Italian Media Portrayl

This coressponeds with the video below...

Following my paper entitled “I’m Italian and Not a Mobster; How Can This Be?” I produced a video that included my testimonial reinforcing the point of the constant negative portrayal of Italians in American media. In my video I also included stories and interviews supporting my point from fellow Italian family members. I made this video to enhance the fact that Italians are portrayed as mainly mobsters in media, giving the illusion that all Italians are connected to organized crime.
The way I decided to shoot the piece was very basic documentary styling. I wanted to utilize home backgrounds to show Italians in a much more realistic setting. I was hoping to show the people in the video, my family, as everyday family people. I wanted them to wear clothing that was nothing out of the ordinary. Finally I wanted to shoot them straight on and approximately at eye level to not hint being weak or powerful, but rather everyday persons. For the lighting I wanted soft natural light, and utilized as much sunshine as I could. I used my interview as the main source of information, but complemented it with pictures and other stories from my father and uncle. I interviewed others as well but their answers didn’t fit into what I was going for. As for the beginning I showed pictures alternating between the two biggest contributors to the problem: The Sopranos and The Godfather. I added movement to the photos to add a certain entertainment factor. The interlude to the actual interviews, is a famous clip from the first Godfather. I felt that this clip accurately shows what these characters are famous for and also is a great scene all together. Finally, the last piece to the puzzle, which is my video; the music. I decided on a classic old Italian favorite of mine, Stornelli Amorisi, by Claudio Villa. I feel that it complements the overall “flavor,” as well as providing a good backdrop for the entire video.
What I learned from filming this video, is that some people from my own family feel that this stereotype is not all that bad. They enjoy these films and feel that it is purely entertainment. However, they do recognize that it affected their parents and grandparents. I found out because of the negative effects that occurred to them, my grandparents hated these films and shows.
I feel that I had an adequate performance on this project. I finished the job, but feel that it was not up to my usual standards of my videos. There were a variety of reasons that it did not end up as a superb production. First off I had to learn and adapt to using iMovie. I have never used a video-editing program that was this basic. I usually use Final Cut Pro, which is the high-end version of Mac editing software, or AVID, which is the industry standard. I had to manipulate many settings and techniques to achieve my ultimate goal for the visual product. Other video projects for class intruded on the editing and filming time, along with restricting the amount of for interviews to be filmed. I also help produce a sketch comedy show here at MSU, and was required to put my time into the because of looming deadlines. The snow outside added to the distractions, because my other film shoots were scheduled for outside, and needless to say were cancelled and pushed back into this projects time. The answers I received, were not what I wanted or expected, therefore rendering them almost useless for my video. This added an element of trouble, because what I had originally planned out had to be changed in the editing room.
Overall, I am happy with my project. Is it my best project? No, but it meets the requirements and sends the message I wanted to express. The changes I would have made if I had extra time, would be to work on editing, but mainly focus the majority of my time to additional interviews. I wanted to interview the Italian language professor here, along with my grandparents or other various Italians in the community. However, without these extra interviews and editing time I still feel that it told the story that I wanted to tell.