Week 9

This week we did not have a film shoot schedule, so it was quite quiet. Druscilla and I officially launched our Indiegogo campaign. It will last 45 days and our goal is to raise $500 and have the unused funds donated to SkyWatch Bird Rescue.

Druscilla created a Facebook page and we have already had 62 people like Waterfowl(ed)'s page. I hope to build a stronger following because we have only received one donation so far. We were able to begin most of our Marketing and Distribution assignment.

We are still having issues contacting Dr. Gynp for an interview. We have collected enough footage to support my documentary, but I would still like her insight available to add if needed. While editing our footage, I have thought of a lot more b-roll that needs to be included in the film such as fishing, drains, retention ponds, and feeding geese bread.

Druscilla confirmed and scheduled our reshoot with Amelia at SkyWatch Bird Rescue for November 8th. The interview footage was fine, but we need to reshoot b-roll. Luckily I have had time to think more thoroughly about what story I wish to tell through Waterfowl(ed). Amelia will be the main focus holding the academic narrative together. For our next b-roll shoot at SkyWatch, we will capture Amelia's daily routine while caring for injured birds, the grounds, and more of Isabella, the swan.

Week 8

This week we accomplished a lot towards Waterfowl(ed). On Tuesday, we filmed Dr. Mallin, who researches freshwater quality and pollution. I believe his professional insight will provide a greater depth to this film. The only issue with this shoot was the 'humming' room tone in his laboratory, which we used as the interview location.

We also scheduled our film shoot 'road trip' to Charlotte this week. We left Thursday afternoon and Druscilla's family was very welcoming and allowed us to stay for the night. Very early the next morning, we finally filmed our sunrise b-roll. It was absolutely stunning and I'm extremely happy with the footage. However, we did have some issues regarding our sound recording. Our XLR cable created a terrible buzzing sound, so we had to use the shotgun mic for the remainder of filming.

Later that day, we drove to Carolina Waterfowl Rescue to film our interview with Jennifer Gordon. This was the most difficult shoot I've had to deal with yet. Setting up the lighting at the barn location was extremely stressful due to the loud ambient noise of the surrounding rescue birds. We collected a massive amount of b-roll!

The only film shoots left to schedule include an interview with Dr. Gynp (a vetinarian who works closely with SkyWatch Bird Rescue), b-roll of retention ponds, feeding geese, drains, fishing, and a reshoot of b-roll at Skywatch Bird Rescue.

Week 7

This week we rescheduled our "sunrise" shoot at Greenfield Lake Park for Friday morning. To our misfortune, the second we set up the camera, it began to pour down rain. We left with no footage and numerous mosquito bites. We will have to reschedule this b-roll shoot yet again, but I think I will change it to a "sunset" shoot to make scheduling much easier (plus we can sleep in).

We have also scheduled Dr. Mallin's interview for Tuesday afternoon and we hope his expertise in environmental water quality will create more depth to our film. Druscilla is still trying to get in contact with Dr. Gynp to schedule an interview. She has already confirmed she was interested.

We will be traveling to Charlotte to interview Carolina Waterfowl Rescue this weekend. Their facilities, although damaged from the hurricane, are very impressive and they have an abundance of waterfowl patients. On their Facebook page, they posted a video of Casper, a goose, who lost his entire beak. We hope we can use him as our "recovery story" because although he was severely injured, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue believed he had the strength to survive. The video showed Casper eating food, despite not having a beak.

Week 6

This week we planned on filming our 'sunrise' shoot, but due to the hurricane storms we had to postpone it. However, we did schedule an interview with the Chair of Wilmington Ducks Unlimited, Chris Coleman. The interview went very well and Druscilla did an excellent job finding a suitable office location on campus within a few days notice.  I plan on editing together a rough cut of both Amelia and Chris’ interviews this weekend.

I plan on shooting some additional B-roll this coming week, if fair weather will permit us to do so. We will be filming our ‘sunrise’ shoot at Greenfield Lake Park, filming additional lake footage (and possibly kids feeding wild waterfowl) at Hugh McCrae park, and filming a retention pond in my neighborhood at Marsh Oaks.

We are also planning our road trip film shoot to Charlotte to interview Carolina Waterfowl Rescue. Druscilla has confirmed that our film date will be Friday, Oct 16^th. We will drive to Charlotte the night before and stay at Druscilla’s parents’ home in kind. Carolina Waterfowl Rescue is a larger organization and we believe they will add more depth to the narrative construction for this documentary without overriding the focus on Amelia Mason.

Another goal this week is to complete our Indiegogo campaign to begin raising the necessary funds for this documentary.