Short documentary completed!

"Haunted Forest 2012"
Indiana Outdoors Documentary 

Produced by Kayla Sprayue

I filmed this back in October for Ball State University's Indiana Outdoors show. As the producer for this documentary, I oversaw a team of five students; this involved tasks such as organizing the day's shoot, conducting the interviews, keeping track of equipment, teaching the new film students how to use equipment, approving the videography, and procuring permission forms from dozens of participants.

I love being a producer. I am very organized and energetic. I work well under the pressure of an on-location film shoot. I love finding solutions to problems; when a team member has a question and I can help them learn something - its the best feeling in the world. I am definitely a "people person;" I know how to communicate with my team members, and I find collaboration very fulfilling. I got such an adrenaline rush from this shoot, as I always do when filming. We spent most of the day getting B-roll and interviews. Luckily it was nice weather, though the light was constantly changing because of the clouds moving in front of the sun, and every few minutes we had to adjust the camera settings to compensate.

Our organization wanted us to have permission forms for all the children there, which was probably our biggest challenge. The Haunted Forest was very busy for Children's Day, so we were constantly asking parents to sign permission forms for their children to be on camera. Then we took photos of the children we had permission forms for, that way we could match up the pictures to the footage when editing to be sure we didn't show the faces of any kids without permission forms. It was extremely hectic, and for one of my team members, a freshman, this was her first shoot. She was very nervous about approaching people and asking for signatures. I walked her through it a couple times, had her come with me as I talked with parents, then set her loose to get more signatures by herself. It was so rewarding to watch her shyness turn into proud confidence as she successfully interacted with the participants. By the end of the shoot, she was so excited about filmmaking, and convinced that making documentaries was her dream job.

Indiana Outdoors recently finished this final edit and uploaded it to their youtube channel. I am happy to finally be able to share it on my blog. For more on Indiana Outdoors, you can visit our website, indianaoutdoorsbsu.weebly.com/

I hope that this video will air on PBS sometime during the next school year - keep your fingers crossed!