The Cons in CONtra: Mistakes I Made Filming my Documentary and How I Fixed Them.

·   Here is the (non-updated) link to my project!

  Did you know that if you look up "Learning Curve" in the dictionary, it actually gives you a link that takes you right to a compilation of my minor breakdowns over this assignment? The Assignment in question: a 7 minute documentary of the topic of my choosing, namely Contra dancing, a recently revived 17th century dance style.

Filming on day One! I had no idea what I was getting into!

Despite feeling like I'm still at the bottom of this learning curve, I feel desperately accomplished after gleaning a round of applause from my peers after viewing my project.

Here is a 3 month breakdown of my filming process for this project alone:

Month 1:

• Figure out your subject matter and the angle you wanted to take- I wanted to do my doc solely on CONTRA that occurs at RIVER FALLS LODGE and frame it as a MAGICAL place.

• Contact the head of River Falls Lodge just to make sure this is a possibility asking for people who might be available interested.

• Learn how to work Adobe Premier Pro, check out film equipment, ect.

• Film Session 1- practice angles and collect alternative shots with low stakes B-roll.

• Ask people in person If they'd be interested in sitting for an interview in 2 months

  

  Hayes (pictured) is one of the first people I asked for an interview!

Month 2:

• Attempt to contact the large list of people you've built

• realize that no one on your list is below 75, and about 40% of them know how to operate SMS. 10% of them are only reachable by fax.

• Collect musicians contact information for music license.

• Make a list of "non negotiables" about you subject matter- things that must be included in the documentary to illustrate the right picture.

• Brainstorm alternative shots you think could fill gaps in the story you're building.

• Film session 2- do your best to follow the shots list and fill those gaps.

• Build a shots list to get your priorities straight

• Miss two consecutive shooting days for irrelevant reasons.

• Film session 4 during a special event where everyone is in costumes so 90% o f the footage you gather is unusable.

  
  

  

  These costumes made it really cinematic, but I was nervous it would hurt the flow of the film!

Month 3:

• Give up on contacting the geezers and trust that your interviewees will come to you.

• Realize you have one shooting day left to film all the interviews you've been trying to book for moths.

• Realize that you need a "main character" for your doc, and hope that 8 Minor Characters will suffice.

• Make a detailed shots list, a list of potential candidates for interviews, and tailored questions for each person that must be interviewed.

• Ditch that and the entire list of questions and just ask them questions you're curious about, with a few guiding ones like "how long have you done contra? how did you start?... How old are you?"

  

  My Incredibly High-tech Setup!

Editing:

• Host "shots labelling parties" where you take a few hours to upload all your shots onto your hard drive and label them BEFORE starting the project

• Sort them into bins based on how good the shot turned out- first, second, and last choice shots.

• Transcribe all your interviews and highlight stuff that HAS to make it in. Between 8 people, you should have a lot.

• From there, see if theres any logical order that arises from your sound bytes. Write your script. Cut half of it.

• Gather the weird stuff into your drive: music, historic references, photos, secondary footage, drone footage*, driving footage, personal footage taken before the project started, etc.

• NOW you can edit. This will take you 3x longer than you think it will. Mine took almost 30 hours.

• Attend Critique. Take YOU notes during the showing- critiques oly you notice on the big screen, and write down EVERYTHING people critique you on in a second category: THEM notes.

• Apply Critiques, and Voilà!

  
  

  I decided to focus on collecting interviews on the last filming day, therefore I did not include drone footage.

I learned so much throughout this project:

• The narrower you go- the simpler every step in this process can be. Be specific about what you want to produce and only focus on filming that angle.

• BE ORGANIZED FROM THE BEGINNING. I've had 2 projects get corrupted in some way- one of them was salvagable, the other as not. Get a hard drive and guard her with your LIFE.

• You will need to take 3-5x more footage than you think you need. I thought i was going overboard filming 5 days- I used footage from every day, and wrung that stuff out to the point of exhaustion.

• Be strategic about who you interview. I ended up doing an open "drop in" format, which relaxed everyone I interviewed and gave me some real authentic moments, which was good because the format that I'd originally tried (reaching out to scheudle interviews in advance) got me ZERO responses.

• Don't Use AI for stuff you can get on your own. Life can be replicated, but joy cannot. I am happy to say I did not use AI for any part of this activity.

FUTURE REFERENCE:

Out of all our projects in digital storytelling, this one has asked the most of me, and in turn, taught me more than any other project. It required me to be organized, future-oriented in my way of thinking, and open- minded about my final product. It required me to be flexible with who/ what I included in my final product based on footage I could get. It required me to think ahead, scheduling filming days MONTHS in advance, starting in September, just to get enough footage for this once-a-month occurence. It required me to stay alert while editing the whole time, so I didn't draw something out of the wrong place and corrupt my footage. It required me to ask for help a LOT- mainly from google, but also Audrey, the MVP TA, who has to endure me checking out ludicrous amounts of equipment. Thank you. It also moved me past the stage where I got scared every time I opened Adobe Premier Pro. 30 hours of editing, 20 hours of filming, and 15 hours prepping/driving later, I am proud of my final project.