Making Progress! First Scenes Shot!

After using last week to acquire all of the equipment I will need for this project I was finally ready to get into the actual filming of "Keeping Up With The Joneses". It was really just a test run, as I try to get the audio dialed in and figure out my new camera, but it went really well. I sat down with Curtis for about an hour and interviewed him, gaining a lot of good footage in the process. At the end of the day, I learned a few things that will be important moving forward. Here are some of those things:

1. My mic setup is pretty decent but we have to be in a totally quiet area- which I should have assumed but I wasn't sure how good my wireless tie mics were. There are instances in the footage where you can hear Curtis' dogs in the background (he has two huge pit bulls) and when the heat kicks on it definitely creates a hum. Next time, no dogs around and the heat will be off.

2. Curtis is a very good interviewee. We jumped right into the nitty gritty details and he never hesitated and he got better and more comfortable as time went on. This, obviously, will be good for the film.

3. As good as he is, he also moves a lot, causing "scratching" on the mic. I'll have to instruct him to sit as still as possible without making him uncomfortable, as I want him to be natural.

4. My lighting set-up looked pretty good I thought. One thing that is for certain is that the better the lighting, the better my picture will look, specifically in HD. The shots we did outside are outstanding (quality wise).

All in all, I feel very comfortable with where I am at and am excited about our progress. The plan this week will be to sit back down with Curtis and reshoot after making the adjustments listed above. I will probably still use some of the footage from the first interview, but like I said, it was basically just a test run. I am confident moving forward now that we got that out of the way. We will look to interview Curtis' father next week, so we are moving right along.

Below you can see a little mini-trailer I put together using some of the footage. Make sure to click on the little gear icon to switch it to full HD (it looks better).This was really just an attempt to throw some things together to see how they looked and sounded, but it turned out pretty good, for what it is. A little background music goes a long way towards improving audio, although this could definitely still use some cleaning up. At any rate, it's short and simple but interesting and it introduces us to Curtis. Here it is:


I will have a good portion of the "Intro" segment of the film done by next week following the next round of interviews with Curtis. Things are going good!

On another note, I am also scheduled to shoot a music video this upcoming weekend with a friend of mine that goes by the stage name "Komain". I will have, at the very least, some screenshots from that project up in this blog in the next week as well. Moving forward and feeling good, stay tuned!!!

Keeping Up With The Jones

It has been an interesting week as it relates to this project. For starters, I have been able to purchase all (I think all) of the equipment I will need. I purchased the camera itself last week and this week I was able to locate and buy another lens that will I will use a lot. I also purchased a wireless clip-on tie microphone system, complete with receiver, so that my audio will be as good as it can be. I spent a lot of time looking for a new lighting system but just didn't find anything I really liked (I can't stand the florescent light sets) so I'm just going to use the lights I have already, which are hot lights but I like the warmth of their color. The last piece I was able to acquire is a new external hard drive that I plan on using exclusively for this project. I also ordered the book on making documentary and reality films recommended by Prof. Eric Souther. With that, I think I have all that I will need to make this project happen. From a strategic standpoint, I think I have loosely determined the direction we are going to go with this film. I've decided to break it into four different sections so that I can tackle one at a time (although some of it will overlap, of course). The four sections are as follows: The Introduction- I want to open the film by introducing the viewer to Curtis (the star of the show, in case you have forgot). I think that since it is his story it is important to understand who he is and what his motivation is for taking this journey. We will briefly cover his childhood, his high school years, his shooting and the aftermath of that, and where he is today, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. That will set the stage for the next section. The Investigation- This will be where we really dig into his family history. We have started preliminary investigations and have already unearthed some cool stuff, like this:

This is a census record showing that Fred Jones (Curtis's grandfather) was a plumber for the city. Under Fred's name you see the names of his children, one of which is "Curtis", which is our Curtis's father. I've highlighted the area to make it easier to locate. Also, if you click on the thumbnail, it will show a larger shot of the census. Once we have gathered enough info, we will move into the next section. The Journey- This will be the actual trip that we make to explore the plantation(s) that Curtis' family was enslaved at. Not exactly sure where this will be but based on family legend we think we may end up in Virginia. We will visit the area, visit the local historical center, etc, before culminating with a visit to the actual land. Really, this is the meat of the film. The plan is to take this trip during spring break. The Conclusion- This will be something we film a few days or weeks after the trip itself (time willing), so that Curtis will really have a chance to decompress and think about the journey we have taken. This, I suppose, will be where we find our "final message", although I'm not sure what that will be. That is is the beauty of it! We plan on beginning filming this week on the introduction, so hopefully by this time next week we will have some footage to look at. I am feeling good about where I'm at and confident that this will all come together. Stay tuned!

Project Ideas

I have a couple of different ideas right now for this semester. The first project that I am working on will probably take the longest but hopefully will be the best. It is a documentary tentatively titled Keeping Up With The Jones' featuring a friend of mine named Curtis Jones. The basic concept of the movie is that we are going to trace his families history back into the days of slavery. We are then planning on visiting the actual plantation that his great-great-great grandfather was enslaved on. Here's some background:

Curtis is mixed (black and white) but identifies, I think, as black. Growing up he was a fighter, as in literally fighting, and got caught up in all that is the streets. Around 2000 Curtis was shot nine times outside of a 7-11 but survived. The incident caused a sort of spiritual awakening in him and he has spent the last decade pursuing knowledge in all forms, independently studying religion and politics along with history, which brings us to this project. He has a deep interest in researching his family's history, he sees it as a spiritual journey. He is also passionate about African American issues and believes that slavery, in many ways, helped set the table for the cycle of poverty and violence that many blacks find themselves in today, specifically in the inner-city where he came from. I make that last point because those issues will no doubt come up in this film.

Outside of Curtis, we will also be interviewing his father, who is around 80 years old and grew up in Mississippi (with Elvis Presley, none the less), so his childhood experience was centered around racism in many ways as he experienced the Jim Crow era in the deep south. We will also be interviewing other family members that we determine to have pertinent information for this film. We will be making a trip down south to wherever we end up, and my hope is that we will secure interviews with some of the local historians and then in a PERFECT world we would get an interview of some sort with the family that still owns the plantation. According to family legend, the same family still lives there, although we will have to confirm this through our research. We may also try and interview an IU South Bend professor or two to provide some historical perspective, as it becomes necessary.

In the end, I'm not exactly sure what we will find or where this will take us, instead I am just along for the ride, so I don't know that I can speak to it's purpose or message. That, I think, will be determined by the events as the unfold, but I hope that it can be a powerful depiction of one man's journey back through time. At this point, I have met with Curtis and held preliminary talks on what direction to go and I purchased a new camera that shoots in HD for the filming. We plan to begin shooting this weekend at Curtis' home in Michigan, where he currently resides.