Learning As I Go: A Directors Journey
Knox Mountain Therapy Documentary:
This was our first major school assignment given to us in quarter 1. As director I chose to frame the theme around “why is it beneficial to go out in nature?”, with Knox Mountain as the main setting. Directing a documentary definitely pushes your ability to approach strangers for interviewing... After overcoming the fear of bothering a stranger on their hike, you’d find that all people willing to talk to you are friendly and eager to answer questions. Conducting the interview questions went rather smoothly but it’s important to be aware of surrounding noise that can interfere with the volume; Some interviews we gathered were unusable due to construction noise in the background. As for actually asking them questions, just keep them talking. You’ll have your list of main questions predetermined but I feel it’s important to add sub questions about their response to keep them engaged. You’ll get more out of an individual if you're interested in their answers; people clue in pretty quick if you're there just for your agenda or to actually hear their story.
Setup is definitely something that takes time, in my head I thought it’d be something that’s instant. Sadly, no. This includes camera assembly, finding frame, and then finding interview subjects. It was very helpful to have a classmate, Sterling, who had the ability to approach people sitting in their cars with the windows rolled up...I’m more of a windows down kind of guy. With him, the interviews rolled in!
When editing the footage I learned a lot as well:
1. Great B-roll pulls everything together.
2. Candid moments create touching moments. I was lucky to have classmates find shots of a family taking a selfie and a couple swapping the dog leash when pedaling up a hill on their bikes. I put those clips over the chorus to my song choice, Bloom, when the lyrics “can I be close to you?” came up. In my opinion the song choice mixed with those candid moments really pulls it all together.
3. Music is so important when trying to establish a mood. I’m just thankful that my lovely wife’s musical prowess is so vast, she knew exactly what song to pair my footage with.
4. The more time you spend on collecting B-roll, the better your story will be. My classmate and business partner, Giuliano, and myself spend several extra days collecting sunset time lapses and extra b-roll shots that definitely set our edits apart from others. Collecting these shots takes time, yes, but the payoff is worth it.
