In the Documentary unit, we used our skills to cover real-world topics, researching sources and conducting interviews to portray a significant topic through writing and film. This unit was a challenge for me, as I am very narrative-focused, and this would involve discovering stories rather than creating them. However, I was still able to use some of those storytelling elements!
English Research Paper
The documentary started in English, where we were tasked to write a research paper on a relevant topic through conducting interviews finding sources. My original topic was planned to be on the effects of the California droughts on the environment. I had planned to interview staff members at Walden West, an outdoor school that I had volunteered at earlier in the year. However, when they inexplicably stopped replying to my emails, I was forced to pivot topics and find whole new sources two weeks into the process.
I decided to switch to the topic that my new film partner, Lucie and I were working on for our documentary film: the divide between East and West Germany during the Cold War. Lucie had contact with many German-Americans who had lived on both sides at the time, so we were able to get several great interviews.
Caroline Raynaud, Lucie’s mother, grew up in West Berlin and was able to discuss her experiences visiting East Berlin and her feelings on the extensive security. Her parents were also teachers in East Berlin before fleeing to the West, so she was able to pass on some stories from them.
Katharina Lehmann grew up in East Germany, under Soviet rule. She told of how the USSR’s influence affected her, especially through propaganda, and how she felt about being unable to leave. She also described her initial reactions to the West after the Berlin Wall came down.
Stephanie Bastian grew up various places around West Germany, and attended university in West Berlin. She talked much about the Wall and how tight restrictions were on movement and information. She also was able to give some insight on the feelings people had after the Wall came down.
Katrin Haller grew up in East Berlin, and despite being quite young when the Wall came down, she was still able to give us some great information on what childhood was like under Soviet control, especially the school system and food availability.
After conducting all of the interviews, it was time to transcript them an sort through the abundance of information to form a story. I also gathered other secondary sources to expand my library of information. All of this was gathered into the final research paper, which would be adapted further in both Digital Media and Film I as a magazine article and documentary film respectively.
Magazine Article
In Digital Media, we continued to expand upon our research paper by designing and organizing it for publication in a magazine. For mine, I decided to style it to look as though it were painted on concrete reminiscent of the Berlin Wall to fit the topic. I found a bleak, dirty background and blended the images I had chosen onto it to make them seem as though they were actually part of the surface.
Mocumentary
To prepare us for the documentary film, we first made a mocumentary (mock documentary) to hone our skills and learn new ones. We learned to use lavalier microphones, practice effective camera framing, integrate b-roll footage, and edit sound. We worked in groups and took turns conducting scripted interviews to get a feel for the process, while also having fun creating a comical story.
Documentary Film
By far the most challenging, but nonetheless enjoyable project was the documentary film. This project relied not only on our ability to conduct research and organize information, but also our skills in camerawork, audio recording, and editing. Unlike a narrative film, where one writes, then shoots, a documentary is made almost entirely in the edit, essentially being shot, then written. I would say narrative filmmaking is like sculpting with LEGO bricks, where one may add a piece here or a piece there to build their story, and documentary filmmaking is like carving, where one starts with a block and must remove necessary pieces to form the work. The filmmaker organizes the ideas and shapes the material they have into a film, chiseling away to create a sculpture of storytelling.
Building on the research paper, we created maps and spreadsheets to figure out what clips of the interviews to keep, where to put them, and how to group the ideas. Our biggest challenge was actually finding b-roll to put over the interviews and bridge the transitions. As our topic focuses on a time 30-40 years ago, footage that was publicly available and free to use was difficult to come by, and our documentary features quite a lot less b-roll than is typically expected. However, the fact that we were focused on the personal stories of the interviewees worked to our advantage, as we spent more time showing their faces, giving it a more intimate feeling, like they were telling the audience these stories personally, and the b-roll needed not be a huge focus.
This unit was extremely important, and I learned many skills which I could apply to all sorts of aspects of my filmmaking and artistic career in the future. This unit provided the challenges needed to force me to look from new angles and create in ways previously foreign to me. I hope to carry forward everything I have learned in this chapter of my Freestyle journey.