Done!

I'm finally finished, as much as I can do this semester. I've filmed all I can and edited as best as I can, and I'm fairly happy with the result.

As with my first draft, there is almost no B-roll. I tried to get some, but whenever I showed up, Mama wasn't around. There's not much I can do about that, and the semester is over, so I'm going to have to call it quits. If I had a camera and some editing software, I would love to do some more, as I see this project as almost complete, but as it stands I must stop.

Currently, I am rendering and once I get more space on my Vimeo account, I would like to put the video up for everyone to enjoy.

First draft.

After hours of work editing and subtitling (mostly subtitling), I have finished my first draft. As far as the editing, it was fairly simple and straightforward. For the subtitling, the best way I've found to do it is to get my film making partner to translate for me and I fit them in myself. When I did my previous documentary, the subtitles were translated and inserted at the same time, which lead to a lot of frustration. Breaking up the work made it a lot easier and less frustrating. Occasionally I wasn't sure about timing, but in those cases, I would simply do my best and have my partner check it for me. I think it went pretty well.

The video is long, though. Clocking in at almost 17 minutes, I think it might be too much. The time for the first draft has come, so I think I'll stop and then see other people's reactions. I also know there is no B-roll and it gets boring visually after a while.

Breakthrough.

I finally went to Mama's and got a chance to interview her and a few regulars. It was a bit rough for me because I did not understand what was being said, but my filming partner (Minori) assures me that it was good material.

The main interviewees were Mama of course and her roommate and friend Ji-Hwan. He is a Korean guy who is sharing an apartment with her. In Mama's interview, she stated how she used to hate Koreans and Korean food. This is actually much more interesting than the inital idea of her relationship to the community.

Filming Mama.

After some discussion, Mama agreed to let us film, but not that day. Instead, she wanted to start off filming at a punk show. The idea was great, but the results were less than stellar. Seeing a 70 year old women rocking out at a punk club is interesting enough, but the sound was of course dreadful and this being a show, it was really dark, so the results weren't very good. This of course is nobody's fault. It just happened to be that way, and there's nothing I could do. If I had prepared before, I might have been able to get a light, but that would have been awkward at the show, so really there was no way to prevent it. Afterward I tried to shoot Mama back at the restaurant, but she was really busy and that didn't turn out so well either.
Despite this, I did get her to wear a microphone while she walked around. She was obviously not uncomfortable on camera.