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My First Time Attending the Cucalorus Film Festival! - 11/12/17

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This weekend was the 23rd Annual Cucalorus Film Festival held in Downtown Wilmington. It was first year going, partially for the assignment but mainly because I had not been before, and I wanted to before I graduated in the spring next year. I had a great time, going to more things than I thought I actually would and really seeing a little bit of what people love about going to Cucalorus every year. The first thing I went to was the opening reception for the festival at Pour Taproom on Wednesday evening. I meant to go to the kickoff party the previous night, but I thought it was also on Wednesday night, so I missed out on that one. So this event was a small social event where people could drink beer and wine and talk with other filmmakers before the start of the festival. I had a good chat with some good acquaintances: Patrick Aycock, a guy who I met around March or April helping with a Directing class project he did and graduated in May, and Sean Gallagher, someone I have known for ...
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2nd Charlotte Trip

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This weekend Knox and I went back to Charlotte to shoot some B-roll and an interview. Yesterday (Saturday) started by going to the UNC Charlotte campus to film around the Theatre department there where Irina spent a lot of time. This woman who works there took us through various rooms in the building, including the Black Box Theatre and Auditorium that was super nice. We took some more shots around the building and that part of campus before leaving. After that we went through Irina's last day, going everywhere she did. I think there was a gas station, the river, a Wendy's, a bank. We also went through a trail, evading thorns and such in all directions as we went down to where Irina died and got B-roll all through the walk. As the sound person, I mainly just got tones of the settings and anything else that interested me (because recording tones gets boring fast and isn't needed for long), although I did occasionally hold the camera, particularly for some driving shots...
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10/29/17 - Trip to Chapel Hill

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Yesterday (Saturday, the 28th), Taylor, Knox and I took a day trip to Chapel Hill to film for our 495 project. Brittany was unable to make the shoot due to her job, which is understandable. We were supposed to get an interview with Irina's high school English teacher and get some B-roll of the high school campus and maybe some other spots in Chapel Hill, but things did not entirely go to plan. We all drove separate, which was fine because Taylor was from the area and was staying for the weekend anyways and I was staying with some friends that go to UNC, but no one bothered to tell me where I was supposed to be until less than a half hour before I was supposed to leave. What kind of film production does that? Even with some lesser organized sets that I've worked on in that end, they at least would give call sheets the night before where I had some time to plan. Nope, not here. All I knew was that we were going to Chapel Hill until right before I left. Then the really frustr...
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Blog Post 10/20/17 - My Thoughts on Doing Work Outside of My Position

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Greetings! This week, we have been trying to reach out to more contacts to try securing more interview subjects. I was asked by the director (Knox) if I would help reaching out to two people who worked on a memorial for our documentary subject (Irena) in ALASKA (of all places). I complied, but it was more of me just wanting to help Knox manage all of this he's trying to do for the documentary, rather than actually wanting to do those kind of tasks. I managed to message the person who did artwork for the memorial, but I could not find any contact information for the person who actually headed up the memorial. For me, it is not laziness (or just not wanting to do it) that turns me off from wanting to do things for the project like reaching out to possible interview subjects. It annoys me to be asked to do such things because they are outside of what my job is. I am the Sound Mixer. I am the last person that should be reaching out to interview subjects. That has absolutely nothing...
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Blog Post 10/15/17

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Small things have been going on this past week with our documentary. I know Knox and Taylor have both been working on getting more information and possible interview subjects. Taylor's been trying to get in contact with Irena's poetry group that she was heavily involved in. The interview footage and B-roll from the other weekend when we all went to Charlotte should be about ready to be presented in class This week has been a slower one in the progress of the film but productive nonetheless. As for me, I have hard at work on other projects including a production schedule due on Tuesday for my Producing class, doing sound design for someone's 495 narrative project from last semester, a script for my tv writing class, maintaining the social media pages and website for Flicker Film Society, my FST 497 edit, my weekly podcast, and FST 376. I realize 495 is supposed to be considered my top priority, but to me it is one of the many things I'm doing. I still give it my ...
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Blog Post - 10/8/17

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Not much has been going on this past week due to Fall Break going on and everyone being separated, but the project has not completely stalled. The footage from last weekend's shoot in Belmont and Charlotte is being looked through and compiled for the interview and b-roll presentation tomorrow. From the three shot interviews and the b-roll from the river, along with what was shot at the very beginning of the semester, there is plenty of footage that can be presented tomorrow. I am confident Knox will have that all ready. Nothing will be sound designed at this time. That probably will not happen until we have a cut assembled of the film, which probably will not be for a few weeks at least. I know for me that will be a real challenge to time out with the other projects I have going on for FST 497 (Applied Post Production where we spend the semester editing someone's 495 narrative film from the previous semester) and sound designing another person's short film, both requiri...
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Blog Post 10/1/17

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A very eventful week! We filmed this past weekend in Belmont and Charlotte. Two interviews were shot as well as some B-roll. We arrived on Friday night and stayed at our director Knox's house in Belmont. All shooting took place on Saturday. We started with the interviews in uptown Charlotte around 10:30am. We had one with the journalist that covered the case of Irena's death for the Charlotte Observer, one with the photojournalist Todd Sumlin, and one with them both together. The individual interviews covered things like their observations on the case, and the one with them both together was more of them looking at some photos Todd took and recounting their experiences covering the case. After the interviews, we shot the B-roll. We went to the river near Knox's house in Belmont where we got on Blake's boat (Blake was a friend of Knox and acted as our PA) and cruised along the river for a little while capturing footage. The crew tried to find where Irena died, and ...
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