It's Life in a Day day

The day's not over yet!

Producer Ridley Scott and director Kevin Macdonald are asking the YouTube Community to film their day today (July 24, 2010) and post them for a global experiment to create a user-generated documentary film shot in a single day.

The project is called Life in a Day and is an amazing idea in my opinion. I definitely decided to participate. Kevin Macdonald is asking people to film parts of their day as well as answer questions about themselves like: What do you love the most? What do you fear the most? What makes you laugh? What do you have in your pockets (or pocketbooks)?

Most films are made to allow us to live outside ourselves, live vicariously through a fantasy and live an adventure we may never get to see or feel. But this film allows us to be ourselves and I think that's amazing. Even if our films don't get to be a part of the final cut, the videos submitted will be available for all to see. The ordinary lives of some are extraordinary to others.

I think this is also a wonderful educational opportunity for our children. Taking part in something like this will allow them to express themselves and learn more about living this life. Having them think about those questions, their loves and fears, is really good for them. Even discussing what's in their pockets and allowing them to explore why that would be significant is important.

I have this book I picked up at the book store called Little Big Minds that is about teaching children philosophy and teaching them to be philosophical. Nick really likes the book and even brought it up today when we were discussing this documentary experiment. He loves considering the big questions and talking about worlds outside of our own. I like the idea of getting children to think and talk about the big questions. We shouldn't be afraid of getting philosophical and shouldn't be afraid of asking children too. You'd be amazed at how much your children think and can express when given the opportunity.

I think this documentary about human life on Earth is a wonderful beginning discussion about our lives and how we choose to live. If we were going to film our lives, what would we consider to be the most important aspect? Do we currently spend a lot of time working on that aspect? Should we be refocusing how we spend our lives? These are good questions to ask ourselves and our children. When we focus on what we consider to be really important, then we can begin to make our lives better lived.

Philosophy aside, the Life in a Day experiment should prove to be an interesting one. I can't wait to see the final product.

...
Here's a glimpse at one of the videos we intend to send in. This mule deer -- we call her Momma though she more of a Grandmomma now -- comes by our house every day, so this really is Life in a Day for us.