Please pray

I'm praying for inspiration. I need to come up with a working title for my senior project documentary so we can get fundraising moving on kickstarter.com.

The project is this: an investigation into the effects/results of the community development projects in El Callejon, focusing on the women (i.e. social work site, for those of you who are familiar with Students International). I want to feature a couple of the women in the community and tell their stories about how the women's center has affected their lives.

I need to come up with a catchy way to pitch the project--a phrase or a sentence or two.

And a title. Something interesting and short. I don't mind having something slightly vague because it'll give us a little freedom to see how the project develops in editing.

Any suggestions? Facebook me or call or text me if you have my number.

We need to complete this in just a couple days :/ Grr...this is tough. Please pray!

Meet the crew

It's begun. The wheels are turning. The clock is ticking. Plans are being laid, phone calls made, plane tickets bought, emails sent, budgets outlined, lists written, and I'm nervous.

My senior project is in motion!

I'm nervous because, although I know what I want to shoot (a documentary), where I want to shoot (El Callejon, in the Dominican Republic), and the people I want to include (Daisy, Kimberly and hopefully a woman from the community), I don't yet know what form this project will take or what my exact themes are. And I should know; I'm the director. My May 2012 graduation is riding on this 10-minute documentary piece.

But one thing of which I am very confident is my team. I'm blessed to know some pretty fantastic people through Regent, three of which I asked to join me on this project.

Meet Liz Ebert, producer/sound recorder:

Liz is from Virginia Beach, is a sophomore at Regent, and is a dear friend and confidant. She is also one of the best student film producers I know. We met for the first time this past semester and just clicked. I love her no-nonsense attitude, her dry sense of humor, her mad organizational skills, her serious work ethic, and her crazy ability to just get things done. Need a hard-to-get location? Call Liz. Need someone to keep a crew in line? Call Liz. Having a bad day and need to vent about it? Call Liz, but leave the boy-girl drama back in high school where it belongs. Yup, she's awesome :)

Meet Dan Jeter, director of photography/1st camera operator:

I met Jeter in class the fall of 2010 and only worked with him on a couple of small projects. However, I've seen some of his other work--and it's good! Jeter is a perfect addition to my team because he's not only a skilled filmmaker with a knack for storytelling and a fountain of creative visual ideas, but he's also fluent in Spanish, has a background in cross-cultural missions and has valuable experience in the documentary genre. He made a documentary for his own senior project last year, and it was one of ten projects selected to be shown in the Regent student film showcase. 

Meet Zach Yokum, 2nd camera operator/still photographer:

Zach is a junior at Regent and one of the most experienced cameramen in the undergrad department. I ended up working on camera teams with Zach on several projects this past semester and really liked his work. Zach has a valuable blend of technical know-how and artistic craft, as well as the ability to think on his feet and improvise--all of which are necessary when shooting a documentary because you can catch or miss crucial story elements in the blink of an eye. I knew if Zach was on my team I wouldn't have to worry about the picture, which gives me freedom as a director to focus on content.


So, the four of us will be flying down to the Dominican Republic mid-February to shoot my senior project in four days. Currently there are a lot of logistical kinks to be ironed out, meaning that Liz and I are a little stressed, but I'm truly excited to work with these people. I think the project is going to be a challenging, but good, experience for all of us.