Documentary Critical Reflection

Before this assignment, I had little idea of the specifics of a documentary. Although they remain one of my all time favorite medias to consume, I never really thought much about what went in to making one. This was remedied with the lessons we had in my Media Studies class. We began our research together as a class, watching various documentaries during class time as well as for homework. These all varied in terms of content and techniques, yet all were connected by one thing: being created for a certain reason. I knew right away that more than anything, my documentary had to be informative but also serve a greater purpose. When I sought out my group, they felt the same way. In class and also just from consuming documentaries on my own, I knew that voice overs were a focal point in a lot of documentaries. They were used for furthering the main idea of the piece, and my group and I decided immediately that a voiceover was something we were going to utilize that matched the standard conventions of a documentary. Since we used indirect interviews throughout the whole documentary, we wanted a natural and concrete way of expressing and emphasizing certain points that our subjects did not get the chance to fully flesh out. Overall, we generally chose to stick to very normal genre conventions, as we felt like they worked well with what we were going for. 

The main purpose of our documentary was to showcase pursuing a career in art and the surrounding challenges and stigmas that come along with going down that path. My group and I specifically talked about how we wanted to get individuals from all walks of life. Men and women, queer and straight, young and old. We specifically cut out subjects for interviewing that we felt were too similar; we really were aiming for variety and I think we achieved that. Our first interview subject is a Hispanic queer senior in high school whose parents are lawyers, and who has already been accepted into the fashion school of their choice. They fully intend to pursue a career in art, and while their parents do not fully understand, they are ultimately accepting. Our second interview subjects are a mother and daughter who both do photography work together. The mother came here from her country to pursue her dream job and her daughter has grown up with a form of art as a career her entire life. The daughter plans to become a photographer when she grows up as well and inherit her mother's business. Our last subject is an Afro-latino teenage boy whose parents do not support his interest in art and animation, and who forbid him from pursuing even any further education about his interests. We wanted to pick varied subjects as a way to fully address the different stigmas and stereotypes. I found the stark contrast of the subjects to be very fascinating and engaging.

Although the topic of our documentary was obviously interesting to us, we knew that that alone would not be enough to engage the viewer. One of the ways we ensured that the audience would enjoy our piece was by creating a list of various questions for our interview subjects; a mixed bag that ranged from heartfelt, in-depth questions to short and silly light-hearted ones. I never wanted for there to be a moment where the interviewees were talking just to fill up time or saying pieces of information that were obviously staged. I think that my group achieved a very natural and relaxed atmosphere with all of the subjects, one that made it easier for the viewer to connect to and actually care about the very real people being showcased. The fact that all of the interviewees knew at least one member of our group made all the difference. Another way we tried to make our piece more engaging was by using a variety of different shots and angles of b-roll we found interesting. Although the interview questions were interesting (in my opinion) we still had to make our piece visually appealing. For example, when filming our interview with the mother and daughter, we made sure to get a lot of high and low angle shots. Tediously editing in relaxed music and voice overs that furthered along the idea of our documentary was the final piece to the puzzle of making a work that was never boring or felt dull. I am very proud of my group and how hard we all worked to make this something we could be proud of. 

Documentary: Research, Planning, and Production Process!

I was very excited about this project from the very beginning. When it was hinted about (before it was even assigned) I was already thinking about all I could do for the project and how I could figure out how to do a documentary about something having to do with art or creation of some sorts, because most of my hobbies and interests tend to relate to those topics. During class, we watched a lot of different documentaries, and the one I found most inspiring was about costume design. I believe the name was Abstract, a docu-series on Netflix. I absolutely loved just the overall look and feel of that documentary; I think one thing that stood out to me was the animated sequences and the mix of cinematic and realistic b-roll. 

Abstract series cover

When I chose my groups, I think we all did a lot of individual research and then came back together as a group to discuss what we found. It was super fun discussing during class different techniques we had come across and wanted to utilized in our own piece. I remember one of my members being excited about a specific type of shot they wanted to do for specific b-roll. 

Now that the research was concluded, it was time to do the planning. Actually, I began the planning by myself, because originally I planned to work alone. The people I would end up working with were both absent that day, and the group member I was closest to was sick. For that first class period, I brain stormed different ideas and I think I knew right from the beginning that I was going to hone in on various forms of art. I was considering how broad I wanted the topics to be and whether or not there would be a greater purpose besides just showcasing niche art. When my group members came back, I showed them the planning document I had created and they loved my idea. They both suggested coming up with an overarching theme, though, and as we began throwing around possible interview subjects, we realized that all of them came from different backgrounds of art and had contrasting ideas about pursuing a career in art. It became clear to us then what we should focus on. 

Possible questions on the planning document

The rest of the planning went smoothly, as b-roll and interview questions were easy to come up with. The only issue that we came across was the lack of availability of our interview subjects to shoot. Dates kept getting pushed back, and our ability to meet up was also stunted by the hurricane that swept through the state. Later on, one of our subjects even had to change when we shot last minute because they had forgotten about the interview and scheduled something else at the planned time. This caused for our other interview to get pushed back as well. It was very stressful.

The actual production process was the most fun part to me. I feel bad for my group member who was the main editor of the project because premiere is genuinely so atrocious to try and figure out. Thank God for Youtube tutorials. Anyway, I got to conduct one of the interviews myself, and although it was not when or where I planned it to be, I had a lot of fun taking control of a production process and trying my best to work around random issues that popped up and find solutions by myself. For example, my subject was not able to show his animation process as he did not bring the right supplies necessary so I had to mess around with various shots and see what looked the most realistic. The other interviews all went smoothly, though, and working together to come up with different b-roll shots was super fun.

Ex. of impromptu b-roll shot

I am very happy I got to work on this project with people I connect well and have formed a bond with, because this process would have been quite difficult otherwise. I am excited for the next opportunity to do something similar!