Editing My Proposal

I'm currently editing my proposal with all the edits that Mr. Hamilton, Maranda, and Sienna suggest I make.

Basically, I just have to spunk up my attention grabber and add more details about what I'm doing with my project.

Shouldn't be too hard...

I'm also working on my final PowerPoint at this time.

Proposal Draft Finished

I finished my proposal draft today.
I'll check the comment when I get it back and correct it. I have a feeling I didn't use enough evidence of background research.

Ah well...

Off to take more notes...

Continuing My Proposal

I have several paragraphs done. Below, I have posted what I currently have done.

History is a major part of culture. Where someone came from, when something happened, how society functioned a certain time ago all contribute to the current condition of the world. Ever since the development of language, the human race has attempted to document what has happened during the present time. By documenting what has happened, it allows future generations, as well as the current one, to better understand the situation. It is in this way that documentaries are important. However, as with any event, there can never be enough details. Every event can be researched to the bone and then can branch off into other areas that will, in turn, connect to other areas. Eventually this will create a web of information that will embrace a wide topic. It’s knowing how to create a specific and focused web that produces the best documentaries. Informational documentaries should be able to provide the viewer with adequate information without overloading them with irrelevant facts. Another aspect of a documentary is its entertainment value. The information must be presented in a fashion that is appealing to the viewer and gets its point across at the same time. Despite whatever abundance of information, there is no substitute for lack of quality. What this project will be focusing on will be the process in creating an entertaining and informational documentary on the history and current condition of City Charter High School.
One of my future aspects is to become a professional video editor in the film industry. It is because of this that I have taken initiative in starting this project. I wanted to create a documentary for my action plan, as opposed to other movie genres, because I felt it was important to look at history and the actual world than a fantasy circumstance.
With that in mind, documentaries have many of the same challenges and situations that an action, horror, dramatic, and other genres of film encounter, along with some unexpected ones. While documentaries tend to be less expensive to produce, cost can still be an issue. Also, documentaries can be mostly made up of interviews with primary sources, a script is still needed. Because of personal interviews, this script can quickly turn into a mere guideline. All throughout the production, organization becomes essential, both in categorizing subjects and labeling scenes to the actual organization of the storyline of the documentary. This leads into the next point: How does one make sure the documentary stays on focus, and what is the best way to connect the scenes in order to convey the information that it focuses on? By creating my own documentary, I hope to experience these and other pressures and problems of creating a full-fledged film. I hope to take what I learn here and apply it to future projects.
[Insert Paragraph 3 Here]
As can be imagined, this project will take a lot of research in order for the turn out to be successful. The first tier of research will be on the actual process of creating a documentary and films in general. The research will have to be on what problems I might possibly encounter, what materials I will need in order to complete the video, what techniques and organizational methods should I be using, and how I should be going about doing them. This will include looking on the internet for possible blogs and articles on the methods and experiences of putting together a film and also conducting interviews with those involved in the industry in order to obtain a firsthand perspective on the process. From these resources, I can formulate my own plan of action for my documentary. The second part of the research process will be the research for the material the documentary will be focusing on. In this case, the focus will be on the history and current state of City Charter High School. This means that different sorts of sources, from newspapers to primary source accounts, will have to be used to create an accurate and thorough documentary on City Charter High School. These interviews will prove to be the vital, driving resource behind this video, since most, if not all, of them will be primary sources with unmatched expertise in the subject.

Grad Project Presentations

Today, we saw a handful of Graduation Project presentations.

Even though they were all a bit unfinished, I still feel as though many of them were lacking something.

One of the problems that I'm worried about is the time limit. If I have everything planned out, I could probably put together a good hour of good presentation content that I'll have to cut down to around 40 minutes.

I'll have to explain the reasoning of my documentary
What documentaries have to offer (why are they important?)
Talk about my essential question.
Explain my process of creating a documentary (What I had to do, how I researched, what materials I used, how did I set up everything, etc.)
Show a quick "behind the scenes" thing of me working on the documentary (maybe I can get Mike to help me? Perhaps I could use this video as some of the explanation of my materials and various things previously mentioned).
Then finally answering my essential question with my finished documentary on the history and current and future state of City High, which I want to be around 20-30 minutes...

We'll see how this goes

Proposal

I've currently started writing the basics of my proposal essay until I have a chance to look back over what I need to improve on my pre-proposal questionnaire.

Equipment and the Such...

Today I found another source that has helped me: http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/production/lightscamera/

This article is about what someone used and managed while filming a documentary cross country. It includes pictures of set-ups for interviews as well as tips on traveling with equipment.

It also appears that everyone is using the Canon XL-1 or XL2 for their camera duties. This has me relieved as this is what I'll be using as well. It makes me feel that end the documentary will probably look better.

Also, the microphone that the person uses is mostly a shotgun mic, which is one of the options I was looking at, as opposed to a wireless mic.