Self reflective write up about Searching for Existence

This year we as a Group (VAMS) had the incredible task of producing an industry standard 24-minute documentary. This was an amazing opportunity for all four of the group members to take their journalistic skills to the next level. This was harder than I ever imagined. This self-reflective report will concentrate on the complications that arose while shooting and organizing the documentary as well as the role of myself and the other members of the group in the production. Other areas of interest include how I have multi-tasked and how certain roles were delegated to certain members of the group. In concluding I will mention if the documentary was successful in trying to reach the outcomes set out by the course.
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A Creative Reflection on “Sentenced to Debt”

Thoughts on the production process, group work and ethics.
By Michael Baillie
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“Sentenced to Debt” is an investigative documentary that explores the often unregulated relationship between a client and his or her money-lender. These money lenders are often referred to as ‘skoppers’ within the communities they work in because of their reputation for using violence. The story was one that gradually came to us after a long process of visiting with numerous social organisations, government departments, and aid agencies. Although this was a lengthy process, I felt that in the end it was rewarding in terms of the story that we got because it is an important story and one that may otherwise have gone unheard. (more…)

Searching For Existence- An Academic Essay

Nederveen Pieterse (2001) asks what is the relationship between identity and class, between recognition and social justice? Having to deal with these issues of identity, race and nationality, I as an individual within a group structure have been forced to question these ideas and structures. By producing the Second Creek documentary we as a group (VAMS) have tried to come to terms with ethics, democracy, representation and identity in a broader context. This essay will concentrate on how the group dealt with these pressing issues of identity, representation, democracy and journalistic ethics within a certain context of development.
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Limiting Local Music analysis

Name: Jason Von Berg
Academic analysis of Limiting Local Music
A jB Production
www.jvonblog.blogspot.com

As a filmmaker one has a certain responsibility towards the audience it is aimed at and serving. Therefore in the analysis of a media text there are certain aspects that should be accounted for and in turn need to be explicated further. This essay will examine the documentary entitled “Limiting Local Music” as a media text and will bring to light issues pertaining to representation and identity.
The documentary is focused on the many problems facing South African musicians, whether it is a lack of albums in music retail stores or whether it is a local band or musician competing with a larger, well marketed and wealthier international musical act. In a recent article published it has been stated that, “South Africa may not be a big territory in the international music business but it is very interesting and important,” (JT COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS, 2006). It therefore is evident that there are definite problems in the local scene and this documentary strives to highlight them, but that is not to say that these issues cannot be sorted out. Instead this documentary aims use these highlighted problems as a means to generate a forum for discussion in which music industry players such as record labels, agents, members of the Department of Arts and Culture look at the current state of the music scene is in and therefore aims to rectify and up the standard of the industry. (more…)

When Good Men Do Nothing

Jason Von Berg
jB Productions
www.jvonblog.blogspot.com

“When Good Men Do Nothing”

This documentary centers on telling the story of the 1994 genocide that took place in Rwanda, in which more than one million Rwandan Tutsis were killed within a grim 100 days. It is at this point that I would, as a viewer, suggest that the narrator journalist or producer is expressing his extreme anger towards the leaders of the “free, first world” and the various different organisations associated with it, such as the United Nations. There are two aspects that I will discuss in this response to the documentary, that of the cinematography and my personal emotions that were evoked as a result of watching it. (more…)

Saudades from the One Who Loves You.

Name: Jason Von Berg
jB Productions
www.jvonblog.blogspot.com

Documentary response to Saudades- a film by Richard Pakleppa

In 1974 the Portuguese colonial reign came to an end, to which the consequence was democratic Angola. I use the word consequence because at that time countries that found their independence were for the majority plagued by devastating civil wars. Later it emerged that the Angolan civil war was Africa’s longest running conflict. Over 500 000 thousand people were killed and thousands were displaced. Director Richard Pakleppa and producer Neil Bandt join forces to document the lives of ordinary Angolans in the aftermath of the war (more…)