It's Monday Mentor Meeting Day!

I talked with Mr. Cass today. We discussed the importance of organization throughout the project process. When I shoot footage, I know what I have and can organize it better if it's fresh in my mind. I can save time later if I keep the digital video and image files neat. Therefore, it would be wise to be labeling and deleting as needed. I hope this will smooth the process of editing later down the road.

We also discussed the demographics of my audience, which is fairly broad. We decided on a varying sample of people but the youngest age of interviewees in my film should be high schoolers. Mr. Cass also put me in contact with Maya from the Ithaca College Media Club. I can't wait to use her as a resource.

We met in class today during the Wise period. I appreciate hearing from my classmates about their progress. It's fun to know all of the cool things they are learning about and producing, but it's also nice to know that the path through the project isn't direct for anyone. Life gets in the way sometimes and we just have to work around it, but we also are making great gains.

In class, we watched a former Wise student's film about another student's Wise project. It was a documentary titled Barnsong. I better understand the Wise project after viewing it. The project was about making a barn, which I would generally associate with the raising of the barn, itself. However, the bulk of the film shows the before process that goes into creating a barn (such as the laborious process of getting wood and cutting it). The focus isn't on the finished product, which just gets quick recognition at the end. The Wise program offers a learning experience that the documentary shows well. It tells a story as time goes on and more skills are built up. 

Now that I watched Barnsong, I wonder about dedications and special thanks in my own documentary. I hadn't realized, but in nearly everyone's project, there are many people who must be relied upon to make the project work who deserve recognition. This film left me wondering about my own project. It got up close for small details and played in interesting aspects of lighting with an overall good variety of shots. Some questions I will now explore include how stylistically I want to conduct my interviews. For example, do I want people be looking into the camera or off to the side, and how can I frame what they say to get the material I need?

Interview Questions will be posted soon this week! Enjoy the sunshine!