Introduction
For my junior documentary project, I conducted in-depth research on a significant individual, group, location, concept, or issue within my community. My objective was to uncover and present a variety of viewpoints through an extensive collection of both primary and secondary sources, highlighting the subject’s relevance and impact on our local environment. I was able to investigate and conduct interviews with members of my community about a subject that I was passionate about.
English
For the documentary project in english we were tasked to create a profile on someone who had some level of importance in our community. I chose to interview my neighbor Ralph who is 89 years young. He has been around my whole life and I thought that of anyone I know he would be the most interesting to be able to learn more about. Ralph has had a full life and was was born in the bay area, where to this day he still lives. He was born on a ranch, went to school for art and design, enlisted in the military and has a fruitful career in design and landscaping. Ralph was a hippie during the hippy era and has had a deep impact to our neighborhood.
Below there are a few pictures with Ralph, my subject.
Elective Class Production (Film)
In our film class, we began our exploration of documentaries by diving into the art of creating mockumentaries. Our aim was to blend humor with the technical aspects of filmmaking, such as mastering angles, playing with lighting to capture that sparkle in someone’s eyes, and more. With my group we opted to make a documentary film on the freestyle bathrooms.
My favorite part about the documentary unit was watching and learning about all the different styles of documentaries. In class we spent a ton of time learning how to follow the rules of documentaries. Making sure that you could see the light in the eyes of the subject in order to give them life. To make sure they’re looking in the right direction and to make sure they don’t make eye contact with the camera. These are the rules you need to know to really make money simply in the industry. Mr Taylor saved no expense in letting us know that this was the form of film that we could make money in which is why we got the rules hammered into our head. After this unit I can confidently say that I know the important steps into making a documentary. I also loved the part in class where we learned the ethics of documentaries. I find the whole subject interesting because essentially you’re presenting your film as the truth and what you decide to include vs what you don’t can have large effects.
I decided to do my documentary on a lady that I know through familial connections. I reached out and asked if she would be okay with taking part in an interview. We came in with an idea but quickly changed it when we heard the story she was able to tell us. The piece is very moving and makes my heart burn.
To edit and piece together this film I used Premiere pro which I have gained tons of confidence in throughout working on this project. Below you can see a screenshot of the workspace.
The part that I found challenging was syncing the audio to the video and making sure everything lines up at the end. When interviewing we had separate audio recorders in order to get a good audio quality out of the interview. We also had to capture each interview on two separate angles so we could cut between clips and not have it show very obviously. Interviewing the subjects was also hard because even if you come in with a list of questions you never know where the conversation is going to go so you have to come in with a good amount of research.
The part that took me forever to do was the captions. Because half of our interviews were in spanish we had to manually caption everything which took absolutely ages. Im hoping AI gets better so that I don’t have to struggle with that again.
Interviewees
Reflection
The documentary unit helped me so much with my technical skills in film. To have a talking head shot that looks good is hugely important to be able to do. I also learned so much from the people that I had the opportunity to interview. I feel for Rosalia and her family who were unfairly impacted by covid. This project also got me closer to my neighbor that I have had living a few houses down for my whole life. He imparted so much onto me about his life and what it was like to grow up way back when. I cant wait to use these new skills for new projects and to make great things.