November 2012 - Jessica Marquis

12:12 PM

Concerned Citizen - Jessica Marquis and Kirstin Anderson

Artists’ Statement:

We did our Concerned Citizen documentary on Diena Simmons. She is the station manager of KBYU, Channel 11, at BYU Broadcasting. KBYU is Utah’s local PBS channel, and is part of the bigger organization, BYU Broadcasting, which is nationwide, as well as international.

We originally planned to interview and follow BYU Broadcasting Managing Director, Derek Marquis. When we showed up to do the interview, he suggested that we interview Diena. He explained that she works more on the community level than the global level, and that she is really passionate about her work. We were glad he made this suggestion, because Diena turned out to be a great interviewee.

Diena is in charge of what goes on the air for Utah’s PBS station. She is very passionate about providing wholesome content. In the interview she mentions that no matter what, people are going to use media, so she wants to provide something that is worthwhile. Toward the end of the documentary, she mentioned that she has had opportunities to work in the commercial media world. But when it came down to it, she felt more proud to be doing this work at KBYU. Other employees at BYUtv have had similar opportunities to work in the commercial media industry, but choose to work at BYUtv. Even though the salary is often lower, many of them feel better about the work they are doing there.

We happened to be at BYU Broadcasting to interview Diena on the day before a big event she was running, and she invited us to come back the next day and shoot some b-roll. This is one of many events that she is in charge of. We discovered that they have a lot more going on than people realize. She said in the interview that not all of the work they do is on the air. This event, among others, aids the community on a physical level. Diena feels it is important to provide service wherever she can, in fun and interesting ways that will get people to want to participate.

We could tell that Diena is a genuinely caring person. While editing, we talked about how comforting it is to know that there are people like Diena who care enough to try to improve the community. There must be more people like her in our community who work hard in different ways to better their environment, and that is such a great thing. We hope this documentary can inform people about how dedicated people are to creating better environments, and how anyone can help out even if it is a small contribution.

On the technical side, we got to our interview and didn’t have a 9-volt battery to power our lav mic kit, so we just had to use the camera audio. If we could go back and redo it, we definitely would have gotten a battery so our audio could have been better. However, in the end, we are really happy with how the documentary turned out.

5:50 PM

Protest Poster

Artist's Statement:

I decided to protest Teachers’ Unions. It is easy to argue that we want the best possible teachers in the classrooms educating the youth of America. But Teachers’ Unions primary focus is on the teachers, and not the students being taught. Teachers’ Unions protect even bad teachers. The concern isn’t for the best quality education, but to ensure that all teachers, even poor ones, keep their jobs.

Education in the United States is definitely faltering compared to other countries. We are in need of a change in the educational system, but Teachers’ Unions are standing in the way. According to Teachersunionsexposed.com, a campaign against Teachers’ Unions, 1 out of 57 doctors loses their license to practice medicine, and 1 out of 97 lawyers lose their license to practice law. Yet only about 1 out of 1000 teachers loses their teaching license. Tenure protects teachers, yet tenure isn’t necessarily earned because of their hard work or being good at what they do. These stats illustrate how detrimental Teachers’ Unions are.

I believe teachers should be hired and fired based on if they are good teachers or not. I think I feel strongly about this because my siblings and I have had experience with bad teachers. One of my sisters told me that her teacher doesn’t care if they misspell words or use poor grammar in their writing. She says they only care about if their writing is interesting, persuasive, etc. She hasn’t learned so many of the basic skills, like penmanship and typing, that I learned in elementary school. Additionally, the principal at my little sister’s elementary school consistently uses poor grammar in writing and speech. I worry that some teachers aren’t following the best teaching methods, and the kids are becoming consistently less proficient in the basics. The future of America truly does lie in quality of education obtained by the rising generation.

I represented my views on Teachers’ Unions in my poster by portraying a bad teacher. I showed that it was in fact a bad teacher by writing “2+2=5” on the chalkboard. I put a fence around the bad teacher to show that he is protected and nothing can touch him. I felt this adequately showed that I am against teachers’ unions.

I posted this protest poster to a social media platform, and also on my normal life blog. I got a few responses to it. People said they could understand what I was trying to say. They agree that teachers unions are protecting bad teachers, and maybe even hindering good ones. Some said the barbed wire seemed a little harsh, like maybe people in teachers’ unions should be arrested. That isn’t exactly what I was trying to say, but the idea of being against teachers’ unions is there.

5:19 PM

Webspinna Artist's Statement:

My webspinna consisted of sounds from a few different websites. At first, I thought my arrangement might just be a compilation of whatever I could find. But I ended up finding a lot of different options, and choosing sounds that fit a sort of mellow, peaceful feel. I found a great website called “Rainy Mood,” which just plays rain sounds continuously. This is such a comforting sound to me, and I had it play throughout most of the 3 minutes. Stumbleupon.com helped me find a great website called “Incredibox.” Not only is the animation on the website really cool, but you can add different beats, melodies, and effects and play them simultaneously. You can play as many as you want, and they all sound good together. I chose to use a basic beatbox sound and a whistling melody. I thought they were simple and peaceful, and kept the mellow mood of the rain sounds.

I wanted to use some speech soundbites to contrast the more musical and nature elements. I started with a soundbite from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am a really big Harry Potter fan, and the soundbite of Kingsley Shacklebolt saying “The Ministry has fallen” was in that slow mood I had going. The pacing actually fit with the beat of my Incredibox sounds as well. I contrasted that soundbite by using a historical soundbite from Franklin Roosevelt. I used his famous line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I like his speech, and it also worked with the Harry Potter soundbite, which introduces fear. The Roosevelt bit counters fear. I also used different sounds from the NASA website throughout the webspinna. The “Earth” sounds added a “white noise” element that I really like. I ended with the soundbite of “Jupiter.” I didn’t know Jupiter made sounds, but it sounded more like a radio transmission of passing Jupiter. I liked ending on that weird, spooky space note.

I liked that we performed the Webspinna live, rather than pre-recording it and playing it. Luckily all my links worked and it turned out the way I planned. The fact that it was a live performance made me a little nervous. I wouldn’t have been nervous if I had pre-recorded it. I think performing it live made us all a little more engaged and excited about it. I also think a lot of us bonded more, because we performed something, which makes us all a little more vulnerable, we were outside of our normal class time, and we got to eat a lot of awesome food. I really liked that each webspinna didn’t necessarily need to have a narrative. I was able to see the awesome taste in internet sounds that people in the class have, and it made me want to come up with even more arrangements just for fun. I had never done anything quite like this, but I really enjoyed it! I am becoming more and more excited about experimenting with media outside of film. We should have a Webspinna every week!

Concerned Citizen - Jessica Marquis and Kirstin Anderson

Protest Poster

Webspinna Artist's Statement:

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