Project Name—Resilient Great Lakes Coast Research Video
Type— Video
Role— Interviewer, Director/Producer
About this project
In this project, I was approached by Richard Norton at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment to create video content to highlight the pressing public health and legal issues facing residents on the Lake Michigan coastline. Our goal was to take video, photo and historical context to create a short video series on the research, while also demonstrating that deliverables for research could take other forms beyond an academic paper or conference presentation. The final product was edited by a colleague Cam Giniel, who also served as camera op and co-director during shooting.
Deliverables
Three 5-10 minute videos, each highlighting a different aspect of the research.
Process
We began with timeline and storyboard of the material we were given, which we then created a shot list and interview list for. We conducted stakeholder interviewers with 4 different professionals who work in the coastline conservation space, each highlighting different aspects of the research we hoped to share. We then shot on-location on Lake Michigan and found a few examples of rising water levels and homes-at-risk. Although we were not able to conduct any interviews with homeowners, we attended community organizing sessions where we learned about how Norton and his research team were conducting participatory action research (PAR) to counteract some of the negative impacts of rising water levels. Following this collection of resources and footage, we edited the video series to tell the story of the Great Lakes, but also of all the different actors and agencies involved with community organizing around coastline conservation efforts.
