Prepping for the Interview

 As we enter the 3rd week of working on our portfolio projects, it is soon time to start filming. I currently have organized an interview with my subject for next week on Monday (date tentative depending what we are doing in class that day). With the date coming close, I wanted to share some of the prep I’ve been developing in order to be prepared for it.

Last time I filmed an interview for the documentary I created a little bit ago, I had two camera angles set up for filming. Personally, even though it’s a little more to edit, I loved how it looked visually as it gave the doc a more professional look. It also allowed for the visuals he to be more engaging to viewers whenever they were viewing the actual interview clips, as they weren’t just staring at the same clip over and over again. The second angle provided some variety. 

Another aspect that I’ve been thinking about is the actual location of the interview. My subject, Riley, is a very busy person outside of school as she is involved in so many things (the main reason I wanted her to be my subject in this doc). However, this means that I only really have one chance to film said interview, as it was already a little hard to find a day for this in the first place. I also don’t want to have to refilm again in the sense of continuity and also convenience for her. I am also apart of the TV program at our school, meaning I have access to the studio where they film the morning announcements. In that room there is a CBTV sports background/board that I think would be perfect to put a chair in front off and still be related to the topic of the doc. I thought of maybe trying to film it outside, but since I’m trying to make this interview as seamless and problem-free as possible, I didn’t think it would be a good idea. Filming outside is too unpredictable. There could be wind that messes with the audio or inconsistent lighting due to clouds. Filming inside allows me full control and manipulation over those aspects.

The last thing I’ve been working on to prep for the interview are the actual questions I will be asking her. I have experience with conducting interviews, and though I know most questions come from the responses of the subject in the moment, it’s always good to go in with preset questions in order to keep the interview structured and on-topic. 

Here are some I’ve come up with:

They are still a work-in progress, but i think it’s a good base, just maybe a few questions I need to add or tweak.

I’ll let you know how the interview goes!!

Filming Prep/Conventions

Guess what… I have my official subject for the extract I will be producing!! 

When brainstorming this idea, I had this individual in mind from the very beginning. They represented exactly what I wanted my documentary to capture, so when I asked them about being apart of it and they said yes, I was ecstatic. 

My subject of interest, Riley Orovitz, is a senior in high school just like me. She’s loved to watch and play sports ever since she was at a young age. She’s found so many ways to outlet her passion during our time at Cypress, whether it’s working our school sports games, running the high school’s athletics social media, and even playing on the flag football team all 4 years. 

In one of my old posts, Documentary Viewings and Research (posted on December 8th, 2023), I had talked about all the documentaries we had viewed in class during the period in time we were studying Documentary as a whole. We also had various lectures with Mrs. Stoklosa where she discuss all different kinds of documentary techniques and conventions, spreading from pre-production to post-production work. 

After reflecting on some of the notes I took during that time, here are some of the things I want to specifically implement into my documentary:

Narrative Format

The entire “voice” of the documentary I want to be told solely through Riley. What I mean is no voice overs, or direct interviews, just Riley’s narrative is present along with natural sounds from the b-roll and maybe music if I feel like the sound element is missing something. I did this for my past documentary that I made and I love how it turned out. In my opinion, it makes the narrative of the documentary feel more genuine and vulnerable. 

Handheld Camera

When shooting b-roll, I want to try and experiment with more dynamic moving shots. This would be done with using the handheld camera technique. However, if I would to use FULL handheld, the shots would be super shaky and not aesthetically pleasing as I haven’t yet developed a stable hand when filming without any sort of support or tripod. So, after doing a little research, I decided I wanted to take this opportunity to experience with some new equipment, a gimble. 

                     

This piece of equipment allows for a camera t be attached at the top and stabilizes the camera itself, allowing you to get those smooth and stable shots without being dormant on a tripod. It allows for the movement that I want. Now, these run VERY expensive. So, I plan on checking one out at BECON, a local news station that allows young creators to check out high-quality equipment to use for their projects. I had checked out all the equipment I used in my past doc from BECON and it was an incredible experience and the high-quality equipment truly brought my doc to a whole new level.

Archived Footage

Since we are only producing a five-minute extract, I plan on producing the first few minutes of what would be my full episode. This includes an opening/intro. Since this would be an episodic series, it would need to be branded to the series, but I also want it to be individualized to the subject being explored each time. With this in mind, I had an idea of making a sort of “montage” with a bunch of old videos and photos Riley has as a little girl playing sports or being involved in sports. Riley had used these in a past project we did (brand project) so I know I would have enough. I just need to make sure with Mrs. Stoklosa that I am allowed to use this “archived footage” in my project as technically it was already filmed.

Selective Editing

Selective editing gets implemented a lot when it comes to documentaries. Not only does it allow you structure your piece exactly how you want, but it’s also inevitable as you are always going to film more than you need. Again, with only having to produce a five-minute extract, I am going to have to be very selective with my editing in order to fit the time limit and make sure the doc stays on track with its purpose. 

Stylistic Choices

Once I decided to produce a sports documentary, my mind immediately went to what kind of concept I was going to develop. The topic sports documentary is so broad, it was time to develop the actually substance behind what I was going to produce. The first thing I take note of when consuming any piece of media is the structure/concept behind it. I will immediately love something if I think the concept behind it is cool, or immediately dislike something if the structure of the piece is too slow or disengaging. 

Like I said before, I watch a good amount of documentaries in my free time, especially sports related ones. The structure is the most important part of documentaries in my opinion, as it can make or break your piece. For example, though the story being told was surface level, the sports doc Swamp Kings on Netflix, did tell a good story. Its downfall though is its structure. It felt too slow, it was hard to watch. 

One sports documentary that I really love and took inspiration from is Hard Knocks. The HBO Original follows around a select NFL Team, typically in the summer during their spring training camp as they prepare for the upcoming season. Recently, they created an in-season version this past season, following the Miami Dolphins behind the scenes during the season and as far as they got during the playoffs. This piece’s structured is so well thought out and the concept behind is so captivating. The switch of handheld filming while following mic-ed up players seamlessly to a static sit down interview with a player or coach is so well-constructed and thought out. This docu-series originally inspired my first idea to follow a Cypress Bay sports team around for their season, or even the soccer teams as they advance closer and closer to the state championship. However, with our project being due the first week of April, I wouldn’t be able to capture the full experience, making my doc feel incomplete to me. So though I like the stylistic choices behind it, I needed to change my idea. 

                   

                                TRAINING CAMP SEASON                                                             IN-SEASON

BUT THEN, I remembered this:

Aftershock Episode 432- Maddie Brouse Feature (1:45-3:20)

This is exactly. what I am going for. The segment follows the only girl on the Cypress Bay Football team back in 2022 in a documentary style way, almost like a nat package. In that I mean the creator lets the audio from the subject and the natural sounds collected in b-roll tell the story. No voiceovers

Developing a Project Schedule

Hey guys! As we start to jump into this process, I needed to make a tentative schedule in order to kind of plan out my time and figure out when I’m doing what. When I am about to tackle any long-term project, I lived to make production schedules to make things less stressful. It also allows me to actually visualize the process, which helps me a lot as I am more of a visual learner. 

Here it it:

Week 1 (2/12-2/18)- CREATING AN IDEA (this week)✔️

Week 2 (2/19-2/25)- RESEARCH CONVENTIONS & EQUIPMENT/ INTERVIEW PREP (QUESTIONS AND LOCATION)

Week 3 (2/26-3/3)- FILM INTERVIEW, CREATE LINE EDIT STRUCTURE BASED ON INTERVIEW ANSWERS

Week 4 (3/4-3/10)- FILM B-ROLL

Week 5 (3/11-3/17)- FILM MORE B-ROLL (POSSIBLE 2ND INTERVIEW OF SUBJECT IF NEEDED/WANTED)

Week 6 (3/18-3/24)-START EDITING

Week 7 (3/25-3/31)-{spring break} CONTINUE EDITING, MAKE GRAPHICS IF NEEDED

Week 8 (4/1-4/7)- SHARE AND GET CRITIQUES/RE-EDITS, WORK ON CRITICAL REFLECTION

FINAL SUBMISSION DATE: 4/10/24 !!!

Now this schedule might not end up being 100% accurate when the time comes, especially when it comes closer to weeks 4 and 5. I had to take into account the fact that during week 4 I would have my show, Chicago, and week 5 I would be away for most of the week on a field trip for a state competition. I tried to give myself a little wiggle room by blocking out those 2 weeks to film b-roll alone so hopefully I won’t be too stressed out those weeks. 

I’ll continue to keep you posted :)

Time to Tackle the Beast

 Hey guys! Welcome to 2024…

Coming back from the new year I have immediately jumped into trying new things. We were given a super cool project called the Film Distribution Project. This was basically own way to get to know the Film Promo option of the portfolio project, but with a little twist. This project was also a collab with our school’s creative writing classes which I thought was so fun. The students in creative writing would come up with stories and develop characters, a plot, and a movie title. Then, within our groups, we were assigned 3 different stores and we were given the freedom to read them all and chose the one we felt the most confident to adapt into a trailer and a teaser. Mrs. Stoklosa assigned us our groups, so I got to work with some new people I had never worked with before: Ava and Rafa. We decided to adapt a Rom-Com story about Theo, a CIT (cupid in training), getting a match mission to finally earns his wings. However, he accidentally follows in love with the girl from his case file. We created a poster, trailer, teaser, and presentation to demonstrate the way we would market and distribute this film if we decide to produce it. Here are some of the things we created:

                                                                Film Poster

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART- Official Trailer

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART- Official Teaser

Now that we have completed that project, we are FINALLY starting our A -Level portfolio projects. I’m not gonna lie… I’ve been simultaneously anticipating and dreading this project. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the fact that it’s a long-term project. It’s more that I have so much creative freedom Im not sure even where to begin. 

Working on these sample projects throughout the year so far has really prepared me, however, in being more inform about each category I could chose, as I’ve had experiences in all of them so far.

Music Project- AS Level music distribution project/CBTV annual music videos

Film Promo- (most recent) Shot Through the Heart

Documentary- Encontrando un Futuro

Short Film- independent project… (coming soon :D )

So when it came time at least to decide what category I was gonna pursue, I made my decision based on my past experiences. At of all of them, my time producing my documentary (see above) was truly the most memorable. I loved the process of it and I am still very proud of the final product that came out of it. Also, my intended major when I go to college is Sports Media. This is truly something I’ve always wanted to pursue. I also consume a lot of sports documentaries for entertainment in my free time (more on this later in the week). Because of this, I’ve always dreamed of making my own sports documentary and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. 

Brainstorming, however, the concept of it was the hard part. My first idea was to follow a Cypress Bay Sports Team, possibly soccer, as they are on the way to a possible State Championship. However, we turn in our final projects in April and their journey might still be going on aft my designated filming period, making my documentary incomplete. I decided to sit down with my teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa to just sit down and brainstorm possible ideas, as this has always helped me organize my thoughts and figure out a perfect concept in the past. After some time of just talking, she suggested I focus more on the emotional side of sports, rather than the actually physical side of it. This took me a second to really understand it but once I understood it I took it and ran with it. Sports for me has always been a key part of my life, not only through being a stress reliever and a way to compete, but also a way I made so many key friends in my life and so many memories I will cherish forever. I sympathize with athletes. I understand athletes. Sports, while being universal, also means something different for everyone as everyone has their own world/experience in it. I want to document that. I want to figure the different ways sports means to people. How it has impacted their lives. 

In my mind, each episode would be one person, each with a different “role” in sports, whether it’s player, manager, coach, all of the above etc.  For the extract I would be producing, I would want to feature it on a fellow student of mine, Riley Orovitz. I will talk more about her once I have asked her about it and have making sure this is possible. 

We are still in the earliest stage of pre0production, but I am already so excited to see how this goes. Keep you posted :)