The documentary that I chose to watch was After Innocence, directed by Jessica Sanders. As it follows the stories of eight men, the film shows the beginning of the use of DNA evidence to exonerate free men. As a student in biology in this modern day, it was so hard for me to grasp the fact that DNA evidence was not as conclusive as it is now, because back in the 80's when these men were in prison, forensic analysts were just learning how to use it. Watching the injustice done to these men really tore my heart out. What angered me most is how much it seemed like the prosecuting attorneys were just trying to cover their tracks of being wrong rather than fessing up to the mistake they made that cost someone their life. I am really into forensics and how biology can be used in the criminal justice world, so this film gave me a perspective on how flawed something seemingly absolute can be.
By writing summaries of Christo's Valley Curtain and After Innocence, I feel like I have a better understanding on how to tell a story without adding my personal bias. Not only does this skill help me write summaries of films or stories, but it also helps me write my lab reports, which cannot have any personal additives. Also, in writing a lab report, I am essentially summarizing what I did for the specific experiment. This helps be understand the value of these projects.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
CVC "Rubric" Reflection
Critical and Creative Thinking: 3. Ability to summarize a text clearly
Writing the summary of Christo's Valley Curtain, a short documentary directed by the Maysles brothers with Ellen Giffard in 1973, really taught me how to turn something black and white into something abstract. I had a hard time adding detail to my summary because when I think of writing a summary, its short and sweet and hits all the major plot points. Well, that is not exactly the way it should be done. Also, I am the type of person who prefers words on paper, so watching something and trying to get detail was difficult. However, once I was able to piece the story together in a way that made sense, I was able to make a summary that I didn't feel terrible about handing in.
Genre Knowledge: 1. Ability to write appropriately regarding the situation
Since we were writing a summary, we were not able to write our feelings, give meaning to the scenes, or write about why we liked a specific detail. For me, that was kind of rough. I found myself going back right after I had written a sentence to change it due to the analyzing I did. After a while, I felt as if I was doing okay without adding my opinion, but with a project like Christo's, it was hard not to. It was also difficult not to applaud the theatrical aspects of the documentary, like the way the directors used similar sounds to transition between scenes. Now that we have completed this project, I feel a lot more comfortable writing more summaries without adding my own thoughts.
Writing the summary of Christo's Valley Curtain, a short documentary directed by the Maysles brothers with Ellen Giffard in 1973, really taught me how to turn something black and white into something abstract. I had a hard time adding detail to my summary because when I think of writing a summary, its short and sweet and hits all the major plot points. Well, that is not exactly the way it should be done. Also, I am the type of person who prefers words on paper, so watching something and trying to get detail was difficult. However, once I was able to piece the story together in a way that made sense, I was able to make a summary that I didn't feel terrible about handing in.
Genre Knowledge: 1. Ability to write appropriately regarding the situation
Since we were writing a summary, we were not able to write our feelings, give meaning to the scenes, or write about why we liked a specific detail. For me, that was kind of rough. I found myself going back right after I had written a sentence to change it due to the analyzing I did. After a while, I felt as if I was doing okay without adding my opinion, but with a project like Christo's, it was hard not to. It was also difficult not to applaud the theatrical aspects of the documentary, like the way the directors used similar sounds to transition between scenes. Now that we have completed this project, I feel a lot more comfortable writing more summaries without adding my own thoughts.
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