Production Day

Because of all of the planning I did during pre-production, my production day went smoothly. My day began in Pomaria where I met Jay Hope and Ron Hope. Ron Knorr and I drove from Greenville. Once I arrived, I had to figure out where I wanted to shoot. I had to make sure the location I chose had enough light and there was not too much extraneous noise. Ron Knorr showed me the spot where he conducted his interviews when he was there previously, so I thought that it would be a good idea to shoot my footage in the same spot. The lighting was good because the room had multiple windows and some lights. I began to set everything up and my tripod broke, but Jay Hope had one that he let me use.
Since I had given everyone a packet that said what I needed to accomplish that day, we were all on the same page. First we decided to shoot the narration. I shot the narration because Dr. Holmevik thought that I might want to include some of it in the documentary, but I am just going to use the audio because the script is lengthy and would have taken a long time to memorize. I was very flexible while shooting the narration. Jay Hope had some recommendations for some parts of the script, which I agreed with, so he said a few things differently than what I had written. I made sure to shoot each section a couple of times so that I could get the best audio possible. I also did some tests and the Bluetooth microphone worked very well. Before Jay Hope left I asked him if he knew of any music that I could include because I have had trouble finding some. I told him what kind of music I was looking for and he said that he could find some.
After I shot the narration we took a break for a minute because the room was pretty hot. Next I decided to shoot Ron Hope’s interview. I had already prepared the questions I wanted to ask, so I proceeded to ask him the questions and got a lot of information from of him. After I was finished with this interview I had to charge the camera. Even though I charged it the night before so that it would be fully charged, but the narration and the interview with Ron Hope used a lot of the battery and I did not want to have it die during my interview with Ron Knorr.
While the camera was charging I decided to take the stills I needed to get. I walked around the grounds and took exterior pictures of the school and also of the church. When I first arrived I had taken some interior pictures to show the restoration that Ron has been doing.
After I took the stills I needed to take, I interviewed Ron Knorr. He also had a lot of valuable information to tell me. Lastly, I took a picture of all three men separately and together, along with one of the two Hopes together.
After Ron Knorr and I left Pomaria, we traveled to Newberry College, where James Haskell Hope received a Master’s. I took some pictures of a dorm that was the only building left on the campus when he was there. I also took some stills of the signs around the campus that talked about its historical significance.
When I got back to Clemson, I went to the MATRF and imported all of the footage from the camcorder because I had to return it. When I got home I looked at the footage in order to figure out what I needed to do to start laying out the film.