Skip to main content

Assignment #4: Expert Interview Reflection

We interviewed Christopher Brantley, President and Founder of the Saber Fitness Club at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. We interviewed Christopher September 10th, which lasted about forty minutes. I was a little worried that we might have to squeeze answers out of him, but Christopher took out questions and ran with them easily. He mentioned his experience within theater during the interview, which I think made him naturally comfortable being the center of attention. He was open and clearly passionate about the Saber Fitness Club, the organization he founded at UNCW, and we all learned a lot about it that day.

Christopher explained how the organization is a mixture of his love of Star Wars, hence the use of light sabers, and martial arts. He explained that, while he wants the club to be fun, he also takes the choreography with the sabers very seriously and others in the club should, too. He explained that respect and comradery within the group is very important to him and he expects both within the group at all times. He told us that the club was a new organization, so he was not sure exactly where it may go in the future, but he briefly mentioned possibly taking it off campus, making it more of a community activity for the Wilmington area.


Initially, not really being much of a Star Wars fan, I was not sure I was going to find the Saber Fitness club to be an interesting topic, but Christopher’s passion and congeniality changed my mind very quickly as we interviewed him. I think his organization is about more than just Star Wars and light Sabers. I believe that Christopher is using those things as a vehicle to teach respect, entertain, and build friendships on campus. Overall, I am very satisfied with our expert interview. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Assignment #2: Light Observations

The first room that I chose to observe light in was the bathroom of my home. The room has two light sources, an overhead light bulb encased by a floated globe and three round lights above the bathroom mirror against the wall. The frosted glass light bulbs above the mirror make the light emanating from those bulbs have more of a yellow hue than the overhead light with the globe covering it. The further away towel rings, toilet paper holders, and towel racks are from the light sources, the more subtle the shadows behind them appear to be. The shadows appearing behind these objects are also elongated down and across the wall. Pictures hanging on the wall, to the right and down from the bathroom mirror only cast a shadow on the side farthest from the light. The shadows also now appear shorter than the actual objects the farther they are from the light source. The second room that I chose to observe the light of was my home computer room. I chose this room because there are, again, two li...

Blog #8: Master Shot Sound Experience

I was in charge of sound for our Master Shot project. Our director, Brandon preferred to use his own equipment, so we used his Tascam 5D Mark II and two of his shotgun microphones. While Brandon was very helpful in explaining how to use the equipment, I do worry about missing the experience of using the   H4N. However, I expect we will all have access to different equipment next semester, so I will probably have to learn new equipment all over again next semester, anyway. As far as actually recording the sound, it was a pretty straightforward, easy job. The most difficult part of it was keeping the boom microphones out of the shot, supporting them on my shoulders for so long, and using them in a relatively small space in between the two actors. I prefer the editing experience over all of the positions that I have occupied so far in our projects.

Assignment #5: B-Roll & Vox Pops

The Saber Fitness Club of UNCW meets every Monday in the Warwick ballroom from seven o'clock to ten o'clock to practice.  We were invited to film the practice by Chris, one of the founding members, and interview members of the club throughout the practice. We asked each interviewee what they liked about the club, what they felt they got out of being in the club, and if they felt that other UNCW students should join. Aside from the Vox Pops, we were also able to get a lot of good shots for our b-roll of the club members learning combat moves, with Chris instructing them, and the club practicing them together. Chris and all the members of the Saber Fitness Club were very gracious, letting us intrude on their weekly practice. I feel that the practice was a great place for us to film and offered me a lot of material to work with when I edited all of the film together.