Critical Reflection: Pieces of Mind

     My documentary, "Pieces of Mind" highlights high school seniors sharing their thoughts on change. Their thoughts are further developed when they are asked to create a physical representation of change through art, which causes deeper reflection and results in new-founded perspectives.

    In the beginning of my journey, research of the documentary genre was conducted in order to understand key conventions through class notes. To delve further into the genre, we watched specific in class such as Cartel Land, American Promise, and Exit Through the Gift Shop. Particularly Exit Through the Gift Shop and American Promise inspired me for my own work as they heavily stressed indirect interviews. I researched this technique further and understood that indirect interviews let the interviewees become the sole narrative rather than the interviewer. With direct interviews, the answers from the interviewee felt more forced and less cohesive as a whole. This research led to my production choice of solely relying on indirect interviews to let the thoughts of my selected interviewees tell an easy-flowing story. 

    I independently conducted research online on how to properly construct interview clips to give the effect of interviewees talking to each other. I learned to listen for key words in my clips of subjects mentioning the same ideas and string them side by side. This seemed like I would just have to get lucky in order to have separate interviews present similar ideas, but it actually occurred naturally. This technique was crucial in the creation of my piece as I placed a great deal of importance on the thoughts of my subjects as individuals apart of a community going through a similar life change. 

    Although my piece is focused on an unavoidable and universal experience- change- it has a relatively specific target audience. All of my interviewees are high school seniors- a group of people who have a significant life change approaching like a ticking time-bomb. Naturally, my target audience are high school seniors as well. It's comforting to see others perspective on such a broad topic that can be overwhelmingly scary, so I think my piece simply existing is engaging enough for a senior to relate to. It is also notable that my interviewee ratio is male-dominated, which crushes the typical expectation for women to engage in more emotional conversation, and opens the floor even more to general seniors, not just a specific gender. If I had to draw a more specific audience, I believe my piece would engage with those interested in art expression and abstract pieces due to the creation aspect of it.

    As for representation in my piece, it is clear that the age being presented is the brink of being a legal adult. Giving 17 year olds the platform to maturely communicate their feelings on an easily relatable experience strays away from the typical teenage image. I would consider 17 to be THE age of the prime teenage stupidity stereotype. My interviewees are exactly that expectation- soon to go off to college high school seniors. However, they don't show traits anywhere near the typical careless barely-legal prototype. So, it can be acknowledged that my piece represents this age group of teenagers as the intelligent and thought-provoking individuals that they are, and even leaning into the beauty in vulnerability of not having everything figured out yet rather than negatively digging at it.

    Pieces of Mind as a whole works to encourage thought in finding a positive outlook of change in a retrospective view, which is something I learned while directing this piece. The journey of this creation was a ride, and I can confidently say that I am proud of what I have accomplished and will cherish the new perspectives I have been given. 

The Pieces of Pieces of Mind

Hello Blog! 

I told you I'd be back... ☺

I made a documentary! It's called Pieces of Mind and it's about the feeling of change expressed through art. Before giving you the link to my piece, I think it'd only be right to give you a little rundown of what went into it all. You know, just like old times!

Phase I. RESEARCH

In class, we were taught the ins and outs of documentary. We focused on conventions and forms, which I took useful notes on.  

    I got a better feel for all of these conventions after watching pieces like Exit Through the Gift Shop and Cartel Land. Specifically, Exit Through the Gift Shop helped me develop ideas for my own piece as it largely stressed indirect interviews. They helped the piece unfold as a narrative of its own rather than a heavily structured piece. 

    I continued to research indirect interviews and how to properly form questions in order to elicit responses that will flow nicely when put next to another interviewees. Through further lessons in class and asking questions, I understood the importance of shaping your interview around your interviewee's responses. Making the interview a growing conversation was crucial in order to dig "gold" from your subjects. 

Phase II. PLANNING

    The planning for my documentary took place on Google Docs. When I finally landed on an idea I broke down the concept into 6 different parts to make production more digestible. 

 

I. Set up the vast weight the concept of change carries

- setting up the table with all crafts supplies with a voiceover referring to how change is something everyone feels differently upon, however the word “change” is not stated

II. Introduction to experiment and change 

Interviewees introduce themselves and that they are seniors in high school

What is change? [indirect]

In any way you chose to, 2D, 3D, simple, abstract, etc… Can you create what change looks like to you? [direct]

 

III. *interviewees begin creating what change looks like to them. TAKE YOUR TIME WITH CREATION.* (THIS IS ALL B ROLL)

 

IV. Ask questions in the process of creation

[all indirect]

Mentally, where are you right now? (Not referring to personal struggles, rather on a timeline of your life) 

How will your life be different in a year (again, speak more mentally, less specifically)

What is your relationship with change? 

 

V: What did you make? 

 Explain your creation. [direct]

 Did you know this was how you felt? [indirect]

 

VI: the conclusion

Reflect. How does this extremely personal piece shift your perspective? [indirect]

Phase III. PRODUCTION

    All filming for my documentary took place in one day. I first set up my interviewee's workspace with all supplies they would need for the main event of the documentary.

    The scattered paper and supplies made for a cool look with a simplistic background. It captured the exact balance of art and minimalism I intended. 

    Next, my 3 interviewees individually completed their interviews. With my lended microphone and my fairly new camera (hello improvement from last year!), production was a smooth-sailing process.

My view of production

My camera's much prettier view

    In-between all interviews, I had to shoot B-roll with my phone to fill in my piece and show a closer view of each creation. This was pretty self-explanatory and easy. I gathered all kinds of shots: high angle, close ups, extreme close ups, etc. 

  

  After all interview shenanigans, I did some solo production. I had 3 orders of business: intro, credits, and voiceover. 

    

    The intro sequence and credits were filmed back to back with the same style. I used the materials I gave the interviewees and cut out letters and pieces of paper to display my doc's name and all proper credits. 

Title Sequence

Credits

    I think these elements are what made my piece really come together as a whole. Yes, the intro and outro are short, but they pay attention to the details and aesthetic of my piece. I love how they came out. 

    Lastly, I recorded my voiceover for the first 25 seconds of my piece. This was simple, I connected the microphone I lended to my phone and recorded and audio clip. Not any interesting visual to see here! Just take my word for it. 

Phase IV. POST-PRODUCTION

    Editing took quite a while, as always. I used iMovie for practically everything besides the text on screen for which I used my other favorite editing application, Vont. Editing consisted of putting all my footage together (I had over 30 minutes of footage), and cutting out the unnecessary parts. I then had to sprinkle my interviews throughout each other which was the most challenging part of my post-production process.

 

    My piece has a heavy use of jump-cuts, showing what my interviewees were working on while they continued to answer the questions I posed. This was the bulk of my editing, dealing with drizzling my interview audio over my B-roll shots.

    I also layered music on top of my edited clips which really pulled together my piece. iMovie has nice features where you can fade in and out sounds over each other which made for easy and smooth transitions. 

    I ended up with my piece being 6:20, which fit perfectly into our given time frame of 5-7 minutes. 

Phase V. ADMIRATION

Here she is, folks...

Pieces of Mind: a documentary