Workshop Participants
Marian Liu is the director of VOICES, a multimedia fellowship for the Asian American Journalists Association. As a journalist for the last decade, she's covered pop culture, technology and business for The Seattle Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, Detroit Free Press and Source Magazine – interviewing everyone from Jet Li to Katie Perry. She just finished up her Executive MBA, with an emphasis on branding, at the University of Washington. Liu also serves on the board for the Society for Features Journalism. Most of all, Liu is passionate about communicating the needs of the communities she represents: “young, immigrant and female.”
Marian participated in the March 2012 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop. She had the following to say about her experience:
I applied for MediaStorm wanting to round out my experience as a reporter, but what I gained was so much more. I was immersed into the world of filmmaking.
Brian spent a day going over details - what to do, what not to do and how to build a narrative. Then, we dived into our project - 3 days of shooting and a week of editing. Eric was wonderfully meticulous down to the music choice. He was like a pianist over the keyboard - every stroke was intentional. There were the obvious choices in cuts, but we also set actions to beats. He gave me the eyes and ears of an editor.
This was an experience I'll never forget. Not only did I learn how to be a filmmaker, but I gained lifelong friends and was able to impact the life of our subject. All our lives were changed.
For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It is the embodiment of his family.
As a third generation seltzer man, he follows parts of the same cobblestone route his grandfather began in 1920’s Manhattan.
Walter maintains a collection of more than seven thousand antique bottles that he circulates to his customers. Many bear the family name, a tribute to his father and his grandfather before him.
Now, after 90 years of the Backerman’s being in the business, Walter knows all too well that he may be the last of the family’s seltzer men.
Remember These Days is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.