Green Beav Productions Sustain Champlain Reflection

1.) I wouldn’t say that there was one specific moment that was the most difficult when making this video. However there are a few that were more challenging than the others…

-The first difficulty was making the beaver suit because no one in the group was particularly experienced in making a costume. My boyfriend was a bear one year for Halloween so I volunteered to put the costume together, thinking that I could use part of his bear outfit. Unfortunately his outfit was nowhere to be found so I had to start from scratch. I decided to buy brown sweat pants and to staple a slab of felt to the back for the tail, but I was still stuck on how to make the face. I wondered around the fabric store until I found a white mask, and the idea of spray painting it brown came into my head. I then found white felt to cut out the teeth and once they were glued onto the mask I added some finishing touches with sharpie pens. I was worried that people would not know what the mask was, but my group mates and I thought that the brown face with the big white teeth would bring people to the conclusion that it was a beaver.

-The next difficulty was shooting the Champlain students. Initially my group and I wanted about 20 people but it was too difficult to get that many people together at one time due to schedule constraints. The other difficulty with shooting the students was coordinating everyone to do the same thing at the same time. Everyone had to wait until the beaver turned around from slapping their hands to look at the camera to shout Audeamus, which was a problem because everyone had to face the camera making it difficult to judge when the beaver was facing the camera too. After a few practices everyone was able to slap the beavers hand and through their hands in the air while shouting Audeamus all in unison.

-The final difficulty that we encountered was choosing a song for the background of our film. We wanted it to be the Eye of the Tiger by Survivor because it went well with the Beaver being on a mission to practice sustainable activities. However we could not use this song due to copy write and purchasing issues so we decided to use a free song from Radiohead instead.


2.) Finishing the video was the most rewarding moment in the whole process because it was good to see my entire group’s hard work come together to create something that we are all very proud of. But besides that the most rewarding moment in making the film was having all of the people who were in it ask when it was going to be done. It was nice to see that they actually cared about what we were doing and about sustain Champlain. It was also good to hear them talk about the different things they do to help the environment, and that this is an issue that even college kids care about and do their part in helping solve the problem.


3.) Three specific lessons learning about film production and/or "group process" in making this video…

-That if everyone in the group is flexible, things will get done faster and in good spirit. With everyone in my group either having different majors or being in different grades it was hard to find times where we could all meet to shoot and edit the film. Luckily, everyone in my group was very flexible and willing to do whatever needed to be done so that we could all work together. Because of this the factor of finding times were we could all meet that could have been a huge issue, was not.

-Having the appropriate sounds in a film is crucial to highlighting its messages and getting viewers engaged in it. Having the right or wrong music will either make or break the film. After seeing the footage for my group’s film I was not sure how it was going to come together, but hearing it with the Eye Of The Tiger playing in the background completely changed my opinion as it set the whole mood of the video and brought all of the footage together. I was bummed when I learned that we couldn’t use the song, and I think the film would have been better with it, however the song we have now by Radiohead is still good and I think our film continues to be very strong and something that my group members and I are all very proud of.

-The third idea that was highlighted to me when doing this project is that during the filming process the group members must be adaptable because ideas will not always work out or go as planned. This happened with our group as we had several ideas of what we were going to do in our film, that were changed because they did not work or go according as planned. We were first going to film the bathroom scene but had to stop and film the students first because it was the only time we could get them all together. We also had to re-work the scenes with the students because they were too difficult to shoot. Because everyone in the group was about to adapt and compromise our video ended up being better, and we were not stopped by these minor problems.

4.) 3 specific things I learned about Champlain College and/or the "Sustain Champlain" project that you did not know before completing this project are…

-Water efficient shower heads- before doing this project I had no idea that water efficient showerheads even existed. With access to clean water being a major human rights issue around the world I think that these showerheads are very important and could help save water for the people in need.

-Green roofs- before completing this project I was also unaware of the functions of green roof tops such as eases storm water runoff, keeping the building cooler in the summer, and keeping it warmer in the winter. I have seen them before and have always thought of them as serving more of a cool architecture design purpose. After this film I understand that they are so much more, and are something that I hope to have on the roof of my home someday.

-To be honest, before this project I had never even heard of the Sustain Champlain group. After learning about the different ways it helps make the environment more sustainable and educates students on how to do this I think it is a great cause. It is really nice to know that Champlain College is doing its part to help save the environment by making its campus green.