Dec 4, 2013
Welcome to the seventh Science Video of the Week feature! Each Wednesday I will post an interesting science video with some comments from either myself or the producer, and will conclude with some questions for discussion. I started this feature for the Women in Film and Video of Washington, DC email list, and I really want to hear your comments as well!
If you created a science video you would like to share, especially ones that had interesting challenges you’d like to discuss, send it to me and we can chat a little about how you approached the production!
Before you watch the video:
Caitlin Bailey is a graduate student in Montana’s Science and Natural History Filmmaking program. To culminate the first year of the program, the students have to write and produce a 5-7 minute film on a topic of their choice that utilizes the skills they’ve learned throughout the year. Caitlin made her first film on the cleanliness of gym equipment.
Watch the video: [length – 6:00]
After you watch the video:
In addition to the challenges one might expect from producing her first short film, Caitlin says that one major hurdle was the subject matter. She says that her original storyline was to “convince audiences to clean their gym equipment by showing them an experiment where their equipment becomes cleaner,” but as you saw in the video, that’s not what happened. Caitlin had to re-structure the story and message of her film after the results of her experiment showed the lack of effectiveness of the gym’s cleaning method. Personally, I think Caitlin got lucky with this unexpected plot twist, because it made her story more interesting!
Discuss:
Science producers, what challenges did you encounter when you were first starting out? All producers, do you have an example of when something unexpected actually ended up making your video/film/show more interesting?