Sniffly but happy Saturday 8 pm

Okay, started editing the footage, and this is fun and good to craft the story line WITH the footage in "hand." Ya know, not theorize, but have my hands in it.

This is what has evolved:

for a rough rough rough cut, I think I will not narrate/ voice over this, but maybe have the story come together through emails/ phone messages, and me reflecting at key junctures in person. Have the narration be in present.

Im not sure how to start. Oh, I could read from the first blog entry showing the bank statements. Maybe get footage of that text? I need B's help with the Bank statements.

so get footage and capture of: BLOG, ME READING THAT
SEE ABOUT GETTING NEWS AUDIO CLIPS, CREATIVE COMM
READ EMAILS TO FRO NEIL P.
AUDIO OF ME CALLING LESLIE AT TDBN BACK -CLARIFY,
COULD WE DO INTER. OFF CAMERA?
HOW TO RENDER?
CALL NEIL, TAPE
RESEARCH, WRITE THE INFO ABOUT BANKS I WANT TO OFFER
REVIEW BL AND BLOG

I may need to get headlines of gramm leach bliley. Or audio news. That could be the soundtrack. News clips TD sign in place of Fleet sign?

so, cobbling together the soundtrack (maybe this could also be an audio piece) with the following to start: the blog entry, [my footage -feel self conscious vieotaping my bank, could add some voice over pretend it's from then], email to branch, email response from her, leslie voice mail, call leslie?, email to/ from neil, call neil? me talking to myself in car.

can b. help me with what is kosher?

blog again --wanting to talk to people. i need some transition to the interviewees. could insert cliff/ spade talking about no idea where banks put money.

or will i do how do banks work? not sure how i'll do that.

I need to call TD BN to see about an interview there in Portland. What are my questions? I sent an email last night. I think I'll call now.

I previously wrote: QUESTIONS: WHERE IS THIS INVESTED? IS THIS TRANSPARENT? IS THERE SPECULATION? WHAT REGULATIONS? WHAT SAY TO THE IDEA THAT BANKS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY AT ODDS WITH DEMOCRACY? And can you defend banking --why is commercial banking good for a culture? Is it just good for stockholders and management and employees or is it good for economy and society as a whole?

I would insert their perspective into the early blurb.

Should I do an interview with someone at union bank in Boston? Is there a small bank CEO who would be willing to talk to me? Should I interview the man at the FC CDC? The impact of banks! Maybe Al's friend at Greenfield Savings or Greenfield Coop?

I'm calling now public affairs leslie roberts second transfer corp communications. I left a message! Very mature I think.

**

I'd like to get more footage to capture as I start to play with my mosaic. I'd like to get footage of the vines on banks. The Amherst branch of TDBN. Can I find other banks with things growing? What about the streetcorners?

**

I need to reply to the Toronto guy. Talking with B. made me realize I need to clarify my intentions for that interview with the majority owner of TD BN.

Freewrite on that:

Dear Neil P,

Thanks so much for your response.

I have contacted TD Banknorth in Portland, Maine, for an interview. I am waiting to hear back from them.

I also would like to interview someone at TD Bank Financial Group.

To help you direct me to the appropriate person, here are some of the questions I would like to ask:

I am trying to understand the relationship between TD Banknorth and TD Bank Financial Group. I'm not yet clear about what rights/privileges come with having majority ownership. How is a subsidary (like TD Banknorth) affected by its parent company?

Another way of asking this is: What does it mean to the average person with a bank account when their bank gets bought by a larger financial group? Is there any change in their bank's practices in terms of lending/ investment? Specifically, did TD Bank Financial Group's purchase of majority stocks affect the workings of TD Banknorth and if it is possible to explain how, this would be great.

The overall premise of this film is that I'm looking for a bank where I can open my account and using this as a point of entry for understanding how banks work and what the implications are of opening an account in one place over another. One of the issues that comes up is when one's bank is bought by a larger bank. What are the implications of this for the depositer?

Thanks,

At 02:07 PM 1/23/2007, you wrote:

Ms. W:
Thanks for your request for an interview.

It's important to point out that your request seems to blur the lines
between TD Banknorth and TD Bank Financial Group (TDBFG).

TD Banknorth is a majority owned subsidiary of TDBFG and operates approx.
600 branches in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. If your interest
lies there you should contact TD Banknorth directly. www.tdbanknorth.com

The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries are collectively known as TD
Bank Financial Group. TD Bank Financial Group serves more than 14 million
customers in four key businesses operating in a number of locations in key
financial centres around the globe: Canadian Personal and Commercial
Banking including TD Canada Trust; Wealth Management including TD
Waterhouse and an investment in TD Ameritrade; Wholesale Banking, including
TD Securities; and U.S. Personal and Commercial Banking through TD
Banknorth. TD Bank Financial Group also ranks among the world's leading
on-line financial services firms, with more than 4.5 million on-line
customers. TD Bank Financial Group had CDN$392.9 billion in assets, as of
October 31, 2006. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the Toronto and New
York Stock Exchanges under the symbol "TD".

To ensure I can put you in touch with the appropriate person I really do
need some more details.

Regards,

What am I really wanting to know? What are the implications when my bank gets bought? What changes? for the depositer? for the stock holders? For the amount of people hired/ fired? What are the implications? for the economy? Is money lent/ invested in different ways? Should I also ask an economist this? Maybe two with opposing views? Why does a big company want to buy a bank? Banks make a lot of money. What don't I get?

Anyway, I sent my email.

**

I got the D and S Real World Banking book. So, some notes on that follow. Later, I am going to email D and S and see if it is possible to get a copy of the new version.
I'd love to post a link to this movie on their website.

**

Idea: I'd like to show or say that it's scary to talk to a corporation like TD FG B of whatever, it feels masculine, scary to me. Mysterious, I feel intimidated. It feels so diferent to interact with a cdcu. That feeling matters. Can I articulate why? This is about having a relationship, bearing witness, wanting to connect to the fuel, the blood, the fluid that enables one's life. One's time. Making it visible. Talking to it. Having a relationship with it. Holding it.

Can affect be a part of how we think about the economy we want? That is a valid argument, too. How do I know what's a good economy? People who have academic positions say balance free trade with government protection. What is the econmoy I want? Do I have to know my vision of a good economy to decide my bank account? To decide all my ways of living and exchanging money?

I captured Spade and his cat; yahoo. (Good name for a cat.) And I started to sketch out the footage I will use in the first section. I did this without checking my old notes, so I'll see if the thinking is similar as before. (or not.)

For my first rough cut.

Scene 1: I am going to insert footage of the sign of my bank branch (maybe retake this in Amherst tomorrow.) I need to learn how to insert the scanned images of bank stationery into final cut.

I'll do my narration over that? I could grab my writing from early in this blog.

Scene 2: What is wrong with banks?

I'll snip together:

caroline: Ya try to be local!
cliff: banks leave community
spade: no idea where banks put your money
islam: all banks predatory, not permissible
mark: 4, 5: all banks have connection to fringe, may have to recapture that
mark 6
french guy from money?
caroline predatory lending
spade money is power
speak in defense of banks -small banks. big banks. who can speak on behalf of them?

COULD I INSERT INTERVIEW FROM TD BN? QUESTIONS: WHERE IS THIS INVESTED? IS THIS TRANSPARENT? IS THERE SPECULATION? WHAT REGULATIONS? WHAT SAY TO THE IDEA THAT BANKS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY AT ODDS WITH DEMOCRACY?

scene 3: how do banks work?

i need to explain fractional reserve, not sure what visuals yet.

GET FOOTAGE OF THE DEVELOPMENT FUNDED BY HAMPDEN BANK

martin m i think. I NEED TO GET THE OLD CAMERA OPEN.

scene 4: where should i move my account?

to be filled in; TRIP TO NORTH CAROLINA

scene 5: drops in the bucket

how do i make this research matter?

scene 6: interest

I really like on prelinger how the flashing old texts about banks look. If you search for baking,i mean banking they blink on. Really nice.

redemption -final section?

Redemption can mean the payment of an obligation, as in a government's payment of the value of its bonds. In this sense, redemption can mean the payment of any formal obligation incurred by any business or institution. wikipedia

Redemption is a religious concept referring to forgiveness or absolution for past sins and protection from eternal damnation. Redemption is common in many world religions and all Abrahamic Religions, especially in Christianity and Islam. In Christianity redemption is synonymous with salvation.

Yow. I think Ive been avoiding this a little. I have captured all the footage except for Common Good bank stuff --which maybe I'll capture tonight? I have scanned lots of stuff from Bank statements. I got a hard drive. So I have made some progress.

I should look at Prelinger. And see what the captures look like all together. Keep it simple.

Can I sketch this out more?

1. sound: my bank got bought. play with that song.

cobble quilt footage: bank statements, prelinger, td, gramm leach bliley headline, is there footage of fleet center becoming td center? my footsteps on cement, on grass. me walking in front of bank

narration piece:

2. things to know about banks: play with that song.

cobble footage: martin mayer? who else? the french guy. redlining, predatory lending
footage with td people.

narration

3. where should i move my account?

footage of five college, as if the building is the holder of the money this fluid substance, of electronic data.

common good/ cdcus

intervweave interviews --put people from nedap in again. me signing my money to self help. footage of self help?

song cdcu

narration: met with small bank owner preferred not to be filmed.

4. drops in the bucket

footage: my chart of info SCAN --union meeting, convincing others to put money into cdcus or other options.

film drops of water -rain.

5. interest

islamic interview.

how shall i end this?

prefer to give out some money to friends no interest loans; interest...

My Bank Got Bought.

I reread my narrative thread from two days ago and I'm down with that. Meaning I can work with it. That is good. So now what?

I am reviewing my footage (I have learned to capture.) And so that really is the next step now. Seeing what I have and then to play around with it. And THEN go grab new footage. Okay. That is simple.

A morsel from Art and Fear: "Talent is a snare and a delusion."

I'm going to spend two hours on this film today.

I really should capture footage onto a hardrive but I dont know how to.

What other footage should I get? I'm not sure.

I could watch prelinger stuff about banks.

I can think about the narrative structure:

Titles: eyes wide open. Bank-Notes. My Bank Got Bought.

my bank got bought. first it was bay bank and then bank of boston then fleet then bank of america. so i moved my account across the street to a bank, i dont even remember what is was called but it had the word massachusetts in it, so I figured it was local, but it promptly became banknorth which became TD banknorth. One day soon after the TD appeared on my bank statement stationery, i took five minutes to look up TD on the internet. that simple two letter prefix. a whole other world! (show newspaper of TD Toronto Dominion.)

i felt so suspicious, like someone was scamming me. i was trying to use a small bank -and even that got bought out. a small bank seemed more trustworthy, committed to the community, a smaller entity and so i could know it more easily. my instinct was to prefer small, local, even though i still knew nothing about how banks worked, or precisely why it would be important to support a small bank.

i had my money in a checking account with no interest. it wasnt much money. but i didnt want interest all these years if i didnt know where the interest came from. but even if im not getting interest, it dawned on me that the bank is using my deposits to make more money for itself. im complicit even if im not getting the interest. im lending them fodder to do more of what they do. and i dont know what this is!

there is a wise saying. "only connect." to connect to a world as mystifying and invisible as the financial industry take some time. so i made some time:

how do banks work? what impact do they have on the landscape, on economic opportunity and division of wealth and resources? what does it mean to MAKE money? where does money or profit come from --isnt there a law that energy and matter cant be created, only transfered? what is the transfer when profit gets created? the profit that pays my interest whether in a bank or mutual fund? where do i move my account? i have heard of credit unions, what are they? this whole finance industry freaks me out --a bunch of people playing a game i dont understand but it affects the landscape, literally the alteration of land around me. the work and everyday lives of so many people.

I started on a journey to understand banks and to decide where I could open my bank account and feel okay about it. i had a feeling banks would be a point of entry for understanding the logic of this strange thing we call the economy.

What happens when one opens ones eyes, connects to invisible things. money circulation is invisible. can we make it visible? audible? can we connect to it.

If you could make a bank audible what would it sound like? a song!

1. some things you should know about banks: they were started a certain date; they use fractional reserve. they are all wrapped up in the government. there are different kinds of banks. commerical banks have stockholders. banks have subcomponents. big banks like TD banknorth make lots of money. how? how do they make their money. who profits from this? who owns stocks of bank north? where is this info available?

my fave facts about banks: they create money. most money.
they do a lot of currency trading.
they are at total odds with democracy.
they consolidated the finance industry.
how do small banks make their money? how do big banks make their money?
why is it important to support small banks?
big banks are often involved in subprime industry
part of profiting from huge credit problem.
can i interview someone at td in toronto??
banks are yucky.

2. where should i open my account? i heard about a homegrown alternative: common good bank. its not ready yet so i moved my money to cu and cdcu. i liked the cu but i really liked the cdcu.

go to nc. and footage from cliff

so i moved my acocunt.

so what?

drop in the bucket.

3. a song about all the money in the world. does my little acocunt what fraction of the world's money am i putting in the cdcu? what frcation of the worlds money is in all cdcus? im wondering how meaningful this kind of work is, given the huge amounts of money in commercial banks. is this worth doing? how is one to make a difference if one tries to speak and use the language of money and doesnt have access to a lot. i convinced others...is this significant? i convinced my union and im working on others. move your money to cdcus. you there, you should too. the list for cdcus

get cdcu to say it is worthwhile, even small amounts.

5. but then there is the ethical issue, raised by islamic finance and others. what does it mean to make money from money. is this the source of ever expanding economy? is my interest, my bank account, my interest making me complicit and even responsible for environmental destruction? for global warming?

who can help me with this one? where does interest come from?

my boyfriend b. who is helping me make this film, i wanted him to move him account to cdcu. he has no interest in his money market account. i became greedy. you could get 5%! but he prefers no or little interest. he is right. on what ground do we deserve money made from money?
something for nothing. but we do pay the price, we just dont see the price unless we connect.

**

next steps: LA times article on Gates foundation; how do banks help; detail clarify distill the problems with banks; learn how to capture footage; see about visiting the boston fed, read over the blog.

I'm hoping to make a movie about banks now, pulling together the research from last year. I get stuck as I try to craft a narrative. I'll endlessly revise, etc, thinking how should it start? What should it cover? So, I need a structure and deadline so I pull something together rather than generating multiple never ending drafts.

Filmwise:
Ask B. for help putting the footage into the hard-drive and selecting specific portions. Can I use B's hard-drive? I'll need to use a camera, too.
Set up computer for use.
Learn how to edit on final cut.
Learn how to do animation.
Borrow the MCTV camera and take footage of my feet.
Write some text.
Maybe an interview?
Shall I go to NC?

Creatively:
Read Art and Fear to quiet the fears.
Make up little ditties.
Play around to find the style and maybe even the narrative.
Be patient as I try to figure out the narrative.

Research:
Simmel
Bernard L.
Prag. friend in NYC
Other sources?

Structurally:
Between Jan 9-Feb 17 can I make a rough cut?
And then polish it in March until March 21?
And then it has to be done.
Whatever it is.

Content:
What is my point? Is this about how to relate to money? Money --the feeling of it. How to construct my character? Where is the love in this?

I'd like the film to cover 1. how banks work: undemocratically creating money and dictating how the world looks, literally and making money by lending deposits 2. how cool cdcu's are 3. how much money is in cdcus versus how much is in big banks 4. wondering how meaningful this kind of work is, given the huge amounts of money in commercial banks. is this worth doing? how is one to make a difference if one tries to speak and use the language of money and doesnt have access to a lot. 5. what does it mean to make money from money. is this the source of ever expanding economy? is my interest, my bank account, my interest making me complicit and even responsible for environmental destruction?

I'd like the style to be multimedia --sound, song, puppets, text, interviews.

so, a possible film outline? hmm, i dont recall the footage I have, that will be relevant.