Remembering September 11

It's strange that people will approach and talk to you because you're shooting an event or holding a strange camera. I recently shot an even in downtown Springfield, MO and brought my medium format film camera. I talked to a lot of strangers simply because I was shooting with an “antique”.

Meeting people this way was true while shooting video of the September 11 ceremonies that took place at Missouri State University earlier this Fall. I was on assignment for the Standard and had my gear set up, waiting for the action to begin. A few folks stopped to ask what I was doing and who I was doing it for. This started the conversation and led to the interviews you hear in the video. A veteran initially approached me to talk about camera gear. It didn't take long for the conversation to turn toward the event and the gentleman explained to me the importance of hearing taps and what September 11 meant to him.

It's easier to become attached to the story when you talk to people who are passionate about the issue. This assignment was a great way for me to remember September 11, in a way I probably wouldn't have had I not been shooting the events.

I thoroughly enjoy experiencing events like this in our city. While shooting for the newspaper, I've attended events I never would have before. Because of this, I've gained a greater appreciation of where I'm from.

This was perhaps my third or fourth attempt at editing video. I think very much like a photographer—I rely only on real simple transitions and let the framing of the video speak for itself (it's also true that I haven't explored fancy transitions and animations yet...). I went out of my way to process and treat the audio—this is especially important to me.

While audio and video are obviously very distinct, there's a certain cohesiveness or homogeneity that needs to happen in a film. I haven't gotten to the point where I see films as the unique combination of audio and video—I see it more as audio with a video component.

The most difficult part of the his process is taking footage from an event and cutting it together into a narrative. I constantly asked myself, “would this make sense if I hadn't been there?” The text helps clue the viewer in on the story in a subtle way. However, I'm not sure the narrative for this video is very strong overall. It's another complexity I'm still learning about.