The Documentary Genre

Documentaries are non-fiction films that are aimed towards documenting reality like specific events, ideas, or topics. They typically inform or educate viewers, and can also maintain historical records. From my research, some genre conventions I've found include:

Archival footage and photographs 

As I've previously mentioned, I was hoping to include archival footage if Josh's parents can find it because I know it will follow a major documentary convention as most documentaries include archival materials include old photographs, and newsreel footage to create this sense of truth and reality. 

Talking heads 

Talking heads are people interviewed to explain or comment on the documentaries' subject. These people usually are shown in their offices or in their homes, any atmosphere that matches the theme of the piece. 

In these three different occasions, we see pretty much the same angle as the interviewee is facing someone else, but the audience is aware the information being given is directed at them. 

Handheld cameras 

Now this is noticeable as footage comes out shaky, or simply not as stable as if the camera were mounted on a tripod. With time, more portable cameras have been made available to filmmakers, allowing them to do more on-location shooting, and keeping the camera steady was somewhat difficult when it comes to following the action. The wobbly camera creates this documentary-like sense for viewers. 

Voiceover Narration 

Voiceover narration occurs when we hear the voice speak but we cannot see the speaker utter the words. The voice often explains or comments on the visuals, enabling the narrator to guide the viewer through the piece. 

Re-enactments
A re-enactment stages real events that already have occurred. Sometimes they include the people who experienced the events originally, but more often they incorporate actors playing parts. Most documentary filmmakers shoot events where they actually occur. These re-enactments can at times be a bit exaggerated. 

Also, 
    - Intercutting / Parallel Editing linking key scenes
    - Selective editing crucial to constructing meaning
    - Often single stranded making one subject the topic of the media text

As I plan my doc episode and what I want to include, I've also thought about what conventions I'll follow and which I'll challenge or not make use of. I hope to include interviews, or this "talking-head", archival footage or photographs, and definitely create this personal sense through the use of a handheld camera at times. However, something I've been on the fence about is whether I'd like to include a voiceover or not. I believe it could help the doc, but there are many other questions that come with this like who's voice will it be or will it tell the entire story. These are all things I must consider when making the decision. 

Lastly, there are re-enactments which I will try to stay away from. This year we viewed a documentary on Netflix, The Social Dilemma (2020), which has some fictional aspects but is mostly non-fiction as it aims to warn viewers of the dangers of social media and the addiction to technology. However the dramatic re-enactments took away from the serious parts of the film and I do not want the same to happen with my documentary as I tell the story. 

Onto the Research

Following the schedule, I should be starting research tomorrow, which is exactly what I'll be doing. Although on my calendar I made the research process last a week, it will actually be an ongoing process that does not really end until this project is over. In order to make several decisions, research will have to be conducted to make sure I'm making the best choice. 

I've been thinking of a couple topics to research: 

    - Genre conventions (Something important I want to start with to get better understanding.)

    - Examples of documentaries (Sports-related, or following the stories of interviewees.)

    - Target audience (Knowing who typically watches these sports pieces and defining my audience.)

    - Interviews (To learn how to maintain focus on interviewee, without making it look boring.)

    - Camera movement techniques (For shots of hitting a baseball or catching one.)

These are just a couple topics that I've been thinking about, but I'm sure more will come up and I'll bring updates once I have done the research. In fact, my next blog post should be about my first topic, genre conventions.  

Mood Board Complete

I got it done! I'm so excited as I've started to bring this idea to life. I used both Pinterest and some old photos Josh had of his baseball days to create the mood board for the doc. I wanted to create this past, present, and future sense to the doc, but the mood board helps illicit the past side. Along with that, I have also tried to establish this sense of teamwork as some photos are of his team celebrating, alluding to the idea that having others buy your side whilst playing a sport is something Josh Chester appreciated. 

Once the mood board was completed, I realized that I had also created somewhat of a color scheme. The dark blue and bright green that is consistently seen in the photos will become the two colors I want to bring out most in my documentary. Some background colors could be a light orange and tan color. This also got me thinking about the magazine segment of this project. I could follow through with these colors in every aspect of this project! 

Working with Groups

Today in class we had a group discussion in which we shared our ideas and struggles for our classmates to suggest possible solutions or anything that could help us out, and it was honestly a great time. After being stuck at home for such a long time it was amazing to finally have the opportunity to connect with our peers at another level. Usually we're all pretty quiet in class, although our teacher does her best to get us to interact with each other, but it's quite a difficult thing to do over a video call. This time we were each given the chance to talk for as long as we wanted about our project and all my classmates contributed something helpful. 

I began by sharing my thought process and how I came up with the idea, just like I did in my blog. I wanted to give some backstory because my classmates know I've never approached the sports genre, especially for a project. I made sure to mention that I wanted to try something new and I was up for this challenge. After sharing the complete idea, my peers began to recommend all kinds of different things and I typed them all out to keep in mind so here they are:

I began to organize each of the ideas I received into categories that would keep this list organized and be easy for me to look back at. A friend suggested an idea for the title, which was not even something I had thought about yet!

One classmate even asked me something that I had given little thought to, "So what would the series be about, since it's an episodic documentary?" Even though I did ponder this question at the start of the project, I never came to a decision about this. After giving it some thought, I replied with my hopes that each episode would feature a different story with a different athlete. Each athlete truly has a story of their own, whether it be a story of success or a sad story in which they left their sport for one reason or another, and although I can't create all of these episodes, I think this is something important to remember as I create my extract. 

Overall, I am extremely glad we were given the chance to have this discussion in class. Not only did my peers help me, but I was also able to help others and hear of some of the creative ideas they had come up with. 

Planning It Out

An update on the mood board first: still working on it. I wanted to combine some pictures I found on Pinterest along with some pictures given to me by Josh's family to create the mood board, but I'm still waiting on a couple pictures, so hopefully I can get that done soon. 

I can already envision what this documentary will look like and I'm so ready to start working, but I have to learn to plan. Last year, I did a lot of jumping back and forth between different steps of creating my project that I would often miss something or just forget to do it. This year I want make sure I take on this project in a much more organized manner so I've created a calendar!

Complete planning means that all filming locations should be set as well as interview dates.

I gave myself a bit more than a week to film however, if I need to take more time it's possible this is just the time I'd hope it takes. Lastly for the editing, I gave myself more time than anything else just because this always takes me a while to get perfect. 

I didn't include my April calendar as I only have two weeks that month, but by these final two weeks I hope to be done with my documentary and working on the other parts of my portfolio project including the CCR, magazine article and social media page.

For this last week of February, I only have planned research and gathering some items that Josh has from his baseball days to see what I have to work with. This will make up the b-roll for the documentary, combined with other clips of a baseball field or possibly him batting and pitching, still a work in progress. But, my main goal for this week is to create an outline for my documentary extract so I can make sure to include everything I have in mind, but not too much that it seems to condensed. After this I have to start the research which will be an ongoing process, but I do want to make a couple posts on the documentary genre and genre conventions before I start the filming process.

More on that coming up, trying to figure out whether I want to mind map it or simply use an online chart to divide up the different components that'll make up my documentary. 

The Concept

This weekend my family and I gathered for a family member’s birthday and I shared the struggles I was having with coming up with a strong documentary topic. One by one people started giving ideas, some good, some not so good, but I appreciated any help I could get. Then my aunt’s husband said something funny, “Do it on me. I’m famous.” We all laughed but then I began thinking, he’s not famous but he’s got a great story to tell. Josh played baseball many years, starting as a kid, until suddenly an injury stopped him from playing ever again.

Now we often hear of these stories of sports players with big dreams of going pro, but we often never see the downside or the failures of one's efforts. Now, this documentary isn't meant to come off as sad or unfortunate, simply informative and showing a different perspective. Josh was excited to tell his story which is quite unique as his parents always pushed him to have bigger goals for his future than just baseball, giving him something to lean back on if baseball wasn't the outcome for him. 

I will tell this story through interviews and mementos. When visiting his childhood home, I see his room was full of newspaper articles he was featured in and loads of memorabilia from his games as a kid to his high school career, eventually leading to his commitment for FGCU to play baseball. 

Although this is just an extract of an episodic documentary, I hope to convey his emotions and his story in which we share the impact sport can have on the lives of many athletes, whether it be good or bad.

I'm currently in the process of creating a mood board with photos I have of Josh's accomplishment in baseball as well as talking to his mom to see if I can possibly find some old footage. I think this would really bring the documentary together. 

And We're Back

Hi blog! It's been a while since I've posted on here, but I'm back and with an even bigger project to create. I'm both excited and nervous to start this, but I think it's time to set on a new adventure in which I'll be creating something amazing. To be honest, I have many ideas of what I want to do and not many rules or restrictions to limit my creativity. 

I've been debating between creating a an extract of a documentary or the two trailers for a film because both of them are interesting to me. This year we've already produced both of these things and I had a great time creating both, making this a tough decision for me. I want to make sure that whatever choice I make will be something that I can stick with throughout the next couple of months.

Let me give you some insight on the story ideas I have. But hear me out, some of these ideas are random and they are definitely very different from each other. 

- For the documentary I hoped to produce something that captures our current situation with COVID, but I don't want it to be cliche because this topic is so overused in the media. I don't want it to come off as just another COVID story, and for that reason, I wanted to try and show a different side of it which demonstrates the perspective of life in quarantine, especially for children. I also considered having a psychologist or a psychiatrist take part in an interview to bring more useful information.  

- Now for the film promotion package in which I create the two trailers, I was leaning towards the horror genre. I've created sci-fi and dystopian films that also had a small element of horror within them that has inspired to dig a bit deeper into this genre. This can be a bit challenging as I tend to not watch many horror films, but with some research I can learn the genre conventions and try to mimic them,, or possibly eve challenge them. A story idea I had for this is of a child that encounters a ghost. This can also come off as cliche, but if I were to end up choosing this idea, I would want to make the story a bit more elaborate than that. 

These are just two ideas I have at the moment. Who knows if something else comes to mind but hopefully by my next blog post, I'll have the answer for you and the idea will be introduced. Can't wait! For now I'll be brainstorming.