BLOG ENTRY #5

This is the big week. We get cameras tomorrow. Thankfully, I have kept in touch with my interviewees. The Americas Next Top Model finalist, Ebony Morgan, agreed to be apart of Quick$and. We talked this past weekend and she will be asking her professor this week if it is okay if I capture b-roll of her in class. I want to show her in her current setting, which is simply being a student after all of the glitz and glamor.  I am still debating on how I want to shoot her actual interview. I want to show the normal person side of her, but I also want her to be semi-glamorous because it compliments my story to have actual celebrities from the industry. I haven't been able to think of a fitting background or location for her interview, but today I got the idea of using the green screen with a graphic like they do on reality shows. I can either pic a simple background or I can put an Americas Next Top Model background. I don't want to do anything that would distract viewers away from the speaker though.

I have also been brainstorming on ideas for possible stand-ups when I go to Hollywood for the Oscars in two weeks. It is going to be so perfect to have actual b-roll of stars. It would be even greater to use quick sots from a few of them for an intro and/or the teaser.

I plan on getting Final Cur Pro6 on my macbook so that I can edit at home. I am excited because I already have a lot of tapes to log and capture. My goal is to have my tapes logged and captured by this weekend so I can start creating script drafts to get a feel for how I want to convey my message. After doing our self-study paper, I realize how important all the elements are to the finished product. This is going to be a great final product.

Until next time.

Blog Entry #4

Since the last blog post, I have been contacted by MTVU to inform me that I am one of three finalist that will be going to L.A to correspond on the red carpet at the 82nd Academy Awards. I am  excited because this means B-ROLL! What better visuals than original video of the stars themselves, as they live the lives highlighted in this documentary. As of now, I will like to do a standup on the red carpet catered to Quick$and's theme and incorporate it with the project.

Besides that, I've been keeping in touch with my interviewees and building a rapport. Everything is coming together. Especially after this Friday when Prof. Jones had us turn in outlines for how we would like to see our documentaries flow. Though it felt like, "ahh man another homework assignment," it really helped. Before the outline, everything was just a bunch of jumbled ideas. Now I have organization and a direction to go into instead of running in place with tons of information.

I do not want to wait until the last minute to do anything for this documentary. In order to stay ahead of the game, I am going to set a goal for myself to start logging my interview tapes this upcoming weekend; I have yet to do so. I want to also document at least three songs I know I will like to use. I know I want a lot of instrumentals and fast paced fashion show type music, but I also want a couple of poplar songs that reference Hollywood or, "the good life," to tie everything into the story line.

I took a look at the syllabus and my calendar, only to see that final scripts and teasers are due in about six weeks. I am excited and ready to pick up the pace and start transforming my vision into reality; a tangible dvd that people can see with their own eyes.

Until next time.

Blog Entry #3

The ball is rolling. Last week in class we reviewed different documentaries and critiqued them; well Jones critiqued them and I took notes:-)

Outside of the fun aspect of doing a documentary, Prof. Jones taught us about the business side of producing documentaries. It is very expensive and I know this because we had to create our own itemized budget of our documentary's production cost. Thank God I am a student because with our resources we only pay a fraction of the real cost.

Aside from drafting up my budgets, my two interviewees, from reality shows, Paul and Ebony are still lined up. I'm just waiting on cameras to do the actual interview.

Though I still have some shooting to do, I am planning on going ahead and logging and capturing the footage I already got over the winter break. It has just been sitting in my room all semester, but I had to take the time to learn the craft of documentaries before I started anything. I didn't want to end up having to work backwards because I missed a step or lesson. I am however so grateful that I got an early start on  producing this documentary. I am a one-man-band for Quick$and and there is so much more to do for this class than just create the finished product.

This past week I have been exploring options for possible logos. I want to go ahead and start sketching out the website we have to make for our documentaries. What I need to do is go ahead and reserve the url. I haven't done research on whether or not a free host site will suffice because video takes up a lot of memory and space and cheap host sites might not agree with the my vision.

I also need to start playing around on live type to get the Quick$and CG's I want.

I haven't done any shooting since Atlanta, but I plan to take another trip at some point because I didn't get to spend the amount of time shooting b-roll that I wanted. It was very cold and I was sharing time with Mr. FAMU duties and appearances.

One thing I have been thinking about is how I could incorporate this contest i am in with my documentary. I am competing with another journalism student to correspond at the Oscars this year. This takes place right before spring break and the finished product of our docs are right after spring break. It would be so great to get actual b-roll of real stars on the red carpet. That's what I'm shooting for as of now. Even if I don't get it in time for doc. night, I will probably still add it to the project. My story continues to grow and my industry friends are really supportive and encouraging me to send it to HBO.

We'll see what God has in store. Until next time :-)

Blog Entry #2

All of the preparation and pre-planing has now become actual execution. Since I got the confirmation that Quick$and was going to be my documentary, I have been looking for possible interviewees outside of the ones I have already interviewed.

This past weekend, I went to Atlanta with the school as Mr. FAMU to a recruitment fair. What better opportunity to multitask and get out of Tallahassee. The look for my documentary will be fast paced with lots of big city shots, to capture the feel of actually being in the industry. I contacted an up and coming singer that I knew resides in Atlanta with hopes of catching her at a live performance and interviewing her. Her name is Algebra Blessett, she never confirmed, but I had faith that God would work it out. She did not end up responding and I did not get the interview. I was only there for two days though. Unlike the winter break when I stayed in large city's for weeks at a time, just a weekend is not enough time to get high profile artist without luck. Their schedules are too unpredictable. However, I will keep in touch with her and will hopefully make a trip back to Atlanta to include her in the story.


My goal was to get stories from all different areas of the entertainment industry. As of now I only have actors, models and an agent. This is good, but if possible It would still be nice to capture a musical artist as well. If not, it won't hurt my story, it is just preference.

Last wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010, I found an article in the Famuan about a new Rattler named Ebony Morgan from Americas Next Top Model. Her story was perfect! She made it to the top finals of the competition, but dropped out by choice. Here is a clip from the article:

"Morgan stated that the competition was not what she expected and too much for her to handle.:

“At the time it was really just me not knowing myself, all of the pressure,” said Morgan, “The experience was tremendously different from home.” Click here to see the full article.

I just saw her the other day in the cafe, and looked at her wondering if she was a model. Though she was hidden in everyday student wear (sweats), I was a photographer before anything else, and I have that eye. I contacted Kristen Swilley, the writer of the article to see if she could send Ebony my information.

I am also aware that there is another Rattler on campus named Paul from the BET reality series College Hill. I plan on contacting him to see if he is interested in being apart of the project as well.


Though the documentary will only be 15 minutes for class, I have gotten a lot of great and credible sources and I plan on expanding the project after graduation. Paul and Ebony would make great contributions to the story because Reality T.V has played a major part in the change of the entertainment industry.