Vox Pops & B-Roll Reflection

Shooting B-Roll was a wonderfully adventurous and artistic exploration for me. Upon setting up the scene and setting, I became inspired by the possibilities of a simple narrative we could present in B-Roll, namely, the approach of our interviewee to the destination of the chair in which he would be interviewed. We filmed several shots of his approach, artfully catching the bold “POLICE” on the back of his shirt in a couple of them. We also filmed some B-roll of the empty chair, trying to make it an expectant character-like presence within the frame, inspired by the life instilled in filmed objects in French Impressionism. Additionally, we filmed a few different shots of him in the chair from other perspectives.

Shooting vox pops was less of a visual treat for me than the B-Roll had been. Indeed, I had been more preoccupied with the sound recording and I fear that I neglected various opportunities to more artfully frame those who stopped to speak for us. Furthermore, I fear that the responses we received to the questions asked were not as varied and well-rounded as we had hoped for. Overall, this was certainly a good learning experience.

Expert Interview Reflection

*Delayed* Expert Interview Reflection
*We had a filming and production delay due to unforeseen cancellations.

Our expert interview was a riveting and, at times, uncomfortable experience. Our subject was an African American member of the police force and a former military man with a fascinating story to tell and an interesting position on various controversial topics such as police brutality, police relations with people and communities of minorities, and several perspectives to give on various police shootings. He provided moving anecdotes that really fostered empathy with policemen and women while also stating his opinions on controversial events that were difficult to hear and may have encouraged division over these topics even within the small number of our filming crew. Overall, I was proud of the crew for holding together and getting the project done even though some were troubled by the views this officer expressed on camera. I now have a concern, however, that our subject material was so heavy and deep that it will be impossible to do it justice and cover it to an even remotely satisfactory degree within the time confines of 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

Expert Interview Plans

On Thursday, September 21st, my 201 documentary team and I will be interviewing Dr. Kate Nooner of the psychology department of the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. We will be asking Dr. Nooner about student stress, anxiety, and coping mechanisms, hopefully in the setting of her office. To begin with, we will ask Dr. Nooner questions that will set a tone of validating the issue at hand. This is an important step as it will hopefully make the content of the documentary as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. Sufferers will feel heard and addressed, and minimizers (whether sufferers themselves, or simply acquaintances of others who deal with stress and anxiety) will perhaps give this topic the attention it is due with the added weight of a professional opinion. After we accomplish setting a tone of validity, I'd like the bulk of the content to be encouraging and productive, perhaps a stream of coping tactics and positive psychology.
1.) How would you validate the issue of student stress and anxiety to those who don't feel understood and to those who would minimize it, whether they suffer from it or not?
2.) What is the purpose of stress and anxiety?
3.) How much stress is too much stress?
4.) What are some of the primary causes of stress and anxiety? What are those causes likely to look like in setting of academia?
5.) How would you characterize student stress and anxiety? Is it still serving a purpose?
6.) What can students do for themselves to address this issue now?
7.) What can students do for each other?
8.) What are coping mechanisms and why are they important? Do you have any examples or recommendations?
9.) What role can positive psychology play in managing stress and improving the quality of life for students?
10.) If there was one thing you could have everyone do to improve the situation of stress and anxiety in academia, what would it be?

We will do our vox pops on campus, stopping to to talk to students and perhaps some teachers in various hotspot areas for different majors to hopefully get a varied and representative crowd.
1.) How often do you feel stressed and how do you think stress affects your quality of life?
2.) What does stress look like on you? What are some signs you'll show when you're stressed?
3.) What do you do to deal with your stress?
4.) What is your major and what do you find stressful about being a student?

Some Light Observations

Light Study #1: The Protein Shaker Ball
September 3rd, 8:00AM 
At my mother's kitchen table up in the mountains of Fairview, NC:

My youngest sister sits, her breakfast dishes emptied and forgotten at her elbow. While our mother discusses our day plans with me, my sister fiddles with the spring ball from a protein powder shaker. The sun is rising through the large eastern window that frames all of us in a plane of low bright light. It forms a radiant rectangular echo of the angled table we all sit at, our shadows elongated until taffy stretched shadow giants double our company on the back wall of the living room adjacent to the dining area. My sister's fiddling catches my eye and I stare transfixed at the oscillating object she twirls in the warm beaming sunlight. The silver glints off and on, blinding me in a smooth rhythm like the beam of a lighthouse. But it's not the glinting silver that rivets me. It's the shadow. Like the taffy giants on the back wall, the spiral of the shaker ball is made large and stretched into an exquisite oval form on the flat surface of my mother's table. It dances and undulates, perfectly defined as it dances and travels across the grains of the table. The light is so low and powerful that even the fine grains of the woodwork stand out in relief, infinitesimal wooden mountains reflecting a muted glint with their microscopic valleys cast into shadow. 

In summary, the light is low and powerfully bright, causing the shadows to be sharp, well-defined, elongated, and very dark.


Light Study #2: Just Before Noon At The Campus
September 5th, 11:45AM
Walking past the pines nearing the corner of Racine Dr and Randall in Wilmington, NC:

I am walking back towards my apartment, following the sidewalk with the road on my left, heading home from my morning class and thinking of the lunch I will soon be enjoying. A car drives by, belching its exhaust and making me turn my head to my right in my aversion. A beautiful dappled pattern of greens greets my gaze. The grass beneath the pines of campus is still and flushed in sunlit warmth and cool whimsical shade. I appraise the shadows and their placement in relation to the tree trunks. The boles are not yet centered in the clouds of shade that spread over grass and shed needles. As if beckoning me into further reflection, the shadows reach away from the forms that spawned them, drawing me in as they seem to shorten the distance between my position on the hard hot sidewalk and the cool softness of the trees and grass. I look at the closest cloudy form, a blue green shape stretched like a blanket against the turf. It's edges are not clearly defined, and the shadow is soft and gentle in its value change but certainly substantial enough to beautifully contrast with warm sunlit green of the grass not caught in the tree's shadow. I wonder if the edges are so soft because of the grassy texture they fall upon rather than the nature of the light itself. Testing this, I turn to my own shadow on the sidewalk. The farther away parts of my body cast a soft blurry edged dream shape upon the cement while my shoelaces leave a perfectly defined counterpart against the grey. I consider the nearest tree with its needles high in the air, even the lowest leaves a good two body lengths away from the earth. I suppose the dappling of cloudy shadows would be suggestive and vague in their definition no matter what surface they fell upon.

In summary, the light is high and bright but fairly diffuse. The vast majority of shadows are dark but with wide soft edges.