On the recently passed Wednesday the 14th, I had a pretty busy, fun-filled day. I was so busy coming up to it that I forgot to blog about it being one year since I visited Madison before I had applied.

As you may know, besides my research on the Sugary Enhancer gene in maize, I’m working on some video projects. At first, the idea was to create a series of videos on pollination methods, mostly for college courses on plant breeding. Then, videos interviewing plant breeders were added in, and when I arrived in Madison in June we got ready to start filming for these two projects. And while we were out in the field, we thought, why don’t we film some grad students about the PBPG program and make a promo?

One, then two, then three projects - and they’re reproducing fast! I told my adviser Shawn that this is how it starts, and that it will never end. “Oh it’ll end for me,” he said. Uh oh. Editing video is more involved per minute than audio, where will I find the time?

Luckily, we’re not doing the video editing, or the filming. We’ve got a couple of guys from the Instructional Media Development Center filming and editing - we’ve just got to figure out what to shoot and what to put on the video, arrange a day, and bring them down.

Hah, sounds easy. Try coordinating times to film interviews, lab shots, and a mock classroom with the schedules of a dozen grad students, two professors, the film crew, your own classes, room availability times, and then work in a visiting professor! That pretty much took up my time Monday and Tuesday to put together, and Wednesday to do it. I was running around the building, drinking water like crazy, and getting grad students ready to be filmed so when they were done with one, we could pack up and get to another.

I got to meet some more people, and I couldn’t have done it without the willingness of the other grad students to help out, and I learned never to count on the nourishment of a free, cheap pizza lunch (provided because of visiting professor) to get you through the day.

Then, at about 4:30, when we were all done, it was home for me, and Ariela and I took off to go move the bee hive to a farm. While we were on the outskirts of town, in the dark, it started to snow - just a little. A few flakes to skitter around on the pavement whenever the wind picked up. We’re going to go check on the condition of the hive tomorrow, weather permitting, and get them ready for the winter. I’ll tell all about their new home after I get some better pictures.

On Halloween, I also got to see the Dean of the college of Ag, Dr. Molly Jahn. She helped me find people to talk to about plant breeding and my interests (including herself), and I had 15 minutes to meet with her when I visited the school last year. It was funny, though, when we were setting up “fake” shots of Molly explaining some stuff to a “student” and talking about the PBPG program at UW-Madison. Funny because if we wanted something real, it would be me, sitting in Moore 351, scarfing down a to-go buffalo bleu salad from Uno on State Street, hearing her talk about how to apply to this school, what’s great about it, and to “woo” a professor into accepting me. That was so far from what we filmed that I had to cover my mouth and smile in the corner during the shots.

Seeing the way that these clips are made and come together has also made me appreciate the work that goes into it, and now as I watch videos I start to think about how the shots are taken. It makes me laugh thinking about how artificial the whole thing is - short unconnected pieces of action, the light coming from them captured and strung together in a fashion that our minds
I’ve dabbled in print, and dabbled in audio. Now, I’m starting to get an idea what it takes to put together something good with video. When we’re all done with these projects, I’ll get to do whatever I want with the footage. Perhaps another project, one with a wider, more ambitious mission? Think the Future of Food. Think King Corn.* Think bigger, and think actually knowing something about the topic to begin with. With all the people I’ve been meeting and talking to in the past year - three or four years from now it will add up to a lot of resources - a lot of smart people with things to say about plant genetics. Things to say as people working on it, as well as people eating it.

It all starts somewhere!

Now to get back to my research. To research, perchance to discover. For now. I think I can make a dual-career out of this!

*I haven’t seen King Corn yet, so I’m not saying that they don’t know anything about their topic. But I did watch their preview as they tried to munch on their field of corn - and found the corn tasted gross. I let out a guffaw because they were growing field corn, not sweet corn. Maybe it was just in there for comic relief, but it seemed like they maybe didn’t understand what they were eating. I look forward to watching the film in the near future.