Former Foster Child opens his child welfare file

Former Foster Child opens his child welfare file from Ryan Jackson on Vimeo.

Former foster child Kane Blacque obtained his Alberta child welfare file recently through a freedom of information request. March 30, 2015. Video by Ryan Jackson, Edmonton Journal.

This video posed an interesting challenge. Kane Blacque had lived a very tragic life and had the courage to FOIP his child welfare file and share it with Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons.

Creating a video to go with Paula’s column posed an interesting challenge as all I had to work with was the interview with Kane and visuals of him reading his welfare file. We had to be very careful what we showed in his file for legal and privacy reasons.

I wanted to create a video that had a serious feeling to go with the very serious topic. I shot the interview with two Panasonic GH4’s and used a Kessler Pocket Dolly and Pocket Jib to move the camera. I used macro extension tubes with a Canon 50mm f1.2L lens to get closeups of the documents.

Here is Paula Simons helping me test the lighting. I used two lights to the left and right and one above on a boom arm.

Behind the scenes photo of Kane reading his child welfare file. I used cinefoil (black tinfoil) to control the light from my LEDgo light panels.

Kane Blacque poses for a photo in the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton on March 30, 2015. When he was young he would spend hours in this spot by himself and think about his life which was spent working as teen prostitute in the 1990’s. Last August, Blacque filed a Freedom of Information request with Alberta Human Services to see his entire child welfare record. Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal