Day 9 - The Last Of Us

This was our last day with our crews and subsequently our J-Term group. Despite this, people still had more than enough to do. As yesterday we went over our rough edits for our documentaries people were vigorously editing most (if not all) of this morning trying to put together their final cuts as well as their trailers. My group in particular had an unbelievable amount of editing to do.

Credits for 'Locally Owned Documentary'

After an immense amount of editing and some lunch we all gathered and watched the films and trailers we had produced. We then gave very brief pieces of feedback to all the trailers and movies for final final edits before we completely wrapped up our projects. All of the films came together really well and I think in the end everyone was satisfied with the work they had done over the past two weeks. 

         Dawn and Scott owners of Black Hole (and other establishments)

  I believe this class has really benefited from the past two weeks. I believe everyone is learned a great deal not only about editing but also how to work with the proper equipment but most importantly we’ve learned how to work in crews. This means assigning roles, staying on task and how to properly collaborate with one another. We also had lots of fun interviewing people as well as our own peers and enjoyed creating our own, funny, unique projects. So long J-Term!

The Crews

                                                  Locally Owned Documentary  

Day 8 - End of Post-Production

Today we concluded the last part of post-production for our documentaries. In the morning, each group worked on editing the rough cut of their documentary. My group particularly focused on ensuring that we got clean cuts in between footage and that the audio was clean and clear. 

Jadyen and Sarah editing their documentary 

After our lunch break, each group took turns showing their documentary to the rest of the class. After watching the whole documentary once, we would re-watch it and then give the group feedback. We helped give them suggestions about the narrative, visual, and audio changes that they could make. Members from our class also commented on whether or not the shot had the right color balance, correct transitions in between shots, if audio was clear and concise, and if any narrative plots should be changed. After watching the documentaries, each group started tweaking and adding any final edits to their documentaries for their final cut. 

Class watching Docception

I think that watching all the group's documentary was very fun and interesting. I liked being able to see all of the work that everyone has done finally be put together. Another very helpful part of today was receiving all of the feedback that we got from everyone in the class. I think that today was a very important key day that I will remember, because I got to see all of the other work that my classmates have been doing.

Ren, Justin, and Connor editing their documentary

Day 7 - Beginning of Post-Production

Today marked the beginning of post-production and with that, seemingly the end of traveling and certainly the end of getting the bulk of our shots. In that sense, the day felt quite a bit slower, but nevertheless there was as much to do, maybe even more so, to get done within the hours, particularly in terms of editing, which is really what we are diverting to now. Editing has never felt more involved yet simultaneously more stressful, with color correction, audio equalization, video stabilization, and cuts becoming a very common occurence as the day went on.

Ren working with Justin to determine spots in the video

to make cuts

Much of the day was additionally stressful due to the fact that we spent much time compiling and transferring video and audio. This gave us some down-time that allowed us to reflect discuss the general storyline of the documentary and what we want the atmosphere and focus of the documentary to resemble and be, respectively. We got started on this process in the morning, but it still took much of the afternoon to feel like our group got right.

Ms. Harrison's guidelines for structuring documentaries
in post-production

Sofie goes over the narrative structure for her crew's documentary

Although for all of us there is still quite a ways to go in terms of finishing up, much less putting the final polishes and touches on our respective documentaries, I was grateful to settle down today and begin the editing process in full force, and I think we all appreciated taking steps back from the cameras and the mics to really consider the documentaries on more introspective, personal levels and get a full sense of what we need to do going forward.

Day 6 - Interviews & Editing

Restaurant and Docception crew arriving at Black Hole

Today the doc groups wrapped shooting. The morning was spent looking over the footage we got from the previous two days of shooting and preliminary editing. In the afternoon, the group working on Mr. Moudry's documentary interviewed Mr. Grisbee and Dr. Ott while the Houston Restaurant group went to Black Hole to interview the owners, Dawn and Scott. The Docception crew filmed the two other crews during their interviews. The restaurant crew was very successful in getting good material from their interview. The Docception crew also got good footage from today. However, the Mr. Moudry crew had equipment complications and lost the footage of Mr. Grisbee's interview.

Restaurant crew interviewing Black Hole owners, Dawn and Scott

I personally felt really good about the work my Docception group got done today. We looked through a lot of our footage and are on track to finish a rough cut by tomorrow afternoon. I thought it was really interesting to see how the restaurant crew set up their lights and camera for an interview at an off-campus location. I also had a great time reviewing the footage we had gotten from our first day of shooting. I am excited to continue editing the footage and to see the final project.

Mr. Moudry crew editing footage

Day 5 - Production Continues

Hello, and good afternoon.

Today, the teams have all continued their work in the various stages of production.

The Crowd of Three Gazes Upon the Screen

 The black-hole documentary (title in progress) team worked through their footage and began the long editing process, making note of improvements they can make for their next day of shooting. The crew especially paid attention to how they can make improvements in the sound of their B-roll footage.

The Tea-spilling Process Live On Camera

  Doc-ception! (not a working title) has begun recording interviews of the bountiful crew members of the documentary films. Many of the participants are still a little camera shy, but interesting nonetheless. The Doc-ception! crew will continue to record throughout the production period.

Guys How Does The Mic Work Again?

 Last but not least, the Mr. Moudry doc (title working) has recorded more interview-style footage with Mr. Moudry. Today, they have recorded him working through old documents and uncovering more of Post Oaks past and... perhaps something else?

I (Trevor Roddy) personally am the cinematographer for the Mr. Moudry Doc (title working). As seen in the picture above, I also helped set up one of the mics in order to improve the sound quality of our interview. Today my group was getting footage of the many historical documents which Mr. Moudry has in his possession. In addition, I also sprung a question or two on him immediately following the reviewing of the documents when the emotions were high. I think this second interview went very well and I am excited to get the rest of the B-roll and get the rough-cut going!

Today has been a successful working day for all, and the groups are eager to complete production no later than Wednesday this week!

Day 4: Lights, Camera, Action!

Trevor, Kenzie, and Brooks setting up their equipment
to interview Mr. Moudry

     In the morning, we started off our day by preparing our equipment for our filming. My group,  the Mr. Moudry Doc, prepared our gear to interview the legend himself, while the Docception group followed us around, getting some nice shots of us in action. Meanwhile, the Black Hole group stayed in the classroom, working on preproduction and preparation to film later on in the afternoon.

Ren, Justin, Connor, Sofi, Sarah, and Jadyn getting
footage at Antidote

    
     The interview with Mr. Moudry took up the majority of the morning, until lunch. When lunch ended, the gang split up yet again; the Black Hole group left the campus to head to the Black Hole, as well as Antidote, to film. The Docception group tagged along in order to get some shots for their documentary as well, but the Moudry Doc group stayed on campus to edit their footage from the interview from the morning.

     At the end of the day, all of the students who travelled to Black Hole returned to the school campus with minutes to spare before being dismissed. Following their return, all of the students gathered and put away the equipment they'd used from the day and fled the campus to enjoy the weekend.

     Reflecting upon the day, I think everything went very smoothly and everyones production was overall (mostly) successful. My group was successful in obtaining the desired footage, which was the goal of the day. I learned a lot about audio recording and booming during the interview with Mr. Moudry. I found out that booming isn't as easy as pointing a stick and doing nothing; it was hard to hold the boom for an extended period of time without getting tired and shaking, and it was also hard to not make any noise at all. I had to pretend like I wasn't even there, so I sat quietly and didn't move, which, after an hour, started to make me sleepy. It was a little dreadful towards the very end, just trying to stay awake and hold the boom without zoning out, but it was overall a genuinely interesting experience, and I learned a lot.

Day 3 - The Production Begins

The Production Begins

We started off the day today by watching the 60-second documentaries that we didn't have time to watch yesterday, and we critiqued them. Doing this helps us learn where we can improve as far as shot composition and editing. After we critiqued our 60-second documentaries, we all split up into our documentary crews and worked on the pre-production of each documentary. Pre-production for our documentaries included three steps: researching the topic of the documentary, developing interview questions, and creating the list of shots required for the documentary. Pre-production took up the majority of the day today, as there is a lot that goes into it, and it's the crucial first step in making any documentary. After pre-production was finished, we created what's called the "shooting schedule", which is basically what days we were going to film what things. Our shooting schedule depended heavily on the people we were filming because they had specific times when they were available. The final part of our day was splitting up into groups based on the production roles we were assigned on the second day (cinematographer, sound person, etc.) and learning how to use the equipment. 

Learning how to use the boom mics 

I thought that today was really interesting. It was really productive, which means that I learned a lot. Before today, I knew nothing about what goes into the pre-production of a documentary, and I'm glad that I know now. I also thought that learning about how to use the equipment was interesting. I am a cinematographer for one of the three documentaries that are being made during htis J-term, so I learned a lot about using cameras. I went into this already knowing how to use a DSLR camera like a Canon, but I didn't know how to use a camcorder, which is something I learned how to do. All in all, I think today went really well: it was informational and productive. 

                                                                                                                      Smile, you're on camera!

                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                      

60 Seconds of Fame (Day 2)

     Today, we dipped our toes into what it is like to film a documentary. Before we start to film our actual documentaries, we worked on some short 60-second docs to get some experience with using the cameras and film equipment, how to successfully interview someone, and editing film. To understand how to structure a short documentary, we looked at a few 60-second documentaries on YouTube. When most people hear documentary, they often imagine a longer film with a lot of detail on the subject so it was interesting to see how documentaries can be short and sweet. For our documentaries we made today, we each interviewed one another in the school and had to find ways around challenges that we might encounter as a documentary film-maker. One of the unforeseen challenges which we had to work around today was figuring out the lighting. We had planned to use the lighting equipment which the IB film class usually uses. However, the equipment was nowhere to be found today so we had to try and figure out places in the school where the lighting was good enough to film. Normally if you want good lighting, you can film in the sunlight outside but the constant drone of the Houston traffic on 59 keeps us from being able to capture audio outside of the building.

     When making our 60-second docs, Ms. Harrison had us incorporate a few different shots and cuts often used in interviews. These are the close-up shot, extreme close-up shot, wide shot, and a cutaway shot. A cutaway is basically when the audio from one clip plays while the video from a different clip is transitioned in or out. This is sometimes explained as a scene away from the action or subject. Using the cutaway shot was useful for some students to get video taken outside in the sunlight while the audio from the interview plays.

     Each of our interviews turned out quite differently but at the end of class we all sat down together to watch and critique the lighting, framing, cuts, and editing of each of our documentaries. If you want to check out our films, all of these short documentaries can be found on the POHSFilmMaking youtube channel! After today, we now know what to look for when choosing how we film our scenes. Although the editing was a little stressful it was really fun to see how each documentary turned out.

Jadyn interviews the legendary gamer.

Ren works on matching the audio to the film in Premiere Pro.

Brooks & Kenzie work on Editing each of their interviews.

"Everybody's a filmmaker today." - John Milius

    Welcome to the Documentary Filmmaking J-Term! What is the Documentary Filmmaking J-Term? It is quite simply a class on making documentary films. All of us students will learn all of what goes into making a documentary! That means by the end of this course we students will come out as confident directors, camera operators, sound technicians, editors, and so forth. In addition to all these skills, all of the students in this J-term will have finished documentaries that you will be able to come and watch!

    Today was our first day of the Documentary Filmmaking J-Term. In perfect fashion, we started off the day by watching a documentary on the art of documentary filmmaking. The film featured the documentary world's most famous names such as Werner Herzog and Errol Morris as well as many other big names. This film really gave us many tips and strategies specific to documentaries that would go on to help us throughout the term, I guess you could say we learned from the greats! After watching that documentary we reviewed some of the basic filming techniques used in all films that would help us in what was to come, our first project. The first project was a blast, we got to make the film on anything we wanted as long as it included a couple of types of shots and techniques we just learned about. For instance, my group’s film was about playing basketball. Eventually, the day came to an end with us sitting down and getting to watch each other's films alongside giving constructive criticism.