Valerie Watchempino
vwatchem@yahoo.com

Project: The Gift

Reflections:

Disasters and Frustrations:
In the beginning, I had the stakes against me because I wanted to do the video track, but I had not done a video before, even though I was in Culture Though Film, and Shelly didn't think it was a good idea. But I already knew I wanted to do a cultural evaluation on UCSC student hip hop culture, so I begged Shelly because I knew that I needed motion to properly represent hip hop's elements (MCing, breaking, DJing, and graffiti). I wrote a two-page note to her labeled "Reasons why you should consider me on the video track". I got in, but there was no one to be my partner, so when I was filming an interview, I was unable to do different shots and angles. I also had a hard time getting the filming of the breakdancers in a full shot, because I could barely get far away enough
to get their full body in, and the lighting was poor, but I could not get anywhere where there was good lighting and a full body shot. After I was done with my film, the criticisms were directed on these elements, which frustrated me because they were beyond my control. In addition, my subjects did not want to be on the internet, so I was unable to do that either. Fortunately, I had no real disasters like losing footage or having the computer freeze on me!
Insights:
I learned so much it is difficult to recant it all here. I learned a lot about hip hop culture and what it means to different people through my informants. I learned how to film, although I was not great at the beginning, toward the end I think I was developing better skills. I learned to cope with adversary, because since I was inexperienced, my work was questioned more than any other video track couple, and I had no support to back me up. I was really pleased with my editing skills. I was able to create a narrative story with what I had, and no one criticized my storyline at all in the end, and I felt that it truly related to cultural anthropology. I learned about audio, and I will learn more about that with the more projects I do. All in all, I learned that I was right about faith; faith kept me going, and my confidence in my competence when others had doubts was the most important thing.
Pleasures and Insights:
I was happy the entire time I shot footage because I loved my subject matter. In addition to learning more about my main informants, Sup and Irie, I also got to have nice young men sing and dance for me for hours. That was very cool. I also realized that I was right about my aesthetics: I created a story that no one could criticize, which proves that I was a person to be trusted, and although my video skills were lacking, I did the best I could with it and created something enjoyable. I also realized that I have so much support from the people who chose to be in it, even though they didn't want to be on the internet, they offered to help me in my endeavor and I will always appreciate that.