Documentary Research (Viewings)

For my documentary assignment, I chose to work with my friend Sofia and create a documentary about a recycling project called "Recycle Beyond The Bag" that she was initiating through an Environmental Club called Interact. We chose to make the documentary specifically about the initiation of a community-benefiting project and how although the igniting of a big project can be daunting, it is completely possible and very rewarding. 

Before diving into the production of the film, a lot of research had to be done. In class, we watched a few documentaries that inspired us. The Documentaries "American Promise" and "Exit Through the Gift Shop" influenced some of the choices we made later on in the production process, such as the types of interviews and the structure of our piece. They also were helpful because they exemplified documentary conventions and went against them simultaneously, which helped us understand what a documentary was supposed to look like.

   

Besides watching these two films in class, we were also instructed to view the documentary series on Netflix called: "Abstract: The Art of Design." This piece felt less organic than the other two films because the film used a lot of staged and artistic shots to create the show's aesthetic. We used this as inspiration for some of our B-roll as we used a mixture of staged and organic B-roll in our documentary. This series helped us understand how to incorporate a staged B-roll without making the film feel fake or unnatural. These episodes also had a lot of interviews and did a great job of editing different interviews together to fit the purpose of the piece, which was helpful for us in the post-production process.

Once we became familiar with a few documentaries, and decided what we liked from each, we were ready to start researching recycling beyond the bag and plan our film.