IntroductioN
For our Junior Documentary Project in Freestyle Academy, we were asked to portray an intriguing person, group, place, idea, or issue, and practice gathering primary and secondary research sources in order to properly report on the subject’s significance in their community. In English, we were tasked in writing a documentary paper. In Film, we were tasked with producing a documentary film. And finally, in Digital Media, we incorporated some knowledge of InDesign and created our own 6-page Magazine with the article written in English. As a school, we learned and put our skills to the test for multiple documentary-based projects, which was challenging, but very fulfilling once completed.
English Documentary Project
For my English Documentary Paper, I decided to do it on program called Art Changes Us, which specifically targets under-resourced youth. I decided to study the importance of representation for under-resourced students who choose to study art in the future but aren’t brought with many opportunities to pursue their passions.
I have been apart of Art Changes Us before, taking their beginner photography course over the summer, and really enjoyed my time and wanted to spread awareness and potentially help out by spreading the word of their program.
Additionally, Art Changes Us is located in downtown mountain view and is specifically available for LAHS and MVHS AVID students. As I interviewed Carol and attended some of their classes, I learned a lot about the importance of having representation in programs.
Here you can take a look into my magazine paper on Art Changes Us! As said before, this process was super challenging but so so fulfilling. I ended up loving InDesign, which I didn’t expect to happen. I’ve always loved creating videos, but now I’m also intrigued in creating graphic designs as well, which is why Freestyle is so fun and so important to me.
Who I interviewed!
Carol Damonte
Role: Art Changes Us Founder
Carol is someone I’ve known for a while, and since the beginning she’s been such a sweet person to talk to. After taking a beginners photography course in the summer before my junior year, I sparked an interest for photography & enhanced my love for film! While interviewing and building this process she’s been such a great help! Since the beginning she was ecstatic for the project and has loved the end product. I also found out she was retiring soon, so for this project to come up at that time was perfect, and I saw it as a way to show appreciation for her support in under-resourced youth for Art.
Digital Media Magazine
For Digital Media, our task was to use the documentary paper we created and design a magazine article using the Adobe Software, InDesign. After spending a week or so doing a mock magazine as a class, learning the new program and it’s benefit, we quickly began creating our own. Overall, as I mentioned before, I really enjoyed using InDesign! I was quite shocked by it actually, as I normally don’t gravitate towards any form of digital designing.
Process in Adobe InDesign
Here are some pictures showing the file of creating my magazine article. Once you get the hang of InDesign, it isn’t as difficult. And honestly, having prior experience to other Adobe Softwares really helps in comprehending certain tools. While working I definitely had a lot of different groups for the GDE’s and had to constantly move layers to properly have them placed on my article. In the end, it turned out really cute in my opinion! The PDF is shown just below!
FILM
Mockumentary
For our mockumentary, we were tasked with creating a fake documentary on a topic based around Freestyle. Recently, we’ve been given a phone policy so we decided for it to be based on that! It involves being addicted to your phone and I got to play the role of being the ‘phone dealer’. It was a lot fun and definitely a great exercise for our real documentaries.
Documentary Film
Process
While creating this documentary, Jordan and I faced several obstacles. The first was we couldn’t figure out what our subject should be! We spent a week researching potential small businesses, asking questions, and worrying we were behind. Ultimately, we concluded we’d been thinking to hard into it and decided to do House of Bagels. Looking back, I’m glad we went with this route, as while we interviewed the employees and filmed B-Roll, we got pretty close with them & came face to face with a beautiful community of hard workers. I’m so proud of our outcome and loved every step of creating our film!
here are some of the interview questions we came up with!
Who we interviewed
Lin Vann
Role: House of Bagels Manager (MV Location)
While interviewing Lin, we recieved a welcoming and warm working environment. She was super excited for our project and was more than happy to let us film in the back to get a lot of the bagel making action.
Maria Lopez
Role: House of Bagels Employee
While interviewing Maria we were immediately comfortable. She was such a funny person and made the whole process totally memorable. I loved seeing her work with her coworkers because she always seemed to be laughing and joking around, as well as doing her job amazingly.
Cindy Ngo
Role: House of Bagels Employee
Cindy’s interview was so chill and easy. She had a super nice energy, despite being initially nervous. She had such a great worth ethic and got along with her coworkers, which was so heartwarming to see!
Final Documentary
THANK YOU
I firstly would like to thank Carol Damonte for being an awesome subject to write for. I’m so sad to see her go from the ACU Program but still hold such high gratitude for her passion in creating such a beautiful way to support under-resourced youth interested in Art. As a participant, her program is so fulfilling andI strongly believe more people should know about it.
Next, I would like to thank Mr. Greco for his continuous support in my documentary paper. Initially, I was so worried I wasn’t making sense with my paper and so publication because I didn’t think it was my best work, but together, we worked it out. I love writing, and reading, so a big project like this was right up my alley & his support in my project was greatly appreciated.