A brief note about who we are and what exactly is going on here. We're a group of electronic media and broadcast majors from the College of Informatics (And one lone BFA Playwright! What is up!) from Northern Kentucky University who will soon be departing for a three week tour of South Africa through our university's incredible Office of Education Abroad. This is the second time that the course EMB 495 has taken people to South Africa, taking students to Port Elizabeth and Cape Town through a partnership with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University who will help us explore all that South Africa has to offer. While we're very excited for this great adventure, we're even more excited that our adventure has an important purpose.
Over the course of our three weeks, we'll all be working together under the all mighty guidance of our professors Chris Strobel and Sara Drabik to produce documentaries, the biggest of which will be our conversation doc. This documentary will be all about animal conservation and how it affects four main South African species: Sharks, African penguins, African elephants, and rhinos. Each animal will have it's own "episode" and the four episodes will come together to make an entire doc. Kerry Skiff (co-director/producer of this documentary and senior at NKU) was nice enough to let me know all about this and how our group is hoping to create a link between our consumer habits in the states and the well-being of the amazing animals we'll be observing. She also let me know that everyone from children to experts will be interviewed about how important the animals are to us. So strap in because hopefully there will be some kids doing impressions of animals.
Kerry also provided the list below of everyone's jobs on the documentary, so that's available below for your perusal. She seems to me like a lady on top of her game. Go Kerry.
But the conservation doc is not all. There will be two other documentaries in the making, one of which will shed light on the Gugulethu 7 Memorial, an anti-apartheid memorial honoring seven men who were gunned down in 1986 by South African Police. Hannah and Alec will be the main ones conducting interviews and gathering whatever information they can find to bring this dark part of South Africa's history into the light as well as exploring the role of public art and how it plays into the remembrance of this event. Nycea Patterson will be heading her own doc where she explores the challenges of paying for education. She'll be working very closely with our partners at NMMU to compare and contrast the way high college tuition affects students at NMMU and those at our home college NKU. So there will be a boatload of useful and relevant information coming your way through these captivating and relevant documentaries made by the super cool people in this class.
But the conservation doc is not all. There will be two other documentaries in the making, one of which will shed light on the Gugulethu 7 Memorial, an anti-apartheid memorial honoring seven men who were gunned down in 1986 by South African Police. Hannah and Alec will be the main ones conducting interviews and gathering whatever information they can find to bring this dark part of South Africa's history into the light as well as exploring the role of public art and how it plays into the remembrance of this event. Nycea Patterson will be heading her own doc where she explores the challenges of paying for education. She'll be working very closely with our partners at NMMU to compare and contrast the way high college tuition affects students at NMMU and those at our home college NKU. So there will be a boatload of useful and relevant information coming your way through these captivating and relevant documentaries made by the super cool people in this class.
Along the way I, Alexx Rouse, the lone playwright among a bunch of cool people who can work cameras, will be updating you as to our adventures, our progress on our documentaries, and any ridiculous stories that we have to share. I personally am really excited to get going.
As for right now, we're gearing up to visit the Newport Aquarium this Wednesday to gain a little more understanding of some of these species before we jet off for Port Elizabeth on May 16th! Stay tuned for more updates and tons of pictures!
22 Days! But who's counting?
Group Members:
Nathaniel Weyman (freshman, shark enthusiast and co-director/producer)
Kerry Skiff (senior, elephant/rhino enthusiast and co-director/producer)
Kelly Klein (senior, interested in marine animals)
Kairi Freudenberg (sophomore, working on marine animals and finding children for our shots)
Vanessa Hollon (Animal lover and editor.)
Bethany Ellen (senior, elephant lover and camera operator)
Hannah Brewer (Gugulethu 7 memorial Co-Director and Producer)
Alyssa Saylor – Gugulethu 7 memorial, Production Crew
Alyssa Saylor – Gugulethu 7 memorial, Production Crew
Alec Reynolds - Gugulethu 7 memorial, Co-Dirctor and Producer
Nycea Patterson – The challenges of paying for a University Education, Director and Producer
Alexx Rouse (hello friends! Senior, elephant/shark enthusiast, production assistant/proud coffee and snack fetcher)