research, planning and production

 Once we were given our documentary project I was really excited as I’d never made a documentary before. The first step was to brainstorm with my teammate Valentina. In the brainstorming process, we shared topics with each other and determined the top two best options. Eventually, we settled on making a documentary on PTSD. We specifically wanted to focus on how the gym helps with the transition from military life into civilian life. 

After choosing our topic, I went ahead and figured out the logistics. I wanted to interview a veteran I met at my workplace, the gym, as I already established a relationship with him and felt he would be open to helping me with this documentary. In addition, since we met at the gym and he avidly works out, I felt he was a perfect candidate. One day when I was working, he came in and I proposed the idea. He liked the idea and we exchanged contact information so I’d be able to text him more info later that week. Valentina and I decided that the gym would be best for us to shoot. I knew our interviewee was on a tight schedule as he was training to be a cop, so I wanted to shoot the interview prior to him working out and b-roll shots while he was working out so he didn’t have to go to multiple locations.

Once we had the location and interviewee set, I moved on to creating a list of questions. I asked Valentina to send me potential questions which I merged and edited into mine. After the question list was complete, I made a chart to organize all the shots. I previously made a small shot list but the actual shots we were going to get were going to be in this chart. Within the chart, I also included editing notes that I can reference whilst editing. In addition to the shots, the sounds I would use, transitions, and graphics I would include were listed. It's also important to note I organized the entire documentary based on the question order. You can see the chart below.

At this point, all that is left to do is shoot and edit the documentary. After some discussion with Justin, our interviewee, we settled on a date and time we can shoot. We shot the documentary originally in the gym which ended up being too loud. Because of this, we had to reshoot the interview for a later date inside an office at the gym to avoid the background noise. The original b-roll we got was good and with the interview reshoot, we were done with the shooting. This left only the editing to be done. 

The first thing I did prior to editing was organize all of my videos and audio files. I made separate folders organizing everything in specific groups, Ex. audio (music, sound effects, and interview audio), video (B-roll, interview video, and stock footage), and links to the statistics used within the graphics.

The first thing I edited was the production intro which took way longer than expected.

(This is how it looked prior to editing it into the production. I decided the effect at the end looked a little cheesy so I took it out)

Then I began editing the documentary. This process took a long time but wasn’t too difficult as I just had to follow the chart I made. In total it took around 8 consecutive hours. I like editing in one long shot, then reviewing it for any mistakes after my first render. I was really satisfied with how it turned out and sent it to Valentina to review. She liked it as well and all that was left was to submit it!