Switching the Focus???

          Ok, so we are truly in the mist of the journey right about now. The parallel process is uncanny. I probably should have just documented myself if I wanted a story full of excitement and twist and turns. My wife and I, are truly entertainment at times, but I didn’t do that, I tried to do alil something different. The only issue is that,  out of all the footage that I’m getting, it has yet to really get exciting. So far everybody wants to be real supportive and doesn’t want to challenge any ideology of the agency, until now. I’ve interviewed our treatment teams, staff meetings and even had a couple interviews, and though I have some good info, I’m not really seeing anything that would provide compelling footage.  Until today, we interviewed my co-worker/ friend “B”. She is who she is, which is what I love about her. The others are to, but they haven’t been around as long as B to witness the changes, sadly to say, all the positivity doesn’t really make for a compelling story. Reviewing the footage, I felt like we were looking at an infomercial or something. “B” gave us an unscripted view because she has so much history and because of her being a woman, and a Latina she was able to provide insight on multiple fronts. Plus she is an amazing artist, so the visual sights she has to offer, make for compelling footage.

        On another note, I was watching “Social Network” and I noticed that the style was of this Oscar nominated movie was kinda like another Oscar nominated movie a couple years ago, called “Slumdog Millionaire”. So I figured, what if we could change the format of the documentary to be somewhat like that interview or two people talking and then it flashes to different footage about some of the things we’re talking about. My docu-partner appreciated that as well, but that would jus mean we needed to script some things and get a place to shoot that portion. I think the creative license aspect of this project will provide for the needed tool to bring a impactful dynamic out.

          On another note, I worked with another group at the school to put together a video about internet safety. It was cool, I realized another way in which I love working with people and when people see you as the expert they look for you to lead and are really open to that. They were a wonderful group to work with and though we did have some lighting issues, I believe the way we did it allowed for some flexibility so hopefully in the editing process it will all come together. They were real thankful, which made doing it so easy to do as well.

So what’s next, we’ll go through the footage with B and then put on the creative hats to see how do we tell this compelling story. Oh yeah, we did hear from Dr. Heidi Kraft, so we go see if we can get that interview and what will that be.

Awakening the Journey

   So here I am, hitting the pre-wee hours of the night. Outside my window, is the chaos of the Mardi Gras partygoers of San Diego, high heels, short skirts, beads, and drunken nature accompanied by the sirens, catcalls and belligerent screaming for no apparent reason. Don't believe me, huh, I'll post pictures. I've just gotten home from a performance at UCSD, (I do spoken word poetry on the side) washed up the little one, red the bedtime story, cleaned the kitchen and now I'm ready to work.

      I'm listening to some of the footage from today's interviews, making sure the sound is on point. This film project for my class has now expanded its horizons, to possibly doing an outreach video for my program at work as well, which means there are two ideas to focus on. How does the agency keep its people healthy? What do the people do to stay healthy and what does the agency do. I'm thinking all those years of looking at TV and movies are finally going to work to my benefit. I've been doing a lot of practicing, with videotaping my performances and just playing with the camera so I’m pretty confident in what the end result will be. I'm still kinda nervous because this is a totally new venture, so who knows if I'm missing some real integral details, but based on my homework, "I'm good". The sound is very important, lighting can be an issue, but I’ve been very diligent. I'm nervous about getting too much footage, but too much is better than not enough, right.

       More than before I'm realizing that this film will truly be a parallel process. I will be examining my mental health through out this process. I have a lot going on. I'm a husband, father, work fulltime, grad student 3/4 time, artist (spoken word) and somewhere in the mix, I need to figure out how to have some time to relax and work out. One thing I have recognized is that I am truly an artist. I'm really passionate when it comes to my band/music and even doing this film. I could work on ends with no sleep, if I could but that's not an option right now. I still have obligations a family man, and a student, so I really need to do some things different.

Let the Story Begin

      So today begins the journey of two social work students embarking on a journey in to the unknown, simple because we don't know what the hell we doing, well kinda. Myself and my partner Natasha are doing a documentary called, (get this) "Healing for the Healer". Kinda catchy, I thought you'd dig it.

Well the concept is to document the health of some mental health works. We are going to take a look at an outpatient program that provides therapy and other services for the homeless and runaway youth population of San Diego. I have worked in this program for about 2.5 years. We do amazing work if I do say so myself, but what intrigued me about this subject matter was recognizing that I have some pretty cool co-workers. I can honestly say we come from many different walks of life, but it works to the benefit of the youth we serve. We have had different leadership which has enabled me to see the difference in how effective leadership can change for whole atmosphere of a work environment. I have established some very meaningful relationships with some of my co-workers that truly influence who I am as a person. We learn and grow through each other. At times it really feels like we're a family.

But beyond all that, I wanted to take a look at how theses mental health workers are able to stay healthy. Dealing with such things as burn out and vicarious traumatization, along with many of our own personal issues. I spend 4 years in the field of alcohol and substance abuse. For many years, it was field where many of the counselors were also previous addicts. And although the overall mental health field is not exactly the same, we still have daily issues of family, relationships, health, work demands and personal ambitions that we deal with on a daily basis, that the people we service never know about. We have all find ways to cope. We have challenges on our jobs because policies that are made that impact us, as well as our clients, some for the better, though it feels that most are for the worse.

So we are looking to tell this story to anyone who will listen. I would like us to take an artistic approach to this venture, maybe add some spoken word, or get creative with some of the cinematography. But the first challenge will be finding what footage to bring down to this 15mins of film that we will need share. So we will see.

Let the story begin..