Wilmy Ink

Preparations for the documentary interview shoot are underway! After spitballing ideas on Saturday, we decided on a topic that we are all excited about. Grace, Kayla, Hillary, Naomi, and I were successful in securing our location for filming today and it definitely got our creative juices flowing. We went downtown and met with Jason, an artist at Hardwire Tattoo; he loved our ideas for filming and was more than willing to allow us to feature his shop and artists for the project. So we will for sure be shooting at Hardwire and either Jason or one of the other artists will be our expert interview. There are many different attitudes and opinions towards tattoos & body modification, but for our project, we want to highlight its positivity and focus on the emotional ties with tattoo artistry and the meaning behind tattoos.
Here is the list of questions we comprised to ask our interview subject:

·      How long have you been tattooing for?

·      How did you get started tattooing?

·      What is your favorite style of tattoo & why?

·      What does it mean to you to give a tattoo that is so significant to someone?

·      What is your favorite tattoo & explain the tattoo?

·      Why does it have meaning?

·      What’s your favorite tattooing story?

·      What would you say to someone who thinks negatively of tattoos? 

·      What was your first tattoo experience like? [getting a tattoo] 

·      What was your first experience as an artist like? 

For our vox pops, we will interview people with approving attitudes towards tattoos and

have tattoos themselves. We will film right outside the shop (on Front Street in downtown Wilmington) and utilize the shop customers and anyone on the street that agree to be featured. 

The questions we will ask our vox pop subjects are three of the questions we will also ask the artist:

·      What is your favorite tattoo & explain the tattoo

·      Why does it have meaning?

·      What would you say to someone who thinks negatively of tattoos

We are all looking forward to a fun and productive shoot..and who knows, someone in the group may walk away with some new ink :)

Impeccable timing, prankster!

I just had to share our group's surprise we discovered when arriving to our location.. Apparently someone thought it would be a fun idea to prank the apartment complex overnight and add soap to the fountain..OUR FOUNTAIN we were going to photograph for the documentary portraits! We had to make a last minute decision to change locations to a playground in the same apartment complex.. What a day!

Tomasina & the bubble fountain..

The Power of Lighting

Observing light and the effects it has on our surroundings is quite fascinating. Light has a lot of influence on a setting, an element of everyday life that I often overlook; this assignment on documenting the lighting of two different locations made me see the world in a different way. For the documentary portrait assignment, our group shot outside so I decided that I would inspect the lighting of two indoor locations for variation.

The first location I chose was classroom 205 in Morton Hall. There is a window in the back of the classroom, however at the time of my observation, the window was closed, shades were down, and the only light sources were coming from the lights above. There are 4 or 5 sets of 4 fluorescent light tubes down the center of the classroom ceiling. These lights are covered with diffusers, creating a dim and quite flat illumination. If a photograph were to be taken of this classroom, it would not bring out any depth or detail in the image. When you're in the classroom, the dim light and subtle shadows, combined with the off white walls make it seem very one dimensional. The lighting and appearance of this room reflect Morton Hall as a whole. This is one of the older buildings on campus, it's apparent as soon as you see the interior. When I walk in the door to go to class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I immediately sense one thing: the History and English departments mean business. The dense lighting, amongst other traits, makes you feel that when you take class in Morton, expect to get in, be educated, and get out; certainly not a homey, relaxed feel that you would get in say, Kenan Hall! The lighting definitely adds to the building's character, and gives it a rustic, aged look that is perfect for a History and English building.

The second location I observed was my home away from home- Port City Gymnastics. Training under gym lights has been something so second nature to me since the age of 5, but I've never stopped to notice its influence on the atmosphere of the gym. The gym is brightly lit with large industrial fluorescent light tubes, similar to the lights in Morton, yet much longer, brighter, and there are no diffuser panels over the lights. Since all the light is directly overhead, the shadows are cast directly under the equipment, mainly the balance beams, uneven bars, and stacks of mats. Most of the mats and padding in the gym are a matte blue, so there is not much light reflecting off the surfaces. The bases of the beams and bars are metal, resulting in a constant shine from the overhead lights. I feel a sense of both comfort and accomplishment when I'm under these lights, a feeling that I hope will never fade.

Documentary Portait- Location Scouting

Yesterday, January 17th, Caleb, Kateland, Tomasina and myself ventured out into Wilmington to find a location for the documentary portrait assignment. None of us are from Wilmington and haven't had the chance to explore much, but we were able to narrow our search to a few possibilities. We first ruled out the bridges into Wrightsville Beach. Although the setting was beautiful and quaint, there was not much room for movement along the walkway; space restrictions would have been inconvenient for capturing the different shot types.
The second location we looked at was Airlie Gardens. Upon arrival, we were all in agreement that the location was breathtaking and there were endless possibilities for our image. The only downside was that there is an entrance fee and not all members of the group wanted to have to pay.
Which brought us to Caleb's apartment complex, where in front of the main office sits a fountain, accompanied by a few benches and a small garden. We inspected the mini garden from all angles and found an area to shoot from that would balance the fountain perfectly between two bushes. We made a group decision to use (most likely Caleb's sister) to sit by the fountain in our images, as everyone is comfortable with understanding frame size in relation to humans, but not quite with inanimate objects. [We will make sure to have her sign a release form, as well as secure the location with the manager of the apartment complex]

We came up with a system for who will operate the camera, do the light meter, measure distance, and write up the field report for each shot. I personally will be taking a close up and the re-establishing long shot. My pictures give a general idea for location, but for the close up I will be taking the picture from a lower angle.

We are aiming to start shooting at around 8am in the morning- sunrise will be about 7:15. Light will be reflected from the water regardless, but it will be less significant in the morning vs. later in the day.

Take it from the top..

I'm a late bloomer in the world of film making; I always had a passion to get into acting and filming, but chose to focus on my gymnastics career through high school. After retiring, I no longer had to train 5 days a week, 4 hours a day, so I took that time to enroll in many acting classes and workshops. I found out about an independent movie filming close to home, jumped on set as an extra and ended up getting a featured role. Being on set of Dear Lemon Lima changed my life; every element of the filming process fascinated me and I felt at home walking on to set everyday- this is when I knew I wanted to devote my education to film studies. Shortly after graduating high school, I did an independent short film as well as a Microsoft commercial, and assisted with casting for a Washington State Lottery commercial. The acting side of the industry has been fun and challenging, but I'm ready to find my place on the other side of the camera.

In this course, I hope to study and comprehend the basic fundamentals of all aspects of film making. Since we will be exploring all areas of film making from pre-production to post-production, I'm hoping I will find a position that best suits me and one I truly enjoy. Upon entering the film program, I was sure I would want to focus on editing, but the production phase of film making seems more appealing. I anticipate finding a balance of something I'm good at & something I enjoy. Anything could happen in 10 years, but all I know is I would rather not end up back in Washington coaching gymnastics. I want to be pursuing a career in the film or television industry. Film is still a fairly young art form and always evolving; I would love to take part in discovering/adapting innovative film techniques in whatever position I focus on.


Something new and unique about me that I love sharing with the world is that I have recently sparked an interest in training parkour! (Because most people don't know) Parkour/freerunning/urban gymnastics is not a sport- no rules, no teams, no points, and it's not about who can be the best. It's the art of moving through your environment as swiftly and effectively as possible using only the human body- primarily mixing gymnastics/acrobatic elements and martial arts. Looking at life, parkour is a lot about overcoming obstacles and not about achieving perfection (great for a perfectionist like me!)

I unfortunately don't have a picture of me doing parkour, so here is one of my friend Lauren and I climbing trees around campus :)