Blog Post/Reading Response #1

PROGRESS:

So far we have established a solid group - Josh, Ryley and I. We thought that since we worked together so well on the PSA that we should just continue to work together for the documentary. We have a few loose ideas that have been tossed around - most prominently the topic of panhandling. Ryley is very interested in this issue, and feels like we can make a strong documentary around it. I'm unsure how I feel about the topic at the moment, but I'm sure we'll find common ground and work something out. Other than that, we've just kind of discussed some timing for possible renting of equipment and filming and such, with me going out of town in a couple weeks and missing an entire week of school. So far, so good I'd say.

READING RESPONSE:

From this piece, "Directing the Documentary" by Michael Rabiger, I learned a few concrete ideas about what a documentary should do, how it should be filmed, and tips on presentation. The reading was actually very imformative about planning, content, ideaology, and presentation. One line that I believe relates directly to the documentaries that we are going to produce is, "the documentary seems concerned with unconvering further dimensions to actuality and implying some kind of social criticism," (1). The topic of our documentaries in VOICES are just that - social issues. What I also gathered from this reading was what makes a documentary successful - one line in particular stood out to me, "successful documentaries, like their fiction counterparts, also need a good story with interesting characters, narrative tension, and an integrated point of view," (4). This was very clear and helpful, and I'm sure we'll check back with this piece when going through a mental checklist of what our documentary has and what our documentary needs.