Doc: CCR

 Creative Critical Reflection

• How did research inform your product and the way it uses or challenges conventions?
• How does your product engage with audiences?
• How does your product represent social groups/issues?

    The documentary Impact focuses on sparking hope and initiative for positive change in its audience through the use of various technical elements. Honing in on the process of initiating an environmental school project, this documentary highlights the negative effects of plastic pollution and shows a team combating this issue with perseverance.

    When commencing this documentary, researching the central role of a documentary played a vital part in deciding what the documentary would focus. Initial research consisted of class notetaking on the definition of a documentary: "a slice of life". Familiarization with the key aspects of a documentary started the conversation about creating a documentary on environmental awareness. There was a final conversation about creating a documentary on the initiation of the Recycle Beyond the Bag project at Cypress Bay High School by Interact Club, which the initial research helped come to. (Notes on "slice of life" realization to right )

Attaining the topic of the documentary led to researching the genre conventions of a documentary. Class notetaking brought more knowledge in learning about indirect/direct interviews, B-roll, usage of archived footage, etc.. Much of this research is anecdoted in the Doc: Research blog post (https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1230255472652070084/3199987192783195247) Extra research was done to get more comfortable with the conventions, such as interview styles and steps to conduct one. A repeatedly used source was: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-conduct-a-documentary-interview-top-interview-techniques-and-tips-for-documentary-films-and-tv 

Choosing which conventions to include and utilize came after researching specific documentary examples and attaining a visual image of how the documentary would look like. Viewing examples of documentaries helped in seeing what conventions to include and which to abandon. The documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop was deemed helpful in showing how documentaries can be sequentially led through the use of interviews. In American Promise indirect and direct interviews show how personal interviews can contribute to a documentary's tone shift, and how B-roll can be integrated to form a story. Lastly, a documentary series on Netflix called Abstract: The Art of Design provides several examples of how staged B-roll can provide authentic exemplification of certain tasks getting done. Viewing examples assured which conventions would be used in Impact. Overall this documentary used the genre's conventions such as indirect and direct interviews, VO of interviews over cutaways of B-roll, staged B-roll, and music. Using traditional conventions in the documentary helped in progressing the story and making content reflective of as much as the truth as possible (with the staged B-roll). Research on what each genre convention does assist in its usage, for example, hand-held shots of B-roll creating realism and VO narration that helped progress the story of the process of the environmental project. This documentary doesn't challenge conventions due to the necessity of focusing on the information given. This film is supported by the understanding of logos given by certain interviewees and is meant to replicate reality in every aspect. If this film became too unconventional or surreal, then the message of environmentalism and plastic pollution would get lost within the piece.

While research was important to making Impact so was establishing a target audience to connect to. Impact's target audience is any person from 12-30 years old, who is interested in the environment and/or making a positive difference in their community. This documentary uses specific technical elements like music, B-roll, and indirect/direct interviews to facilitate connection and engagement to the target audience. Because this is a younger audience, different measures need to be taken to engage if targeting older audiences because of the narrower attention span of 12-30 year-olds. So, including music in the background of longer interview segments is something that not only creates a specific tone but adds something new to what is being watched, which helps engage individuals for longer. For example, when providing silence from a previously long clip with background music, a certain auditory continuity is broken which can reignite the audience's attention (shown in this video clip)

In addition, the addition of varying types of B-rolls worked to engage this audience and to resonate with environmental lovers/ project lovers. The B-roll shown varies from videos of plants and nature landscapes to videos of multiple people contributing to the project. These changing videos over the VO of the interviewees keep audiences engaged and allow for the individuals to actually SEE, not just hear, about the steps being taken to make this environmental project happen:

 

Lastly, indirect and direct interviews played a key part in engaging with audiences. Indirect interviews are utilized to make information more "bite-size" and easy to grasp because using just answers allows for the content to flow nicer and not be as dragged out. This is useful, especially for this younger audience. While most interviewee segments are indirect interviews, a critical interview towards the end is direct on purpose. From the above video clip shown (with the absence of music in one portion), the use of asking this question and inserting it to the documentary was to grasp as much attention as possible on this area of the documentary. As this is the "resolution" or "final thoughts" on the interviewees's views on the global plastic problem and the benefit of this project, there needed to be a big focus and understanding on this part. Also, the idea of vulnerability and emotive responses attracts audiences, especially younger audiences, as they can resonate more deeply with the documentary and become more attentive to the purpose. 

    The main social issues represented in this documentary are plastic pollution (explicit) and global health (more implicit). The main topic of discussion of this documentary is the creation of a recycling project to help combat plastic pollution and its effects. Plastic pollution is represented through two different POVs and facets that assist in showing the different scales in which it can be seen: day-to-day encounters with plastic pollution, and how it is created on a global scale. With Boswell and Margarita, examples of how plastic pollution is created on a bigger-scale are explained through interviews of both of them explaining how plastic spreads so easily, and with Margarita showing the different types of plastics that end up in landfills or spreading. On the other hand, the B-roll of plastic in the grass and in school surroundings shows what to many are the unnoticeable homes of plastic pollution. This was represented to give audiences a clear view that even if one doesn't see it, this pollution is all around at all scales. To add on, the other social issue represented was global health. This issue was mainly represented through logos given by Margarita in her interview, where she explained that plastic pollution isn't only an environmental issue, it is a big human health issue that effects everyone. This conversation also bleeds into the health effects this has on poorer communities who are more affected by this issue, alluding to social inequality.

Overall, Impact works towards engaging audiences through visual and auditory elements to inspire them to strive and work towards positive change in caring for the environment and overall health. By showing the initial process of starting a club's own project, this documentary shows how others can do the same.