Representing Production notes part 3 of: on second thought...

Hokay, so I didn't actually do any sort of editing, but I did spend a copious amount of time logging shots yesterday. A copious amount. There were two and half tapes. Especially with Paul's interview, a lot of ground was covered and his alone was worth a lot of pages in my notebook. And at the time, it was too much to handle. Thus, impetus to figure out what kind of approach I should go for. I basically couldn't do any workshopping in Wednesday's class, but did my best to help those who did have shots and compositions and what not.

I figure I should talk about the racial sensitivity debate, in that the pro-chief movement does not think that the chief is itself racist or creates an environment of racism. I should proabably mention that I'll be wearing my "racial stereotypes dehumanize" t-shirt that day. Either that, or that the pro-chief movement, or at least the more sensible elements of which, were willing to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the opposition and were otherwise flexible in their demands to keep the Chief somehow, in some form. We'll see how it works when I import the footage.

I don't think I'll be doing the investigative video-journalistic thing. A lot of people may already know that the issue was decided a long time ago and in a non-transparent way, well.. obviously. If not many people know about how it was done, but know that it was done, then yeah, it was non-transparent. Really I don't see myself doing something without a wider-release that will just end up pissing people off and could potentially not end up how I want it, i.e. the trails I take lead no where. Also, it's a dead issue. And only people who are pissed off would care. I'm not pissed off. Therefore, I really shouldn't care. However, it would have been really cool to rock the boat with this one, but I'd be appealing to a crowd that I completely disagree with and frankly, don't want to see come to fruition. And luckily, the situation won't ever come to fruition. We retired the Chief and we did it, at least in a public fashion, with as much decorum as the university could muster.

Really, I think my desire to do this only stemmed from the fact that I was taking so much footage of Paul Schmitt and have felt bad not intending to use it to it's full extent. That, and when you keep an objective mindset and go into a situation, you tend to be more easily convinced. And he was persuasive, let me tell you what. He actually made me think that the board of trustees, or that some members thereon are a bunch of malicious pricks whether or not you like the Chief. But again, the issue is: who cares? One should care that the university is not making decisions democratically, yes, but this issue has been plaguing the university and it's reputation and whatever for 20-some years. It was time to take some initiative, and that's exactly what happened. Sometimes things shouldn't be done democratically, which is why I would love to see this country headed by an enlightened despot, like back in the 18th century. Oh, we have a despot for a leader, but he's certainly not enlightened. I'm talking about somone who will make decisions that are in the best interests of the country or body they run, not just a select few, and shouldn't buckle under external pressures. Of course, if there's a massive bread shortage or genocide, there's going to be problems. But so long as everyone is happy, fed, and unoppressed I'm perfectly fine with giving away my vote in return for someone sensible and intelligent (which, is pretty much how our democracy works now, except for the intelligence part). Oh, and so long as we can keep capitalism. That would be hunky-dory.

Rant aside, this footage in some other edited form should be passed on to Paul or some organization that would take a vested interest in it's contents for historical or sociological purposes. It really is an interesting narrative and whether or not you like it, a part of the history of this university. The pro-chief folks should just be happy we're not erasing him and sending him down the memory hole, just stopping him from doing his silly halftime dance. And the anti-chief folks need to focus their attention on something like Darfur or solving the problems of world hunger and overpopulation somehow. Please, for the love of jebus, these are real problems that will affect us in the future. I'm not saying that there's not racism on campus and that it's not a problem, just that there are larger social issues in larger, off-campuser contexts which are ultimately more important in the long-term. Please think of the children.

Okay, now this time I'll put the rant aside. I'm making an executive decision when I say that, I will approach for my next project, the idea that Farmbot should be our mascot and exactly why this is the case. What could be cooler than a 9-foot tall robot that shoots corn pellets out of it's arm cannon at its foes and launches fireworks from its stovepipe hat? I ask you...

Now back to being objective and looking past peoples' inability to see cultural insensitivity...