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What it is like to bomb...

June 21, 2011

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Allan Havey, from Marc Maron's essential podcast...(only 1.5 minutes)

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The Powerpoint Problem

This NYTIMES article articulates several important problems with powerpoint as a communication medium. In the hands of a genius communicator - like Thomas P.M. Barnett , Powerpoint can be entertaining and informative. It certainly helps if the speaker knows his material and feels passionate about it. But in almost all cases it has reductive effects on communication - a clear case of diminishing returns. Powerpoint is a medium with its own rules, and it proscribes ideas accordingly. Concepts are factored down into Icons. Thoughts become bullet points. When one listens to a public speaker, a fairly high level of engagement is in needed - we search the speakers face for micro-expressions, we tune into the voice to hear inflections and nuances. Powerpoint turns the live theater of a public speaker into a visually dull movie that reduces our engagement - the human face is constantly changing - the powerpoint slide does not. And when the slides are turned on, we know that a script is being...

Fredrick Wiseman at Docyard: Luck, Judgement and Patience.

I got some insight into what kind of temperament one needs to sustain a 60 year career in documentary when I asked Fredrick Wiseman what I imagined to be a fair question: What recent trends in documentary film do you find heartening or perhaps disheartening? "I don't go to films. I mostly read." I pressed him: "You don't watch films? When you go to film festivals or these kinds of events?" "I still read. There are hundred of years of literature to choose from. I prefer that." I plopped down. Was that a dumb question? Was that an arrogant answer? Should I take this personally and title this blog article "Wiseman to Aspiring Documentary Filmmakers: Drop Dead"? I wasn't the only questioner at The Doc Yard's screening of "Hospital" (1969) who didn't get far with documentary director Fredrick Wiseman . The host, an academic in film studies, had his first question brushed aside as well, and he was forced to regr...

King Corn, Continued

MediaJock appears to have at least one reader. Curt Ellis, maker of "King Corn", liked my analysis .... ___________ Hey Daniel, Thanks for the nice note and the thoughtful review! Sorry to take so long getting back to you. We didn't know about the Corn King myth in the edit room, but I'm glad you pointed it out (you're the first!) and I'm sure we were influenced by its derivatives at least. Aaron (my cousin and the director behind the camera) talked about the Butz scene as being a moment where we see the man behind the curtain and realize that he isn't a wizard after all; just some guy's grandfather. That wasn't something we thought about before it happened, though -- Ian and I are who we are (reasonably meek guys not capable of pulling off a Moore-Heston confrontation if we wanted to), and the revelation we had in that moment was genuine: our system for food production sucks, but it's not the fault of evil -- it's just a function of an...

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What it is like to bomb...

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