Documentary Production Part 1🥳

Documentary Filming 🎥💜

Now that all of our planning was behind us, it was finally time to start filming!

I joined my partner in the TV room, where she checked out the filming equipment. It was a whole process—tripod, camera, microphone, the works. I felt so official. Once everything was set, we headed off to film our first interview. Our subject was the school’s football coach, who also happens to teach engineering. He has been here since the school opened, so we were super excited to hear what he had to say.

We conducted the interview in his classroom, where the walls were decorated with football pictures and his tables were scattered with engineering projects. He was really enthusiastic, which made our job so much easier. He shared stories about what the school was like in its early years and how it has changed since then, especially in the students' usage of technology. Hearing him talk about the evolution of both the school and its students felt really meaningful.

Our next interview was scheduled for two days later, but things didn’t go as planned. My partner got sick, so we couldn't do the scheduled interviews. At first, I thought about going ahead and doing them myself, but there was a problem: since I wasn’t part of the TV program, I couldn’t borrow any filming equipment and I was worried that if I filmed it on my phone, the quality wouldn't match up. Because of this setback, we fell slightly behind schedule.

The following week, my partner filmed an interview without me because it happened during one of my class periods, and I wasn’t allowed to leave. This interview was with a teacher who teaches both Holocaust studies and English. She’s been at the school for a very long time and also had similar experiences with technology being the main facilitator of the evolution of learning and education. My partner told me later on that the interview went really well, which I was glad to hear.

Once those two interviews were done, we began capturing some B-roll footage. We filmed clips of the yearbooks we had tracked down earlier, making sure to get photos of the teachers we had interviewed. We thought it could be a cool way to connect the past and present. 😎

Some shots from the yearbook!! ↓↓

Our final interview was with my partner’s English teacher, who has also been at the school for years. My partner said she could do this by herself as well as it would be easier for her to coordinate directly with her teacher. 

As the interviews were getting finished, we were officially done filming.

Looking back at the filming part of our documentary, I wish I would have trusted my own abilities more. I think I should have tried to film one of the interviews by myself, even if I had to do it on my phone and the clips would not match. My partner has a very extensive background in film while I do not, which made me trust her more with the process. However, I realized that relying on others just because of their expertise is not necessarily viable. All of these projects are learning opportunities for me and I should have taken the opportunity to try doing some filming myself. 

Next up: editing! 😝