Field Notes: The Media School Travel Blog

Thursday was our first day of full-out production at Fort Sumter. The Civil War era of American history has always fascinated me, so needless to say, I was excited. Fort Sumter did not disappoint.

After taking a windy ferry ride to the island, we arrived at the fort and got to work.

One of the most striking things about our day at the fort was a speech by Gabrielle Alban, one of the park rangers. She was incredibly passionate during her introductory talk about the start of the Civil War at the fort. By her intonation, hand gestures and friendly persona, I was hooked. Her speech made me want to learn more about the fort and its rich history. It was a great way to start off our first production day on-site.

She was just one of the incredibly helpful park rangers, along with Paula Ogden-Muse, Jamie Cox and Gary Alexander. I feel so appreciative that there are people who care so deeply about national parks and are willing to devote time to educating others.

There were many production challenges that day. With the strong winds, we had to take extra precautions when we interviewed park rangers, who were hooked up to the lavalier microphones. We had to adjust the mic’s placement on some of the rangers’ lapels to protect them from the wind.

The wind made some of our camerawork shaky. Although some footage was compromised, I think we’ll be able to pool all of our footage to find the best clips to produce our videos.

And it was a very sunny day. We had to be more careful when shooting in direct sunlight or shooting into the light. A few people had some difficulty adjusting their camera settings. One of the trip leaders helped me adjust my ISO and aperture, so that helped a lot.

Overall, I had a great day at Fort Sumter. I faced some challenges, learned a lot and am excited to give the park rangers all of our materials.