Describe a moment and analyze: “Write about a single experience or moment, and ask: how does this moment, experience, or encounter relate to my essential question?”

• You can also compare it with learning experiences you have had elsewhere, whether in or out of a classroom, at LREI, or elsewhere.

 

When I got to my uncle’s ranch to start filming my documentary I was met with some harsh realities of filming in an environment that was unforgiving. In my initial planning for this phase of the project, I did not think about how the weather might impact my video. While I may have thought about whether, in terms of rain or snow, I did not think about the difficulties that the wind might pose to capturing the audio for my project. After just one day of filming, it became apparent to me that the audio that I was capturing was heavily obstructed by the wind. Furthermore, I had planned to film my uncle talking about his operation in the car since that is normally when he shares the most information. However, I soon realized that this too was not going to work out. Most of the roads we were driving on were dirt roads and that combined with the constant chatter of tools in the bottom of his truck made it impossible to capture good audio. Similarly, capturing any useful video in the car was also difficult since because of the dirt roads the bumps were very bad and I could not find a way to stabilize the camera.

 

The first week of filming I was met with many challenges that I had not thought about ahead of time. When I finally got back home I looked at the footage that I did have and started to think about ways that I could troubleshoot these issues. After talking in my cohort meeting I decided that the best course of action would be to mute the clips that I do have and instead capture the audio of my uncle talking separately. I plan to then overlay that audio on top of the clips I capture for the final documentary. While I did consider trying to tackle the issues of the camera stabilization and reducing the wind I eventually decided that my current plan would be the best course of action since it is the most accessible to me. Perhaps if I had thought ahead about environmental factors such as the wind I could have asked for a microphone that blocked out the wind, but currently, it would be more difficult to get one than to carry on without one. I can also not afford to change my filming schedule just to wait for one to arrive so instead I have decided to work around these issues. 

 

While the circumstances of my issues this week are certainly unlike anything that I have had to deal with in the classroom, problem-solving is not something that is new to me. Throughout my high school experience so far I have had many opportunities to practice my problem-solving skills. In my math and science classes, I was often challenged with problems and had to come up with ways to solve them on my own or in a group. Perhaps it is because of this that the experience of being thrown in a situation and having to think on your feet is not new to me and I believe that this is what helped me this week as I was asked to tackle problems that I did not prepare for.