Filmmaking Symposium

At first I was unsure on how I felt about the symposium with the experimental video. Like it was cool, but I don't really care for the experimental side as it looked more animation than video. But it started picking up for me with the hidden camera films of NYC post 9/11 and the one with Scarlett Johansson. It also brought up the question on if it's ethical or not to use hidden camera footage to make films when it's illegal to film people without their permission and the lecturers did talk about the legal troubles that the SJ film went through afterwards.

What reaffirmed me into filmmaking was talking to the teachers afterwards about the program. Since the symposium was mostly experimental, stepping away from narrative, I wanted to know if traditional filmmaking was okay since that's what I have more experience with in my documentaries and even short music videos. He explained that sophomore year they try to get you out of your comfort zone and show you different ways to use equipment and such. And then the next semester you start to do your own thing, sorta, similar to what my video classes were like senior year where we had video projects almost every week to do and different techniques. And then you get more open ended and such. I'm excited to declare my major to be a filmmaker.