Research

Hi Blog! As I had mentioned in my previous blog post, I have chosen a genre for my portfolio project. In order to learn more about episodic documentaries, I am going to delve deeper into the characteristics and conventions that go along with this somewhat unfamiliar genre. Therefore, I am going to look at specific episodic documentaries to understand what the genre entails and how I can make my portfolio project fit the look of an episodic documentary. For the episodic documentaries that I chose to research, I tried to pick ones that I had a different topic per episode since that matches what I will be implementing within my portfolio project. 

                                                       The Playbook (2020)

The Playbook is an episodic documentary that captures the philosophy behind life lessons and coaching styles behind a variety of infamous sports coaches such as Doc Rivers (NBA Coach), Jill Ellis (Soccer Coach), Patrick Mouratoglou (Tennis Coach), and Vince Lombardi. With the lessons being displayed throughout this documentary, the show emphasizes how these lessons can be used in the sports, personal aspects, and even professional fields. Each episode stars a different coach as they discuss their morals and beliefs in order to inspire others to attempt to do the same. The series is a collection of interviews, archived footage, and personal accounts, which all fall under conventions that a episodic documentary may include. While researching this Netflix documentary, I found a few shots that I was especially interested in and may want to implement within my own portfolio project. 

Specific Shots from The Playbook (2020)

Street Food: Latin America (2020)

Street Food is a documentary that captures the variety of Latin America street food along with its celebrated culture. Just a few inclusions within this documentary are the flavors within this food, the history behind Latin American countries, and personal stories about people within this industry. Each episode discusses a different county with a different speaker featuring locations such as Buenos Aires, Argentina, Salvador, Brazil, and many more Latin American countries.

These episodes focus on one individual subject, their personal stories, setbacks, and other experiences that they have had within the industry. This documentaries philosophy is that it is not just about the food but the personal stories behind it and they try to make that message clear within each episode. Some features within this episodic documentary that can be potential characteristics within my episodic documentary for my portfolio project is a soundtrack featuring local music within the countries for a more personal effect, emotional aspects, cinematography that captures the essence within the latin country, a behind-the-scenes feel, a sense of community, and other features that make this piece feel more personalized. 

Specific Shots from Street Food: Latin America (2020)

After delving deeper into specific episodic documentaries, I have gained a lot of inspiration for my portfolio project as I now have a greater understanding of what shots, representations, and other aspects that I should include within my project. However, before I can delve deeper into what my episodic documentary will look like, I am going to need even more research behind what I will be producing. Until next time!