Hypothesis (before project, taken from application.)
What I think I will learn from completing this project is the process of creating a documentary, as well as expanding my knowledge of filmmaking. As of right now, I strictly do narrative works and I wish to expand my horizons with my filmmaking. In the past, I have also toyed with the idea of creating a documentary, but I never went through with it.
Investigation
How I gained the knowledge and skill to complete this project was mostly from my own personal knowledge and skill with filmmaking, however at times where I felt stuck and did not know what to do, my mentor stepped in and helped with that. I mostly worked with the cast of my short film, as well as some outside people when interviewing them at Filmstock.
My Process
My initial process for this project started when I had finished writing this film, Three. I realized how long it took me to write it, and I thought I would try my hand at making a documentary based on the whole process of creating this film, from start to finish. On September 7th, 2019, I started filming Three, while my mom collected set photos and videos that I can include in my portfolio as well as the documentary itself. In total, production took about one month and 6 days. On November 13th, 2019, the film Three premiered at Regal Cinemas in Simi Valley, CA. I did various interviews there, as well as met my new mentor, Brian Gallagher, who is a close family friend with experience in television and being behind the camera. My original mentor had not exactly shown interest in the project, nor did he reply to any contact that I made with him. As soon as I had mentioned to Brian that I wanted him to be my mentor, he automatically said yes. In January of this year, I filmed all of my cast interviews, as well as snippets of me talking to the camera/voiceovers for the documentary. On January 27th, I completely finished the full documentary after about 3 months of editing and filming. My next step with this film is to submit it to various film festivals in California.
Artifacts
The photos that I do have from the process of making my senior project are from when we filmed the initial Three film and when I was editing the documentary. Editing the documentary took me about 2-3 months, because i shot all of the footage on separate occasions, and I had to compile my cast together when the time was available for them to be interviewed. You can also see some of my cast interview notes, movie posters I designed for the film, as well as the final editing timeline for the entire documentary.