Cultured Abalone

This short film was created by me and three of my classmates at UCSB. I enrolled in a 10-week-long summer nature documentary program, and our teachers formed the groups. Although I had never met any members of my team, we all got along well and shared common interests. However, after six weeks of extensive study on documentaries, we still hadn't chosen a subject. It wasn't until week 7 when we settled on our story about an abalone farm based in Goleta, California. With a time crunch of three weeks, I took on the roles of sound mixer, cinematographer, director, interviewer, and editor.

We shot daily for two weeks and completed the editing process in one week. Another student and I edited all the interviews and footage into a very short film. However, during this process, I learned how overwhelming it can be to create a coherent story with limited time and interviewees. To make the short less of an informational piece, we decided to add a student's perspective on the filmmaking process. This decision significantly aided the editing process by allowing for smoother transitions in the story, although I feel it may have given the film more of a vlog-like feel. All in all, this class was a great experience for me and provided an opportunity to work with professional cinema cameras and sound equipment.