Production Memo

Production Memo
By Jessica Wertling

When I came across an article about MTBE water contamination in Nassau County, I knew I wanted to choose this as my topic because I felt it was something that people need to be made aware of. This is the type of issue that is more likely to get resolved and cease from happening in the future if a lot of attention is being brought upon it.

For me, the technical aspects of creating this video were the most difficult phase of this project. I filmed my stand-ups multiple times – trying different angles, lighting, and distances from the camera, and trying to memorize my scripted piece and make strong eye contact with the camera. I recited my written piece with as much finesse as I could – and yet it was still hard to get it perfect. I am a print journalism major, so I have no experience being in front of the camera and it was difficult for me to grasp what works and what doesn't for a video piece when the pressure was on and I only had so much time to film and edit. I sometimes had trouble using Windows Moviemaker when trying to edit my piece, which prevented me from getting it as perfect as I wanted it to be. However, this was definitely a learning experience and I’m glad I had to go out of my comfort zone and work with new mediums in ways that were unfamiliar.

Also, because my topic is science-oriented, I had a difficult time trying to figure out how to make this visually interesting to a viewer; I simply had no “b-roll” or my own pictures to show. I filmed my stand-ups in my kitchen, in front of the sink, because I thought this would signify that this is a problem that is in our homes and because the kitchen is the place where people will be obtaining contaminated drinking water.

To find my interviews, I went through all of my research and reached out to as many sources as I could by both email and phone. Whenever I obtained a source, I always asked them to refer me to someone who might be willing to talk to me and this proved to be very beneficial. I had done a lot of research prior to my interviews and I feel that I asked appropriate questions that yielded good information.

Content-wise, I felt my topic was one that had potential to be very complex to someone who had no knowledge of the issue and I felt I did a good job of covering all the bases concerning MTBE and making it interesting, understandable, and most of all, demonstrating why people should care. This is much more than a science-oriented issue, so I devoted most of the attention to health, legislation, the past, the present, and the future, all of which are going to be more important to the life of a Hempstead resident. The information is essentially the core of any good story and I had a lot of excellent sources who provided interesting and pertinent sound bites. I feel I utilized my stand-ups to deliver information that needed to be told; I do not think there is anything said in my video that is superfluous and I think I told a story that is both comprehensible and crucial to tell.