The Deadliest Hope

This post is going to be short because I don't want to get anyone's hopes up (least of all mine) but rest assured THERE WILL BE FREQUENT UPDATES starting very soon... hopefully.

I have been vigilantly contacting people from the realms of my four main "characters" and have been getting positive feedback! Stop that! I can feel your hope levels increasing, now just stop right there, ms./mr. because we have been here before... and we're here again. What does that tell you about how it turned out?

PAST is very hard to contact, but I have established some small communication with Mr. Roger Luther and am putting a lot of pressure on that front (ps. he sounded very welcoming to my ideas).

On the Environmental front it's not that I'm a bad researcher, the opposite, actually. I have established significant and lengthy contact with more than four figures from the local environmental community. What I have come to realize is that there is really only one organization here that is making significant progress (maybe this is the reason Bing. has an environmental problem) can you guess who it is? We've discussed them before! You got it! (i'll assume) VINES!

Now I'm not saying there aren't any other environmental programs, but they're either bogged down with the fracking debate or with governmental process. Just another thing to include in the doc. [mental note].

Anyway this is already longer than I had planned on. more updates will come within the next week or two. For Better Or Worse.

-Kevin Hallagan

ps. I bought a polarized filter today and am shopping for an omni mic, and a hot shoe extender. I'm planning on making some of the gadgets from The Frugal Filmmaker

Disappointingly Slow

Hey everybody, well I'm sorry I haven't been posting more, but there is just not much new to report. I have been toying with the idea of changing my community character from Charlie Moore to BingSpot.com, I can't figure out if I want to do this because it would be easier or because BingSpot is actually more accurately/importantly a part of the community than Charlie is. this is a mental conundrum. But I've talked to Joshua B. about it and he said he likes the idea but he needs some time to think about it.

On the waiting front... I'm still waiting. I have called and left messages multiple times for two members of the Environmental Management Commission, Merry Harris of Economic Development, and have finally gotten to call (and leave a message for) Roger Luther from Preservation Association of the Southern Tier.

Waiting waiting waiting...

waiting waiting waiting...

It's like the ring-back tone on the phone.

more updates to come, hopefully.

Oh, on a mental note, I have been hit with waves of doubt, but that doubt has turned into something equally discouraging but opposite. Helplessness. I have become aware of the fact that Binghamton IS moving in a great direction and it has nothing to do with me, and it seems so obvious now but I think that's because I'm looking at it so closely. It's really hard to keep faith when you know there is nothing you can do to help. (this is a note for all starting documentary filmmakers who stumble across this blog)

-Kevin

Time's Up

Ok, so I have been waiting not-so-patiently for replies from a lot of different people and i need responses before I can move forward with anything. I am tired of waiting and tomorrow I will be repeatedly calling each of their offices until a human being answers. Classes start next week and I'm taking an online course that starts tomorrow. i need to get everything planned out before then or it's all going to start crumbling!

I hate waiting for responses!

that's really my only update, sorry everybody.

-Kevin

Revelations & Preparations

I've narrowed my "characters" list down to Charlie Moor (community), Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition (environment), A local business (local business, haha), and I have a handful of contacts from my meeting with the West Side Neighborhood Project (local Housing Market).

I want these to be my strong four story lines.

Problem: the more I learn the harder this gets! There is so much information to sift through it's crazy. Everything I look into expands like life is made of .zip files and I'm an unarchiving program.

Solution: what?

I've taken my issue of overcomplicated subject matter and have decided that's the opposite of what I want my documentary to be. It's overwhelming and disengaging to be confronted with so much information. This is why I need my four storylines to be simple but representative.

I get really excited when thinking about making the documentary. how I'm going to edit it together and everything! in my brain this whole process will be a rush of activity and creation but I know it's going to be a slow and cumbersome process... but I am totally o.k. with that. I guess that means I chose the right career for me :)


I need to make a storyboard by the time classes start back up (September 4) so I don't have to worry about classes And how I'm going to make this work at the same time. classes will definitely be slowing my process to a crawl.

BLEAAAGGHHHH I'm excited and hesitant all at the same time! I'm a ball of ambition and naivety and that's the way I like it.

-Kevin