Frame by Frame

This was the final project for my intermediate documentary class. We were tasked to make any type of documentary we choose, as long as it incorporates the skills we learned throughout the semester. I decided to conduct an interview utilizing the skills I learned while working on my previous documentary with Campbell McDade Clay. The end result is this, and for a final project, I'm happy with how it came out.

Looking back at the project, the hardest thing for me to do was to get the B-roll footage. The interview itself was around 45-minutes. Condensing that down and piecing a story from her dialogue was overall simple. Mikayla was a fantastic subject and gave me plenty to work with. Finding reference to her work was one of the more difficult things, though. Going through and looking at the B-roll I filmed while at her place, there was not a whole lot that related itself to what she was speaking about. A lot of the things she talked about was back at her mother's house and not in her current apartment. Since a lot of this is in reference to her past, I scavenged through her Twitter to find a good handful of her past work to try and see if I could connect it in some way. What was helpful as well was the work that she sent me herself.

From this experience, I learned a lot of important things. To start, this was the first interview I conducted by myself, and I now know the importance of keeping the sound rolling while shooting B-roll. There were a lot of good things I wish I caught on camera that Mikayla was saying about her past and her inspirations that were not mentioned in the interview itself. As well, I need to have a better plan of attack as to what to do for B-roll in general.