FST 201 Blog

Shooting the vox pop was very interesting. We had a few people who were willing to do it and they all had a different view of drag that worked out for us. Shooting only took a little bit of time compared to filming the expert interview. We shot a few questions and then I ended up choosing the one that I thought fit best for the film. The b-roll shot that we got took extremely long seeing as how Gary (our expert interviewee) takes a few hours to get into full drag. We were at his apartment for at least 7 hours filming while he got ready. We shot different things around his apartment that expressed Gary’s personality. The entire process was truly fascinating watching him get into full drag, especially with using unusual tools such as a purple glue stick and a cold spoon to use to flatten his eyebrows.

The expert interview went very well. It took a minute to set everything up and the lighting was a crucial matter that we were dealing with. The interviewee is named Gary Wright. He does drag whenever he can and thoroughly enjoys doing it. He had no issues with anything and seemed to love all the cameras on him. It was made sure that he was comfortable with all the questions that he was being asked as well. It was important that he approved the questions as well. It took us a good part of the day to get all the shots we needed. While the interview was about a good 15 minutes, we stayed to get some b-roll footage as well. This took an extremely long time because Gary was getting into drag. It takes him a few hours to do so, so now we have a good couple of hours of footage to go through.

We are planning to do the documentary on a good friend of mine named Gary who is a drag queen. The focus of the documentary is to show to the versatility of those who do drag. It should draw people who have no idea about drag in. We plan to go over to Gary's apartment and film him as he gets into drag. Later on we will be moving to his favorite bar where other queens and people will meet too. There we will be conducting the Vox Pop. For the Vox Pop we are hoping the enough queens will be there to interview. If not, then we will go on with the public who show up at the bar. The expert interview will take place at his apartment before he gets into drag. I have made a list of questions that I would like to ask Gary. They are: What is drag to you? How did you get into drag? Who inspired you the most to do drag? Who are your favorite queens? Do you think the public will be more accepting of drag in the future? What do you think is the future for drag? What is your advice f...

Another place that I observed the light from was actually in my backyard. I have a giant wooden canopy that covers my entire back porch. The entire canopy is covered with Jasmine Ivy. It looks like something out of The Secret Garden . At noon when the sun is at its brightest, the ivy casts shadows all over my back porch. It's not enough to block the sun completely, but its enough to keep cool in. I admit, I take way too many pictures of the ivy and sun together. I loved how the shadows almost capture a whimsical feel when one sits out there.

One of the places I chose to observe was the front porch of my house. We have a giant oak tree in the front that casts a perfect shadow across my front lawn. I really do love this oak tree in particular. The light that peers through the branches is beautiful when the sun is at its highest peak. I observed it over a couple of hours to see how the light is at different times during the day. My favorite was near noon and right when the sun was starting to set. The light is literally too beautiful to write transcribe into words. If it were for the long branches and the height of the tree, the light would not nearly be as pretty as it looks as it is now.