Entry Nine

Day Twenty-Five

(whuddif)

I found this opening scene from the Marcel Wehn documentary Solitude(2010) to fit in with the exact feel of how I would want mine to be. Since I plan to make my extract the opening scenes, this was extremely refreshing to find. How the subjects were introduced along with how both the diegetic and non-diegetic sound played out are exactly how I planned to execute them, cinematically. As Michael Moore said in his Indiewire article "Don’t make a documentary — make a MOVIE". 

That article is a read worth your while from THE documentary film maker. Things like how you react behind the camera is how your audience will react and not telling the audience what they already know and talking to them like they're stupid (I might have to reconsider including those facts I talked about two blog posts ago). In order to make something good, it's important to listen to the greats and thankfully in that article, Michael Moore told me his "rules for making a documentary film". 

Entry Eight

Day Twenty-Two

(Psalm: 22)

This week has been the least uneventful when it comes to working on my project to be completely honest. I have decided (I think I decided this subconsciously a while ago) to fully immerse myself in the documentary about Omar. I might do my Last Night idea just for fun though. This blog post will be covering where I'm at and what I plan to do in the coming week. I feel comfortable at where I stand, especially with the project's extension(or did I dream that), and I know that I have everything I need to make the project look exactly how I want it to (fisheye lenses, a wide angle lens, and proficiency in final cut, thanks to a class I took this summer). Although I wanted a Sony VX-1000 for both this project and for other things I want to film this summer, I could not find one under $500 in the condition I wanted. I can easily replicate it's retro visuals in post however, so that's not a big deal. The item I really wanted to acquire before I commenced filming was a portable recorder, like this, in order to get high quality audio wherever I go. I have alternatives, although a bit bulkier, they will work. I really want to out do myself on this project and make something I'm proud of, and I'll do what it takes to not just get good technique down, but good quality in terms of audio and video.

This coming week I will begin to film. I will shadow Omar in his personal life after doing some interviews at his house. Some things I definitely want to incorporate are his son, his work environment, his mugshot, and daily routines. To have a little background on Omar, his official charge was assault with a deadly weapon, a crowbar. I've only heard the story from his little brother so I don't want to go off what he says until I actually interview Omar himself. Joel, Omar's little brother, would be a great subject to interview, but I already tried and he is not a very good speaker on camera nor do I feel him to be extremely necessary. I plan on coming forward to my school's security and the police officers who remain on campus to get their perspective on this subject. I have other friend who have been tried for cases but I feel that I should only focus on Omar. I should start fully developing a plan for marketing to make my part after filming much easier as well.

These are my tasks for next week, and I am looking forward to completing them. filming was the funnest part of my project last year and I expect it to be the same this year.

Entry Seven

Day Twenty

(fax)

There are some surprising facts you may no be aware of when it comes to the American prison system. Some things like 

• There are more African Americans in some form of correctional supervision today than there were slaves in 1850.
• The incarceration rates for minorities are almost six times more likely than those of white men
• Even a non violent offender in a "minimum security" prison costs taxpayers, on average, $22,000 a year. All prisoners in total cost taxpayers nearly seventy billion dollars per year.
• The United States has more prisoners than the entire population of New Mexico

All of these facts are interesting but there are two in specific that are both relevant to my documentary and absolutely ridiculous in my opinion: There are more jails than colleges in the U.S and 41% of all young people in America will have been arrested by the time they are 23.

These are some facts I would like to present in my documentary is some form, whether it be as a marketing strategy on my website or included as narration. 

This following info graphic compacts information relating exactly to Omar, minority juveniles who became imprisoned.

info graphic from SuspensionStories.com

Snyder, Michael. "Mass Incarceration: 21 Amazing Facts About America's Obsession With Prison." Infowars. American Dream, 28 July 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Borowski, Julie. "18 Facts You Need to Know About U.S. Prisons." Newsweek. Freedom Works, 18 Mar. 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Entry Five

Day Sixteen

(Got it)

I found something that is extremely similar to how I want to present information in my documentary. I contacted David Tucker, in order to get professional recommendations of films to watch to gather knowledge from. He told me "The most famous example that comes immediately to mind is The Thin Blue Line. It is a story of wrongful incarceration. It was groundbreaking in its day and has influenced many filmmakers since." 

Yes.

That's what I  am looking for. Thankfully it was on Netflix and I watched it, taking in every detail. Although not as contemporary as I would have liked for it to have been, it still gave me a lot of ideas about how to frame and pace interviews, how to incorporate not traditional elements(and make them blend seamlessly), "the bigger picture" of how my documentary would be as a whole if I were to produce the full piece, and dramatic reenactments (probably something I won't be able to do and something that won't really fit in my piece, but still something to think about).

Here is an excerpt from the film, the opening shots of the city along with the revolver cutaway around fifty seconds in are some concepts that I would love to incorporate in my documentary (Miami and Omar's crowbar)

• Morris, E., Law, L., Lipson, M., Czapsky, S., Chappell, R., Barnes, P., Glass, P., ... Fourth Floor Productions. (2005). The Thin Blue Line. Santa Monica, CA: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Home Entertainment.

Entry Four

Day Fourteen

(local)

Omar's  

    I want to stop and think about what I have. I live near two immense, major cities full of diverse culture, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. I own a decent DSLR, tripod, microphone, and different lenses. I have music to use for any scenes I would want to have some. I have a willing subject with an interesting and important topic. I don't exactly have the questions I want to ask him, but I know how I want to present him. I have some decisions made already, like where I want to film him and who in his life I want involved in scenes. All this together makes a solid documentary that I know for certain I can make how I visualize it in my head. I found documentaries relating to this topic I want to watch,  The House I Live In(2012) and The Work(2017). The Work debuted at SXSW just this week and I think there will be absolutely no way to watch it unless I reach out to him, which I will. The stills I have seen and the description and accompanying acclaim really make me want to see it as it sounds to be similar to what I'm going for. The five minute excerpt I want to be my final project I have decided to also be the film's introduction. At first, I was concerned about not being able to use archived footage in this project, especially since they are one of the biggest tropes when it comes to documentaries relating to social issues. Now, I'm excited to create something unconventional. Like In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, I want something nonfiction that plays like a character driven narrative. Little interviews and when they are necessary, do them as indirectly as possible, let him tell the story as much as he can.

Entry Three

Day Six

(money)

     Something that I have been considering about when it comes to final project decision is how well they will each translate to a viable and sounds marketing plan I can present in the project parts that require me to make a website and poster. The Last Night idea I have has some good ideas using social media and hastags, since social medias are the largest cultivation of strangers anywhere. Using them to connect among themselves and encouraging them to share their stories online. It's a good idea, and I know how i could present it in the website portion. The subject regarding Omar however doesn't have as much creative opportunities when it comes to marketing, or I just haven't thought of anything yet. The classical methods of trailers and film festival submission would most likely be what I side to if I do choose this topic.

     More and more, Last Night is becoming the topic I really want to do. It's experimental to a minimal degree which I find could help make it something that relates more to something I myself would watch. I watch documentary films this weekend and draw ideas and inspiration. On the other hand, I read an article (which I can't find again for the life of me, I just know it was on Indiewire.com) that discussed tips for documentary film making. It said whenever anything regarding your subject is going on, film it, in case something exeodinary happens and you won't regret not having the camera rolling. I applied this on Wednesday when I visited my friend(Omar'a brother) in his art class and gave him an interview on his brother. The school setting provided a lot of background for topics I want to explore in my piece, but he didn't say anything really amazing. It could still be good B-roll if I need it to be, but I think I will be redoing this interview and incorporating him perhaps in a dual interview to juxtapose them. This weekend is critical and decisions must be made, because right now all i'm doing is expanding on two ideas.

Entry Two

Day Three

(local)

Something I have watched the past days multiple times. It's really making me consider doing my Last Night idea more. The concept of every single stranger having a story to tell and we're all humans with the experience and an entire life that only they know everything about. They have a world around them with their family and friends, an average of maybe 20-40 people that make up the life that they know. Every story they have to tell will involve this world of characters they live in following the plot of life, with every second being a rich source of genuine human nature. Every car in a traffic jam has someone in it, driving alone or with passengers, on route to a destination that only they know. Maybe the white Jetta three cars back has someone in it going to the exact same place, with a completely different story that let these two strangers wind up in the same place. It's hard to really put in to words but that is how I view this subject and a bot of why I love it so much. Strangers always intrigued me, people I may have been best friends with in a parallel life. People whose "late night" I may have been a part of if I was part of their world.

In summary, what I want to do with this documentary is show a venn diagram of strangers, finding the dead center of it where they all overlap.

Entry One

The First Day

(first impressions)

     Back at it once more. Roughly a year since the AS level project which was one of the most challenging and interesting things I have done. I'm excited to begin my documentary piece and to see the process unfold bit by bit, allowing the pieces to come together. This specific blog posting relates to my first impressions of the project, and what I plan to do. I chose a documentary because I have worked on short films, trailers, and music videos before in other projects and the documentary genre is the one that I am least familiar with and I felt that challenging myself would make me more invested in my project. I welcome the challenge and look forward to dealing with it's many roadblocks. Since I chose my project at the beginning of this school year, I told myself by the time it was time to start working on it(right now) that I would have a well defined subject for what my documentary would be about. I had ideas throughout, all of them mostly relating to the underground music scene in South Florida where I'm from which is booming as of 2017. I had another idea for a more experimental documentary exploring the nature of humans not as individuals, but as a whole organism composed of smaller pieces that depend on each other. I wanted to do this by rushing strangers on the street, interviewing asking them about both what they did last night and an important event in their childhood. THis topic still seems so interesting to me and I'd love to do it, but the uncertainty regarding whether or not strangers will be the interviewees I desire them to be really puts me off. Somewhat inspired by the idea Humans of New York and the more abstract way of presenting your subject like in Cameraperson, Last Night(what I'm calling this idea for my project) is something I really want to do, but something I have to consider might present too many problems/ too unpredictable. ANother idea deals with immigration and South Florida being the multicultural melting pot that it is. I want to do something in this realm because of the current political sphere making this a a good subject in terms of marketing. I have no real defined way of presenting this subject, so as now , it''s only an idea.

     The final idea(and most probable that I will choose) is a form of observational documentary following Omar, an older brother of my friend who was incarcerated for nearly a year after being a star in track and letting a series of negative events lead him to catching a case. I spoke to him about it and he told me that he is willing to help me. I want to share a story that's so personal to many and hasn't had enough light shed on it. The "how a person changes in prison" stories are always ridiculed with stereotypes and I never think they feel real enough in movies and TV shows. They don't delve into what's really important, never exploring peer selection, coping, how people around you change, and just why it's hard to stay off what got you there in the first place. ALl of this I have briefly conversed about with Omar and I found fascinating. I would approach this technically as being nothing more than a cinematographer in the documentary, absolutely letting Omar tell his own story with me being his shadow behind the camera. Obviously, I must lead him to expose what I want to, but I want it to feel like Omar is making it about himself. I plan on making a layout for the 5 minute excerpt that I want to make the introduction of the documentary.

      Choosing my topic has been stressing me for far too long and I really need to settle on something rationally before more ideas flood my head.

Origins

Link to my AS level final portfolio project

http://astrumproductions.blogspot.com/