January 20th, 2020
C/A/S Project
Blog 1
Over the course of the past two weeks we have been filming for a documentary in the making. As such we've had to plan and schedule our shoot which will surround two local coffee shop and bar owners. Scheduling the shoot proved to be quite difficult as there were many conflicting events and it seemed hard to find enough time to block out. As well, planning questions was somewhat easy but reading off a script during the actual interview proved to be pretty much worthless. In the end all it does is ruin the flow of the interview. Of course we have the ability to cut and clip both video and audio as we please, but if every portion of the interview doesn't sound conversational, it may be difficult to withhold continuity. I do love this project though. We get to direct and create our own films so we have a lot of freedom to be as creative as we'd like to be. The only real limitation we face is the time limit of two weeks which in reality boils down to about 4 days once we've collected all the b-roll and conduct the interviews.
Blog 2
Despite our preparation for the interview and our already gathered footage, the interview was much more difficult and complicated than we had hoped for. The activity itself wasn’t too complicated but the place of filming and the film itself both soon became issues. The framing was off for the entire interview so we should’ve started over but we soon realized that was impossible and the audio was crowded because the interview was conducted in their local coffee shop. Regardless, I was extremely content with the content of the interview and saw their story to be inspiring as they talked about the hardships they endured since having opened their business some 11 years ago. They spoke on the difficulties of remaining in business during times of struggle but also supporting the community during times of hardship such as Hurricane Harvey. This became a really great opportunity for us to get to know some of the members of the local community and so we suggested the following name for our feature film; Locally Owned.
Blog 3
Although this project isn’t technically service, I would like to think our telling of their story was in good nature. The reality is, many small businesses struggle lots no matter how successful they may seem. My hope in creating such a documentary as this was to shine some light on the stories that often aren’t told. Despite some difficulties in our editing portion, we were able to come up with a quite nice result. As well, my own time that I had spent working on editing and what not outside of class really came into play. I was able to move somewhat quickly throughout the editing process regardless of errors that were made during the actual production of the film. As well, my own understanding of film came into play over the course of this film's creation. It was also helpful having 2 peers who didn’t lack creativity. As well, because I am more familiar with the post production portion of film making it was extremely helpful for me to be out in the field making the video as well. Not only did I have the chance to direct, but I also had the opportunity to recognize and attempt to correct mistakes made in previous films I had directed.
