update

Sara and I have been diligently editing our footage and formulating a narration. She is meeting with someone this evening to record it and we will fit it into what we already have on Monday. We went back up to the site yesterday to get a little bit more b-roll, and it was beautiful!

Dr. Stanovsky met with us today in the media lab to look over what we have so far. It was pretty confusing having to read the narration then watch the footage that we have set up, but he said he liked where it was going.

What we still have to do:

-find background music

-overlay pictures and b-roll while people are talking

-fix narration so everything makes sense

-add titles, names & credits

possible title?

Today when leaving the LLC, Christina and Alex were joking around about the rumors from Heavenly Mountain and Christina tossed out an idea:

Shedding Light on Shady Situations: A Documentary exploring the affairs at Heavenly Mountain

I don't know what any one else thinks, but I told Sara and we both really like it. Any comments/ideas about it?

ROUGH edits

Joe Furman

Above is a rough edit of our interview with Joe Furman, the head of the Watauga Planning and Inspections Department. When we put the rest of it together there might be more of his interview plus footage of what he is actually talking about.

Below are some pieces of b-roll that we have cut down and put together to use throughout the documentary.

b-roll footage

(Sorry these are links to youtube, when I tried to upload them directly to blogger it took over an hour and a half... bah!)

Keep in mind this is VERY rough! The final project will have more information including our interview with Jessica and an interview with David Kaplan himself! Sara called David earlier this evening and he actually got back to her within a few hours! (We think it was because she left him a message saying this project was due in roughly two weeks! He said he was only free TOMORROW. Wow. He gave us directions to his house and told us to come by around 2. I'm so nervous! Other than his interview we plan to go to Bare Essentials to talk to the owner and get whatever information he has to offer. After those interviews we will be set on footage and we can begin putting everything together.

Please leave any questions or comments for us, we could really use some feedback!

more photos!

view to the left from Jessica's balcony

view looking out from Jessica's balcony

front view of the apartment buildings/old mens campus

water damage inside the old mens cafeteria

inside the kitchen

view down the hallway in the downstairs part of the old cafeteria

Here are more pictures (with descriptions this time!) from our explorations at Heavenly Mountain. Jessica was kind enough to let us into her apartment to look around and she also showed us around the property. We went inside the abandoned mens cafeteria and wandered around and took b-roll and a ton of pictures! Sara and I each chose our favorite pictures out of the ones we took to post. Here is a link to her blog so you can check out the ones she posted.

Our next move is to edit some footage together to show the class in our mini presentation on 4/8. I hope everyone has a great Easter break and I can't wait until Christina's event on Saturday!!

long overdue rough abstract

Heavenly Mountain Abstract

It is our goal, through documentary form, to show what happened in Heavenly Mountain and to portray any future developments on the land. The documentary should be 10-15 minutes long with interviews and footage from the location itself. Following is a brief outline of what we would like to achieve by the end.

We would like to have 3-4 key interviews from different perspectives. One from the planning perspective, one from someone who lived up there at the time it was all about TM, one from someone who lives there now, and hopefully one from David Kaplan – the owner. However, they are subject to change as we continue researching. After having been up there twice we already have some great pictures and b-roll. This footage will show during the interviews so the audience will be able to see what people are talking about.

The documentary will start with a brief introduction of TM, the Maharishi, Heavenly Mountain and David Kaplan. After that introduction we will move into the interviews and show pictures and footage. David Kaplan’s interview will be the most important and will probably take up a majority of the time. After throwing in some controversy from the other interviews along with his interview we will move on to future plans for the property and Kaplan. We plan to ask Kaplan about how and why he started Heavenly Mountain, what happened to make it decline, how he felt about what skeptics were saying about it being cult-like. With some help from Tom Hansell we know how to phrase questions so they do not sound attacking, so that will be very helpful.

Sara or I might have to do a little bit of a voice over to make sure the events proceed in a story-telling manor. Depending on the phrasing in the interviews we may have to have some writing too to help it make sense. We have not decided about music or sound effects yet, but that will become more important when we begin the editing process. Once we are finished filming and we begin to edit we will figure out what is best. Our plan is to get plenty of information and footage so that once we actually do begin editing we will not need to rush around get more footage or do more research.

photos from exploring!

Here are some pictures from exploring around Heavenly Mountain, it's not many because my camera battery was dying. We got our interview with Jessica and a lot of b-roll though! More will be up soon!

B-roll & pictures!

Sara, Jessica and I just got back from Heavenly Mountain and we got some great pictures and b-roll! We were not up there for very long, but it was still incredibly helpful. We got to see the temple and dining hall on the men's campus and Jessica even showed us inside her apartment. The view from her balcony is amazing!

Pictures will be up soon!

more good news!

Just checked the tape from Joe Furman's interview and everything looks good!

Good News!

After we interviewed Joe Furman he told us to talk to Bob O., so Sara emailed him when we got back on campus. She heard back from him really quick saying he could meet us on Friday, but unfortunately that didn't work for us so I think we will only get to talk to him over the phone. BUT!! Bob did have some good news for us! He told David Kaplan about us and our project and he said that he would talk to us! We have a phone number and are planning to call him asap! Other than that we just need to find a mutual time where we can go up there and get some B-roll and wander around.

First Interview Done!

Sara and I interviewed Joe Furman today about Heavenly Mountain. The interview lasted about 20 minutes and was extremely helpful. He even pulled out a map and showed us each of the campuses and described future plans for development. He also gave us five other contacts to talk to. We have emailed a few of them already asking if we can meet up after spring break.

Sara and I have both been working on the articles sporadically as well, almost done!

working bibliography

Here are all of the articles I have read so far from the Appalachian Collection:

"County board approves TM resort's major phase" by Crispin Boyer from the Watauga Democrat - date unknown

"MOUNTAIN MYSTIC: Meditation guru plans Watauga Complex" by Mark Bixler from the Winston-Salem Journal - 12/4/93

"Special Feature: Guru Center in Sampson" by Jim Thompson from The Mountain Times - 12/16/93

"Top 10 questions about what's happening" by Jim Thompson from The Mountain Times - 12/16/93

"Transcendental Meditation and Ayur-Veda Medicine" by Jim Thompson from The Mountain Times - 12/16/93

"Center in Watauga" & "Indian Guru Plans Major Center in Watauga County" by Jim Thompson from The Mountain Times - 12/2/93

"More on TM" from The Mountain Times Reader's Forum - 1/1/94. Authors include David Kaplan, Tony DiRusso, Enloe Willingham, Howard Chandler Ph. D, WPEC

"Watauga approves road for TM retreat" by Journal Stafff and Wire Report from Winston-Salem Journal - 11/18/94

"Resort wants to run waterr lines to Boone" from Winston-Salem Journal - 7/24/94

"Retreat center can build dormitories" from Winston-Salem Journal - 3/21/94

"Heavenly Mountain: TM'ers gear up to market Resort" by Sandy Wall from the Watauga Democrat - 6/1/94

"Maharishi Movement: A Summary" by Jim Thompson from The Mountain Times - 1/7/94

"Work could begin in fall on TM Resort" by Sandy Wall from Watauga Democrat - 5/20/94

"Group may begin work on Meditation Resort by Fall" by Paul Anderson from the Winston-Salem Journal - 5/18/94

"TM'ers' request will be studied" by Jerry R. Phillips from Watauga Democrat - 7/29/94

"'Heavenly Mountain' is called devil's work by some residents" by the Associated Press from the Lenoir News Topic - 11/20/95

"Some skeptical of Maharishis Heavenly Mountain" by the Associated Press of the News & Observer - 11/21/95

"TM Resort continues building" by Jennifer Bent from the Watauga Democrat - 11/27/95

"Ancient ideas help guide TM project" by Jennifer Bent from the Watauga Democrat - 2/15/95

"Developers of TM Resort to seek plat approval of 22 lots" by Sandy Wall from the Watauga Democrat - 5/15/95

response from Tom Hansell

Hi Kathleen,

Thanks for getting in touch.
It sounds like you and Sara have a great project for a documentary.

I don't know anyone involved in the Heavenly Mountain situation, but I will be
more than happy to meet with you about how to approach this documentary project.
I am out of town until Feb 8, but I am generally able to meet after 3 on
Tuesday and Thursdays and most of the day on Wednesdays.

If you want to meet, let me know a time that fits your schedule.

Tom Hansell
University Documentary Services
828-262-7730

Yay!

slowly getting started :)

I have e-mailed Tom Hansell and asked him to give Sara and I any suggestions he may have for our documentary and the subject of Heavenly Mountain.

Sara and I met with Dr. Stanovsky Thursday at 12:30pm to further discuss our project idea and to get names of people to help us get started. He suggested that we have the majority of our shooting done by the end of February in case something unexpected happens and we need more footage or something.

Alex (from class) has a friend who would be interested in helping Sara and I with the score of our production!

From the readings:
-All of the articles said basically the same thing and from them I gathered that anyone I interview about or get involved with the Heavenly Mountain documentary must have informed consent. I cannot be biased to people, I must tell them anything I plan on doing with the video or voice I record from them and even give them opportunities to see my progress and make sure they understand everything going on.

I'm struggling with ideas

In class last Thursday I wrote down a list of random things that Derek said would be helpful for the project:
-one possible topic from concentration
-does not have to incorporate everything in concentration
-MUST incorporate all knowledge
-the more narrow the subject the more sources there are and the more there is to write about

I also wrote down some other things that could be considered ideas for the project or sparks of ideas to come:
-how to make a film from a story
-describing the idea process
-post production (one of my favorite things!)
-what it takes to bring people together to make a film
-the business side of film pre/production/post (all separate) - being a business minor and all I thought incorporating that could be interesting

that is all I have for now...

how it all started

When I first came to App I had no idea what I wanted to study. My first two years were full of taking all the required classes to graduate. Surely while taking those I would find something that sparked my interest... nope. I remember sitting down one day and thinking about what I was going to do about a major and minor. My dad really wanted me to do business, but I hated that idea with a passion! I remembered how I got placed in a Literature and Film class my junior year of high school and remembered how fun it was. I wondered if App had anything like that to offer, so I checked around and sure enough there was an English major with a film concentration. I'm not the biggest fan of the subject English, but I thought I'd give it a try. I don't think I lasted more than a day. The second semester of my sophomore year I remember signing up for a few English classes along with my other ones. I hated them, there was no way I was going to make this my major! I continued to look around to see if there was another way to have a film concentration. I looked through the Communications department, Theater department and even the Curriculum and Instruction department but none had what I was looking for. Finally someone told me about the IDS department and how I could have an Individually Designed major and take from all of those departments. I really enjoy being able to take classes from three different departments and apply them myself to what I want to do!

Now I'm just nervous about how this last semester is going to play out and what I'm going to do after I graduate!

one idea...

This is probably over done, but being a film studies major my first idea for the senior project was a short film. I was thinking of maybe making a 'Making Of' film. Show everything it takes to get stuff prepared to shoot and then shooting and then the post production. This sounds a little bit like one of the projects Derek was talking about on the first day, one that would take longer than a semester to do, but if it is a short enough film I think it might work.
Here is one of my projects from last semester, it is an animation I did over Thanksgiving for my Beginning Video class. It would be cool to do a 'Making Of' of something like this, the creating of the idea/story, doing it, then editing it.

I don't know if I will stick with this idea or not, but it is just a start right?!
HELP!