Actively Imagining

Using your imagination can open your mind to a whole new world of opportunities. As humans, we actively get to use our imagination everyday, whether doing it to create something or even just for fun. Actively using our imagination leads to a more healthy brain in the long run. Carl Jung realized that using our imagination is a great thing to do. By using our imagination, we can develop new ideas as well as envisioning future endeavors. When speaking about Jungian theory, one of his ideas dove deep into the idea of an active imagination. What he means by active imagination is taking an idea and fantasizing about it to discover the flaws and strengths of a certain idea. This could range from a project that you are working on or even thinking about what you want to be when you grow up. In his theory, Jung divides the psyche into three different parts. The first is the ego, which is the conscious mind. Secondly we have the personal unconscious. The personal unconscious can apply to his idea of an active imagination since it dives into ideas that we remember and some that we suppress for an unknown reason. However, Jung's third part of the psyche is what can relate to an active imagination the most. The third part is what he calls the collective unconscious, and this is what makes his theory stand out from others. In an article about Jung's theory Dr. C. George Boeree states, "It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences." To me, this almost explains our imagination perfectly. We never really know where some of our ideas come from and those unconscious thoughts definitely influence our ideas. In popular culture, one could argue that we would not have any of the resources that we have today without people using their imagination. Computers, TV's, laptops, computer software, and the internet would not exist without someone using their imagination. All the videos and music that we see and hear everyday are a direct result of someone using their imagination and bringing it to life. For me, I like to make videos. If I never used my imagination I don't think I would even be making videos like I am today. You cannot beat the feeling of bringing and idea that you had to life no matter what form it is in. Using our imaginations helps us progress as a species because if no one had any ideas, how would we have created all the wonderful things we have today.

Conservation Film Festival

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the American Conservation Film Festival right here in Shepherdstown, WV. I only got to attend one of the blocks of the festival, which was hosted by the opera house in town. During the time I went there were four films that were shown, all having a nature theme to them. The first film was about a paleontologist who talked about some of the parks across the country that are great locations for digging. While this film was very entertaining, it was my least favorite out of the four that were shown. Secondly, we saw a movie that was about a wildlife photographer who traveled to different parts of Alaska to experience the natural beauty of the state. The film was broken into five different parts that corresponded to each area that he was filming at. The camera work in this film was incredible and some of the shots that he was able to get were amazing. We saw everything from bears playing to glaciers that were hundreds of feet tall. The third film that we watched was about a couple who had met through the National Park Service and through a mutual love of the outdoors. It begins by the couple explaining how they met in a specific park in Wyoming and ends with their wedding in the park they met in. While the film also had a lot of great camera work throughout, the story behind it was extremely heartwarming and that had a really powerful effect on the tone of the film. Lastly, we watched "Sticky" which was an animated short film about a type of stick bug that went extinct on an island off the shore of New Zealand. While many scientists believed it to be extinct, there was one group of scientists that visited the island and found a group of the insects still alive, the last of their kind. The film was extremely informational and taught me about a type of bug that I didn't even know existed. In addition to that, the animation in the film was flawless and extremely visual. After attending this film festival I felt inspired and even had some new ideas for ways to edit my final video. If you ever have the chance to attend this film festival I would definitely recommend it!

The Final Stretch

With our presentations coming up next week this past week has been a busy one. I have been editing my video almost everyday and working hard to make it exactly what I want it to be. Most of the footage I shot is turning out really well in post production which is extremely exciting for me! I have also finished up my audio track for the video which is definitely helping me along in the editing process. I have been heavily editing a lot of the footage and playing around with various effects and some of the plug-ins that I purchased. Messing around with a lot of the effects in Final Cut has actually been a very fun process because there are so many possibilities when using effects. Their was actually a point this week where I thought a lot of the footage for my video was destroyed. After a really long talk on the phone with Apple Tech Support, I was able to fix the problem. Hopefully this is the only speed bump that I run into before presenting my project! The presentations next week make me nervous but I am going to do whatever it takes to get this video done!