The Search for Truth

The Semester Comes to an End

2006-12-05T15:07:00.000-08:00

Everything is finally done! I just need to get copies of our production stills from Kristin to put into my notebook. She has them printed for me.. and we are meeting tomorrow at noon to cue up our tapes to the footage that we want to show.

Unfortunately, we didnt get to take some of the sound out of our B-roll tape... so it may be best if you watch it without the sound... we didnt really know the sound was recording during our first outing... you know.. the "great" handheld work we showed in class the first time we showed footage. We made sure we used the tripod after that! haha

Anyways, I cant believe tomorrow is the last day of classes! YAHHHH!!!!!!!!!! What a crazy semester. I'm actually going to miss our class... but I must say that I'm sure ready for this semester to end. Now I have to move out of my house in this next week and then Dec. 19th I have to get all 4 wisdom teeth cut out! The things I have to look foward to... I swear my schedule never ends! Anyways, I guess I will see everybody tomorrow night! Until then...

Self-Reflexive Interviews

2006-12-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

So, Kristin and I recorded our self-reflexive interviews last night. I never want to see myself on-camera again! I definitely prefer to be behind the camera. Anyways, everything went well... and we had like 3 minutes left on the tape... so, we shot some B-roll of my Christmas tree and the wreath on my door (possibly to use with our anonymous interview #1).

We ended up not going to the editing lab to work on the archival tape... just because we didnt feel like dealing with those computers again. We figure that the first few weeks of class in advanced editing next semester we will have time to print an archival tape. Especially, since we will have an external hard drive by then... and we can ask Monahan about formatting different videos. But, Kristin has all of the footage that we want to use in her journal... so you can check some of the videos out if you want online at archive.org. She has all the addresses written out. There's this video of a party with girls drinking and a guy putting something in a girls drink.... so we have our party scene with drunk girls that we didnt get to get this weekend. Anyways, we also figure the first few weeks of editing, most people in the class are going to spend time watching footage... and we already know our footage... so we feel we will have some extra time.

We would still like to get Capt Matthews... its a shame that he cancelled twice, but we understand that he has to respond to calls. Also, we are still trying to get the Rape Crisis Center and Detective Lisa Savitts. These are the final 3 interviews that we are going to continue to work on getting this semester... and even the beginning of next semester.... because we know these people are all interesting in helping, its just a matter of them fitting us into their schedules. I'm still shocked that we were never able to get the Crisis Center, especially since everyone that we have interviewed said they would help us out with them.

We are turning in 6 completed tapes since that is the requirement... but we started a 7th tape last night in which we read some interesting facts from our notes and also read some news stories from around the US dealing with sex crimes. Kristin has alot of good stories in her journal. We kind of envision this montage of news stories at some point in our documentary of all these missing women/rape cases... For example (just locally) we have the Fibbers story, downtown at the federal building, Jessica Faulkner story, and the Duke Scandal. We want to create this chaotic world thru these images. There has to be some way to format this videos for Final Cut... right?

Anyways, we also have our personal release forms from all of our interviewees... we were just going to hand those in (in one of our notebooks)... not unless we need to make copies. It seems like our binders are almost complete. We made copies of our video logs this morning. I guess now we just need to figure out what footage we want to show on Wednesday night.

Nothing Accomplished Today

2006-12-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

So we accomplished pretty much nothing today. We got in the editing lab at 2pm... and didnt find a computer that worked properly until 4pm. As we started to capture footage, after 20 minutes, we realized that there wasnt enough space on the computer. So I guess we need an external harddrive.... but we are both so frustrated at this point and were thinking is it absolutely necessary that we copy all of our tapes, considering that we will be editing it next semester?

To be quite honest, I dont understand why they still havent got better computers and equipment in the film editing lab. It pisses me off that the Communications Dept has 2 editing labs with brand new iMac computers, and the students dont even know how to use them. Trust me, I know... Ive dealt with alot of incompetence the past few weeks. They dont even have "editing" classes.... and we do! Also, the theatre dept... why do they need better computers than us???? It just doesnt make sense to me. It seems like they would want to build up the Film Dept. Anyways, I'm asking for an iMac desktop for Christmas, so that I dont learn to hate editing just because of the schools' crappy computers... that dont work. Seriously, half of the computers in that lab have something wrong with them. Kristin and I both left today with a headache!

Also, I guess all archival footage that we use must be in quicktime format in order for it to be useable in final cut. So, that definitely cut down alot of the footage that we have found previously. The ones that were .mov we were able to import into Final Cut... and we plan on making our archived tape tomorrow. Just not with all the stuff that we thought we were going to be able to use because some is in windows media format. And I guess Google videos dont work as well? Or do they? Or is it the school's computers? Sorry, I'm just really pissed off after being in that editing lab!

So, I guess my biggest question is do we really need to make copies if we are going to edit anyways next semester? we are both already signed up for the course and we are not going to drop it. So is it absolutely necessary... and if it is I guess we have no choice but to go buy a hard drive tomorrow and just deal with the crappy computers in the editing lab (well the few that actually work, that is, if no one else is using those).

A Weekend of Editing Lies Ahead

2006-11-30T15:31:00.000-08:00

I just got done typing my Internship Paper for Cucalorus. It brought tears to my eyes thinking about all the good times I had interning this semester. I must say that this has certainly been my hardest semester yet, but I have accomplished ALOT... and it can all go on my resume! And I found out today that the 30 minute game show that I produced for my television production class is getting aired on UNCW television next semester. Its a movie trivia show... and Joel is the host. Its worth a watch... Joel does a GREAT job as the host! haha... and now onto the documentary....

So I went by the Film Studies office today to get access to the Editing lab. I know I will be spending a significant amount of time in their over the weekend. Unfortunately, I don't know if the party that was going to take place at my house this weekend is still going on... Well, it may be happening, just not at our place. And if it is happening, I'm probably not invited. There have been some roommate issues... needless to say, it has been a tense week in my house and I think I will be moving out by the end of this month. So, we may have to find another way of getting drunk girls for B-roll.

Tomorrow we get equipment at noon and we are getting our establishing shot of the UNCW library... or an establishing shot on campus somewhere. And ofcourse we have our interview with Connie Jordan. I'm super excited about this one!

We are also going to be working on getting our binders together. I have tons of notebook paper with notes and interview questions and ideas written down on them... so i am going to try and type up as much stuff as I can so that it can be nicely organized in our binder.

Take The Road Less Traveled

2006-11-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

That's great news that we can get access to the editing lab! Me and Kristin will go by the film office tomorrow. And now for an update:

Capt. Matthews never got back up with us yesterday to reschedule once again. He knows our deadline, so he should. However, we did hear back from the DA Connie Jordan who specializes in sexual assault cases. She is going to be able to give us the stats that we want. Anyways, we have an interview with her at 2pm on Friday! This is a BIG one!

Today we interview Beth Deaton at the Carousel Center on Market St. They specialize in child abuse cases and adolescent sexual assault. This is a different way of looking at the subject... but she is also a nurse and administers rape kits. She also has worked with girls our age... not only children. Anyways, she brought up some good percentages and statistics in her interview. Especially specific facts about sex crimes in New Hanover County. She then took us in an exam room, where we got some B-roll of her explaining the process of a rape kit. She went through it step by step with her. We got footage of it all! She then gave us a rape kit to take home with us, so that we could get even better close-ups. She was a very nice lady, and ofcourse, gave us numbers to 2 more contacts. She also told us that she thought the girls from the Rape Crisis Center were going to come to the meeting. When we first got there, she gave them a call at the office. Unfortunately, they were not in. But, she said that she works closely with all the girls at the Crisis Center, in particular, Jennifer Stansell... who is the head of SART... Sexual Assault Response Team. This is one of the ladies up there that we have been trying to get in touch with. Hopefully, tomorrow Beth will give them a call. She sounded like she really wanted to help us. She also gave us some websites to visit to get some more factual information.

After Beth's interview, we went back to Kristin's apartment and shot some B-roll of a drug test. She got one from her mom this weekend. We were going to shoot some close-ups of the rape kit, but we got in touch with Noelle Spurrier. Noelle is the girl that lives in Holton Place and has dealt with peeping toms again and again... and now owns a gun. She also lived with a girl in the dorms who was drugged and raped. She spoke about all of this in her interview. She also let us get B-roll of her gun. She held it and talked about how it works. So, we had a pretty successful day.

We feel like our biggest problem is deciding when to stop shooting... we just keep getting more contacts... which is a good thing... but at the same time we feel like we have this obligation to get interviews with all these people, especially for the sake of our documentary. We are definitely in this whole new network. Plus, we want to make everyone who has helped us out happy with the final product. The CARE office has even asked if we would give them a copy after its finished, because it might be something they would like to use as an educational tool... to show classes. So things are good... we just need the Crisis Center and a cop.... but I think we are going to be able to get these interviews eventually, I just hope before Dec. 6th. If not, we are still going to see if we can schedule an appt later... because we are so close to getting them, its just a matter of them fitting us into their schedules. But as of tonight we have 6 completed tapes. We still have to get archival footage, our self-reflexive interviews (which we have purposely been saving for last so that we can say anything else that needs to be said), vox pops tomorrow, and B-roll of Paige's party, as well as the interview with Connie Jordan this Friday.

I cant believe the semester is almost over. It sure has been a crazy one. I never realized how consumed I have been with this documentary until now. Its going to be weird being done with shooting.... what am I going to do with myself? Me and Kristin went out to eat dinner tonight (dollar tacos) and were talking about how much time we have put into this project... and also how far we have come... especially since our meltdown when we almost changed our topic! Atleast we can laugh about it. Also, its been a very rewarding experience meeting all these new people and for them to open us to us like they have. I now know what documentary is all about. As much as we have stressed, its been all worth it in the end. We have been really good about staying on top of each other... and making sure we get things done. I just hope we can make it all come together in the editing lab.

Thanksgiving break is over... back to shooting!

2006-11-27T12:42:00.000-08:00

So this morning I met Tony at 8:15am to check out equipment. We interviewed Rebecca Caldwell at 9am. Unfortunately we had some issues with the first mic that was given to us, but we were able to get back in touch with Tony... and he met us back in the equipment room to change out mics. Anyways, the interview went well. It was about 30 minutes. We were supposed to interview Capt Matthews at 3:30pm today, but he said that something came up and would call us back because he can do it later on today.

Tomorrow we have Beth Deaton at 4pm and Noelle at 5:30pm... so everything is coming together. Over the break, Kristin heard back from the Crisis center... they said they would call this week... hopefully, we can get them this wednesday! We should probably call up there tomorrow to confirm. It just seems like we continue to go in circles with them. They may be afraid to take us seriously, since we are students. I just wish they would be as willing as everyone else we have come in contact with. Like I said before, it seems like they would have been the first ones willing to help us with our project.... basing this off of all the wonderful things everyone else has said about the Crisis Center.

Oh, and as for the editing lab. Both Kristin and Joel got back later than expected on Sunday... so we didnt get around to it. But, Joel said that he would let us in! So, our game plan is to edit this Friday and into the weekend. Along with shooting B-roll of Paige's party.

Bad Weather... Good Interview

2006-11-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

So today we couldn't get vox pops due to the weather. However, we did get another 30 minute interview with a college student who was date raped. It is a totally different take on rape in comparison to our first anonymous interview. By the way, this one is anonymous as well. We think that its even more powerful having them anonymous. As we were waiting for our interviewee to show up, I recieved a phone call from Beth Deaton... she works at the Carousel office (next to YMCA)... she's the nurse that I was talking about. Anyways, she said she could get us a rape kit and would definitely let us interview her. I went ahead and set up an interview for next Tuesday at 4pm, since we will already have equipment. I also told her about what we are doing and stressed that we have so many great interviews that refer to the Rape Crisis Center, but we have yet to hear from them. She said that she could help us out with that... so how we have like 5 people on our side trying to help us out! Oh, and by the way, Kristin made another phone call today before our interview to the Crisis Center and this time she left a message on the director's voicemail. Captain Matthews was supposed to be calling today for us as well. We are still hoping for next Wednesday.

We were also thinking that we may end up having 7 tapes... because after today's interview, we only have 6 minutes left on our fourth tape. We still have Caldwell, Matthews, Deaton, and hopefully the Crisis Center.... Along with B-roll of the party and our seperate tape of archival footage. There seems to be alot of stuff, so we will most likely fill a whole tape for archival footage. Oh, and as for Joel... I ran into him today in the library before our interview and forgot to ask him about his card, but I know he will be in town over the break, atleast by this weekend. It shouldnt be a problem. But, I'll let you know if we need help to get in there. Well... I think I am going to do some laudry and start packing. I'm heading back to Gastonia for Thanksgiving. This is the first year since I have been to college that I have actually been home sick. I havent been home since Christmas... so I am so ready to see everyone... and eat plenty of food. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! It will be nice to finally have a break.

Everything is falling into the place... never thought I would say that!

2006-11-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

It's been a very good day for our documentary. This morning I checked my email first thing and got a response back from Rebeccca Caldwell, the director of CARE (works with Dee Casey) and she rescheduled her interview for next Monday morning at 9am. Then, I called Dixon before heading to class to see if she had set up a time we could meet with Rebecca Busch, the clinic manager of Planned Parenthood. She said that we could meet with her today at 1pm. So, we got the interview with Rebecca and everything went well! She said alot of good stuff in her interview and brought up some precautions that she takes that me and Kristin both have not thought of. For example, when shes walking alone and there is a man walking behind her... she will ask the man to cross the street, so that he is no longer walking behind her. She said that this has happened on 2 occassions downtown and when she asked the men were very nice and understood. Yet, me and Kristin were thinking about our generation... if we asked a guy our age to do the same, i doubt we would get the same response. Anyways, she also talked about Planned Parenthood's role in sexual assault. They are there for HIV testing, which seems to be the main concern of the victims they deal with.... as well as unwanted pregnancies and abortion... also, the morning after pill.

She also brought up something interesting to think about. Instead of referring to women who have been raped as victims... they should be referred to as survivors. Also, she discussed many other things that made us both find new definition to rape and what constitutes as rape. Someone talking you into having sex with them is rape, especially in most cases in which the girl is usually under the influence of alcohol or another substance. Anyways, there are so many things I could talk about that went well with her interview, but I won't get into that now... you can see for yourself on our tapes.

But, as we were leaving (loading the car), Rebecca came running outside because she forgot to tell us about the funding Planned Parenthood offers to rape victims. So, we unloaded the camera real quick and went inside and got a short segment of her talking about that. Then, as we tried to leave again, Rebecca came back outside and said that they had a rape kit in the office. So, we went back inside and turns out they didn't have one, but she knew someone who specializes in administering the rape kits. So, she called Beth Deaton (a nurse) and left a message on her voicemail. She also gave us her number and we called shortly after Rebecca and left another voicemail. Hopefully she will get back to us... but it seems like she will. Rebecca was so happy that we were doing a doc on sex crimes... she stressed how impt it is to give back to the community and she thinks we are doing this thru our documentary. It seems like everyone we have interviewed is so happy that someone is finally doing something on the subject. The ironic thing, however, is the fact that everyone we have interviewed has referred us to the Rape Crisis Center and we have yet to get an interview with them. We definitely need this interview to tie everything together, because it seems like they are the biggest help to victims. Upon telling this to Rebecca, she said that she would help us out with trying to get an interview with them.

So at 5pm today, we went to the UNCW Police Dept to meet with Captain Gunnar Matthews (Kristin got us the interview... very impressive). One would think that meeting with the "Captain" would be very intimidating... but everyone was really nice, especially the Captain. He took us to the main conference area so that we could set up. As we were setting up the equipment, we asked him to fill out a personal release form (which we have for all of our interviewees... we take them everywhere we shoot) and then we showed him a list of questions that we were planning on asking. As he was looking over the questions, he told us that he had many many other contacts for us.... great ones that could give us the punishment for sex offenders and could actually provide us with the stats that we have been looking for. We also asked about the Wilmington Police and he laughed and said that he would rather not go there. Apparently, everyone has a problem with the Wilmington Police! Atleast, we have it all on tape.

Anyways, so in the midst of Matthews giving us all these contacts... he gets a call that he had to take immediately. Unfortunately, he had to cancel at the last minute... but he rescheduled with us right then for next Monday at 3:30pm. But, because he felt bad he said that he would call the DIRECTOR of the RAPE CRISIS center for us tomorrow... (Amy Feath)... and he would try to set us up something. SO, now we have Rebecca, Gunnar Matthews, and Dee trying to help us out with that. We are also going to call again tomorrow. But, the captain said that they always take his phone calls and listen to him for some reason.... I wonder why? haha.

Oh, we got some good B-roll of a board in the back of the police department that has every different police patch/badge for each county in NC. We did this while Matthews took his phone call.

Also, he gave us probably one of the biggest legal contacts we could get... Connie Jordan, a local D.A. who specializes in these cases. He said she could go on forever about sex crimes and she knows her stuff. We are going to call her tomorrow! He said if shes not in trial then more than likely it wont be difficult to set something up. So, that's good.

Okay, so here's what's coming up. I went ahead and reserved the equipment for 11/27 thru 11/30... for our interviews, in hopes that we will be able to get an interview at the rape crisis center that Wed. That's the day of their board meetings... and our last wednesday to shoot... also, we were thinking about getting some quick vox pops with the girls in our class... that is, after class.

Also, my roommate informed me today that she wants to have a party at our house on Dec 2nd for her bday. Any other time I would have been more so against the idea... but me and Kristin need drunk girls... and images of girls drinking. SO, we need to get a camera for that weekend so that we can shoot some more B-roll. Once again, everything is falling into place.

Oh and this weekend we got some pretty good B-roll. We got a shot of drugs being poured into a drink... and shots of drugs and alcohol. We also put on skirts and high heels and filmed each other from our feet to our necks (no faces). And we got some other things, like an image of a fliplock (hence Brittany's story). We also got some footage of the bars downtown... its pretty dark but some of it is useable. We also got shots of street lights and Christmas lights. We went through our footage and made a list of images that we could get... that really helped us come up with some new ideas.

Tomorrow we have an interview with another victim that may be anonymous. Initially, this past Friday we were going to get vox pops on campus... but when we were on campus there werent that many people around. I think it being Friday, most students dont have class or dont come to class. Either way, we still need to get vox pops... so we said we were going to do this tomorrow at 11am... before our interview at 12:15pm. But, with the weather being bad... we may have to postpone this once again until next week.

In the meantime, we have created video logs for all 4 of our tapes. Also, Kristin's journal is full of archival footage that she found over the weekend. She found alot of great stuff on archive.org. There are videos on date rape, music videos on date rape, and discussions of sex offenders. ALOT OF GREAT STUFF! She showed me alot of it... and it will be perfect.

Our plan is to get into the editing lab asap so that we can start making dubs of our footage... and as we are making dubs we are going to transfer these archival videos into Final Cut and hopefully transfer them to MiniDV. We should have one whole tape of archival footage. Right now its looking like we may fill up 6 tapes! I am going to see if Joel will let me use his card so that we can get into the editing lab on Sunday 11/26 ... so that we can start this process. Or is there anyway that the class can have access?

With all that said, I am really happy with the direction our doc is going. It seems like everyone is on our side and wants to help us as much as possible... its getting to the point that we are getting so many contacts that we could turn this baby into a feature! I mean we could continue shooting for many months and months to come... the contacts just keep rolling in! But, I am glad that me and Kristin can finally feel relief because we stressed so much in the beginning that we deserve it! I guess all of our hair pulling and stressing out paid off in the long run.

Oh, and we are taking Thank You cards to all the people who are helping us out... and they all have told us that they want a copy of our documentary when we get done! So next semester we are going to have our work cut out for us.

The Battle for Equipment

2006-11-16T05:21:00.000-08:00

So I filled out an equipment request on Monday and still havent heard back from Tony. So after last night's class I went ahead and filled out another one and sent him an email. We realize that a lot of people are trying to check out equipment at this point... so we will take what we can get.

Oh, but as for our anonymous interview #2 that we will be doing next Tuesday... she emailed Kristin back and she wants to do the interview in the library. We have an office we can use from a former interview. So we are all set! Thanks for your help though!

I really like the direction our documentary is taking... it is very exciting and yet still stressful. Its going to be hard to split up our anonymous interview that you heard last night in class. But, our goal is to shoot as much stuff as possible so that we will have many options when it comes to editing.

I'm really glad that this worked out so that me and Kristin got to be partners. I think we work well together because what I might look over, she has already taking care of.. and so forth. With that said, Kristin has several journal entries about other national rape cases, as well as website addresses for archival footage that will be useful to our documentary. One of which includes a phone call to the police made by Jessica Faulkner's father.

Also, another thing that Dee mentioned was that guys in groups are more likely to act out in a way they wouldn't otherwise... therefore, that's why there are alot of gang/group rapes. While she's talking about this, we could easily cut in archival news footage of the Duke Lacrosse Team rape scandal that happened last Spring. Also, Kristin knows a Lacrosse player who was at the party that the girl was raped. She talked to him earlier in the semester about a possible interview, but he said only if we really really needed him. This could be something for the future to think about.

Another Great Interview!

2006-11-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

So we got a GREAT interview with Dee Casey this afternoon. And she is going to help us get into contact with Angie Nance at Coastal Horizons. She actually told us that Angie does therapeutic painting and artwork to help patients, because she has a B.A. in Arts. After the interview with Dee, we went ahead and called the Crisis Center and left a message on Angie's voicemail... luckily she got back to us within an hour. We were sure to say that Dee referred us! She said that they had been trying to get back to us from before, but for some reason she had the wrong number to contact us. Don't know if I buy it, but what matters is we are finally making progress now with her atleast. She said she will call Kristin back asap. So, hopefully, as goes well.

We got a interview with Sergent Matthews on the UNCW police... hes the officer who deals with sexual assualt. We interview him Monday at 5pm. We also have another victim thats willing to speak and possibly be shown on camera. We have an interview with her next Tuesday at 12:15... oh, we were wondering if where would be a good place to interview on-campus? This would be most convienent, considering the time. We thought about the rooms in the library, but you still have to be quite and I'm sure she doesnt want anyone else hearing. We emailed her back to see if she had a preference where to meet... what would be best for her. We are still waiting to get back... but if on campus, would it be possible to use your office? Or if you have any suggestions?

Also, I called Dixon today and she hasnt got back to me yet on Planned Parenthood, but I'm sure she will. I'm just glad the interview went well today... we got some more ideas for B-roll. Dee expressed how alcohol and drugs play a big part in sexual assault. The fact that wilmington has so many bars (ex:downtown.. front street in general) could be a reason why new hanover county has the highest number of reported rapes. Also... put a college in the same town with all this access to alcohol and the drug trade ... these factors play a big part in why females are less safe. She really helped us to see the big picture and brought forth alot of facts that we have not thought about. I feel confident in her interveiw.

I think Dee's interview and our anonymous interview have shed new lights on our documentary and the direction we are trying to take. I feel like the more people we talk to... the more directions we can go with this. Our anonymous interview is so strong, it could be a documentary in itself. Its definitely one of the most disturbing stories I have ever heard someone tell.

Dee also talked about voyeurism as being another form of sexual assault.. which we will have an interview on (my story and Noelle's story). She talked about date rape drugs (Kristin's story and Brittany's story). we also asked her about the new statement in the syllabus by Bullers. Everything is coming along, but I cant help but stress because its like I'm anxious to get the rest of our interviews... but we have some scheduled ... but who is to say that someone may need to reschedule?

Vox pops are a must this Friday on campus. We are going to ask girls what precautions they take being a female. Why do they take these precautions? Girls are taught from day one that they should never travel alone, why is this?

We are bringing this to another level of how women are viewed in society... because ultimately this is the reason behind sex crimes. Its all about power. The woman is viewed as the weaker sex... and its the men who take advantage of this that are commiting the crimes. And yet, society tries to say that everyone is treated equal. Still to this day women aren't treated equal, and according to our interviews the police aren't much of a help when it comes to these types of crimes.

Sex crimes most likely go unreported... could another reason be that they go unreported because females think the law will not take them seriously. do they think nothing will get done, so why report it.... because in most cases nothing gets done. charges are rarely filed. Also, everyone has to play the blame game... the girl has to prove that this really was rape and so forth.. theres so much stuff to think about and to touch on!

Oh and Kristin is taking Susan Bullers a Thank you card tomorrow! We bought a pack for everyone whose helping us out to show how much this all means to us. Its been a rewarding experience meeting new people who are willing to share their stories and their opinions with us.

Cucalorus is over and I'm sad.

2006-11-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

So this morning we checked out equipment at 8am because we had an appointment at 9am. Unfortunately, our interviewee was sick! But, we have another interview scheduled for tomorrow... and we are sure we can reschedule the one we lost today.

Now that I have returned to reality, after a week long surreal experience with Cucalorus... I realize that we have ALOT left to do. I just filled out a request form for this Friday. We are going to get some vox pops on campus from females. Also, we still need to get MORE B-Roll! That's another "biggie" for this weekend.

Also, we are in the process of scheduling an interview with Dixon... I have to call her tomorrow at Planned Parenthood. Tomorrow we must figure out what the deal is with Coastal Horizons... they still have not got back to us.. and we have called multiple times. Oh, Kristin spoke to another rape victim who is willing to talk.... shes in the process of setting that up.... also still waiting on the officer.

I realize that next Wed starts Thanksgiving break. So time is running out... we know what we need to do, its just a matter of doing it at this point. It boils down to this... we have this Friday and next Monday to schedule some interviews and this weekend to get more B-roll.

Are we allowed to check out equipment over Thanksgiving break? Just wondering.

CUCALORUS STARTS TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!

2006-11-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

SO Cucalorus starts tomorrow !!!! YAH!!!! Just an update... we will resume shooting Nov 13th... we have an interview for Mon and Tues. Kristin is scheduling more interviews with another victim and a UNCW police officer. We have the equip for those days, except on tuesday we have to take back the Canon and use the Sony... is this okay for interviews and sound equip??? our interview for tuesday is at 11am... i get out of class at 10:50am... so hopefully Tony will be ON TIME this time. We dont have the extra 30 minutes this time to wait for him to get back on campus or come back from whatever he is doing. My question is: When does he do his job?

Anyways, aside from all that... hope to see you at the festival!!! I'm super excited and no one will be dissappointed!!!! The filmmaker's lounge looks awesome!

Just a warning that this is more than likely going to be my last entry for the week.

Trick or Treat

2006-10-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

Okay so Dee Casey is scheduled to meet with us November 14th at 11am. Also, she gave us the name of a UNCW police officer that specializes in victims... so we are going to call tomorrow. Still waiting to hear back from others. On Sunday, we filmed an interview with Erin Godbey, as well as Paige Mattocks. Unfortunately, Noelle was unable to be interviewed again due to her plane delay in New York... but I'm sure we can get her this weekend. I dont see her cancelling three times in a row. Anyways, both interviews looked good... we used a bounce board this time... plus both were really great interviews. We conducted them the same as Brittany's. I returned the equipment today. So, this weekend will be the next time we shoot... definitely going to reshoot some B-roll. We are aiming to get our BIG interview this weekend... we are going to talk to that person tomorrow (hopefully). We also need to follow-up with Coastal Horizons.

After this weekend... November 6-12th.. I will be missing all my classes for Cucalorus, so I will not be doing any documentary or anything else! I've been looking forward to this week all semester... but we are losing some valuable time to be filming. With that said, I know that beginning November 13th I'm back to stressing.

The Importance of Contacts

2006-10-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

So we got in touch with our contacts.... every person that Susan Bullers recommended to us! Anyways, Rebecca Calwell (director of C.A.R.E.) is excited about helping us out and is down for an on-camera interview. Dr. Clements said she would be happy to answer any questions we had, but prefers not to be on camera... same goes with our victim. We are still waiting to hear back from Dee Casey and Angie Nance. Also, we emailed C.M. Padgett who is over the R.A.D. Program on campus (self-defense classes for women) in hopes to attend the classes on Nov 4-5th with a video camera! Unfortunately, he said that according to the privacy policy, we would not be able to do that. But, I bet we could interview the women before the classes begin (as they prepare/wait)... is that something we need to ask him or should we just do it? Because he seemed like he wasnt willing to help us out... I mean he is a police officer... haha. Needless to say, we are now trying to coordinate schedules with all of these people.

SMILE

2006-10-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

So today me and Kristin met at 11am to plan interview questions to ask Susan Bullers. We responded to her email earlier this week about meeting today at noon... but when we got to her office with all the equipment, she wasn't there. Not to panic this time though! I left my cell phone number and she got back to me around 4ish today. I'm so glad I finally got to talk to her... she's awesome! She is a very nice lady and really easy to talk to and was extremely helpful. She just made me so much more excited about our project... which I think we both needed. (class last night also helped us out ALOT... I think we have been on the right track, but now we are moving forward).

Anyways, Susan knows alot of people that will be very useful in making our documentary more credible. Unfortunately... she said she was camera shy, but she gave us the names of some people that know the statistics and would be happy to be interviewed. Among them are Dr Klements (works in the Psychology Department) and has done many oncampus studies on the date rape drug. Also, she's the person we need to get in contact for our statistics. Also, the director of C.A.R.E. on campus as well as the rape counselor, B. Casey... is another BIG CONTACT for us. Victims contact her directly after situations.... she is the main person on campus that deals with sexual assault. Also, she referred us to Angie Nance at the Coastal Horizons Rape Crisis Center... which I have already left a message with. She used to be a UNCW student and is a rape counselor... she is checking with her director to see if we will be able to get an on-camera interview with her.

And the most important thing is that Bullers said that she might be able to get us in contact with a victim that would be willing to talk about her experience... she has actually spoken in some of her classes... and I believe she is a student. So she took my email address and cell phone number and she said she would give it to the girl! this is really BIG!

So with all that said, we have our work cut out for us. Tomorrow morning or early afternoon me and Kristin are going to sit down and call all of these people and email them. Oh... and I stopped by Jengo's during a break between classes to help with some festival stuff and I talked to Dixon and Tracy more about our documentary.... which both of them have been very supportive and were trying to give me ideas during my breakdown this past Monday! haha. Anyways, Dixon would definitely be a good person to interview and better yet, she said her director (of Planned Parenthood) would probably do it. They deal with many rape cases... such as when victims get pregnant (their options.. abortion) and they also do HIV testing.

SO Im real excited and feel more secure that this can be done and done well. We definitely NEED the tripod from here on out... handheld is just not our speciality! Aside from all that, we have pretty much got the contact information for all the people who are going add the reality to this documentary. And we will definitely be sending Susan Bullers a "Thank You" card when this is all over

One Interview Down!

2006-10-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

So we shot Brittany's interview last night. We thought it went well... the sound quality is good... the only problem was with the lighting... but we know what we need to do for next time.... we are just glad that we made progress. Anyways, she said some really great things that we can definitely use! We started out asking her to tell about herself and to tell us about the occurrence at Clear Run Apartments. She told her story from start to finish and once she said what she needed to say, Kristin started to ask her the questions that we had prepared prior to the interview. It was interesting to find out that Brittany knew Jessica Faulkner and Curtis Dixon and actually said something about it when we didnt even lead her in that direction. She didn't use their names though, but that is what she was referring to... and because she didn't use their names that's even better! Also, she stressed her concern for more lights around Clear Run apartments... just like I have stressed my concerns about peepholes at Holton Place. Just little things that can help make a difference, or atleast make residents feel more safe. Also, as she was describing the location of her old apartment... I was thinking about how perfectly this would go with the B-roll that we shot of the outside of her old apartment. We definitely made sure that we showed how her apartment was facing the woods with no lighting around.

Last night after the interview was all said and done... me and Kristin finally could finally laugh about our frustrations we had this past weekend. I think we kind of forgot that this is an investigative documentary.... and as females, we tend to stress out and lose it from time to time... otherwise, we wouldn't be normal. haha

Clueless

2006-10-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

Okay so we are not changing our idea now! we are both so frustrated at this point we are just going to stick to our orignial idea... i guess im so stressed out that im just not thinking clearly. anyways, kristin is going to email Bullers back to see if we can reschedule. she also knows a Duke lacrosse player... possible interview about the rape incident... he probably can talk about things that have already been said about the case which could help our argument. also, we could get footage from UNCW self-defense classes. I was also at my internship today and was talking to Dixon Stetler, National Bureau Chief of Cucalorus, but she also works at Planned Parenthood during the day... she said that we could film someone getting an HIV test...or simply film the office (more B-roll)... which is all relevant to our topic.

So we lost this weekend of shooting... its not a good thing, but we need to get back on track and make up for our lost time this week. Tommorrow night we are going to interview Brittany about the serial rapist breaking into her Clear Run apartment. Also, tomorrow we are shooting to interview Erin Godbey. We had orignially planned to do this Sunday, but we got sidetracked thinking we were going to do the social class idea... anyways, just talked to her and shes good for tomorrow night. Also... just called the Rape Crisis Center and left a voicemail for Angie Nance, a rape counselor... hopefully she'll get back to me and we can meet with her asap.

just looking over the on-campus crime report.. and the number of forcible sexual offenses has increased since 2003...

also this saturday when we were having "technical difficulties".. which turned out to be us making a stupid mistake... we did some research about our topic... and our documentary are presenting those who have experienced one kind of sexual assault, which is invasion of space and privacy. this is where many of our voices come from.... we just need to find one rape victim...

About to go Shoot

2006-10-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

So, we are meeting Susan Bullers at 3:30pm on Monday. Just printed some Personal Release forms for the people that we are shooting today. We are also going to get alot more B-roll. I'm about to go meet Kristin at her house right now... she has all the equipment. Hopefully the next blog I write will be about all the cool and exciting footage that we got today! Until then.

Update ... there's always more to do!

2006-10-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today I talked to Noelle and Brittany... they are both good for this weekend. After class last night, we both had more ideas for our B-roll footage... so our documentary will not be just talking heads. Just an idea... Noelle actually purchased a gun and went to the shooting range and learned how to shoot it... because she has had peeping toms in the past and has also seen a black man wandering around behind her apartment, which possibly was the same sex offender that was lurking behind my old apartment ( both at Holton Place). Anyways, we thought it would be interesting if we could film her at the shooting range... if possible... showing this petite innocent female shooting a gun. We have other ideas... they are written down in my notebook, which i dont have at the moment, but i will update you as soon as possible. Kristin is picking up equipment tomorrow at noon. We are planning on starting our production day at 10am on Saturday. Also, Kristin is going to email Bullers back today in hopes that we can meet with her on Monday at 3:30pm... she said Mon and Thurs are good for her. I have to intern on Monday from 1-5pm, but I am going to talk to Dan to see if I can leave early and do extra time another day, so that we can both be there to interview Susan. We also have to return equipment by 4:30pm on Monday.

Stress

2006-10-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

So we finished our complete schedule today, as well as the budget. Now looking at the schedule, we realize that we have very little time... especially with our weekly schedules! I'm freaking out myself because I'm finding it impossible to juggle all my classes (3 out of 4 is group work) and an internship... basically it boils down to the fact that my semester is planned out each day until Christmas break... including weekends... because that's our production dates! So, on that note, I am very stressed out!
Oh, and we have some questions about the location release forms... where exactly do we have to get these from? We can talk about this in our meeting tommorrow, if we are having production meetings in class again.

Update: Last night we talked to another one of our friends and his father works with rapists.... and he said that we could possibly interview him, which would be very helpful in showing the other side. (Mr. Kelly)

Making Progress

2006-10-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got some B-roll. Here's what's included in our footage: outside of Fibber's (also shot from in the BB&T parking lot where a girl was raped), outside of Clear Run apartments, shot outside the apartment of the crime scene... got the back screen in porch that was broken into and the woods that the rapist escaped through, we got footage of all the apartment complexes on Racine to show the close proximity to campus, got apartments leading up to the UNCW tower, went on campus and got all the shirts hanging on the fence confronting sexual assault on campus, got footage outside of Holton Place apartments... went to my old apartment and shot the outside of the door to show no peepholes and went around back to show where the guy was looking in, went downtown to scene of the crime (street where Erin was taken)... shot outside of church on corner of the street, ran with the camera down street like running from someone (actually turned out good), we found an interesting mural downtown so we shot that, shot in some dark alleys, shot outside the Wilmington Police department, shot cars and vehicles in their parking lot (got footage of officer turning on blue lights).....

We also got directions to the Coastal Horizons Center, Inc. which is the Rape Crisis Center in New Hanover County. We went to the location and spoke with 2 ladies that work there and they gave us the lady's name who we need to contact ... we are going to call her tomorrow and try to set up a time to meet with her. Also, we emailed Susan Bullers and we are waiting on her reponse. We already put in an equipment request form for this coming weekend.

Contacted everyone on our list so far... we are aiming to shoot Noelle, Brittany, Paige, and Erin this weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Tomorrow we will create our tenative schedule for the rest of the semester.... which will be helpful with us scheduling these interviews with professionals.

So Much So Fast

2006-10-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

So today's the day we are shooting some B-roll. Also, I'm about to send an email to Susan Bullers (Director of Women's Studies) to see if she can meet with us sometime early this week, if possible. We want to see if she can give us contact information of girls that have been raped... so that we can ask if we can use their voice within our documentary to make our message stronger. Other questions to ask: What other things does she think will be essential for our film in the discussion of sex crimes? What else could we address? What do we need to address.... possibly who? Any contacts? Any statistics that may help us? Any direction we might want to take?

Also here are some notes that I would like to get down for my benefit... just things that I can look back to be thinking about:

If most of our interviewees had this almost happen to them, then we need to have 25 plus females (atleast female voices) .... maybe this is the beginning part of the documentary... the ones it almost happened to and then our climax could be presenting the voices that it did happen to... with no faces attached.... this could be interesting and emotional. Its like making a BIG REVEAL.... it could be even more shocking for maybe one girl to tell her story in detail and have her voice play over images that may or may not necessarily go along with what shes talking about.... good way to add symbolism. Anyways, we start with 25 voices... and then at the end here is one voice that it did happen to... just an idea.

Could be performative or self-reflexive ... me and Kristin could interview each other about our experiences... put ourselves in place of the other girls... once again, strengthening our argument.

We need to come at this thing as neutral, especially on paper.

So we're back in business

2006-10-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

To be quite honest, I haven't had much time as I have wanted lately to work on our documentary. I have been swamped with my other classes... and now I'm spending more time at the Cucalorus office since the festival is right around the corner! Anyways, to catch everyone up.... I have been brainstorming with others and telling them about our ideas... because its the only way you can find out if your idea is really good. According to the readings, it may look good on paper, but when you hear it... it sounds totally different. Basically, I found that I, myself, kept running into the same problem with trying to explain what our documentary is going to be about. At the same time, I realized that we are biting off more than we can chew. One of my best friends and fellow film student, Joel, helped me realize that are topic may be too broad... and instead of focusing on three pitfalls that are totally different....(brutality, sex crimes, and robberies)... we may need to choose solely one.... because there is sooo much to say about each! In other words, I feel like we are already making it way too hard on ourselves.
I just feel like we are confusing ourselves as well as others when trying to get our message across. Also, our documentary might not be as strong with so many topics being touched on. I think we need to pick one and dive deep into that one topic.... to provide a strong argument. Stylistically, we still want to approach the documentary that same way... now just using one topic and the victims associated with that topic/crime.... and we are still focusing on the police and how sex crimes are not taken as seriously and how vulnerable women are.
Also, let us not forget that we are aiming to make a 10-15 minute documentary. Realistically, I don't think it would be possible to fit all three topics and them be justified in that time period.
Other reasons have also led to the fact that we only want to discuss one pitfall... being that we cannot get the footage of brutality from Joel because the case is under investigation... and we would be getting into legal issues... and one can go ahead and assume with the Yester Oaks case, the same thing.... so we don't even want to go there (especially considering how many weeks we have in production). Also, we feel that all of our strong evidence and strong stories lies within our topic of sex crimes.
We both know several females who have been in bad situations and came in contact with sex offenders. We also feel that this subject would be more accesssible than the others.... our B-roll would still be pretty much the same, just exclude anything dealing with brutality or robberies.... it still will include other victims (faces of women), interviews with females on how safe they feel vs. males, maybe include stills/mugshots of offenders (if we can get access), police lights flashing, 911 calls, etc.
Interviewees: Erin Godbey- walkthru of her downtown abduction (lucky enough to escape), Paige Mattocks- Myrtle Beach incident, Noelle Spurrier- went as far as purchasing a gun and learning how to shoot it because concerned with her safety due to peeping toms and sex offenders near home, Katie- witnessed sex offender peeping into my apartment window and came outside to see what was going on and he came after her, she called cops, Brittany Fisher (previous Clear Run roommates Nicole and Ashley)- serial rapist broke into their apartment (cut screen in porch and using glass cutter).... all of our interviewees got away... they got lucky

We can even touch on universal stories of those who weren't so lucky... girl raped and murdered by bouncer outside of NY club, Jessica Faulkner was raped and murdered on UNCW campus, girl at Fibber's, etc.

Another brief update: We believe the changes we have made are for the better. We had initially planned on shooting B-roll over Fall Break. We put in a request form for one of the palm camcorders but they were all checked out. We probably could have checked to see if we could get one of the nicer cameras, but both of us were already planning to go out of town for Fall Break anyways, so, we just went ahead and planned on starting production this weekend. Both of our schedules are extremely hectic during the week.... so the only times that are looking good for us to shoot are Saturdays and Sundays. So we are trying to keep our weekends clear for the rest of the semester and both need to be in town.... especially since I will not be able to do anything but festival stuff from NOV6-12 (I'll be at Cucalorus full time as Festival Pass Coordinator)... and then Thanksgiving break is 2 weeks after that. So time already plays a big role in this project....

Plans for this weekend: Kristin will be out of town part of the day on Saturday and I will be at Jengo's sprucing it up... so we are aiming to shoot B-roll all day on Sunday! We are dedicating our entire Sunday to Documentary! Until then, we are both going to do some research and start proposing specific questions that we want to know and what to ask to interviewees.

Documentary Notes

2006-09-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

The main thing we are trying to prove is that the police don't always do their jobs... how they are a problem too. Anyways, we are going to focus on three issues: 1. Brutality 2. Sex Crimes 3. Robberies

Between these issues we want to intercut B-roll that may include faces of other victims with chaotic noise playing along with the image, for example 911 calls, or other found footage on the internet archives that is of police brutality in other areas/countries to make the audience think larger than just Wilmington.

We want to mix in chaos with our three pitfalls... kind of experimental... mosaic. Also we want to touch on some statistics.

Also within each of our pitfalls we are discussing we plan on interviewing the specific people we have in mind to represent each crime... first we want to find out what they were doing leading up to the crime/incident. Secondly, we would like to show footage (if possible to get access to the home video tapes) or either do a walkthru of the story in order to let the audience understand the experience through another person's account. And finally, we want to know how the police responded but have them talk about it.

People to interview (definites): Joel Wells, Erin Godbey
Possibly Meredith and Airlie

Questions to Think About

2006-09-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some questions I wanted to write out for myself when thinking about our documentary:
Are we going to have preliminary interviews?
Where is the change happening within ours? How are we showing change in the situation... can either be negative or positive... in our case, it may be negative when talking about police officers... yet, it all depends on the multiple points of views we get and how we structure the film with those.
How are we going to arrange for confrontation within the elements of our film?
What are we ultimately trying to say? The bottom line.
Are we assigning metaphorical roles? I think we should.
We need to compile a list of sequences.

Notes: We also want to interview females about how safe they feel... and record some of their personal experiences.... this may take us in another direction.

Trying to Decide on the Final Idea

2006-09-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm having trouble deciding which documentary I want to do. I feel like the social class issues might be too much to tackle in a short.... not saying that it can be done. I'm just saying it might be hard for people to take it seriously or to actually care... because people already know how hard it is for people living on minimun wage.... and would this be something that would make it to a festival? That's why I think this blogging works, because I'm able to see my ideas typed out... then I can look back and make sense of them... and right now I feel stronger about sex crimes idea/police as well as the adderall idea... just because it hasn't really been done yet, because its just now starting to get out of control, or atleast the media is just now realizing it. Any suggestions?

Police Looking for Rape Suspect

2006-09-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.wwaytv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=5404137

This is another story in the news that caught my eye. I actually heard this story on the radio and decided to find more on it and that's when I found this news article. Basically, another girl was raped... this time outside of Fibber's. The only thing that gets me about the story is that no one came to help the girl. I'm sure she was screaming histarically, and Fibber's being the bar that it is, I'm pretty sure there were quite a few people outside while this was going down, especially since it was Labor Day weekend. They have tables outside and ofcourse, there are all the smokers standing outside. Plus, I have never went to Fibber's on a weekend and not seen people outside at all times. That place stays packed, especially on the weekends and this was no ordinary weekend. It just seems like someone would have tried to help the girl if they heard her screaming. Atleast the girl reported it, but just because she reported it doesn't mean that the cops will find the rapist... he sounds like every other fraternity guy. Unfortunately, the sad thing about sex crimes is that most go unreported or unpunished.

I definitely think addressing the issue of sex crimes would make for a great documentary... because like you said women are vulnerable. I feel like this idea would be more approachable rather than trying to tackle social class issues... because there is just too much to say for it to be a short documentary.

More on Wilmington Police

2006-09-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

(Journal entry Saturday 9/16)
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1320331

I have been surprised that no one has mentioned anything about the Jessica Faulkner case, especially since it was aired on Primetime. UNCW student Jessica Faulkner was murdered by another UNCW student named Curtis Dixon on May 5, 2004 and was found in the Cornerstone dorms. When all of this was happening, I was very interested in the case because it was brought to my attention that Jessica had filed complaints to the UNCW police on multiple occassions about Dixon stalking her and threatening her.... She tried to seek their help. Yet, they never did anything. In the end, she was found dead in her dorm room.

What else that sparks me about this case is the fact that Curtis Dixon killed himself. It was reported that he jumped to his death from a staircase head first, while being escorted by police officers. How could they let this happen? This sparks the question of the race issue, it being a black male murdering a white female... it's just kind of weird that he all of a sudden killed himself... I mean could he have been pushed? I don't know... I don't even want to get into that. But the fact that Faulkner had contacted the police seeking for their help and they made no attempt to help is a problem....

I really think this would make for a great documentary... I just don't know if it would be allowed considering that I am a student at UNCW and this could bring negative views to the school. Yet, it is a serious problem and its not just with the safety on campus but in many areas in Wilmington.
http://www.bluelineradio.com/FAULKNER.html
I used to live in Holton Place apartments and we got multiple flyers on our doors about sexual predators in the neighborhood. Over a period of 2 years living there, there were many many breakins reported as well as sexual crimes (girls apartment's getting broken into and getting raped). On one occassion, I was watching television and someone wrang my doorbell. It being midnight, I asked who is it, before I opened my door (because Holton Place doesn't have peep holes), and the person replied, the Wilmington Police. I opened my door to find an officer staring back at me and he told me that there had been "the sexual predator in which they had been trying to catch" behind my apartment, looking in ..... and I am not even going to say what he was doing... but all my blinds were closed. Anyways, my neighbor came outside because she seen him and he came after her, so she called the cops. Anyways, the cop informed me of this guys criminal history and showed me his page long list of criminal offenses, which included many sexual crimes.

And about the peep hole thing... Holton Place is constantly trying to make residents feel safe, so they send out all these flyers about safety and who to watch out for. Yet, the funny thing is .... alot of places have gotten broken into by a resident simply getting a knock on the door and then opening it, but to find a giant black man holding a gun. If they had a peep hole to look through,then they would be able to see who was standing on the other side. I mean its something small that could have already made a difference in two instances I know of.

Also, one of my friends who used to live in Clear Run apartments actually had her apartment broken into by the serial rapist, that the cops had been trying to catch for sometime. I believe he had raped like 12 girls. Anyways, she was lucky not to be home when he broke into her apartment, but one of her roommates was there home alone, and asleep. She woke up to hear a scratching noise, so not knowing what she was hearing, she walked into the living room and saw a huge black man on the other side of her glass door with a glass cutter, trying to cut a hole in the glass so that he could reach in and then unlock the dead bolt. He had already cut through their screen in porch to get to the door. She screamed as loud as she could and called the cops. I don't know how long it took them to get there, but they came .... but it was several weeks later before they actually caught the guy. They just gave the girl some mase and told her to call them if anything else happened.

Another one of the my friends was held at gunpoint downtown and was forced behind a building and almost raped by two black men. Luckily, she got away... she just ran and never looked back. She ran to a restaurant somewhere near Castle Street and went inside asking for help... for people to call the police. The restaurant owner told her to get out of the restaurant, they didn't want the cops around there. Instead, she was made to leave and had to get help from a crackhead on the street. But, the cops did come within minutes of her calling.

My old roommate had a peeping tom at her apartments and several other friends have had their places broken into. Sorry to ramble on, but there is alot happening and it keeps on happening.... because instead of the police trying to catch these sexual predators, they are beating the crap out of some kids having a keg party with their friends. It seems like they are focusing on a small problem, instead of the more bigger problem. I mean Wilmington does have a very high sexual crime rate.... and its sad considering that its mostly college females who are assaulted.

Police Brutality in Wilmington

2006-09-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

(Journal Entry Friday 9/15)
I am very excited about this idea. So, has anybody heard about the Yester Oaks party getting broken up last weekend? Well basically there was a party and cops showed up and tased several students, three in particular. Students were beat up by the cops, one student of which was knocked unconscious and the cops were still beating him and kicking him. Here are some articles on the situation:

http://www.campusblender.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=240742
http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=5409797
http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=5409797&nav=2gQc
http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=5404135&nav=2gQc

Here's a link to the interview with the students:
http://www.wect.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipid1=958639%26at1=News%26vt1=v%26h1=Students%2BTased%2Bby%2BPolice%2Bat%2BWeekend%2BParty%26d1=166000%26redirUrl=www.wect.com%26activePane=info%26LaunchPageAdTag=homepage
Anyways, one student actually had a video camera and got footage of the incedent. There is also videos of interviews with some students on the internet, taken at the Yester Oaks home. There was blood trail down the hallway and blood stains on the carpet in the house from how bad the students were actually beaten by the cops. And for what? Having a party at their house, when in fact the students who were beaten were 21 years old, the legal age to drink.

I was telling my friend Joel about this idea, when he told me about an occurence a few weekends ago with his friend. Apparently a fight broke out in front of 22 North at the beach, and one of his female friends was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was standing off to the side and a cop told her to get on the ground. She refused because she had done nothing wrong, she didn't even know the guys fighting. Yet, the cop forcefully put her on the ground and jammed his knee into her back, holding her down. But, she didn't do anything. Luckily, Joel's other friend had a video camera and has footage of the girl being held down screaming. Joel said he can't even watch it because its so horrible to hear her screaming and the way she's screaming is just horrible. So, are cops really doing their jobs?

The Study Drug

2006-09-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

(Journal entry from Thursday 9/14)

http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/ohe/library/drugs/adderall.htm
http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/05/08/05.php

I found some interesting articles on Adderall. I think this idea could possibly work for a 10 minute documentary, especially since some people still don't know what it is and there hasn't really been anything down about it (like most other drugs). I think Adderall is a big issue on college campuses. I have one friend who said that during exam week, he will get approached everyday by someone who wants to know where they can get Adderall. Also, another one of my friends said that he went to the doctor and said that he couldn't focus, and was simply prescribed Adderall on the spot. Yet, that was a couple years ago and the doctor he went to was questionable. But, not only are students taking the drug to cram for exams, they are using it to stay up all night to drink, or to lose weight (because Adderall is an appetite supressant). It has been labeled as the new speed for college kids, as well as the miracle drug and the study drug. I think this would make for an interesting investigative documentary... I mean we already have everything we need... college students.... for they are the ones abusing the drug. Plus, recently, more attention has been brought to Adderall, especially in the media.

Materialism in America

2006-09-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

I think materialism in America plays a huge part in why more people are becoming poor and why some are staying poor. Honestly, if you were to ask people what makes them happy, amongst their list of answers, "having nice things" is very likely to show up. Why? Because people judge on what others have and re-evaluate their lives... in which, in most cases, people constantly feel like they don't have enough. Our society no longer cares about what people need, its all about WANT, WANT, WANT! Prime example, if we really cared about other's needs then why aren't we doing anything about the shrinking middle class. Why aren't we helping the poor or finding a solution to the problem. Probably because everyone is too tied up in what they want, whether they need it or not.
Personally, I feel like the media plays a major role in materialism in America. They are constantly creating this false sense of happiness that comes along with having money or having nice things. For example, look at commercials or advertisements, they use elements of happiness to appeal to the consumer. Sut Jhally actually made a video called Advertising and the End of the World. In this video he discusses the elements of happiness which include: autonomy, self-esteem, friendships, family, and leisure. Think of commercials, most appeal to atleast one of these elements... and the end result is the consumer feeling as though they need to purchase a certain product so that their love life can be better, or in other words, achieve happiness. I mean does more money or more belongings really buy you happiness? Or is it a burden on society? I mean even going back to song lyrics today, which brag about flashy cars, diamond necklaces, and bundles of money... these are all material possessions. And don't even get me started on cosmetic surgeries... I mean girls are getting boob jobs as gifts for graduating high school. What about the people who can only afford to eat soup? I've been there... and it really makes you rethink things and you end up appreciating life alot more.

More Notes on the Social Classes Idea

2006-09-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the notes that I worked on last night, so this is my journal entry from yesterday, I just didn't get a chance to post the blog. These are just some topics or areas of interest that I would like to explore if me and Kristin ultimately decide on making a documentary exploring social classes.

It's impossible to live on minimun wage in today's society. Yet, people still do it somehow and struggle everyday of their lives.
For example, gas prices are nearly $3 a gallon, but minimum wage is $5.50 per hour! How do these people afford transportation to and from work?
Interview people in low paying jobs and find out how they make it "work."
Poor living environments (areas) unsafe.
Minimum wage jobs harder to maintain or get because of high turnover rate.
Investigate the poor and rich within the same boundaries. For example, the city of Wilmington.. the Landfall community versus the downtown area; distance between the two, etc.
As the middle class shrinks, there's more poor people, but as society advances its impossible to live off of minimum wage and its becoming impossible to live on what use to be considered a "decent" income.
Interview people to find out where they see themselves in 10 years; gives the perception of the public, how most think they will have money.
Investigate the treatment of people in the different classes within the community (restaurants, stores, etc.). People automatically judge on appearances, therefore, they unknowingly classify you as poor or rich.
Possible Sources: Books such as Class Matters, Mama Might be Better off Dead, and Nickel and Dimed.

Communication

2006-09-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

I just read Kristin's blog... First of all, quitting cigarrettes is hard and I started smoking cigs when I turned 18... but I'm proud to say that I haven't smoked a single cigarrette in 5 weeks... along with me, my 2 best friends quit smoking also! I would love to influence other smokers to come to the other side. It's something I wish I would have never started. It's all about will power. Anyways, aside from that idea, I really found it interesting to see how people outside the United States view Bush and politics. Especially, the billboard that consisted of a close-up of George W. Bush with blood running out of his eyes and mouth. The only words were: "Even hell has its standards." I also feel that we do not know very much about other cultures and countries, and its always been an interest of mine, I just have never had the opportunity to travel out of the country. I've never even been on a plane! Pretty sad, I know... but its cool that people are willing to share their experiences, such as Kristin's semester abroad in New Zealand. I like the idea of how different people view their country in different ways. I think Americans are spoiled and take everything for granted. Materialism in society would make for an interesting subject to make a documentary on and I have wrote several papers dealing with the issue. I'm also majoring in Communications and feel like I have alot to offer when it comes to how people are influenced by others, how people interpret things differently, how there's 2 sides to every story... and apparently I think there's alot of problems with miscommunication/lack of communication in our country.

FINALLY LEGAL

2006-09-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Trying to get back in the right mindset... this weekend was my 21st birthday, so needless to say I haven't thought about school the past few days. I do have another idea that came to me the other day. Once again, I was watching the View and they were talking about adderall and how it is abused by many college students, who aren't perscribed to the drug, in order to pull all nighters to get their work done. I know people who are prescribed to the drug and others who take it in order to stay awake to study. Also, my grandmother called me and told me she had seen something on the news about the new "speed" also known as adderall.. and how it speeds up your heartrate and can cause heart attacks. So, why is it prescribed in the first place? I know it helps people who suffer from attention deficit disorder to focus... but I think everyone suffers from attention deficit disorder, its just a matter of you making yourself do something. Needless to say, I didn't realize that adderall had become such a big issue for college students, but apparently so. I mean, how lazy are we? Sometimes I think we are getting lazier as a society, because we are consumed by so much technology. This is another example of how today's society's answer comes in a pill bottle.

Brainstorming

2006-09-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

After reading about interviewing, I was thinking about possible people to interview for each one of my topics. My discussion of sexually explicit lyrics and how they are affecting the younger generation made me remember a conversation I had earlier this summer with my little cousin at our beach house in Myrtle Beach. She's only in eighth grade, and I was surprised to here about how many kids at her school were sexually active and between the ages of 12-14! And it was definitely awkward hearing certain words coming out of my 13 year old cousins's mouth... I mean its one thing to be curious about sex at that age, but its another to be having sex. But, I don't know where I want to go with this idea... or if it's something I want to make a documentary about... but I do stand strong behind my views.
As for my blogpost on social classes, I think there's alot I can work with, especially living in Wilmington and it being a college town. There's Landfall and then there's Castle Street... you've got your wealthy and you got your poor... and it would also be interesting to look at the seperation between them (location, environment, public places, stores, restaurants, etc.). It would also be interesting to interview college students and to see where they see themselves in 10 years, or if they think they will be rich at some point in their life. Oprah said most people think they will be wealthy at some point in their lives...this definitely deserves more research on my part. Also, since I am working with Kristin who has a background in Sociology, I think that she has alot to offer, especially on this particular subject matter. Anyways, I'm still trying to come up with new ideas everyday and it's helpful to me to just write out the ideas, because then I can see if they are really good or if I just felt like going off on a tangent that particular day... Anyways, maybe tomorrow something fresh will come to me. Until then feel free to post any comments.

So is it really Kevin Federline's fought?

2006-09-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

What's up with the music these days? Kevin Federline has his own album now (I thought he was a dancer who claims to be Britney's husband), Three Six Mafia won an Oscar, and "Promiscuous" is the number one single of the summer. As for K-Fed, he seemed to steal the spotlight at the Teen Choice Awards (broadcast Aug. 20th), or shall I say caught the attention of everyone due to his embarrassing 'debut' performance. Everyone can't stop talking about K-Fed performing at the awards show. Yet, I don't understand why people aren't focusing on other issues, such as how Nelly Furtado performed "Promiscuous," which has been the number one hit for all teens this summer. What message are we sending out to our youth? Everything seems to be about sex these days. Song lyrics are so out of control that they have made sex appear as this extra-curricular activity to young teens. It's no longer meaningful... there's no longer morals attached to sex... its just viewed as another way to derive pleasure, when really it should be viewed as a big deal, especially to those who are not yet emotionally mature to deal with the consequences that may be involved. A recent study found that Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/08/07/lyrics_linked_to_teen_sex_in_study/
What I'm getting at is... all popular music these days contain a sexual overtone and are aimed at the younger generation. We already complain about how overpopulated America is in the first place, so why are we encouraging sex amongst our youth? We are just adding to teen pregnancies and spreading more STD's, because honestly teens are simply not as mature as they may think they are and are usually not smart about their choices. In many aspects, I feel like if you believe in what the songs are telling you then you are going to be set up for dissappointment. And then people argue that the morning after pill shouldn't be sold over-the-counter. Well, if all of our morals and values have been thrown out the window, there has to be some solution to the problems we have created for ourselves. And today's society's easiest solution comes in the form of a pill (in this case, whether it be for the young or the old, who we seem to respect less and less as technology consumes are lives). As a teen, you are concerned with your popularity and how your peers view you and your heavily influenced by what is popular at the time. Ipods are the new trend... and sex is at the top of the Billboard Charts, so you do the math. If popular music constantly encourages sex, teens are going to do it. I feel like music is providing extra peer pressure and making teens think they can handle having sex and it should be a part of their everyday lives. You don't hear lyrics that say "I had sex when I was thirteen, got pregnant and now have a 6 year old and I'm only 20"...haha. Instead, it's "You expect me to just let you hit it, but will you still respect me if you get it?" And not to mention the fact that the word promiscuous means characterized by or involving indiscriminate mingling or association, especially having sexual relations with a number of partners on a casual basis. I guarantee there are some teens who really don't even know what it means. Anyways, I feel like the article that I attached is a pretty good one about song lyrics today... and if you haven't already gotten tired of reading my rambling, then you should take a look at it. Here's an excerpt from the article that I found interesting: Natasha Ramsey, a 17-year-old from New Brunswick, N.J., said she and other teens sometimes listen to sexually explicit songs because they like the beat. ``I won't really realize that the person is talking about having sex or raping a girl," she said. Even so, the message ``is being beaten into the teens' heads," she said. Yeah and I remember when Britney Spears used to be a role model for young girls. A little ironic, don't ya think?

Class Matters

2006-09-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

The gap between the rich and the poor has widened, shrinking the middle class. Everyone has the same dream that one day they will have it all. While some may use their education to get them out of the poverish lifestyle, many recieve a college education and are still considered to be a part of the poor class in society. With the rise of reality television programs, making "real" people famous, anyone thinks that the same could happen to them and their ticket to a high class lifestyle is right around the corner. For this is the land of opportunity. Unfortunately, it is getting harder and harder to reach that goal. Today, more than ever, its about who you know. Networking is the success behind the rich (and pretty much anything else). Its all about who you know, more so than what you know. So, if your born into a rich family you have just inherited a one way ticket to an easy life. But, if your parents are part of the poor class, chances are you will be too. Not to be discouraging, but its the truth, and people have a hard time accepting the facts. While the rich get richer, the poor are finding it harder than ever to work up to a higher status because the middle class is dissappearing.

While many years ago, you didn't need an education to be successful, now its a requirement and it may or may not help you out. Its getting to the point to where graduate school is becoming more of an option to people, because they feel like they need a masters degree to live comfortably in our society. 50 years ago, Americans were labeled as the working class and the majority worked blue collar jobs. Today, we have entered the information age... and there are less jobs available to those who are simply trying to support their family. Also, people judge others based on appearance and presentation and automatically label them as a part of the upper or lower class. I recently watched an episode of Oprah (the richest woman in the world) and she interviewed everyday people, ranging in classes, and asked them to tell her what makes someone low or high class. In the response, many people believed that you were low class if you were obese, smoked cigarettes, hand dirty fingernails, didn't wear name brands/designer clothes, had messed up teeth, or worked as a mechanic or trashman. On the other hand, people were considered a part of the upper class if they wore the designer clothing, drove nice cars, walked around with a snooty aura towards others, lived in a nice/safe neighborhood, put kids in private schools, and wore expensive jewelry.