DY Movie from DavdxYyngA on Vimeo.
My favorite part of the film would be putting some private pictures into the film and using pictures and song to present my life story to the class or public. It was fun to gather all the pictures and bring back some old memories that I had. The least favorite part about this project is when we have to interview with my family member. The interview takes a long time and when I interview them, I have to make a lot of field notes and that hurts my hand and my brain. My favorite line from the poem is I'm from the swag town, from the fashion house, and the world of diamonds.
When creating this film, it taught me about the power of combining words, sounds & images. When we show the pictures and put on background music, it helps to catch people's emotion and it can change people's view about you. Depending on what side of you that you would like to show, you can change the tone of voice to make it sad, emotional, happy or brings energy. When watching a film with words, sounds and images, you can actually make a person to think deeply, but only if your films shows images that have hidden meaning under it.
Making the "Where I'm From" project taught me about methods of qualitative research. With the lessons and help, I can now make a better interviews and know the methods of taking notes and the questions that would be best to ask during a interview. I learned that when asking a interviewee a question, never make a question an open/close question. Every question you ask, you want the interviewee to give you as much information and details as possible. When taking notes during a interview, only take down the details and we must be write while listening at the same time, because it would be embarrassing if you forgot what they said which you're taking down notes.
Creating this film taught me the important of ethnography because it helps to study deeply into an object or person. Within a ethnography, we can make a focus group and study or observe within a smaller circle or area. While I being the interviewers, I would ask people within the focus group questions on the topic of my research and ask for the true own opinion about the subject. If I want to be more specific, I can make a In-Depth interview with a single person, and this could give me great amount of details for information I wanted.
Creating this film taught me about myself in some ways. I learned more information about myself through interviewing my family members. I know a lot more about my childhood, how I used to be like growing up and a lot of other memories that I don't even remember and had my parents to remind me of. I enjoy learning and studying the history of my family through old photographs, and the neighborhood of my birthplace, GuangDong, China. I have a lot of fun and learned a lot more about the important of having Research through this course.
