Week 6

This week, we showed our sample clip in class and conducted two more interviews. At this point, even just one week later, I think our sample clip doesn't look much like what our final film is going to look like at all. But I expected the film to look different every time we presented anyway.

The interviews we filmed this morning were some of the best so far aesthetically. We have finally settled on a visual style for the film, so the interviews with Kristi (one of my friends) and Felix (Emily Kait's former boss) today were much easier to set up and get through. We had a lot of fun playing with getting different shots from different angles, and I know Emily Kait and Aly will have fun piecing them together in the editing lab. Not only did Aly move around the room with one camera, we also had a second static one set up. I'm feeling confident about today's shoot. The only down side is we requested a lot more equipment than we have before, and we are going to need all of what we had today from now on. We had a LOT of stuff.

With all of that said, we have decided we won't be able to use our first two interviews we conducted in a different location. From now on, we will just ask our subjects to come to Emily Kait's house. She likes that that gives her control over the space and the look, because 1) we know how to set up the lights and camera to look good, and 2) we can set up the equipment before the subjects even arrive, instead of invading their space and not knowing for sure if we're going to get what we're hoping for.

Week 5

This week was slow for me as a producer. We had plans to shoot a couple of interviews, but none of our shooting days worked out very well and we ended up canceling them. I put in an equipment request that I also ended up canceling in light of this, which was nice because I would have done all the physical work of carting equipment around for nothing. The only thing we had due in class was a sample clip, and I was not in the editing room for that. I would like to pop in every once in a while and offer suggestions, and we did discuss what we want for the next round of clips, but I did not this past week.

This coming week, we are trying to schedule an interview with my friend Kristi on Sunday evening and Emily Kaitlyn's manager Felix on Monday morning. After that, we have decided to try to get a few women in the film. Emily Kaitlyn is going to work on getting her friend's grandmother to be in it, and we will likely film at her house in Landfall if that works out and if we decide to go for shooting in people's homes. Otherwise, we are just going to shop around for people with interesting or meaningful stories to tell.

We decided Jonathan's was the most valuable interview so far because of the almost tangible emotion he displayed, so that's the kind of content we want to aim for from now on. That way, the emotional arc will be easy to achieve with the final cut. I know feel I know exactly what Emily Kaitlyn wants for the final cut, so I am going to work to find people that will fit her vision.

Week 4

This week, I actually spent quite a few hours doing work for this class. I worked out picking up equipment, I actually picked up equipment (which, this time, was quite a feat, so I decided it deserved it's own mention), and, mostly, I did a lot of the work for Assignment 3.

Even the schedule was difficult. I had to get full schedules from Emily Kaitlyn and Aly, type them into an excel sheet (to really satisfy my anal retentiveness), and plug as many times and events into the calendar as I could. Then I spent about four hours on the budget. I did research into different formats, found pieces of different budgets I like, and plugged them all into one google sheet. Then I reorganized and reorganized and reorganized again until I had it exactly how I wanted it, and since then I've fixed it probably six more times. It took me thirty minutes alone to decide on the colors of all the columns. I keep playing with numbers, trying to make everything as realistic as possible. But overall, I am satisfied with my work. I am going back in tonight or tomorrow morning to fix all the things we talked about in class.

The rest of this week will consist of scheduled interviews for this weekend and getting in the editing lab to prepare for next week.

Week 3

This week was also a little slower than usual, until last night when we finally got another interview scheduled. I organized the interview time with my friend Jonathan, checked out equipment, and got Emily Kait up to speed on his background that I knew of so she could successfully facilitate the interview with relevant questions.

The interview went very smoothly; he was definitely a talker. We covered all kinds of interesting, touching, deep subjects. He was actually the epitome of what we've been trying to cover with this project: he laughed through his funny anecdotes, nearly cried when he talked about his daughter, and was just brimming with charisma that definitely reads on camera. We're going to have great moments to pull from.

I am getting increasingly more excited about this project as we move forward. Every week between conducting interviews and talking about it during class, it is becoming clearer and clearer to me exactly what our final film will look like. I'm very excited about it, and that makes me even more motivated to do as much work as possible to get it done. Even though it is a little ambitious, as EK said during class, I'm feeling pretty confident we will be able to pull it off.

Expert Interview Questions

Jonathan: I have made friends with a guy that works at Trader Joe’s. He is a really interesting and charismatic person, so I thought he’d be a perfect person to get on camera. He is from New York, has been in the military, has a daughter, and is easy to converse with in general.

Questions:

1. Where did you live in New York and what did you do there?
2. Why did you leave?
3. What brought you to Wilmington?
4. Why and when did you start working at Trader Joe’s?
5. What are your short term goals?
6. What are your long term goals?
7. What is your pipe dream, if you have one?
8. What is your daughter (I think he has a daughter) like?
9. What has it been like raising her in today’s society?
10. What is your biggest fear?

Kristi Ray: I made friends with a girl doing a show downtown, and she always had amazing stories to tell about the places she’s lived and the people she’s met. She specifically asked me if she can talk about the cult she was once part of, so of course I said absolutely.

Questions:

1. Where were you when you joined the cult?
2. What was it all about, and what was it like to be part of?
3. How did you break away from it?
4. What was it like to live in Hawaii?
5. Tell me the story about swimming with the dolphins. What did that feel like?
6. What was your life in New York like?
7. What is the most interesting story you have from living in NY?
8. What is the best character you’ve ever played?
9. What is your favorite project, film or stage, you’ve been part of?
10. What is your biggest fear?