Week 16

The week of the showcase was full of late nights, drama, and glory! We showed the "final" cut to Laura who suggested we needed more B-roll of the actual people that we interviewed at St.Vincent Salem. David continues work on the Chapter motion graphics but is struggling to get a clear product during the zoom portion. Derek finishes up the score.

Two days before the showcase, Tyler and I go down to Salem to get more B-roll for the finished product. On the way down to the hospital we find out that they have no idea that we were coming. So, we do our best to explain who we were and why we have film equipment in their hospital willy nilly and they oblige and find us someone to escort us around the building to get shots we need. We feel like we got a lot of the shots we needed in the time we were giving and under the circumstances that we arrived.

We get back and log all the B-roll and Laura is completely disappointed with what we had shot. The next two nights, us T-Commers stay the night at VBC and edit up to the day of the showcase. It was a very hectic time but it was totally worth it to see our finished product at the showcase. It was a surreal feeling to see something we spent so long making on the big screen in front of all the people we care about and all the people we've interviewed.

Week 15

With a week left to go before the showcase, things are getting into place. There was a lot of drama about motion graphics and we decided to scratch the whole idea and just do a little bit of motion graphics in between chapters of our documentary. This would be handled by David while we continue editing.

Some more drama emits as far as the musical score for the documentary goes. Derek's friends told us that there was just not enough time between us getting them a somewhat final cut and the showcase for them to get a score together. We decided to put Derek in charge of laying down some tracks for the showcase version and have his friends get the score ready for the emmy nominated version. I thought Derek did an amazing job, especially for the amount of time he had to get it all ready. Meanwhile, we get a what we thought was a pretty good final cut to show laura for critique.

Week 13/14

Us T-Commers finally are back were we belong, the editing room. Deb, Derek, Tyler, and Nick had been story boarding and had a rough story for us to put together. For the last two weeks we have been compiling footage and placing it together to make a story to show to the class and Joe and Laura.

We changed the story many times and each time the story board team had to put something new together for us to edit into place. Joe and Laura had some things that wanted to change and then Shane and I had some things that we wanted to change and it became a back an forth thing until we had something that we were somewhat happy with and could actually start fine tuning.

Shane and I eventually made our own cut that went off of the story boarding team's vision but we felt that it was a much more clear story line and just flowed better. We once again showed the class and got input and changed some final things.

Week 12

New Hampshire was amazing! So much driving though. Shane insisted on driving the entire way so not much rest for his co-pilot Jimmy... damn Dorothy syndrome. Anyway, we got to New Hampshire smoothly and found our place of rest - a bed in breakfast in the middle of nowhere. I was certain we would all be murdered. We meet the owner and his daughter who were lovely and we watched Toy Story on VHS because we found a time machine apparently.

The next day was an early one as we made our way to Dartmouth College. It was a beautiful campus and I'm pretty sure I was smart enough to be there but I entered anyway. Sydney was amazing and I was certain we had found the star of our film - and only 16 hours away! Who'da thought. We interviewed him in his office in front of his books and got a whole hour of good solid footage. It was sad leaving New Hampshire but I was excited to stop and stay in New York on the way back.

By the time we got to our hotel in Buffalo, it was dark. We made friends with the valet guy there Chad and then continued up to our room. It was a nice hotel and Kara and I watched America's Best Dance Crew as David and Shane checked out the pool. We went to bed somewhat early because we knew we had a long day ahead of us.

The next morning we went to visit Niagra Falls before we had to make our long drive back to campus. Niagra Falls was amazing even though we couldn't go over to the Canadian side (leaglly). I even got a picture on Nicoli Tesla's lap. Well, eventually we had to leave and I'll skip the boring part of us driving and get to us returning to the VBC. We capture, log, and transcribe Syd the following day.

Week 11

This week was awesome! Finally, we got to go out of state and visit Chicago. I had never been to the main part of the city of Chicago before. We went to Corbett Accel and were greeted with food and drinks fit for kings! After a full round of interviews, we got to the James Hotel and wow! This was the nicest hotel I have stayed in ever. The rooms looked so futuristic. That night we went out on the town, had some pizza and headed back to the hotel for some bonding with the team. It was nice to have the whole group on a trip. We had a lot of fun and Shane and I definitely did not go to the pier and have a late night adventure. We also didn't meet a couple of asian girls at the pier, ride the bus with them and a nice lady who just watched Alice and Wonderland and then we most definitely did not give a hobo a glove and get lost in downtown Chicago only to find our way back with the help of a couple British smokers. ;)

The next day we went back and finished up our interviews and left back for Muncie. sad face* The rest of the week was full of transcribing and convincing Joe and Donna to let Shane, Kara, David, and myself to go to New Hampshire to film a professor at Dartmouth. Of course, we did convince them. Win. I so excite!

Week 10

Ahhh, this week was a fun one. We started off the week by going to Brandon's home and interviewed his two uncles and his father. The Schenk Triangle. I thought they were a myth. Anyways, this was a fun group and completely the opposite of Brandon. They had a very interesting story to tell about how they came up with this product and started their business and how they really focused on the people.

Later that week we traveled down to Indy and talked with a bunch of high ups at Huntington Bank. When I say high ups I mean that literally. We got on an elevator and went to a secret top floor with the execs meet. I felt very special and we had a great shot with the top of Indy in the background. Each person we talked to had a unique perspective whether they came from Huntington or Skyy. A lot of the people talked about staring down each other from across the street which made me think there was a war in the streets and I liked that.

We also got to get Kathie Onieal on film and she was all that I remembered. We wanted to film her in the solarium but we didn't take in account that the lighting would be so difficult. We continued onward and hoped we could fine tune it in post.

Week 9

SPRING BREAK!! PARTYING IT UP IN ... oh, wait. I was home in the good ol' town of Warshington.

Week 8

Well this week started off with a bang when we went to Cornerstone to interview Terri and she decided to be sick instead. We did get to see the inside of the building and where our showcase would be held. It was pretty neat.

We had possibly the longest day of our lives this week. Shane, Evan, Ashley, Beth, David, and I went down to Salem, IN to talk to a local hospital that was acquired after going through bankruptcy. We talked to EVERYONE! CFO's to dietary food people and everyone in between. It was exhausting but way worth it. This was a great story to capture because without this acquisition, Salem would have been without a hospital with the closest one being an hour away. The employees there viewed the acquisition as a godsend and were so thankful for St.Vincent. After leaving that morning around 8, we returned around 9 p.m. that night and needless to say, I slept well that night.

Kathie Onieal also came to talk to us and she had a very negative story to tell. She was very pessimistic about mergers and she talked as though Wachovia ruined her life by buying out AG Edwards. She kind of seemed like a crazy lady but she had the emotion that we needed in our documentary. If I came away with anything from this talk, it was Wachovia = The devil.

Week 7

Busy week this week. Judd Fisher, who I am told is a very important man, came to have a catered lunch with us. Apparently he funds our whole project. Well I am a picky eater so I had some of the salad and meat but not much. Also, I sat at the children's table with Evan, Kara, and Deb and had fun conversations while Shane and some of the other group sat with Judd and had big boy conversations. He seemed like a cool guy and he asked us about what we were doing and how things were doing.

Wednesday we went and interviewed Grant Schultz in Ft. Wayne. He was a nice guy but he reminded me of a hippie so I already didn't like him. As the interview continued he told us about his experiences with mergers and how he interned as a merger guy and that was interesting to me. He also owned a mountain. I didn't even know you could do that.

When we got back to the VBC on Wednesday we had another person to talk with by the name of Scott Cotherman who was a Ball State grad. He was a CEO at Corbett Accel which is a health care group in Chicago. It was long day but his story was a good one and I was excited because I knew we would get to go to Chicago to film him.

Steve Anderson also came to talk to us this week. He was retired but he used to be the CEO at First Merchants. He was really cool and had a good sense of humor. By the end of the day I kind of wanted him to be my grandpa but I don't think you can adopt grandparents. Oh well.

Another interview we did this week was with Antony Page back at IUPUI. He was a coworker of Ali G so I went in expecting the worst. He was actually pretty savvy and a much better guy that Ali G. I stayed awake for the whole interview! I think I will rate interviews from now on by how close I come to falling asleep.

The last guy we met with this week was Stuart Brotman. HOLY MOLEY! This guy was my hero. He told us about his merger with ABC and Nabisco but that is not why I worship this man. He pretty much created my all time favorite and most important show, Sportscenter. I never expected to meet someone like that while at Ball State or even in my life. I immediately tweeted my feelings.

Week 6

We're getting into the heart of our interviews with almost one every day. We went and filmed Jim Fisher first. He had a very interesting perspective because he has done international mergers. He told us an interesting story about a factory in Germany where the workers were too good to clean the machinery so they made the Turks do it. Lazy ass Germans. I'm sure the Turks have their own things to do. We also learned more about the Ball Jar company which is always interesting to a Ball State student such as myself.

We also went to get Dorothy on camera at her office in downtown Muncie. She only went into third person once this time which is good. She also referenced mergers to The Brady Bunch which was kind of funny. We may use that in the documentary. I'm really enjoying this project so far. It's almost like confirmation that I chose the right major.

Back at the VBC we decided on a logo after much arguing and near physical violence. 'Til Death Due Us Part is what we landed on. Mostly, this is due to all the references to marriage our interviewee's are mentioning. All the commotion is about the color of the DUE. Is red to negative? Should we make it green? blah, blah, blah. The end.

Week 5

So, we interviewed Ali G. My excitement soon turned into a deep disappointment. It was like seeing an amazing trailer for a movie and getting so excited and worked up about it and when you go see it, Ali G is there talking instead. I literally fell asleep while standing up. I hope our future interviews go a bit smoother than this one. Also, he was hitting on Jen and asked her to come up to his room as see his "dissertation" or some other "d" word maybe. ZING! Anyways, I feel bad for whomever, or is it whoever? I feel sorry for the person who has to transcribe this zombie.

Our next interview went above and beyond what I expected after Ali G. We went to Butler to interview Jerry Toomer and he actually had a personality. He was funny, as well as informative and we got a lot of good footage that I think we can use for our documentary. Plus, we got some cookies and juice. YES!

Our last interview of the week was also in Indy and with a waste management company named Republic. They merged with Allied and we talked with Kevin Walbridge who was also pretty awesome. He told a lot of good stories before we could even get the camera on and rolling but we got some good stuff on film too. At the end he even offered us all an internship opportunities and Jen a job.

Week 4

This week we actually began to interact with people that we were considering interviewing. Dorothy Doughlass came in for a "pre-interview" so that we could get an idea of her story and better formulate our questions for later. She referred to herself in third person a lot. Jimmy thought this was kind of strange but Jimmy doesn't like to judge.

We also snagged a law professor from IUPUI whose name I can't even try to spell correctly so we referred to him as Ali G. I'm very excited to actually start filming things. I haven't held a camera in too long. I'm starting to get the shakes.

Two more people came to talk to us about their merger experiences. Beth Turcotte, who was heading up the other seminar this semester and Terri from Cornerstone. Beth seemed to talk more about a merger of people but she was really funny with her words. I didn't expect her to say anything about a group of guys in a pissing contest but I guess surprises are a part of Beth. Terri talked about the history of Conerstone and brought us some old elevator documents that were pretty cool but I don't know how useful they will be.

Week 3

We finally decided our two macro groups for the semester. One group, my group, will be working on documentary related things such as interview questions, story boarding, and overall ideas for the documentary. My group, as I will be calling it, is made up of Shane, Evan, Derek, Traci, Deb, David, Tyler, and Nick. The other group is the case study group and they will be working on what their name implies.

My group split up to try and do as much work as possible. Half of the group started formulating interview questions and half of us kept watching documentaries. We watched one documentary, I.O.U.S.A, that really caught our eye. We got a lot of big ideas for motion graphics from this documentary. They used very interesting graphs to illustrate ideas. Shane and I were getting antsy to start filming and editing.

Week 2

The second week started off with arguments from all directions. Shane and I tried to sit quietly in a corner and crack jokes when we saw fit. I think it either lightened the mood a bit, or made a few select people more angry. I don't know which, but I enjoyed myself.

Some of the students began interviews with David. David is putting together a Metafilm which is essentially a documentary about making the documentary about making the documentary and so forth. He asked basic questions like what are names are and what our roles are, and if we were any animal what would we be which is very helpful to the project I am sure. :S

Week 1

The first week at the VBC was all about getting to know the people and the place that we are going to spend the majority of our time with this semester. The mansion is really old and neat and the people seem like people I would actually hang out with in my normal life. Our instructor for the class, Jen, seems fun and cusses a lot which leads me to think this will be a fun and more laid back semester than I have had in the past.

This week we also split into what Jen calls, Micro groups. These are many smaller groups that had specific tasks to complete so we could figure out the direction of our project. I volunteered to be a part of the task squad assigned to watch previously made documentaries for ideas about our own. We watched two that were made by students at the VBC. They were okay but I think that we can do way better.

For reading this week, we had a couple packets and two chapters in our books. These are boring but I think it will be very helpful to know what exactly we will be making a documentary on.