Resume

Samantha K. Scott

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EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting
Minor in Legal Studies
Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA
GPA: 3.5/4.0 scale
Deans list- all semesters

COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCE

Internship with Clear Channel Broadcasting- Harrisburg
o Traffic Department
National Broadcasting Society- Susquehanna chapter

o President
Alpha Epsilon Rho- Broadcasting Honor Society

WQSU Radio

o News Reporter
o On-air personality
Forensic Speech Tournaments

o After dinner speech, 1st place
o Informative speech, 1st place
o Persuasive speech, 2nd place
o Sweepstakes award, 4th place
Women’s Christian Temperance Union Speech Contest
o 1st place in state competition
o 2nd place in national competition
Proficient in broadcasting software
o Pro Tools
o Final Cut Pro

ACTIVITIES

Alpha Lambda Delta honor society

Kappa Delta Sorority member
o Alumni coordinator

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"Spookyhanna" Documentary

This is a documentary I helped produce in a "Television Documentary" course. It concerns the paranormal activity that is found on the campus of Susquehanna University. I conducted the interviews that take place within this documentary, and I also assisted in filming and video editing.

"Food For Thought" Documentary

This is a short documentary I helped produce in a "Television Documentary" course. I assisted in the video editing of this project as well as other pre production procedures.

"Moose and Me" Sitcom

Moose & Me! from Craig Stark on Vimeo.

This is a sitcom that I helped produce in a Fundamentals of Television Production Course. I assisted in audio as well as pre-production procedures.

My Code of Television Production Ethics

The Following is a list of important ethics that I believe everyone should follow when working in the television industry:

• Do not encourage or convince subjects to act differently on camera than how they would normally act.

• Always get written permission from anyone you film even if it was only a quick appearance on the tape.

• Do not edit tape in a way that makes someone appear differently in a documentary than they would in real life.

• Do not lie to a subject regarding the topic of the documentary that they will be in.

• The documentary should be 100% truthful in all aspects and not misrepresent a person, idea, or belief in any way.

• Do not sneakily tape a subject when he or she does not want to be filmed. You should respect the privacy of everyone and make sure not reveal somebody’s identity who wants it concealed at any time during production.

• If a dramatization or reenactment must be performed during the documentary make sure sub titles identify it. Never show a reenactment and act like it was the real thing.

• Everyone working on the documentary should each be given specific jobs. No one person should work harder than the others even if they are more experienced in the field of documentary production.

• Do not try to make “good TV” and attempt to make something look more dramatic and exciting by altering the environment or by using editing tricks

• All costs should be split equally among the members of the documentary production group whether it is costs regarding gas for traveling or equipment.
  

Three Crucial Ethical Situations

1. I believe that since it has become so easy to edit film anyway you like, sometimes an ethical situation regarding truthful editing could come about. I think that it could be very easy for someone to alter an interview by using editing skills because the interview was not really going as planned. For biased reasons someone could switch around words in an interview and make someone look like they have one opinion when they really have another. I think truthful editing is very crucial when creating a documentary. A documentary is supposed to be a representation of the truth and when words and sentences get flip flopped, you are taking away that truth. By not editing your footage truthfully you are putting yourself and your crew in a very dangerous situation. By doing this you can very easily lose the trust and respect from subjects in the past and future as well as your audience who is watching the documentary. I feel that since everyone is biased, the editor could perform this false editing without even realizing they did it. Because of this it is so important you are very cautious when cutting up footage. When the editing of an interview is done you must ask yourself, “Is this the idea that subject was trying to get across.” If it’s not the editor must fix it so that it is. I feel very strongly about this ethical code, and therefore I will always try to follow the standards here that I have set up for myself.

2. When creating a documentary, every person in the crew has a vision of how it’s going to come out and the opinions that it is going to convey. Because of this, I can see an ethical situation that could be tough for a lot of people to deal with. When interviewing subjects you are supposed to be getting the raw truth. No matter what their opinions or beliefs are you are supposed to capture it, edit it, and create a documentary that is completely truthful. Since everyone already has a vision of what they want in the documentary, it could be very easy to convince subjects to act different or give an answer to a question that they don’t exactly believe in. To avoid this ethical concern, the documentary crew should not ever tell a subject what opinion or idea they are hoping to convey. Since most people are very impressionistic when it comes to being on TV, a crew could accidentally convince a person to speak or act differently than they normally would. Even if it means that your documentary is going to have to take a different approach, you must allow your subjects to be completely open and honest about how they feel.

3. Working in a group to get a project done is always tough no matter what. It always seems that one person is always working too hard and another is not working enough. Because of this I feel that sharing the work load evenly is very important especially when working on documentaries. In the upcoming group documentary project, everyone is going to be at a different skill level. This is no excuse for one person to work harder or longer than the next. I believe that jobs should be divided up evenly in accordance to work load. By not having equal work given out, it causes stress to build up within the group that could eventually be noticed in the final project.

Susquehanna Film Festival

This is a clip from Susquehanna University's news paper, The Crusader, that highlights the Susquehanna Film Festival that took palce on April 15th. The documentary that I helped produce, Spookyhanna, was shown at the festival and was nominated for an award.

Analysis of "Grey Gardens"

The following is an excerpt from an analysis I created of the 1975 documentary, Grey Gardens, by the Maysles brothers:

I believe that this documentary has definitely been able to hold up overtime just because of the issues it involves. This documentary focuses on things that are not really relevant to time. For example, mother-daughter relationships seldom change overtime, and I believe that, although these two have quite an unusual relationship, it is still comparable to the typical mother-daughter relationship. Their bickering over petty topics is very similar to the type of bickering I do with my mother. Also, this documentary portrays the attachment children have to their parents. Often times, children like to act independent and much older than they are, however, subconsciously they fear eventually leaving their parents and disconnecting the strong attachment they once had. In this piece, Edie blames her reasoning for still being at home to her having to take care of her mother, and if she didn’t have to attend to her she would be living in New York, however, it is clear that subconsciously she really just wanted to come home to be around her mother.

The strongest aspect of this documentary is definitely the characters and the footage that was captured of them. I don’t believe there could be two other people better for this documentary. Often times people living in seclusion would never let two strangers come into their isolated world, so the fact that the two welcomed them was incredible. Edith and Edie are so obscure and interesting that they really just draw in viewers and make you not want to take your eyes off of them. Their behavior, especially Edie’s, is creepy, and I found myself often times disturbed while watching the documentary, however, it still held my attention the entire time. The Maysles brothers did a phenomenal job at portraying the duo and capturing all of their strange characteristics and actions. I specifically enjoyed their different outfits throughout the documentary. Although their odd behavior is the most compelling part of this documentary, it is not too completely out there that one is not able to figure out the main themes of the piece.

Analysis of "Supersize Me"

The following is an excerpt from an analysis I did concerning the well-known television documentary, "Supersize Me" by Morgan Spurlock:


I believe that the strongest aspect of this documentary is the support of all the different doctors. Having Spurlock see each professional doctor frequently and hearing their input on the situation really eliminated any chance of untruthfulness in the documentary regarding Spurlock’s change in health. To me, their role was very crucial in making this documentary as affective as it is. Another strong aspect of “Super Size Me” is the humor. I think the humor is what really keeps the viewers intrigued. Without Spurlock’s funny outlook on the situation, I believe the documentary would become boring and repetitive. A documentary involving the unhealthiness of fast food could be approached in many other ways, however, I believe this participatory way was definitely the most engaging. Spurlock could have easily done an expository documentary and focused on the “biography” of one obese person who frequently eats at McDonalds. An advantage to this method, is that people could be able to witness the long term effects of constantly eating fast food and where they could end up if they keep continuing to do so. This would have definitely been less entertaining, however it would be more inciteful to the viewers.

Although this documentary is perfect for the time period it was filmed, I think in the future it may not hold up as well. Because of the ridiculous percentage of obese people in our world, the fast food industry has already taken initiative to lower fat content and calories in the food they offer. Therefore, in twenty years, this documentary could be completely inaccurate with its facts and statistics. Many documentaries use statistics and facts to help support their topics, however a statistic from one year is only going to be an accurate form of support for so many years and you can’t just keep changing the documentary to keep up with the times.