Poster Ideas

I had many ideas of what the illustration for the poster would look like. 

Let me start here... 

Warning I am not a good drawer!

But this was the very first idea that I wanted to do. A gun that says constitutional to represent the side of the gun control debate: that guns are part of the constitution in the second amendment and the finger would say gun control demonstrating the side of people who want gun control. I was also thinking that instead of the finger to use a flower, but it felt more about the Vietnam War than the debate about gun control. Instead of the finger, I could have also done the constitution, but the image of the gun would have to be mine and I just found it difficult to do. 

This is another idea that I had for the poster. I first portion with the gun I mentioned above about the Constitution of the United States and the gun. But I won't be doing that. 

I then thought about doing a sea of bullets with the people that have died due to gun violence and either the flag of the United States or Lady Liberty. Lady Liberty is holding a book that I thought would have been great to say "our right" and the sea of bullets "our life".  Though I really liked this idea, I didn't have an original picture of the statue of Liberty. So then I thought that the Washington Monument would work well. I am still working on it because I am debating if it actually explains the sides of both debates, but I have also changed my mine and have more idea that I am trying to develop to create a concise poster that everyone who sees it understands what the documentary will be about. 

Edit Day 2

Edit Day two went way better than day one. 

Though I still didn't have a plan on how I wanted to organize the documentary, I decided to just go with the flow and see what happens. I will create a rought draft of what I think my work and see where I got from there. 

I have currently been working for about the last three hours and I have edited about two minutes of the documentary. I know that there are some problems and I know some sections are long, but this is what I am considering my rought draft and I hope to have an entire week of wrapping everything up before it is done. For instance, making the clips shorter, etc. (the small details). 

It is a work in progress. I have been playing with the audio of some of the footage that I have; I sometimes feel like the audio is great, but not the footage, but we will see what happens later when I edit it further because I continue to change the structure. It is totally different from day one editing day. 

Edit Day 1

To say it in a minimal amount of words, editing on day one went terribly. I have about 45 minutes+ of footage and I just don't really know how I want to organize my film. I have decided that the excerpt that I am doing is from Episode 3 talking about the opinion of students. So I spent about three hours trying to figure out how I want to organize it and that did not go well. 

Last year felt easier, not just because it was shorter but because I dictated my editing with the help of the music and the film opening had a structure. Since it was a film opening, I did a storyboard, but when it comes to documentaries you can't really do that because you don't know what situation you will be present in.  When it comes to documentaries, we are expressing part of a story, not a complete story from beginning to end so I can create it in any way I want. And I think that is what I found most difficult. 

I hope that day two of editing goes much better. 

Parkland, Florida

On Feburary 14, 2018, 17 people where killed in Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida, half an hour away from where I reside. This event lead me to create a documentary based on the debate of gun control that has surfaced. 

On March 24, 2018 a national march took place, March for Our Lives. I got to attend the one in Parkland and conducted some interviews. 

Let me just start off that in one of the previous post I said that I was going to challenge the handheld camera element, which I did in the interviews that I did at my school, but coming into Parkland, it was a hassle not just to carry, but we would of had to leave the line that we where in, in order to get into another line for people who had bags that were not clear. So my dad just took the bag back to the car (it was a long walk) and I just resulted in using my hands and record hand held like many documentarist do. 

I got five interviews in from various individuals trying to get different perspectives. I was there for about two hours.

If you are wondering I got sunburned and I also was thrown out of a section that was meant for press. I didn't really see much press, but whatever. I got like 10-15 seconds of someone singing. 

I met an individual while waiting in line to enter the park those kids live near Columbine a shool shooting that happened twenty years ago. 

Out of the 5 interviews that I got one was really blurry and there were about two that were somewhat blurry. It wasn't as bad as that one in which my camera just decided to focus on the background and not the individual. So the only thing that I could focus on when watching the video is my mother in the background. So I will most likely not use that interview. We shall see. 

I met another individual who claimed to have seen me before. I don't know from where and at that moment while interviewing him I was confused because I didn't know who he was until I rewatched the footage and made me realize that I have seen him before, I just don't know from where. He probably was at our high school because he said he was finishing school online. So that was every interesting.

All the interviews were very well spoken and they eleborated when they felt was necessary. When I was about the leave. I say Jackie who was seated on the grass, holding up a sign. She looked confident and powerful, so I went up to her to ask her some questions. She was nervous, I could tell, but I think she gave the best interviews of all.  She would eleborate and create an atmosphere where she and I were just having a conversation and it felt nice and I got to understand her opinion on this issue. While interviewing Jackie, her mom in the back would agree with the things her daughter was saying and the questions that I had asked. They were wonderful and brilliant individuals and I was happy that I got to interview her. 

In one of my previous post I had about 20 questions but before going to the march I added a couple.

1. How do you feel about teachers being armed?

2. In a recent article that I read, one of the individuals who spoke at Florida's State capitol said that "adults have failed  " do you think this is true?

3. Some students in High School were given detention for walking out of school protesting against gun control. What do you think about this?

This is Jackie

This is Jackie and her mom

I do have to say that this march brought different people, from parents with very young chidlren, some in strollers and others running around to students my age, parents and grandparents. It was a time of coming together and fighting for what they believe. But I also got to encounter people who were against gun control, who I didn't have the chance the interview. 

I realized that this issue is not just gun control in school but also gun control for minority communities who have suffered gun violence for many years. 

"Guns prevent Life, Liberty, and Happiness" 

(Life, Liberty, and Happiness are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence) 

I wanted to share some pictures I took myself of  March for Our Lives in Parkland, Florida

This was the section that I was thrown out of. 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/downers-grove/news/ct-met-downers-grove-high-schools-protesters-detention-20180316-story.html 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/opinion/students-walkout-gun-protest.html 

Episodes

Though I will also explain in my website the episodes and what they will contain I thought that it would be useful to document my thought process. 

What you are seeing is the episodes and what they will contain.

As you can see the ones that are labelled as ep. was just an overview of what I think I wanted to organize the documentary.What is below and on the next page/picture is what I am going to end up doing.

EPISODE 1: History of gun violence, statistics, events that have occured and its causes

EPISODE 2: Firearms

- Weapon Choice in Mass Shootings/gun violence

- Federal Laws to obtain weapons

- Background Checks

- Amount of guns in USA

EPISODE 3: Students

- Opinions

-Marches

-Organizations created by students or for/about students

-Survivors of Gun Violence

Violence not just in schools (even thought my excerpt is about gun control due to school shootings) but also minority groups.

- Both sides of for and against gun control

-Social Media = postives and negatives in getting rid of gun violence or event he creation of gun violence

EPISODE 4: Adults

-Both sides of the debate

- Gun owners (parents and non-parents)

-non gun owners (parents and non-parents) 

EPISODE 5: Legislature (State and National Government)

- Interest Groups

-Politicians

- Police

-Security in Schools

-Lawyers/ Constitution

EPISODE 6: Solutions/Compromise

- Mental illness

- research

-school support

-organizations

- Funding of programs

- Job Opportunities

- The importance of voting

- Community Support

- Public Health solutions

-Trauma Services

- Gun Violence research

- Healthy Norms about masculinity 

Now looking at the list in epsiode 6, if not enough time, it can be divided into two parts. School organization and funding, etc. and then community/state/national solutions. 

I want to offer resources and solutions and the audience can take it how they want. Present a compromise to both sides of the debate. 

Distribution in Check

Before I even mention where I will  distribute the doc to , this is somewhat of how my thought process was going. (Warning it is somewhat messy)

As I previoulsy posted, Vice was a great option for the young popualtion.

The black pen cursive handwritting, are questions that I had after meeting with my teacher and questions that had came to mind. For instance, "If I do a series, how many epsiodes would it be and what would the leangth be? What would the episdodes be about? 

But after doing some more research on documentary examples,  the moment of truth is here. I have finally, after two long weeks trying to figure out where I wanted to distribute my documentary, I have decided that Public Broadcating Service would the the right place. 

Let me explain why...

PBS is an American public broadcaster making it available to many indivudals being as it is public.  Docuemntaries can be consumed online for free on their website, but they can also be viewed on DirecTV, owned by a AT & T a well recognized telecommunicaition company. Those who have DirecTV have access to PBS. Comcast who owns xfinity also provides its viewers with PBS. PBS docuemntary series have also been distributed on Netflix and Amazon. On Netflix, docuemntary series' like "City in the Sky", "The Mind of a Chef", "Nazi Mega Weapons" and more. Amazon carries PBS Docuemntaries like "Kent Burns: American Lives" which is a set of hour long documentaries in which every episode is different. Another example would be "Frontline: My Brother's Bomber". This documentary series is three episodes long an it stands alone on Amazon. Meaning that Frontline is a catergory in which controversial docuemntary subjects are put together in one place. PBS also has POVwhich showcases nonfiction docuementaries and films. 

PBS also has PBS kids which is very popular and educational among young children and parents of children. For this reason, I also felt that PBS would be a great distribution place because if parents know about PBS Kids they are likely to do more research on the broadcast/distribution company and could stumble upon my documentary and could show they to their children in the future.

This PDF gives an Overview of what PBS democraphics are: http://bento.cdn.pbs.org/hostedbento-prod/filer_public/PBS_About/Files%20and%20Thumbnails/PBS_TrustBrochure2018.pdf 

PBS reaches such a wide target audience not only on traditional television channels, but also digital streaming sites. For example, Amazon "service is targeted to 13- to 17-year-olds, who are part of Generation Z"  which works for my target audience. 

The article reads, " Teens can stream or shop independently, although parents can approve the orders after teens hit the "place order" button. After a teen places their order, Amazon sends an email or text to the parents, who then make the final decision. Parents can also set pre-approved spending limits, Amazon said. ... After teens graduate high school and attend college, they can migrate to their own Prime Student accounts. Their shopping history will stay with them, Carr said." 

In the next post, I will talk about the episodes since I have decided to do a documentary series. 

http://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/overview/ 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-eyes-a-new-audience-teenagers-with-spending-money/ 

http://bento.cdn.pbs.org/hostedbento-prod/filer_public/PBS_About/Files%20and%20Thumbnails/PBS_TrustBrochure2018.pdf 

Distribution Difficulties

I have spent the last week trying to figure out how I will distribute my documentary that will reach my target audience. 

I had a meeting with my teacher in which I expressed my concerns about how my documentary will be distributed. I had the idea of my documentary being one entire film, about an hour, hour and a half long. But since the topic is so huge, my teacher suggested doing more research on documentary series. 

I did research and mentioned television channels like The History Channel or Discovery Channel and how I didn't want my film to be distributed there because they have gained viewers and profit through the incorporation of reality television in their network. I wanted a network that would be serious, being as my topic is no joke. 

This is how I started to do some research about how I will distribute the documentary.

So as you can see in this picture, I named distribution channels and services that I think might be a contender. 

The Documentary channel was going to be my first option, but the name had changed to Pivot and after three years, it closed down. So that was crossed off the list. 

Then as I previously mentioned, Discovery and History Channel have started to get into the reality television realm, and I didn't want my documentary on these channels, so that was also crossed off the list. 

The New York Times' Op-Docs would have been a great place that I would have liked to distribute it, but reading their submission requirements, "We cannot consider film trailers, nor can we consider videos that have already been posted online or broadcast on television."  

Since I wanted to distribute my documentary on television, I decided not to use The New York Times Op-Doc. 

I really liked Vice because it reached a young target audience and social media like Snapchat which could be a great tool for marketing, but I still wasn't sure. 

This shows the demographics of Vice: https://upload-assets.vice.com/files/2016/01/15/1452894236compressed.pdf 

(If my target audience was just the young population, I think this would have been a great source. )

I was in between Vice and PBS at this point but I also wanted to incorporate Amazon and Netflix. More research had to be done, not just of the company of distribution, but also if I was going to do an entire documentary or a series.

Stay tuned. 

https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014925188-How-to-submit-an-Op-Doc

 https://upload-assets.vice.com/files/2016/01/15/1452894236compressed.pdf  

Questions

As I mentioned in my last post, I had the opportunity to interview four individuals. So here are all the questions that I came up with before interviewing these individuals.

So I first started off with writing the questions in class and at home in my notebook.

Since I am filming everything by my self, I needed to find a way to have my questions with me in a more compact manner. So I put them on a huge notecard that I took with me.

These are the questions: 

The ones with the *  were the ones that were asked

1. Name, age, grade *
2. Why are you marching/protesting/walking out today?*
3. How did you feel and where were you when you heard the news about Stoneman Douglass?*
4. Do you think that protest are helpful? Why or why not?*
5. How has the Parkland event affected you?*
6. Do you think that gun control is necessary? Why or why not?*
7. Due to the second amendment of the constitution, what  reasons do you think that politicians should or shouldn't amend the constitution?*
8. When do you think is the right time to speak about gun control?*
9. Is it about gun control, mental illness, both or none? Why?*
10. Do you think that the NRA is a cause of the delay or lack of action by the governmnet?*
11. Do you think the media has been an influencial tool that has been a turning point in this debate?
12. What do you think has cuased these shootings to continue to occur?
13. Do you think the measures taken by school due to Parkland are necessary or do they feel sophicating?*
14. Why do you think it is important for you and those of your age to speak up?*
15. Do you think it was important that your school participated?*
16. How do you feel at school before and after Parkland happened?*
17. As a student, do you feel like your voice has always been suppressed due to your age and/or lack of experience?*
18. Do you think that now will be the moment that changes everything or will it stay the same?*
19. Has social media impact the need for change to occur? Why do you think so? Have you participated in any way?
20. Is it the job of the state, congress, or both to creaate change?

Walkout

On Wednesday March 14, 2018, a national school walkout was put together,one month after the Majory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting occured. 

I had the opportunity not just to participate, but also to interview individuals about what they though of gun control.

I was really nervous because I thought that no one would of liked to be interviewd, but to my surprise and releif I got four interviews. 

In my first interview, it didn't really go as I expected. I did it before any speeches were made and when students were still walking out to the courtyard. It was loud and the lighting wasn't the best. I forgot to ask her to restate the questions so the audience would know what she is being asked, but I learned from this interview.

The other three interviews went relatively well. I got a group of three girls who were up to being interviewed and they restated the question and elaborated on their opinion which I highly appreciated. 

When I was interviewing one of them the mic was not recording. I was using a lavalier microphone that was connected to my phone and I forgot to turn on the voice memo. She gladly did the interview again. I could see how this could be a problem. She had more time to think of the questions and change some of your answers, but the answers were very similar, not exact wording, but very similar to what she had said before. The interview was still being recorded by my camera and I have the interview but the audio is not the best.

Towards the end, for the last interview, I had to cut it really short because my camera said that I only have 3 minutes of footage left to film, but she answered all the question and in a highly mature manner. 

So the interviews went beyond what I had expected. 

Panoramic Views

I was recommended during my meeting to create somewhat of an overview of how my documentary is going to turn out if it were produced to its full extent. 

The excerpt that I will be creating is filming protest and interviews with protestors, but what will occur before or even after that excerpt?

The opening of the film will most likely be news footage of school shootings that have happened in the United States for many years prior, in order to get an overview of how the debate has quickly surfaced and caused such controversy and chaos. Including footage of what happened inside Parkland  and even interviews with student activist would also be included.  After my excerpt, there will most definitely be an interview of a gun range and having the opinion of an individual who sells guns to others. But other interviews such as those of legislative officials on both political parties would be interviewed and to get an interview with someone from the NRA would be pretty awesome. Interviews with the parents of the victims will help to develop the story with footage of the victim and their past life. 

 In order to develop the story, interviews, footage, music, and editing will help to further and create a full documentary. 

Hit the Target

I wasn't really sure who I wanted to target because I think this docuemntary would be great for anyone. But thinking about it, I have decided to reach a target audience that is 15 years old and up and are parents and students. Due to recent events in Parkland, and other school shootings, high school seems to be a place that is a target and high school freshman are about the age of 15. I thought this is an appropriate start, not just to teach about the debate but also is relevant to many students and parents.I also wanted to include parents because it is important for both students and parents to be informed about the public opinion on a subject that has demonstrated a polarized nation and governmental system. It is a conversation starter and conversation that parents and their children should have as well as students since many are born post-columbine and in the era of gun violence in school. I will have to do more extensive research on distribution of the documentary and focus on the poster and website that can reach this target audience. 

Let's Participate

While doing my research I have found that there are six types of modes of documentiaries: expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, poetic and performative, I have decided that the mode/ style that I will do is participatory."The participatory mode as Nichols describes it is where the “filmmaker interacts with his or her social actors and participates in shaping what happens before the camera”. There is an interaction between the filmmaker/interviwer and the subject /interviwee. I felt this interaction necessary to move the story forward, but also, the documentary is about both sides of the gun control debate and interviews are a representation of that. I want my documentary to be as truthful as possible and this mode of documentary is not only a connection with the interviewee and essentially the audience but also it observes what is happening around the filmmaker and society as a whole. 

Get it? Participatory documentary?!

There are some documentary conventions that I will embrace and others that I will challenge. 

Conventions that Might be Utilized: 

~ hand-held camera to create a sense of realism as well as facilitate my integration with the people during the marches. 

~Interviews will be utilized in order to tell and progress the story. (indirect interviews will most likely be utilized as to take away my perspective and make it seem less biased/manipulative)

~Music in order to create a tone and develop the point of view presented. 

~Close ups and Extreme-close ups in order to capture reactions of the people. 

~selective editing and maybe parallel editing (depending on the footage) to establish POV and tone.

~ Montage/B-roll while there is an interview occuring or footage that is relevant as someone is speaking.

~tripods are usually not utilized in documentaries and this might be one of the things that I will be challenging. 

Biesterfeld, Peter. “Six Primary Styles of Documentary Production.” Videomaker.com, 13 Nov. 2015, 9:08 A.M., www.videomaker.com/article/c06/18423-six-primary-styles-of-documentary-production.

Henderson, Julia. “Julia Henderson's Document History and Theory Site.” Network, 6 Nov. 2013, sites.stedwards.edu/comm4399fa2013-jhender4/2013/11/06/participatory-and-reflexive-modes-of-documentary-response-4/. 

Miller, Rob. “Documentary Codes & Conventions.” FilmEdu, 10 Nov. 2011, film.edusites.co.uk/article/documentary-codes-conventions/.

Meeting #1

Today we had a meeting to which I talked a little about my project in order to see how my progress is going and to get some opinions. So while explaining my project to some of my classmates, they have suggested creating an overview of what the documentary will be like. This will not only will help me with where I would edit the content to have an ending that shows a continuation since I am only showing a part of the documentary but also clears the confusion of how the documentary will continue after the excerpt.  I was quite scared that I wouldn't know how to end the documentary, but during this meeting, they have suggested in me doing an establishing shot of the gun range, which I thought was not a bad idea but who knows what will happen in the editing process. I also talked about my concerns about distribution and where will I distribute it in order to reach my target audience since it is such a large spectrum (which I will talk about in a later post) and they suggested in doing some research on political shows or shows that deal with politics since the topic is gun control. So I have been working on the research about the target audience, genre/documentary mode and its conventions and distribution which will be posted later this week. 

Schedule

In order for me to be successful in this final project, I need to stay organize and by creating this schedule I hope to follow it.

Spend two weeks doing research on branding, documentary conventions, target audience, distribution, etc.

I would hopefully start filming on the week of the 11th and continue until the 2th  giving me two weeks to edit and start the CCR.The moments that I am not filming I will work on the poster which I have an idea of how it is going to look as well as working on the website.

IDEA

      When thinking about what I wanted to do in order to capture a part of life, I wanted to go through the sporting route. My first thought was to do a documentary about gymnastics and maybe about a specific olympian who works in a gym near were I live. Another idea would have been my brother. My brother's dream since he was four was to become a professional soccer player, and at 19, he plays  in the Czech Republic. But being 5,114 miles away, it would have been difficult. He comes home about twice a year and when he was here, in the States,  planned on filming him, but he got sick and was not allowed to play by my mother's command. He needed to get better before the season began. I felt doomed to be quite honest. I was scared that I wouldn't know what to do.

      On February 14, 2018,  23.4 miles from my high school, a ex-student from Majory Stoneman Douglass High School opened fire and killed 17 people. It hit really close to home. Walking the halls on Monday morning, there were signs of gun facts all around. It expressed anger and frustration for what was happening and for what has not changed. It was at that moment that I felt this need to express the two sides of the argument about gun control.

Photos by Elisabeth Mitrano

      On Feburary 21, there was a walkout in which students at 10:00 A.M. walk out of school in protest. My High school participated in this event and I took some pictures and videos  to be utlized in the documntary. But I do have to say that while filming and listening to testimony from students that were involved in the school shooting, I felt awful to film the pains of others and it got me thinking that photojournalist do this for a living. It makes you question the ethical aspect of journalist. How far should you go for a story? But to many the story is a way to make others understand, learn and foster realization.

      My documentary is about capturing both sides of the gun control argument.

Nervous Nelly

We are at the beginning of starting our projects and to be quite honest, I am nervous, excited but nervous. I picked to do the documentary and I know that it will be a challenge. I am not a very talkative person, but I want to get out of my comfort zone. I want to be able to come up to a stranger, obviously with caution, and ask their opinion, their side to a story/situation. I want to understand the division of an issue and the importance of the issue to these individuals and to the nation.

I went through many ideas not knowing what I wanted to do. I think I know what I want to do , I just need to do more research in order to come up with well-rounded questions and start to organize myself. I know that it won't be easy, but I hope it is fun, inspiring, and thought-provoking at the same time.

 Plock. “Hyperventilate Nervous GIF - Hyperventilate Nervous Sheldon - Discover & Share GIFs.” Tenor, Tenor, 19 Sept. 2015, tenor.com/view/hyperventilate-nervous-sheldon-bigbangtheory-jimparsons-gif-4524598.