Benjamin Olshin's Senior Project Blog

Photo 1: more answering machine cassette tapes! Photo 2: Jesus Christ tape: one of the many idiosyncrasies of David Greenberger! This project has been a great learning experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Beth and learning about filmmaking and her life.  Below are the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the internship as well as my reflections on my progress towards them.  1) L earn what it's like to be a documentary filmmaker and understand all the steps that go into a film Yes, I have accomplished this. See below in the section discussing the college professor. 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) Yes, I have accomplished this goal. I made a significant dent in getting through the audio clips that will be used in the film as story lines and transitions....

Photo: circa-2000 cassette tape digitizer Photo: cassette tape Photo: box of cassette tapes Photo: some of the names I was looking for in the cassette tapes Photo: not even half of the cassette tapes. I numbered them. This week, I worked listening to these cassette tapes from an answering machine that David kept for 45 years. The idea here was to get audio clips that can supplement the physical materials (which they themselves will become visual pieces of the film). Unfortunately, I couldn't go through the cassette tapes at increased speeds (ex. 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x) so I listened to them at the normal speed. I observed how people seemed to use voicemail/answering machines differently 40 years ago. One thing I found funny was how people announced their location and the time in their message. For example, they say "This is Joe is Saratoga Springs, it's Monday at 7:13 am." This week, I learned how to use the cassette tape digitizer. This device takes the recording from a cass...