Curse You, Copyrighted Music!!!

Ah yes, I have arrived to arguably one of the most frustrating parts of this project, attempting to get the rights to use big name songs in my production, but more realistically, when that fails, searching for good royalty free music to use. My frustrations in this feat lie in the fact that I have, essentially since the beginning of this project known which songs I've wanted to use. There's three of them, and although I didn't know exactly where they would fit in before, now that I'm editing, I do!!! And they would be so perfect!!! The three songs I'm talking about are: What I Did For Love from the musical A Chorus Line, New York, New York by Frank Sinatra, and finally, On Broadway by George Benson. I have been attempting for a while to get the rights to these songs, but something always goes wrong. Nevertheless, here I am, basically pleading to the companies that own these tracks to let me use them for an innocent school project, either hoping they forgot about my previous attempts or that by some miracle they will find it in their hearts to help out an amateur documentary maker like myself.

Being the pragmatic person I am however, I realize it's time to start looking for other options. I've began searching a plethora of royalty free music archives and honestly, doing this last year really was not as complicated as I'm finding it to be now. The problem this year is that I'm looking for a very specific style and type of music that, as I'm learning, is not greatly abundant in these archives. Unlike last year when I just needed some soft, yet edgy alternative/ folk music, a relatively popular genre already, this year I'm searching for old school Broadway musical theater meets jazz or something in between. I've found a few options I think I could make work, but nothing that screams to me, yes!!! please use me!!! you need me!!! and really, that's the feeling I wanna get when I find this music. I'm obviously going to keep searching until I find something I'm happy with, but until then, please pray to the Music Licensing Gods above.

First Position

As I'm look through the footage I have for my documentary, I'm realizing that I have so much great content than can most definitely surpass five minutes. The challenge I'm facing is figuring out how to organize all this content in order to create a clean and tightly edited piece which tells a cohesive story. I think what I;m must struggling with is how to organize my interviews; I don't to have one section per main subject I interviewed, but I also don't want the interviews to intertwine in a way that is sloppy and confusing. While thinking about this I realized that in the busy weeks leading up to States and filming (three weeks of daily after school rehearsal and show week for my school show) I never had much time to watch any actual documentaries for inspiration, so I decided to do that now in order to gain some perspective on how exactly I may like to edit my piece. I took to my trusty Netflix account and decided to watch First Position, a documentary as described by IMBd as the story of "six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world." Below is the trailer. 

I thought First Position would be the perfect documentary to watch because of all the similarities it has to mine: it's about a beautiful art form of performance, it follows an important competition and event pertaining to this craft, and documents several young dancers who are passionate about the subject. The main subjects of this documentary are all independent dancers and have no relation to one another other than their hard work, dedication, and the passion they possess for this craft. For this reason, however, this documentary doesn't focus on the bonds ballet creates in the way that may documentary will with theater, rather, because of the immensely different backgrounds of all the dancers, it shows how ballet is a powerful force affecting individuals all around the world from different cultures and histories, which is just as powerful a message. Although First Position is a lot like Thespians in that it focuses a lot on the preparation and actual competition (if full length, mine

The promotion poster for First Position 

would do the same but alas) I still managed to get some great ideas from it. For example, like in the trailer, the graphic match they do of the little boy twirling in his room to twirling on stage is something I would like to do using archive footage of the performances we brought to state with the footage of the actual performance at state in order to show the growth and prosperity of our troupe. As far as the interviews go, this documentary did dedicate a piece of time to each subject and then go back and forth between all of them for the most part, but there were also times where different interviews would collide if all the subjects were talking about the same thing. I love this because it shows the universality of the triumphs and challenges ballerinas and ballet dancers face, no matter how different they are. I definitely plan to incorporate this into my editing.

Drawing from another aspect of this documentary, I have also taken inspiration from it's promotional poster. Again like in Thespians we see the usage of back light it forming the silhouette of a dancer in beautiful, majestic form. Seeing this trend in yet another artistic documentary is slowly but surely reassuring me to go with an idea like the one I talked about in my last post. Something about hiding the identity of the person on the cover and making the craft so universal to performers everywhere... I just love it.

Also, completely unrelated to my project, but still very cool: I found on YouTube that one of the main subjects from this documentary gave a TedTalk sharing the story of her childhood and (spoiler alert) how she ended up getting offered a spot in a professional ballet company. Her name is Michaela DePrince and her talk is called "From 'Devil Child' to Star Ballerina". It's not surprising to me that she was invited to give a TedTalk because in the actual documentary, she touches on her background and it was truly and incredible story, I'm glad I got to hear more. To just give you some incentive to go view the talk, Michaela was born in Sierra Leon, West Africa, four years after the awful civil war with a skin condition known as vitiligo. Her parents were killed by the rebels and she was put in an orphanage where she endured some terrible and traumatic experiences before coming to know the life that she lives today. It's a remarkable story considering where she started to where she ended up and the fact that just by looking at her dance in the documentary, you would have never suspected a thing. I definitely recommend checking it out as well as First Position all together.

Wrapping up Filming and Poster Planning

The past few days have been a crazy ride filled with performances, music, theater, filming, and little to no sleep. That being said they have been some of the most fun of the year thus far and I'm a little sad that their over. Like I've said before, Thespians has been an integral part of my high school experience and with the conclusion of States, it's now actually over. I'm a little nostalgic for sure. But this only further validates my inclination to document the experience because at the end of this entire project, I will hopefully have an incredible piece that I will be proud of and is truly representative of the overall experience.

Throughout the festival I was able to film and capture all the footage I needed. Of course I haven't began editing yet so I can't say for certain that I will not be missing any footage, but just looking over everything I captured, I'm fairly confident that I will have more than enough for my piece to come together. The only thing I still want to film are a few more interviews with members from my troupe just for the sake of sound bridges and being able to flawlessly move forward my story through the voice of others. Once those view interviews are over, which I will take care of today and tomorrow, that will be a wrap for all of my filming!!!

Staying true to the schedule I created for myself at the beginning of the entire project, this week will be completely dedicated to editing. Because I have a Windows laptop, I don't have access to iMovie other than the limited version that is provided on iPhones and iPads, and I absolutely do not want to use MovieMaker because as I've learned from experience, that's not the best, so for editing, I plan to try out Filmora, which has been requested by many of my peers, or look into other editing software.

I plan to edit this week mostly at home and especially during the weekend when I can dedicate my entire day to this endeavor and throw myself in full force, so to not waste time, while I have the opportunity to work on my documentary in school this week, I plan to begin research on and exploring the best ways to create a promotional picture for my project. Already I found a great article from the New York Film Academy's website discussing tips and guidelines for creating promotional posters and giving examples for creators to possibly gain ideas ad get inspired. They list a set of questions and ideas creators should initially consider before attempting to create a poster, these being them along with my personal responses:

• If you haven’t already, create a mind-map of your target audience and the message you want to send out... My target audience is young adults to adults in the artistic community who I'm trying to impact with the message of how theater builds relationships and community.

• With the above in mind, think of some layout designs i.e. fonts, images, colors etc. that make your poster really pop... As for as color schemes, that will be dependent on whatever images I end up choosing and font is something I will also consider later. I'm mainly concerned right now with what image will be on my poster. Right now I have three images I took in Tampa that I'm drawing inspiration from, however, I'm not sure If I will end up using any of them in the final product, I may have to recreate something. 

  

  I love the idea of something like this because it is simple with only a few colors and I think would look very clean and pleasing to the eye. Not only that, but most importantly, it conveys the sense of a human bond established in the theater and a sense of emotion felt just before going on stage. I love the silhouettes because it sort of masks the identity of those featured in the picture and allows the audience to put their face to the emotion felt by the picture.  If anything, I think I could edit it a bit and this image would be great to use. The only thing is, even though there are actually four people hugging in the picture, it seems like only two, so this may seem to convey a smaller scale relationship than the one I'm showing. The good thing about this is that my school has a pretty nice theater where I have access to that a shot like this would be relatively simple to orchestrate; I just love this stage because it is backstage of the Straz Theater which is so much larger and more professional than our armature theater at school, but with angles and editing, I think I would be able to make the smaller theater look just as impressive.

  
  

  

  This is a shot of our entire troupe at States in front of our hotel. I don't know that I would be inclined to use this image, simply because my troupe, though the center of my documentary, is more of a case study for much greater themes and a much larger message. It's also a very simple picture that to me doesn't seem very professional or intriguing for a poster that may be the first impression of my final piece, but again, it will serve me for inspiration and reminder of the story I am trying to get across. 

  
  

  

  This is the marquee outside the Tampa Theater, one of the top venues for the Florida Thespian State festival, and one of BBC's top "10 most beautiful cinemas in the world."  The theater is a beauty not only on the outside, but also on the inside with intricate and exquisite design capturing the true power of a different form of art. I think also with the clean background this is a pleasing imagine to look at overall, however, it doesn't scream Florida Thespian State Festival!!! It really just says, hey look it's the Tampa Theater. Unless you knew about the location of States you would not necessarily relate this theater to the festival, but, I don't know, I guess I just like the image, the lights, and the message of "Welcome To The Show!", perhaps I will be able to make some use of it. 

• Research, research, research! The Internet is a wonderful thing and can give you an endless amount of information on different color schemes, font sizes or image placement and what they connote in order to send the right message... more work on this will come when its time to actually focus on the poster and website. Until then, these are just some off my brain storms!

Helloooo Tampa Bay

We made it!!! Today was the first day of States and I already have some great footage that I'm very excited about. Since it was the first day, other than opening ceremonies, we had a relatively free day to roam around Tampa and explore. My main focus of filming today was following our troupe's State selected pantomime to their opening ceremonies performance and documenting their experience. Other than that I got a few interesting shots of our troupe rehearsing and just hanging out on the bus, which I know I want to include in the documentary, but since my excerpt is mostly focusing on already being at States, I'm still thinking of a way to incorporate it with out making it about the journey to States.

a sneak look at the beautiful Tampa Bay area and our hotel

Tomorrow our large group, which I'm a part of, is performing so that's gonna be all about capturing our rehearsals, our performance, and our troupes support. I also need to start getting a majority of my interviews and get footage of my troupe as a whole. It's a busy week, but I'm taking it one day at a time and I'm already off to a great start! I also have great friends who are helping me out with filming since I obviously can't be everywhere at the festival at once.

I was so set and ready to film my documentary that I kind of just dived in and realized I never updated you guys on some of my specific plans, SO, just a few updates!!! Last week my class met in groups to discuss our projects and they helped me decide on a few important factors of my project; the most important being that since I am so involved in my drama club and am part of two of the six performances that we took to States, I'm a rather large part of my troupe in this festival. However, the documentary is about my troupe and our community and being the documentarian, I felt that if I included myself in it, I would take away too much of the attention and the documentary would end up becoming about me, something I definitely DO NOT want. And so I struggled with the decision of whether or not I would be part of my project. Ultimately my group helped me decide that although I wouldn't be a main subject in my documentary, it would be okay and honest if I showed up in videos of my large group performance and acknowledged my participation in that event. Something else we discussed was concerning my usage of handheld shots, if they would be used and to what extent. I brought a tripod with me (thanks tstock) so I could easily and efficiently film interviews, establishing shots, performances, etc., but since my documentary is about bonds and relationships and is more of an intimate piece, my group and I felt as though a few handheld shots would be appropriate in making the footage seem raw, real, and making my audience feel as though they were involved in the festival and part of my troupe. If used purely stabled pieces I feel as though the final piece would look to picturesque and "fake".

That's pretty much all I have for now, like I said, today was relatively filled with free time so I'm happy I got a lot done for my project today and was able to focus on it. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be the same, if not, tough luck because it's gonna have to be!

"Moore" Over and Make Way for Ale Duque

Michael Moore: documentary filmmaker, author, activist, super woke

As an avid consumer of documentaries, I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two about this art form simply  just from viewing. As a creator however, I’ve only ever made one documentary, it was a collaborative effort, and if we’re being honest, it definitely had a lot of issues; but that's okay, nothing is perfect the first time, or ever really, and now at least I have the experience of attempting to create a documentary and I know what went wrong the first time and what I need to improve on this time around. For additional tips of what to consider and keep in mind while creating my documentary, I took to the internet and found Michael Moore’s 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films. I absolutely adore Michael Moore and his films (not to mention he is one of my favorite twitter follows), so of course I eagerly read what he had to say and as always, he had some pretty insightful advice.

Editor's Note: Moore’s documentaries usually strive to inform about and expose some dark truth, serving as a scathing commentary on our society. His advice was also specifically catered for documentary “films”. There are some discrepancies between these characteristics and the ones particular to my documentary since mine is looking to be more lighthearted and explorative and is being made as an excerpt from a TV documentary, so needless to say I took some of Moore’s words with a grain of salt, adjusting them for my specific goals.

1. “We are not documentarians, we are filmmakers.”

Moore makes an excellent point which although I knew in the back of my mind, it was not something I ever really thought about. When one examines what a documentary really is, it is a form of art, a form of cinema that is striving to tell a story. One could say the same for a movie, or in my case, a TV show. Moore points out that although many documentarians may look down on films and the aspiration of “entertaining” audiences, because they somehow see their project as more serious or professional, this is exactly what their goal should be! No one wants to go see a didactic documentary where he feels he is being scolded or lectured; no! Audiences want to be entertained and there is nothing wrong in a serious documentary doing this while still being effective and getting its message across. As Moore says, “ You’ve chosen this art form — the cinema, this incredible, wonderful art form, to tell your story. You didn’t have to do that.”

2. “[The audience] doesn’t care whether you make them cry, whether you make them laugh, whether you even challenge them to think…”

This goes back to the no lecturing thing, as well as not making your documentary something the audience already knows. In other words, make your audience FEEL something!!! It’s what any good and successful work of art does. I also love the idea of making my audience think. Seeing as my documentary is about a theater competition (pretty nerdy stuff in the eyes of many) my target audience is mainly young adults to adults in the artistic community, but overall this community in general; however, for anyone not already appreciative of the arts that may stumble across my production, I want them to be able to see and understand how art affects communities and relationships and for them to be able to begin thinking of art and theater as a much bigger concept than they already see it. Same goes for theater fans who may only see this craft on a shallow level.

3. “Make you films personal”

If you make your film personal, chances are your unique personality will shine through and it will be different than what anyone has seen before, thus peaking interest in your production. This is definitely a goal, especially since my documentary topic is something so close and personal to me and the community I surround myself with. I want it to be seen how much I care about this topic, that way, perhaps my passion will extend to others. From an artistic point of view, as I keep creating, it would also be cool to develop a personal style and touch that could be evident in all of my productions, making them undoubtedly mine.

4. “ Less is more. You already know that one.”

It’s true. I already know that; you, whoever is reading this, already knows that. This one is obvious and goes without explanation. Nevertheless, it’s an important reminder because whether it is in writing, filming, editing, whatever, this always seems to be a problem (why do I do these things to myself?).

5. “Sound is more important than picture”

“Sound carries the story.” This might seem a bit hyperbolic, but just think about it. In an example that Moore gives, if in a film at the movie theater, the projection is a bit shaky and glitchy at times, people might question it, even complain, but at the end of the day, no one will really say much. However, if at this same theater, the image is squeaky clean, but the sound keeps going in and out, or worse, it’s completely inaudible, RIOTS WILL ERUPT! Because without sound, without dialogue to explain and advance the story, without diegetic sound to remind you of the realness of the piece, without music to help insight emotion, the piece of film being seen is nothing. This is an extremely important tip because in my amaeture career as an editor, sound is the component I have the least experience with and honestly, am most afraid of; but soon, that’s gonna change!!!

With these ideas in mind, coming directly from a well established individual in the industry (alliteration alert) who I greatly respect, I feel even more ready and prepared to make my debut in the documentary world. Make way for documentary filmmaker TV show maker, Ale Duque.

Question Time!!!

One of the most important parts of a documentary, and a strong driving force of it,  is interviews! The main task when thinking of questions to ask your subjects is to make sure you can establish the foundations of your story: who, what, when, where? After this, you need to make sure you create questions that elicit the type of responses you are looking for. Because you obviously can't control what your subjects say, this means you must cater your questions so that you almost guide your interviewees in a specific direction. This is what I tired to accomplish with my questions. Right now I have 20 of them, I may add more as the come to me or as I see the direction my interviews start taking; as i researched tips for creating interesting questions, spontaneity of the moment was one of the biggest ones, I think this will really help me get natural ad truthful footage of responses. I have a few main subjects I plan to focus my documentary around (two returning States performers and two "newbies") so for them I will ask them the full list of questions; in terms of gathering sound bridges and extra clips, I plan on interviewing other "random" members of my troupe with a watered down set of my interview questions.

Other things to consider for the best possible interviews: even though I may not end up using all of the visual footage, I have to make sure I scout out interesting, appropriate, and diverse interview locations. Another thing to keep in mind, which I learned very well from my first attempt at documentary making earlier this year, is to really figure out the frame of your interview shot. Head room and natural vectors are two VERY IMPORTANT aspects to think about. As far as the actual process of filming the interview, it shouldn't be a problem to have my interviewees feel comfortable  because I have a personal relationship with all of them and they are all performers who are not shy in front of a crowd or camera, but this closeness may make it difficult for both the subject and myself to remember that this is a formal interview and not a casual conversation between us. Me keeping quit during the interview so that anything they say is clear and an option for usage, and having them repeat the question (two very helpful tips I also found) for clarity and continuity reasons will be vital for a successful interview.

Without further ado, here are  the questions!

States questions:

1. Introduce yourself- name, grade, first time at States, how long have you been performing, etc.
2. how big or small of a part would you say theater, the arts, and performance have had in your life?
3. How did you get into theater and become interested in it?
4. Which aspect/aspects of "the arts" do you feel is most personal and important to you?
5. What did you perform/ create at districts that got you a spot on the trip to States?
6. What are you doing at States this year- observing, performing?
7. What are you most excited about for States/ what are you most looking forward to?
8. Why do you think States is important?
9. Why do you think the arts are important?
10. How do you feel trips and events like this impact your life and relationships?
11. Do you feel a sense of community not only among your troupe, but at States?
12. If you've been to States before, what is your favorite States memory?
13. Do you plan to pursue theater, whether it be performance or technical aspects, in the future?
14. If so how do you feel States plays a role in accomplishing those goals?
15. What do you think makes our troupe unique?
16. What reputation, if any, would you say our troupe has among the many that participate in states?
17. What's something you think everyone should know about States?
18. What does a typical day at States look like for you?
19. Do you branch out from your typical social group in the troupe at States?
20. Your overall opinion about the experience?

resources:
http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/interviewing-tips.html
http://www.thewildclassroom.com/wildfilmschool/gettingstarted/interviewquestions.html

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.