Here is a Film Documentary that I've wanted to work on for a very long time and was given the opportunity when I was given free reign over a project by my Digital Media Arts professor. As with all films, there was various struggles and successes that came with making this film so I decided to write a small post about my experiences with having created my first ever documentary titled: Under the Cut.
Film Outline and Perspective of Barbers
After working with both Daniel and Jandeo through conversations before conducting the interview, I realized one thing, and it's that both regard the subject of barbering in a different manner. JD first started barbering because he wanted to help his friends out by giving them haircuts before important meetings such as job interviews or even dates with girls. He came across more of a "I did it to help people out, to see how I can keep my group of people around me clean looking." Meanwhile, Daniel began cutting hair out of pure interest. As a hobbyist, he described the fact that he started barbering to increase his pool of skill, he did it to see how good he can be at it and practiced to get good. He saw it more as a form of art and another hobby. When coming across these 2 stories, I never realized that people's reasoning could be so different and it somewhat fascinated me, I wanted to somehow portray their stories in their own way, highlighting how they saw it and why they began doing it.
The story really evolved once I began the interviews, albeit the audio wasn't that clean but working around it, I felt that I could really understand where they're coming from. The major problem really was getting the right way to tell the story out of them. Both of them were in their own way very camera shy, Jandeo was more outgoing but when the red light was on, he really began to ramble and say things about cutting hair which he really didn't mean to say, which I knew based on our conversations prior to it. Daniel was with his own problems, literally sometimes unable to talk once the record button was turned on, getting the story became problematic. Prior to this, I planned a list of questions to ask them and when it came down to filming process, they both ended up giving me answers which you'd hear from someone who was getting interviewed for a job they have no idea about, repeating words like teamwork and creative, over and over again, it didn't feel natural at all to me, at least not as natural as I know they want it to come across. So I had to find a work around, and the way I did it was I let them tell the camera what they wanted to tell it, instead of a formal questionnaire, I let them lead the discussion and worked around getting more once I heard answers that I think they can elaborate on. Needless to say, it took many nights of interviewing, redoing things like 3-4 times each but in the end it worked out. For this part of the session, I really have to say my thanks to both of them for working with me, I knew I was inexperienced and they helped me throughout the whole ordeal, staying patient and really putting forth the effort in helping me convey the story correctly.
In the end, the way the stories came out was how I wanted to tell it. JD was all about cutting hair to help people in their opportunities. He cared a lot about what people thought and gave it his best to cut hair. Daniel was more about perfecting his art. He was interested in the crisp lineups, the noticeable fades and the little tricks he can do to make a cut really shine. Not to say that both barbers didn't care about the other aspects of barbering, but rather, these were their focus.
Lessons learned for future documentaries
Prior to this project, I've never really worked on a project to this scale. I mean I worked on projects, but I've never really tried to make one that I felt was really media ready, something I could show people and not feel so amateur about how it turned out. Throughout this project, I actually learned a lot of things, I wanted to express a few of them to you, in the instance that you wanted to make a documentary yourself.
Have all your equipment that you need to use readily available
Yes, borrowing from my college, Seneca, was a good and useful tool, however, I really felt that I needed my own equipment for easier access, and to make use of the day better.
In this instance, the first thing I'd recommend is to buy yourself a second or even third battery for your DSLR or camera that you're using. You don't even know how unprofessional or how unprepared I felt when I had to tell them that I had to charge my battery, having to wait a couple of minutes to charge, just to film for 15 minutes to charge yet again, it felt ridiculous.
Invest in the proper microphone. This one I blundered somewhat with the selection of microphone that I got, but it was moreso because of my budget. If I had to choose again, I'd probably choose an external microphone or the Rode mic pro, rather than just the Rode mic, because of the ambient and hissing noise that the mic catches. What I learned was choosing the right mic for the right situation would've been ideal for how I wanted to use sound in my documentary.
Get a slider. And I don't mean to come off as a salesman, but the thing is, sliders add so much to a shot, especially in a documentary style video. The smooth motion it provides allows you to create such astonishing shots. Even just as a beginner with it, I feel throughout this documentary that experimenting with it opened up what I could do in terms of shot selection. And I really think it's a worthwhile investment.
Working with different programs
I think the hardest program to learn for me was probably Adobe Audition. I've never used the program before and I had to look up tutorials online to figure it out. Because of the mic used, I had a lot of problems with sound throughout the film, working with hisses, hums, low quality. And even after re shooting scenes multiple times, I still had to work at it to get it to sound usable. I think the biggest help was looking at youtube tutorials, specifically the channel https://www.youtube.com/user/videomaker helped me a lot when it came to fixing stuff.
Work with someone
Working alone is really hard and I had to figure this out in my own way. In the initial phase of filming, I literally tried to do things alone and it was really time consuming and difficult. I feel the biggest help was just having someone else at the shoot. My friend Daniel, although being in the film, began helping me with setting up the shots, setting up tripods and lights while JD helped with the transport of the equipment from shot location to shot location with his car. What would've been 3 times more tedious doing alone, I managed to learn was easier with others.
So the outcome...
So what started out as a project, really taught me more things than I would've realized. When I began writing for the proposal, I thought that the only things I had to learn would be making titles through tutorials, but I can easily see that it wasn't the case. Everything from brainstorming how to make the story, to working on set, to working on post production was a difficult but moving experience. It really taught me a lot.
Film Outline and Perspective of Barbers
After working with both Daniel and Jandeo through conversations before conducting the interview, I realized one thing, and it's that both regard the subject of barbering in a different manner. JD first started barbering because he wanted to help his friends out by giving them haircuts before important meetings such as job interviews or even dates with girls. He came across more of a "I did it to help people out, to see how I can keep my group of people around me clean looking." Meanwhile, Daniel began cutting hair out of pure interest. As a hobbyist, he described the fact that he started barbering to increase his pool of skill, he did it to see how good he can be at it and practiced to get good. He saw it more as a form of art and another hobby. When coming across these 2 stories, I never realized that people's reasoning could be so different and it somewhat fascinated me, I wanted to somehow portray their stories in their own way, highlighting how they saw it and why they began doing it.
The story really evolved once I began the interviews, albeit the audio wasn't that clean but working around it, I felt that I could really understand where they're coming from. The major problem really was getting the right way to tell the story out of them. Both of them were in their own way very camera shy, Jandeo was more outgoing but when the red light was on, he really began to ramble and say things about cutting hair which he really didn't mean to say, which I knew based on our conversations prior to it. Daniel was with his own problems, literally sometimes unable to talk once the record button was turned on, getting the story became problematic. Prior to this, I planned a list of questions to ask them and when it came down to filming process, they both ended up giving me answers which you'd hear from someone who was getting interviewed for a job they have no idea about, repeating words like teamwork and creative, over and over again, it didn't feel natural at all to me, at least not as natural as I know they want it to come across. So I had to find a work around, and the way I did it was I let them tell the camera what they wanted to tell it, instead of a formal questionnaire, I let them lead the discussion and worked around getting more once I heard answers that I think they can elaborate on. Needless to say, it took many nights of interviewing, redoing things like 3-4 times each but in the end it worked out. For this part of the session, I really have to say my thanks to both of them for working with me, I knew I was inexperienced and they helped me throughout the whole ordeal, staying patient and really putting forth the effort in helping me convey the story correctly.
In the end, the way the stories came out was how I wanted to tell it. JD was all about cutting hair to help people in their opportunities. He cared a lot about what people thought and gave it his best to cut hair. Daniel was more about perfecting his art. He was interested in the crisp lineups, the noticeable fades and the little tricks he can do to make a cut really shine. Not to say that both barbers didn't care about the other aspects of barbering, but rather, these were their focus.
Lessons learned for future documentaries
Prior to this project, I've never really worked on a project to this scale. I mean I worked on projects, but I've never really tried to make one that I felt was really media ready, something I could show people and not feel so amateur about how it turned out. Throughout this project, I actually learned a lot of things, I wanted to express a few of them to you, in the instance that you wanted to make a documentary yourself.
Have all your equipment that you need to use readily available
Yes, borrowing from my college, Seneca, was a good and useful tool, however, I really felt that I needed my own equipment for easier access, and to make use of the day better.
In this instance, the first thing I'd recommend is to buy yourself a second or even third battery for your DSLR or camera that you're using. You don't even know how unprofessional or how unprepared I felt when I had to tell them that I had to charge my battery, having to wait a couple of minutes to charge, just to film for 15 minutes to charge yet again, it felt ridiculous.
Invest in the proper microphone. This one I blundered somewhat with the selection of microphone that I got, but it was moreso because of my budget. If I had to choose again, I'd probably choose an external microphone or the Rode mic pro, rather than just the Rode mic, because of the ambient and hissing noise that the mic catches. What I learned was choosing the right mic for the right situation would've been ideal for how I wanted to use sound in my documentary.
Get a slider. And I don't mean to come off as a salesman, but the thing is, sliders add so much to a shot, especially in a documentary style video. The smooth motion it provides allows you to create such astonishing shots. Even just as a beginner with it, I feel throughout this documentary that experimenting with it opened up what I could do in terms of shot selection. And I really think it's a worthwhile investment.
Working with different programs
I think the hardest program to learn for me was probably Adobe Audition. I've never used the program before and I had to look up tutorials online to figure it out. Because of the mic used, I had a lot of problems with sound throughout the film, working with hisses, hums, low quality. And even after re shooting scenes multiple times, I still had to work at it to get it to sound usable. I think the biggest help was looking at youtube tutorials, specifically the channel https://www.youtube.com/user/videomaker helped me a lot when it came to fixing stuff.
Work with someone
Working alone is really hard and I had to figure this out in my own way. In the initial phase of filming, I literally tried to do things alone and it was really time consuming and difficult. I feel the biggest help was just having someone else at the shoot. My friend Daniel, although being in the film, began helping me with setting up the shots, setting up tripods and lights while JD helped with the transport of the equipment from shot location to shot location with his car. What would've been 3 times more tedious doing alone, I managed to learn was easier with others.
So the outcome...
So what started out as a project, really taught me more things than I would've realized. When I began writing for the proposal, I thought that the only things I had to learn would be making titles through tutorials, but I can easily see that it wasn't the case. Everything from brainstorming how to make the story, to working on set, to working on post production was a difficult but moving experience. It really taught me a lot.
