ANTHRO 402: Visual Anthropology

Advice from Previous Generations

Professor Karen Nakamura

The last few times I taught the class, I asked the students to give some advice to students taking the class again. Here's what they had to say, unabridged and unedited:

General Advice

• Go to the screenings.
• 1) Proofread your papers. 2) Be creative.
• Do all the readings for the quizzes. You really don't need to see the films twice. Pick subjects you find really interesting.
• In any paper you write, tie something back to the class and anthropology. You can go out on a limb if you want as long as you can back up your ideas. The more books, films, sources you can quote, the better... as long as it makes sense in context. It took me 2 semesters to realize this.
• Be wary of first week hook-ups. You'll laugh about who made with who in 4 years. Oh yeah. Work hard for Karen. She's a tougher prof. than some.
• Don't take creative criticism negatively - the more someone else points out the weaknesses in your work, the more you can do to strengthen it.
• Start working on all of your projects early enough so that they're of decent quality.
• Do the reading - it really helps.
• Do the readings! And don't think you can wait till the night before a project is due to get it done - it just won't work. Give Karen rough drafts to review if you're having difficulties - it will make your life and grade much better. :)
• "If you admit to yourself that you know nothing about visual anth, and you seek help, you will be dutifully rewarded. You will find that the advicce you receive does not undermine your ability to perform, but supports your confidence and ability to make firm choices about cultural filmmaking."

Production Advice

• "Back up all your work"
• "Expect bad things to happen during film production and editing so you'll be prepared."
• Try not to zoom or pan unless you do it slowly and very infrequently. Be nice to the people at Media Services. Carry extra batteries.
• Don't procrastinate on your final project. It took us at least 40 hours of editing time to get it done not including the meetings we had to write our proposal + deciding what to do.
• Start work early. Don't rely on media services.
• When doing production projects, get to know your informants well and don't assume anything about them, it will make your film a lot easier and more fun.

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