If you ever find yourself inside of New York City parks and notice that some of them are better kept than others, it’s because state parks get very different funding than city parks. In some cases, these parks are sometimes right next to each other like in the case of Marsha P. Johnson & Bushwick Inlet Park. My girlfriend is a community volunteer with The Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park on the Williamsburg waterfront. This organization looks after the park with the help of volunteers. Since her involvement, I’ve been learning about the allocation of park funding, weeding and why it’s important to make sure you vote in your local elections if you want to see a difference in your neighborhoods.
I recently interviewed Katherine who’s behind the The Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park to dig a little deeper into what it takes to maintain. Katherine has been a champion of city parks for many years and was a great interview. The two videos are great examples of what local storytelling should feel like and the importance of creating awareness. Producing videos like this allows me to wear my interviewer, director, videographer and editor hat all in one. Most times, I feel I’m a better interviewer than the other three titles.
For each of these videos, I created a vertical version for Instagram. As a result, they both got really good engagement in a way that may not have happened if they were only on the organizations’ website or YouTube. Being a horizontal video purist, I’m learning in some cases, vertical is sometimes better. Also, I’ve been filming in a way that everything can be cropped for social. I do think a time is coming where short form, horizontal makes a comeback but until then, I work with the trends but never forget my traditional filmmaking rules.
Moving to Williamsburg last year has allowed me to be much closer to an active community with so much going on. I look forward to covering more park volunteering and other local stories.