Introduction
The documentary unit was a unit where I felt I produced some of my proudest work. The basic idea of the documentary unit is truthfully portraying something in our community creatively through research. We create a unique perspective on why that subject is important in our community. We do this through an extensively researched profile essay in english which we turn into a magazine article in our Digital Media class. We also create an original documentary about a something in our community. A main focus of this unit is narrative-style journalism.
I felt I improved in many ways throughout the documentary unit. I think the skill that I got better at the most was just going out and interviewing people. Reaching out to people I have never spoken to or spoken to very little for an interview, scheduling, setting up questions, setting up recording equipment and actually interviewing people is something I have never done before. It was a super unique experience. I also feel my film skills increased greatly after this experience. I also learned how to use adobe Indesign to create magazines and books.
In my English class I created a profile article about David Koppett. David Koppett is an Emmy winning sports broadcaster that has done work for many Major league sports teams and more notably the executive producer of the San Francisco Giants. For this project I did lots of research about sports broadcasting in general to understand the industry better. I also researched thoroughly the company’s and teams that he had worked for. I conducted an interview with Koppett as well to get as much information as I could. I liked what I was able to create from the information I got from Koppett. It was a super unique experience to be able to interview someone and learn so much about them. I felt I was able to accurately represent him and I am proud of that.
Profile Project
This is my profile article. I interviewed Emmy Award winning sports broadcaster David Koppett. I spent a lot of time on it and I would appreciate it if you read it!
Film
The Mockumentary Film was created as a learning exercise for shooting real documentary’s. They were supposed to be funny and were created to practice the two camera setup. For our topic we chose “Why all of Freestyle hates Ben”. We gave our interviewees no script and just had them improvise. They came up with creative answers which was fun. I think it ended up being pretty funny.
Interviewee Bios
Cody Parks is a Firefighter for Mountain View.
He has been a firefighter for 18 years and has been with Mountain View for 2 years.
Richard Murray is a firefighter for Mountain View.
He has worked with mountain view fire for 7 years.
Melton Wong is a Battalion Chief for the city of Mountain View.
He leads the “A” shift at Mountain View Station 51.
Ryan Vallelunga is a Firefighter for Mountain View.
He has worked for the City of Mountain View for 12 years.
Reflection
The documentary unit was one of my favorite units. I feel like I created some of my proudest works. I think my documentary is the best film I have created so far. We spent 12 hours filming, missing 2 days of schools to spend at the firehouse. We also spent weeks editing, obsessing over small details to create our vision. This was the longest editing process so far. Sifting through 3+ hours of interviews for the best soundbites and hours of B-Roll was extremely time consuming and fun. My film skills increased greatly. I felt I had a better understanding of lighting and framing at the end.
My Profile was also an interesting challenge. I was so lucky to get to interview David. While it was stressful and I felt stuck so many times while creating it I was able to complete it. I feel I got a better hold on the writing process. Writing a profile is such a unique assignment and something that required me to develop so many new skills. I have enjoyed this english class more and more because of the uniqueness of each assignment and this profile is another example of this.
In Digital Media we learned indesign for the majority of this unit. While Indesign isn’t my favorite adobe application it is really useful to know how to use. At this point I believe I am able to make a full book if I really needed too. Learning how to make a magazine was something I have never tried before. Most of the applications we have learned so far I had already had some basic experience in or already knew, but Indesign was completely new. I really valued learning a new application.
Thanks:
Thank you to Fire Station 51 for letting us do our documentary
Thank you to Mr. Taylor, Mr. Greco, Mr. Florendo
Thank you to Ella Clifford for working so much for our documentary