Camera and Filmmaking Equipment

My name is Megan Fox and I am a freelance reporter and government watchdog in Chicago investigating public corruption and violations of the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act. I study and observe local government boards and attend public meetings to inform the public about what their elected officials are doing. I cover the stories that the Dinosaur Media doesn't want to touch because small local papers are too chummy with local government and the Chicago TV stations are never very interested in what's happening at local board meetings. 

There is a real need for an independent reporter covering this local government beat and presenting information in a way that people who have never been interested in government before can enjoy and follow regularly. My mission is to pull back the curtain and get to the bottom of the wasteful spending and abuses of power that plague suburban Chicago in particular. 

I have exposed corruption and compelled changes in local government bodies in Orland Park and am currently working on a documentary video series chronicling the public's revolt in Tinley Park against the village government that broke the public's trust. You can watch my documentary on the Tinley Park Low Income Housing Project Scandal here (Documentary). 

I have over 35 episodes filmed so far and will continue covering this story until the people succeed in their goals of creating a new local government that they can trust and be proud of again. 

As you can see, I do not have a very good camera currently and I do not have a microphone that can pick up decent sound in either large rooms or when it is windy. My camera does not zoom well and has a cloudy lens that makes it hard to film. It's the best I could afford at the time but to keep going with my reporting I need to upgrade to better equipment.

As a freelancer, I operate on a shoestring budget (that's more like dental floss). If you enjoy my documentary so far and other projects I have worked on and you would like to help me continue to expand my work and cover more local government watchdog stories, please consider supporting my efforts by helping me fund new camera and filmmaking equipment that will allow me to make better videos for you to watch and enjoy. 

I would like to be able to upgrade to GoPro with enough spare batteries to film long meetings and events and also a professional quality microphone for interviews and excellent sound quality during meetings. The camera I have at the moment is old and shorts out and loses footage a lot. I need a reliable camera, with large quantities of memory capability, lots of extra battery life, a light for filming at night when it's dark, and better editing and movie making software. I'd also like to take my skillset to the next level with a green screen and other tools to be able to produce more video content on a daily basis.

My goal is to produce the kind of local watchdog content that people in Chicago have been craving but the Dinosaur Media refuses to produce and air on the news or write about in the papers. I want to be part of the New Media that fills the niche ignored by the bigger dogs on the block. 

Currently one of the biggest hurdles I have is my equipment failing on me, my software crashing, and losing footage due to glitches and shorts. I've made it this far with equipment held together with chewing gum and old string but already I have been approached by sources in various local government bodies with stories that I would love to cover...if only I had more reliable and better equipment that would allow me to expand my focus and improve my output. It also would be nice to not work on something for three hours and then have the software crash, erase everything, or to film for hours and then come home to find that the camera somehow lost it all. Which has happened more times than I want to remember. I would love to be able to put out more content by removing all these frustrating hurdles. 

Thank you for considering giving me a hand in this much-needed equipment upgrade. If you enjoy the watchdog work I am doing uncovering government corruption and mismanagement and informing communities about what their elected officials are really up to, then I would appreciate your support with this fundraising effort. 

If you have faith in me and my mission, I would be honored to keep heading out into the field and reporting back to you everything that I can find for the Story Time Digital Media channel on YouTube and beyond.