Critical Reflection

 How did your research inform your product and the way it uses or challenges conventions?

Without my research, I would've had a jarring time figuring out how our documentary would turn out and how it would be formatted. I've always liked the idea of attempting to complete a documentary production, but I needed to figure out where to start. The techniques my teacher suggested and the many productions she showed us in class gave me a broad knowledge of various documentary filmmaking approaches, making my idea clearer. Since we were planning to document theatre and why students pursue it despite the negative stigmas surrounding it, we wanted to showcase this in the most cohesive, understandable, and enjoyable fashion so we could adequately communicate our purpose. There was a documentary shown in my class, a student-made production about skateboarding culture; these students chose a few individuals with a rich background in skateboarding and asked them questions regarding the activity and what it meant to them. I gained much inspiration from their work: it showcased skateboarding delicately while sharing experiences of those related to skateboarding, coinciding with B-Roll footage and cohesive flow throughout the documentary. 

In terms of documentary conventions, we utilized many of the standard tropes of documentary filmmaking. Summarizing our production structure: Indirect Interviews with B-Roll footage playing while the subject is speaking. Our research in watching many documentaries, whether at home or in the classroom, aided us in creating a stable yet strong structure. One thing our documentary doesn't have, which most others do, is the voiceover, there were many times when we thought to put it in, but we didn't think it was appropriate for our piece since we had so much B-Roll and Interview footage, it almost felt like a waste including a voiceover. The only primary audio from our production was the interviewees speaking about their experiences with theater; this choice was fundamental to the success of our documentary.

How does your product represent social groups or issues?

Clearly, our piece represents the theater community. All the subjects interviewed are theater artists who have been committed to the work for a long duration (apart from little Emilia); they all have well-developed experiences in the theater environment, which makes them belong to the community; it's fair to say that some of them would be called "theater kids" as they've devoted much of their time to this art form. 

Our product appropriately displays the theater community. Within our documentary, we discuss many aspects of the work: Including why there's a passion for it, the sense of competition, experiences with others, stereotypes, and the pursuit of college theater and professionalism. By incorporating all these sectors of theatre, we present the community behind it as welcoming, competitive, and enthusiastic, as those are the typical traits of those who work in theater. 

People usually see theatre students as annoying, loud, and obnoxious. Most of this is accurate, and I think our subjects can agree with that statement: However, our product demonstrates that there are justifiable reasons for theater students to act these ways due to the demands the art form requires; it's a challenging space to be fully immersed in, especially at Inside Out Theater Company, which is a professional-like theater that demands their artist to be committed to their work. By showcasing the rigorous demands for theater and the rich atmosphere of the art, audiences start to see the theater community more humanely and succinctly. The production shines a profound light on theater and the people behind it as we present it as a very intricate and beautiful art that our audiences typically have more interest in theater upon viewing. 

How does your product engage with the audience?

Our primary audience is the theater community and those interested in the art. The product demonstrates the art of theater in a very fashionable and vibrant way, as our production's B-Roll covers nearly every aspect of putting on a show, from the dressing rooms and rehearsals to the actual show itself. Many in theater can sympathize with our piece as they go through similar processes when performing in such a rigorous art. Furthermore, the interviewees stand as a great representation of theater artists, the varying ages between them, and all their unique relationships and experiences with theater can be shared with almost all who participate in the art.

Overall

This experience has been a considerable learning landmark. I've taught myself much about gathering footage, incorporating B-Roll, and conducting interviews. In addition, I've learned some neat editing techniques, like detaching audio from a file and inserting footage over speech. These filmmaking techniques that I've been introduced to and put in place for this production changed my perception of documentary filmmaking, as I now see it as the same tier as typical filmmaking. Now, I see myself entertaining the idea of documentary production for the portfolio project, something I had never considered before. 

Planning of Documentary

The first time I was introduced to the documentary project, Nethumi and Grace came up during the "Something Rotten" rehearsal and asked if I wanted to be a part of their group. I immediately accepted their offer and started gathering B-Roll footage to use in the documentary on that day. Weeks in advance, we gathered DOZENS of B-Roll footages to fill up the documentary, as we wanted to display all the aspects of theater. We struggled mainly with the main focus of our documentary as we needed to decide whether to surround the negative side of theatre, why students pursue it, or something revolving around the director. We concluded that we made our piece "Why do students continue to pursue theater, despite all the negative stigmas surrounding it." as it brought the best of both worlds. After, we gathered and discussed the potential interviews, as we knew this would be a vital aspect of our production. 

We had to cut down on our subjects as our teacher told us to focus our documentary on specific individuals and not on a broad area of people. We had to give our interviewees a specific amount of time that it would be even amongst them: we decided to make our documentary revolving around the subjects' experiences and how their experiences in theater have been. 

Research of Documentary

 Research for Documentary Production

In preparation for the upcoming Documentary Production, my teacher showed the class various documentaries and taught us techniques such as Indirect Interviews and B-Roll; we watched several successful documentaries. In these viewings, we learned detailed aspects of documentary filmmaking and how to communicate a story or topic in a pleasurable yet artistic way. The first feature-length documentary we viewed was "Exit Through the Gift Shop," which told a remarkable story of a filmmaker who eventually turned into a street artist from following around so many others of that kind. 

"Exit Through the Gift Shop" taught me much about interview usage and how to make it flow within a story, something I was very peculiar about before going into documentary research. With his tight editing and indirect interviews, Banksy made the story flow beautifully, and his choices were spot on. We also viewed a previously student-made documentary about skateboarding culture; as I can't recall the title of the piece, it inspired me much about my product. As both our productions cover an activity many engage in, it gave me much insight into interviewees and what type of questions we should ask them, in which we get the most effective and efficient answers.

Production of Documentary

 After gathering plenty of B-Roll footage and completing the interviews, it was time to put our documentary together. We shared the footage we gathered through Google Drive so each of us could have access to it. However, Nethumi couldn't share her footage of B-Roll or the interviews, so we decided that she would edit most of the documentary as it was also her will to do so. Editing was complicated for the documentary, as I only had to edit about 2 minutes of the complete footage, and it was even hard for me. Picking out the best parts of the interviews and then inserting B-Roll in the middle of their speech was a long process as we wanted to make the doc feel as cohesive as possible. Hence, there are correct transitions and correct interviewee responses.