This was Jake’s first traveling field production experience with a concentration in large scale footage collection, editing and filming.  Currently a TV Production major at Montclair State, Jake has excelled in creating visual landscapes synced to music.  A native of Madison, New Jersey, his two weeks in Key West served as a creative door into the people, the culture and the independent free-spirited nature of the Conch Republic. 

Additional highlights for Jake during this project, were:

• Shooting video with professional equipment such as GoPro action cameras and Canon DSLRs
• Footage collection as part of a production team
• Editing techniques in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects 
• The difficulties of story telling through just music and video
• Sourcing music from an artist through which he has a personal connection
• Working in a collaborative environment and multi-day production time management.
• Exploring the intricacies of camera gear and lenses in different lighting conditions

Alexis was enrolled to experience Key West a mere 36 hours after receiving the summer session’s open call for students.  An upcoming graduate of the Department of Art & Design she was the only student working as part of our production team without any video editing experience.  A creative creature at heart, Alexis’ deep dive into footage collection served as simply another canvas to her artistic expression.  It now lives alongside numerous watercolor painting of colorful tropical roosters.

Additional highlights for Alexis during this project, were:

• How to operate professional camera equipment
• Working as part of a production team.
• The tediousness of scouting different locations to frame the best possible capture.
• Footage storage, organization and transfers onto various hard drives.
• A crash course in Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics.
• Editing techniques in within Adobe Premiere Pro and time-lapse manipulation.
• The challenge of finding quality royalty free music that fits with the feel of your video.
• The difficulty of editing to musical ques within the video.
• The process of selecting video clips in order to tell a compelling story.
• And finally, how to ride a bike!

Thomas was the final student to join the Key West Summer Session and he ended up making friends with everyone on the island, literally. He spent his time capturing gravestones, sunsets and boat races. But most importantly this field production class was his first time working on a project away from home and with a crew. His suitcase was also packed full with shirts covered in palm trees.

Additional highlights for Thomas during this project, were:

• First experience using Canon DSLR camera equipment on a production project.
• First time editing with Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Learning how to work as part of a production team for film collection.
• The difficulties of story telling through just music and video.
• Took a crash course in how to ride a bike.
• Realized he hated Miami.

This was Mackenzie’s first traveling production experience. Majoring in documentary and film, Key West allowed her the freedom to explore cimematic production techniques and grow her storytelling abilities. She watched Roosters fight, a catman scream and turtles race, all while building confidence working well out of her comfort zone.

Additional highlights for Mackenzie during this project, were:

• creating a fast time-lapse of a sunset.
• navigating an area foreign to me and creating a video to best describe that area to someone who has never been.
• first time shooting sun flare shots.
• editing a video without any natural sound, just music.
• creating a video relying solely on cinematic beauty, rather than verbal information.

As a cuban-american who’s never been able to travel to my family’s native land, going to key west was as close as I could get to my roots. Key West shines a major light on what most Cuban Americans face – the ability to be so close to your culture (physically and emotionally) but unable to travel due to exile travel restrictions and avoiding upsetting any family members who vow to never return. This trip meant more to me than any other production trip – it gave me the opportunity to learn more about my culture in a setting that’s as similar to what an island 90 miles away would have to offer.

Aside from falling in love with the culture when I first visited the keys in high school, this production trip taught me:

• how to use different shooting techniques with a DSLR
• how to edit footage through a documentary film perspective
• the best oysters are from key west and key west only
• bike riding is the most effective way around an island
• most locals are just as eager to get to know you as you are to get to know them

Martin Halo is an adjunct professor and media specialist for the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, where he teaches film production and web development to aspiring media majors.

Halo graduated Monmouth University with a bachelors degree in Journalism and American Popular Music in 2006.

He has been organizing the Key West Summer Session since 2017 in partnership with the Key West Art & Historical Society, in an effort to combine education, travel and adventure for students entering their senior year.

When not teaching, Martin heads a creative agency developing websites for clients based in New York, Nashville, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

He loves to travel, splitting his time throughout the year at an apartment in Montclair, New Jersey and a canyon hideaway in Topanga, California. Though his travels have given him the gift to explore cultures around the world, there is no place he would rather haunt than this square mile on the tiny island of Key West.

Stretching off the mainland from Homestead, Florida, the project’s first hurdle was an 18-mile swamp covered in saw grass and infested with mosquitoes. The workers were miserable while immersed in the water. Four (4) floating excavators were built to support the construction. Long booms with buckets plunged into the mud creating a deposit wide enough to create the bed for the railway. The 18-Mile Stretch and railroad track was completed within 15 months.

The video above shows a modern roadway, which was once railroad surrounded by waters of the Gulf on both sides.

With construction for the massive draw spans underway in Miami, engineers began to prepare. They dredged columns which would allow for bridge installation. Gaps were made along the spans to allow for shipping to pass through the railway. The original turn-style bridge at Jewfish Creek was operated by hand, moving the rail track to allow ships to pass through daily. When it was completed in 1906, the bridge at Jewfish Creek became a major supply base, allowing workers to station goods 50 miles closer than the ports of Miami.

With a towering roadway above the original rail bed, the bridge is the welcoming entrance to the Florida Keys.

As work progressed, engineers were consistently dealing with unexpected setbacks. Plans were sometimes incomplete and surveys inaccurate. As they forged southward, they realized a very large lake was omitted from the original surveys. They dubbed this body of water “Lake Surprise.” Workers wasted no time, however, and immediately began dredging. The 3000 ft expanse quickly was ready for construction.

The video above towers over the expanse, giving you a clear view of the large lake.

From Key Largo to Windley Key, the railroad needed to be elevated 10 feet above sea level to protect the structure from hurricanes and storms. With hard rock abundant throughout the central Keys, Rock Quarries provided a natural resource for engineers to secure the railway. To excavate the rock, holes penetrated deep through the coral using long steel rods. Dynamite was then inserted and blasted into useful chunks to support the railroad. By 1907 the main staging port of operations, or Central Supply Depot, was stationed in Islamorada, 80 miles from Key West.

The farther down the keys the builders went, the more challenging their obstacles. Their true feats of engineering began at Channel 5 in Long Key, with an open swath of ocean nearing 2 miles in length.

When completed, the section would becomes Flagler’s favorite symbol of the East Coast Railroad. The span used a Spanish Arch design to support the railway. Each arch was 50 feet long and 35 feet above sea level. This design would be repeated throughout the remaining extensions of the railroad to Key West.

The marvel of Flagler’s railroad was its ability to span open water. The most recognizable and iconic span is the 7-Mile expansion which cascades over 3 Keys: Knights, Pigeon and Little Duck. At the height of construction, as many as 200 workers lived on Pigeon Key. The style of each section of the construction was designed specifically for the depth of the water, with the arches in the video above being in the most shallow areas.

The conquistadors called the waters around Bahia Honda, “Deep Water.” Strong currents, high winds, and a seabed 30 feet deep presented immense engineering challenges. Workers had to use steel to construct the cofferdams in order to sustain the water pressure.

The Bahia Honda section had elongated piers which supported not only the railway but a road above the tracks . Sitting on those piers were steel railroad trusses through which trains would pass while cars raced above.

Most visitors to Key West today routinely drive along the route of the original bridges and tracks of the East Coast Railway, some without even noticing. Construction through the 1980s modernized US 1 South, but if you look closely, the engineering marvels of Flagler’s dream remain, etched in time and forever a part of the South Florida landscape.