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A Level Critical Reflection

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Intro Music!

The track that will be playing in the beginning of the documentary will be "City Night" a piece composed by Shelbie herself! Of course, I would credit her at the end of the film, but because the project only calls for an excerpt, the audience will not see the credits. She is, however, on the poster under "Music By."

Poster

Credits Template for Poster

Done filming!

All filming was finished today! I made sure to take a lot of extra shots and pans over Shelbie's various instruments. The midshot I used for the interview portion was nicely composed, featuring her guitars and a pleasing color scheme. My camera was unable to record focus pulls, a problem I hope to be able to fix when editing.

Cover

I want a very bold cover, one that captures the deep feeling of passion I am trying to convey. Again, I will reference the documentary First Position. This cover is incredible.


Looking at the 25 best music documentaries streaming on Netflix, many of the covers are very interesting, and definitely draw me in. The number one best documentary is Muscle Shoals, a documentary about the town of Muscle Shoals in Alabama and how it changed the face of rock and roll. I like the more graphic style it has, one that may be easier for me to capture.

Another documentary, From Bedrooms to Billions, a documentary about the video game industry in the UK has an even more graphic cover. It's basically pop-art, which captures the cartoon style of video games.

Website, Marketing Approach, Inspiration

I have started creating the website for my documentary. I am keeping in mind the Music Video Project and how in-depth our study of audience/institutions and target audience was. The artistic, more graphic tone of my magazine will carry throughout this documentary, poster, and website, as well. My target audience is artistically-inclined young adults, so I find that a less-typical design should go along with it. A case study I will be referring to is the documentary First Position. This documentary follows dancers through the Young American Grand Prix, a competition where scouts from world-renowned ballet companies come looking for fresh talent. This documentary is not only beautifully shot, but it captures the pure passion for dance that these kids feel. It was distributed in the US by IFC Films (Sundance Selects), a company known for distributing documentaries and independent films. Because this documentary follows six different dancers from different backgrounds, it was distributed in many different countries, reaching a large audience.

Michael Moore's 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films

This tongue-and-cheek article lists some essentials for making a successful documentary. Moore says that the topic should be interesting but not preach-y, personal but not too boring. Although his writing is caustic, he does acknowledge the importance of trusting yourself and being passionate about your work. He also stresses the importance of sound over picture. "Let's say you didn't shoot something entirely in focus, you had to shoot it really quickly. The audience doesn't care -- IF the story is strong, AND they can hear it." I was unaware of how crucial sound is, and I'm glad he brought it to my attention. 

"While you are filming a scene for your documentary, are you getting mad at what you are seeing? Are you crying? Are you cracking up so much that you are afraid that the microphone is going to pick it up? If that is happening while you are filming it, then there is a very good chance that's how the audience is going to respond, too. Trust that."

Moore speaks very candidly and passionately from experience, he emphasizes the importance of staying true to the rawness of documentaries and the true emotion that a target audience is looking for. I very much appreciate his advice.

AS Level Critical Reflection

Passion Magazine