I was extremely nervous going into my interview. I had tested all the equipment, made sure it worked and had all my questions written out and ready. Coming into a FAMS class with little experience with professional filming was a little nerve wrecking and having to film alone was scary. I think the workshop we did last monday really helped, because I had the opportunity to interview my subject the Thursday after that class.

I knew my subject well but still was concerned with messing up the interview. In the end, I arrived to the shelter, shot b roll of the dogs and cats and was able to get my interview in front of the lake at the shelter, which led to a beautiful backdrop. What I was most concerned about was messing up the audio, which ended up having no problem. In the end, my issue was the lighting. The interviewee insisted on doing the interview on this picnic table but it ended up casting a dark shadow over her. It wasn’t the worst, but I had to try to lighten the frames during editing. I kind of noticed the darkness on the camera screen but thought it was just my angle. I thought about interrupting the interview to fix the lighting but I thought it would be too disruptive. My subject was an extremely busy woman, who was taking her time to talk to me and it felt wrong to move the entire interview.  Would it have been appropriate to interrupt the interview to fix lighting? I was unsure about the ethics and polite-ness of stopping an interview.

After the showing of Newtown, I can honestly say i was speechless. That was an incredibly impactful documentary and if there had to be a documentary on this topic, this documentary was the way to do it.

One cinematographic element that i found significantly impactful was the breaks to a solid black screen spaced between the interview. I felt like this really added to the impact of the interviewee’s stories. I spoke to Kim after the film to get a more in-depth understanding of why she, and the editor chose to  put in those black screens. She explained to me that it was placed to get a breather from the intensity of the story that was being told. In my experience watching the documentary,  those blanks in the interview allowed me to connect emotionally to the film. It allowed me to actual visualize what the interviewee was describing. Whether it was a tragic or gruesome scene, it brought me into the film.

One comment/question I had for the class would be how you feel about the choice of only choosing three families affected by this tragedy. I was thinking about it after we got out of the film, wondering how the families who stories weren’t told felt. Did those other families feel isolated. Im interested in knowing how others feel about this aspect of the film.

Other than that, I think it was an incredible film and I appreciated how Kim explained how it wasn’t her story, and how she didn’t show the horror scenes that were inevitably produced by the tragedy.

Overall I am proud of the work our group did in to create our B-roll film. I hope that the clips we put together depict what we wanted to portray in our documentary. While editing, it was helpful to have everyone in the group together so we could all put in input. Additionally, while one person was cutting the films, other could be looking up b-roll or music to put into the film.

One thing that we discussed in our group was putting music in the background. While I liked the idea of music, we decided as a group that it was not necessary. Overall, finding music to put in the background was hard, because we were unsure about the legality of using others music. I was wondering how others found/ decided on their music. Another factor I was contemplating was the effect of the music on the b-roll. Do i want to tell the audience what to feel when they are watching the b-roll or let the sights and sound to the job?

I thought this mini series was interesting. I left with a much better understanding about the foster care system and was left with wanting more. While I understand it’s difficult to conclude a mini series when the story its covering hasn’t even been finished, it was unsettling. I wanted to know the ending, I wanted to follow through with their lives and I’m not sure if its just the documentaries i’ve seen, but I usually leave feeling complete or with some sort of call to action. But that being said it left me wanting more, so im excited to see where the series goes in its second section.

I think this series did a great job at portraying the true struggles that come with trying to adopt children. I agree with many others in the class who said that the series is more impactful in its segment. After every episode I was left wanting more and still do!

Through volunteering and various animal shelters in the Lehigh Valley, I have built a relationship with a woman named Maria who is a professional dog trainer and caretaker. She has worked at several animal shelters and had seen the conditions and behavior that the dogs are exposed to. Animal welfare is an obvious passion of hers and of mine as well so I thought getting her perspective on working in Shelters would be interesting and valuable.

I already reached out to her and will be filming her interview on Thursday. I set up the interview to be at the shelter she works at, which is about 25 minutes away from campus. I’m kind of nervous because since it is far, I feel pressured to get the interview done in one go, due to her busy schedule and mine.

I plan to get shots of her with dogs, the dogs at the shelter, with her maybe interacting with them through the gates. Ideally she would have a dog with her throughout  the interview but I’m not sure how practicable that would be. I would love shots of her close up interacting with dogs and her body language as she talks about potentially controversial topics.

Potential Questions:

How long have you worked with dogs?

Did you always want this as a career?

What has influenced you to move between shelters?

Have you had a memorable experience with dog training you would like to share?

What drives your passion?

What is your opinion on the status of stray dogs and animal shelters in the lehigh valley?

This past Friday, Anna, Devin and I went out to start shooting some b-roll for our documentary thats due in just a few short weeks. From meeting together in person to solely focus on creating this documentary  it was clear the benefits that it brings, and inevitably the struggles that might arise due to having group members who doesn’t go to the same school. I thought I’d share some of the struggles we faced in case anyone might experience these issues as well!

Firstly, having to plan where we are going to film ahead of time to coordinate between all members was not too hard but having to account for the 30 minute commute of members is something that had to be accounted for and just highlights the importance of time management. Although finally meeting outside of class showed the benefits of meeting in person. We were able to actively share our ideas, visions and opinions on our project. As soon as we discussed our vision and were ready to shoot, our camera conveniently died before we could even take our first shot. Anna had charged the back up battery all morning so we thought we we’re fine but alas, when we put the second battery in nothing happened. We were right by the WAC so we ran over and found a FAMS major wandering the halls, and he luckily offered to help us, and we found that, just our luck, we had a dud battery! So just a word of advice to make sure to check all your batteries work and equipment works before going to film.

Just thought I would share that experience and advice to try to avoid it happening to anyone else!

Before this course, I didn’t know who KJ. I’m fairly inexperienced in prior documentary knowledge and am now so grateful I took this course. KJ’s enthusiasm and passion were inspiring. I went into camera person, not fully understanding what it was but came out with a new perspective on what documentary making was and the different ways it can be approached.

The way shots were chopped together, cut with black informative slides, seemed so simple but the thought process to combine all those videos in that order, it must have required so much skill and practice. The was KJ placed a video showing how she felt in the moment that occurred directly before by showing us someone else with those emotions she felt was indirect, but the indirectness gave the moment and the cinematic choices power.

The most immediate feeling I noticed when watching The Above was a sense of anxiety. In almost every shot, the blimp exists silently and simply looming. The people below, under constant surveillance. The blimb is practically a staple in the sky, like sun or moon. Upon watching the documentary again, once the ending credits pointed out that the blimp would cause others to act differently, I was not anxious as I was the first time but uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with what the United States was doing to these people, almost in a way forcing them to behave with the simple allocation of a beacon in the sky.

I’m still trying to figure out the message, if anyone can point it out I would appreciate it, but the message I see is one of a kind of “big brother”-esque world where the United States has a hold on country half way around the world. I notice KJ’s choices to almost always have the blimp in view whether its far in the distance and hard to see, or clearly focused on. I could also sense the movement of the story. How at first, the blimp began in Kabul and it was constantly notice by the people. But as time went on, it became a staple in these people’s lives and instead of staring, they ignore it as best they can and go on with their lives. I left feeling uncomfortable.