1/31 Kaylyn Rivera Blog Reflection of Guest Speakers

 Blog post 1-


The guest speakers who came to class on 1/31 were an interesting group of individuals. As a social work student, I have not had the opportunity to talk to many of those in the academic field of film. It was interesting to hear professional takes on a field other than my own. What mainly stood out to me in the conversation was the discussion of interviewing. I do a lot of interviewing for my major, both structured and non-structured. In fact, I am currently working on a peer-narrative interview project for my internship.
I like how the main speaker of the night discussed that it can be difficult to get the answers you seek out from whom you are interviewing. Perspectives are everything, and it does feel impossible (because it is) to eliminate all bias in an interview. There is an art to a good interview that I can appreciate. I could tell in the speaker's film that the editors worked hard to pick interview clips that encapsulated the points they really wanted to put forward with the film. Despite the speaker saying the original director/ interviewer did not do a great job of what he was hired to do, I think it adds character to the film. It shows me the dedication our presenter spoke about needing to have when it comes to this specific profession. It is expensive and not always possible to just start over, so one must make do where they can. I think the more unknown piece of “making-do” adds an endearing aspect to the film for me. I like that we can set out as researchers/individuals to find one answer and end up being confronted with many other responses we never expected. It is one of my favorite parts of both research and life.
I also enjoyed how honest the speaker was about the film industry. It is a very competitive field, and to establish oneself in the film industry seems quite difficult. My sister-in-law is a multimedia art student from the Philippines. She has been having extreme issues finding work in the States both because of her chosen field (filmmaking/ photography) and her background. I do like how he mentioned the ability to make a film, at the same time, is more accessible than ever. I agree with the increase in the use of technology, it is important and necessary to have technical skills such as editing. In my field of work, I do not believe I will require such skills, but it is nice to know for the populations I serve if they are interested.
I’ve never really given thought to the makers behind educational films and how they can be given grants to do such work. I think it is so interesting, the non-profit portion of documentaries and educational films. I would be interested to hear more about the process of receiving funding as a non-profit filmmaker.
I do still wonder how one would seriously get into the film industry without connections to it? And how does this affect the industry? How do individuals go about making these connections? This also makes me think about how possibly corrupt the filmmaking industry could be especially when it comes to more mainstream media…

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