Preliminary Interviews... and so it begins!

During the pre-production process, we contacted three individuals who are highly proficient and knowledgeable of the shrimp farming and aquaculture in Belize.

A few students contacted Sean Ledwin of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).  Mr. Ledwin wrote his Graduate thesis about the ecological effects of shrimp farming in Belize (After speaking with him, he suggested we contact several people including Mr. Timothy Smith and Adrian Vernon, a Belizean naturalist.  Mr. Ledwin spent much time doing research in Belize.  He knows Linda Thornton from previously engaging in writing his thesis for Michigan and is familiar with all three shrimp farms that we will be visiting. Upon our return from Belize, we will be interviewing Mr. Ledwin. http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69235/1/Sean_Ledwin_Thesis_Final-_4-18.pdf

We recently conducted a preliminary interview with Timothy Smith, an Ecologist with Brooksmith Consulting and the World Wildlife Fund.  It was a success.  The interview took place for about four to five minutes in our media lab via skype.  We recorded both audio and video.  He gave us vital information about the environmental effects of shrimp farming, noting new techniques that have been adopted within shrimp aquaculture at Aquamar that we should not miss. http://brooksmithconsulting.web.officelive.com/default.aspx)

While students were experiencing hands-on pre-production filming Smith, the other students were brainstorming effective questions for Dr. Anthony Michaels’ interview, which took place Friday via Skype as well. Dr. Anthony Michaels is the owner of Proteus Environmental Technologie, where he has been Director of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Technologies for 12 years. An expert in ecology and sustainable aquaculture, he is now co-Founder and Managing Director of Proteus Environmental Technologies. During the interview, Dr. Michaels talked about the different types of shrimp farming techniques. He identified that indefinable “ultimate-intensive” technique of shrimp farming methods will create this profession’s future. He also touched base on the issues that the industry faces.  Some of the issues he identified during our interviewed were based on water drainage and bacteria. To him, sustainable shrimp farming is of great importance to human beings because shrimp is seafood of enormous nutritional value.

During the interviews a group of students took practice sessions outside to become more familiar and comfortable using the camera correctly.  They went over some basics, for example, white balancing, manually focusing, using the menu bar, etc. 

And so the countdown begins, 7 days until our departure... You better Belize it!