Documentary: Context

For our third assignment, we are been tasked with creating a group documentary. This will challenge us in a different environment as previously we have been learning skills and completing the assignments individually but now we are getting more into what the industry is about: teamwork. To make a film or general piece of media, you can’t do everything alone so it was time to share the work in a group. In my team, we have Vi, Jacob, Josh, Cai and myself which was one of the larger groups in the class. This means that we can share out positions more easily with people to spare. During the first week of production, we decided to give everyone a position that they would be the manager of for the project to make sure everything worked smoothly and collaboratively. 

• Vi – Producer

• Nick – Director

• Josh – Editor 

• Jacob and Cai – Camera Operators

Everyone decided the job that they were the most comfortable with at the time but this didn’t limit everyone to just do those jobs. As a group, it is vital that we all got a bit of exposure to each role but at the end of the day there is someone in each position to make sure the job is done. To begin, Vi quickly became our producer as they are masterful with planning documents and very organized to get us all where we needed to be. Josh has been editing since before starting the course and has an excellent eye for it. Jacob and Cai wanted to use the cameras and make sure we had the angles and shots we wanted and I became the director as I had the original plan for what we should do our documentary on and a vision to back it up. 

For the documentary, I wanted to take on a leadership role and grow my confidence in organising a team. As well as this, I wanted to work closely with Josh and master my editing skills from over his shoulder. A documentary is an interesting task to go forward with as it is non fiction and very analytical. Due to this, I walked in with a higher level of curiosity to truly examine a topic with a greater outcome. My plan for the group was to do a piece on the game Dungeons and Dragons as it is a close game to my heart and others in the group have interest in playing. This allowed me to have existing knowledge of the game but I was very prepared to dive deeper into its true meaning and history to find a story worth telling.