First week shenanigans
I am working with Beth Harrington on my senior project. Below is some background on her: she is "an independent producer, director and writer, whose fervor for American history, music and culture has led to a series of award-winning and critically acclaimed films. Beth’s most recent works, The Winding Stream – The Carters, The Cashes and The Course of Country Music and the Grammy-nominated Welcome to the Club – The Women of Rockabilly, reflect her long-standing love of music. A rock and roll singer and guitarist, she is most noted for her years as a member of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers on the Warner Bros. Sire Records label.
A Boston native, Beth embedded herself in the historic North End neighborhood after earning a Bachelor’s degree in Public Communications at Syracuse University. Through her association with Boston’s Documentary Guild and WGBH, she worked as a line producer and associate producer on various shows for PBS, among them programs for NOVA and Frontline. These shows were honored with a number of awards, including a Peabody (Dating in the Age of AIDS) and two National Emmy nominations (In the Path of a Killer Volcano and Apollo 13: To The Edge and Back)" (https://www.bethharrington.com/).
My inspiration for this project has been my work on film and photography projects throughout high school. I chose this project to further explore what it's like to be a professional filmmaker and work on a professional film. Here are my 3 goals:
1) Learn what it's like to be a documentary filmmaker and understand all the steps that go into a film
2) Make an impact by helping expedite the production of the documentary since it was postponed due to COVID-19 (the plan was to shoot in some nursing homes around the time the first US COVID-19 cases arrived in Seattle nursing homes)
3) Learn about Beth's career trajectory
I pulled this project together by contacting filmmakers I admire and inquiring if I could work with them or anyone they know. My neighbors are a set of filmmakers (an animator and a stop motion art director). I reached out to them asking them about the senior project. They suggested I contact Beth so I emailed her, we set up a Zoom conversation/interview, and she agreed to be my mentor.
Wow. This sounds awesome. Looking fwd to following your posts and seeing how your project progresses. Super-cool. -Chris
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteHi Benjamin!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an incredible and interesting project you're working on. I found the demo video and David Greenberger himself to be so intriguing! What interested Beth in doing a film about him? How did she hear of him? How remarkable that he kept 40 years of answering machine cassette tapes.
As you look toward the coming weeks, what are you most excited for? Is there anything that happened in this first week that surprised you?
I can't wait to hear more about your work in the coming weeks. What a great project for you Benji!
Hi Kym,
DeleteThanks so much for commenting! I also found the demo really engaging. I believe Beth has been friends with David for 20+ years and she offered to make a documentary about him recent. I am most excited for learning more technical steps of the documentary-making process. This week, I attended some sessions of Oregon Documentary Camp since Beth is affiliated with them. They had a presentation on mental health and filmmaking. Beth said that mental health conversations only started recently (the past few years). This was surprising to me.
Best,
Benjamin
This looks so cool! I'm excited to hear more about the documentary and your experience working on it, as your project progresses. I wonder about the ways in which COVID has influenced the documentary filmmaking world/process. Is there anything that has emerged from this societal shift that has been helpful or illuminating? Or is everything just taking longer that it otherwise would have?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elizabeth! One thing Beth told me is that COVID has enabled more remote filmmaking. For example, David lives on the East Coast and Beth lives in Vancouver. Beth hired a freelance filmmaker n the East Coast to go to David's house and set up a camera system. She then facetimed him and the filmmaker make sure the eye levels between Beth and David were straight, then she interviewed him!
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