Hello everyone,
This is Emmy! And, this is my final blog post about my
internship from this past summer 2023. To ‘wrap up’ the summer season, we began
a video series called, “50 Years 50 Artifacts.” Every week leading up to our
anniversary, July 2024, we will be sharing 50 different artifacts around the
museum that we believe either hold a unique story or are linked directly with
Babe, himself. But, a series like this doesn’t spur out of nothing. The initial
listing of artifacts to include was about 100 items long (some items already
displayed, in our basement archive, in the super, secure archive off-campus, or
even privately owned items). It took quite a while to solidify the listing down
to 50. And, if you must know, there was quite the debates about what to keep on
the list and what not to. However, once the list was secured, myself, and my
co-worker and UMBC alumni Katie, began filming. Immediately we realized
something, we are no experts in filming B-roll for museum artifacts. The first
secession of filming artifacts was a bit disorganized as one may imagine. The
artifacts, themselves, made up of all different sizes, ages, weights, and
materials. So, no set up was the same. For example, the Yomiuri Shimbun Award (samurai
helmet) placing it on the turn table was quite the challenge. The front weighed
more than the back thus when we spun the lazy Susan, it would stop half way.
After what seemed at least ten failed attempts, for a perfect spin, we got the
footage. But, this was only half of the content that needed to be done. While I
focused on the videography, Katie did the photography. Again, as the secession
went on, we learned, refocused, and most of all, realized this is a much larger
task than anticipated. At the same time, we both recognize that by tackling
this as a team, we should be able to have all 50 artifacts filmed and ready to
edit, and later published, right on time.
The next few secessions after this is where, I believe,
we made some bigger strides with filming and finding a common ground. We were
able to set up a larger vertical blackout set up for filming much larger items
such as Jonathan Ogden’s jersey (which is almost as tall as me), found a much
more stable environment for photographing the trophy artifacts (jerry-rigged a
clear mailbox container to be a soft-box for our spotlights), and much more. Not
only this, but Katie and I decided to switch roles for one of our secessions,
while she did the videography, I did the camera work. It was new, and at the
same time, very exciting to try and document these artifacts as best as I
could. I will note, the trophies, such as the Lombardy and -83 World Series
trophy, were extremely difficult. No amount of soft lighting could dampen the
amount of shine that the trophies emanated. Despite this, Katie and Shawn, our
director, did note that even the Baltimore Sun, Orioles, and Raven’s photographer
had issues with photographing these items. Shawn noted that, and I quote, “In
order for them to have their level of approval with photographs, they quite
literally brought in their OWN softbox to put around the trophies so that
almost no extra lighting came in.” With this new knowledge, it let my courage
to continue photography a little less damaged.
I should heavily note, we are a small team. Most of
our photos for artifacts are all done by the immediate staff. We don’t have a
“dedicated” photography or videography team. We all pitch in where and when we
can. Yet, I believe our products so far don’t fall too behind many other local
museums work. Do what you can with the resources you’re provided. Try and make
the best of any situation. Below I’ve attached some “behind the scenes” photos
of our set ups. We work with what we’ve
got!
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