Research- A Variety of Docs

    The switch from short film to documentary was an unforeseen one, meaning my sister and I have had to act rather quickly regarding research and decision-making on what to infuse from our research to start creating our own documentary outline. Before touching on what we want to implement into our documentary, which so far is tentatively called "Intertwined" and is a sociological study on how local  community forms naturally, reaching out to current-day viewers and hopefully remind them that there is opportunity for connection at their disposal if they are open to living and spontaneously develop it (I can pitch it better get back to me soon), this blog post is dedicated to the research we gathered while watching two different documentaries that our teacher recommended us to watch after discussing with her long and hard about which way to take our ideas: the Netflix docu-series Ugly Delicious and the 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine. While they're very different, they both offered insight into different ways to develop a narrative/ a sense of path regarding different type of topics, with structure and narration (creator input/involvement) being our main focuses when coming into watching these two pieces. Additionally, while this blog post is dedicated to new research specifically done for this project, I have researched around 4 more documentaries throughout the school year in preparation to make my own, with a very foundational amount of research being done from before. By clicking these two links you can read more about that research/ the project.

Ugly Delicious

    This Netflix original docu-series, led by Award-winning chef David Chang, explores how different cultures blend and how they differ, combining travel, cooking, and history. It includes special guests that are friends of Chang, and confront cultural barriers and misconceptions with other well-renowned chefs.

    Sofia and I watched about 3 episodes of the series, because we wanted to view the progression of episodes and also because it was entertaining. While watching both, we decided to take notes on specific observations, with specific choices that stayed consistent in all three episodes and some that evolved as the audience got more accustomed to the show. Below are a picture of some of my observations of the first three episodes of Season 1:

    Overall, this series gave both of us a spark towards structure ideas and narration type that we want for our piece, but also proved to me that we can make the documentary as us as we want to, with Chang implementing his usual jargon and nature, showing up as his fully authentic and casual self (seemingly at least) as the experience is investigative for him and his friends. As we try to find our own balance of "formal" vs. "personal", I remember that we don't have to choose one over the other and that we can approach our docu-series in an extremely personal way, but still maintain professionalism and quality so that the audience will be willing and interested enough to want to watch it.

Bowling for Columbine

 This documentary was released in 2002, written, produced, narrated, and directed by Michael Moore. It's considered biographical, as it covers the events leading up to the 1999 Columbine High Massacre that killed 168 people, confronting topics like the need of gun control/ the high homicide in America in a less sensitive and more parodical manner.

    Although I didn't end up fully finishing this piece (I do plan on it), Sof and I went through a rollercoaster of emotions when we did watch it, feeling hesitant towards the open and completely casual nature of Michael Moore as he leads into discussing an unimaginable event. The way he alludes to things was effective, with his progression of events catching me Sofia and I off guard giving us ideas towards how we can keep our own piece surprising and well-driven by us as "narrators". Below are some of my observations while watching:

    This documentary once again reinforced the narration type that includes the creator throughout the documentary, indicating the role he/she has in setting the tone (as he very much does so in this piece!). Aside form technical elements, the idea of setting a specific tone, with each topic and what one wants to say about the topic distinguishing the tone, is always a really big factor for me, as it was a major factor in my last group documentary project Does This Make You Uncomfortable?, being that the topic was one of comedy and even disgust in some of today's society, so developing a shift in tones was necessary to grasp the audience at the start and develop a more insightful conversation/points at the end (which we didn't fully execute but it's okay!). With this specific piece, we want to keep it light and entertaining like David Chang's Ugly Delicious, yet also balance the tone drawn in my our own voices and the bigger picture purpose of the doc, with a shift in tones being possible in editing.

Conclusions

    Overall, watching the two documentary samples gave us ideas for our own narrative and chronological structure, that will obviously be affected by our interviewee responses but having a layout is helpful regardless. I will discuss our ideas in the next blog!

Digital Component: Social Media

 

    One component of the documentary package is the creation of a social media page, being a major marketing and connective tool to develop an audience for the docu-series. While Sofia and I plan on continuing to explore a larger variety of social media pages, below is the start of our social media research regarding documentaries, with one being a student sample and the other from an Emmy-nominated series we have researched in class. Before that, however, here are notes that I took in class that were given regarding specifics for the social media account, as there are certain focus points to remember:

Student Sample

    The first day that my teacher introduced a student sample to the class, I was able to see this student sample, one of an acquaintance of mine from last school year. She also did a documentary (First Place), and although our topics differ, with hers being about the competitive nature of high school students no matter what field/ niche group they belong to (ex: a poet, engineer, mathematician...), the specific style of her posts and the characterized subject portrayal in the Instagram postings caught my eye since that day in class, with more exploration of the Instagram page making me greatly appreciate creative choices such the development of a "video-game" like theme that acts as a metaphor, comparing real-life competition and online, more "exaggerated" competition. This representation of high-school competition as entrapping, cyclical, and addictive (I'm aware these adjectives sound quite dramatic...) through the choice of metaphor create space for more imagination with editing and animation, with the documentary incorporating elements of a video game such as "player #'s" to reference the main subjects of each episode or a loading bar.  

    Although this is only a past student sample, seeing the potential of what our social media could potentially become, with our account having the opportunity to embrace different parts of our brand and ultimately give our audience a clear and also enticing perspective of our documentary is exciting, reminded through Samy Duarte's key art and creative artistic choices.

Abstract: The Art of Design

    Earlier this school year when learning about different documentary types in class and was awakened to the world of documentaries, ranging from watching Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop to NYT Op-docs like A New Wave (blog post on my research is linked here), I watched two episodes of Netflix's Abstract: The Art of Design, learning about different forms of art that I don't usually get to as much, such as costume-design for movies, being Ruth Carter's episode (an Academy-award winning costume designer). With my own documentary also being episodic, centering each episode around a specific community of people, with specific subjects being focused on (for the most part), I thought back to this docu-series as it personalizes and builds up each episode in a flawlessly natural and entertaining way, perhaps taking inspiration towards our own documentary series.

    Regarding the social media page (abstractdesign), it is extremely cohesive and complementary to the series style, while also giving insight and a sense of consumer-creator connection. Here are specific observations from exploring the Instagram page of the docu-series, as that is the platform Sofia and I will be making our own account on:

• Makes purpose of docu-series clear (ex: "the way design surrounds us, inspires us, and informs our daily lives") 
  
• Captions reveal information about design process of main subjects of eps. (ex: "What's your go-to album to listen to while working?" - Connects to Oscar-award winning designer Ruth Carter episode: shows she plays a playlist to inspire actors...)
• Captions ask questions to audience/ intrigue^
• Captions often include quotes of subjects/ just do posts of interview questions with quote response!!! (ALOT)
• Captions reveal what eps are about by revealing what the "abstract team" (third-person) will do in specific episode.
• "Abstract Lessons"- Lesson learned through different episodes (ex: "Design is play")
• BTS Post (Family of subject)
• Key art/ intriguing visuals (ex: collage)
• Promo event info (ex: San Francisco Design Week's virtual Festival)
• #'s in caption (ex: #abstractseason2)
• Towards the beginning of their social media posting they didn't reveal any subjects, just quotes about creative process, imagination, art, etc... (Made striking visual)

the very beginning of the social media page

Conclusions

    Those are the main things we noticed, with each account (one being a hypothetical docu-series account and the other a real one) offering ideas as to different ways we could possibly go with our own docu-series Instagram account. After analyzing the Abstract Instagram account, it feels like Samy was also inspired by Abstract, making sense as the setup of her episodes, with each following a specific subject and their niche, aligning partially with the setup of Abstract. This shows that although you might be inspired by a reference, you should implicate the parts of it that you need for your vision, and that in the end it'll become new and original to you.

    The choices we are now inspired to implicate for our own social media postings including the usage of quotes, BTS posts, striking visuals, and the drive to build a consumer-creator relationship, especially considering Sofia and I are pretty involved in setting the tone for our piece throughout the series. Overall, I want the Instagram page to offer more/ a different side of the docu-series episodes, making it a hub to find out more and feel connected to the creators (Sofia and I) and purpose of the piece. Because the purpose of our docu-series stems around connection, I think that we need to focus on making our social media page a place for connection from audience to creator, while still maintaining some sense of "professional boundaries".

Changing Genre: Documentary it is!

     

    Hey blog! So, a lot has happened since my last blog post. Previously, we were planning on starting plot ideas for our short film and getting to this weeks agenda, being to explore our genres of interest such as coming-of-age, comedy, and drama, as listed in my blog post from last week. We had a range of floating ideas, spanning from creating an entire fictional and out-of-reach world full of especially characterized characters like a stereotypical French man or a creepy old woman, with that short film playing with mise-en-scene in a more abstract way (costumes, etc...), such as in a Wes Anderson film. Another idea we had was to create a more relatable story, a coming-of-age that does still follow a fictional plot but feels more grounded, such as like an inspirational type of feeling such as the one in Dead Poets Society, where we would play around with dialogue and comedic bits to create an impactful final theme (didn't fully have that one developed yet). While these ideas are still one's I would LOVE to pursue, our currently extremely hectic schedule, that includes directing a musical each (coincidentally the same show, Descendants, but working with different casts), being involved in three musicals (Pippin, Hadestown, and Sweeney Todd), preparing for states for theater (the week after our Pippin performance which is IN TWO WEEKS...), a chorus performance coming up, and school! All of that to say, we have as lot going on.

    This past week we have been in tech week for the show we are currently doing and performed over the weekend: Sweeney Todd! It's been very busy but I love doing the show. While overhearing the director talking to an actress from the show, my sister and I thought that it would be such a cool opportunity to embrace the experience of our future show Hadestown, that we are currently working on that we perform in June, and film a documentary on some aspect of it/ of the theater company that we have recently become involved with! It's something I thought about but didn't truly consider until my sister brought it up to me, and now I'm sold. SO, change of plans! We are now doing a documentary!

Okay so here's the deal: Genre

 

    From the beginning, Sof and I knew we wanted to do a short film. Even though we didn't know the list of options we had to choose from, we quickly decided on a short film as I think it gives us the full capacity to dive into an interesting story and play with editing and filming techniques. Our initial ideas revolved around emulating the same energy of specific productions we love, with the hard part being that we love so many different movies and series!!! Here is some information on a short film in general and on some genres we are interested in further diving into/ seriously considering for our own production:

Short Film Info

              From: 7 Things To Know About Making Short Films! (Friday 101, YouTube)

•     Duration: 40 mins or less with credits ( Preferred: 10-15 mins)
•     Develop important content slightly quickly/ don't drag out for too long (limited time)
•     Speak through visuals; dialogue doesn't have to be main form of communication to audience (SHOW DON'T TELL)
•     Experiment with production techniques
•     Keep central focus throughout piece (one character, scenario, etc...)

Coming of age

•     Characters: Growth/ development in some aspect (psychology, physiology/ physicality, sociology...)
•     Setting: Realistic and relatable/ recognizable to general audience
•     Production choices: Visuals to convey meaning (SHOW DON'T TELL)
•     Themes: identity, friendship, self-discovery...

Common example of plot: Identity transformation from teenager to adult (adolescence)

Personal ex: Call Me By Your Name

    

Comedy

More info for comedy in films: Film Genres and their Conventions

•     Characters: Specific characterizations/ more individualized
•     Specific beats/ narrative turns
•     Setting: Many locations (where a lot of movement/ interaction can occur; a lot of chances for different types of situations)
•     Represented tropes (sense of familiarity, characterized character dynamics)
•     Props that can drive scenarios
•     Themes: Irony, familiarity

Personal ex: (Dramady) A Real Pain

Drama

•     Character: Focus on one or few character's internal journey, emotional development
•     Dialogue reveals character motivations; Authentic
•     Clear central conflict (creates turning point/ drive in plot)
•     Thought provoking/ impactful ending
•     Common production Techniques: Frequent close-ups (get close to character internal state)

Common example of plot: Relationships/ love journey, grief, familial dynamics

Personal ex: Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting

LETS PLAN: The Schedule

 

    Hi again! To make sure that Sof (my sister) and I stay up-to-date on the project timeline, we have to make a schedule! Luckily, our gracious teacher already made one for us that goes from this week's blog posting schedule to week 9, aka the week it is due (APRIL 9). Along with the this schedule that includes what we need to focus on each week, tying into each week's blog postings, we decided to add weekly goals for ourselves that we are REALLY GOING TO TRY TO ABIDE BY. I capitalized that part of the sentence because we REALLY WANT TO AND NEED TOOOOO. They aren't too far off from the original schedule we have to abide by, but those personal goals are there to also work around our crazy theater schedules, considering we have our production of PIPPIN :)) from March 12-14 (we are both theater kids and have like 4 shows coming up right now, not exaggerating, so!). Isabel and I did a similar setup last year for our Portfolio Project where we personalized the schedule, and it ended up working well, so Sof and I decided to do the same thing for this year. I also printed it last year which worked well for me because I like to have things tangibly in case I want to edit it more freely manually, so I will print this schedule out for both of us so I can do the same thing this year.

    Anyways, enough of me rambling, here is the link to the schedule! (We are still adding personalized goals so it's not 100% done, but it's pretty much done).

The Beginning of the End

 HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it's me!! 

My Like Third Reintroduction

     I am so excited to be back for my final Portfolio Project. I am truly SO excited to start this new project, and will be fully enthralled in the creation process of whatever I end up making. This was the project that I have been looking forward to begin since the start of the year, considering last year's was such a fulfilling and informative process.  It also gave me the chance to work with one of my best friends and practice the art (because it can very much so be an art) of collaborating and building off of each someone's ideas, and ultimately, after a WHORLDWIND, creating something we are both still extremely proud of. Every now and then I'll look back on the film intro be really proud of what we made, and excited to get the chance to create something with the same level of dedication and interest. If you want to read more about my AICE Media AS project overall experience, here is the link to my reflective end-of-year blog post. 

     For this year's Portfolio Project, I will be collaborating with my TWIN SISTER and creating a SHORT FILM!!!! I am SO EXCITED to get to do this, as we've created videos before for fun and helped each other out on our own projects, but have never gone out of our way to make something more "professional" that will be taken more seriously together. Considering we've been wanting to do something like this together for a very long time, we knew instantly we were going to work together and began thinking of ideas/ investigating film inspo references over the summer. I resorted to my Notes App and wrote down random ideas, themes, or even quotes that we would maybe end up implementing, but landed on some ideas regarding inspirations from other pieces to guide the energy of the piece we wanna make, from music to specific types of characters. 

   Project Guidelines

     In addition to the notes I made during my sister and I's meetings about ideas for the project (that we can have whenever we want because we are sisters!), I took Portfolio Project notes from an in-class presentation that cover the 4 different options that we can choose from for our Portfolio projects: Music promotion, film promotion, documentary, and short film. On top of that, the presentation went over this year's version of last year's Creative Critical Reflection, which for A level is an individually written 1000 word essay that answers 4 specific questions. Below are focused notes on this part of the project from earlier in the year, as my Midterm assignment answers the same 4 questions but in relation to a documentary project I completed. Here is the link to the essay, being my last blog post before this one.

    For the short film option, here are the specifics that we have to abide by:

• 5-7 minutes

• Animated or unanimated

• Audio has to be copyright free, if not note in blog if got rights to use it (ex: music, sound effects- mainly foley if can...)

• Print Component: Postcard Design of Ad that would given out at film festival 

• Digital Component: Social media page 

• Due date: April 9

    Below are pictures of notes I'll be referring back to for specific instructions on the project, which I'll definitely add on to in the next weeks as we learn about more for the digital and print aspects of the project:

                                                                  Portfolio Project notes

Reflection Notes

Priorities for our Thought Process

    Although nothing is set in stone at all right now, we are pretty set on combining comedy with another genre, although we are playing around on whether we want the comedic aspect to be less heavy and more weaved through/ a less emphasized part of the piece but with noticeable intention. While there's still ALOT to brainstorm and experiment with, here are a list of important thoughts/ questions that I wrote down from our conversations that I want to list as a reminder/ indicator of key priorities:

• Relatively shorter amount of time (5-7 mins): do something really cool with it (abnormal/ experiment with form of storytelling)
• Metaphorical/ impactful (like surfing op doc: short but impactful through production and story; stylistic, ex: Queer)
• What type of story do you wanna tell???
• Consistent theme, all tie back!
• Embrace all elements! Don't let dialogue be only form of communication to audience, speak through production choices.

    This is where my heads at right now, with probably my main goal being to experiment and try cool/ more abstract things in the way we tell the story we choose to tell. I want to have a strong personal connection with not just what we end up choosing for plot, characters, and the SCRIPT (very excited about writing), but also very meticulous choices regarding the way we choose to film and edit. THIS TIME WE ARE TAKING ALL OF SPRING BREAK TO EDIT because last time I had to rush and it was so stressful. With the time we will give ourselves to edit, we both really want to prioritize getting more involved with Adobe Features such as Color grading, focusing on our time management so that we can experiment without paranoia of due dates. 

    With all of that being said, I am really happy to be starting, and without further ado, LETS START THE SHORT FILM CREATIONNNN :)

Does This Make You Uncomfortable? - CCR

    The film Does This Make You Uncomfortable? is an op-doc that sociologically examines Generation Z's current feelings toward feet and what that says not just about their generation, but society as a whole (focused on the U.S.). The piece alludes to topics such as conformity, fear of judgment, and self-consciousness, touching on the influence of social media on the generation's hyperawareness of perception. 

    The documentary genre has many subgenres, some including biographical, historical, and episodic. The general consensus of the genre is that, through its conventions, whether it's a ten-minute or 2-hour long film, the piece will focus on a specific part of our existence, illustrating a "snippet of life". Specifically, an op-doc (short for opinion documentary) is a short and opinionated documentary film that allows for the expression of a perspective on a particular topic. Through introductory research in class and the viewings of a range of documentaries, a more accurately representative understanding of the genre was formed that paved the way for all production choices, strongly informing the narrative structure of the documentary.

    

    The research conducted to enter the world of documentaries was instrumental in understanding the versatile and personalized nature of the genre, further discussed in this blog, which describes the research process for creating the op-doc, with each documentary viewing giving insight into the myriad of ways to approach exploring the "snippet of life". The introduction of the New York Times op-doc I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked, being the first impression of what an op-doc was, was striking in its form of storytelling about such a universal yet isolating experience (grief), and dismantled preconceived ideas of what a documentary was limited to being: a straightforward and explicit showcase of a particular subject. The viewing of other NYT op-docs such as A New Wave also broke through this mold, reinforcing its themes through unique visual choices that strongly engage its viewers, expanding previous expectations regarding the cinematography of a documentary.

    The attentive viewing and interaction with the documentary American Promise, by creators Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson, introduced an explicitly personal approach and served as a gateway, along with Banksy's documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, into the different relationships the creators can have with their audience, with the chosen approach influencing the audience's connection to the messages the creators are trying to get across. This documentary also showcased that there are different ways to communicate the theme to the viewer (in this case implicitly, with production choices hinting at the larger theme being conveyed). This doc illustrated the extent to which one could allude to a bigger idea through choices such as title name and narrative development, both leading the audience closer to the bigger picture. Other pieces like Netflix's docu-series Abstract: The Art of Design, specifically S2 Ep 3 (Ruth Carter: Costume Design) expanded the range of expectations in terms of editing, still keeping a personal feel yet balancing it with large-scale production. The way all choices continuously engaged the audience and committed to showcasing the artistic process was eye-opening. All of the pieces viewed and studied truly broke previous expectations set for the genre and created space for experimentation and creative decisions taken in the documentary, Does This Make You Uncomfortable?

    The documentary follows typical conventions of a documentary, basing the development of the narrative on interviews, lasting 13-minutes (shorter than full-length film), and creating a sense of realism through hand-held shots. While these are just some, the doc does implement some specific choices that aren't seen in all documentaries, largely inspired by docs researched such as Exit Through the Gift Shop. The nature of the topic and point of the documentary, being more investigative than conclusive as Gen Z teenagers try to understand and highlight their own generation's feelings about feet, made the ending of the documentary diverge from a defined POV, with interviewees giving their own insight. While the ending could've been better developed to leave the audience to question the topic being discussed, it differs from a typical documentary as the current reaction of feet in Gen Z is "undiagnosed", as there is no ONE specific reason for it. Furthermore, the implementation of interviews by the directors of the piece was also inspired by Banksy's documentary, needed as a transitional device between interviews to progress the doc.

    The reasoning for all of these choices was ultimately to attempt to represent the different generational groups in an accurate way, specifically regarding their relationship to feet. The piece represents Gen Z as uncomfortable with feet, emphasized through interview clips where two people wouldn't hold a paper of feet, along with further reactions that reinforced the reaction. They are also represented as slightly dramatic in their reactions, with the contrast to other generational responses developing this. The older generations are represented as detached from the feelings shared by the Gen Z group. These representations lead to a bigger saying about the different generations, commenting on Gen Z's hyperawareness of appearance and perception as compared to the older generations. These representations also leave room for the questioning of situational differences between the generations, such as the development of social media. In addition to representing social groups, the documentary represents social issues such as Generation Z's social and personal insecurity. Displayed through the main interviews toward the end of the doc, Gen Z has a tendency to coverup more, shown through celebrities like Billie Eilish. Unrealistic expectations on appearance developed through social media were discussed as well, alluding to the layers of awareness that the generation feels responsible for in this modern-age, relating back to the more entertaining topic of feet, attracting the target audience toward a larger conversation.

    These representations are essential to the audience's perception and consideration of the topic. The target audience of the documentary is people from Generation Z (people born from 1997 to 2012) of any gender. Gen Zers who would be interested in the doc include those who take the topic as a joke, as the documentary begins with a comedic tone and fast-paced editing, and considers the topic in a more unserious way. The specific editing style, including the use of instrumental music, is done to engage the Gen Z audience (who would probably consider the topic in an unserious way) and ultimately lead them to the bigger picture connections at the end of the documentary (being the POINT of the doc). Additionally, the documentary might get a stronger reaction from the Gen Zers on social media, which would most-likely be all of them, as it might be a root of the modern-day feelings of disgust with feet.

    The documentary Does This Make You Uncomfortable? develops a comedic tone before shifting to a more thoughtful and reflective one through specific editing techniques, with all production choices attempting to attract the target audience toward a relevant conversation regarding not just Generation Z, but society as a whole about topics such as conformity and the effects of social norms on a group of people.

Does This Make You Uncomfortable? - Editing

     This stage of the process was the most all over the place but also the most fulfilling in the end. We had agreed that Zach and I would edit the op-doc as he has had experience in his CBTV class and I genuinely love to edit and could go on talking about why, which I have done in my "Beginning the Editing Process" blog post, so feel free to check it out :)

    After we finished all of our interviews and still had b-roll to shoot (which we never ended up shooting...), it was coming close to the due date and we needed to put all of the puzzle pieces together. The two major parts we needed to edit were the two dividing parts of the doc, with the first half introducing the topic in a comedic and relatable light and the second half shifting in tone and becoming more thoughtful and insightful towards the topic, maintaining some moments of comedy yet not emphasized by music and other more enhancive editing choices to bring the topic back down to "reality" and make some real-life applications that could explain the shared reactions observed by Generation Z and make bigger picture connections/commentary.

    I edited the first half of the doc, which included the introduction and MOTS, and Zach edited the main interviews together which made up the second half of the doc. Here are some key elements and factors that were important during the editing process:

                           Narrative Structure

    As I have talked about in the past two blog posts regarding the Does This Make You Uncomfortable? documentary, the approach and narrative structure of our piece are a big decider in how the audience would receive any message, especially when trying to get Gen Z teenagers to seriously consider the relevance of their "silly" opinions on feet and what that could say about them and a large majority of their generation (in the U.S.). The lack of clarity in the planning stage as to our layout for where we wanted to insert our own interviews/ what we would say in them made it so that it all had to be figured out during the editing stage, which made me take even longer than I usually do as a perfectionist! We ended up wanting to take inspiration from Banksy's narrative structure in Exit Through the Gift Shop, inserting our own director interviews at the beginning of the doc and in some places during the MOTS to make conclusions and state surprising observations about the interviews, serving as transitions between points we wanted to make. Looking back, I even replicated the J-cut that happens at the beginning of Banksy's doc, as we are also setting up for an interview immediately into the doc, creating a more personal feel.

    

Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy 1st appearance, 2:30)

Does This Make You Uncomfortable? (Beginning)

Music

    Music sets the tone for any production, playing an instrumental role in influencing the mood of the audience. As soon as I had pieced the opening sequence together, I knew that I wanted to add funky, possibly jazzy, instrumental music with beats to shape the editing and frame the upcoming sequence. Zach had mentioned having a song from Whiplash or a percussion-based piece after the title shot, so it helped inspire me to begin the music there. I also knew that to make the MOTS interviews more entertaining, adding music would not only engage the audience but also develop an investigative/ fun feel that emotes the process that we were going through when asking the interviewees these questions and making connections on our own.

    When choosing the songs to include specifically, I looked through some of my liked songs on Spotify as I have a collection of instrumental pieces that I thought could fit the vibe I was going for for each different part of the MOTS section of the doc. For the quick montage right after the title shot, I knew I wanted something more upbeat and fast-paced to hook the audience after a slower beginning.  I ended up choosing "Mambo No.5" by Perez Prado as it introduces the subject spontaneously. Then, to lead into the longer interviews, I check out one of my go-to instrumental albums by Piero Piccioni titled "Camille 2000".

Montage of MOTS

    I wanted instrumentals that wouldn't take too much attention but still make an impact, helping the flow of the MOTS to also keep the viewer engaged. For the Gen Z MOTS I used the song "Slow Flute Beat" and for the non-Gen Zers (older generations) I used "Chains of Love" from the same album. I ended up choosing those for their respective parts because I thought they complemented the part of the narrative that was being developed when they were both playing, as the music made space for the audience to consider the points being made in whatever tone was being developed by the music. The lack of music in specific parts was done to bring the viewer back to the bigger picture, and while it could be taken as intense, the continuity in not-knowing-what comes next with the editing for the entire first half of the doc hopefully put the viewer on a ride which would soon dial down in the second half.

                                CapCut

    I edited my whole sequence on CapCut for multiple reasons:

• It was the most easily accessible for me as I always have my phone (I edited on my phone) and could do it anywhere I went at any time I wanted.
• It's an application I'm used to, whereas with Adobe Premiere I would have to reaccustom myself to the application and I didn't have the time for that!!!
• I had tools such as overlay and different fonts that I didn't have on iMovie.

    

    Editing on CapCut didn't give me any issues, allowing me to use overlays for the title shot of my foot (yes its my foot) against a white background paused with the title of the documentary.

Title shot

    

                               Struggles

    Along the way, I definitely encountered some struggles...

1. Audio: For the MOTS, the mic and camera had a disconnect (I think it was not plugged in properly) and we lost almost all of the audio from the mic. This was TERRIFYING considering I thought we had to reshoot everything. Luckily, we had the idea to bring Dani's camcorder-like camera so we used the audio on that one and, with Zach's CBTV skills, he enhanced the audio to the best of its ability. With adding some captions (I should've added more), what the interviewees were saying wasn't too blurry, yet definitely not perfect.
2. Time (what a surprise!)
3. Beginning: For the beginning of the doc, I had no idea what to do. I was stuck as I felt overwhelmed with all of the content we had filmed and didn't even know where to start. I got over this bump by writing everything I wanted to prioritize on a notes page on the Notes app on my phone, as I felt like I had a lot I wanted to get across at the beginning but hadn't put it into words/ organized it. This allowed me to get a hold on the approach for the beginning, as I put myself in the place of the viewer and thought about what I wanted to make them feel. I also reminded myself of what I said in the first blog post of this series: There's no right way! There are so many ways to get develop the narrative we wanted, so I let myself experiment.

Screen-recording of one of Note pages (ME TRYING TO PROCESS MY THOUGHTS)

                             Reflections

    After I finished my editing part, I put together what Zach had edited to make what is the current final product. Here is a link to our op-doc, Does This Make You Uncomfortable?

    This process was exhilarating and fulfilling. In the 2-week span we had to research, plan, film, and edit our 13-minute documentary, I reconnected to a fun style of editing that I hadn't exercised in a while, and dived into a topic with 2 friends of mine that genuinely interested me (NOT FEET, BUT THE SOCIOLOGICAL PART OKAY.) While there is definitely more we could've done and things we could change, I am really proud of how it ended up and even prouder of how I know we are going to maximize its potential in the near future. 

    This has been one of my favorite projects I've gotten to do in all of AICE Media Studies, and am excited to watch more documentaries as it has become one of my favorite genres of film. If our doc gets accepted into any places we submit it to, the whole class will show up in flip flops its been established. (Also we contacted the Baha Men band's agency and team to use the song "Who Let the Dogs Out?" for our ending credit scene and we got past one person, meaning we got a response. That was a highlight for sure.)

Does This Make You Uncomfortable? - Production

    Now it was time to enter the world of foot opinions and instigate a range of reactions from people out in the real world, the part of the process that most excited us. Our filming dealt with four major parts:

1. Main interviews: longer, more focused interviews that would take up around the second half of the doc ( interviewees included on specific interviewee list)
2. MOTS ("Man on the Street style interviews; interviewees spontaneously chosen gave informed consent)
3. Creator interviews
4. B-roll

    We already had our questions ready for #1 and #2, and some responses from our interviewee list, so we decided to get started as quickly as possible, as we needed the interviews to get any b-roll we needed.

#1- Main Interviews

    We began by filming the interviews that were supposed to move the conversation of feet from mainly comedic to more thoughtful and meaningful. Below is a list of the interviewees that we ended up interviewing:

    We brought the same tools for each interview, including filming equipment (a camera and a mic) that Zach obtained through CBTV and of his own, as well as the picture that we would be referencing when beginning each interview with "Does this make you uncomfortable?", referring to the name of the documentary. We started with Mr. Berna's interview, and it was one of my favorites of the whole interview experience. He was receptive and dived into realms of the topic with passion such as his observations on self-consciousness affecting people not just having to do with when feet are exposed in unconventional contexts, but the reasoning for the use of oversized clothing in Gen Z, or the reason why teens in his local environment where hoodies when it's close to 100 degrees outside. He gave us connections that we hadn't even thought of yet, all while also giving us really funny content to use that would develop an array of interviewee "personalities", also drawing in the viewer.

One of our favorite moments from his interview

    We proceeded to film the rest of the main interviews over the span of the next week and a half, with multiple perspectives on the topic. The two teachers we interviewed definitely had more to say about the societal implications of the specific reaction that they have noticed/ are now aware of regarding Gen Z and feet, with Mr. Berna stating to have noticed it previously and Mr. Cano seemed to be just becoming aware of it, making conclusions based on other similar discomforts he's noticed in the generation:

    The process of filming took about 10-20 minutes per interview, depending on who was being interviewed. While Andrea's took about 10, being that she had less to say about the topic, Mr. Berna's took around 18 minutes, as he remarked on personal anecdotes and made further connections. 

                               #2- MOTS

    These style of interviews took one day to shoot, including us going to a commonplace in our city known as Town Center and asking strangers these questions:

• Does this (picture of feet below) make you uncomfortable?
• Do you have any specific opinions/ feelings towards feet?

The piece of paper we showed all of our interviewees of feet

    We used a two cameras this time- a modern and more "camcorder feel" camera to create a range of shots and textures in the visuals to engage the audience, as well as a different mic that would serve the style of MOTS and allow us to easily get better audio rather than mic people up which would take too long and even turn away some of our potential interviewees. We were in between Town Center and a local mall but ended up choosing the center because of the mixed age groups that we have each seen there, as well as that it was a more easily accessible place to all of us. 

Handheld mic and camera (camcorder-like camera not shown)

    Being the one that was asking the questions, I felt it was really important to constantly try to stay focused on the bigger picture during the interviews and meet the interviewees where they were at in terms of comfortability with the topic and being interviewed in a public place, as well as confusion on the topic in general (as in why were we asking them about feet). I made sure to start by quickly explaining what grade we were all in (as Zach and Dani were filming on two separate cameras) and what we were doing, saying something along the lines of "We are doing sociological study and wanted to see if you would be open to answering a few questions", also stating that it would take a maximum of 5 minutes. 

    The interviews included an array of responses, especially between the generations. We got further insight into people's different connections to feet, specifically adults who have a connection to dance. It informed us on the different relationships people can have with feet, specifically opening our eyes to Generation Z's attention to appearance as they all were focused on how a foot looks, smells, etc... Below are two clips from our MOTS interviews:

An older couple's "stance" on feet

Gen Zers joking about having a foot fetish

  

                        #3- Creator Interviews

    At the beginning of the brainstorming process, we didn't know that we were going to include ourselves in the narration of the documentary, with the idea forming later on as we began to ground our approach and realize we needed a reliable voice to move the narrative along in a clear way to best serve the other interviews. We decided to film ourselves slightly last minute to piece the "puzzle pieces" that were the main interviews and MOTS together. We used the same filming equipment that we had used for the main interviews plus a different camera that is my sister's, a Sony ZV-E10, as I filmed my own interviews by myself at my house due to a lack of time to do it together. It didn't make too much of a difference as I asked myself the questions and pretended someone was there!!!

    Dani's interview was filmed before school, giving insight into her opinion on the topic. While the full interview was about 4 and a half minutes long, post-production molded each of our interviews to better serve the flow of the narrative, which I will talk more about in the next blog. Zach recorded on his iPhone so I didn't include his clip during editing, which we will be reshooting as we continue to clean up the op-doc till it's finished.

Raw footage of Dani's interview

Raw footage of my interview

#4 - B-roll

    This is the part of the filming that we definitely lacked in. Since we were racing against time and focusing on finishing the interviews, we didn't prioritize making time to brainstorm and produce b-roll to support our interviews. B-roll ideas that I had come up with included showing different types of shoes, which I demonstrated a draft of in the blog post "Does This Make You Uncomfortable? - Research", where we could introduce the aspect of acceptance of feet being exposed in specific contexts, being a reason why people feel disturbed by feet out in a classroom for example. A consistent and stylized form of b-roll to demonstrate items that some of the interviewees referenced such as Mr. Berna referencing Billie Eilish wearing oversized clothing, that wasn't included in the current version of the doc, or Mr. Canno's interview referring to "bandages" (pimple patches) that teens wear nowadays could be good options, but ones that we didn't implement into our doc. 

A still shot of a draft of possible b-roll (pimple patch box)

    Also, we could've implemented b-roll of people looking at others and being aware of others' perceptions of them or them on social media. Whether or not it would have to be staged, it would help develop the bigger picture and make the points the interviewees are saying regarding everyday awareness of perception feel more relatable to the Gen Z audience/ look more familiar.

Reflections

    Stage 3 of our op-doc was the most fun and eventful, with the interviewee reactions to our questions giving us close-up reactions and insight into the topics we had researched, including control over external perception, self-consciousness, and conformity, both implicitly through seemingly just funny moments and sometimes explicitly through interviewed who has more to say about the topic.

    In the moment it felt like having a scattered array of puzzle pieces that we had to fit together to develop a much larger conversation, and in retrospect, they would fit together (in post-production)! As someone who needs to see the bigger picture to feel like I can confidently approach a project, it was at times challenging to dive in without a clear outline of what would occur being that our interviews guided many of our choices. This stage taught me that it's key to be as focused on the bigger picture throughout filming as possible, or else it will all fall on the editing stage which isn't bad but can feel overwhelming when having so much footage and such little time. Additionally, having a stronger idea of our narrative structure (planning stage) would help this part, as it would've aided in knowing what we needed from our own creator interviews. We also didn't develop a specific script for the creator interviews and that had repercussions in the post-production process.

Does This Make You Uncomfortable? - Research and Planning

     On the first day of discussing documentaries, specifically viewing the doc previously discussed, I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked, my teacher brought up a question to the class, "How do you guys feel about feet?". This started a slight outburst of energized disgust from the class, which I expected. I personally have thought about this topic before and have a good amount of opinions on it, specifically speculations on why a sense of genuine discomfort is now maximized by the exposure of feet, as well as about how much it slightly saddens me that it's happening. While that may sound strange, it's true. After my future partner for the project, Zach jokingly brought up the idea "We should do a documentary on feet", I proceeded to write ideas on my paper for a possible future documentary...

    After taking notes on "Documentary Production Tips/ Techniques" in class and diving into the requirements for the project, we began to brainstorm documentary topics and form into groups. Sticking to my word and genuinely wanting to have an excuse to indulge in the concepts that came with exploring Generation Z's relationship to feet/ their feelings towards them, I initially wanted to work alone. As a control freak and having such a specific focus in mind of approaching the topic with depth not just as a joke/ in a surface-level way that seems to cover the truth behind the reactions that occurred in class, I ended up changing my mind as we had about 2 weeks to research, plan, film, and edit the op-doc, and because I knew that the two people interested in joining my group, Dani and Zach, would be intentional, dedicated, and also just make the 2-week process fun.

Tips & Techniques

                        Brainstorming Approach

    We immediately began to brainstorm ideas on our approach, which would largely define how the audience approaches the concept of feet and the possible ideas we were going to be bringing up through our interviews. This was the hardest part, along with b-roll during production, as there isn't a specific layout for this, or any topic. As stated in my last blog post, we had to figure out WHAT we wanted to say/ WHY we were all going to be showcasing this "snippet of life", as well as HOW we were going to translate that purpose in our approach. A LOT TO THINK ABOUT! 

    Some immediate things we landed on were that we wanted to develop a comedic tone to allow the audience to get comfortable with the topic, as that would build their openness to considering our future observations, founded on research and our own "research" interviewing a range of people on the topic. While it took a while for our approach to be tightly secured, we ended up taking inspiration from Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop documentary and almost "splitting doc in half". As his production shifts in "narrator" and begins to steer the audience's perception of the main subject of the doc, I really wanted to create a shift in our production of "funny" with consideration of the responses happening to more "thoughtful" with more grounded and focused interviews. Being that we wanted to dive into Generation Z specifically when viewing their reactions to feet and what it alludes to about their generation, we knew that we wanted to consider other generations in the conversation to have a source of comparison and bring this "issue", or observation of reactions, to light, which we hoped we would get in our interviews.

                               Planning

    In the midst of brainstorming, we began to plan. We did a pre-documentary planning assignment that allowed us to organize ourselves including our title that Zach brilliantly came up with, possible shot-types, and more. It is linked below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F5km0Ajt9f0JbfansIrfX47LvRyJV7g5pYcaBFpdp6M/edit?usp=sharing

    We also created a separate document for our structure/ outline that ended up becoming our hub for ideas, critiques, and research. This document holds our interview questions as well, a key part of not just how to approach our own topic, but for any documentary. Our "unofficial planning documentary" is linked below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QW5WFuj6omY_bY0E63oNOA62IXIcFNUhZvUqptyMk_M/edit?usp=sharing 

    Our planning consisted of us trying to fully understand our approach and go from there, with our filming schedule looking like this:

• Asking our wanted interviewees if they would be available to film at any point in the week
• Setting up interviews and securing time slots for those who agreed
• Filming those interviews (serve as a more focused and personal outlook on the topic for the audience)
• Filming "Man On the Street" style interviews
• Filming our own interviews (that idea came later in the process)
• Getting b-roll after our interviews

    Our topic needed a comparison of different generation's reactions to feet, so brainstorming our interviewees began with wanting to interview people of different ages who could have different relationships to feet (ex: In terms of occupation- a doctor, a pedicurist, etc...). Once we talked to our teacher about these examples of possible interviewees, with each group member searching for connections for people with these specific jobs, we settled on focusing on age. 

    Regarding interview questions, we came up with a set specific questions that allowed for internal and external reflection on the current day reactions to feet, using them as a base with our interviewees but also allowing for any follow-up questions to their responses. For the MOTS as we would call them (interviews filmed on the street), we asked our interviewees the first and third question from the list below, being that we didn't want to stop them for too long and weren't depending on those interviews to get more thoughtful, rather as an entertaining beginning to our doc. Below is our draft of interview questions (we changed up the wording a little bit when asking our interviewees these questions, but stuck to the same idea):

First-day ideas

Notes on us playing with and securing our outline

A reframing of specifics to include after filming some interviews

                              Research

    The research is linked above in the "unofficial planning documentary", including links to websites that we thought had relevant information regarding observations and even lack of conclusive "answer" as to why so much of Gen Z (studying about Gen Z in U.S.) could/ does have a more amplified reaction to feet as compared to other generations. We thought it was important to investigate the prior reasons for discomfort with feet, such as the idea of a foot fetish/ the sexualization of feet. We researched the relationship between the discomfort of feet with Gen Z's current-conforming state, and how being on social media is a huge contributor and influencer of their opinions and awareness of perception. This all developed my want to hear from the interviewees and put these ideas of extreme awareness/conformity to avoid judgment and fear of being judged to the test, as it's something I have seen in my day-to-day life.

    

    In addition to research on the topic, we were still trying to put a finger on what approach we wanted to take so we looked into some documentaries, with A Vulnerable Conversation About Attractiveness, a docu-series on Tejas Hullur's YouTube channel coming up on my homepage, and opening my eyes to a type of way that we could possibly insert ourselves into the narration (also inspired by Exit Through the Gift Shop) to better clearly communicate and drive the concepts forward to get to a purposeful place in the end.

                             Reflections

    This part of the process was essential in grounding our similar ideas, as well as bridging our ideas and actions. This part was also probably the hardest, as trying to set a distinctive plan meant we had to get to the core of what we were trying to "shed light" on ABOUT the Gen Zers reactions to feet, and be extremely focused on the bigger picture while filming, editing, etc... It took us a while to get to the final product in terms of approach, with it honestly falling fully into place during editing.

    I now know that having a clear path (that can end up changing during the production process) from the start aids in making decisions about what to film, so the more planning we can do beforehand the better, as we don't want the story to take a life of its own. While it wasn't an extreme issue in the final product, it's a takeaway for future projects as it made me feel stuck at the beginning, being that we didn't have a quickly established group outlook on how our choices were contributing to what we wanted to leave the audience with in the end.