Final Projects Part I

In class last week, I presented my project and was really, really pleased by the response to it. I worked really hard on it (it was probably the hardest project, but also the most enjoyable and interesting project, I have ever worked on), and it was really great to get good feedback and know that I was not alone in thinking that this story was an important one. It was also nice to hear that people were glad I ended up only talking to the one source. I was nervous since everyone kept suggesting others I could talk to, like Clayton's dad or doctors, but I really wanted to keep it in his eyes only, and I was glad that everyone ended up liking that approach.

I was also really impressed with everyone else's projects that were shown last Wednesday. I really liked seeing Sylvia's, since we had all seen the rough draft. Because of that, I was able to see a lot of changes in it, and was really impressed with how well it had all come together. I really liked that she kept the voices heard in the audio to only the couple, but still included the words of the psychologist on some slides. It was a great way of including vital information that pertained to the story while also keeping the romantic, nostalgic feel to the project.

I also really enjoyed Mike's project on the reunion of the band, The Press. It was really well done, and I liked his use of photos that, while he may have not actually taken them himself, really added something to the project. I think it was important to see pictures from the past, because it gave the audience some of the memories that members of the band have themselves, which in turn, helped us to better understand why the reunion was so important to them. I also like the mix of pictures and video and thought that it was really thoughtfully done.

AJ's project was also really great, and I think contained a lot of emotion. I really liked that she talked to so many people at the Pease Greeters gatherings, and I think she did a really great job of telling the story. I liked the use of music in this project and almost wish there was a bit more of it, I think it really tied the various pieces of the story together really well. She had some really great video of the soldiers walking through the door and being greeted, and I think just the emotion on their faces helped the audience to understand how important the Pease Greeters are.

Cam's project was also really great. Like Mike, he used a lot of photos that he did not actually take himself, and also like Mike, they were used really well and really increased the quality of the project. I think it reall demonstrates a good use of outside resources. I also really, really liked how he made pictures black and white but then made him and his dad color in order to help them stand out. I had been trying to do this in my project for one picture and could not figure it out, so it was nice to learn out to do it finally. I thought that using testimonial-type interviews with him and his dad also really made his project so much better than the first time we saw it in class. These video clips really helped to demonstrate the kind of relationship the two have, and also helped to show how training for and running this race together changed and developed that relationship.


I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of the projects this coming Wednesday and am sure they will all be really great!

MAJOR FRUSTRATION

I pretty much hate my project right now. Ok, well that's not really fair. I like my project. I like my idea, and my interviews, and my photos, and the overall about 20 hours I have put into it thus far. I don't like audacity, however. I do not know what the issue is. But somehow, without me touching my file at all since I presented my rough draft to the class, more of it has gone silent. I don't know what that means or if there is any way to get it back, but unless the people at the Parker Media Lab can help me tomorrow, I am going to have to change my project. I will still have enough audio to make a fine project, but I won't really be able to tell the same story, which is extremely frustrating after all the work I have put into this.

More Progress

After hearing all the feedback in class on Wednesday, which was all very helpful and really appreciated, I decided to change the audio portion of my project some, mainly changing it so that I focus less on the basics of his illness and more on how the illness affects his life and how marijuana helps with that.

However, the main thing I think I need to improve upon is the pictures in my project. It was very difficult to vary the pictures since Clayton is so limited in the amount of movement he can do, but I think I can do better.

I am going to his house for one last (hopefully) interview tomorrow afternoon and I plan on working really hard to get more interesting pictures by varying the angles of the photos even more and maybe moving him around his room a little bit, and taking pictures along my journey up the narrow stairs that lead to his room.

More Progress

This Friday I went to interview Clayton again, and it went really well. I got a lot of pictures, and I tried to get as many different angles, facial expressions, etc. as possible. Still, it's hard to vary the type of pictures I can get since he is confined to his room and a wheelchair. I think considering the circumstances though, I did a good job.

Last night I really started putting everything together. I started piecing together the audio (which is so hard because I have over two hours of amazing stuff that has to be edited down to five minutes!) It's very hard to choose what to cut and waht to include, but I am working on it. All of my pictures are edited, and so tonight once I am done with the audio stuff, I will put it all together into a Soundslides type of project.

I did take some video, but I really don't like it, and I have decided i definitely want to do black and white photos, so video would look weird with it.

Progress So Far

Unfortunately I have a terrible memory and so completely forgot to be writing a journal of sorts in my blog describing my progress on the project thus far, but I will begin today. So far, I have had one two-hour interview with Clayton, the medical marijuana patient I am profiling... and I have another interview with him tomorrow. I have already gotten some really amazing audio (in fact, I already wish I could do twenty five-minute projects on him- I don't know how I am going to choose what to edit out!),and some good pictures as well. At this point, I plan on getting a lot more really good pictures and some video tomorrow and then will hopefully be able to put it all together Monday night for my rough draft.

I have already edited the pictures I took so far, and have done some audio editing, so I don't think it will be too hard to put it all together, mainly just picking and choosing what to include. I am also kind of conflicted about whether or not I want to use video, but I am leaning towards black and white pictures, which I feel would not work well with video included. Still, I am not sure if I definitely want to do black and white... I just think black and white photography really lends itself to stories with powerful emotion, which Clayton's story definitely has.

An Experiment in Putting it All Together

Ok, so this week we were told to think a lot about our projects and start setting up contact lists and initial interviews and researching. I have an initial interview set up with Clayton, the subject of my story, for this Thursday, and my struggle now is mainly deiciding what to do in this first interview.
Initially, I was thinking I might just go and spend some time with him and get to know him a little, but then I started thinking, what if we get to talking and I miss something really awesome that he says or does because I was just "getting to know him". Therefore, I am definitely going to bring all of my equipment with me, and see what happens. I am going to think of some key questions to ask him, and some key areas that I want to cover, but really just try and let it flow and have a good conversation with him.
At this first meeting I also plan on asking him about his doctor(s). After looking at my storyboard, Sandy suggested that I try and not only talk about the political side of the medical marijuana debate and how its affecting Clayton, but also look at the medical side of things. I was thinking, although I am not sure if this will be possible, that I could try to talk to Clayton's doctor and hear his thoughts on medical marijuana and also get his professional opinion on how marijuana has helped Clayton in his everyday life. I think this would definitely be a great addition to the story, so with any luck Clayton will be able to give me his doctor's contact information.
At this first meeting, I am also hoping that I will be able to take some pictures and maybe even video (I was thinking I could try to get some video of Clayton going about his everyday routines and telling me the kinds of things he struggles with everyday). I was also thinking I would discuss some of the more "touchy" things I want to include in my video, such as pictures of him that really show just how thin he is, and video of him actually smoking marijuana. I then plan on setting up another interview with him for the week after or so in order to do more of the interviewing, and maybe get his parents involved, or some other friend or family member who can comment on how he has improved since using medical marijuana.
I had one other thought of a person I could talk to, which is Matt Simon, who is the Executive Director of the NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy, who I have talked on the phone with several times for previous stories I have done on the medical marijuana issue and the protests occuring in Manchester. It was through his website that I actually found Clayton, and I believe Matt has worked directly with him in support of the medical marijuana bill. If so, I would like to talk to him for part of the discussion of the political side of the medical marijuana issue.
Still, I want to insure that my focus remains on Clayton and how this affects him, and how he feels knowing that he has to do something illegal to increase his quality of life. I think this is the most important part of the story.
My fears, as of now, are basically just figuring out how to put this all together and how to decide what will be best done with video, photography, and audio, and how to combine these three things into one project. I am also concerned with simply making sure the story I want told is actually told within the five minutes of this project. There is so much information and so many aspects of this story I could focus on, and I just keep reminding myself of what Don Himsel said when talking to the class, which was to only focus on one tiny part- that a multimedia project is not really meant to tell the whole story, and with the project only being five minutes or less, it most certianly won't.
Besides these fears, I am really excited about doing this project. I have realy become invested in this whole issuue of medical marijuana through the various multimedia and print stories I have done on it so far this semester and really look forward to talking in-depth with a person who is really affected by this debate. It honestly makes me want to do more similar projects, like a bunch of profiles of various medical marijuana patients... maybe I will...just for fun.

Final Project Discussion

Yesterday in class we got into large groups to discuss our projects, and I think that this was very valuable. I loved hearing about the ideas that others had- they were all really great- and I think that our group worked really well together and was able to help everyone enhance their current idea even more.

Personally, I think the group discussion gave me more ideas for how I actually want this video to come out. My current project idea was inspired by the story I wrote for the paper and that my group did our Soundslides project on about the marijuana protestors in Manchester. This was honestly the most fun I've had reporting yet. I am not really sure why, but I really enjoyed working on such a complex and controversial issue that has so many sides to it, from the people who want total legalization, to those who are simply in favor of medical marijuana, to those who don't want any level of marijuana usage allowed. However, it was in talking with Matt Simon, the director of NH Compassion, a group that is working in favor of the medical marijuana bill, that I became really interested in learning more about medical marijuana.

I know I want to focus on a patient, Clayton Holton, who is 23 and has a rare form of muscular dystrophy. He weighs only 90 pounds and only weighs this much because he has been smoking marijuana to increase his appetite. I have already talked with him some, and plan on meeting with him probably next weekend for a preliminary meeting and interview. The group liked my idea and was able to give me some great ideas for actual shots and things to include in the story, which was very, very helpful, as this was something I was still unsure of.

I am definitely excited about this project, but also nervous. I still am not sure how confident I am in my abilities, especially when it comes to video. I will definitely have to work on planning this whole thing out a lot better than I planned out my last video. Last video I didn't plan very much, mainly because I didn't realize how much I should have planned, and then was kind of lost when it came to actually videoing and filming sequences. The only other thing that will affect my project is the outcome of the NH state legislature vote next Wednesday. I feel like the tone of my story, I guess, kind of depends on the outcome of this vote. If the veto on the medical marijuana bill is overridden, then my story could be a happy, vitorius one- Clayton has been an outspoken supporter of the legalization of medical marijuana in addition to a medical user of the drug. If the bill is not passed, the story would most likely have a sadder tone, showing how he has to break the law to have a higher quality of life, etc. This is the main thing that I am unsure about, and will have to see what happens on Wednesday.