FOSTERING PERSPECTIVE: At home, a little worried...Why do I not have a Mac?

Thursday, April 30, 2009

At home, a little worried...Why do I not have a Mac?

I'm sitting in front of my PC. Wondering why my husband and I didn't want a Mac. We have a few PC's, no Macs. "We aren't creative people" he tells me. We are people who "use the left side of our brain" one of my daughters tells me today. I love science, math, non-fiction, assignments that are very literal and definitive. When people give me freedom I don't know what to do with it! I'm a nurse, a nurse who follows doctor's orders. I like it that way. Now, mind you, I feel I could write the orders just as well as a doctor sometimes, but there are rules and reasons for orders. Is this why I like PC's? They are quick and get to the point? My husband says Macs are for artistic people. I'm not artistic. The abilities of a Mac are wonderful....beautiful even. The computers themselves are beautiful, the monitors impress. And right now I need one. I need one to edit. I managed to do a Powerpoint with my PC, it was good, I figured it out, but man, a Mac has more features for the Powerpoint. I think my story of the Novotny family came to life anyway. It did help though that my subject was such a positive woman who really made me believe in fostering, her words and her embodiment made the Powerpoint 'glow.' And that was on a PC!

Now I am anxiously awaiting going to the computer lab to start work on editing my two interviews that are video taped. I have to go to the lab because I need a Mac, we do not have a program for me to edit on our PC. It's fine, it's just this one class and I need Dale's help anyway. I'm a little worried, worried about how I am going to get the points across that I want to regarding fostering. Worried about actually making a cohesive, beautiful video. If I had a Mac would I be working on the editing anyway?

I believe my drive (and the help of Vicki and Dale) and belief in this new found cause--fostering, will get me through this film making process, Mac or no Mac. My husband now tells me we will probably get a Mac in the near future, for our kids' sake. I sure hope I can use my new found creative abilities in the rest of my nursing classes!

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Artist's Statement

JANUARY was the month that our class was told of our service project and subject that we would be working on for the semester. That was 5 months ago. It seems so long ago, and yet the time flew by. What were the chances that the area we would be doing research for and raise awareness of, would be foster care? There are so many worthy causes that could've been our focus, but it was foster care. I was pretty happy. This is a subject I was very interested in and had no problem wanting to do. I love children, I love working with children, learning about children, and helping children. Even more exciting was the fact that we were given freedom to go in any direction we wanted with fostering. Since I am interested in fostering, myself I wanted to meet and interview the foster parents to learn how and why they decided to foster.

FEBRUARY I emailed Megan Bruzan at Kids Matter, Inc for the name(s) of a foster family who would be interested in talking to me. This was the first problem, allbeit small, I encountered. It took me until the beginning of March to make contact with Anne Novotny, but once I did I realized pretty quick that she was the perfect person for me to be paired with. Meanwhile, before our interview, I was learning in class (and intently listening) the best way to interview, photograph, and film my subject. I needed to take this all in, I do not take pictures or film. I felt very confident in my interview abilities, but anything with technology is hard for me. March 17th was one of the first beautiful, warm days Milwaukee county saw in 2009. It set the backdrop for my interview with Anne. She was decked out in green for St Patrick's Day she sat in "her" chair in front of a bright, plain, neutral colored wall (perfect for the film), next to pictures of all of her foster/adopted children. The sun peaked in from the window to her right--so no extra lighting was needed. The room was quiet so the sound was perfect, no mic needed. We spoke for two hours, much of it was personal and mainly questions that I wanted ansered for myself. The video was perfect, I was ecstatic. She answered all the questions I had researched and then some.

MARCH our first assignment was a Powerepoint of pictures we took at our interviews. I was pleasantly surprised with how mine turned out, in fact I cannot believe how proud of myself I was. The feedback from Daniel and Brittany about how I should've kept all the pictures black and white was very helpful for me and I appreciated their comments. In later classes when Vicki saw my video, she commented on how nice it turned out--now I am feeling confident and almost arrogant about my project. I now felt I could actually do this. With more research I was interested in the fact that there are many foster children who are of the minority race with white foster parents (Anne was white and all of her children were of a different nationality--mostly African American). The other family I interviewed was also this dynamic. Realizing my video could only be about 5 minutes, I decided to stick with my original plan of making my video a Call to Action, making people aware of fostering, how they can do it, and why they should do it.

APRIL the second family I interviewed I met at the hospital I work for. Larry and Janet are foster parents to a young boy who is medically fragile. The interview definitely had a different tone and light to it. I used very little of that video (it was more dark and the foster mother was a little stressed with regard to the state and how they were not funding this foster child's care). I think this too is a whole other video and assignment--medically fragile foster children. Now I am starting to get too much information--need to reign it in.

MAY brings flowers, showers, and film editting. I needed a great deal of help from Dale. He helped me with all my ideas. I finished my video and was so proud. I will remember this class and experience (especially Anne Novotny) with much joy. I truly learned so much about fostering and about film, cameras, Mac computers, and copyright infringements. Thanks to all who made my blog and film possible.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

At home, a little worried...Why do I not have a Mac?

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