For my fourth WVU News package I wanted to do a story about people buying fuel-efficient cars because gas prices are continuing to rise. I talked to Professor Dahlia about it, and she told me to go to car lots to interview someone looking for a hybrid car, or just a smaller car that gets better mileage. I decided to make a post on Facebook first to see if someone with a hybrid would let me interview them. I got a response from someone in my hometown saying he drives a biodiesel truck and wanted to know if that would work for my interview. After talking with Professor Dahlia I decided I would change the story and make it about how this man makes his own fuel in order to save money.
I was excited to do this story for two reasons. The first is that I got to go back to my hometown of Ripley to interview him and get the b-roll, and the second was that I actually got to work on it early. Shooting the last few stories taught me to try to work ahead, and I finally got the opportunity to do that. I was also excited because this story was something new and different, and I got to learn a lot about the process of converting restaurant grease into fuel for a biodiesel car or truck.
I drove to Ripley and interviewed Tyler Markham. He told me he started thinking about biodiesel six years ago when gas prices first started to rise, but didn’t really begin until four years ago. He walked me through the process and let me shoot my b-roll while he explained everything that goes into collecting the grease from restaurants, to how he has to convert it in his garage.
It was an easy interview to do because Tyler was very excited to tell me about all the work that goes into it, and I just learned a lot in the few hours I spent there. This was a different story for me to do and I’m happy I get to share this information with others. People are concerned about gas prices rising, and this is another way save money with their cars.
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