article entitled “Reclaiming a sense of the Sacred,” I found it interesting how she was able to quote virtually every prominent Protestant Pastor of the 1800’s and combine their ideologies with those of Virgil and Homer. Granted, the effect was a flowing thread of one conclusion to another, however I found it interesting that she attempted to make that many connections in so long of an article – I somehow feel that it was the basis for a thesis paper that she had written some time ago (or, perhaps she is simply just that passionate about the subject matter at hand).

There are many ways that we can approach something foreign: we may revile or repulse at it, love it almost by instinct as did the female rats with the infant rats in her article, or simply take a more scholarly approach and instead learn to apply our own lives to what is being taught.

Whether for naught, ill or good, we are ultimately forced to either embrace or reject a topic when it comes to our recognition. As we realize our own weaknesses, for example, we have the options to either improve, stay the same by ignoring it, or simply get worse off. While we may struggle to achieve a perfect open-minded philosophy in this life, I propose a few things to help us along the way, which by no means should be canonical; first, we should strive to accept both the good with the bad. Much of life already gives us the sweet with the sour, so if we ignore the sour now in favor of the sweet, there will still come a due time in which we must taste of the opposite. Why not do so when we are best prepared and expectant of what is before us? I say, don’t be afraid of opposition to our own thoughts or belief systems, but to simply be cautious and be willing to truly spend the time in genuine research of the mind and the heart for both sides. Only by then doing these two things can we achieve a better sense of how we, too, might achieve a better balance in finding the good in more things around us. As a wise parent has probably at least once told us all: how can you know unless you try it? To which I would add, or experienced it vicariously?

Stories of Light

As a Mormon artist, I believe that our work is influenced by as much as we are diligent in who we are as individual believers of our faith, as well as how we may practice it. There are many who may think that we are limited in our capacities as artists in a secular world to solely doing works of a religious or purely secular nature; however, there remain many who have been able to achieve both, due to their own balances and belief systems that naturally come forth in their works.

We often express who we are in our work without intending to do so; we might include a phrase from scripture or other works that have influenced us greatly, or even quote an atheist who shares a point of view that we do. The point is, no matter what we do, our beliefs will be revealed. And, in a more biblical sense, “by their fruits ye shall know them.” Our works often speak volumes more about us. We are then left to determine and distinguish our jobs from our art. I think that, too often we see writers who especially leave their views out in the open intentionally, then end up coming off preachy with their pedantically didactic morals. Life is complicated, hence why our own belief systems will come out naturally, and don’t need to be forced to make an influence. We can do good by just being who we are, striving to become who we should be, and then living our lives and constantly creating in an attempt to achieve those goals.

As a result of this natural excretion of our own morals, so, too do others in their own works. Hence, we can find good works where there are good things to be found or people with solid belief systems – everyone is different, but we all strive to achieve in order to succeed. It is for this very reason that the most sincere generally rise to the top: Dostoyevsky wrote about his experiences without memoirs, as did Dickens and others, through their most compelling works, because they were true to themselves and sincere to their readers. We may work for money, but we are still to not lose ourselves in doing so and to continue to strive for truth and conscience in what we may find ourselves doing.

Viewing and Creating by the Spirit

While touring the Islamic exhibit, I was able to enjoy many of the works of the Middle East that are both foreign and common to our own culture. The color schemes may have been different in many ways to modern works, but the idea of symbolism is still prevalent in many of our nation’s national monuments and in many of the churches of different denominations that dot our land.
The details and intricacies were perhaps the most astounding figures of the exhibit, as each detail was more than the last – some works of art I doubt that even machines could produce that level of intricacy. I find this to be a result of the common variants found in every work of art: religion and dedication. These things are not so different from our own society and religion, whether we are Mormon, Jewish, or simply believe in the power of the almighty dollar.

Geometric art was extraordinarily prevalent in the Islamic art, perhaps even more so than in our own western art. Each element and shape fit into anther to form a greater whole, and give purpose and meaning to another. Especially striking were the ways in which different elements and shapes could come together as one whole when viewed through the slot (the many seemingly disorganized shapes and colors created a whole scene of an elephant when viewed through the right angle and pathway).

I was inspired to pay more attention to the whole of the details while both viewing and then later reflecting on the works found in this exhibit. I hope to better emulate that idea of paying close attention to the details while striving to achieve the greater vision of the whole above. Just as when we observe the laws of God or Allah for a greater purpose, there is beauty in that exactness and hope in the details that we are able to provide. These details similar to how each of us leave our own intricate prints on society, while making the larger object easy for someone to understand who can appreciate, but does not get overly fixated on the details therein.

Photo Essay - Blog 4

This is my community. It is where I commune. It is the common space, but--to me--there is nothing “common” about it. It is where I live. Sleeping and dressing takes place in my bedroom, academics and such take place in my den, but the living takes place in the living room. There is not much in the room, but there is enough to understand much about how I live. 

Here it is. I don’t know that guy on the floor. He was just there--we’re very welcoming to transients.

The most comfortable couches I’ve ever owned. Also the only couches I’ve ever owned.

These are my children. Aren’t they beautiful. The Johnson on the right is the first guitar I ever bought, and has a special place in my heart. The majority of my heart, however, belongs to the Ibanez on the left.

Look at her. She wears a sexy flamed maple top and sides. Her solid mahogany neck leads right to her abalone rosette. She arches her back to better resonate the harmonious tones she creates. 

And here is the perfect companion for my baby. It fills the room and massages your eardrums with the warmest of amplified acoustic ambiance. 

That Xbox has been sitting there for over a year. It has never once been plugged in.

A small sampling of my blu-ray collection. You can't borrow them, but all are welcome to come and enjoy a viewing.

This is a TV.

I didn’t think that taking pictures of my living space would have any effect on me. I spend a great deal of time in that room. Many blessed memories--and some debaucheries--have taken place there. It is my home. However, after photographing it in an attempt to capture it’s character, I realized how vain the attempt was. Looking at the photographs makes it seem so static and antiseptic, lacking character. To me, it’s not just a living room, it is a room that lives. There is always something going on, and capturing it in its naked state feels exploitative. When you look at the photos, you see things. When I look at them, I feel things. It’s aesthetics versus emotions. Thus, it is difficult for me publish these photos, simply because they do not due justice. They are a facade. But, here they are anyway. These are my things, this is my living space. 

Mormon Artist Podcast

Some Lady that Quilts

Final Documentary

We made this thing.

You can watch it right
HERE

Final Project Reflection

For my group’s final project, we interviewed a guy named MacGregor Whiting. He has several digestive diseases and has resorted to an extremely unique, simple, self-discovered diet to make sure he gets all the necessary nutrients without any discomfort. Basically, his diet and entire outlook on food blows my mind because it’s never something that I could be strong enough to do. I guess these are the types of stories that I would really love to tell as a Mormon artist – I want to find interesting and unique stories about people who are a lot different than me. They don’t have to be different in a bad way, just different. Like MacGregor. I want to document and tell the story of people that I really respect and look up to because of their focus in life. I’m hoping that finding inspiring stories will help me grow as both an individual and a filmmaker. If I’m lucky, I will be able to portray them in a way that is beneficial to others as well.

In short, completing this documentary really helped me wrap my mind around what stories I would like to create or find. It showed me that I need to find people who share this dream so we can work towards it together. I’m glad that BYUs film program is as collaborative as it is, because sometimes I need motivation that only comes when other people are relying on me. I’m excited to work together with others to find interesting stories and portray them in a compassionate way. This collaborative effort also taught me that I still have a lot of patience to learn when working with others. No one was appointed “group leader” or anything like that, so we sometimes found ourselves chasing our own ending or goal. Obviously, I was rooting hardest for my vision and sometimes got frustrated when the other group members opposed me. In the end, I learned that these disagreements can create the best type of film because it contains so much from each group member. We were each able to help the others get over particular things that they were attached to so that the whole would be coherent and interesting.

Feedback Schmeedback

From a young age, I think I always knew that I wanted to be creative. I used to draw (actually, doodling would even be a generous way of describing it), sing, write, dance, whatever. A huge part of it was that I always wanted people to tell me that I was good at something. My family always gave the expected “great job,” but the task got tricky when I approached other people for feedback or just to show off a little bit – basically they were never as kind as my parents. While young me was mostly fishing for compliments, current me realizes that this formula can be used for much more than praise. It can, and should, be used to better yourself as an artist.

I’ve always latched on to people that I can trust creatively. I’m not sure whether the chicken or the egg came first in this situation, but I’ve always chosen friends that I am/would be comfortable showing my work to. I trust them to respect my vulnerability and be constructive with their criticism. Even when we butt heads over certain issues they have, it’s important that they are able to back up any problems they have, so that I will have a real reason to want to change something. I don’t enjoy it when the viewer tries to commandeer a particular project and takes away the artist’s (my) intent. I usually look for and try to give suggestions for how the artist’s intent can be strengthened rather than altered.

The reading was great in really helping me realize why I appreciate feedback so much. Being creative can be a lonely and daunting experience if you don’t have any outlets you can show your work to. Close friends are also emotionally distant enough to see the project with fresh eyes, like a real audience would. This means they can spot problems you may have overlooked or not realized. They haven’t seen the edit one hundred times or they don’t have the character’s back story imbedded in their brain, automatically filling holes as they appear.

Learning to receive, give, and actually digest feedback is priceless as an artist. I’m convinced that this is an easy way to grow and grow quickly. Just make sure they’re nice people.