Moving Forward
Weekly Report 04/03/2018 to 04/09/2018
This past week I have been working on looking for new contacts for my final product. I reached out to two congressmen who were unable to participate due to the tight time frame and their traveling between Texas and Washington D.C., and my old neighbor who owns multiple firearms and regularly hunts for sport. Although I asked if the congressmen might be able to send me video clips of their answers to my questions, I am doubtful they will write back. However, my neighbor eventually got back to me and I was able to meet with him over the weekend at his house. His interview was very insightful and more definitively right wing than the others, which will provide a clearer platform for the anti gun control side of the film. Mr. Jim Miille was able to show me his gun safe and the collection of firearms held within; this was particularly interesting and informative for both me and the documentary. He also offered to take me shooting sometime, which may be neat to film as well.
For the future, I am meeting with my mentor later this week to discuss how I can find contacts for the liberal voice in this documentary. The congressmen and walkout protestors whom I have contacted so far have not been as responsive for a number of reasons, and I am having difficulty in locating more in general. I am hoping that my mentor will have some guidance for where I can find contacts as well as how I should structure the framework of the video; if the interviews become more conservative than liberal, I may rebrand the documentary to be specific to Texas and its local beliefs.
In addition, I have been slowly building my business, Whiteboard Videos by Ellie. For this, I have included links to past videos which I have created for my mum challenge, the Frisco Arts grants presentation, and other school projects. This week, I decided to help Masaraat Asif, an ISM student with her final product being a donation drive for Project LifePack, by creating a whiteboard video to use as advertisement for her fundraiser. I enjoyed editing this quick, explanatory video, which had me thinking more about which topic I will be studying next year in the ISM program. Although I do love video marketing, this seems to be an exclusive niche, and it may be more beneficial for me to study creative advertising as a whole. I would like to learn more about marketing practices as well as branding tactics rather than exclusively choosing to study video advertising and restrict myself to film. This question may be answered next year, but for now, I am conducting very light research on which area of study is best for me.