Reflection Essay

While completing our group documentary on Resident Advisors, my group experienced some struggles as well as many successes. I would have to say the biggest struggle was the attitude people had towards each other in the group. In a group, there is always a person that takes more control, and like any other group project, this happened. Although people need to assertive to get things done, at times this was taken a little too far and I felt it got a little disrespectful.

Other than the few little tiffs, our group seemed to work well and efficiently. One thing I really enjoyed about our documentary was the way each section of our video flowed together. I feel that we always had the perfect part of an interview that helped us work our way into the next topic. I felt that this made our video hold a steady focus and feel more professional.

One thing I wish I could change about our video would be the way things were filmed. I feel that when some other groups used a video camera to record their interviews, it had better quality as well as a more steady shot.

If I had six months to work on this project, there would have probably been more interviews. We used my RA for most of the podcast and I would have liked to interview her for the documentary part of this project too. My RA was rushing a black sorority, which took up almost all of her time between that and school. I tried to make many appointments with her to get a short interview, although every time it fell through. I would have also liked to find more interesting stories that we could have recorded to make our class more engaged in the documentary.

Overall, for the documentary I was responsible for recording and editing. I recorded the interview with a student in my dorm, as well as took many shots around campus. After everyone uploaded their videos, I watched them all and made notes of what clips I felt were good for each topic we had discussed we wanted to include. I also typed up the entire proposal for the group before we even began the project. For the editing aspect of the documentary, I was in charge of the closing scenes as well as mild cases.

Although group work is frustrating, I took the stress off of my part of the project for the group because I always came to class and meeting times in the library with my sections completely finished and edited. This helped because the group could move forward and not waste time on waiting for my sections of the documentary to be completed. Like I said before, I wish I could have contributed with an interview of my RA because she has been a Resident Advisor for two, going on three years, and I am sure should would have given a great contribution to the documentary. Overall, I feel like I contributed a fair amount to the group. 

Documentary Proposal

WRD111 Proposal

Taylor Bucholtz

Kristina Watkins

Shawnee Sparrow

Kimberlyn Paschke

Evan Mefford

For our final project in this class we chose to focus our documentary on Resident Advisors (RA). More specifically, we are focusing our main attention on the extreme situations you may not realize Resident Advisors have to deal with. The purpose of this documentary will be to inform students and potential Resident Advisors the emotional stability required in order to become an RA in the most extreme and scary situations. Everyone knows that Resident Advisors have to deal with stupid drunk college students quite often, although the more dangerous and life-threatening situations that these RAs may have to deal with sometimes slip our minds. The issue is, is that when Resident Advisors have to deal with these threatening situations regarding students, are they qualified to deal with these problems in an effective and supportive way? Moreover, the audience this documentary will be focusing in on is Owen, University of Kentucky students, and potential Resident Advisors.

While finding out the intimate details of the most extreme situations may be difficult, we have assigned specific positions for this project to come together perfectly. The people that will be filming and interviewing RAs will consist of everyone. Each one of us will do our best to depict the intriguing stories and the struggles the Resident Advisors had to experience while dealing with these situations. Everyone will also take part in the editing process, although we do not know the specifics of the jobs yet. We have not decided what or if we want to do narration. The decisions on the narration will happen after we receive everyone’s films and the content within the recordings.

While discussing the filming details, we have talked about the tone and style being more serious. Depending on the stories we receive, the tone and style will definitely change, although we will have to deal with that on the scene. Assuming that the stories the Resident Advisors will tell us are more serious and will have a sadder moral to the story, it is a good guess that throughout our documentary the tone will be in the more serious direction. The group has decided that before each interview we will take an establishing shot of where this interview and section of the documentary will be shot. Assuming that the interviews will be taking place where the stories the RAs will tell us took place, the establishing shots will be of the dorms, resident complexes, or dorm rooms. Aside from these establishing shots, tracking shots of the Resident Advisor that is being interviewed will be included. Our group also had the idea of recording some of the clips of the documentary when the RA is on the clock doing their rounds. This will give a little incite of the “a day in the life of a Resident Advisor.”

            The organization of the documentary will start of with typical things a Resident Advisor does such as dealing with drunken residents and roommate drama. Eventually, as the interview and filming goes on, there will be a transition into more extreme cases the RA has had to deal with or has heard of other advisors having to deal with. These extreme cases can include suicide, attempted suicide, rape, alcohol poisoning, cases of serious alcoholism, etc. We are then going to focus of the main question which is – did the Resident Advisor feel like they were qualified enough to deal with such extreme cases.

            The plan for the way that the documentary will be put together is still kind of up for discussion. Depending on the shots we get, good or bad, we will have to do whatever works. Audio may include voiceovers, music, interviews, background noise, sound effects, and anything else necessary for this documentary to be “A” worthy. Along with the audio in this film, filters and effects will be an important aspect. We were thinking that because the documentary will possess a more serious tone, a darker setting would be most appropriate. Although, the documentary will not get too serious until the middle, therefore, the beginning will have a natural look. We will also decide more of the effects when we have all of the filmed and gather all of the stories.

            Overall, the content of this documentary will have many interviews. Through these interviews, personal experiences from the stories will be the main focus and we will strive to have these stories emotionally affect the audience as much as possible.  Some of the questions we will all be asking the Resident Advisor each of us interview are as followed:

How long have you been an RA?

What does a CA do and how is that like an RA?

What is the scariest/most exciting thing you’ve had to deal with?

Did you have to take a class to help prepare you for serious situations?

When dealing with serious cases, did you feel qualified? If so, how did you handle the situation? And if not, did you feel like you could have ever been prepared to handle these extreme situations?

Did it affect your life? How?

The timeline and schedule we are going to try as best as we can to stick to is:

March 30^th – proposal typed and posted

April 1-7^th – as much filming and interviewing done as possible for first cut

April 9^th – first cut

April 10-14^th – film extra shots if necessary/begin to cut clips and organize

April 15-21^st – continue putting the documentary together: WORK AS A TEAM TO MAKE IT

            April 23^rd – project due 

Korean Netiquette

While watching “Korean Netiquette”, I noticed a few different filming techniques than “Anxiety” and “The Archive.” The first thing I noticed while watching the “Korean Netiquette” documentary was that it started out with a woman speaking Korean and subtitles were displayed at the bottom of the screen. I feel that this was an attention getter to the audience viewing this piece. Another aspect that stood out to me what that the lighting and setting was not fixed. This was a natural and authentic tactic that the producers used. I feel that the used this to demonstrate that this is real life, not just a made up scenario that doesn’t get much attention. It was evident that these children are learning and understand the importance of using correct Internet etiquette. I really enjoyed the shots in class, which again was not a fixed setting. I felt that in “The Archive” the settings were more planned and the way “Anxiety” and “Korean Netiquette” used natural or unplanned settings was more effect to the audience. Voiceovers were also a big part of the production in “Korean Netiquette.” While you could see images of the host who may have been asking the questions, you could never see him talking. They were strictly voiceovers of him speaking and an image of him standing and waiting for the response. While listening to the clips, you will notice that there is no background music; I think that this creates for a more serious and strict setting throughout he movie.

            One aspect of the documentary that I did not like as much was that towards the end, was that at one point the Korean woman was speaking and her voice was drained out and there was a voice over of a woman translating in English. I did not like this as much because it was not consistent with the rest of the clips. Either captions or translation should have been used consistent throughout. 

Interview Plan

My group decided to do our podcast on Resident Assistants on South Campus. I was assigned the job of being an interviewer because I live in Blanding 1, which is located on South Campus. The assigned positions are:
Shawnee: Editor, Host, Group Blogger

Kimberlyn: Scriptwriter, Interviewer

Kristina: Editor, Host

Evan: Interviewer

Me: Interviewer

I have already contacted my RA to get permission to interview. I have already thought of about four questions to ask and the other interviewers have done the same. 

Some of my questions are:

What are the benefits of being an R.A?

What is your least favorite aspect of this position?

Why did you decide to apply for the Resident's Assistant position?

Do you plan to continue being an R.A for another year or advancing in the housing department?

CSF

“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Theses words were proclaimed from the mouth of Andrea, the leader of Christian Student Fellowship prayer night on Thursday night. The air in the room wasn’t cold, although chills all over my body had grown. The way everyone was so engaged in the opening reading was moving.

Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) is a non-denominational campus ministry on the University of Kentucky’s campus. Although Christian Student Fellowship has a building located on Woodland Avenue, CSF is everywhere on campus. Recent graduates of University of Kentucky, who give their first year or two after graduation giving back to the University of Kentucky community lead bible studies, lectures, or volunteer activities, mainly staff CSF.  Christian Student Fellowship organizes over 150 unique events throughout the school year for enrolled members of CSF as well as students who have no affiliation with the organization. By undertaking these fun activities, the leaders and members of Christian Student Fellowship have the hope of familiarizing their organization to students and draw them closer to God and spreading His word. People like you and me who donate their time and money allow this organization to flourish on the campus at Kentucky support CSF.

Upon my entrance to the Christian Student Fellowship building, I was greeted with warm welcoming faces. I entered with my friend and sister of my sorority, Chi Omega, who has been an active member of CSF since the beginning of the year. Many people knew Bitty. Immediately she introduced me to all of her friends. Being so overwhelmed with names, none had stuck in my brain. Everyone was so overjoyed that she was bringing a new member to the “family.” Walking further into the main room of the building, I was floored to at the amount of people in attendance. Just for this one worship there were around 400 students gathered together. Taking up one of this plethora of chairs in the main room of the Christian Student Fellowship building, the socialization was at a maximum. We set our bags down and talked to the people around us. It seemed to me that seats were not assigned the same for every prayer night because Bitty introduced herself to the people behind us. To say that people were friendly here was an understatement. All of the foldable chairs were facing the main front stage, containing a giant speaker, microphone stand, and three people who would later lead the prayer night. I was calming down from the overwhelmed feeling I felt at the beginning of the night being introduced to what seemed hundreds of people. I was beginning to enjoy myself and realized what I had been missing out on.

While looking around and taking in the scenery, I noticed that although this was a religious function, church attire was not a necessity. Many girls were wearing yoga pants and sweatshirts, while the men were dressed in khakis or jeans and a t-shirt or sweatshirt. Furthermore, while unintentionally eavesdropping on the group of girls sitting behind me I heard them discussing their weekend saying “the party was so f***ing crowded!” the blonde said in a raised voice. I was a little taken back by the vulgarity of this sentence, although thinking twice about it, even though theses people are at a bible study, they are still college students.

 In high school I was apart of a club similar to Christian Student Fellowship called Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA.) I had also attended church bible studies for 17 years of my life at the church I attended every Sunday. Comparing all three I would say that Christian Student Fellowship is smack dab in the middle of the formal scale while my church bible study in the front-runner. Although, out of all the bible studies I have attended, I feel CSF was the most informative and useful.

 “Attention please while we get started!!!!” leader number one spoke loudly into the microphone to catch the attention of the large crowd. Finally after a few seconds, the room grew to a silence. Beginning by introducing herself, Andrea, the head leader of Christian Student Fellowship prayer night began. Andrea looked to be about mid-twenties and she enlightened the crowed that she had just graduated from University of Kentucky this past fall semester. Unlike the audience’s attire, Andrea was dressed in a more formal way, wearing black dress pants and a bright colored blouse. Looking back on prayer night, Andrea was the most outgoing of the three prayer leaders that night. I asked Bitty if there were the same presenter every night and I was surprised to hear that almost every week there is a different group of people presenting to the members of CSF. I was lucky enough to attend the prayer night with the head leaders. To begin the night Andrea spoke about the importance of coming together to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Following the typical introduction of thanking everyone for coming out, the topic of conversation was love. This was fitting considering it was Valentines Day.

One of the most prominent things I observed while attending this prayer night with Christian Student Fellowship was the attention given to the speaker. Nowadays it is very common to see young adults and teens preoccupied with their phone while someone is speaking. While looking around, out of the huge crowd I spotted only one person looking down at their phone. The fact that these students wanted to be there and learn about God’s word was just an amazing and inspirational feeling. One of the things I found to be awesome about the way that Andrea prepared her part of the night was that everything she said was so relatable. Everyone has had their fair share of relationships and heartbreaks and the way that Andrea connected these relationships to the relationship that everyone should hold with God was a great way to relay God’s word to college students.

The next speaker, Wes, was next on stage. His main topic was a little different than Andrea’s although following the same main topic of love. People seemed a little more energized for Wes to speak. As I looked around the two girls and boys who sat in front of me scooted to the front of their seats in anticipation to listen to what Wes had coming next. Wes looked a bit older than Andrea with full-grown bread and dress in casual clothing: a t-shirt from a mission trip in 2008 and khaki pants. Maybe people felt so compelled to listen to him because he seemed to be more relatable and less formal than the first speaker. With a big smile on his face welcoming all who came out for prayer night tonight, Wes encouraged us to take a couple minutes and meet the people sitting around us. As we were doing so, a screen to the side of the stage lit up as a projector projected lyrics to a song onto the huge white screen. A loud burst of music sounded from the back right side of me causing everyone to stop their socializing and pay attention. The whole prayer night audience began to joyfully sing the words of the song that was being displayed and lead by Wes while he strummed a guitar on stage leading the song. Following the song, Wes gave a similar speech as Andrea only talked about loving yourself rather than Andrea’s stance on loving one another. I feel like more people related to Wes’s talk in the sense that everyone knows how important and difficult it can be to love yourself. Using stories rather than a lecture, I feel there was more to take from this talk. Before closing with a song, Wes had everyone take out their planners or phones and go to the day of the week that is most difficult for you personally and had us write “Smile and love yourself!” on that day.

Last but not least Brian came on stage. Dressed in a flannel button down, his goal was to show us how Jesus Christ is present in all of our lives. He was the more traditional speaker I was used to. Brian read verses out of the bible and then picked them apart, making them relatable to college students. This is how I would have described my hometown church prayer night. Although it wasn’t as exciting everything was still hitting home. Just hitting the hour mark in the prayer night, I observed the audience once again. This time people I could spot many more people checking their cell phones and not being as attentive. Although there were more than before, it was not a very noticeable amount. While Brian was coming to a close, Andrea and Wes came up on stage and everyone applauded all of the speakers in prayer night. I was shocked to see that everyone around me gave them a standing ovation. This really demonstrated how well these three speakers did on presenting the way love was and should be present in all of our lives.

When prayer night concluded, everyone picked up their foldable chairs and took them to the back. It seemed as though this was a ritual after every meeting CSF has because it was done without any direction. Due to the large amount of people in attendance, a line was formed to place put the folding chairs away. Once again I was introduced to an overwhelming amount of Bitty’s friends. Following clean up, Bitty and I filed out while there were a few circles of people socializing in the main room.

Being in college I can sometimes find “more important” things to do or other excuses to skip weekly mass. Christian Student Fellowship really gave me a reason to WANT to go to weekly services and continue to grow closer in faith. I am very thankful for this project and how it forced me to become a part of something I really wanted to be a part of, just did not have the motivation.