Looking Toward the Stars

Daniel Reichart gave two other DTHers and I a tour of the planetarium and a demonstration of UNC's involvement in a series of telescopes are changing the way people can access data from space.

I'm supposed to create a multimedia piece from my footage, but we'll see how well that goes. Not much happened. The most interesting part of the tour took place on a screen, which is not very interesting to a video camera. I know I have to get an interview piece because the tour narration alone will not thread the story together. Unfortuantely, that cannot happen until Wednesday.

I like these two photos, though, and this experience would have been better documented by photos alone, as can be seen in the accompanying photographer's resulting photos. How this turns out will be up in the air.

Post-graduation Life

Kavita and I had not talked in about a month and a half, so we decided to finally catch each other about our summer lives over some drinks. In the meantime, she became the start of what I hope to continue forever: a photo diary. As simple as it may seem, the more you shoot, the better you are. I know my work is good but I just the experience to make it better and to find the Ryan Jones style the world of photojournalism just can't live without.

In the process, I hope to do portraits of people that mean the world to me. Most of my friends will disperse in the coming months due to graduating, and I want to have great images to honor their pressences in my life. I love them all dearly and hope the images do them all justice.

Silent Partners

This installation of In Their Boots focuses on the gay and lesbian partners of deployed military workers and how their relationships and lives must remain secret thanks to Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

You meet three people: two gay civilian partners of deployed military workers and one non-deployed lesbian soldier dating a deployed one. Their stories are heart-wrenching, and captivating. If your eyes do not widen in shock when the second storyteller reveals his deployed partner was misinformed about his death but could not call to invalidate the information, then the whole piece will be lost on you. Besides the actual dishonorable discharge, that is DADT at its worst, which is brutal.

While the subjects and access blow typical documentary expectations out the water, the footage leaves me wanting more, especially the blurred scenes. The anonymity of these participants should be and were obviously the first concerns of the project workers, but there are various ways to approach subjects without giving away their identity.

In this case, certain shots are rendered useless because the attempt at protecting identities destroys the purpose of the scenes altogether (plus they even left the blur strips on footage that didn't require them). The tight face shot of the "Gay Solider's Husband" could not reveal the intended concentration, so why even include it? The final blurred result revealed nothing.

Varying the compositions, playing with body language and using silhouettes could have provided more visually dynamic shots while maintaining anonymity of those involved and the approachability of this work.

One of the best examples of such an approach to an unidentifiable subject I have seen was done by Eileen Mignoni, a graduated masters student from UNC. She forced her compositions to both hide and tell the story of an illegal immigrant currently living in the US and fearing to be deported, which would leave her American citizen daughter behind. To see this piece, go here:

http://facingdeportation.org/?page_id=6

A possible chance to merge these two types of works has appeared. I stumbled upon a deployed queer solider dating an undeployed one, and asked him about his story. I, as a queer and interested photojournalist, wanted to know more than anything why dealing with DADT was worth it.

"As far as the lies are considered, if that is what it takes, then yeah. I love my country and him. He feels the same way, so we do what we do. Serving is a sacrifice... each person has there own sacrifice. This is ours," he responded.

His calm, yet firm assurance in his duty instantly drew a desire to document he and his partner's lives. They live not far from my hometown, and I could spend time there while working on this project. I asked him about the possibility but he has not responded yet. It is a lot to ask of hidden people but I hope he realizes how important his story could be especially with so much recent contention over dissolving DADT.

I know I have posted a lot of possibilities on this blog but this one I want more than anything.

Access Denied

At our pre-budget meeting for the Daily Tar Heel today, I felt great walking in with an idea that could possibly turn out extremely well. The feeling only grew when surprisingly the features editor requested a multimedia that had to be done tonight. While I hate rushed projects, documenting the closing of an iconic movie theatre on Franklin St. closing seemed interesting.

Unfortunately, my documentation of an ended era soon met the same fate at the theatre. A person greeted at the door and took me to the owner of The Varsity once he heard my request. I feared this encounter because he was already ignoring every other press member trying to reach him, but I had every intention of fighting for my right to be there.

He simply said no. I could only video the marquis because they were having a farewell party in the lobby, which was a private engagement they did not want disturbed (I was secretly screaming that it's also something that would be great to document. Plus, a series of reactions and goodbyes would have been beautiful from the people who worked and supported the theatre for all these years.)

After devastating my cause, he just walked away, leaving me with the rest of the part goers starring at me. One told me the owner refused to talk any press after the last time the family lost a theatre. People hounded their phone lines and "ruined their lives" somehow. Since then, they haven't given an inch of access to the media.

I took my leave and returned my equipment to the office containing my editor. He called them jerks, which made me laugh and want to agree with that idea; however, I know that hatred or at least fear for the media people experience. It has reared its ugly head in almost every project I have done. People seem to think we're out to exploit them by creating a false image and auctioning it off to the highest bidder.

A lot of that, I feel, derives from the paparazzi hounding celebrities while hiding in secret locales and waiting for their next move. It's an image people have to banish from their minds when it comes to true journalists. At the same time, we have to be persistent with our causes yet respectful of their wishes and uneasiness. It's a fine line to walk, but we all have to do it if these needed stories are ever going to be heard.

Bolshoi Experience

Weeks after my first video completion, I found the time and subject to do another. I feel extremely bad for not having the ability to do these assignments for a publication that is actually paying me, but the one not doing so wore me out completely. Fortunately, part of the work was done for me this time, because the assignment came to me from the arts desk editor. She wanted to see a multimedia project done on the Bolshoi since their presence in Chapel Hill meant a lot more than the fact they were performing two ballets.

I gladly agreed, as you can see, and found myself enjoying the experience. The best part was photographing Swan Lake, hands down. Besides being beyond pleased with the resulting images, I really enjoyed seeing these performers grace the stage and living up to their world renown.

I just wished I had been able to cover the Don Quijote performance, as well, for both the experience and photos. Instead, I had to use another staffer's photographs that did not impress me too much. They worked, but I just wanted to see angles and a closeness to the performers you cannot have by just sitting in the audience, the kind of experience photography and and video should bring.

The Carolina Performing Arts (and I'm sure the Bolshoi) would not allow me to video the two performances, causing me to need their footage. It looks grainy and small because they had already edited the piece together and compressed it for distribution. When I compressed it again for this project, it gave that result.

Despite those hiccups, I enjoyed the experience greatly. I hope to provide many more pieces before the summer goes up, but we will see. The one for this week failed, but I have hope for a mini-documentary piece this coming week. *crosses fingers*

Banned Bliss

Part of my summer adventures has included being the Multimedia Editor for the Daily Tar Heel. I took it out of the need to make some money this summer and not kill all the time needed for my internship. Before this, I had very, very little experience with video. I only used it for transitions in for my documentary project. But with that experience and my knowledge of visual storytelling, I knew I could handle it.

The first week of being editor went by so quickly after the semester ended, I could not manage a story. Then, I just had to do one for the second, and the above video was the result. I'm quite proud of it, especially for my first full video. Everyone had nothing but great things to say, which felt awesome.

The experience, while educational, was not completely enjoyable. I simply walked into the Hookah Bliss and asked the owner if I could do a story on his store as a visual explanation of the legislation that passed and what it meant for the establishments involved. He agreed without hesitation, and I showed up the next day ready to document.

Only the owner and various operators occupied the store most of the time I filmed. They filled their conversations with quite a deal of stereotypical hetero man talk, which included some queer slurs. I was getting pissed at those, but, surprisingly, the owner would shush them each time they uttered the insults (I think he knew my identity. The rainbow-strapped camera bag could have given it away).

His persistence of ending ignorance failed, however, when sexism arose in the conversations. One customer finally drifted in and bringing irritating baggage with him. He discussed sex, specifically about contraception and his wholehearted belief that women should have to take birth control. "Fuck their hormones, I don't care if they have to take a pill. I don't want to have to take it out on my 'guy'," were his exact words.

The patriarchal views made me pack up within minutes--even when I was worried about not having enough, non-visually redundant footage. I may not have been able to step in and berate him due to the photojournalist-subject relationship in place, but I didn't have to be there and further the owner's cause against this legislation if he promoted such hate speech.

So, I left to spend a night of American Idol and editing in the Daily Tar Heel office. Seeing the first out queer come so close to winning it all was much more rewarding along with the realization that I had plenty of footage to create a tightly edited, nicely shot video.