First Atheist Documentary. (In High Definition) “Why We Believe”
Hey Guys,
My Name is Kyle Fasanella and I have been working on this documentary since last fall. I wish to eventually make a feature out of it. Its currently 10 Min. I hope you enjoy. I love to hear any advice on how to improve the video.
http://www.vilekyle.com/Documentary/Why%20We%20Believe/index.htm
VileKyle
I only eat christians
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Not bad!
I like the way you have portrayed typical young people and their faith, and contrasts with logical reasoning. It's not making the theists look good, but it's not too harsh either. That's one of the things I dislike about other documentaries of this type. They're too antagonistic, and fail in their own objective of inspiring a reasoned discourse.
As a minor criticism, there are a few places in the beginning where the background music, a sort of low hum, is a bit too distracting from the people talking. Just take it down another notch and it would probably be fine.
One other minor point is that the main speaker (which I assume is you), seems a bit out of breath while talking to the camera. Probably because you are carrying all the gear yourself. Get a friend to work the camera in those shots and it will bump up the quality, imho.
If you decide to make it longer, you'll need lots more variety in the people you speak with. Cutting back to the guy preaching on the grass a few times is fine for a short, but a longer film means continually moving forward to the next person making the next point. Variety will keep the viewer engaged, and maintain the idea that you are not picking on any one person but the ideas they are espousing in general.
Keep up the good work!
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I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.
- Douglas Adams, Salmon of Doubt
thanks i will take all these suggestion and use them in the next version.
use this advice in next version.
was hoping for more from this community
useing comments advised in version. was hoping for more from this community.
I noticed you throw in some counter points on things and offered reasons for things actually creating a negative. For the idea of hell it would be interesting if you could interview a historian on where this idea of hell comes from. You also touch on doomsday ideas it might be good to bring up times when people thought it was going to happen. Maybe even examples outside of religion. Y2K anyone?
It really depends on the direction you want to go with it though. Personally I'd like to learn more about the psychology involved with belief and ways the meme spreads. Perhaps taking a look at the functions of religion, besides a safety blanket.
I also noticed you seemed to focus on christianity. Talking about it is more then fine, but we get criticized all the time for apparently focusing on christianity alone. We do look at other religions, but for the forums its probably under 10% and most of the shows are talking to christians so I can see why a person might think that. I'd think throwing or acknowledging these other religions would add a bit to your film. If you're ballsy enough you could even have a segment on the creation of religions and talk to scientologest.
Keep up the good work man. Maybe if you're still working on it in 2012 you can talk to some of the nuts who thought the world was going to end
Edit: I like that reverse song, yeah I reversed it again just to see what the hell it was talking about.