It's been almost a year now.
Almost a year since I saw an idea come full form. One of my majors was Interdisciplinary Studies for Digital Communications and Media, and this meant I got to create a final, 160-hour project for "capstone." And I wanted to go hard.
So, what's something deepest in my heart? 1) Communicating about Christ 2) High school girls 3) Interviewing 4) Capturing stories creatively 5) Talking about things that matter.
This means I dived into a project: to interview nineteen college girls--freshman to seniors--and ask some questions centered around the idea of "If you could go back and tell your high school self one thing, what would it be?"
The result? Over 5 hours of interview footage, which doesn't count any of the b-roll or narrative portions. A spreadsheet with time codes and snippets of all video content. Hours of fuzzy socks and winter parka walks to an editing studio. Three St. Paul and Minneapolis locations. Gazillions of scheduling Facebook messages. Pages of notes. Hours of reading. A recycling-can rigged mic stand. A script written in a semi-backwards order (long story). Because the process was to hear and then to compile. To see what these college students wanted to say and then to find the themes and then create a documentary-styled narrative around the topics.
That result's result? Two seven-minute videos and one nine-minute one. Topics: Identity, comparison, and God's plan.
Welcome to the "Dear Chloe Collective."
And here's the first of the three videos.*
Because this is a conversation I'm passionate about. This is what I want to spend my life doing: investing, pouring out to pour into others, to meet needs, to proclaim Christ's goodness and glory. This was one of my first shots at this doing so in this creative way, and I deeply pray it will not be the last.
A huge thank you to each of the nineteen who shared their story and their wisdom with me. You all left me speechless and in awe of God's beautiful design for sisters in Christ beyond what I can express.
*A caviet, I am not an expert at running a camera or at audio, the later of which you will tell pretty clearly. Even though video was a portion of my studies in school, I seemed to always end up writing the scripts, directing, and being in front of the camera. The technicalities of audio engineering + editing + color corrections + frame rates I wish I would have spent more time mastering. But, for this project, I forced myself to not recruit experts but to do as much solo as possible, to learn. And learn? I did. So, please forgive the myriad of imperfections. (Also, tip, change the YouTube "quality" settings to HD 1080p in the lower right hand corner).
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I definitely don't want this to be a monologue. What are your thoughts? Questions? Ideas?