So far for my project I’m very happy with the progress I have made in only shooting 8 days. This past weekend I spent time shooting some new events and situations, and also re-shot some situations as well. Unfortunately, due to scheduling in the facility, I will not be able to re-shoot some of the things that we talked about in class, such as water volleyball and the gym classes, since they are during the week. I did, however, get to spend a few hours in the morning with one of the female residents, and followed her through her morning routine and did an audio interview, which I think will add a lot to the project. I think the images I got from spending time with her also show the beauty aspect of aging and what it is like for them to look in a mirror every morning to a face that is continually aging. I also took some detail shots that I think are somewhat humorous, but also get the point across that these people are getting older every day, but that have a different outlook on their life than many other people in their generation. Along with this, I did a total of 3 interviews with different residents who all have different outlooks on their aging bodies, but they also seemed to narrow it down to the same point. Each interview was around 30 minutes, but what I found each of them to be saying is that age is just a number, and that as you get older it is just as important to stay as active and social as you did when you were younger. Each of the residents touched on staying physically active, as well as mentally and spiritually active, and also the importance of maintaining friendships and relationships with others as being part of how they stay young at heart. As much as I would like to, I don’t see this assignment being a full multimedia story, especially since I don’t think I could edit the audio down to less than ten minutes, but I want to incorporate the aspects of aging that they feel are important into my essay, and also capture what they said were the struggles and truths about aging. So for this, I want to include the pictures of them being physically active, such as bocce ball or water volleyball, and also show the ways in which they can still move though it may be harder for them, as in the pilates class I shot. I also want to include the images of the two women holding each other’s hands to illustrate the importance of maintaining social lives, especially for those that have lost their spouses. Along with the images, I’m planning on writing an article so that I will be able to include most of the what the residents had to say about the subject, and I may also shorten down the audio clips for each of the interviews I did just to give the images a real and authentic voice to share with the class.
*Sorry about the layout.
