Music Selection

Today I'd like to talk about how I selected the music I am using for my documentary. I have been good friends with my guitar teacher Brent Stater who has taught me a lot since I first met him. He has a really great taste for music and has been teaching for quite some time now. He is involved a band and has done a lot of opera in the past. I knew he would be a great choice and he loved the idea of making music for the documentary the moment I explained what it was about. He mentioned as a parent that he has tried his very best to bring his children up well. He agreed that this project was detrimental to the organization in helping children with literacy. Therefore he was the primary writer behind most of the music. However he wasn't the only musician I wanted to use though, Ricci Minella is the lead guitarist and lead singer of my band "The Fields". Ricci is a by far one of the best writers I have had the fortune to come across. He is also a very talented singer and with his catchy lyrics and chords I always find something sentimental about the sound. I was able to get a few recordings done of just him playing guitar and singing. I think the songs I chose will increase the entertainment of the production as a whole. I always heard uplifting music along in the background as hard facts are given along with touching video. I believe that I have found music that will keep it simple and keep the audience entertained. I found little to no trouble in the recording process, but I was asked to help with the writing a little bit. Therefore the only problem I came across was some writer's block. I have been involved with music for a long time now and have a lot of experience in the recording field. I was very happy with myself with how the music turned out after post production.

A lesson to be learned

http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/broken-camera.jpg

One problem I ran into and didn't really expect was a technical error with the camera. I didn't end up breaking my camera, but learned a valuable lesson from last second shooting. It was raining the day I tried to shoot some of the children in my video and I ended up not getting any video that day. The cold and rain caused there to be a dew warning in the camera. This caused the camera to not want to turn on until it warmed up a little more. I ended up calling a few people not knowing what exactly the warning on the view finder meant at first. After talking to the technical director we decided to let the camera sit in a warm area and hoped for the best. However I was running out of time and after a good ten minutes of trying to turn on the camera and failing I had to bag the shooting for that day. I later received a call from my professor suggesting that next time I take out the camera to shoot that I take it out at least an hour before I planned on shooting. I kept this advice as I moved on in shooting my project. Word to the wise, don't leave your camera in your car on a cold day and take it out only seconds before you want to shoot your video.

What's in it for me beyond the requirement?

Today I'd like to address how the service learning plan of Westminster is a huge part of my project. Let me first start off with a quote from the overview that I held true to my project. "Service Learning allows  students to grasp "real-life" experiences in their field of study, while meeting community needs through service." I am a broadcast communications major and it wouldn't be weird or out of line for a boss to one day ask me to create a documentary. In fact, a lot of great broadcast communication majors become the directors behind really great documentaries. Therefore I am getting a real-life experience by having a certain deadline for when the project is due, having certain requirements that I have to follow, by contacting all of the participants and getting them involved, and finally all the field work with the camera. The community service comes from helping an organization that assists families who can't afford books for their children. I am helping this organization by supporting it through my documentary, which hopes to first inform the audience of the organization and second to persuade them to assist the organization in any way that they can. Therefore my project doesn't just benefit me so I can continue on to graduation but rather it benefits this organization through the support my project provides. Thus I believe my project can be considered part of the service learning plan here at Westminster. I invite you to look it up for yourself by including this link.
http://www.westminster.edu/acad/drinko/sl/sl_overview.cfm

Some general information

I hope that this blog doesn't seem too unorganized and hope that most people who follow it can see where I am going with this project. I am not a huge blogger so this is my first time really blogging about anything and I am just trying to follow the questions or the topics brought up in our class. This blog is to keep everyone updated on what's going on with my project, who I am interviewing, who is going to watch it first when and give me feedback, and hopefully every little detail you would ever want to know. I also made a short video last year sort of summing up what I wanted to do when I started this and I feel that these general things are still my vision today. So thank you for following this blog and I hope that everything so far has been posted in a way that can be understood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC7yLs7milI&feature=channel_video_title

Meet the Experts

Pam Klein

Pam is reading specialist at a K-5 West Mifflin Elementary School, she knows first hand the importance of reading at an early age is. Her expertise is used to persuade the importance of literacy and give a professional opinion on the organization.