One Minute Clip - SDCOE Interview & Matt Blog update

This is a one minute clip from our interview with Norma Chanudomchok from the San Diego County Office of Education.  I had to bring my own lights because everything was still checked out from spring break on Monday.  This footage will need some color correction but it will be usable.  At this shoot, I setup the lighting, and a lavalier mic.  I also setup a side camera, my Zi8, and second mic to get room tone and as a back up audio source.  During the interview I asked Norma the questions and tried to let her know she was doing well.  Jason and Taylor showed up with their own cameras too, so I had them tell me when they started and stopped filming so we could add a clap which would make it easier to sync the footage later.  The interview itself was only about 10 mins, which is good, because that needs to be cut down to a little over one min, like the clip above.  


Over spring break I also filmed Sinai's Pastor and his wife.  That shoot was very difficult because I didn't have the correct lighting or mics, but I worked everything out.  I hooked up a SM 58 to my T3i but the cable gave me a lot of noise that I had to take out in Adobe Premiere.  


I am hopeful about our progress now as we transition into post production.


-unwin

Blog #5

Interview of Pastor Jake

Stills from shoot at SDCOE Building 3-29-11

Jason Blog #5

Today we had a schedule shoot in San Diego at the home the organization. I had class until 2:15pm today, and afterwards, I went to the checkout center to rent out lens and a tripod. By the time was able to get my equipment, it was about 2:30pm and Taylor came by and picked me up.

We met up with Matt and Annie at the shoot around 3:15-3:20pm and we went straight to work. Matt had all his equipment all set up and Annie was preparing the interviewee for the shoot. Taylor got his equipment set up and I got my camera ready as well. We had to adjust the lighting a little bit but we were able to get it done.

Overall, the shooting went really smooth and quick. I felt that we really were working well together and that we got more than what I expected to achieve in the short amount of time that we had to shoot. The interviewee was really great to work with and she didn't mind sharing what she does in the organization.

Annie 3/29/11

Today the group met at 3:00 p.m. at the San Diego Office of Education building in Clairemont. I got to the shoot and Matt had already set up the camera and lights. We decided to set up in a vacant room in the suite. I helped Matt as best as I could to set up the camera and lighting.
I was very excited to meet the person we were planning on interviewing. It is the student's lesion. I was made the marker that the lesion would be looking at. When I sat down, and before we began filming, I did my best to ask her questions to make her feel more comfortable with the interviewing process. I asked her where she grew up, how long she had been with the company, etc. She was very nervous and made us aware that it was her first time being interviewed. I informed her that I wouldn't be asking her the questions but to be sure to look at me while Matt delivered the interview questions.
The filming took about 15 minutes. Since we already have two other interviews to throw into the mix of our video we made sure to get to the point with out interview questions. The lesion also only have from 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. which put a lot of pressure on the group. We made sure that we understood the questions we needed to ask her and stay on task.
This filming taught me that under the pressure, some groups make it or break it. Our group definitely made it. Matt was all ready with the equipment set up. I showed up to see if there was anything that I could do. Jason and Taylor showed up a little late but got straight to the point. I was really proud of my group and how we worked together to get the filming done.

Annie post for 3/27/11

I apologize for this blog, again, being late.
The last time my group and I got together was in class on 3/15/11. This class meeting was for the sole purpose of presenting research information about our projects. I was asked to handle Lifestyle and Struggles. Researching the topic made it quite interesting and made me realize that homelessness can be just about anyone. Homelessness also has different type of stages.
After the presentation, the group got together to discuss any time we were going to take out of our spring break to work on the video. We have a rough edit of our first interview. The teacher was very impressed as was the class. I was unsure about the video because it was shot outside. I did the lighting on the set, although it was my first time doing it, the teacher commented on how well the light was reflected off of the interviewee. It made me feel good, but for being the first time, I knew that I could learn from that experience and possibly do better. However, the group has decided as a whole that we should keep the footage and move on with other interviews for the video.
We planned on getting together on Thursday 3/24/11 to interview the homeless youth's pastor and his wife. I was unable to attend.
Tomorrow, we are planning on getting together in Clairemont to interview another person involved in the San Diego Education office. I will be there and plan to help out as much as possible.
Will check back in and blog about the experience tomorrow.

Our First Shoot.

Blog #4

March 1st, the group skyped with out first interviewee. At first, we made a decision to meet up with her, in person, at SDSU. I decided that since I had a morning class, I could go home and meet the rest of the group at SDSU at the time desired. So when I heard that the group was going to skype them but I had already gone home, I wanted to be sure to be putting in my share of work. I asked what there was I could do, and the group leader asked if I could go to Kearny Mesa and Linda Vista to take photos of the SDCOE buildings, at those two locations. Those photos are below.
March 8th is when the entire group met at SDSU near the bus station to interview Sinai (sorry for if her name is misspelled). She was so sweet but very shy! Which made me feel a little bad for the location that we had chosen. The location for the shoot was right on a busy pathway at the school. After everything was set up we began the interview questions. I was in charge of lighting and learned a lot from it! It was extremely windy, which made it pretty difficult to cold the reflector, but I am hoping that it turns out okay.

As for tomorrow's class meeting, we are required to research and conduct a presentation about it. I will blog tomorrow after that presentation.

Extra Blog- Unwin

Last week, March 1st, I was scheduling and emailing our main interview subject, Sinai.  Her schedule was open and we had planned on doing location scouting and meeting with her in person to talk about the project with her.  Everything was going as planned according to our production schedule.  Sinai had a meeting to go to that caused her schedule to close on our appointed meeting time, but she agreed to meet with us on Skype.  I hooked up a webcam to my television so we could all sit and talk to her comfortably.  I also hooked up an XLR mic so that we could pass the mic around and not be shouting at the television.  Since we couldn't meet her down at SDSU, I sent Annie to do location scouting for us.  She lives in San Diego and I figured it would be easier for her.

I had been at SDSU the weekend before we talked with Sinai, so I had a pretty good idea of where we could meet her and do some filming.  The campus is crowded and we wanted to shoot somewhere that people wouldn't be walking in the shot behind Sinai.  Marleen had written some questions that I expanded on for the interview and we emailed them to Sinai so she would be somewhat prepared.

This week, March 8th, we went down to SDSU.  found a good place that she could stand and there wouldn't be much traffic behind her.  It also gave us the most sun for a longer amount of time.  It wasn't perfect and it was a bit challenging, but that just made us work harder.  Before we drove down to meet with Sinai, I prepared my new T3i camera, a tripod, mono pod, and 2 mics.  One that was to be hooked up to my Kodak Zi8 as an audio device, this was for back up audio, in case we needed it.  The second mic was a condenser mic and a USB to XLR cable to be connected to Jason's laptop.  I contacted Jason earlier and told him what we would need for the shoot.  Unfortunately a teacher had reserved all the Shotgun mics Boom mics, and Boom poles for a class.  This left us with just my mics and a lavalier mic.  They were out of HMC150 cameras as well so we had to shoot with the Canon DSLR cameras.  Luckily the new T3i lets you adjust the mic input gain down, so we could get the lavalier at the correct level.  I packed up extra AA batteries, XLR cables and Jason brought the lavalier and reflector for school.  Lastly Taylor brought the T2i to be our main camera.

While we were shooting, Jason's macbook died so we lost that mic, but the wind was giving us problems with everything but the lavalier mic.  Overall we got more than enough footage to work with and it's a great place to start for us.

For the rest of the week I have been combing the footage and looking for the best stuff for us to use.  I have also been in contact with Sinai about other videos made using her story, and the people in her life we also need to interview.  Our schedules are very tight making it really hard to meet with the next few people we need to interview to finish up the main footage.  Hopefully next week we will find a time to meet with the school district liaison and Sinai's Pastor and his wife.  Emailing them back and forth and text messaging our group to make sure we can shoot during those times has been a bit of a headache and a lot to try to keep organized with my other classes, but I think it will all come together.

Spring Break will give us some more time to meet with people, since we won't have classes, which seems to be the thing keeping us from finding time together.  I am hoping we can find time to shoot that will work with the school photographer too.

-unwin

Extra Blog Jason

Basically, these past 2 weeks, we all met up at Matt's house to drive down to SDSU to talk with Sinai (the person we interviewed). However, she cancelled the meeting with us, but we were able to video chat and talk to her about what we are planning to do. After the video chat, we all came together and discussed about the following week schedule and the things we needed to get prepared. We reviewed some of the videos that the organization gave to us and just saw what we wanted to aim for in our own video for them.

This week, we were able to drive down to SDSU and interview Sinai. I rented the equipment out (camera, reflectors, and wireless mic) from the school and brought along to SDSU. I recorded the audio through my laptop, but had some technical difficulties. Basically, I just set up the audio with the help of Matt. I also helped Annie with the lighting part of the interview. After that, she was pretty much doing it all by herself.

Blog #4 Taylor

The issue my group is addressing is homelessness. This is a problem in all ages, but we are focusing on the youth perspective. We don't see kids living on the streets, yet we may come to find out that some fellow classmates might be homeless, whether they are living with other family or couch hopping. This problem needs to be dealt with and the organization our group is working with helps people become aware of the problem and possibly people they know being homeless. Teachers may not be aware that a student is struggling with schoolwork in result to being homeless. If they become aware then they can address the problem and help that student out. Our interviewee stated, "Teachers, love your kids!" and that shows that with the help of mentors, counselors, ect. It may change the life of someone who deals with the problem of homelessness.

We interviewed our subject for our video yesterday and her story was amazing. I can't imagine going through middle and high school not knowing where I will be staying or whom I would be staying with at different times. She managed to sacrifice staying in San Diego with her mother moving back to Mexico, in result to her becoming homeless. She struggled with this problem and still managed to do good in school and receive scholarships to colleges through certain programs. Without these programs/organizations, there's a chance she could still be homeless and not be attending SDSU living on campus and having a steady job.

Our group is working great together, we all help in our own ways and the work we do together always turns out good. We have lots of work still to do but so far we are pretty on track with our production schedule we made.

Extra Blog-Marleen

On March 1st, my team and I all met at Matt's house to drive up to SDSU and meet up with Sinai. Unfortunately, Sinai cancelled on us because she ended up having a meeting later on that day, so we decided to have a skype conversation instead. Throughout the conversation, we introduced ourselves and gave her an overview about what the project is about. She was very open and comfortable with everything so we set up a shoot date for Tuesday March 8.
On Tuesday, we all drove up to SDSU and filmed Sinai's interview. The weather was a bit windy and we were definitely running short on daylight. I personally didn't agree on the interview location, but I guess it worked. It's very hard trying to make a video when having to drive all the way to San Diego, especially when we've only managed to meet once a week. I feel that a little more time needs to be spent finding better locations at SDSU, we all need to communicate better, and perhaps meet up more than once a week to get this stuff done properly.
I managed to take photos with Annie's camera and take some footage on one of Matt's camera. During the interview, I was the one reading her off the questions and making sure, along with Annie, that she felt comfortable. It's hard talking about a sensitive issue like homelessness when Sinai just met all of that day in person. I feel the project is going ok, but could be better.

Progress Report #4 Jason

The social issue we are addressing in this production is homelessness. However, when it comes to the thought of homelessness, people often think about people pushing shopping carts around with plastic bags in them. It is kind of surprising to realize that homelessness has gone far beyond that perception. People need to realize that youth are becoming a bigger part in the homeless community. Today, there are over hundreds of youth who are traveling from one house to another seeking a couch to sleep on. In addition, there are some youth who are sleeping in their own cars every night.

I feel that the project itself is kind of opening my eyes to a harsh reality that these youth face. Being able to talk to a former homeless youth is amazing. I am surprise on how she made it through the trials and situations in her life.

Progress Report:
We were able to go to SDSU and meet up with a student who attended the program. Our group was able to get some shooting done and some b-rolling. We also got to get some shots of the school. We had some technical difficulties with audio, but we manage to get some good audio off of the interviewee. We are planning to do another interview with her again, and we are also looking forward to interviewing with the mentors.

Progress Report #4 Marleen

My group is addressing the issue of homelessness, but more specifically youth and education while being homeless.

Being a kid is hard enough, especially when it comes to dealing with homework, friends, relationships, and ultimately finding who you really are as a person. But try adding the difficulties of financial instability and a roof over your head, it almost makes it impossible to focus on anything else. Amongst the friends and relationships built through out a kids school career, it is important to have success in the classroom and gain important knowledge through hard work.

I feel that every kid should have access to an education regardless of their situation. All teachers should be aware of every individuals students needs, and learn to be patient with those kids needing a little extra help. People may be quick to assume that a lazy, non-participating student is just a kid with a learning disability, but may not recognize that homelessness is a real issue, inhibiting their full potential to learn.

This is a REAL problem in today's society, considering our current economic status is less then perfect. Solving the problem successfully, while being sensitive to their feelings and situation is difficult, yet attainable. I think homeless students, no matter what grade level, should be assigned to a special team of counselors who can carry them through their high school years. A tutor, life coach, and/or recreational coach who can provide the student with a variety of advice and normalcy. Almost what a Big Brother or Big Sister would do for their kids.

Homelessness is a real problem that affects more than just adults, and I think that our youth deserve a chance at a proper education.

Blog #4 -Unwin

Homelessness is a huge issue and we are dealing with a very small problem within that huge issue.  When a high school student becomes homeless, they have to face a terrible chain of events and potential problems not only without a home, but at there own school too.  Teachers may not recognize the real issue and become too tough on the student instead of helping them survive the only constant environment offered to them.  Raising the awareness of homelessness among teachers and staff will go a long way to offering these homeless students some real stability and security.

I believe that  word of mouth will go a long way to helping raise awareness, more so than any video or seminar could.  People need to speak up, hopefully this video will help do just that.

Team update:  We are filming our main interview today which will help us fit together the rest of the projects.  Our main interview will be one persons story.  This story will shape how we film our B-roll, where we want to shoot B-roll, and the tone of any music we use.  The secondary interviews will also be subject to the content of this main interview.  Our questions for anyone else that will be in the video will be based on our mains subjects story.

-matthew unwin

Two of our Storyboards

This one was chosen to be used by our partner, SDCOE.

Narrative Style:

Documentary Style: