Homemade Documentaries
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3/30 -- the final progress update for this project
🕑 Added 2025-03-31 00:54:22 +0000 UTCWell, here we are. I'm within 100 captions of completely finishing it.
I know that, a long time ago -- I announced I was holding myself to a "2 videos per year" timeframe. You have all been extremely patient with me, and late April 2024-early April 2025 is not what I meant by that, but I just wanted to express my sincerest gratitude for all of you who stuck with me through this process.
Soon, now -- I will be turning the keys over to you. What I mean by that is this: You patrons are a key part of my review process. I trust all of you implicitly, and the early viewing phase is an important safety factor in catching mistakes. I obviously want you, first and foremost, to sit back and enjoy the ride. If anything catches your eye, please let me know and I'll fix it before we go public on the 12th.
Also, one final note: Three positions in this film, two "Mission Specialist 3" roles and one "Pilot" role, are occupied on certain flights by individuals who would lose their lives aboard Challenger on Mission #25. These individuals are Francis Scobee, Judith Resnik, and Ron McNair.
I made a very last minute decision to incorporate a very subtle nod to this, by marking their captions with the appropriate symbology. They are given special representation this way as a nod to the fact that they would later give their lives for space exploration. The represented faiths in this instance, by complete happenstance is: Judaism, Baptism, and Baháʼí.
This is not meant as a vehicle to bring any religion into the subject of my films, and indeed had one of them been atheist, I would have included appropriate symbology to that effect as well. Rather, I think it is a somber opportunity to showcase inter-belief cooperation in exploration, as well as an added layer of reverence and respect for these 3 humans.
My inspiration for this choice comes from WW2-era headstones at places like Arlington, and war cemeteries in Europe.
Thanks, and I'll see you next time with the film.
Comments
General Jack Ripper
I think just telling the audience about their fate, say with a small title card at the end of the video, "In Memory Of" or something would be a better choice. I get what you're trying to do (and I appreciate the symbolism), but that sort of symbology generally isn't baked into documentaries like this, and seeing the symbol in front of a simple "MS3" tag just seems odd. My $0.02.
Homemade Documentaries
It's the only way I could think of marking them as people who gave their lives for the cause of space exploration, a special recognition I felt compelled to make. Has nothing to do with the 'substance' of religion thereof, only the acknowledgement of how each of them chose to self-identify. What I hope to achieve with this is simply to honor them, nothing more. I certainly don't want it to distract from the main body of the video, and to that end -- no explicit attention or explanation is drawn to it.
Lesley
Religion has no place in science, or the documenting of it (aside from the times it made science difficult or stalled progress). As a non-US person, I'm confused as to why you'd feel the need to draw attention to it. The thing I'd be asking here is whether their religion changed the way they worked, or their view toward science. Otherwise it has no place, in my opinion.
