The Making of a Prison Orientation Video
I took Paul Stekler’s Documentary class when I was studying Radio-TV-Film at UT, and I needed a topic for my final documentary. Somewhere I heard that film students were being hired to help the Travis County Sheriff’s Department make an orientation video for new prisoners. The video was going to break-down the ins and outs of the prison world, so fresh prisoners knew what to expect from their brand new non-lives.
So my documentary was going to be the making of a prison orientation video, and I was going to interview cops, prison guards, and the prisoners who were acting in the video. Also, of course, documenting the hilarious foibles of the student filmmaking team as they had prisoners repeat lines to get the perfect takes, and staged riots, and whatever else would have happened.
Paul Stekler said it was the best proposed idea in the class. So he was pretty disappointed when it fell through and I made a documentary about a truck stop.
It’s not too late for you, though. Surely there are still prison orientation videos being made out there that need making-of’s, folks…
6 years ago