"Bates Feeling Blue"

The following design is my junior documentary (COMM 337W) project. The class was given an option for students to either work on their final documentaries in teams or work alone; due to my busy schedule as a dual major, I thought it would be best to work alone of the project so I can work around my own schedule.

"Bates Feeling Blue" is a documentary on Steve Bates, a Mechanical Engineer who was an active member of Penn State's Blue Band, playing the tenor saxophone (shown below in Figure 23). I chose this topic because, like me, Steve Bates was an engineer who also had a passion with the arts (playing an instrument in the Blue Band). Both of these passions of his required a lot of his time and in this documentary, I follow Steve Bates on the week leading up to the football game of Penn State versus Michigan. Michigan was projected to win, but as a night game, the Blue Band was expected to play to the best of their ability, coming up with new songs and marches for the student body. On top of preparing for the football game and going to long night practices, Steve Bates also had to deal with studying for his fluid dynamics and material science exams, shown in Figure 24. However, as an extroverted person, Bates proved to be a very interesting character, and his positive energy and wacky personality helped drive this documentary to be an interesting journey.

Figure 23: Steve Bates About to March to The Football Game

Figure 24: Steve Bates Studying for his Engineering Exams

I used the same design process to figure out how to set up this documentary. In analyzing, I had to think of what I wanted to say - was this just a piece on an interesting person who is an engineer, loves to dance, part of the Blue Band, an active member of Penn State's Dance MaraTHON, and still has time to hang out with his friends? Or am I trying to send a specific message through this documentary? If so, what message am I trying to send, and how will I go about doing that? A big aspect of documentaries is if the opinions and thoughts of the filmmaker ever leak through. Traditionally, one would want the documentary to be just informative (rather than biased). However, it's hard not to have your own personal opinion in the short film - no matter what, the documentary is biased in some degree. Even if you let the camera roll and observe the surroundings and people, as the filmmaker, you are TELLING the audience where to look. I started with sitting down with Steve Bates and telling him to be honest with the interview - I went on this project with the mindset that it was going to be more a fun piece (rather than convey a very specific message) and let Bates' interview and adventure drive the documentary.

After I got a lot of good footage through his practices and studying, I followed Bates all through the day of the game - from the morning practice (shown below in Figure 25) to the dress rehearsal and even up until him marching to Beaver Stadium - I wanted the audience to see how much work goes into the Blue Band. Once they see that, they add that to the fact that Bates is an engineer and part of a lot of extracurricular clubs, and you realize Bates is a very busy person. How does this person have time to do all of this? Why does he do all of this? During the last interview I had with Bates before he walked into the stadium, he mentioned that even though he knew Penn State was projected to lose,, he still loves being part of the Blue Band and that all the hard work is still worth it. That is when it dawned to me - that is the message I want to convey. Sure, this is a fun piece on Steve Bates and the kind of character he is, but it's also a piece about a kid who takes on a lot of work but loves doing it - even if he doesn't always succeed. Again, as a dual major in Mechanical Engineering and Film/Video, I completely understood Bates' perception and view on this matter.

Figure 25: Steve Bates at Morning Practice

Of course, this was all part of my brainstorming and developing phase - finding what I wanted to say and how to order the layout of my documentary. But then something unexpected happened - Penn State WON against Michigan. As exciting as it was as Penn State student, I had to get my film equipment together and run with the Blue Band back to their equipment room. Upon the last interview with Steve Bates, as seen in Figure 26, he reinforced that even if he lost, he still would have been happy. However, the wins help Bates continue to do all that he does - engineering, Blue Band, THON, dancing, socializing - because he knows that when he does succeed, it is a victory for both Penn State and himself.

Figure 26: Final Interview with Steve Bates After Winning Football Game

Upon designing and editing the film, my first draft was roughly sixteen minutes - I had to sit down with my film professor and decide what to cut out and what to keep in. Which shots were unnecessary? Which of Bates' interview was just him rambling and what was interesting? How much of the Blue Band practice do I need to show? How much of Bates' engineering work and studying do I need to show? How do I condense my documentary and keep the pace fast so it holds my audience's interest? All these questions I continue to ask as I edit, show my draft, get feedback, and edit again. Finally, I am able to get a final product that is successful and well received by my classmates.

Conclusion

This documentary started with me not knowing what sort of message I want to tell - is this a fun piece, or am I trying to say something? If I am, how will I say it? I can plan out the questions and how I want to stage my interview with Bates, but what will he say? Even if I have a general idea of what he will say, he can say things or bring up things that can change my original conceptual design of the documentary. It was an interesting process to continually be thinking of how to structure the film throughout shooting the documentary - I just did not know how it will turn out until I completed all the interviews and obtained all the b-roll (which is footage that isn't the interview, and usually is editing alongside with the interview so the audience doesn't watch a talking head for ten minutes). This was a growing and constantly changing project, and although that seems a little discouraging about how it will turn out, it actually was an extremely successful documentary project and a good work of design.