Project: Jenny B. Update 01
I've finally started filming my senior thesis project. Right now we are working with the title : Among Other Things, an Angel.
The project is a documentary about a woman that lives here in Savannah named Jenny. She is a social worker who does a special kind of social work here in cooperation with St. Joseph Candler hospital. To keep it short, she basically goes out into the field, HER field being the most impoverished country areas around the city of Savannah, and finds people who really need help in order to continue to live. These people, sometimes actually found in the field or sometimes found through their hospital visits become her clients. Jenny's job however, unlike other forms of social work, is about reintroducing these people and groups of people into their own home communities so that they, no matter what their issue is, don't end up needing Jenny at all. She works hard to encourage her client's local communities through neighbors, churches, and other organizations to embrace her client and be the help that they need to live a higher quality of life without Jenny as an actual social worker.
I found this job quite compelling, especially hearing about it from Jenny, herself. The stories that she tells are amazing. I absolutely love the fact that part of her job is to just drive out to the sticks and meet people, finding people in need and helping them. She is one of the most outgoing and nourishing people I have ever met. I love the story because I guess I would love to be more like her. So many people I have talked to about her specific line of work say things like "Oh my gosh, she goes LOOKING for these types of people?" When I hear about it I am inspired beyond all measure. It encourages me to continue with what I sometimes think of as "my madness" here with documentary film making. I do a lot of the same thing except it is with al different kinds of demographics of people. Through this "madness" I was fortunate enough to meet Jenny and have the opportunity to learn from her.
My goal with the film is to give other people the opportunity to learn from her as well.
Oh yeah, another thing about Jenny and the film that makes it a bit interesting. Jenny was born with APERT SYNDROM . (to learn a bit about Apert please click the link to the left.) This has made her physical appetence slightly different from your every day joe. For example, her fingers are "fused together" as is common with Apert Syndrome leaving her with only a few knobby fingers on each hand. These physical differences that she deals with every day though, don't slow her down in the least. She's definitely an amazing person with an amazing job that has an amazing story that hopefully many can be inspired by or learn from. yay run on sentences.
We started filming on Tuesday. The first item on a list of five that I need to film in order to make this documentary complete. What was it? Jenny practicing with her band Patchwork. Patchwork is a local folk group that plays in Savannah for different festivals and shows. They have played everything from the First Friday for Folk to the Ocianic Film Festival here in Savannah. It was a fun experience filming them practice and the other members of her band seemed really excited to help out.
Overall, the shot was successful. Hawk (my director of photography) always does a great job pulling the emotion from people in the way that he films them. Never will he miss that perfect opportunity for a close-up. haha. Direction was easy with him and with those involved. I love small crews and documentary films...it was even kinda funny because Hawk and I are so used to filming live music videos together- we worked in a similar way Tuesday night but then again not at all because the situation, athough musical, was tottally new. It was good to film music in a different setting: a folk band practicing in a church choir balcony. Very refreshing... and let me just tell you about the acoustics of that church when 5 people, a few guitars, and 5 voices are harmonizing in it's balconies. Gorgeous.
More to come.
-Chelsea
The project is a documentary about a woman that lives here in Savannah named Jenny. She is a social worker who does a special kind of social work here in cooperation with St. Joseph Candler hospital. To keep it short, she basically goes out into the field, HER field being the most impoverished country areas around the city of Savannah, and finds people who really need help in order to continue to live. These people, sometimes actually found in the field or sometimes found through their hospital visits become her clients. Jenny's job however, unlike other forms of social work, is about reintroducing these people and groups of people into their own home communities so that they, no matter what their issue is, don't end up needing Jenny at all. She works hard to encourage her client's local communities through neighbors, churches, and other organizations to embrace her client and be the help that they need to live a higher quality of life without Jenny as an actual social worker.
I found this job quite compelling, especially hearing about it from Jenny, herself. The stories that she tells are amazing. I absolutely love the fact that part of her job is to just drive out to the sticks and meet people, finding people in need and helping them. She is one of the most outgoing and nourishing people I have ever met. I love the story because I guess I would love to be more like her. So many people I have talked to about her specific line of work say things like "Oh my gosh, she goes LOOKING for these types of people?" When I hear about it I am inspired beyond all measure. It encourages me to continue with what I sometimes think of as "my madness" here with documentary film making. I do a lot of the same thing except it is with al different kinds of demographics of people. Through this "madness" I was fortunate enough to meet Jenny and have the opportunity to learn from her.
My goal with the film is to give other people the opportunity to learn from her as well.
Oh yeah, another thing about Jenny and the film that makes it a bit interesting. Jenny was born with APERT SYNDROM . (to learn a bit about Apert please click the link to the left.) This has made her physical appetence slightly different from your every day joe. For example, her fingers are "fused together" as is common with Apert Syndrome leaving her with only a few knobby fingers on each hand. These physical differences that she deals with every day though, don't slow her down in the least. She's definitely an amazing person with an amazing job that has an amazing story that hopefully many can be inspired by or learn from. yay run on sentences.
We started filming on Tuesday. The first item on a list of five that I need to film in order to make this documentary complete. What was it? Jenny practicing with her band Patchwork. Patchwork is a local folk group that plays in Savannah for different festivals and shows. They have played everything from the First Friday for Folk to the Ocianic Film Festival here in Savannah. It was a fun experience filming them practice and the other members of her band seemed really excited to help out.
Overall, the shot was successful. Hawk (my director of photography) always does a great job pulling the emotion from people in the way that he films them. Never will he miss that perfect opportunity for a close-up. haha. Direction was easy with him and with those involved. I love small crews and documentary films...it was even kinda funny because Hawk and I are so used to filming live music videos together- we worked in a similar way Tuesday night but then again not at all because the situation, athough musical, was tottally new. It was good to film music in a different setting: a folk band practicing in a church choir balcony. Very refreshing... and let me just tell you about the acoustics of that church when 5 people, a few guitars, and 5 voices are harmonizing in it's balconies. Gorgeous.
More to come.
-Chelsea
posted by Chelsea at 7:17 AM
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