Documentaries are a great source of entertainment in today’s society.  One can find a documentary about pretty much anything if they truly want to.  Documentaries can vary between an hour and a half films, to a single television episode, to an entire television series.  Some of my personal favorite documentaries include “Blackfish”, a film about SeaWorld and their killer whale program, another is “No Cameras Allowed”, a film made by a film student who snuck into multiple music festivals around the world.  Both are highly entertaining, and I highly recommend watching them.

While both of these films easily hold my interest, what makes them do so?  What makes a good documentary?  First of all, many documentaries can deal with topics that are not so easy for the average person to understand.  How they relay these topics can really affect the overall quality of the documentary.  One example would be the children’s show “Bill Nye the Science Guy”.  This show takes difficult science topics and breaks them down so children of elementary age level can understand.  Another element that many good documentaries utilize is the voice over aspect.  This allows the creator to talk about a particular event or subject while also showing videos or picture that also have to do with the subject.  It involves both the viewers’ auditory and visual processes.  Thirdly, a god documentary creates a story.  It creates a series of events with characters, a problem, and a resolution.  This is what holds the attention of viewers.  People invest their attention into a story rather than a few pictures and a list of facts being read to them.  Lastly, background music never hurts a documentary.  Everyone loves some dramatic music adding to the effect of a scene. 

Proposal Experiences

I feel as though my experience writing the research proposal was rather positive.  The topic I chose, which was the Kentucky Theater, was truly interesting to me.  My knowledge of the Kentucky Theater beforehand was extremely minimal.  This fact taught me a lot about not only the Kentucky Theater but also the film industry as a whole.  The Theater existing for over ninety years gives it an extensive history that was not difficult to find information on.  For example, the Theater’s website itself not only displays the most recent events but also an extensive timeline of how it came to be. 

Although this paper was interesting to write, it was not easy.  My main concern is bringing multiple dimensions to the Theater.  Yes, it has a great history, but how do I do further research?  I have since come up with a few ideas, but I am still not sure if they will take this idea the distance for a full documentary project.  If my project gets picked then hopefully the other people in the group will be able to contribute.  Another thing I struggled with was how to format my paper.  The main purpose of the piece is to convince the audience that this topic is worthy of further research.  I am not sure I did this entirely.  I was hesitant on whether my paper spent too much time on the history and not enough on the convincing.   Despite minor struggles, overall I feel confident in this paper.  While writing it I felt as though the Kentucky Theater is truly a space that applies to most audience and does most of the work for me when convincing people of its beauty. 

Wurlitzer Theater Organ

Recently, I have started research on the classic landmark, the Kentucky Theater.  A large part of the Kentucky Theater is its famous instrument, the Wurlitzer Organ.  The Mighty Wurlitzer is a pipe organ on which a version of “My Old Kentucky Home” was played at the Kentucky Theater’s opening in 1922.  I discovered the Mighty Wurlitzer when I was reading about the Kentucky Theater.  I was immediately drawn to it because of the uniqueness of it.  Although it may have been common to have an organ in a theater back in the day, I have never heard of anything like this.  Also, the fact that it is still there to this day is simply fascinating. 

The Mighty Wurlitzer is a greatly significant part of the Kentucky Theater.  When movies began having sound near the end of the 1920’s, organs became unessential and a lot of them were removed from the theaters. The Mighty Wurlitzer is the only organ left in a theater in the entire state of Kentucky.  After a fire in 1987, the Kentucky Theater had to undergo renovations in order to be restored, and initially, the Mighty Wurlitzer was not going to be included in the new Kentucky Theater. Although, in 1993, an entire committee was dedicated to putting the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ back where it truly belonged in the Kentucky Theater.

The Wurlitzer organ, so magnificent and majestic, raised some questions for me.  First of all, who was Wurlitzer?  Is that the name of just this particular organ, or an entire company?  Also, does this instrument still work?  In more recent times, one can find an organ in a church, and it appears to be rather normal, but why a movie theater?  Organs are so powerful, why would the not choose a simpler instrument?  These are all questions, which I hope to find the answers to in my research on the Kentucky Theater and the Mighty Wurlitzer.   

Memorial Hall

http://danielcecilwrd.blogspot.com/2014/09/commonwealth-stadium-commonwealth.html?showComment=1410364227396#c780604471983959177

This is a photograph of the building Memorial Hall.  The picture itself came form a trip advisor website, but the building represents much more than that.  This building is central to the University of Kentucky’s campus and is hard to miss when walking throughout the grounds.  I myself stumbled upon this building multiple times in passing.  Each and every time I pass or enter this building its beauty strikes me. 

 Memorial Hall was built in 1929 as a tribute to the many lost lives in World War I.  Currently, Memorial Hall is used for large lecture classes and some smaller performance.  The amphitheater in the back provides the location for many smaller events, as well as a place for students to casually lounge in between classes.  This building is so iconic to the university that it is in fact the building used in our logo:

Another part of this building that is very unique is its lobby, which features a large fresco painting.  It was completed by UK graduate Ann Rice O’Hanlon in 1934 and is one of the few genuine frescos in the United States.  It is a magnificent piece of art that depicts the history of Kentucky and Lexington in the early twentieth century. 

While my research on Memorial Hall has answered some of my questions and shed light on things i had not previously thought of, i still have many questions.  First of all, why did they decide to determine a building to be the memorial for the lost lives?  Most of the time organizations will simply have a statue built in their honor.  Why was this different?  Secondly, I am now overly curious about Ann Rice O'Hanlon.  Who was she?  What made her decide to go with a fresco?  Why did she paint history of Lexington when the building is primarily for World War I?  I am desparatly want to see her work in person now.