Week 6

For this past week we mostly focused on looking at our footage and sound and discussing how our first interview went. We talked about what worked and didn't work as we started looking at the b-roll and listening to the sound. Overall, the sound didn't turn out terrible. There was a bit of background noise, but that was probably just because we were in a big warehouse and it's tough to cancel out all sound. It was a learning experience, and we're eager to keep learning, especially this weekend for our next interview with the illegal "in the woods" style of moonshining. 

This weekend should be a good weekend for making progress on our film. Saturday we are going back to the distillery to get footage of the monthly open house that they have. They have food and there should be a ton of people, which will add a lively aspect to our b-roll of the customers that this distillery has. Sunday will be great, as we are heading to Dunn, NC to film our subject, Alex, and his family. It will be interesting to see a different side of the moonshine industry!

I'm looking forward to the progress we will make and have been making and look forward to really start editing and bringing our documentary to life. 

Week 5

This past weekend we filmed our first interview! It was very exciting and overall I think it went very well. Before shooting and during the first days of pre-production, I think we were all a little nervous for how our shooting would go just because none of us are super experienced in camera or sound. It was definitely a learning experience, but now that we have the first day of production over with, I think we all feel more comfortable in this project. It helped that our first subject, Don Walton of Walton's Distillery in Jacksonville, NC, was very compliant and eager to help us with whatever we needed. Before we even began shooting, he gave us a full tour with so many details of having a distillery and distilling moonshine. His interview went well, but I am nervous to see how the sound turned out. I filled in as the sound recorder this week and having very little background knowledge, I was definitely nervous. We worked as a team, though, and in the end I think we figured everything out just fine. I am excited to see this first part of our footage come together for next class and eager to film our "in the woods" moonshine experience and interview next weekend (2/26).

Week 4

This week has been good for our group. We were able to solidify one interview at Walton's Distillery for tomorrow, Friday, February 10 and another one for the weekend of February 25/26, but we are still working out the details for that since it will be a tougher and more personal interview with a family of moonshiners. We unfortunately weren't able to get up to Walton's this past week to get b-roll but we feel it wasn't completely necessary since we will be there all day tomorrow filming. We didn't see any use in going and getting b-roll simply for the assignment that we would probably not use in our final cut and instead look forward to having plenty of time to film tomorrow. I think all of us are pretty excited in the direction we are going but we still a few more people to get in touch with and set an interview time for.

Week 3

This week I'd say our group made pretty good progress. We worked hard on figuring out all of the stylistic details as far as camera equipment and sound equipment go, especially because we weren't as prepared last discussion past class. I think we are all eager and looking forward to learning the camera since none of us have any significant camera experience or knowledge. As far moving forward with this project, we have a little bit more to do with our experts, as we have contacted a few and are still in between communication figuring out details.