Hello Michele, We (5 undergraduate students at Olin College) are very interested in learning about independent and amateur filmmakers! As part of our collaborative design course, we are engaging with filmmakers to both learn about the experience and practice user-oriented design. We are interested in all things related to how you make your films, from casting to production to audio. We would love to ask you questions in person and see what you do firsthand, ideally for about 60 minutes. If in person doesn't work, calling online would still be hugely helpful. Thank you for your time and consideration, Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, Ben Henry Tejada Deras B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Email: htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu> Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST
Hi Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, & Ben, I appreciate your reaching out. And thanks for your interest in my work! I'm imagining this is not something you have a budget for - is that correct? I wouldn't be able to do an in person event without a stipend. However, if you want to do a zoom or call, that could work. Let me know a few days/times you were hoping for and I can see what I can do. Michele — *Michele Meek, Ph.D.* she/her Author | Professor | Filmmaker michelemeek.com On Mon, Feb 9, 2026 at 3:05 PM Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu> wrote:
Hello Michele,
We (5 undergraduate students at Olin College) are very interested in learning about independent and amateur filmmakers! As part of our collaborative design course, we are engaging with filmmakers to both learn about the experience and practice user-oriented design. We are interested in all things related to how you make your films, from casting to production to audio. We would love to ask you questions in person and see what you do firsthand, ideally for about 60 minutes. If in person doesn’t work, calling online would still be hugely helpful.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, Ben
*Henry Tejada Deras*
B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
*Email:* htejada@olin.edu
Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST
Hi Michele, Thank you for the swift response! Yes, we’d be interested in doing a zoom call or an in person interview. If we do an in person interview, we would come to where you are located. Below are some days and times that work for us. Note that these are the time ranges when we can come to you or interview you via Zoom, these are the times for this week, we can give some more times for next week as well. The point of the interview is to understand how filmmakers work and develop the right design proposal for them (which is different from designing a product or service for a particular population). * Wednesday (02-11) 9-11 am * Thursday (02-12) 1-3:40 pm * Tuesday (02-17) 1-5 pm While we are not a research team, we do have an approval statement which is attached to this email. The TL;DR of the approval statement is that we can’t compensate you for your time, we would anonymize your information, we ask that we interview you for about an hour (we can go longer if you would like to!), and that this project’s objective is to learn how to design for people (rather than designing something in isolation of people) and going through that design process. Thank you for your time and consideration, Henry, Tchenzie, Jake, Liam, Ben Henry Tejada Deras B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Email: htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu> Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST From: Michele Meek <mm@michelemeek.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2026 9:29 AM To: Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu> Cc: Amateur Independent Filmmakers CD Group - 2026 SP <filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com> Subject: Re: We'd like to meet you! [FROM AN EXTERNAL SENDER] Hi Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, & Ben, I appreciate your reaching out. And thanks for your interest in my work! I'm imagining this is not something you have a budget for - is that correct? I wouldn't be able to do an in person event without a stipend. However, if you want to do a zoom or call, that could work. Let me know a few days/times you were hoping for and I can see what I can do. Michele — Michele Meek, Ph.D. she/her Author | Professor | Filmmaker michelemeek.com<https://michelemeek.com> On Mon, Feb 9, 2026 at 3:05 PM Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu>> wrote: Hello Michele, We (5 undergraduate students at Olin College) are very interested in learning about independent and amateur filmmakers! As part of our collaborative design course, we are engaging with filmmakers to both learn about the experience and practice user-oriented design. We are interested in all things related to how you make your films, from casting to production to audio. We would love to ask you questions in person and see what you do firsthand, ideally for about 60 minutes. If in person doesn’t work, calling online would still be hugely helpful. Thank you for your time and consideration, Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, Ben Henry Tejada Deras B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Email: htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu> Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST
Henry, Tchenzie, Jake, Liam, Ben, It sounds like this interview is something more formal than I understood. I appreciate your interest, but I'm not entirely clear on how my interview would be used, and I'm not willing to sign anything to do it. I hope you find someone that can work with you! Michele — *Michele Meek, Ph.D.* she/her Author | Professor | Filmmaker michelemeek.com On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 12:31 PM Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu> wrote:
Hi Michele,
Thank you for the swift response! Yes, we’d be interested in doing a zoom call or an in person interview. If we do an in person interview, we would come to where you are located. Below are some days and times that work for us. Note that these are the time ranges when we can come to you or interview you via Zoom, these are the times for this week, we can give some more times for next week as well. The point of the interview is to understand how filmmakers work and develop the right design proposal for them (which is different from designing a product or service for a particular population).
- Wednesday (02-11) 9-11 am - Thursday (02-12) 1-3:40 pm - Tuesday (02-17) 1-5 pm
While we are not a research team, we do have an approval statement which is attached to this email. The TL;DR of the approval statement is that we can’t compensate you for your time, we would anonymize your information, we ask that we interview you for about an hour (we can go longer if you would like to!), and that this project’s objective is to learn how to design for people (rather than designing something in isolation of people) and going through that design process.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Henry, Tchenzie, Jake, Liam, Ben
*Henry Tejada Deras*
B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
*Email:* htejada@olin.edu
Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST
*From:* Michele Meek <mm@michelemeek.com> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 10, 2026 9:29 AM *To:* Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu> *Cc:* Amateur Independent Filmmakers CD Group - 2026 SP < filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com> *Subject:* Re: We'd like to meet you!
[FROM AN EXTERNAL SENDER]
Hi Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, & Ben,
I appreciate your reaching out. And thanks for your interest in my work! I'm imagining this is not something you have a budget for - is that correct? I wouldn't be able to do an in person event without a stipend. However, if you want to do a zoom or call, that could work. Let me know a few days/times you were hoping for and I can see what I can do.
Michele
—
*Michele Meek, Ph.D.*
she/her
Author | Professor | Filmmaker michelemeek.com
On Mon, Feb 9, 2026 at 3:05 PM Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu> wrote:
Hello Michele,
We (5 undergraduate students at Olin College) are very interested in learning about independent and amateur filmmakers! As part of our collaborative design course, we are engaging with filmmakers to both learn about the experience and practice user-oriented design. We are interested in all things related to how you make your films, from casting to production to audio. We would love to ask you questions in person and see what you do firsthand, ideally for about 60 minutes. If in person doesn’t work, calling online would still be hugely helpful.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, Ben
*Henry Tejada Deras*
B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
*Email:* htejada@olin.edu
Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST
Michele, Sorry for the confusion — I think we had a bit of a miscommunication regarding this, which is fully on us. The approval statement only discusses our own promises for any interview we might have, approved by the instructors for our course, and we shared it to be more clear on what we’re hoping to get out of talking to you. You would not need to sign anything for this. If we interview you, we would use that information in our Collaborative Design class, in which we’re interviewing independent filmmakers in order to ideate and come up with an idea for a product or service that would be beneficial to independent filmmakers, given what we’ve learned. Your name would not be attached to our materials (unless you’d specifically ask that we do include your name, which we could do), and we would instead use a pseudonym in all materials presented to the class. If you’re not interested in this, that’s alright, and we’d like to thank you for taking the time to respond and consider us. Regardless, we wanted to make sure we’re on the same page about what we were asking. Best, Henry, Liam, Tchenzie, Ben, and Jake. Henry Tejada Deras B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Email: htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu> Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST From: Michele Meek <mm@michelemeek.com> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2026 2:01 PM To: Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu> Cc: Amateur Independent Filmmakers CD Group - 2026 SP <filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com> Subject: Re: We'd like to meet you! [FROM AN EXTERNAL SENDER] Henry, Tchenzie, Jake, Liam, Ben, It sounds like this interview is something more formal than I understood. I appreciate your interest, but I'm not entirely clear on how my interview would be used, and I'm not willing to sign anything to do it. I hope you find someone that can work with you! Michele — Michele Meek, Ph.D. she/her Author | Professor | Filmmaker michelemeek.com<https://michelemeek.com> On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 12:31 PM Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu>> wrote: Hi Michele, Thank you for the swift response! Yes, we’d be interested in doing a zoom call or an in person interview. If we do an in person interview, we would come to where you are located. Below are some days and times that work for us. Note that these are the time ranges when we can come to you or interview you via Zoom, these are the times for this week, we can give some more times for next week as well. The point of the interview is to understand how filmmakers work and develop the right design proposal for them (which is different from designing a product or service for a particular population). * Wednesday (02-11) 9-11 am * Thursday (02-12) 1-3:40 pm * Tuesday (02-17) 1-5 pm While we are not a research team, we do have an approval statement which is attached to this email. The TL;DR of the approval statement is that we can’t compensate you for your time, we would anonymize your information, we ask that we interview you for about an hour (we can go longer if you would like to!), and that this project’s objective is to learn how to design for people (rather than designing something in isolation of people) and going through that design process. Thank you for your time and consideration, Henry, Tchenzie, Jake, Liam, Ben Henry Tejada Deras B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Email: htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu> Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST From: Michele Meek <mm@michelemeek.com<mailto:mm@michelemeek.com>> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2026 9:29 AM To: Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu>> Cc: Amateur Independent Filmmakers CD Group - 2026 SP <filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com<mailto:filmmakers.olincd@gmail.com>> Subject: Re: We'd like to meet you! [FROM AN EXTERNAL SENDER] Hi Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, & Ben, I appreciate your reaching out. And thanks for your interest in my work! I'm imagining this is not something you have a budget for - is that correct? I wouldn't be able to do an in person event without a stipend. However, if you want to do a zoom or call, that could work. Let me know a few days/times you were hoping for and I can see what I can do. Michele — Michele Meek, Ph.D. she/her Author | Professor | Filmmaker michelemeek.com<https://michelemeek.com> On Mon, Feb 9, 2026 at 3:05 PM Henry Tejada <htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu>> wrote: Hello Michele, We (5 undergraduate students at Olin College) are very interested in learning about independent and amateur filmmakers! As part of our collaborative design course, we are engaging with filmmakers to both learn about the experience and practice user-oriented design. We are interested in all things related to how you make your films, from casting to production to audio. We would love to ask you questions in person and see what you do firsthand, ideally for about 60 minutes. If in person doesn’t work, calling online would still be hugely helpful. Thank you for your time and consideration, Henry, Jake, Tchenzie, Liam, Ben Henry Tejada Deras B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Second-Year Student | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Email: htejada@olin.edu<mailto:htejada@olin.edu> Firma Principal, Versión 1.8 - 19 de Agosto, 2025 a las 14:49 CST
participants (2)
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Henry Tejada -
Michele Meek