In summer 2010, I studied abroad in Shanghai, China. On my
trip, I met another student from my university named Alex McKamie, a senior
violin major on a quest to learn the erhu. The erhu is a traditional Chinese
two-string instrument. Alex provided me a unique opportunity to follow him on
his journey and track his progress as he improved. The story is original, allowed
me to explore the Chinese culture while minimizing the language barrier, and showed
I am capable of sticking to a project lasting over three months.
I planned my project around Alex’s schedule, including his
practice and lesson times. I worked on the project up until the deadline so I could show the most of Alex’s improvement as possible. I wanted narration from
Alex to guide the viewer through the piece. To do this, I conducted an in-depth
interview with Alex asking him everything from his history in music to his
plans for the erhu in the future to his impressions of China. This main
interview, combined with some other shorter interviews, provided the script for
the piece.
Condensing three months of material into less than three
minutes was a major challenge. Equipment limitation was also an obstacle. The
entire documentary was filmed with a Kodak Zi6 pocket camcorder and recorded
with an Olympus voice recorder.
As a documentary maker, I hope to bring in-depth and
investigative news reporting into the mainstream. My biggest influence is
Current TV’s Vanguard team.
