After spending the summer & fall of 2010 editing, both Out of Respect and Grassroots vs. Goliath are complete!

Distribution plans are underway…  Although neither film was chosen for Sundance, both are prepping for screenings, festival runs and broadcasts.

Out of Respect premieres Feb. 24th, 6pm in the Lubar Auditorium at The Milwaukee Art Museum. Stay tuned for additional festival updates and community screenings

Hello to all JDoc bloggers. My name is Tess Gallun and I am an instructor at UW-Milwaukee and a veteran documentary filmmaker. This blog was created to share the stories being created inside the Journalism and Mass Communications J-doc program.  We also hope to generate interest and support for two current projects in the post-production stages.

If this is your first visit, I welcome you to this semester’s awe-inspiring real-life adventures. If you’ve been here before – Welcome Back!

I have 2 crews  working feverishly to finish up production on Grassroots Verses Goliath and Out of Respect.

The Out of Respect crew is just entering the final shooting and post-production phase of an awe-inspiring lesbian, gay, bisexual young adult story. We have spent the last two semesters following several homeless young adults working towards finding their own sense of security and much deserved independence. Amber, Josiah, Monica, Josh and Jesse have taught us what remarkable strength and courage it takes to overcome extreme adversity.  We are humbled to be a part of their lives and hope their voices give other neglected LGBTQ youth an outlet to finally be heard. So get involved and help us make this happen. (To donate now, click on the Donate link to the right.)

The Grassroots Verses Goliath team is in the final phases of post-production and are gearing up for distribution.  Their story highlights the efforts of a local citizen group that has fought for over a decade to save a rural community from life and home threatening over-development.  A true David verses Goliath in the making!  We are putting final touches on the edit and nearing the time to hit the broadcast and festival circuits.  Please stay tuned and be ready to be bull-dozed by the remarkable conclusion to this grassroots battle.

Please stay tuned in… to be inspired…. and to be continued…..

Oh my!

And seriously, people, oh my. Or perhaps OMG. Whichever, really. The point is we’ve been rockin’ it, and the crew of Out of Respect has a lot to be proud of. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve

- shot a number of interviews and fantastic b-roll, including a banner TWELVE HOUR DAY with one of our stars, Amber; an interview with Gracie, an amazing and inspiring activist and LGBTQ youth mentor who, at one time, was homeless and on a pretty negative track; and several of what we like to call “expert” interviews, or interviews with folks who work at an organization serving neglected LGBTQ youth.

- realized transcribing takes at least three times as long as the interview (in other words, a one hour interview takes about three hours to transcribe. sigh), and have begun to tackle this challenge. The great side of transcribing is the development of a rather intimate bond with that footage – the transcriber comes to understand every nuance of the footage, which is invaluable in the editing process.

- gone on a digitizing bonanza, which translates to the uploading of our footage to a new hard drive. The downside to digitizing – it’s performed in real time, which makes the process somewhat tedious. But the crew is pulling together and finding (increasingly scant as finals approach) time to keep us on top of our game.

Over the next couple of weeks, we have several more expert interviews scheduled, plus times to hang out with the stars. And speaking of stars, we have one more participant joining our ranks.  We’ll be meeting with him before Thanksgiving to introduce him to the MicroCam each star receives to film whatever they’d like when we’re not around, and also to begin filming with him.

Finally, at a time of year traditionally centered on family and togetherness, we’re working with our stars to film what this means to each of them.

If only I could have come up with a word for “new” that beings with the letter P. Alas.

As we continue moving forward with filming, we’re meeting new possible participants in the documentary! Nothing has been finalized, but we’ve met several LGBTQ youth who are excited to possibly participate. And we’re excited to work with them! Their stories are inspiring and would provide angles on the larger story of LGBTQ youth neglect that we are not yet covering. If you are an LGBTQ youth interested in participating in this film, or if you know someone who might be, please contact us! Our contact information is in the contact tab above.

On a completely different note, when I woke this morning, I checked my steadfast friend weather.com to see when the impending snow storm would hit. This is what it said: “THIS WILL BE THE FIRST MAJOR WINTER STORM FOR WISCONSIN… AND WILL LIKELY HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON SOCIETY.” (Their caps, not mine.) “A significant impact on society.” I find this to be a rather bizarre choice of phrase for a weather report. I can’t help but think that perhaps we’ll wake up on Thursday and be able to gay marry whoever we want. Or maybe we’ll find there’s no longer a need for Alliance High School, because everybody’s cool with queer kids now. That would be pretty rad…although if this does happen, I encourage Alliance to remain open.

During this time of friends and family, we’d like to wish each and every one of our supporters a Happy Thanksgiving. We’re thankful for your generosity and encouragement, and we wouldn’t be where we are without your support. Thank you for all you do, and may you enjoy peace and happiness during this time of love and togetherness.

Thanksgiving, however, is also a holiday that participates, to a certain extent, in the whitewashing of the story of the struggles experienced by native peoples when europeans came to their land. There is a tie between this story and the one we seek to tell – both have been routinely dismissed and concealed. We’d like to take a moment to give thanks for these stories, and to the people who struggle to tell them.

That said, finally, we’d like to give thanks to the LGBTQ youth participating in our project. Yours are the voices that will tell this important story. Yours are the voices that will impact all of our histories. Thank you.

From our crew to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

On October 26 Highway J Citizens Group held a fundraiser at Moe’s Southwest Grill to celebrate a recent court ruling that stopped the expansion of Highway 164. Not only was the event a great success for the organization, but also for the J-Doc crew. We all had the chance to become more familiar and comfortable with our respective roles on this project. Check out the behind the scenes pics on Flickr.

The UWM Broadcasting Club invited Susie Seidleman and Eric Litsheim to come and share what has been going on with Out of Respect. The full interview runs 30 minutes and can be viewed in its entirety in the embedded player below. The program will also be presented on Timewarner’s Wisconsin OnDemand Channel. Stay tuned for more information on the air date.

So grab some popcorn, relax, and enjoy the show!

more about "“Out of Respect” Interview on Vimeo", posted with vodpod

Filming for Out of Respect is officially underway! We’ve shot several interviews, great b-roll (including some rather fetching dance sequences at the Project Q Halloween party – who knew zombies could move like that?), and our production calendar is filling up fast. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us before semester’s end, but the crew is excited and ready to meet the challenge.

On a different note, we’re famous! Out of Respect was recently featured on PAWS-TV 3, the UWM television station. Look for the interview on our blog soon!

Finally, we extend our sincerest thanks to those who have donated to our project. For more information on supporting this documentary, please click the “Donation Information” tab at the top of this page.

Hello to all JDoc bloggers. My name is Tess Gallun and I am a UWM instructor and veteran documentary filmmaker. This blog was created as part of my JMC production class to help generate interest and support for two current documentary projects.

I want to welcome you to this semester’s awe-inspiring real-life adventures.

I have 2 crews who have been diligently prepping and gearing up (literally) to become professional documentary storytellers.

The first group of students is working on a compelling LGBTQ young adult story. We are in the midst of a fundraising frenzy, and were recently seen handing out donation postcards at the Milwaukee LGBT festival.

We are planning on spending the next half year following several LGBTQ young adults who have been challenged by a childhood of abandonment and abuse. Amber and Cash, two of our main characters, have already taught us what remarkable strength and courage it takes to overcome extreme adversity.  We are humbled to be a part of their lives and hope their voices give other neglected LGBTQ youth an outlet to finally be heard. So get involved and help us make this happen. (To donate now, click on the Donate link to the right.)

The second group of students is deepening an on-going story about a grassroots citizen group who has fought to save a local community from overdevelopment and government overspending for over a decade. A true David verses Goliath in the making!  The crew has spent the last month scouring through twenty five hours of footage and thousands of documents on the Highway J Citizens group and their persistent efforts. It’s time to get behind the cameras to film the remarkable conclusion of this thirteen year battle.

So please stay tuned in… to be inspired…. and to be continued…..