Just in case you missed it, The Vimeo festival winning film was...

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_JD_ said:
If this story was just "about a dog", then Citizen Kane was "about a sled".
This short was about redemption. It was about a guy that used to only care about himself and hurting others finding that other beings have feelings and value.

The death of the dog symbolizes the owners realization that he can never regain his misspent youth- he realizes that the dogs mission in life was a pure one- unlike his own.

You might argue that the euthanization was gratuitous and I might agree with you- but it was real and I connected with the story.

If you are saying that Eliot should have been saving lives in the Sudan rather than making a film about this subject, then I would challenge you to weigh the making of a new camera system vs. building a water treatment facility in Darfur.
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+1
 
Otis Grapsas said:
Guys, a few hundred people died while you were watching the clip, most of them from famine and diseases easily cured with medicine that costs a few dollars. People die in the streets even in the civilised world. Sorry, but I'm totally indifferent to the death of a dog when I have this in mind, and as a human being, I find this sentimentalism and the clip at hand exploitative and insulting. He lived a better life than many humans and even enjoyed a better death. If we are so sensititive that we get sentimental about a dog, we shouldn't even be able to sleep at night considering what's happening out there to humans like you and me.
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I agree with you Otis, well said.
 
I have respect for all creatures and I feel sorry for dogs in particular, that's why I don't have one. It's a wild animal that has been domesticated, received behaviour modification training, castrated in all departments of its natural wild animal behaviour, even literally, living in an unnatural environment, fed unnatural food and and put through controlled breeding, the most unnatural and humiliating thing that can happen to a living form. A dog is something one "owns", a property. Humiliated to the maximum degree, a wild animal transformed into a pet, a go-fetcher, a living toy-doll-teddy bear for kids and, in most situations, used to fill the sentimental voids of humans. I'm not indifferent to any of that. I feel sorry for Oden, but about his life and what his species go through. I'm indifferent to his death though, it's just an animal. I feel sorry about the guy that had the dog, it surely was important to him but these things happen, I'm not going to break into tears about that. There are more important things.
 
_JD_ said:
If this story was just "about a dog", then Citizen Kane was "about a sled".
This short was about redemption. It was about a guy that used to only care about himself and hurting others finding that other beings have feelings and value.

The death of the dog symbolizes the owners realization that he can never regain his misspent youth- he realizes that the dogs mission in life was a pure one- unlike his own.

You might argue that the euthanization was gratuitous and I might agree with you- but it was real and I connected with the story.

If you are saying that Eliot should have been saving lives in the Sudan rather than making a film about this subject, then I would challenge you to weigh the making of a new camera system vs. building a water treatment facility in Darfur.
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IMHO you are reading a little too deep into this film and ignoring the obvious exploitative elements.

The director's job is to make films and my job at the moment is to create a camera system. I didn't question the making of the film, or the subject matter, I just wanted to put another pespective into the discussion.

You are in no position to know what I do about the world and if I do/did something I won't/wouldn't discuss it with others, unless they are involved in the same thing or interested in helping.

We don't have to leave our dayjobs or move to Africa in order to help. Most of the times, even thinking about what is happening can change one's pespective and affect his/her decisionmaking in everyday life, politics, economy, everything really. It's a good thing to realise that your short trip with a car burns energy that could pump a lot of water for someone who needs it, that washing your car spends too much valuable water, and that the food you throw to the garbadge could save a few lives.
 
I too am concerned with the death of millions globally, but that doesn't change the fact that this is the story about one man and the loss of a friend that was near and dear to his heart. And for that, it is an amazing piece. Very well done and definitely brought a tear to my eye.
 
Otis,

Your comments shows more about you... weather that is good or bad... well, you figure it out. As a super tech geek you are simply lacking in tact and interpersonal finesse. I had high impressions on your technical savvy and have followed your camera development silently, but reading your posts, from the one word you started posting in this thread which started "why?" showed a lack of character and level of understanding about human emotions.
Stay in your technical thread Otis and leave emotions and human interactions to humans.
And you should change your camera name to apathy.

Or you should add a contract for ownership, that this camera shall only be used to showcase famine, world hunger and in no way should be used to film useless stuff like a man and his dog.
 
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Otis Grapsas said:
I
You are in no position to know what I do about the world and if I do/did something I won't/wouldn't discuss it with others, unless they are involved in the same thing or interested in helping.
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Yet you are in a position to tell others what they should/should not get emotional about right?

Okay let's say I hit a female deer while driving down a country road. I stop to check the damage and check the deer which is lying in the road bleeding. It breathes shallow, weak pants for about 5 minutes while I stand above it- then the panting stops- the deer lies motionless. The deer is dead. I look over at the side of the road and there are two baby deers staring at me. I know that due to my speed and lack of car control, I ended the life of that deer and there is a 99% chance that it's little baby deers will now die of starvation. Should I feel bad or should I suck it up and think about all the starving kids in the world?
 
_JD_ said:
Yet you are in a position to tell others what they should/should not get emotional about right?

Okay let's say I hit a female deer while driving down a country road. I stop to check the damage and check the deer which is lying in the road bleeding. It breathes shallow, weak pants for about 5 minutes while I stand above it- then the panting stops- the deer lies motionless. The deer is dead. I look over at the side of the road and there are two baby deers staring at me. I know that due to my speed and lack of car control, I ended the life of that deer and there is a 99% chance that it's little baby deers will now die of starvation. Should I feel bad or should I suck it up and think about all the starving kids in the world?
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I'm not telling others how to feel. I just think this level of sentimentalism over a animal in the world we are living is not justified and I have no respect for this type of filmmaking.

You should be sorry about your driving and realise that could also be a human dying in front of you, because of you. You can get as sentimental as you want about it but call someone that might be able to help the victim(s) first. Every country has organisations and farms that do that sort of thing.
 
teddybear said:
Otis,

Your comments shows more about you... weather that is good or bad... well, you figure it out. As a super tech geek you are simply lacking in tact and interpersonal finesse. I had high impressions on your technical savvy and have followed your camera development silently, but reading your posts, from the one word you started posting in this thread which started "why?" showed a lack of character and level of understanding about human emotions.
Stay in your technical thread Otis and leave emotions and human interactions to humans.
And you should change your camera name to apathy.

Or you should add a contract for ownership, that this camera shall only be used to showcase famine, world hunger and in no way should be used to film useless stuff like a man and his dog.
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I asked "why" because there no mature/adult content in the clip, no seriously offensive language etc.

I'm discussing an issue and you are producing a personal attack to justify your lack of arguments? And it also had to involve my work, characterise me in all these ways, tell me where and what to post? That's not very mature, actually it's downright childish. Sorry about this characterisation, but I believe it's justified by your post.
 
Otis,

just shut up... your IQ is amazing but EQ is zero...

The film in question is on a "personal" level and its about ones "feelings" there is no right or wrong about feelings.

For instance when a lot of posters here "feel" your comments are in appropriate and lack "tactfulness and finesse", your genius and ego cant argue us all to "feel" otherwise.
 
teddybear said:
Otis,

just shut up... your IQ is amazing but EQ is zero...

The film in question is on a "personal" level and its about ones "feelings" there is no right or wrong about feelings.

For instance when a lot of posters here "feel" your comments are in appropriate and lack "tactfulness and finesse", your genius and ego cant argue us all to "feel" otherwise.
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I question whether a human being that adapts a herd mentality and uses it to feel secure and powerful enough in order to attack different opinions and behaviours is actually different from an animal.
 
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