Posted: July 27th, 2010 | Author: Rachel | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
As Caroline mentioned in her last post, we are making a documentary on urban chicken farming. It has been lots of fun so far. Filming chickens is hilarious but also extremely hard. When first brainstorming potential shots for the project, I was imagining close ups of chickens: head bobbing, clucking, pecking, scratching. But when we actually went out and filmed the chickens we realized just how hard it is to get a good shot. Chickens move around so much and they’re pretty camera shy as we found out today. We had to bribe them with sunflower seeds but even then they knew we were up to something as the three of us squatted right outside their coop with our huge boom pole microphone and camera, excitedly cooing to coax them out. We were trying to get some good chicken clucking sounds for the documentary so I extended the boom pole and stuck it into the chicken coop but apparently the birds mistook the microphone wind screen for some sort of animal ( it does look like a opossum) and they all scattered around the coop, blowing up dust and squawking, terrified. Oops. Hopefully I didn’t traumatize them too much.
I’ve also learned from these shoots that there is always more to learn about video production. There is always something that can go wrong- equipment can stop working, batteries die, memory cards fill up, mysterious settings turn on, etc. Only by experiencing all of these incidents and then meticulously planning ahead for the next time can you manage to avoid them. Through this filming experience I’ve learned that every shoot teaches you something new, even if it’s just a trivial lesson. It seems the only way to learn is through doing and messing up. Luckily we have plenty of opportunities this week to shoot, mess up, and improve for the next time.
Rachel
Posted: July 16th, 2010 | Author: Rachel | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Our radio documentaries are finally done! We haven’t even had a full two weeks of classes in Portland yet and already we’ve completed our first big project. As Emily mentioned yesterday, we did our radio documentary on the Community Energy Project which is a program in Portland that provides free workshops and kits to low income families so that they can weatherize their homes to save money on their utility bills and also conserve energy.
The hardest part of the documentary was cutting out important parts of the program to stay within our time constraints. After all the interviews and chats with the directors and volunteers in the program, I wanted to include everything. Everything the program does is so important and makes such a difference to people in the community- I just wanted to include all of it. The directors of the program shared many personal stories and experiences about working at the Community Energy Project and when we first began editing I wasn’t willing to cut out any of these stories. Emily and I had so much trouble “killing our babies” -basically cutting parts of the documentary to which we had become attached. Many of our conversations went like this,
“Well I just killed my favorite baby, so it’s your turn to kill one.”
“But this isn’t a baby. It’s integral to our story.”
“It’s a baby- kill it!”
We did manage to trim the documentary down enough but it wasn’t easy. I also really valued working with a partner on the project. I’ve learned that group members often see important aspects of the project that I might overlook. I’ve also learned to work through the frustration of my partner not seeing my “brilliant” idea for the piece that in a few hours doesn’t really seem so amazing.
My highlight of the week was taking a bus out to the Home Depot in Beaverton, OR to record sound for our radio piece. We wanted hammering and construction noise so we walked around Home Depot for half an hour with a hammer banging on surfaces. The whole project was really fun and I really did learn a lot about the process. Now when I listen to radio pieces on NPR I will really appreciate all the time they spend on them.
-Rachel
Posted: July 6th, 2010 | Author: Rachel | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Hi, my name is Rachel Sklar and I am a senior Cinema and Media Studies major at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. I’m really excited to learn about making persuasive and meaningful radio and film documentaries at the NWISC Documentary program this summer! I have had some experience in film- I’ve made a few short films for school projects- but I’ve had very little experience with documentary making at Carleton. I can’t wait to learn the intricacies of the process while also exploring the wonderful city of Portland.
After a week in a cabin at the base of Mt. Hood, the group returned to Portland, driving through the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. The four of us staying in Portland State University housing, moved in and unpacked. After settling in, we ventured off in search of a restaurant open on July 4th (Chinese) and finished our meal just in time to catch the fireworks by the river.
Monday we explored Portland through a three hour scavenger hunt that took us all over downtown Portland. I am amazed by the warmth and friendliness of the city. I’ve met so many nice people in just a day and a half. The cashier at Whole Foods told me about his roommate’s wedding this weekend. In Walgreens, an older man advised me on which gum was the best flavor and pointed out the two for one sale. At Powell’s bookstore, the cashier analyzed the different types of humor used in Away We Go and Burn After Reading, the two screenplays I was purchasing. Engrossed by his descriptions, I almost forgot to pay.
Classes start today for the radio portion of the program with Amanda Waldroupe. I’ll have updates on my radio project next week!
-Rachel
