Shell Guy: The New Story - From Constructed Space to Collecting Shells

After much debate and dialogue, our group has come to the difficult (but I think good) decision to put our nature film on hold and pursue the life and story of "shell guy." The nature and constructed space idea still really intrigues me. I would love to explore this issue in the future. But my group and I realized that the film idea we had was good, but far too abstract. When we tried to storyboard the film, we kept coming up with nothing. We don't have the time or skills to make the film we want to make. Our idea would take many hours of interviewing, exploring locations, and filming all to be cut down to a 20 minute film for this class. We could not portray everything we want to portray nor create a good story in 20 minutes, maybe an hour, but not 20 minutes. Since the Fall semester is nearly over and all we have is one interview with Shawn, "shell guy," and a few hours of nature footage, but still no story line, we decided to reevaluate the film and move in a new direction.

The first step in changing directions was contacting my other contacts at the parks. I felt like I was letting them down by pulling out my interest in their organizations. I still think they do great things, but that won't be our focus. I politely thanked them for all their help and said I would contact them if our film changes again. I shouldn't have been worried, because Darren at Partners for Parks was very gracious and just happy we found something to focus our movie.

Our first interview with Shawn went really well. We were cut off because his parents asked us to leave, but we were left with many questions and ideas to pursue further. When we showed our class pictures, they agreed that "shell guy" was really intriguing and they wanted to know. So just wait - you will know more :) We don't have a plan of action, but we will start by finishing our interview with Shawn. Most of the interview was in his bedroom, which is also his office space. We will do more there, but we also want to get footage of him talking about how he does things and sharing with us while he does things including sorting shells and hopefully diving. I am excited to start storyboarding, because I can finally see how a story can develop. We all plan to attend his monthly shell club meetings and hopefully talk to other shell collectors and learn bits and pieces of their stories and passions.

One of the biggest struggles I had with changing our story was figuring out the point. I don't want to tell just another biography of a random guy. I want something that will interest people, get them excited and make them think. We will start with Shawn's story, but I don't know what else we will encounter along the way. We might explore ideas about this specific use of nature, the story of a dying hobby (shell-collecting), the reasons people have hobbies and so much more. As we learn Shawn's story, I hope our story develops more so that Shawn's story can be every one's story. Everyone has something they are passionate about and reasons for it. I hope somehow our story will find those areas and help everyone relate to "shell guy."


Shawn's Favorite Shell

- Rachel

Impressed with your progress

Hi All: I feel like I have bailed on you all, but I have had my prorities shift and have spend the last month and a half restoring a rental condo...which has gone from bad to worse as I have discovered more damage in the unit. (too bad I didn't pick this as a topic for my film...as I have some great footage of lots of rusty pipes etc.)

In any case I have been reading your blogs and I think you are all doing so wonderful with your projects, even if some of you feel you are not as far along as you would like to be. I think you are really making lots of progress. I hope to be able to get to calss next semester and see some of your work. In the meantime I want to thank you for welcoming me to the class, and wish you allthe very best of this holiday season.

cheers, Patricia

Grain Project: Bringing The FARMily Together.

This Saturday morning was unlike most Saturday mornings I have known (not because I was up at 8:00 am) but because my group and I got to enter into the Jerome Park Garden and actually witness the great things that happen there. All the magic that mystified us into the direction we're taking with our project came quickly flooding back. When we arrived Dr. Nick Spain and fellow Grain Project-eer Shody (hopefully I'm spelling that correctly) warmly welcomed us and were ever eager and helpful to us.

We got there bright and early so we could conceptualize camera angles and possible narratives without having to worry about budgeting our time. We spent a good 4 or 5 hours within the garden gates, and I think we left with great footage and ideas for future footage. During those hours the two Grain Projectors welcomed neighborhood children, some who came with their parents and some who came with their siblings (all of whom have already been there previously). Lauren, Nikki, and I listened, watched, and interacted with the children as well as Nick and Shody and truly got a good feel of what the goal and message of Jerome Park Community Garden is.

Children don't just come to this garden because they have nothing else to do, they were upset that the garden hadn't been open the week before. The kids remembered which plants were doing well and were ready to start planting the next batch. All of these children came to get involved, dirty, and to learn. When a child was seen asking a question, the answer wasn't just given to them, Dr. Spain, having a teaching background, would try and get the children to figure out the answer on their own whether it be spelling "radish", reasons for having a rock in the bird bath, or what earthworms and other bugs do in a garden. This garden is serving many purposes and teaching the kids to think about nature in a practical way is a huge one.

The children seem to enjoy tasks that were surprising to even the Grain Project volunteers. While we were there we saw children weeding, shoveling compost, watering empty plant beds and other laborious tasks. These kids weren't forced to be there and were definitely not forced to do any of these jobs, they simply wanted to help and be involved. The parents we saw were also very happy to have such a positive outlet for their kids and mentioned how much better they view this kind of activity as opposed to video games and television.

The Grain Project has great optimism and I can see them accomplishing great things. They surrounded themselves in a highly urbanized area with low income housing, schools, churches, and a community center. They want to remind people that farming isn't going "back to the past" but rather "going back to the future" and how this type of living is beneficial to all and not just a past reflection of how we, as "urban-ites" lived. I, as well as my group, are very supportive of this project, not just because of film interest, but because we truly believe in what they are all about. As a way of giving back to our informants we will be contributing to a fund they are raising money for. They have monetary increments that allow you to sponsor a child or a family for a year's worth of gardening. We would like to see the Grain Project grow and flourish and are willing to get down and dirty to help and see the community benefit from them and blossom.

The Grain Project Blog-Lauren

First off, I would like to agree with the blog below that this semester has gone by very, very quickly. That being said, I have a feeling the winter break ahead of us will go by just as fast, and we will be back in class, Tuesday January 27th for a new semester of old faces, and a new set of challenges.

The passing of the Fall to Spring semester is always a bit off-putting for me. Due to the Winter Session, those of us who aren't enrolled in a three-week course, are sort of in an educational limbo for three weeks. Now, don't get me wrong, I usually put these weeks to good use with vacations, extra hours of work, and new year's resolutions (that quickly fade).... but what does this mean for our films? I know we are not exactly "required" to do any work or filming over the break, but how can we not? I am terribly anxious about our film, working with an outside organization, and working with the elements. I am terribly anxious about taking days off of work (and the others in my group doing the same) in order to film and getting rained out and postponing the footage we need (for our pending teaser, film, etc.).

Despite my anxieties, after our first "official" day of filming in the Grain Project's Jerome Park Garden, I couldn't be more happy. Not only did we do some nice filming, it was a perfect day of participant observation. Yes, that's right, we worked in the garden too! I'll leave Mike or Nikki to talk more about that, but basically, Nick Spain, the Grain Project's agricultural director (and former anthropology professor), is amazing. Simply amazing. He, like any good anthropologist, tends to know everything about everything. I especially enjoyed what I will call his "walking lecture" on the garden's native plants.

It feels odd that our first semester of the class is almost over. Its all gone by so fast! But, there is still SO much work to be done. Our first major interview went very well! We got a full tape (roughly an hour) of interview footage with a bit of B-roll footage for doing cut-aways. It was a long day. Up and on the freeway by 6am on our way up to Bakersfield to meet Stacy Macross, my friend and informant. Once we arrived at the house, it took us roughly an hour or so to figure out where and how we were going to shoot the interview. It took us some extra time to figure out how to shoot using Tin's mirror technique that he showed you all last week. It took a bit of work to get the mirror the right distance away from the the subject so we would have room to frame the subject in a manner that we liked. After that, we were off to the races!

We've gotten a green-light to film in Dr. John Walker's surgery clinic! The deal is that we will provide the clinic with all the footage that we shoot so that they can use it in whatever manner they see fit. This is much better than creating an entire separate film for their clinic. We don't have anything scheduled as of yet, but we hope to do a good deal of shooting once the semester is over and Tin and I have more time on our hands. We hope to be filming one of Stacy's botox sessions within the next month or two as well.

New pathways have been opening up for us on this project!! We're excited about where its going, we just worry about having the time to do it all.

Team Green: "Imagining" the ECHS film

In thinking about how to best approach a documentary film on a high school I’ve taken the time to look at two documentaries on the educational system that Steven suggested.
One was called The First Year (2001). It’s about five first year teachers instructing in South Los Angeles classrooms at five different schools ranging from grades kindergarten to 11th grade ESL. In the film there were no formal talking head interviews or narration to guide the viewer and frame the narrative. The filmmakers did use title frames to string the teacher’s similar experiences together. For instance, “I’m having a problem with one of my students,” preceded the filmmakers showing each teacher's struggle with a student in their classroom.

The second film was called I Am A Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School (1993), which won an Academy award. This film centered on an “inner-city” elementary school in Philadelphia made up of all African-American students. The filmmakers primarily followed the principal who often complained about the lack of funding the school received and highlighted the faculty’s difficulty with constantly having to discipline the students while attempting to teach them. This film employed the use of narration and was filmed over the course of one school year. At the end the principal leaves her position at the school citing lack of support from the school district as the reason.
Both films gave me tons of ideas about what I like and also what I didn’t want us to do with story development and cinematography. They both grazed the surface and it appeared as though the filmmakers didn’t take ample time to get to know the participants. During interviews some people seemed uncomfortable or the off camera questioning seemed off the cuff and didn’t probe enough to get more thoughtful and in depth responses.
As anthropologists we have a unique advantage of being able to hang out, develop a great rapport with participants, take field notes and watch the potential for stories to unfold right before our eyes. And I think this was the element missing from the documentaries that I watched. We can get in there and make space for people to open up in ways traditional documentary filmmakers may not.
With the semester drawing to a close I contemplate on what kind of film my group will produce. We’re still in the stages of contacting teachers and getting their availability so we can start to make trips to the school. It hasn’t been an easy process. The issue of how to distribute permission slips to any student we happen to get on camera has been a source of frustration for us. Yet, we’re beginning to talk about ways to remedy that and still move forward with our project.
So, back to this issue of how our film will look and feel. Honestly, I’m not sure yet. After this semester I still can’t see the images we intend to capture or the type of stories we plan to tell that will come from the students. With filming during winter break and through February since we have to start editing in March we don’t have a lot of time.
As we begin to look ahead and plan for the upcoming semester we need to remember that we have methods available to us that can assist with getting at the stories we’d like to develop and can help us to produce a potentially meaningful film.

Nature and Constructed Space: Making Contacts and Making Stories

It’s been a few weeks since I blogged for our group. I feel like a lot has happened, yet not much has happened at all. I met with the people at El Dorado Nature Center and went on a nice nature walk enjoying the “naturally constructed nature” of the center. I think that phrase is an oxymoron, but it makes sense to me, because I found out that everything there was planted, but some of it has taken over and grown on its own. So, the nature center was constructed and is maintained by people, but plants are given as much free range to grow as possible.

Anyways, the more exciting part about my trip to the nature center was the contacts I gained. I met a couple who has walked there every morning for 25 years. Donnie (my tour guide) told me that the nature center has been therapeutic for people overcoming illness and trauma in their lives. So there are lot of people that really enjoy and appreciate the nature and I hope to interview some. I also met the nature center stewards, volunteers who come multiple times a week to maintain the nature center. They help plant “native” California plants and take care of different areas. Donnie told me that all of these people have unique interests in nature. A couple of them have replanted their own yards with native California plants. Others are very knowledgeable about butterflies or another specific area of nature, kind of like our shell guy. All of them seem like they would have interesting stories to tell, but that leads to our group’s dilemma.

How do we take these different aspects of nature and tie them into a story? Can we focus on people’s “nature” hobbies and still explore our idea of nature and constructed space? Nature is all around us, how do we focus our filming so that it is not so broad we never reach a point, nor is it so narrow that we miss something? Finally, how do I, as a director, proceed forward trying to get these people to talk to me without giving up every day of the week volunteering just to build trust and a relationship so that these people want to share?

I can’t believe it is already December. Our film has so much great potential, but there are so many other things happening, I don’t know how we will get it all done… It still seems so abstract to me! I am hoping in January I will have a little more time to volunteer, film and do interviews, but we’ll see. Somehow, we will construct this film as naturally as possible to explore the issues of nature, space, and people’s unique stories.