Narrative Report - 3/6 and 3/7/09

March 6, 2009

Mom is really beginning to get comfortable in front of the camera. She is beginning to understand why sometimes I need for her to pause when she is speaking if a loud car drives by or an airplane flies overhead. She is becoming much more obliging when I interview her regarding the microphone, and she is also becoming much more willing to speak about more difficult and personal things on camera. She read some old news paper clippings today for me regarding the sale of a ranch on the big island that she almost got a job at. But instead of taking this job, she ended up moving back to Oahu to try and begin teaching hula again. After recovering from her health problems. I was able to get some intimate and personal details on camera.

The lighting I think is also more interesting now that I have a small battery operated LED light panel to use. In the daytime I am able to shoot in Mom's very dark apartment using the natural light that shines in through the book crates. It is very moody and appropriate to the scene, but with the addition of the LED light I am able to add a necessary highlight on myself and my Mom when we are studying together in the cramped apartment.

We also drove around Kaneohe and looked for places that we could pick flowers locally. It is not really the season for this, but we did find a few good patches of bogenvillia in a few different colors that we will probably try to use.

March 7, 2009

It's my brother Will's birthday, and we called Will on camera, there was some good family joking stuff. Mom and I practiced annunciation of Hawaiian letters for chanting. Then went out scouting for flower and fern locations. We drove around to a few different locations along the Pali Freeway to trails different roadside locations. I recorded Mom speaking about the old path that ancients used to use to go back and forth from the palace, and a really interesting rack focus shot of Ti leaf through a chain link fence.

After that we also visited the Foster gardens and I got a contact number to speak with someone for arranging permission to shoot. We also went to several floral shops such as the Koolau Famers, and the flora department at Safeway. Most likely we will have to supplement our picked flowers with purchased flowers due to the time of year. Although I do believe that there is a deeper issue about why my mother does not want me to pick ferns from the mountains just yet. I think she does not think I am ready in terms of my cultural knowledge.

When we got home from all of our scouting I asked her some questions along these lines, but she did not address this directly. Although she did say some interesting things along the lines of identity.

I will ask more about her beliefs behind fern picking in future interviews. I did learn a lot about Native Hawaiian plant species, and plants that had been imported from places like Samoa, but were used by ancient people in traditional ways.