My favorite part of the a story is the pivot into the mistake, the This American Life pause of realization of morals and hindsight. The assessment of the story's purpose, of life moments, and of life. That's why I love documentaries, they're those pivots into mistakes, and the assessment isn't only in the climax. The assessment is the movie. I didn't think my conductor's life was a mistake, but the most interesting people are those with the most insight, and therefore the most strife, frustration, and raw human condition. I wanted to capture one of those This American Life pauses as I depicted his life, for when there would be the climax of the documentary, he would deliver so much insight and humanity there wouldn't just be a This American Life pause, there would be a silence to assess one's own life. I wanted to make a documentary of my conductor to inspire, to learn, and to tell a story.
Instead I made one about commercialization holidays. I was just excited to make a documentary without pain. When I was in the eighth grade, I got a Film maker to sign, "To Aidan, future Documentarian," on the poster of the movie he made about my Great Great Grandfather and the crew on his Black Coast Guard of Manteo. Also in the eighth grade, for Final Conference, my group made a film about Enlightenment and the United States' wrongdoings in it's philosophies. I owe much of my confidence to knowledge to its research; however, I hated it. It was dry and the child of a controlling dictating group leader, like the reject clips from 60 Minutes or PBS. Before that, I made a short documentary as my group interviewed the director of Saturday Night Live; I wasn't the most gifted at Final Cut, at most I am proficient. Holidays was a break, I must have thought. It was simpler than regurgitating pretentious eighth grade ambitions, or having to make a comprehensive profile of a New Yorker with five minutes of B-Roll. And as much as I love the product, I do wish I could have convinced my group members to try Vales, because there isn't much real in commercialization of anything. Real is what mistakes are, what insight and assessments are.
There's insight in my documentary, but not necessarily anything regarding the Human Condition. I would've liked it much more if we could have done a story on the stories of commercialization, as that way we could have related the documentary more to ourselves and the readers. Through that, we could have concluded the extent of commercialization not through gross national products, but ourselves. Perhaps that way, I could have contributed much more to the filming of our product, as I told myself I would try to gather B-Roll, and I never did. Instead, I spent class getting music, or finding some B-Roll, or researching inemptly, or doing my English homework. I helped a bit with the script, but I feel as if Stephanie and Juliette did all the work, as I didn't take the project seriously enough. As I have seen I have such ideas to better the documentary, I wish I could have been more assertive in the project.
Given Stephanie was the only person who could really use Final Cut and treat it well to produce a decent video, we had to leave Stephanie to edit. She faced many computer difficulties, and freaked a little over B-Roll. Juliette faced computer difficulty as her computer locked her from her account; Alia faced little difficulty; I didn't face any save for the speakers, which wouldn't sound correctly. Once we finished the project, most everything went smoothly, and the film was beautiful. I tried searching the internet for the most outrageous videos, however, I didn't find much. On my next documentary I will be sure to pay attention to the editing value as I learned Stephanie created the documentary, essentially, through her skills, not our research nor our script writing. I must also be careful to plan for the final product, as I viewed my little contributions didn't amount to as much as I would've liked.
I found it most helpful and awe-inspiring to have the documentary filmmaker discuss with us a little of the process of which we were about to detail. I would get that feeling I conjure up in chemistry as I discover how to raise 16 grams of a substance one degree, and think if Documentarians actually had to write scripts such as the one I would edit in two days. Then I would remember the Harvard Professor who spoke with us, and remember the dream of the real-life filmmaker. I learned life is planning, and if I focus, I don't have to wait to become a professor or an established documentary filmmaker, for I have the tools already. This would be my impetus for work. Mr. Mayo did an excellent job getting the interviews for the documentary filmmakers, as well as choosing films to show to us during class. Such a part of the process was exciting and an excellent builder of enthusiasm. I would have rathered if Mr. Mayo hadn't been so pushy at times, because often times my group would interpret his feedback as hatred for our project, or a teacher's advantage of power to vicariously create his own project. I would have also rathered if Mr. Mayo were a little more organized, as some deadlines wouldn't be fair to the workload we were to complete. Most, I appreciated Mr. Mayo's sporadic and spastic check ins, for as annoying as they seemed, they kept me on task and committed to my work.
My project turned beautifully, and our documentary is short and smart. It's a little insight into human behavior and conditions, and it's a sweet observation of an almost sickly process. I've learned, therefore, there's an element of the human condition in everything. Commercialization of Holidays is the eradication of any religious or commemorative substance within a value so as to promote the purchase of products which economically boost companies in said time of year. As such, it's the human nature of greed and religion, and the inverse function of the two. It reminds me much of my favorite internet show, StereoTypes, which observes a topic or two, and asks the New York City Public (and sometimes that of London or Washington D.C) of its thoughts on the matter. It's much more entertaining than words; however, my group could've attempted the same consensus. Often times, Ryan Hall, the host, begins with one topic, and produces some truly inspiring insights through natural conversation about totally separate aspect of humanity. We could've interviewed the Washington D.C population. As my group only interviewed Christina Jack, Samantha, and Sarah, I suppose we didn't need eccentrics. What we found was honest. In the words of Samantha, "We only celebrate holidays cos they're fun!"
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