~~~Artist's Statement~~~

I really enjoyed working on this final project. I chose to research Block Watch in the Johnsons Park neighborhood mainly because I am a criminal justice major and also because I was curious to see how a Block Watch really functioned in a neighborhood. I got the opportunity to meet with a lot of interesting people that play an important role in the Milwaukee community. I had the chance to interview Alderman Hines and the Assistant Chief of the Milwaukee Police Department Harpole. I also helped out in the editing of the Bently Turner interview, who is the block watch captain in the Johnsons Park area. Everyone was so nice to us and willing to talk to us about their role in Block Watch. Our group formatted a set of questions for each person we wanted to interview. We wanted to know their role in the block watch program, how they felt it was working and what they thought they could do to make it better. We then set up an interview with them at their office or home. We used Robb’s video camera and a microphone and tripod from school. Overall I thought the interviews went really well. We were able to set up quickly and Robb was able to read his questions and the interviewees were very thorough in their answers. I ran the camera for the Alderman Hines and Captain Harpole interviews, which was not too hard because the camera was on a tripod. I made sure the lighting looked right and the sound was loud enough. We tried to pick a good spot in their offices that represented them, for example, in the Captain Harpole interview, we had him sit on the conference table and there is an American flag in the background. In the Alderman Hines interview, we had him sit on his couch. The couch looked very professional because it was not just your ordinary couch. I enjoyed filming and editing a lot more than I thought I would. I am not very good with computers and it was my first time using Windows Movie Maker. After a few tries I got the hang of it and had fun doing it. Overall I thought the project went smoothly considering we all have very different schedules. We were able to meet with all the people we wanted and got valuable information on the Block Watch program in the Johnsons Park neighborhood. I think we all worked well together and we all worked very hard to put this final project together. I do not consider myself an artist or creative by any means, but this project made me feel like I can do anything if I put my mind to it and if I have the time and patience I can turn it into something great. I am not planning on taking any more film classes in the future, but I will use the tools and knowledge I have gained working on this final project in the future.