Thespians the Movie

"Everything has already been done. Every story has been told every scene has been shot. It's our job to do it one better"

famous film director, Stanley Kubrick

 Whether or not you agree with this statement I suppose is subject to personal interpretation. As I've just discovered through research and exploration for my documentary, I personally believe this to be true, because...

... this exists.

Thespians the Movie, a 2011 documentary following four high school troupes' journey to the Florida State Thespian Festival, who would've guessed! While this obviously has the same premise as my excerpt TV documentary will have, they both strive to capture very different aspects of the festival. This film seems to be more focused on the intense and rigorous process of performers around the state preparing and competing at the festival alongside there cast mates, directors, and performance coaches, while mine is more centered on the special experience of one troupe as a whole. 

Despite the differences, I still wanted to watch the documentary to possibly gain inspiration for shots and filming locations since part of the film is shot in downtown Tampa at the actual festival, unfortunately I cannot seem to find it anywhere, not even on iTunes as advertised on their website. I'm going to keep searching, but until then, the trailer alone has already given me some ideas. 

Another aspect from this film I will definitely take into consideration is their promotional poster. Although I'm not quite at the stage to begin working on the poster, I think its important to have ideas so that I know what I want to take pictures of in Tampa that can potentially be part of my poster. This promotional poster is something very similar to what I initially had in mind, performers looking out into a beautiful theater reveling in their craft. This image is just the first thing that comes to mind when I think of theater and the love of performance, so while I may end up doing something similar to this and go this route, it also might be a little cliche and overdone for my liking, so as I go on in the project, perhaps I will go a completely different direction.