Anh Vu is doing a piece on the connection between Asian and School Studies, how it is different to be an Asian in college as supposed to other races.  I came on Thursday to help him with the boom while he’s shooting in the library and the Sac center.   It is really hard to hold the boom for awhile, it may seems really easy at first but after the first 10 minutes I started feeling it on my arms.

This was my first time actually operating the boom so I was really shaky and I was in a couple shots, which we had to re-do.  Anh was very friendly and supportive of this so it made me feel comfortable with the whole experience.  We shot in the library on Thursday and at the SAC on Friday.  I had to leave early on Friday because I was leaving for Maryland, I offer to help him edit however, because I left early.

While helping Anh edit I realize some of the mistakes I was making while holding the boom stick.   I did not line up the mic to some of the actors so the sound were off in some scenes.  There were also other times when we could hear one actor much louder than the other.  Some parts were also shaky because my arms were getting tired.  Over all however, the majority of it was good and thankfully, the shots that we had to take out weren’t really essential to the actual project.

This has been the longest weekend for me.  I’ve been up in Maryland since Saturday night to prepare shooting for my documentary.  My shot list are as followed:

Vannak (main subject of my piece) interacting with his family at home

Vannak’s daily routine; waking up early in the morning for work, preparing breakfast for the brothers

B-rolls of the college he is attending: Cecil College in Delaware

- Vannak inside library

- Entrance to college

- parking lot of college

Interviews with Vannak about his brothers and ex-girlfriend

Sunday November 29th, 2009

Anh Vu came up to help me shoot the interview.  He operated the camera most of the time while I was interviewing my friend.

During B-rolls of Vannak’s college in Maryland, Anh helped looked for angles as well as set up the camera, even though I was the one operating it for the final shots.

Anh stayed over night Sunday and was up early with Vannak and I to shoot B-rolls in Middletown park in Elkton.

Anh also help on my script for the documentary, some parts were changed according his opinion.

Anh Vu helped shot sceneries and recorded miscellaneous sounds for the missing links due to a change in the script.

I also borrowed his camera for location scouting.

DOCUMENTARY OUTLINE

Introduction

*Vannak in the morning out of focus (mysterious person)

* Vannak and the baby (a glimpse of his love for the family)

* B-roll of Vannak’s room to show who he is

* Stacks of textbooks and unfinished homework in his room

* Introduction rolls with credit

Vannak introduces himself

* Vannak introduces himself and the family

* B-rolls of each family member he is introducing

* Vannak on his personality (hobbies, beliefs..etc)

Vannak and Stress

* B-roll of family problems

* B-roll of work problem

* B-roll of girlfriend

* Vannak’s reaction to all

Vannak and his girlfriend

* B-rolls of  Vannak and his girl together

* Interview Vannak on where they stand

* Interview his girl to see where they stand

The Future:

* Vannak on where he will go from here

* Update on his school progress (self-recorded)

* What his plans will be with his girl (if they stayed together)

* How he view his family after making this documentary

Conclusion

* B-rolls of Vannak interracting with family

* B-rolls of work place

* B-rolls of school (if I get any footage)

* Montage of his brothers and girlfriend

I”m back from shooting in Elkton, Maryland, these are the shoots I’ve accomplished over the weekend.   The overall report is described below:

I had a problems with time conflict, while I was able to stay at his house for a few days, he’s rarely home because he’s working and making up work for his Thanksgiving break.

When he did get home, it was either late or the his school wasn’t open for filming.  His parents were also absent, they were back on the road after their Thanksgiving break.

His second brother just got engaged over Thanksgiving so he’s also never home, working 2 jobs now saving up for the wedding.

For some reason I forgot to shoot B-roll of Elkton an Vannak’s view on his future, looking back that’s what I’m missing.

Shots I got:

* More interviews of Vannak introducing his brothers

* B-rolls of the schools

* B-rolls of Vannak in the library

* B-rolls of Vannak driving to school

* Vannak going to work late in the evening while it’s raining

* Boxing clips

* B-rolls of the brothers I haven’t filmed yet

* Vannak showing the house a little bit

I am actually happy with some of the footages I got.  Vannak’s driving to school provided some of the missing links I’m needing between his interviews.

I did get to shoot the school, even though we only have an hour or so, it was fine.  The school was rather small and there’s only one place Vannak really stayed at, and it was the library, which I filmed.

The rest of the footage were also good for B-rolls and Visual impact, like it was cold and raining outside right before he had to go to work, so I really liked that.

I love the boxing clips that we did, it gave the piece a bit more personality, especially since it’s one of his favorite hobbies.

I’m going up to Maryland to shoot tomorrow.  My plan is to finish shooting by Sunday but I may stay longer.  Anh Vu will be coming to help me hopefully over the weekend to shoot the interview.  This is my shot list of the things I need to accomplish before this weekend.  I was supposed to have more time but my subject left for Thanksgiving so I missed out on a few days.

- Outside Cecil County College (in Elkton)

* Empty parking lot

* In front of each building that Vannak have classes in

* Main Entrance and surrounding areas

- Inside class rooms

- Cafeteria, Libraries

* Have Vannak walk me through these places that he hangs out alone most of the times

- Vannak doing homework at home

* Have Vannak study for a test or project and leave the camera rolling (I never actually got footage of him doing homework)

* B-rolls of the school

* B-rolls of Vannak in the library and hopefully in class

* B-rolls of Vannak talking to his teacher about his progress

* The whole family coming together with Vannak in it

* Vannak’s plan for the future

* His parents on Vannak’s hard work this semester

* B-rolls of Elkton, Maryland

A SECOND CHANCE – LUAN

I must be on a rolling streak because this is the third time I’ve ran into problems with the law in one form or another this month.  To make a really aggravated story short, I got a ticket for an expired meter; that still has minutes in it!  Busy is an understatement to describe this week.  I have a close friend who is getting married and I’m the camera man, for both outdoor shootings and for the actual wedding.  It is my mid term week, I’m catching up with all my classes, doing mid term tests and also the wedding.

The wedding is this weekend and I’m getting my hair cut yesterday.  It was raining and very cold.  I parked and put enough quarters to cover 1 hour and 40 minutes.  It just happens that my barber stepped out for a while.  I was afraid that my meter would expire so I walked back to my car in the rain and put in another 40 minutes, over killing my time.  My barber got back and I got my hair cut.  Took longer than I thought but when I got to my car, I still have 7 minutes in the meter.  Surprise!  I also got a damn ticket for an expired meter,  questions anyone?

I was very angry and frustrated.  Took me a while to calm down and when I did, I started thinking maybe it was my fault after all, maybe I put quarters in the wrong meter or took up two spots or what not.  I check the ID numbers on the meter and then the ID numbers on the ticket.  Not surprisingly, they got me down for expired meter on the one with the 7 minutes left on it.  I thought it was meter 64 (in front of me) but no, it was meter 65, where my car is parked.

My friend recently encountered a similar problem, receiving a ticket for expired meter even though he had put quarters in it.  He went through the whole process, with the hearings in court and everything that came attached with it, and won the case.  Unfortunately, don’t have that luxury.  I have work up to my neck and no time!  I’m pretty sure I will win this case, I even drove around and asked another officer to be my witness.  However, why do I have to go through all this in the first place?  I obeyed the law, spent my money on a meter so that I won’t have a ticket.  I get a ticket anyway even though I put in quarters, and now I will lose more time to debate this in court?  Who’s paying for my time, my gas, my frustration?  God Bless America and their Law Officers!

Excuse the frankness of my title, I’m till shaken with the irresponsibility of with a police officer who almost rammed into my car today. I was taking my girlfriend home to South Philly. I took the Whitman Bridge exit to Front St. In the rear mirror I can see a police car driving recklessly and coming dangerously close to me. I slowed down to let him pass but he started hugging my ass instead. I figured he’ll probably pull me over for blocking his way or what not but he didn’t, he just stayed right behind me. At the light, as soon as I turned left, I saw in my rear mirror a car speeding up like crazy, cutting half way into my lane. I swirled dangerously close to the car to my right lane. When I finally regained my composure I realized it was the same police car behind me the whole time. His emergency lights weren’t on at all. The officer did not even bother to sound the honk as a warning. As soon as he cut in front of me, he slammed on the breaks. I was once again forced to swirl around to my right lane to avoid an accident.
Now, I have many respects for people putting their life on the line everyday to protect us. I can’t imagine how society would turn out if it weren’t for responsible officers upholding the law. Granted, with such a responsibility, they should be granted great power. It’s understandable that some of these officers are frustrated, perhaps I was driving too slowly and he couldn’t haven’t given me a ticket for that so, he taught me a lesson. I also thought he was in a hurry to do something, maybe not police work but something personal but important. Unfortunately, none of my guesses were true. It turned out he was only trying to catch up to another cop car in front of me parking at the light. His reason for the outrageous driving? They were asking each other about their day, casual conversation, double parking in a left-turn-only lane at the intersection of Front St and Oregon; true story, sad but a true story.
My question is, if I were to confront the officer about his reckless driving, what would he have said to me? Matter of fact, I think he’d lock me up just for standing up to him. I’m scared of crooks and criminals because they could hurt me. Seriously though, why the hell do I feel so paranoid when I see a cop also? After all, they are on my side right?

It’s been a rather disappointing Saturday morning for me.  Driving all the way from Philadelphia to New York since 9:30 in the morning had gotten me tired.  I was however, in a good mood, after all, I was picking my girlfriend up from New York to spend the weekend with me.  I arrived at New York earlier than expected, around 11:00 a.m.  I’m not a New Yorker as I’ve only been here a handful number of times, otherwise I’m a complete stranger to the Big Apple.  As I was arriving to the toll before Lincoln Tunnel I accidentally stayed in the wrong lane, the EZ pass lane.  Seeing how it was impossible to turn back to the cash-only toll gate, I had parked my car to a non-working toll gate and walked over to ask for advices.  I made my way through the busy traffic and finally got to talk to one of the workers inside the toll booth.  I was clearly instructed to go ahead and pass the EZ pass lane as they will somehow send me back to the cash-only gate.

I listened and did as told, I backed up my car and drove through the EZ pass gate.  As soon as I’ve passed I pulled over and a young officer approached me.  I told him that I did not have an EZ pass and I told to go through any way, was there anything I could do.  The conversation went something like this, it is not exact and also not exaggerated:

Me: Morning officer, I don’t have an EZ pass, but I was told to go through here anyway, what can I do next?

Officer: There’s nothing you can do, they’re going to send you the fine, that’s it, nothing else you can do

Me: But I was told by a lady over there (points to the lady at the toll) that I should go ahead and go through here

Officer: Who told you?  What lady?

Me: Officer, I parked my car over there prior to passing through the gate because I understand that there is no going back once you’ve passed, and I went to ask…

Officer: Park where?  (looks frustrated) (raise voice)

Officer: (continues) You’re in an EZ pass lane, there’s a big sign that says EZ pass (points up at the big sign behind me as if I were stupid and did not speak any English)

Me: I know officer, I know this is the EZ pass lane and that’s the reason why I asked before proceeding, is there anything I can do to fix this?

Officer: There’s nothing you can do

Me: Well then sir, how much is the fine?

Officer: I don’t know

Me: So how will I pay for it again?

Officer: They going to send them out

Me: (nervous, stuttering on words, angered) so there is nothing I can do? Despite what I was told

Officer: (with attitude and aggression) There’s a big sign that says EZ pass (points to it again) you’re not even suppose to be in this lane, you want a ticket?  Is that what you want because I can give you a ticket right now

Me: (raise my hand and waves it) No! That is not necessary

Then I rolled up my window and drove away.  Now this is why I’m upset, for starter it was his attitude.  He obviously wasn’t trying to understand or hear me out.  Call me paranoid but I felt like he discriminated against me because I as Asian.  I knew what I was doing, the whole “look up here, in English it said this, you’re suppose to go here, there’s a sign there” was really unnecessary.  I would’ve been perfectly fine paying anything or receiving any ticket had one of them (the lady or the officer) told me from the get go that there was no going back and I had to pay no matter what.  I felt like I was played and was bullied by the young officer.  He challenged everything I said.  I understand that someone with his responsibility would have a lot of stress but if I remember right, I was the car that stopped and talked to him, it didn’t look like he had any pressing issue.

This incident, and many similar to this made me realize something.  Once anybody receives a certain amount of power over other people, they can be ***holes.  Parents, Teachers, Officers, Reverends, all abuse their power in one way or another.  Not applying this directly on myself, but this is the root of all evil.  You cannot control what you’ve provoked.  Rebels are born this way, criminals are born this way, angry, bitter citizens are born this way.  If someone have power in their hands to influence or help someone, then by all means, do it, but do it right.  I hope that lady will be more responsible when advising someone on serious law-related matters and that officer will drop his cocky attitude and show that he actually joined the force because he cared, not because he carries a badge that will add inches to his ****.