https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E-PHxV33JFFnjHz7-xBGPqiYewxiGyrc/view?usp=sharing

Since I’ve worked with Tim for over a year, we’ve grown closer and our connection has allowed me to learn more about sound that I thought I would. I was appreciative of everything he taught me, and felt as though others would be just as interested in sound as I was, since we were in fact trying to create films. Sound has always been the underappreciated part of film, but once we gained it we knew it was something that was needed to produce quality works.

Working on this interview assignment gave me information not only on being a sound engineer, but allowing me to do my own sound within learning sound. It was interesting to see how well everything flowed together in the piece, and I was proud of the outcome of my edit. I think that if I had the chance to go back and edit more, I would change some placement of the B-Roll and try to align the music with the way that the video was structured. I like my break of video with actual performance, and was astounded by how well it gave the video a smooth transition in the piece. I think that my subject was interesting and could be made into a larger subject piece since it is something that a lot of people look over but we really need it in this day and age.

I thought I’d share some of my own work that I’ve done in the past working with the camera and directing. They’re not all documentary works, but they allowed me to use the camera and work on angles, style and creativity. Since not all of us go to Lafayette, I thought it would be nice to share some original work at the end of this lovely semester!

https://youtu.be/pZdlMGiUjfg

Final cut of our documentary – Art in the Banana

Reflection on my project with Nely and Ricky, I can say that I’m proud of the film we produced. We started off rocky with little hope to our project, and ended with hours of footage, and an almost ten minute documentary that served a purpose we hoped to push. It was exciting to be out in the field, getting to know a new and unfamiliar place, and creating connections. We worked hard day and night, and by the end we had a creative and interesting documentary that we were proud to show everyone. Ricky and Nely, were supportive and just as hardworking as I was which was great. We were all able to work through hurdles, money issues, and tech issues, to be able to do all the work needed to get the job done. Ricky, who’s not even a film major, was willing to do so much work, and offer help in any way he could. Nely, was an editing genius, and came up with a great way to show an art documentary, in an artsy way. It was a great group dynamic, and trust me, I wouldn’t want to be with any other group this semester.

I was highly moved by Kim Snyder’s visit on campus. I think she had to be my favorite visitor of this semester. Her viewing of Newtown left me floored, emotional, and moved by her way of weaving documentary and pushing a story that many people wouldn’t have the guts to show. Her tenacity to creating bonds with broken people trying to make a new way for their deceased children, and building a story from it, literally had me motivated to continue my own documentary objectives. It was emotional, thought-provoking, and REAL. It gave action without showing it, gave feeling through words, and allowed you to feel vulnerable at all points. It was without a doubt one of the best documentary films I have seen so far, and its not boring. It does educate, but in an awareness point of view where you don’t feel like you’re at school. She was so genuine with her talk back as well, allowing herself the humbleness that comes with being a documentarian that films a massacre such as this, and offered great feedback. As all the speakers who came said, it’s important to gain a relationship with your subjects, as they are the ones who give themselves to you to film.

The past weeks have been crazy with trying to finish this documentary, that I haven’t really had the time to reflect on the class as a whole and everything we have learned this semester. I am glad the Professor Smith recapped the class and all the amazing piece of work and film makers we have meet this year, on Wednesday night. I was really shocked when Andy said that it has been five years since the shooting at sandy hook, and talked about how we were able to meet Kim Synder the director of the documentary “Newtown” and discuss the process of making her film. I realized that I never blogged about the Newtown film. I think it honestly was a lot to process. Making a such a serious film on such a deeply upsetting topic is no simple challenge. I was really moved by not only the accounts of the parents and teachers, but how the memories of these children were encapsulated within the film.  The photos and the home footage, the video of kids running to the bus, the marks on the wall, that is what is still ingrained in my memory. Without this in depth and personal images I feel as though the film would not be as moving. When you hear about a tragedy like this you immediately want to try to detach yourself to cope with it. When you see these children’s faces you really can’t detach.

For PB N LV I found that this was the biggest things missing in our film. If you are a parent with a child below the age of two in the Lehigh Valley, I think it would be easier to sympathize. But what about everyone else students and residents of the Lehigh Valley without young children. This is something we struggled with, how could the film get people who don’t have children below the age of two in the Lehigh valley to really feel the effects that lead has on children and care about it.

In our film, you can hear Doctor Walty talk about the negative health and you can see the stock image of an infant, but I believe the audience would have had a deeper connection if they were able to see or hear from a real child that is suffering from lead poisoning. They wouldn’t have been able to detach from the issue.

For multiple reasons, we weren’t able to get any parents of children or children that had suffer from lead poisoning to be in our film.  At certain points my group thought about incorporating film of random children. I didn’t feel like it was ethically sound for us to film random kids and imply they had lead poisoning. That was something that was constantly up for debate within my group. If faces weren’t showed was it okay? I just felt like it was an invasion of these children privacy for us to film them without them knowing. And in the end, I am thankful that my group respected the decision to not incorporate something that I felt was ethically wrong in our film.

Overall, I am still extremely happy with the film. We did it. It was difficult and exhausting. It was not an easy topic to do. But even if I had the opportunity to go back and change the topic, I wouldn’t. I wanted to do this film to bring attention to an issue that is important. No child should still be suffering from lead poisoning, when education, proactive screening and awareness can’t help prevent prolonged exposure.