Mini-Ethnography - Funtown!

Salt loves trial by fire! In our first week at Salt we dove into a mini-ethnography project for the Approaches and Fieldwork course. The purpose of the mini-ethno is to go out and immerse ourselves in a community, find an interesting story to tell, and learn how to work as a team of photographers, writers, and radio producers. By the first weekend, we were out in the field looking for a story.

My group ended up in Funtown, a family-run amusement park outside the town of Saco. What am amazing experience! We focused on a particular ride called the Astrosphere, a fast and furious ride and visual light show of black lights, strobe lights, spot lights, and projections onto an pressurized dome. The same song, Fire on High by Electric Light Orchestra, has been played for every show since the 70s. The family let us spend two full days that first weekend at the park interviewing and photographing people about Astrosphere. I was amazed at how open and approachable people can be when you overcome your initial fears of invading other people's space.

One question I did have was the issue of finding conflict and tension in telling a compelling story. I didn't quite understand what our professors wanted, especially since our story was about an inanimate object. I began questioning myself: What is conflict? What does it mean to look for conflict in a story? Is it right or ethical to prod or seek conflict when a subject is opening up to you? I don't believe we should direct the conversation so a subject reveals conflict in his/her life. With our mini-ethno, the subject of our story is an amusement park ride. How do we find conflict there?

Due to this mini-ethno, I've had to deconstruct my idea of conflict. It doesn't necessarily have to come in the form of conflict between people. Conflict could come from dealing with the weather, economic hardship, competing against other corporate amusement parks, etc. The Astrosphere as an object does not engage in conflict itself, but it is subject to the trends of culture and weather. But I still question why compelling stories can't just be positive without seeming like fluff pieces? Can't a profile be an engaging story? Don't we need more essentially positive things in life? I am sure these feelings will evolve throughout my time here at Salt!

Adrienne M. (Photography Track)

Post-Critique ...It's Destiny

So the last two days at Salt have been hectic ones. Students from all three tracks spent long, long days (and for some us even nights) trying to get our stories straight! We each had 20 minutes to face our peers and sell the little gems of stories we've been searching for all semester long. If anything, yesterday just enforced that Salt is about telling compelling, true, heartfelt stories about people from all walks of life. Enough mush. After getting that last push from our peers to see our work through til the end of this amazing process, it was time for some fun!

When we went out for post-critique festivities, it was obvious to me that Salt kids (well now, we're adults aren't we..scary!) anyhow, Salties are all in this somewhat transitional phase in our lives, but we share a common cause: to share with the world just how rich our OWN stories are..the stories of ordinary people. Our very own Amanda shared a special tale, that she met a man from India on a train headed to the airport to come here to Portland. Low and behold, this man looked Amanda right in the eyes and said with conviction "You are going from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine?" He asked. Then he said, "That is where your destiny is leading you." After yesterday, I think we all feel a bit like Amanda after this experience. Salt is about more than just our work, it's about meeting others that share a passion for people and their stories. Amanda's story is her own, but in some way it's universal to us all.

Back to work!
xo
Katie
Writing Student.

Busy, Busy Salt Days...

It's been a very busy week at Salt. Radio and writing students have had their 1st story due and photo students are doing their 2nd major edit of their central story. We are all presenting our stories to the school Thursday and Friday. Yesterday an image and title were voted on to represent the Student Show on May 21st! We are on our way!

Check out these images of writers hard at work late into a Sunday night before their stories were due and some pics of a cupcake break during a busy Salt weekend. Enjoy!

Emphasis on "rough"

So, Katie and I emailed the rough drafts of our long stories to our classmates and Colin today at 12:20 EST. Amen, Amen! Yea, we forsook sleep and triumphed, triumphed indeed!* We were in the Salt's Red Room last night until around 2 in the morning, powering through 3,000 words that I'm pretty sure won't make it into the final version at the end of the day.

"Two writers in the Red Room, oh yeah, oh yeah," Katie said at one point.

Our friends kept coming into the Red Room, drawn by the sounds of Lady Gaga, the Righteous Brothers, M. Ward, giggling, complaining, and typing.

"What the hell is going on in here," said one of the radio students. They've been pretty cracked out lately with their story due tomorrow, but I think the sight of Katie's postcards littering both of the long tables in the Red Room were a sight. "You guys have totally lost it."

Later that night, I wondered if I should get contacts?

"You're unforgettable with those glasses," Katie said.

Katie's pretty gregarious, and she kept me laughing last night. I probably would have drowned in the misery of my knowledge that I haven't done enough interviews, access may be slipping (or not there), one of my subjects may not sign Salt's release form, and that my story ended up being much more complex than I could have guessed at the beginning of the semester. That we drew the ace and two of hearts ended up a pretty sweet deal.**

And now, onward to the next draft!

By: Amanda, writing.


*My story involves heavy doses of Catholicism.
** To determine when students would have their stories workshopped, Colin had us choose from five cards. I got the deuce.

Crunch time

I am in the Red Room at Salt with a fellow writing student, Katie. The first drafts of our long story are due tomorrow, at high noon, as a desperado from the Old West might say. I'm feeling a little bit desperate right now. Do I have enough information? Enough interviews? Am I going to hit the word count, 3,000 words?

"Oh, I'm going to hit, it's just what I hit it with," Katie says. She says that our writing teacher, Colin, is going to have to take 3,500 words and deal.

Before I came to Salt, I was a freelance newspaper writer for one year. I wrote stories a lot, and it came naturally to me. The words flowed. I haven't written a story since I came here in February. Staring at the page, it's like I've forgotten. Where do I start?

By: Amanda, writing.