Last week we got together and watched Nobody's Business, a documentary in which the filmmaker interviewed his father in hopes of learning more about himself and his family heritage. Throughout the film the father finds the idea of his life being interesting quite absurd and most of his son's questions silly and unnecessary. Though guarded and unconcerned, the father radiates intellegence and is often very funny. The style in which this film was shot seemed to combine historical and biographical elements. As the father failed to answer many questions about their family's past, the son began to research and find many facts such as names, birthplaces, times of death and even distant relatives with the same name. I enjoyed this film very much and after watching it I feel I have a better idea of the use of certain styles.
Though our group has yet to decide on or discover a style appropriate for our project I have a feeling it will be a Process style, which will include Biographical, Journey and a bit of Historical as well. As far as the Process style goes I am sure we will focus on a succession of events which will include a biographical study of Dr. Bennett, his journey through education and clergy to his present position as pastor/mentor and the obstacles which he has faced in the past and hopes to overcome in the future. As I mentioned in earlier posts we hope to include a Historical view of the subject of mentoring as well.
A few ideas as to who we hope to interview (other than Dr. Bennett) include men from each of the three catagories of mentorees in the program. Interviewing several "laymen" would be ideal as to gain an understanding from different backgrounds and viewpoints of reasons for seeking guidance through Christian mentorship. Interviewing those interested in becoming clergymen would give us an idea of some goals these men hope to achieve on their way to entering the ministry. Interviewing those already in the ministry would further our understanding of the importance of mentoring and uncover another set of goals which they hope to achieve and why. I am most interested in the idea of interviewing a man who has had Dr. Bennett as a mentor and has himself become a mentor to others. This should give us an idea of what up and coming mentorees may aspire to be and illuminate the importance of mentoring as a networking process.

Our group found some time to meet before class on wednesday which is the first time all three of us have met together at the same time. We discussed our schedules and how we might find some way to work around school and our jobs so that we could find atleast one permenant time we can meet each week. My work schedule is a little tricky because it changes weekly but I think Thursdays are going to be our best bet. We also discussed the topic itself and where we stood as far as progress goes. We are going to meet Friday morning to watch the documentary Nobody's Business which will hopefully give us some insight into certain styles as we are kind of struggling to choose one of our own. Though we have decided that mentoring will be our topic and Dr. Bennett will no doubt become a case study, we would like to find a way to also focus on the idea and purpose of mentoring in itself as opposed to just documenting Dr. Bennett's intentions in mentoring. This has already proven to be pretty difficult. We briefly discussed what positions each of us may be interested in crew-wise and decided we will probably just shuffle around as far as researching and camera operation goes. I felt a little overwhelmed before class but once we finished discussing everyones potential projects and finding interviewees and styles I felt better as we had talked about a good portion of those things prior to class. Though there is still a lot to be done I am now a little more at ease with our current progress which I hope will help me focus more on what to do next instead of what to catch up on.

My group's project is a documentary about mentoring. Dr. Bill Bennett will be the main focus of our project as well as the group/school he founded Mentoring Men for the Master. As posted on the website, Dr. Bennet's ministry is "dedicated to training , encouraging, restoring, and equipping young servants of Jesus in the Christian ministry." Though this statement is only a brief summary of what Dr. Bennett's ministry is about, any further knowledge may be gained by visting the website at www.mentoringmen.org.
Dr. Bennett has been a pastor for some 50 years so it can be said that the majority of values and teachings in his mentoring would be Christian based. Being an agnostic I have no biasis or personal issues with this other than my not claiming to be christian. I respect Christianity and value the religion's moral and spiritual foundation, yet I choose not to practice the religion myself. I think this is a great opportunity to learn more about a great man and his life long efforts to spread not only Christianity but also guidance and counsil for men around the world. Also, my entire family being Christian I value this project as an opportunity to learn more about a religion which they hold very dear and I know very little about.

My main interests are cinematography and editing but honestly I am interested in just about every aspect of film. I am looking forward to learning much more about the camera itself in cinematography class and I have loved editing ever since I made videos with dual vcrs in high school. My main interest in the film industry is the fact that there are so many things that go into it that you could just get into almost any part of it. I also like that it often involves travel. At this point in my life I am ready to move around and try many things in many new places. I sincerely believe I could be happy working almost any position on a film set, from cinematographer to driving a truck around.

Current Classes
Cinematography
Film Production: Documentary

I attend school Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-9/9:30 and other than that I work bartending at Dockside Marina. My shedule at Dockside is different every week but I am almost always guaranteed to be working Tuesday and Saturday. For the most part my schedule at work is pretty flexible so I am able to work around school. This time of year is especially easy to get time off, however, starting April I will be working more due to sunny weather attracting more customers so my schedule will become increasingly demanding.