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