{"id":368,"date":"2020-05-06T05:39:21","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T05:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~SaumeyaS\/?page_id=368"},"modified":"2020-05-19T21:42:31","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T21:42:31","slug":"documentary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~SaumeyaS\/documentary\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DOCUMENTARY<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

“How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

~Introduction and Reflection~<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Starting with the process of examining other documentaries, learning how to organize documentary papers, and then coming up with a topic to explore, I practiced examining a subject from all sides to demonstrate knowledge on that subject through the stories of others, and through effective photos and digital art put together in magazine format. We were asked to portray an interesting person, group, place, idea, or issue, accumulating primary and secondary research sources that we would then use to gain a new perspective and unique view on our subject\u2019s importance in the world. For me this research-based paper from English served as the base for the magazine article I created using the paper in Design. This unit emphasizes narrative-style journalism and through the use of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign I was able to combine that narrative aspect with visual art to create more impact with my words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My specific documentary project was on the present issue of colorism, a societal present in many countries across the world. It is an issue near and dear to my heart as it is something that I have personally struggled with my entire life. As a child I was never aware that my darkness was a negative mainly because I was raised in a household where both my parents were dark, and my parents friends were all mostly dark therefore most of my friends were darker. It was never brought to my attention as something I should be self-conscious of, until a boy in my eighth grade class said to his friends that he didn’t want to go to the dance with me because I was too dark. He was of South Asian decent just as I am, so the comment confused me and left me in with much less self-confidence and a new insecurity that has stayed with me to this day. Being darker is never positive, it always has implications and in certain countries those implications are on larger scales. My focus in my documentary was to examine the implications in the countries of India and Sri Lanka. I know many people from India and have heard many stories about how colorism has formed rots there and continues to exist as huge problem. I myself am from Sri Lanka and wanted to discover through comparing interviews of someone from India versus Sri Lankan how colorism differed in these two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finishing this project, I feel grateful that I was able to give voice to an issue that is so important to me and to many brown girls across the globe. I am proud of the final product and I hope the issue of colorism is given more exposure in the future so more progress can be made in countries like India that need it desperately. I valued the process of creating a magazine article and incorporating art to strengthen my message that being all shades of brown is beautiful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video below gives a short introduction to my project:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SaumeyaS – Documentary Introduction Video <\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

~English Documentary Work~<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For my research paper, I started by doing interviews with Janya Sundar an Indian-American student at Mountain View High School and an interview with Shanthini Suseenthiran a Sri-Lankan immigrant software engineer. I used their interviews to organize my paper into three parts the problems in India and Sri Lanka associated with how the media portrays people of darker skin as well as how they often aren’t portrayed at all, along with the market for skin-lightening products and how these products are extremely degrading and immoral. I used their testimonies and thoughts on the subject to bolster my argument and convey my message. I did the same with the idea of loving oneself and used their interviews and stories to see how the way the grew up and the people they grew up around affected the way they thought of themselves in terms of their skin color. The last part is devoted to discussing solutions and ways to improve the way darker children are raised as well as media and dismantling harmful product lines that feed into the colorist message. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PDF below is a copy of my Documentary paper before being put into magazine formatting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SaumeyaS- Documentary Paper<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Interviewee Bios<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janya Sundar:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Janya Sundar is a 16 year old Indian American living in Mountain View. She goes to Mountain View High and enjoys spending time with her friends. She loves writing and has a large role in her school’s newspaper. Janya is the epitome of a leader and is very passionate about world issues and the isse of colorism is one of them. She had a lot to say on the matter and her perspective was extremely important in developing this piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanthini Suseenthiran:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shanthini Suseenthiran is a mother and software engineer. She was born and raised in Jaffna, Sri Lanka and moved to Toronto Canada at the age of 17 because of the Sri Lankan civil war. She is one of the strongest women I know and has worked extremely hard to get to where she is today. Her stance on colorism while very different from Janya because she is older and lived in a different place during a different time, was also extremely crucial in the development of my piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

~Digital Media & Design Documentary Work~<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Design and Digital Media we were assigned to create a magazine article using a color scheme, graphic design elements and photos. We then put it al together in Adobe InDesign to create a visually appealing as well as informative magazine article. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brainstorming Process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After coming up with a topic, in Design, we were assigned to create mood boards. These mood boards would have inspiration through patterns and photographs we found online, different color scheme ideas we found through Pantone color books, and different font ideas, we would then narrow down to use in our magazine. We were required to find two fonts one for titles and another for pull quotes and one three toned color scheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My potential color scheme ideas before I chose scheme #2. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mood\/inspiration photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Graphic Design Elements <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were also required to make our own graphic design elements for our magazine articles through Illustrator incorporating our color schemes. For mine I chose to do a simple one to repeat over various pages to exemplify unity and repetition two of the Design elements, and two artistic ones that give visual representation for my message. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Behind the scenes for my first GDE. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Behind the scenes for my second GDE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Behind the scenes for my third GDE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then I placed them in InDesign to visually enhance my essay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My first GDE placed in InDesign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My second GDE placed in InDesign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My third GDE placed in InDesign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n