The Woodsman

This is a recent film i created for my Degree. its rough due to technical issues. we will be re-shooting as soon as possible.

The Woodsman rough edit from christopher beard on Vimeo.

My Latest Documentary

So its been a while, and i think we've all grown a little. Heres my latest Doc

If you see this watch it. You'll need a password though. so here it is: Crossman

The importance of skepticism

"I am thinking, therefore i exist" ( René Descartes )

To put this into context, Descartes was talking about how we base our lives upon assumption, our everyday live are surrounded by things we believe to be true. Because many of them are around us all the time they become difficult to detect and therefore difficult to question.

descartes used the solitude of his thought and an extreme skepticism in order to pursue what could be considered a deeper truth.

He uses his extreme skepticism in this way: assume that the only thing you can assume is real is yourself, hence the quote at the beginning. we then say that everything else that enters our mind ( everything that is ) is just an illusion or dream. this quote " i am thinking therefore i exist" is now the fundamental bases of our thought, we can now observe the world in a whole new way. building our thoughts and opinions up from the ground learning and researching. as if we were new born babies but with the mind of an adult. able at least to speak and think for themselves

this though is a rigorous way of thinking. to say that you cannot believe anything to be true unless you can prove it to be completely true. which does seem ultimately impossible.

another way of looking at it is the socratic method of thinking, a way in which socrates himself used to question the arguments of fellow citizens, he was so clever in fact he ended up being put to death, because of radical religious views.

1. Locate a statement confidently described as common sense.

2. Imagine for a moment that, despite the confidence of the person prosing it, the statement is false. Search for situations or contexts where the statement would not be true.

3. If an exception is found, though definition must be false or at least imprecise.

4. The initial statement must be nuanced to take the exception into account.

5. If one subsequently finds exceptions to the improved statements, the process should be repeated. The truth, in so far as a human being is able to attain such a thing, lies in a statement which it seems impossible to disprove.

"It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is"

Using this method of thinking allow us to firstly to win arguments, but secondly to understand more fully where truth lies.

As humans we have the ability to question, philosophically speaking we should exercise this much more to help ourselves, others and the benefit of our world.

Here is a documentary that in essence talks about our ability to question or in many cases our inability. Bill Mayher asks all the questions that we would like to ask about religion.

It is thoroughly entertaining and in places hard to watch. He does focus on some of the more extreme aspects of religion but ultimately or at least hopefully allows people to think a little harder.

Night Photography on the canon 550D

Night time photography is something that I have really wanted to play around with, recently I bought a canon 550D which has really allowed me to experiment.

These are some tests i did. It was -10 degrees C when i took these and the camera performed perfectly.

I have always found the night an interesting place, its strange, sometimes subtle and delicate lights can be difficult to photograph with conventional film cameras. But having a digital canon at my disposal, I have been granted some interesting prospects.

India Photos Olympus 35mm

Recently i made a trip to India with my brother. the intention was to, 1. travel and, 2. to make a film.
we managed both of these things. and ended up having a very profound experience at the same time. Many people told me that this would happen, I didnt believe them... I do on the other hand believe these sorts of experiences can be found everywhere. but being out of your 'comfort zone' really allows a person to see themselves and life in perspective.
me and my brother we lucky enough to make a short film. while making the film, we noticed some very suspicious activity from the NGO we were filming, ultimately the NGO was corrupt, and selling land to a power company, land which is not theirs to sell. we also left being subject to sexual advances from our guide. two days after filming we left. feeling insulted and abused, but with a sense of exhilaration that can only come from accidentally making an investigative documentary.
The picture you see above is my security pass to go to the Dali lamas teachings. 2 days of teachings. he is a Truly profound man, i feel much of his wisdom helped me establish some of the ideas i had been pondering on for some time. his thinking is a glimpse into the future. a way of thinking that in our current climate and culture would be hard to attain.
We left our India trip with something special. a pair of balls.

The Protest

Il keep this brief as many of you will have heard this many many times.

this small probably over seen video, says a lot about the protests and how the media play down and in a lot of cases patronize young people. It also highlights the way the police seem to aggravate protesters into violence.

having gone to the final protest in london, seeing it first hand, i can only say their tactics we irresponsible. We ended up being subject to the kettles and to walls of police stopping any-one leave, to then be charged by the police and horses only escalating the "violence".

To later be played down by Mr Cameron himself.

In the words of Arny himself "Asta la vista baby"

Enjoy the video, and watch the reporter struggle.

Special Post

In the past few weeks I think we can all safely say we have gained a little more faith in our generation. I have always advocated direct action since a young age, but have never really attended any events that could be considered direct action, mainly to do with money and transport. None the less I have really been inspired to go out and do my bit for the first time. to maybe actually be able to stand next to the opinions that I have and help change a situation Icompletely disagree with.

My idea is to fly-post, Fly-posting is usually used for advertising raves and music events it is illegal under the "anti social behaviour act" so take caution, or read the link below. So I will Fly-post messages around my local area to keep the student population thinking about it. or essentially angry and to help keep it in the minds of the public that might need a little reminder. Possibly even fly posting near government buildings to keep it in the eye of the people who need to be reminded.

I think we are seeing a small change in society that has the potential to be really positive. I want to be apart of this movement. I'm sick of "ohdearism" I'm sick of apathy.

The potential of my little misdemeanor is to organise another protest, or just to inform the general public that it is unlikely they will benefit from the cuts at hand. and to remind people for as long as possible that we as a generation have more in us than expected.

Im glad to be apart of this generation, one that has some of the biggest responsibilities that mankind has ever faced.

to see the demonstrations was a beacon of light in what was a rather lonely dark world.

Here is a great sight about fly-posting and your rights if you are caught.

Good luck.

http://libcom.org/organise/media/articles/flyposting-guide.php