Welcome to Sawbuck Productions, Inc. Since the summer of 2005 we have been creating and disseminating multi-media materials on illicit drug use (e.g., heroin and crack cocaine) and drug sales, homelessness, street crime, and harm reduction (e.g., syringe exchange).
The term "sawbuck" has a long history. Historically it has referred to a sawhorse, where each end is comprised of boards that cross and make an "X". It's also a slang term for a U.S. ten dollar bill. This derives from the Roman Numeral X on the bill itself. On the streets, however, a "sawbuck" is a $10 bag of heroin or cocaine. Hence, the name "sawbuck" seemed perfect -- our film and radio projects tend to be gritty, rough-hewn, hand-forged, and tend to focus on drug life. Most important and relevant, perhaps, is the fact that our production budgets lie perilously close to ten bucks.
Sawbuck is comprised of many people who have dedicated their lives to the world of non-profit critical media production. Let's meet the Sawbuck cult, all of whom labor indefatigably on all Sawbuck projects, and they produce and direct their own stuff, too. On this site you'll see samples of their independent work. It has been my pleasure to serve as their advisor and executive producer.
Happy Jazz ... Greg eating crawfish in New Orleans
Greg Scott, Ph.D. Greg is Sawbuck's executive director. By training Greg is a sociologist, holding the position of associate professor at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. There he teaches
courses on ethnographic documentary film production, photographic/visual sociology, drug use and abuse, and public health and high risk behavior. He also serves as the Director of DePaul's Social Science Research Center. At Sawbuck Greg is the producer,
director, and chief editor of documentary film and radio projects.
At the end of the day, though, Greg's employment at DePaul University ends and his life as a street urchin with a camera begins. Which is to say that his DePaul job and his Sawbuck gig have NOTHING to do with each other.
This is a picture of a very happy Greg enjoying a crawfish dinner shortly after watching Neil Young's performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival of 2009. While traveling to New Orleans for JazzFest, Greg learned that the Scripps Howard Foundation had named him one of three finalists for the category "Best Radio Journalism" in 2008. A few weeks later Greg received the Peter Lisagor award for best investigative/public service reporting. Greg's audio documentary series called "The Brickyard" (Chicago Public Radio) garnered both of these distinctions.
A pensive Erin at JazzFest in New Orleans
Erin Scott, M.A. In December 2007 Erin married Greg. This should not be
viewed as a measure or indicator of her mental fitness. She is the
brains and the braun behind Sawbuck. As director of operations, Erin
does pretty much all of the important stuff that keeps Sawbuck running.
She's the production assistant, assistant film editor, script editor,
accountant, and human resources manager. Her favorite role, she tells
me, is that of "boom bitch." She's an adept audio technician. To the
extent that Sawbuck pieces sound good, thanks go to Erin. Her training
as a sociologist also makes our products more compelling from an
analytical perspective.
This is a picture of Erin, taken in New Orleans, on a hot and muggy day at JazzFest 2009. I took this photo without her noticing. It's one of my favorite photos of Erin. I find people to be especially beautiful when they're lost in thought.
Now let's hear from other key Sawbuckians, who have written their own biographical sketches ...
Thom ... just Thom
Thom Fredericks, Esq.
I enjoy the subtle excitement as explored in the mundane and the
visceral impact of the experimental, believing always in the
avant-garde of visual statements and juxtapositions of images. I have
worked in the audio/video/film world in several capacities from editor,
musician, and audio-engineer to director, actor, and camera operator.
Finally, after all of the many attempts to create film/video, over as
many years, I have had the fortune of meeting and becoming part of this
collective called Sawbuck Productions where tending to someone’s
personal story is paramount and each project is always a challenging
exercise in storytelling, veracity, and re-presenting a reality. As
part of this Sawbuck collective I fill-in the blanks where needed. I am
currently completing a Masters degree in Sociology focused on the
intermingling of religion, culture, art, new media, and visual
sociology. I am an adamant supporter of the amateur artist. My eventual
goal is to bridge the gap between the documentary and experimental
voices in my head.
Joe Shriner, fondling a lighter
Joe Shriner. After a decade of working on amateur documentary and fiction video projects, I had the good fortune of going through the baptême du feu that was completing Greg’s demanding yet tremendously edifying documentary film classes. During this time I was introduced to Sawbuck Productions and shown how a successful film can motivate, infuriate, and inspire. As a sociologist, film-enthusiast, and flâneur, I find that being a member of the Sawbuck team perfectly fits both my academic and artistic goals. Currently, I continue to work as a director, writer, and videographer on my own small projects, while assisting in many ways (A.D., actor, boom operator, collaborator, &c.) my cohorts’ video/audio documentary and fiction projects throughout Chicago. I am thrilled to be working with Sawbuck, as I am a firm believer in documentary as a way to generate awareness of social inequality and to create a lively debate.
Allison Taich. During this past year I have gained a clearer perspective on who I am and what I want to do with my life. I owe much of that clarity to the folks I have worked with through Sawbuck. For the past couple of years I have been working towards a degree in journalism, with minors in photography, sociology, documentary studies and studio art, at DePaul University. My involvement in Greg's film production class and my subsequent induction into the Sawbuck film crew caused me to realize how my disciplines relate with one another. Projects on "the field" have confirmed and encouraged interests I have gained from each study: a love for interacting with people, hearing stories, asking questions, observing, relaying people's tales and photographing real life situations. Sawbuck has allowed me to combine all interests through the outlet of documentary. Whether experiences have led me to assist filming from the sidelines, interviewing people, photographing scenes, editing, or getting to know an amazing crew, all have been fantastic.
Jessica's sniper hole
Jessica Mosley. Having only admired documentary films from afar before taking Greg’s film class, I had no idea if I was capable of unearthing stories to create a film. Through trial and error, long hours and sleepless nights; I actually produced a film. Being involved in telling stories of people who have been pushed into the periphery of society allowed me, not only to challenge myself, but to believe in the challenge it poses to others. Social justice issues portrayed in a visual and/or audio format are not easily ignored. I am proud to have been involved with a group of incredible, thoughtful humans who believe in confronting and debating issues that are often swept under the rug. I hope to continue to fuse sociology and filmmaking and am currently interning at a film production company in Pittsburgh, PA. In June, I plan to travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where I will try my best to teach film and photography.
Mark likes bowling
Mark Neigh. While working on my MA in New Media Studies at DePaul University, I fell in with a bad group of renegade, film-making, sociologists and their dog. Several late nights and an International Documentary Challenge film later I have a prized "Sawbuck Productions" T-shirt and a deeper appreciation for how much I don't know about film, ethnography, drug culture and who might shoot me if I point a camera at them. I also enjoy bowling.
Garrett Hayden
Garrett L. Hayden – After living a self-imposed, very difficult, and hurtful life for several years, I unexpectedly found my calling helping others who were in the same or similar situations that I had been in. I found that my own street experience gave me a unique outlook and approach to substance abuse and treatment. After a few years working to better my life I decided I wanted to dedicate myself to working in the substance abuse field and enrolled in the Certified Alcohol and Drug Counseling (CADC) Program at Harold Washington College. I began working with the Chicago Recovery Alliance and became a contributing writer for Methadone Today, all of which I continue to do. I am also working on several outreach-style projects, one of which, The Chicago Area Network of Drug Users (CANDU), seeks to provide IV drug users with a safe facility where they will be under the supervision of medical professionals. I am also working on a program that would dispense Naloxone (Narcan), a drug that reverses the effects of heroin and other opiates, to all opiate users in the city of Chicago. As a new member of Sawbuck Production Co., I hope to be able to help change the public’s perception on drug abuse and make more people aware of this ever-growing problem which desperately needs more attention.
Sawbuck Interns
Internship Positions Open!!!
Currently we are seeking 1-2 highly motivated, responsible, punctual, self-determining people willing to work odd hours on Greg's public radio documentary projects. If you're the kind of person who misses appointments and deadlines and then makes excuses, don't bother contacting us. If you're the kind of person who gets bored easily or needs to be told constantly what you should be doing (in specific or in life generally), then don't contact us. If you feel entitled to anything on this earth, save yourself some time--don't call.
But if you want to be part of a very exciting series of projects, and if you want to hear and see things new to you, and if you want to gain some experience writing scripts, logging and coding tape, organizing sound data, and generally producing the kind of stories we make, then write me at greg@sawbuckproductions.org. We don't pay a cent to interns or anyone else, but we might be able to arrange other kinds of compensation (class credit, internship credit, etc.). Please note that as part of the internship you will do some "grunt work" such as transcribing audiotaped interviews and field events. But everyone at Sawbuck does grunt work .... Because we don't want you to think you're special, we'll make you do it, too.
At any one time, Sawbuck tries to "employ" two or three highly qualified, talented, and exceptionally motivated people (mostly but not always students) who work as Interns. Our interns get involved Sawbuck's core activities. They serve in many different capacities: Production assistant, transcriptionist, assistant editor (sound and film), music composition, socio-legal research, project management, administration, etc. None of our interns spends the day faxing, filing, or doing other kinds of "grunt work." Without interns, Sawbuck's work would not get done. We thank them for their dedication to the documentation of social inequity in whatever form it takes and for their attempts to inspire change through images, sound, and print. At the moment, we have no interns on board. So if you're interested in working with us, or if you know someone who might be, then you know what to do.
At Sawbuck we commit ourselves to revealing social inequality and instigating social change through the creation and dissemination of film and audio documentaries. That's our life. It's all-consuming.
