Northwest Institute for Social Change: The Blog

Freeways and Fresh Vegetables

Last Friday the members of my documentary team and I went around town filming B-roll for our piece on Growing Gardens (an organization that does community gardens and gardening education). We wanted to get some grittyish shots of Portland as contrast to the lush vegetable gardens we’ve shot so far. As it turns out, we filmed about 40 minutes of freeways, bridges, and vacant lots. We now have about enough footage for a feature-length documentary on the freeway overpasses and healthy tomato plants of Portland.

When I think about the nearly three hours of material we already have, plus all the things we plan on filming this week, I can’t help but get a little anxious. This week we edit, and by Friday all those interviews and freeway overpasses and fresh vegetables must be squeezed into five minutes of cinematic glory.  As last week’s guest speakers all told us, its vital to keep the message short and succinct if one wants to effect change.  But it’s always so hard not to get caught up in a project.  The conversations we’ve had with people involved with Growing Gardens have been so captivating that I want to share it all with the audience.  I want them to hear all the stories and ideas I heard from behind the camera.  But alas, the five minute time limit is there for a reason.  I’ll have to barge headlong into editing, scissors bared (figurative scissors, of course, as this is digital editing).