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)