Project Video

After meeting with our group and have a discussion outside of class, we have some good idea circulating for what our video will entail. We went through the themes that everyone followed over break and found some similarities. Youth voting was a popular issue as well as voter fraud, the debates, and the ACORN issue. I specifically analyzed the recent debates in terms of the candidates behavior and mannerisms. As previously noted in one of my posts, McCain and Obama exhibited very different behavior throughout the town format debate. As they had the opportunity to walk around and not be confined to a podium, as the audience, we could notice more. Particularly their facial expressions, amount of pacing, eye contact, etc. Some of the clues help determine how nervous and anxious they are feeling. Obviously both candidates have been facially enhanced with makeup before air time to prevent the audience from seeing any blemishes or spots. Beyond that there is a lot to observe. McCain was pacing and walking around a lot when talking and when listening. Almost as if he appeared to be on the defense and very nervous. Does this behavior really send the right message to the American public? When looking at Obama, he was much more composed and receptive when it was McCain's turn to talk. This not only shows a level of respect on behalf of Obama, but a positive image for the audience.

The topic of youth voting is very important for the ongoing campaign. Never in history have youths and specifically the millennial generation played such an imperative role. Our generation has become fully engaged in the political race and future of where the country is going. For many it is the first and foremost concern on their minds. There are several issues on the mind of the youth voter such as the War In Iraq, foreign policy, LGBTQ rights, etc. The war is an overwhelming topic of discussion and will continue to be for the future. Whether to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan? Should we be changing our strategy?

Voter fraud was a major issue in the last presidential election. Something that the government and electoral college is trying to prevent from happening for this upcoming election. Electronic voting machines has been a problem in the past. There will always be a risk when using any sort of electronic device for recording votes. There will always be a chance of info being leaked and even more damaging if someone hacks the system. This will be something to follow for the duration of the race.

On another note, it is important to maintain a connection with Rebooting America. With the chapters we read and focused on, there should be a direct over arching correlation among all the presentations.

The question is where will our group take these ideas and themes? We are in the experimenting phase with video software. One idea has been to culminate a lot of clips from youtube videos and compiling them to make a video of our own. However, is that really original? One of our group members has the ability to utilize Final Cut which may become very helpful. The best scenario would be to create a completely new and original video. Film making is not something I have experience with so it has been a learning process for me and many others. Tomorrow's format will be helpful so the class can see examples of technology demonstrated. This will help to spark some additional ideas and where to take the project. I would be interested to see what stage other groups and solo member groups are at. Not to steal any thoughts, but more out of curiosity and what software they are utilizing.

The final presentation of these videos will be most successful I think if there is a variety of videos that were constructed very differently. It would be great to see a lot of creativity and the thought process involved.