Final Project - Brittany and Liz

For our final project, Brittany and I produced a video in which we aimed to depict alternative communities within Vassar. Our intent was to interview all of the people that we came across on campus who were not students or professors. We wanted to emphasize responses to the connections that exist between the Vassar community and the Poughkeepsie community. Also, we wanted to highlight the people who are a very important and crucial part of Vassar College but are never shown or appreciated for their participation on campus. While students and visitors come and go, Vassar’s staff members understand changes in Vassar and Poughkeepsie’s community better than anyone.

In entering into this project, we assumed that we would receive many more negative comments or that people would not open up to the camera, as we are not part of their immediate community. Of course it must be taken into account that not all people were willing to be completely truthful and honest when asked questions when there is a camera involved. Interviewees did seem a little hesitant to speak their minds and honestly discuss things that might portray the college in a not so appealing light. However, we were completely surprised by the sincerity and diversity of responses.

We divided the film into five sections: how many years people have worked at Vassar, what people are doing at Vassar, what it is like working at Vassar, the Vassar community, changes in Poughkeepsie and the area, and student-worker relationships. The responses we received were all very powerful and very touching so it was hard to decide what to include and what not to include. When going into this project we didn’t really know what to expect and weren’t anticipating this video to be as eye-opening as it is for us. The video is currently too large to put up on youtube, so Brittany is cutting it into pieces which should be online shortly and then posted here on our blog. When you do have a chance to check it out, let us know what you think and hopefully you will enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed making it.


--Brittany and Liz