The Documentary Project asked this: “How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?” For this project, we were allowed to pick any person, group of people, place or ideas and issues to research and create an article on. This would be done through extensive research and multiple interviews, through a journalistic narrative.
For me, this was Online Communities. As an avid user of the internet space, I wanted to delve deeper into how online communities affect us and help us connect with our hobbies and interests. I did this by researching varies articles and the differences between in person and online interactions, and interviewing two of my friends that are in two different online spaces- gaming and art- to get their various opinions and experiences on the subject. And after a grueling three months of work, filled with very high highs and very low lows, I had a completed product to share.
Interviewees
Volha Smolksaya
Volha Smolskaya is a Junior at Mountain View High School. In her freetime, she likes to play various video games, such as simulators, open worlds and online co-op. One of her favorite games of all time though is Valorant and Phasmophobia, which she talks about her experience in her interview. Outside of video games, she is passionate about animals and want to learn how to draw one day.
You can view our Interview Transcript here.
Pengo
Pengo is a senior in highschool and is the leader of the poultry raising team and tutor for his school’s sustainable agriculture and animal science class. Additionally, he is the Vice President of LGBTQ+ Visibility Club, Color Guard flag and rifle spinner, and he volunteers for his area’s Humane Society. In Abi’s words, he’s a “busy bee”. When he’s not preoccupied with color guard competitions or feeding shelter dogs, he likes creating art of all kinds, play video games, cooking, collecting LPS and unique curios (fossils, crystals, antiques, post cards, etc.), and he is an aquatic animal enthusiast by heart. During college, he aspires to get a Bachelors degree in Microbiology or Ecology and become a environmental ecologist. Whenever he escape to online spaces, he enjoys sticking to his niche of being a furry and fandom art hobbyist over the internet. Pengo loves interacting with the art community but only occasionally posts his art online. He aim to sell his art and take comissions consistently in the future.
You can view our Interview Transcript here
English And Digital Media Production
My research paper is sectioned off into three parts: Online VS in person friends, how online spaces have affected my interviewees, and the future of online spaces. The article delves deep into how online communities have helped my interviewees connect with their hobbies and interests more, but also how these spaces have been dangerous and even predatory at times. In the end, it is important to recognize both sides of online communities- the good and the bad- but something I hope people can take away from my article is that these spaces need to be protected and preserved from bad actors trying to take away safe spaces from people that want to just be themselves and do what they love!
For my actual Magazine Article production, I wanted to have a sort of “theme” to it, or “mascot” kind of guy. At first, I was thinking about just drawing some graphics of different social media apps, but found that a bit too boring. After making my color palette though, I decided on making these chibi human-like characters, that would serve as kind of representatives for people that use the internet! Along with those guys, I also put smaller, darker, even more simpler characters around my magazine article too, which are supposed to represent online users and people. For the photos, I used Pengo’s art, with his permission, to kind of “decorate” my article and also represent each of the sections! I also used some photos of my photo session with Volha and used it for the last page and front page. In the end, I think my article turned out to look very well and aesthetically pleasing!
Some behind the scenes!
Animation Production
For the elective part of this documentary, Animation students needed to make a minute thirty (ish) animation, with an audio from our interviewee. I immediately knew I wanted to animate a story one of my interviewees told me, and maybe two if I had time. In the end, I choice to do Volha’s, as I had been thinking of an animation for her since February. I wanted the setting to be set in Phasmophobia (a video game about hunting ghosts), as that is where she met a lot of her online friends- good and bad. I animated on Toonsquid for this one on 8FPS, for a total of 1100~ frames.
My inspirations for backgrounds, all images from the game “Phasmophobia”!
I never made a proper storyboard/animatic- due to me wanting to start animating immediately- but here are some pictures of sketches!
Some Behind The Scenes photos!
The process of this animation was a bit brutal on me. It felt so jarring to go from making a minute and a half animation with two other people, to making a minute and a half animation all by yourself. At this point in time, I also wasn’t very inspired to draw for the documentary, AND I was going through a weird artstyle change, so I found it difficult to get myself to animate in class. However, I learned to persevere, and the more I got closer to finishing the product, the more inspired I was (un-surprisingly)! So by the end, I had been enjoying what I was making, for the most part. Enjoy the final product!
Reflection
This project was very tough on me at the beginning- I was stressed and became very unpassionate about the documentary quickly. There felt to be endless and piles and piles of work on me and I felt I couldn’t keep up with all of it. By the time I had finished writing my article and started working on my my design, something hit me: I didn’t HAVE to dread this. I could choose to have fun with it. So I put on some music and got to work, and finished the design in about a day over one weekend.
This whole project not only taught me journalistic intergrity, how to interview people and write an article, but it taught me the value of mindset. No, seriously! When I found myself trying to be optomistic about an assignment or a class period, instead of dreading it and hating it, I found myself enjoying the assignment and getting more work done more quickly. And that’s kind of what Freestyle is all about, every assignment and even the grading system is designed to give YOU the freedom as an artist to have fun and enjoy making things. Even though it took me my entire Junior year to figure this out, I know I will carry this mindset with me not only through senior year, but through my whole life in general. Overall, even though I may have not enjoyed the entire process of this documentary, the fun moments of formatting my article and drawing little graphics for it is a feeling I’ll never forget.
Thank Yous!!
I just want to give a quick thank you to Mr. Greco, who was not only patient with me on this project but many of my classmates as well. Without your kindness and understanding, I don’t think any of us could have finished the project how we did. I also want to thank Pengo, my interviewee, for being kind of a last-minute interviewee, and even so, gave me such a good testimony that it revived my entire passion for this project. And lastly, a bit clitche, but a big thanks to Freestyle entirely that gave me the resouces to be able to make such cool projects this year- can’t wait to see what I make as a senior!
