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| Students Contribute to Smoking Documentary |
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Jul 9, 2008 |
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by : Free Times Writers, By CeCe Brooks
Columbia Free Times
College students often get a lot of talk and not a lot of action in terms of practical experience relating to their fields of study. But USC media arts professor Susan Hogue is trying to make sure her students do not leave without any real experience.
?The University of South Carolina in general is seriously centered on making sure undergraduates are involved in research,? Hogue says. ?Our media artist students research with a camera.?
Exemplifying that hands-on approach is the documentary Why We Smoke, which 18 students contributed to along with Hogue and editor Josh Rose. The film screens at the Nickelodeon Theatre on Thursday at 3, 6 and 8 p.m. as part of the Community Film Forum.
Admission is free.
When Hogue was looking for a subject for her next documentary project, she wanted to focus on a socially relevant topic such as obesity or teen pregnancy. Free Times News Editor Eric Ward, Renee Martin of the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative and Lauren Vincent from USC?s Healthy Carolina initiative made a case to make smoking the subject of her film. Hogue says she saw this as an opportunity to show a different light on the heavily scrutinized subject of smoking.
?I didn?t want to make another movie about ?the dangers of smoking,?? Hogue says.
Documentaries are a popular method to convey social messages, but Hogue tries to make her films visually appealing as well. Instead of using scare tactics, Hogue says she focused on making a quality film.
?Making a documentary is not, for me, about forcing the issue to go the way I want,? Hogue says. ?I feel it is my job to let the movie-making process unfold. I like to find the story and tell it, not force the story to my way of thinking.
?How great if smokers, after watching the film, would say: ?I never really thought about doing something 400 times a day,?? she says. ?Smokers smoke on average 20 cigarettes a day times 20 puffs per cigarette. Our habits in general are invisible to us. We are unaware of many things we do.?
In order to help her students get active experience, she brings in undergraduate students as crew. This is Hogue?s third film made with an all-student crew.
?The energy, intelligence and aptitude that media artists have for technology, and the openness my student crews have displayed in the last three films I made with them, are all elements that put me in awe of their ability,? Hogue says.
The film crew met with smokers, ex-smokers, experts on smoking and members of the tobacco industry to get an all-encompassing view on the habit. From beginning to end the entire process took about a year. Among the crew?s tasks: pre-production meetings, off-camera interviews, on-camera interviews, sound work, editing, web design, photo editing for web and print advertising and adding a score, which was written by local songwriter Danielle Howle.
?My students and I say: Watch for the poetry, the ribbon running through this, which is both part of but somewhat apart from the story line. In a way, we are looking for a second story or little comment to make visually.?
Hogue adds that state pride is another reason for making documentaries.
?I want South Carolina to be remembered for its greatness,? she says. ?And where things are not so great, let?s have a dialogue in the hopes of finding an active solution to our weaknesses, whether poverty or smoking or minimally adequate education. I think film can do that for my beloved state.? |
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| PO Box 1017 Prosperity, South Carolina 29127 PH (803) 364-1011 FAX (803) 364-0116 |
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