Films to screen

ideas for films to watch for inspiration:

-Hearts and Minds
-Two Towns of Jasper
-Family Name
-Promises
-Both Winter's Bone (about 2/3rd in), and the doc Freakonomics (last "story" segment) both have scenes/references to high schoolers w/o good future options considering joining the military

So... How is this thing collaborative/community based?

Ideas:
-sharing/building blog with Tim and documentary subjects?
-get kids considering alternatives to shoot their own videos? (Flip HDs from Digital Aquarium/The Exchange could maybe be used)
-work with recruiters, and or former recruiters?
-work with vets?
-include everyone featured in scheduled production meetings?

What else?

Our First Meeting with AFSC

We met on Wednesday with Tim Franzen, the project coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee's Southeast region. Conveniently, the group's offices are literally 2 blocks away from the GSU campus which should make working together fairly smooth. I think I can speak for our entire group in saying how impressed we were with Tim's passion for what he does. This definitely translated through to the project and we are all really excited to see where things head. At this point it looks like we may end up focusing on an Atlanta-focused program, SCAP (Student Career Alternatives Program), that provides support to at-risk students who have few options after high school.

Below are several photos from our meeting (some taken by Victoria, and a few OF Victoria taking them - we are all over this reflexivity thing!). We also audio recorded the entire meeting and will be posting some of that audio here in the coming days. As of now, we are going to discuss today whether we think it would be valuable for me (T.J.) to head down to do some shooting at a statewide meeting of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition this Saturday in Macon. We also need to continue fleshing out exactly what stories we want to tell (there is a wealth of options after our meeting with Tim), and begin to lay out a production schedule.

Pics Below include: Victoria snapping shots of Tim and the AFSC office, as well as Tim Franzen (on the right) with one of the local veterans who works with the group.

The GSU team members - Who are we?

Our group is looking forward to working together on what we hope will end up being a really great, collaborative, and important documentary (whatever form that may end up being in). We have decided to each take on a specific "job" at this point, in hopes that it will allow us each to bring forth our strongest assets and assist our team in working and communicating during the production process. Here is a little information about each of us:

Kristy Breneman, Producer:
I am a first year graduate student studying film production in the Dept. of Communications at GSU. I have a BA in Film and Philosophy. I enjoy experimental, documentary, and avant-garde cinema.

Victoria Temple, Editor
I'm a fourth year senior seeking a BA in Film and Video. Editing and post-production are my primary interests. I have a passion for experimental and documentary film. Some of my shorts can be found on my Youtube Channel and blog.








Kristan Woolford, Director of Photography:
I come to this project in hopes of growing as a documentary filmmaker, while learning to better tell the stories of those that shape the community I am

a part of. Past experiences with documentary work allowed me the opportunity to be published on the National Black Programming Consortium's website for a series of audio podcasts exploring black masculinity in America (Education, Single Father, Prison). My most recent project is in the post production phase, and will aim to capture the impact that international outreach has had on a team of missionaries I traveled to South Africa with. You can check out some of my other work here.


T.J. Hicks, Director:

I'm a first year Ph.D. student in the Moving Image Studies track in the Department of Communication at GSU. I have an MA in Communication with an emphasis in Media Studies from Northern Illinois University and a BA in Speech Communication from Colorado State University. My primary area of study in the past several years has been documentary film and video (production, history, theory). I come to this project hoping to continue developing my production skills as I have only recently began to make my own documentaries. You can see my first short film 'Life by Joseph' here and some other short projects I've worked on at my YouTube channel here.