Documentary: Katrina

What is it really like to be homeless, hungry, hot and sweaty, nearly broke, or shivering and alone? While many of us have seen it on TV, what would it take for someone to leave his home and drive across the country to experience it first hand?

On 26 September 2005, Carlin Comm left Wenatchee, WA, driving cross-country, to make an independent video documentary of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Rather than being funded by corporate sponsorship or other media organization, his mission was largely self funded, and supported by friends, neighbors, and family.

With his Chevy Astro Van set up with a dual battery system and inverter, so it can support using computers "off the grid", and a VT-2, Dell Precision 530 workstation, which is Dual Xeon P4 1.4s with 512 MB Ram, a 3Ware 64 bit SATA controller, running 2 x 250 GB WD drives, for 500 GB of video storage, Carlin was ready to go to work.

"I didn't actually use it in the van like I had intended to," said Carlin "I was never able to figure out a way to set up the computers and still have enough room to sleep."

Initially, the plan was to drive into Texas first, as many of the New Orleans survivors had been taken there. Then Hurricane Rita was forecast to hit Texas. Knowing it would take several days to drive into the area, the route was changed to drive the northern states, check the news on the way, and adapt as the situation developed.

Memphis, TN, became the first stop, spending a few days with the Red Cross, and then several more days staying at a shelter with some families. While at the shelter, Carlin interviewed several survivors for the documentary, including a man and woman from New Orleans, who were planning their wedding the following weekend. This wedding had been completely sponsored by the surrounding community, and was held at the shelter the Bride and Groom were both living.

As the documentary project has been largely funded by donations, Carlin has spent most nights sleeping in the van, at shelters, rest stops, and truck stops.

“Once, I returned home, I was faced with a pile of removable drives with captured footage, tapes that hadn't been labeled and time-lapse footage from the drive there and back.” Said Carlin “I didn't really have any plan of what I wanted to do with the footage. I had never done anything bigger than a wedding. It was a mess!”

“I captured as DV, to external drives on a separate workstation. I then did a rough sort/edit using the VT edit Storyboard. The flexibility of editing with VT Edit really saved me on this project.” Stated Carlin “By saving the project files and the footage files together, I was able to move folders off to external drives as I got rough cuts done, to free up working space.

The VT-Edit software was incredible. I would save out versions, and because of the Undo Stack I could try different ideas, or save out sub-projects and experiment. I can't imagine doing anything like this again in any other software. The speed of the interface and the storyboard/timeline combination was just amazing. If I had an idea, I could just make it happen. If I didn't like it, I could change it, or go back, it was no big deal. It was a very free flowing process.”

Using a trick from the VTNT newsgroup on Yahoo, Carlin was able to drag color swatches that matched the person's shirt to the clips. This technique made finding clips instantaneous. After watching the interviews a few times, Carlin found common themes, or common events that people were relating. Eventually he was able to group the various segments into a continuous story. “I could save a sub project, then open it separately,” said Carlin “When it was finished, I'd pull the sub projects back together.”

“I edited all of November and most of December, for more than 12 hours each day. In January, I cut a 10 minute highlight clip of the wedding at the shelter, which was shown at a Bridal Expo locally.” stated Carlin “I have already sent a "work in progress" DVD to PBS for consideration, and I am also exploring a direct sale via my website. Lately I've been going back and reviewing various parts for incorporation in the DVD’s "bonus" footage. The power and flexibility of VT-Edit have allowed me to easily repurpose much of my content for additional projects.!”

“I've learned so much doing this documentary, I have decided I really need to doing another one. My plan for the next trip is to pick up a surplus school bus, set up a portable studio, for living in. . .and a shower!. The Studio in a Box, in a Bus, should be a pretty amazing, flexible package!

As Ervin told me, the day before his wedding at the shelter, "If we would just take some time out of our busy lives, and help our neighbor when he needs it, the world would be a better place". I believe this documentary will be my first step, toward helping my neighbor.

I felt this project was something I had to do. It was something that I would regret not doing for the rest of my life."