Introduction
For the Junior Documentary Project, we were challenged to portray an intriguing person, group, place, idea, or issue through the use of primary and secondary research sources to develop a distinct perspective about our subject’s significance in the community. In English, we created a research-based profile paper that serves as the copy for the magazine article in Design and along with a film, commercial, and website.
The intriguing person I decided to highlight is an up and coming musician and one of my good friends, Dominic ‘Crosby’ Christiansen. I found Dom to be a really good profile subject because his story musically isn’t like most others. In comparison to to the past, traditionally, a kid like Dom in the suburbs of the Bay Area would never have had a shot at releasing his own music. He would have needed an agent and a record label to sign him. But today, with all of the latest technology, Dom was able to teach himself the audio editing software called LogicPro by watching YouTube videos from the ground up. He’s never took proper lessons with an instructor for any of the instruments he’s played either, he’s entirely self-taught which is really inspiring and intriguing. Even despite this, after posting his music on SoundCloud and then on Spotify, the music streaming platforms, he has amassed over 60,000 plays in around 18 months. But, worst of all, entering his senior year of high school, he has to make a life-impacting decision in the next year, as deadlines for college applications loom. Millions of teenagers have a passion like Dom, whether that is being a musician, an athlete, or a doctor, and they are all facing this same decision: to either go for it, or give it up as a fantasy. Dom’s story is striking because he brings such emotional intelligence to this decision, and that same emotional intelligence shows up in his music.
What I valued In this project: Not only did I want to use it as a way to promote Dom and his music, but also to show everybody else out there that faces a similar decision or is struggling go for it or not, that you should. One of the hardest things to do is actually committing to something and seeing it through. And I believe that Dom is the perfect example of that because he didn’t have lessons, he had to teach everything to himself, yet he still found the passion and inspiration to keep on creating, and that’s super important. And when you look at him now, he is on the verge of a successful music career because he kept on going, he didn’t quit.
Research Paper
In English class, I had to take Dom, my profile subject, and combine it with other external research sources to create a profile article that backs up a unique angle statement: The emotional and artistic challenges of navigating a career in music. Through the use of Dom’s interview and the personal anecdotes he provided, along with information provided from credible sources, I was able to tel his story of navigating through music and ultimately proved the reader with a sense of hope in their passion, and commit them to keep trying and just go do it.
Film Class
For film class, we were challenged to create short documentary film about our subject. In preparation for this assignment we watched 10+ documentaries, taking notes on them, and pulling out the different techniques that were used in each respective film. Along the way we also created a “Mockumentary” which is essentially a fake documentary film for fun, but also was used for us students to practice some of the newly learned documentary techniques.
After then watching, learning, and practicing our skills, we created an actual documentary film about our profile subject, in my case, about Dominic ‘Crosby’ Christiansen, and his journey throughout his musical career so far and the challenges he’s faced. I really enjoyed all aspects of this production and I spent a lot of time not only shooting, but editing and putting everything together in post-production using Adobe Premiere Pro. I hope you like it!