I made this film with three purposes in mind: 1) to inform people about foster care, 2) to share my family’s experiences with it, and 3) to inspire others to become foster parents. Each clip that I have kept in the film relates to at least one of these three purposes.

Monday I was in the MML from 1 to 3:30ish. I finished my new cut! I spent my time color correcting, adding a bit of b-roll, and just putting some final touches on it. On Sunday, I changed the order of some clips so I hope the film still makes sense when I show it this week.

Editing this film lately has made me really miss my family. Honestly, I can’t wait to be done with this and go home to the island in a week and a half.

Tuesday I showed my film to the class for the second time. Got some interesting comments.

Wednesday I spent 5 to 9 in the MML editing my film down, exporting, printing to tape, etc. I finally got my film down to 10 min 20 sec.

Friday I redid some things on my extended version and got a final cut of that. It’s about 17 min long. My mom wants 7 copies so I’m going to be in the MML for a while.

Pretty much I am done with my project and I just need to finish up doing DVDs for my personal portfolio/collection.

Tuesday: editing 4 to 7:30

At the end of editing Tuesday, I got something close to linear lined up in the time line. It’s really hard to take a bunch of footage and interviews like this and organize it in a way that flows.

Wednesday: editing 5-8

Written on Wednesday:

Today, I started to cut down that 30 min-linear-timeline-sort-of-movie I had. I also finally got all the footage (besides footage of Baby Ro) that I like placed in the time line, whether it was in the movie somewhere or chucked at the end in little pieces. I’ve got it down to around 22 min (I started out with like 28), but I still haven’t put in any footage of Ro or credits at the end. I need to make it under 20 min, including credits. Either next week or in the next few days I need to do mess with color correction, audio (levels, fades, smooth transitions, etc), placing pictures, overlapping visuals, names, etc.

It’s really frustrating because I think there’s a lot of footage I have that contains important info people should know and it’s hard to let go of things. There’s also a lot of footage of Jilly that I really like (cutesy comedic relief), but will probably have to cut because it’s not vital and my mom repeats some of it in her interview.

Mindy has been completely cut from the movie sadly. She talks too much like a 13 year old, ending every sentence with a question mark, if you know what I mean. I think she might be sad I’m cutting her from the movie, but she will still be in the credits and maybe some of the old footage of Ro. I knew the interview went terribly, but I thought I could salvage some footage of her.

Thursday: editing 1-6:30ish

Thursday at 3:30pm: Still cutting – I’ve gotten the film down to 19 min 20 sec, but still haven’t put in credits. I placed the footage of Bob and Debra (Ro’s plan b adoptive parents) on top of an interview with my mom. And I put in some nice looking name titles introducing everyone in the beginning.

Friday: editing 1-5

Yesterday I put in the credits and footage of Ro and I got the final film length – around 19 min 45 sec. There are a couple seconds I could cut off here and there, but I really think there’s nothing else I can cut out. Everything in the film has a purpose right now.
Today I added in the overlapping visuals (baby pictures) for the sections about each kid, worked on audio levels (so it no longer goes up and down with the start of each clip) and did a little color correction on each clip in the film. The film is basically done except I want to add a tiny bit of piano music at the end. I plan on composing it myself and I haven’t played piano in years so hopefully it doesn’t end up sounding terrible.
I finally came up with a name: finding family.

On Wednesday, I attended the DVD Studio Pro workshop.

On Thursday, at our affinity group meeting, I shared clips from raw footage of my mom’s interview. My group members commented that it was very engaging.

I redid my production schedule and annotated bibliography.

I should probably put an artist statement together for this film at some point…

On Thursday at the affinity group meeting I showed clips of the raw footage I have at this point. Which was…

Ro getting off the ferry

My mom playing with Ro

And interviews with…

Steve

Mindy

Jilly

Ellen

Some of my shots weren’t lit well enough (which I was aware of before) and a tip I was given was to try to have shots where the natural light is facing the person, not back-lighting them. I really don’t like to use unnatural light unless I really have to, but maybe I will consider using a key light next time. I also have discovered that I cannot completely trust the little LCD screen on the camera because the shot is always going to appear brighter than it actually is. I will probably do some color correction/brightness adjustment when I edit my footage. Another thing: if my subject talks with his/her hands, I need to frame accordingly.

Wednesday morning was my interview with Ro’s current social worker. I had never met her before because my mom usually kicks the rest of us kids out of the house when she comes so they can focus and do the check quickly. Her name is Ellen and she did the “home safety check” and then a short interview with me. During a check, she brings a clipboard which she scribbles notes on and asks my mom a few questions. The questions are usually about how Ro is doing, how his case is going, how he interacts with the family and Bob and Debra, and how is he is doing medically/physically. She also checks his room to make sure everything looks good and safe in there. Ellen always brings a new book (always one with African American characters) and reads with him. My mom plays with him while they talk so Ellen can observe for herself how he is really doing.

After the check, my mom took Ro upstairs and I interviewed Ellen. She has been doing this for a while and gave a great description of the kinds of things she does for her job. She also described how social workers have a very different, much calmer job than that of CPS (Child Protective Services) employees. She, like everyone else I’ve met (involved in foster care) so far, emphasized at the end of the interview how the state is in need of families. I was very thankful for her interview.

In the late afternoon, I interviewed Mindy in her room. She had told me that she was really excited to do her interview and be in my movie, but once I got her in front of the camera, she became very quiet. She didn’t elaborate very much on her answers. I asked her about it and she said she “felt too much pressure.” I tried to make her as comfortable as possible and eventually got some good dialogue out of her, but I don’t think I’ll be using much of her interview in the final film.

My interview with my mom has been postponed because she’s having some kind of allergic reaction. Her right eye is very red and swollen and she hasn’t been feeling well at all. It’s a shame because today (Thursday) is her birthday.

Friday I will return to Oly.

On Sunday, I had my first day of shooting. It was raining, so I had to go up on the covered deck by the bookstore at cannery landing. Luckily, the 3-chip has a good zoom to I got close to the kind of shot I had originally wanted. I filmed Bob and Debra (Ro’s plan b adoptive parents) getting off the ferry and giving Ro over to my mom. Bob and Debra knew I would be filming them, but they didn’t know where I’d be, so the first part of the footage is completely candid on their end. YES! I love candid stuff.

It’s very complicated (I could probably write a full page about the situation), but Bob and Debra are plan b because Ro’s mom’s cousin is the first option. If she decides not to adopt him and his mom terminates her parental rights, Ro will most likely go them. They love Ro and currently see him on weekends.

Monday I went to Steve’s law office to film an interview with him. I also got some filler shots. I asked him a few questions and he explained in his own words how the foster care system works. He also answered something I had been wondering for a while: where the kids go between being picked up and going to a home. He didn’t really feel like sharing much about his own experiences with foster care, but his interview was very informative about the system as a whole. I got all the information I had wanted and more.

Tuesday, I returned from FH and turned in my proposal. Our affinity group met around 1. We filled Margaritte in on all our projects and discussed possible field trips and future meetings.

Thursday, out affinity group met with Beatriz at 10.

Due to car issues my plans for my trip to the island next week have changed. I will now be there Tues to Fri, instead of Mon to Fri.

I also finished my grant application form and my production schedule. I made sure to make time in weeks 7 and 8 for the MML, since I will probably be spending my life in there.

Our first affinity group meeting was on Thursday. It was mentioned that we were supposed to meet on Tuesday on our own, but since this had not been communicated to us earlier, we had not done so. We presented our ideas for our projects once again, but this time our ideas were more fully formed. We also decided that each week we will try to feature one group member, who share a film or information to help us better understand their subject.

I had planned to get to the island on Friday, but I ended up staying in Seattle/Bellevue for the night and then heading to Anacortes to catch the ferry the following morning. Once on the island, I made more concrete plans for shooting. I decided I would start shooting on Sunday.