Connect to outside sources (article/book/podcast/ted talk/blog/website/etc)

• This is a Text investigation. Consider your essential question in the context of at least two outside sources you have identified that connect to your essential question. How do these ideas resonate with or challenge your own beliefs, experiences, or practices? Be sure to give concrete and specific examples. You may want to address: ways the sources answered parts of your Essential Question, what additional questions were raised, or how your essential understanding of your project was altered or confirmed by the readings you did. Make sure to cite your sources.

Post your reflection to the blog in advance of your cohort meeting.

 

For the first week of my project, I engaged in research about documentary filmmaking by watching a number of documentaries and then by analyzing them. One documentary that I think resonated the most with me and my project was the documentary My Octopus Teacher. This documentary was actually recommended to be by Susan Now when I told her about my project and it was quite helpful to me. This film had some parallels with what I am trying to create. For instance, it aims to tell a different perspective and an interesting story which is what I want to do.  

 

In the context of this week’s work this documentary made me think about how I should lay out my work to tell a story. It also helped me to realize the importance of good narration and how to weave that in with the footage. This is especially important to me since this week I spent some time filming the narration portion of my documentary, although I didn’t quite get enough footage. 

 

In terms of how this source helped me to address my essential question which is: how can I use film/photography to tell a story? This documentary was a perfect example of the ways that documentary filmmakers use footage and narration to tell a story. To address this question the documentary masterfully wove together footage that was taken by the narrator/the person who the story focuses on and used voice-over to explain what was happening in the clips. In fact, after reflecting on the challenges that I have faced while filming this documentary also helped provide me with the answer. As I mentioned before I had issues with audio while filming and much of the footage in this documentary took place underwater where the audio was irrelevant or not great. The makers of this documentary ended up fixing the problem (well I don’t know if it was a problem for them) as I plan to do for the most part muting the clips and having a voiceover instead. 

 

Overall I would say this documentary as well as the other ones that I watched in preparation for filming helped me confirm the answers that I already had to my essential question. However, I think that there is still a lot of room for me to think and find more answers to my essential question as I begin putting the footage that I have together to tell a cohesive story.