The First Step: Research

When we first began studying the topic and concept of documentaries, I was immediately engaged. I think what got me so hooked was American Promise created by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (One of the primary subject's parents.) This documentary was raw and extremely relatable towards my current life situation since I feel an extreme sense of pressure on me to succeed, similar to the two subject's situation demonstrated throughout the documentary. I admired that the B-Roll was very closely related to the event that was occurring in the scene. The well-matched B-Roll had me pondering about a variety of shots that we could brainstorm about during our own creation within our documentary. 

Besides viewing this film, we also watched two other documentaries (Exit Through The Gift Shop and Abstract: The Art Of Design) in order to get a better look into the production aspects and inspiration for our own projects. Exit Through The Gift Shop shows a representation of street artists and their works of graffiti. This documentary taught me a lot about the use of direct and in-direct interviews within a piece. The film's interviews were mainly surrounding the street artist and director Banksy (which is uncommon within documentaries) as well as his role throughout his friend and colleague's rise to fame within the street art industry. Banksy's interviews gave me a better understanding between the differences between in-direct and direct interviews as well as what type of interviews we would want to include within our documentary. 

The final documentary we viewed in class was Abstract: The Art Of Design. This was a series and the episode discussed a costume designer who has worked on a variety of movies within the film industry as she discusses her experiences within this field. This piece enlightened me on what staged B-Roll looks like and practices to potentially think about when trying to create B-Roll within our own documentaries. With a piece like this, it can be difficult to find/create footage to incorporate. However, the production team did a fantastic and admirable job creating B-Roll that matched with being discussed while not mainly relying on old/past photos and images.

Watching these documentaries got me very excited to start our own projects. I made sure to take note on what I would like to see within my own work.

- B-Roll that matches what is being discussed within 

- Concise/Clear shots of subjects when an interview is occurring

- Proper music choices to match what is occurring within a given scene

- Knowing when to use direct or in-direct interviews

The knowledge that we gained by watching these documentaries played a huge role into understanding more about the genre of documentaries as well as having a better idea of what we wanted to see within our own documentaries. Without viewing what a documentary looks like, I think I would have had a more difficult time on the process of the project.

So excited to share more about this project within future blog posts :)