Documentary Project research

To give a small intro to what this blog is about an assignment was given to us asking us to make a documentary and although hearing this stressed me out because I tend to overthink I also knew it was gonna be a fun project which I was exited about.

The first step of the project was to research. The first research we did in class was viewing various productions selected by our teacher which sparked something in my head some of these productions we watched were incredibly artistic well done and overall showcased so much commitment. 

The first long piece we viewed was a piece from 2013 called "American Promise" Directed and produced by a married couple called Joe Brewster, and Michele Stephenson. The piece was an overall interesting watch since it took various years and hours and hours of footage to fully produce. The film takes a peek into the life of two kids which play the role of the main subjects of the documentary by following their life through their academic process being some of the only African American students at the school they attend. The piece was truly amazing and overall inspiring since the commitment the producers had since they were the parents of one of the subjects was exceptional since it took them various years to make the complete production. Overall this first piece shown helped me understand how much commitment should be put into documentaries and how they can even take large amount of time to fully produce.

The next piece we watched was an overall very artistic piece which opened up my mind to the creative aspect of creating a documentary. "exit through the gift shop" (Published by 2010 Produced by Banksy) Was an overall amazing piece the general idea it had and the process approached was very inspiring and interesting. Not only was the piece entertaining but I though it was genius the way it was intended to be marketed was extremely interesting not only did they use the name of a famous individual which has kept an anonymous identity living by a surname but it also brought a whole new community light by introducing the world to street artists. The piece had a humorous feel and overall was extremely engaging. The one thing that stuck out to me from this piece was the various styles used to produce it. It was very engaging and overall one of a kind the creative aspect of it made it such an incredible piece and it became my favorite out of all of them. This piece made me want to make my piece about something artistic and overall make my piece creative and interesting all while approaching a non natural documentary method. 

The last research I did was view op docs from New York Times during class. I selected two podcast the first one was called "not for money, not for love, not for nothing-By John Robert Lee" (Link for it). This piece was overall very impactfull and interesting I found it to be really touching since the overall topic was truly sad and made me worry for the individuals involved. As to what it was about the documentary focused on the story of multiple sex workers. The illustrations used in the piece and audio used made it even more impactuful and overall displayed the story well. This piece made me understand how emotional documentaries can be no matter their lenght and overall showed how information about difficult situations can be shared. 

Here is the trailer for the piece if interested. 

The second piece I viewed is called "A new wave" Made by Sandra Winther (Link for it). This piece focuses on Micheal February the first black surfer to compete in the World Surft League championship. Very different from the last I decided to view this documentary to watch not only something I take interesting but also to look at a more common approach to documentaries. The piece focused on the story of Micheal February and tracked his progress on becoming such a inspirational well known surfer. Ocverall the piece was very entertaining and it was fun to watch. I liked the shots used and the different techiniques all through out the piece for example the choice of using black and white shots instead of color. This piece helped me focus on how more common documentaries are made and their overall look I enjoyed it a lot!. 

Overall these pieces helped me learn about the different approached that documentaries can have and how creative and artistic they can be. They also proved me wrong on my old thinking that documentaries are boring and so thats good!. But overall these pieces were of influence to the creation of my documentary and helped me understand the approach I wanted to take on my own personal documentary.