Global Warming: Cold Facts for a Hot Issue

            Global Warming is a very controversial topic.  In our documentary, many people had different views and opinions about the topic allowing us to explore the different points of view for the documentary.  Although this was very useful information to our documentary, there were also many things that could have worked better and better impacted our message to the media.

            The documentary put of a lot of different thoughts into many people’s mind.  I believe that this documentary persuaded many people to think differently about global warming.  For me, I think that it made me see that global warming is not just caused by the environmental changes but as well as the different actions people take in their lifestyles.  The documentary can definitely inform people about the different changes caused by global warming as well as the reasons that global warming is increasing in the world we live in.  I don’t know if the documentary will have an effect on how people will now look at the topic because it depends on how the person views the topic as well as their own point of view.

            In the documentary, many different critiques could have been made to make the documentary work a little better.  Many things also did work for the documentary.  Some things that did work were things such as camera shots with the perfect zoom, visual metaphors, and footage edited just right so that enough information is used so that it portrays the message trying to be given. The introduction and conclusion had enough edge to catch the audience’s eye to get them interested in the documentary.

Some things could have also worked better in the documentary so that the effect on the audience would have been stronger.  In the introduction, even though it was quite strong, I believe there could have been some narrations leading to a certain focusing idea for the documentary.  Along with the introduction, each of the segments could have had something done to it to give a better experience to the audience.  In segment one, what global warming is, a lot of the interviews were faded out due to the over empowerment of the background music.  The music worked for the type of message they were trying to get across, but if the volume for the music was set a little lower, then the message along with the music would have been equal and would have worked perfectly. In the second segment, the causes of global warming, a lot of interviews were cut off causing me to think “was the idea of the interviewee complete?”  The editing should have been a little more precise so that the idea is complete.  In segment three, the effects of global warming, the segment focused mostly on the research learned from the experience.  Not a whole lot of footage was used from the interviews and the part with the carbon emissions was randomly put into the documentary disrupting the flow of the segment.  In segment four, the effects of global warming on our generation, the narration was a too soft letting the message not be clear and strong to the audience.  Lastly, in segment five, prevention of global warming, a little more narration could have been used providing some more inside on what can be done to help against global warming.  As for the conclusion, the final message trying to be sent to the audience took away from the empowerment of the images and clips being shown.  It had also rolled across the credits taking away from the creditability to the student makers.

From this experience a lot can be learned.  For starters, making a film is a lot of work and a lot of time needs to be put into it or it will not turn out the best it can be.  You need to be able to organize your thoughts and be focused on the film 100% to make it be its best. Even though we are just sophomores making a film, it can work only if everyone is on board with the idea.  Lots of research needs to be done so that you have a focusing thought and are very informed about everything.  Film making is a hard thing, but with a little help and a lot of effort so much could be accomplished.

The segments to our documentary our:

• What is global warming?
• What causes global warming?
• What type of effects does global warming have on our generation?
• What affects does global warming have?
• How can we prevent the effects of global warming?

As our documentary comes to an end, so much editing has been going on. We took footage from our on street interviews and our interview with Kelley Green and took it from 17 minutes to about 14 minutes. We were getting closer to were we want to be and then we remembered, we still had to add the footage from Kent’s interivew. So as we added Kent’s footage, the length then jumped from 14 minutes to 29 minutes! Yikes! So as we continued editing, we decided as a group to focus on the main points created for the documentary. So we took 5 essential questions and narrowed it down to 3. That then took our time from 17 minutes to 6 minutes! We were really excited. As we got closer we took out more awkward pauses and then narrowed it by a few seconds. For your knowledge, the segment has to be 5 minutes and at most 5 and a half minutes. We then decided one complete segment goes better with another groups segments, so we eliminated that segment as well. At last we had had enough footage with plenty of time for a introduction, narration in between segments, and conclusion to wrap up our segment.

Mark Geldmeir: FOX 2 News Meteorologist

Hi. My name is Spoorthi ______ from Parkway North High School in Creve Coeur, MO wondering if you could help us with a school project in English.  For this project, we are making a documentary on global warming.

In this documentary we will be talking about what kind of effect global warming is having on the environment as well as on people.  As a meteorologist, I feel that you can be helpful with showing us how global warming is having an effect on the climate and weather change.

We will be making this document in the next few weeks and I hope you can help with it. Please reply to this email. I hope you can help.

Spoorthi _____

Parkway North High School Student

1. How would you describe global warming?

2. Do you believe its occurring right now? Why or why not?

3. How has global warming had an effect on your life? If not, why do you think that?

4. Is there a way that we can slow down the effects of global warming or even prevent it all together?

5. How bad of an influence does global warming have on our daily lives? Our planet?

6. Are there any specific actions that the government should take to help the environment?

7. What dangers do you think global warming will bring us in the future if it continues?

My Group is doing the Effects on our Generation Segment.  The people in this group includes:

Jenny

Corrine B.

Jackie

and Me (Spoorthi)

1. My gut reaction is I like it and I don’t like.  I like it since we are informing our generation about what is to happen to our future if we do not address the problem now. I also do not think it is the best topic for us because it does not really have a counter-argument for it.  For religious intolerance, there are many different angles you can take it from. With global warming you can only take it from the angle that it’s bad and that we have to do something about it now.

2.  I learned yesterday that global warming has affected everyone and everything and has linked many problems together.  For example malaria has grown to mass populations because of the warm climates around the world allowing mosquitoes to migrate to different areas of the world letting the disease spread.  I also learned that many people are just denying and not caring about global warming since it is not really hurting us yet.  Many scientists believe that it will not matter whether or not we change our actions to help the fight against global warming.

3. I think our problem now is that people will not really care about the topic as much as we want them to

SIR Article on Whether or not to Worry About Climate Change

Climate Change: Just Deal with It?

Alan Zarembo

     Many scientists believe that even though there had been many changes to the climate and economy due to the global warming today, it is better to adapt to the changes then fight it.  Because of the billion dollars of damage done by hurricanes, it is just better to get use to the changes that have occured to many factors such as carbon dioxide build and coastal development.

     Scientists believe istead of paying trillions of dollars to stabalize carbon dioxide levels, it is better to be good use to that money by putting it toward a better cause.  They believe that the world can use this money to help solve hunger issues, storm damage, and disease research and prevention.

     The United Nations have looked at global warming as a threat because according to research may cause the hunger rate up to over 885 million by 2080.

     Many other factors have also been taken into consideration such as hurricanes, which have provided millions of dollars in damage from 1900s to 2005 (most damage was done by hurricanes before 1945) and malaria, a growing disease in Africa due to mosquitos.

 MY OPINION: I believe that scientists are both right and wrong because even though we can adapt to the problems caused by Global Warming, many of the other problems that are trying to be solved along the way are caused by it as well.  Malaria is spreading due to increasing warm climates around the world.  Hunger problems are being caused crops and other fod supplies are being destroyed by outrageous climate conditions in areas where the food is grown.  And if put the money forth trying to help us cope with global warming all that is happening is that alternative ways are found to help us better our future, but not everyone is taking forth in the effort.

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