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The purpose of the documentary project was to highlight an influential person or place in the community. I chose to document Deer Hollow Farm, a historic farm embedded in the Rancho San Antonio Nature Preserve. In addition to being a working farm, Deer Hollow has numerous educational programs and summer camps, along with over 300 annual volunteers.

Like every project here at Freestyle, my 3 classes of English, Design, and Digital Media worked together to form the complete products this website presents.

In my Digital Media class,I created an introduction video to the farm in After Effects.

I recorded the voiceover in Pro Tools.

This is the final video.

book
In my Design and English class, I created a full-length book about Deer Hollow, "Heart of the Hollow."

Click on the graphic to the right to view the final book.

I loved writing about Deer Hollow, incorporating quotes from my interviews and outside research. Learning to use InDesign and creating a book that put my photos, graphics, and text together into one product was also very rewarding. I put a lot of time and effort into it, and I hope it shows!

gallery
Here is a gallery of various photos I took at Deer Hollow:

Sprite the barn cat
Luna and Roxy
The Nature Center
Jessica and her favorite animal at the farm
A sign for DHF
The Hay Barn
A beautiful view of Rancho
Julie cleaning the cows' pen
Some of the many chickens
The Ohlone Village
Luna giving me her good side
The eyes are the window to the soul
Trudy's eye
Lisa wrangling a pregnant goat
An uncharacteristically friendly sheep
Julie, Lisa, and Jessica
bios

I conducted 4 interviews over the course of this project with the following people. Their words made up a large portion of my book and helped me to stay inspired throughout the project.

Name of person 1
jessica morgan

As recreation coordinator, Jessica has a hand in everything that goes on at the farm. But her passion is first and foremost environmental education. She came to the farm as head teacher, and I only knew her as Bumblebee the entire time I was a camper.

"Well, I think by now I've been here for 13 years, it definitely feels like home to me out here."

Name of person 2
lisa

Lisa has been at Deer Hollow Farm for 3 years. She even lives in the historic farmer's house next to the farm. She is the main caretaker of all the animals, keeping tabs on their eating habits, medical needs, and even spontaneous births.

"I do love Deer Hollow Farm. I think it's a really wonderful resource for the community and you can see it just with the people who come here often and how many people it does affect. It's a really cool thing to be a part of."

Name of person 3
julie

A volunteer of 11 years, Julie is a familiar face around Deer Hollow, along with her son Evan. The pair spend their Mondays and Thursdays raking, shoveling, and cleaning around the farm.

"I don't think anyone thinks of it as a government owned farm. You think of it as something historical in the midst of Silicon Valley where everything is new... It brings you back in connection with life. That's it."