Sometimes on long bike rides, I try to imagine whether any future career change would surprise me. Could I imagine myself living with tribes in Papua New Guinea? Totally. In the daily grind as a banker in Hong Kong? Perhaps. Working in a war zone with the US Military? I mean… it could happen.

But even with all the crazy scenarios I invented, I never pictured myself in New York City. In fact, I always swore that I would not, could not, ever more to New York. And was I interested to visit? Not really. After all, some of my favorite things include mountains, lakes, fields full of wildflowers, cycling, organic gardening and rock climbing. In essence, I saw myself as a total granola whose soul would be overrun by even a short jaunt to The Big Apple.

So today, as I gazed up at the Empire State Building while meandering down 5th avenue, my new life here as a writer and editor for The Active Times in Manhattan seemed surreal.

However, New York City continues to surprise me. After only a week, many of my misconceptions were corrected.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1) Not all corners of New York City are barren metropolis wastelands.

Through my open window at night, I hear crickets. No, I don’t live in some upscale apartment near Central Park or in the ‘burbs. I live in a cool section of Manhattan, just blocks from lively bars and restaurants. I’ve also discovered several awesome green areas, including Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Union Square Park, where there is a farmers’ market several days a week.

2) When they say there is something here for everyone… they mean it.

Rock climbing? Yup, they’ve got both indoor and outdoor climbing covered. Cycling? That’s here too. Organic gardening? No problem! I even read a great story in Edible Brooklyn about local beekeepers. Now what was I worried about?

3) People are wildly into scheduling.

Everyone knows someone in New York and, if you’re lucky, they’ll introduce you. If this happens, you can expect to hear from the New Yorker almost immediately. The current record for my experience is two minutes (i.e.: someone passed on my contact information and their friend responded almost instantaneously. We had brunch the next morning.). Best of all, people want to meet you. Emails and telephone calls often involve several dates and times that would work for coffee or a meal. New Yorkers get things done.

4) Strangers are exceptionally friendly

Contrary to popular belief, New Yorkers are rather chatty! While I thought I would need to butter up the locals, I found immediate connections instead. Over the last week, I enjoyed marvelous conversations with cab drivers, coop volunters, shop owners, people on the street and new friends.

So please continue to check back as I discover New York City and the surrounding area, train for a century ride and delve into my fascinating career as a writer and editor for The Active Times.

How do you film dance? Now that’s a great question. Given that I am a dancer and that I just spent a year (and tons of money) learning to film, you would think I’d have a decent answer.

But it’s tricky. Even if you know good dancing, it takes skill and study to film dance in an interesting way. So, my professor gave me an assignment: Watch tons of dance movies and learn how the professionals do it.

That’s how I found myself at home with Burlesque, Dirty Dancing and Dirty Dancing Havana  Nights. As I sat down with a beer and turned on my television, I thought, “This is the coolest homework assignment I have ever received.”

Here is what I noted.

Length of time: Most shots of dancing are at least 20 seconds, but more often they last up to 2.5 minutes. After all, you want to record (and people want to see) the entire performance.

Cutaways and cut-ins: When you have a longer shot, say of a full performance, you want to make sure to use a lot of techniques for maintaining viewer interest. Keeping one wide shot the whole time just won’t do it. You can cut away to individuals in the performance — both their whole bodies and shots of their feet, hands or faces; cut to the band, the DJ or the audience; or cut in on the main performer. If she is doing a movement that emphasizes a certain part of her body, zoom in on that. If she is wearing the most fabulous shoes you’ve ever seen, get some shots of fancy footwork. Cutaways and cut-ins were used about every 10 – 20 seconds in 2-minute dance scenes.

Panning: A great technique to varying your shots is to use different types of pans. Pan across a group of performers, pan from someone’s feet up to their head or vice versa.

Shifting focus: If you are in an interesting setting, such as a very colorful bar with great drinks, you can use a shift in focus. For instance, put the focus on the amazing strawberry daiquiri in the foreground with the dancing in the background, then switch focus to the dancing.

Vary your angles: You can shoot up at the performers or down on them from a balcony or high chair. If possible, you can also stand among them on stage.

I used these techniques for Jenna and James’ final practices before the competition and the footage looked so much better. It was more engaging because you felt like part of the action. The closer I got, the better it turned out. And, as long as your dancers are good at what they do and aware of their space, they probably won’t run into you.

Once at the competition we were limited to one camera, so we played it safe with wider shots. If you are filming dance, use two cameras. One can take the wider shots while the other can focus on the details that make the scene more interesting. I really believe this would have made our competition scenes better, but ultimately you must work with what you have. If anything, it gave us a chance to use our resourcefulness and creativity, which are the best skills for documentarians to have.

I first saw Climate Refugees advertised a few years ago and finally had the opportunity to watch it today. My first impression upon picking up the DVD at the library was that it had won a lot of awards: Official Selection at Sundance, the Los Angeles Film Festival, Cannes and Woods Hole Film Festivals. However, just because a film has won awards does not mean it was well shot or that it tells a story in the most interesting way. In the case of Climate Refugees, there was a lot of great content, but no clear story arc. In that way, it felt a lot like An Inconvenient Truth.

The film opens with shots of earth from space, including shots of natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and the wildfires in Southern California. When the narrator/director began to describe the 18-month journey taken to create the film, I got suspicious.  More and more, I am leaning away from narration in films. Climate Refugees was a great example of both the good and the bad side to this story-telling technique.

Sometimes the director was able to relate a story that the camera did not catch on film. For instance, he talked about a young boy who had asked whether the United States would save his country, Bangladesh, from disappearing. He also told the viewer about a conversation he overhead between his crew members. The team was discussing whether it would be better for climate change to be caused by humans or by natural forces. They decided it would be better if it were caused by humans because then something could be done to stop it. He then used this as a transition into the section on what we can do to stop climate change.

On the other hand, because the director comes into the film at irregular interviews, his voice was often jarring and distracting. His choice to put himself on camera also did not work for me. It felt random and he did not appear again at any other time in the film.

Nash does a great job obtaining a wide variety of interviews. He speaks with Newt Gingrich, representatives from the IPCC and the UN, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, a Stanford Professor and many more people. I believe this makes the movie relatable to many different demographics. And, because each person essentially says the same thing, it makes a convincing case that climate change is happening and that there will be serious consequences for humans.

This brings me to another point. From the beginning, Nash does not point a finger at humans as the cause of global warming. Even though climate change is scientifically proven to be caused by human-produced greenhouse gases, he keeps the option of natural forces as a possibility. While this is lying to the audience in a sense, it also makes the film more accessible for climate change skeptics. There are a surprising number of people in the United States who still believe climate change is a hoax or that humans are not causing it. If Nash’s approach encourages these people to watch the film, I support his choice to frame climate change in this way.

My most serious critique for the film is that Nash does not make individuals’ stories the focal point. He spent a year and a half filming in Africa, North America and Asia, which meant he certainly had enough time to find the people who truly embody the ideas he wanted to portray. Had he chosen to feature personal stories, the audience could have built an emotional attachment with the characters and taken away deeper emotions and lessons from the film. Instead, the film is too full of talking heads. A lot of people do cry on camera, but because these are people you never come to know, it feels almost like Nash is using them, rather than like he has a genuine interest in these people and the lessons we must take away from their stories.

Over the couple of weeks, our lindy hop documentary has taken over most my my life. Luckily, with the exception of some technical problems with our hard drive, Sarah and I are really enjoying the experience.

We continue to stalk Jenna and James around Chicago. Our newest shots include:

1. Jenna and her boyfriend, Jeff, in her home.

2. Jenna and James hanging out at a bar

3. James DJing at a popular lindy hop venue

4. Two practices in preparation for the American Lindy Hop Championships

5. A performance and teaching gig at Northwestern University

This Saturday, we will be shooting James when he takes his daughter Lucy to play in the park. We also hope to get footage of James, his wife and Lucy hanging out at home. James and his wife met through lindy hop, so this highlights the idea that lindy hop is more than just a hobby to some people. For James, it helped give him a family.

Jenna’s story also continues to evolve. I feel hesitant to blog about it, but I will say that dance came into her life at a sad time that affected her whole family. The more Sarah and I learn, the more passionate we feel about producing the film and about having Jenna as our main character.

The editing process is very slow. We have hours and hours of footage and narrowing it down to a sensible story ark will undoubtedly be one of our greatest challenges. While it’s daunting, I am really excited to see how everything comes together and I am actually looking forward to spending most of my weekend working on it.

The process of making a documentary is different than any other type of storytelling I have done. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Time with your subjects: Of course, this varies from project to project. To make Dark Days, Marc Singer moved underground to the abandoned New York City subway tunnels to capture the life of the homeless people there. While Sarah and I can’t claim to be this involved, we did shoot at four separate locations over three days last week with Jenna and James.

2. Sense of responsibility: Your participants literally sign their rights away. With the release form, they give you permission to put everything you capture on tape on a giant screen in front of hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe millions of people. And, even though I always feel responsible for telling a fair and accurate story, the connection I am developing with Jenna takes this emotion to a new level. We sat at the bar for 45 minutes after I stopped shooting on Monday night, talking about our families, experiences with religion and our shared love for dance. The more you bond with your subject, the more the pressure builds to tell their story as best you can.

3. People lay it all out: The trust you build with your subjects means they will open up to you, even in front of the camera. Once again, the sense of responsibility builds.

4. There is a lot to remember: You need more than a pen and notebook. Before you go, empty your SD card and charge the batteries to your camera. Once on site, attach all the cords to the camera, make sure your character (who may be running around or, in our case, doing some sort of dangerous aerials) is wearing her microphone, focus, white balance, check for sound. And I’m probably still forgetting something…

5. Carrying things around is a real hassle: If you don’t have a car, dragging 50 pounds of equipment from place to place in Chicago is a royal pain in the ass. Our 1.5 hour commute to Ukrainian village with our camera, massive tripod and lights meant we took up more than our fair share of space on trains and buses. Our fellow commuters were not amused.

This coming week will be the last practices before the big competitions the 11th – 13th. We will be filming like crazy almost every day of the week, so stay tuned…

My partner, Sarah Eberspacher, and I have finalized our documentary plans for the next 10 weeks. Our lead is Jenna Stworzyjanek, who runs Big City Swing in Chicago. She and her partner James Pustejovsky will be competing in the American Lindy Hop Championships in May right here in the Windy City.

I have always considered my involvement with the lindy hop scene to be part of my work in cultural conservation, so I am thrilled about this documentary opportunity. Lindy hop brings the most joy to my life of any activity.

I applied for a grant earlier this year to write about the spread of lindy hop around the world. Here is how I described the dance:

“In Lindy Hop, a partner dance with grounded posture and fast footwork, couples bounce, jump and throw each other in aerial displays of athleticism. The social dance is normally done to the music of artists such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Count Basie and was named after Charles Lindbergh, the wildly popular early American aviator.”

If you would like to see an example of excellent lindy hop, check out the competitors in the pro strictly competitions at the International Lindy Hop Championships here.

Our goals now will be to film Jenna and James as they prepare for the competition, as well as to follow them around at ALHC to capture the emotion of pre- and post-performance. We will also be interviewing other dancers around Chicago, as well as setting up interviews with the ALHC judges and organizers. On Sunday, Sarah and I will be hosting a small gathering of dancers in my home to nail down some solid interviews. The inspiration for the set up was taken from the Jonestown documentary. At the end of the movie, it’s clear that the documentarians gathered many of the Jonestown participants in the same house, but varied the location of each interview and the lighting for diversity.

Some archival research is also in order to get a few solid clips of early lindy hoppers. I have a few favorites, but we need to narrow it down and maybe find some fresh material. The same goes with songs. Some potentials are Alligator Meat by Johnny Otis, Solid as a Rock by Ella Fitzgerald, or Flying Home by Lionel Hampton. I also love music by Fats Waller and Cab Calloway. These musicians are easy for a non-swing audience to connect with because their music is so much fun. We could also feature more contemporary jazz bands, such as the Careless Lovers (I played their song “Black Coffee” for my non-dancing roommates and they went around singing it for several days after) or The Solomon Douglas Swingtet. After all, this is a documentary about lindy hop in 2012.

If you would like to get a feel for our main character, you can check out this brief segment we did at the end of March. Check it out on my Vimeo here. Most of this footage will not be used in our documentary, but is interesting background.

And so begins the search for the subject of my documentary.

My first idea was the book that my adviser, Abigail, is writing about an ancient American agrarian civilization called Cohokia. Cohokia is located just outside of Saint Louis on the Mississippi River, so a site visit would be possible, although the drive would be long — about 6 hours.

Based on archeologist’s research, Abigail believes that global warming caused changes in the river and the surrounding area that led to Cohokia’s downfall. The point of her book is to say, Hey! If global warming destroyed one civilization, we should be careful how we let it impact ours!  

I emailed Abigail on Wednesday to find out if she was interested in the idea and am waiting to hear back. The weather is getting warmer and I imagine that the archaeologists are planning their triumphant return to the site to continue excavations. This would be a great opening, climax or conclusion to the piece, depending on the timing and any interesting events.

My biggest worry with this topic is that it will be difficult to catch the researchers who are in charge of the project. I am not sure where they are located. The benefits would be the amazing setting in Cohokia. It would be fabulous to shoot during the magic hour on the Mississippi River.

The second idea was given to me by my friend Josh, a scientist at the Field Museum.

Josh and his colleagues have been working on a new historical ecology project on sharks in the Central Pacific. The team uses a unique kind of data to travel back in time to see how shark populations have changed in the region.

What is the data, you may wonder? It’s shark teeth taken from the ancient weapons of the Gilbert Islanders! These artifacts are anthropology holdings in the Field Museum’s collection and present an amazing opportunity.

Because shark species can be identified by their teeth, Josh and his team can figure out what sharks were present in the waters of the Gilbert Islands in the 1840s to 1890s. They have already found three species which appear to have since disappeared.

Considering the importance of sharks to the Gilbertese culture, their findings highlight how both biological and cultural diversity are under threat.

My main concern with this subject is that we would not be able to take live shots from the Pacific. We do not have the time or the funding to get to the research site, although Josh likely has photos or videos we could use. Josh himself is very knowledgeable, great on film and has media training, which means that he is very easy to shoot. It would also be a fun opportunity to get footage of interesting artifacts that few people are able to see.