where has this year gone?
I'm not usually one for time-flies-when-you're-having-fun sort of statements, but good golly, it seems like just yesterday I was assessing the dire state of my dorm room carpet, and now here I am, resignedly accepting the design reason behind the murky colored flooring.
(sometimes, not knowing is better).
And on top of all that, we had the. coolest. speaker today. Not because his speaking skills were anything particularly stellar (though his stories were engaging), but because he has the.coolest. job of anyone we've seen so far. And I realize that this is a totally subjective statement - but seriously, how great would it be to have the title "National Geographic Documentary Filmmaker" ??
Pretty. darn. great.
John Bredar has made 26 documentaries, for which he has won 3 Emmys and a Peabody award. His most recent film, "The President's Photographer", tracks the life of the personal photographer to the President of the United States. I didn't even know the president had a personal photographer. I mean, I guess it's one of those things that you sort of assume, but don't really think about (unless you've got a creative think-outside-the-box mind like John Bredar, who got the idea while working on a former documentary after noticing a strange man popping up in all of his shots).
The topic is unbelievably interesting though. The photographer's main goal is to be invisible, and he prides himself on how insignificant he can be to the president's day to day life. His highest praise is to be ignored.
How many people can say that? (Admittedly, not as many as most of us would like).
I highly suggest watching the doc, which you can see here: http://video.pbs.org/video/1672209202/
After listening to John, I'm convinced that documentary filmmaking is the perfect solution for those of us who believe that the time that daily news journalists are allowed to spend with interview and story subjects is much much much too short.
Think. As a doc maker, I'd essentially get to stalk my subjects for weeks - even months! How fabulousss! it's like people watching to the extreme.
So essentially, it looks like my future now holds one of two possibilities: an Emmy, or one heck of a lot of restraining orders.
photos courtesy of The WH Flickr page & various other websites
Or both.
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