Documentary Production (Part 1)

   Right before the weekend where I was scheduled to film, I ran into a problem. Two of my four subjects had conflicts and wouldn't be able to participate, meaning I was down to two. Then after that, I learned that of those two, one of them was out of town on a family trip (one they didn't know about until now) and wouldn't be returning until after the weekend, meaning I was now down to one. With the availability of my interviewees out of my control, I set off on Monday, November 11th (a day off from school) to make the best of what I could get. I figured that I would make myself my own second subject, knowing that the structure of the film wouldn't feel the same if there was only one.

 That one subject was Jaden, a fellow student filmmaker. Jaden has been my best friend for years and I knew that if there was anyone I could rely on, it was him. I arrived at his place in the afternoon and we set up the interview in his bedroom. He had a shelf containing his desktop and a display of Funko Pop bobbleheads and Lego characters, which I thought would be an interesting background. I told him not to clean some of the clutter on it because it would make it look more natural, plus there was a box from our theater program that was labeled "Write the Story" that I thought should be visible because it fit the film's subject. The equipment I was using was rented from a place called Becon, which lends filming equipment to students in South Florida for student films and news stories. I got a camera, a lens, a mic, a pair of headphones, and a tripod, which were the bare essentials I needed for the documentary.

 Jaden's interview went smoothly. We began with a practice run so he could get a feel for how he wanted to answer the questions before we filmed the real thing. He talked about his writing process, an unfinished scrip called "Bury Harry", responded to some follow-ups I asked to get more detail on certain things, and before we knew it we were done. The next step was to film b-roll. I got some shots of Jaden working on his computer at various angles and some other ones of the posters and props littered around the room. Those computer shots were annoying, as no matter what I did to adjust the settings on the camera and the computer, the text on the computer wouldn't appear properly visible. It wasn't a big deal as it wasn't necessary for the audience to be able to read it, but it still bothered me because I wanted them to see that Jaden has written screenplays. Once that was over, I packed everything up and went back home.

 I needed to return the Becon equipment tomorrow, meaning that now was the time to film myself. I did in my bedroom, which was barren compared to Jaden's, and responded the questions that I had written. I focused on this video diary project I had began but never committed to and eventually abandoned, and I intended to use footage from that as b-roll. I'll be honest with you, it was late at night when I filmed this, I was tired, I wanted to sleep, and I knew that I looked and sounded like a mess and I dreaded having to edit it. It was all I could do without my other subjects, though, so I filmed my sleep deprived self and accepted whatever result that would yield. Now as much as I would love to show you the disaster that was the footage, I deleted it all. Why? Well, the next morning, a miracle happened.

 Sawyer (the person who was out of town) texted me to say that they got back home that night and could be filmed afterschool. I quickly texted the guy in charge of Becon and got him to let me extend me rent on the equipment, and when school was over I headed to Sawyer's house to conduct my second interview. Interviewing Sawyer was basically the same as interviewing Jaden, I asked the same questions but asked different follow-ups. Sawyer's responses were a lot more in depth and and felt a lot more personal that Jaden's more technical responses, which isn't to say anything bad about him, it's just to highlight how different people have different ways of expressing ideas. I liked this contrast, as it would make my documentary have more variety. Once we were out of questions, I got some b-roll, a lot of it being of Sawyer's digital drawings. Finally I was done and headed home, knowing that I now had two quality interviews, and didn't have to use the terrible one of myself. I felt confident, and all that was left to do was edit and export.