Tanakatainment? First day of filming

Mike, Lauren and I had our first day of filming at Tanaka Farms on Sunday 10/26 and I have to say...everything went pretty well. We filmed three interviews (one of which we will probably not use, but was useful practice for filming and setting up the interview shot and sound) and also a number of cut-aways. 

We were all under a lot of pressure to capture footage that day since it would be out last opportunity to film during the "pumpkin patch/Halloween season", which may be taken down after friday to begin setting up for Christmas tree season.

One problem that we did face while filming had to do with the audio from the external mic. We had set up our interview, prepped out interviewee, and were ready to film when we discovered that the only audio we were recording was from the internal mic (and there was way to much external noise). After about 45 minutes of fussing with it, we finally were able to figure it out with the help of our interviewees father (who happened to be a filmmaker). 

Another small problem we faced was that many people we talked with did not want to do interviews with us. The environment of Tanaka Farms is very crowded and busy, and many families with small children don't have enough time to stop and give us the time needed for a proper interview. We ended up finding individuals who were stationary. For example, out best interview was a father whose daughter was having a birthday party at the farm, which allowed him free time while the kids were playing and eating cake. Another great interviewee was a volunteer who manned the "launch pad" which shoots pumpkins out of a large cannon toward a target at the other end of the farm.