Documentary Critical Reflection: Recovery

Recovery was a complicated documentary to produce, given how the pre-production and production was fraught with new developments or changing approaches. However, this is not to say that no thought or research was put into it, despite its nature as a constantly evolving piece.

The main documentary that we researched to model our own documentary off of was Exit Through The Gift Shop, which is about the journey of Thierry Guetta, as he immerses himself within the culture of street art, and later in the documentary, the focus shifts to being about infamous street artist Banksy, who also directed this documentary. Initially, we simply admired the way the documentary was conducted, in its mesh of direct and indirect interviews, as well as its sparse use of voiceover when needed to progress their narrative. However, when taking into account the later complications surrounding Recovery, we realized that Exit Through the Gift Shop had more in common with our theoretical documentary than we thought, since Recovery also has a focus shift: from trinkets to Wade’s SD card’s recovery.

We tried our best to emulate the style of Banksy’s documentary within our own- adopting the indirect interview style we had seen exhibited in his piece. Similarly, we also made an attempt to also have that transition between the topics of trinkets to Wade’s SD card as well as it was done with Guetta’s story to Banksy’s in Exit Through The Gift Shop. However, given the time constraints that we had for our documentary, we weren’t able to execute a very smooth transition between the two subjects- a flaw glaringly apparent in our documentary. If I had the chance to remake or improve Recovery, it’s this aspect that I’d want to fix more than anything else, perhaps with the inclusion of the other two interviews we had initially taken for the original Trinket documentary.

It’s a little tricky to label artists or photographers as a “social group” in the context of our documentary. However, I feel that Wade as a representative for young filmmakers and artists is paramount to the impact of this documentary. It is important to make the distinction of Wade being an artist rather than an average student because it is this relationship between him and his SD card that creates meaning in Recovery. To an average person, losing a SD card would be an inconvenience, but it would not have nearly the same impact as it would have on an artist, or specifically in this case, a budding cinematographer and director. 

To Wade, more than just his memories of the family trip were lost. To him, it was his potential to make a piece of art that was lost, and it is this same feeling of loss that I tried to convey within the documentary. Simply put, Recovery represents artists as dependent on their art, and more emotionally invested in their art (or potential in this case) than in anything else.

Recovery wholly relies on the hope that the audience is emotionally invested in Wade’s story of loss and recovery. Due to the focus on art and potential that the documentary has, its meant to appeal to young artists and creators like Wade, who may be able to relate to similar stories of losing their work. Therefore, it is essential that Recovery gets the audience to associate with his story, and having them follow the ups and downs of his story as closely as they would their own, since his journey of loss and recovery is something all artists can relate to. It is meant to elicit a strong emotional response from its “slice of life” approach to the story, and leave artists connected to the film.

In general, I’m very happy with how Recovery turned out. Its narrative was compelling, its decently visually interesting, and it accomplished its goal of triggering an emotional reaction to Wade’s story. There are a few nitpicks I’d like to change in the future (namely the amateur camera movements and the often redundant voiceover), but really it's biggest flaw was the lack of context with the Trinket aspect of the documentary when compared to the SD card story. With more time and the inclusion of a few more interviews, I think this issue could be easily fixed, leaving the final product in need of only minor polishing before being considered a product I think is perfect.

For my future projects in this class, I’m definitely taking into consideration the lessons I learned from my experience making this documentary, especially the fact that just because the documentary doesn’t go as planned, doesn’t necessarily means its something to panic about. I’m generally pretty rigid and strict with my planning (just ask my group members, I plan things to such an extent it could almost be a flaw), but the production of Recovery helped me come to terms that I can just go with the flow and enjoy the natural progression of stories and projects as they come, a sentiment I hope will become apparent in any future postings to this blog!

The Making of My Documentary: Recovery

The interview set-up went smoothly and quickly- only involving the setting up of my tripod and the shifting of Wade's desk and backdrop to conceal the rest of his home in the shot. We began by shooting some basic b-roll, including a few shots of him fiddling with the SD card he would be discussing in his interview and some more clips of Wade holding different cameras and equipment. These b-roll shots were alright, however they were rushed as I was anxious and excited to start interviewing Wade.

Below are some B-roll Clips that I recorded that day:

   

After the b-roll was done, I began to shoot some questions at Wade, starting with the background of his SD card, how he filled it with videos and pictures from an important trip with his family in 2019, and eventually, detailing the moment he realized all the footage was corrupted.  He gave some insight on the lengths he and his family went to attempt to recover the data from the SD card, but it was all gone. Finally, we ended the interview with his explanation for why he had kept the SD card after all these years, and how it serves as an object to reflect on, and to serve as a reminder to keep on going despite whatever goes wrong.

It was after this interview that I had a new idea for a shot of b-roll I wanted for the documentary: a shot of the computer screen filled with error messages from the SD card. When I brought this idea up before leaving, Wade obliged and decided to plug in the SD card for the first time in years. And as I obliviously joked and hummed as I waited for the error messages to appear, I hadn't yet realized what Wade had, as he fell into a silence: instead of error messages appearing, the files from three years ago had begun to load.

After finally realizing what was happening, I readjusted my position to better capture his reaction to the sudden recovery of the footage. Despite being in clear surprise and shock, I was able to improvise a few angles to record his reaction, and I hastily requested a follow up interview to address what just happened. I interviewed Wade, and called my group members to tell them of the development, when we took the decision to scrap the trinket documentary in favor for a documentary purely about Wade's SD card and its sudden recovery.

A few days later, I returned to Wade's house to conduct an interview with his mother, as she provided another perspective on the whole experience- that of a family member who saw the negative effect the loss of the SD card had on him, and how he had grown from the experience. After collecting another hour's worth of footage, I turned it all over to Manny for editing, since all group roles had suddenly fallen on me: interviewer, writer, director, cinematographer... the whole nine yards. Thankfully Manny edited the whole thing together in just a few days, and we were able to submit in time for our deadline, even though our plans had been completely flipped over a few days before the documentary was due.

It was a blast producing this documentary, even with all of its twists and turns that we had to endure and improvise with. All in all, I'm proud of what we made in such a short timeframe, and the developing story of the interview awakened a new passion within me to seek out stories like Wade's, because absolutely nothing can top the feeling of capturing a moment as it unfolds right before you. This might be something worth looking into in the future! Until my next project, I'm content with how it turned out.

If you wish to watch the documentary, feel free to watch it here. (link not up yet)

The Planning Behind My Documentary: Recovery

Hello again! As promised in my previous post, here I am, ready to recount the process of making my own documentary for my AICE Media Studies A course. This was a journey for me: starting with several days of deliberation and research with my group members, Manny and Joey, a hastily put together plan for a documentary involving trinkets, and finally, an interview that would change everything we had planned for. 

The first few days proved to be challenging: the first real group project of the year promised endless possibilities with few limitations. I was working together with my good friends Manny & Joey, and we were given free rein to produce a documentary on anything we could think of- as long as it was done within a few weeks. What was seemingly a dream project quickly proved itself to be a challenge, since due to the lack of guidelines and rules, there wasn't a lot to start with.

Our Brainstorming Bullet List

Our initial thoughts were vague and boring- a product of a mind without much guidance. We listed any ideas that came to mind, ranging from a documentary on student filmmakers that we knew of in our class, to a piece covering the decline in quality for school-provided services since the COVID-19 pandemic. None of these ideas really struck a chord with us, and were mostly just ideas for the sake of ideas- a safety net until we could find something worth doing. 

Luckily, we finally settled on an idea: Trinkets. We wanted to explore the concept of how people dedicate meaning to useless little objects with no express purpose, like a pair of fuzzy dice, or a broken ring gifted from a friend. We decided to have the documentary revolve around different interviews from people recounting their history with their own trinket, and what it means to them. It was a cute little idea- but if I'm being honest, I wasn't all too into it any more than I was talking about school services. But regardless of my own feelings, we went with this idea because of the time crunch soon approaching.

Wade's proposed list of trinkets

To gather interviews, each group member went about seeking interviews in their own manner. I opted to make an ad post on my Instagram story to try to reach as many people as I could (with my feeble following of 350 people). Within 24 hours, I had received a little over two dozen replies to the advertisement, and I started off the list by messaging my close friend and AICE Media classmate, Alex 'Wade' Duque.

Wade had offered a few potential trinkets I could interview him on, and it turned out that we had a free timeslot for an interview in a few days, so it was a promising idea. Additionally, one of the trinkets he mentioned, a corrupted SD card he kept after three years, had piqued my interest, which provided an interesting angle on trinkets, being an object that used to have purpose/function, but no longer has one. With this in mind, we made plans to meet up after school for a few hours to record the interview.

Having written a rudimentary script for interview questions I would ask him, and a short, simple list of shots I wanted to get for b-roll, I felt decently prepared for the interview, especially after hearing that my other group member, Joey, had already recorded an interview with another classmate. However, it would turn out that no amount of planning would have prepared me for what happened during the interview.

Another Beginning!

Welcome to the new and improved reincarnation of the Stories Relit blog, where I aim to present a more organized repository of my thoughts and school projects for my last year in high school. For returning readers: Hello again! To any new readers, allow me to introduce myself!

My name is John, and my interest for stories told through all mediums, whether they be text, film, or music, is a core part of who I am, and the main reason I'm writing this blog (alongside class requirements..). I have a deep passion for interpreting media that I consume everyday, as well as dabbling into the creation of my own projects to improve my own abilities, both in communicating my own intent through my projects and deconstructing meaning in other media.

    This new blog was made as a way to start anew, separate from my old media blog, which can be found here. Despite being decently proud of my work from last year, I find myself wanting to distance myself from it, embracing this new year as a chance to start a new blog with the insight and experience I gained last year, ideally resulting in a stronger blog from its very first post, rather than figuring it out as I went along (something painfully evident in my old blog).

    With all this being said, I look forward to populating my new blog website with new posts and projects from this new year of study. Anticipate a post discussing my experience producing my own documentary very soon!