An Introduction to the Apalachicola

I worked with Rillan Dasalla and Kassi Bell on what we thought would be and important topic to tackle- an introductory video. Because our project’s subject was so broad and encompassed all the issues regarding the Apalachicola River, all three of us felt it necessary to focus on the main, underlying issue; the river simply is not getting enough water. To present this issue to audiences, we decided as a group to film and interview Dan Tonsmeire , the Apalachicola River Keeper at another location on the Apalachicola Bay. We also felt we could utilize dramatic shots of the sunrise at the bay to show the beauty of the bay. After Dan’s interview we then met up with Shannon Hartsfield, the SMAART Chairman and local fisherman, where we were thankfully able to have been taken on the river itself and to sand mountain.

I myself was responsible for getting the aerial videography, as well as B-Roll and interview shots alongside Rillan and Kassi. Although we only traveled to the bay and river, we also reached out to some of the other groups in the class to get additional footage on more specific issues involving the river in order to provide a better idea of the scale of the issues involving the river. After we were done shooting on location we began the post-production process where Kassi wrote a wonderfully elegant and informative script to detail the facts of the river and I narrated. Along with his beautiful camera work, Rillan made an outstanding graphic illustrating the river system, which I believe helped provided a better understanding of the region affected. I was the head editor of the video as I had a vivid idea of the timing and style of the finalized video during pre-production, and it came out almost identical as to how I envisioned it to be with the help of my amazing group members.

Shannon driving us to sand mountain, Rillan sitting with his camera ready to shoot anything of interest, and Kassi recording natural sound from the boat.