Documentary Film Process Blog

A record of my creative process, research, production notes and ideas as I embark on the creation of my first documentary film.

Darlin, produced and directed by Isabel Castro

Sept. 25, 2019

The New York Time’s Op-Doc Darlin, produced and directed by Isabel Castro, follows the story of Darlin, a women who leaves Honduras with her husband and son to find safety in the U.S. They plan to cross the border separately. While still in Mexico, Darlin learns that her family has been detained and separated at the border, a result of the zero-tolerance policy. This short documentary follows the struggle of her family’s reunification in the U.S. Throughout this journey, Castro follows the physical and emotional challenges the family members face during their separation, drawing out a narrative structure that pulls the viewer through the film. The perspective is primarily focused through Darlin. However, because of the fractured experience of separation, additional narration from her son and husband serve as puzzle pieces, filling in the missing time.    

The visual style of the film is exemplified through Castro’s use of montages to structure moments of tension and uncertainty. Throughout each montage the use of a music score powerfully intertwines the film – providing cohesion to the piece. Each montage is made up of scenes from the narrative (pieces of memory) that culminate in each reunification. The two largest of these moments are the seconds before Darlin is reunified with her son, and towards the end of the film, when she and her son see her husband for the first time in months.

The first of these examples comes a little over two minutes into the film, after Darlin learns that she can pick up her son from the airport. The montage juxtaposes scenes of color and movement such as community members dancing, Darlin’s son’s crayon drawings, and puddles of water fragmented by color, with close up shots of Darlin (shot with a much stiller composition, drawing on darker/ more muted colors). Throughout the montage, her son’s voice counts down from ten, the drum beat from the music rapidly increasing as it reaches a crescendo the moment he reaches “one.” As the final number is spoken, the music stops, and the viewer is moved through the airport as Darlin walks towards her son. The stark contrast in throughout the montage is emotive and powerful because it succinctly captures the feeling of anticipation and a deep sense of time that has passed. The moment of reunion is weighted with all of the moments previously shown. Even though the viewer is introduced to Darlin only two minutes before this scene, the montage enables them to be emotionally invested in this family’s struggle.

Between these two major moments of reunification, Castro captures an intimate image of the moments in-between. These scenes are most often filmed around Darlin’s friends’ home in Houston, where she is living. These scenes become liminal spaces that are poignantly filled with normalcy, which is skillfully made to feel exceptional (i.e. the Walmart shopping scene and the first day of school) because of their parallel with a constant context of disconnect and uncertainly (exemplified through the phone calls between Darlin and her husband).  

Because of the choice to film the story from Darlin’s perspective this documentary gives weight to the highly personal. Castro chooses to include no additional outside interviews (such as from border agents, immigration case workers, etc.). Furthermore, the focus is not centered on any of the producers/ filmmakers. Rather, Darlin’s narration drives the story. With the addition of extensive footage, captured at all hours of the day, Castro creates a space of narrative intimacy. Ultimately, this decision exposes the emotional and psychological context of the film in a way that drives what we see, hear, and feel.

Project Brainstorming

Sept. 25, 2019

TOPIC 1: The stories behind the first class of women to join the BSU

Twenty-one years after the first two black men are admitted to Kenyon College, three black women become a part of the first class of women at Kenyon’s Coordinate College. Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of leading a video production team for the Kenyon Collegian in interviewing one of these incredible women – Barbara (Lee) Johnson who was also an active leader in the BSU. Her story is powerful. For this project, I want to examine the stories of those who formed the first class of women to join the BSU at Kenyon. The possibilities of this project are exciting because Kenyon is currently celebrating 50 years of women at Kenyon and 50 years of the Kenyon Black Student Union. As a result, there is the potential to gather stories from alumni who are visiting for these events as well as reach out to experts being brought to campus to give talks. Also, because this is a Kenyon-based story, there is a wealth of information in archives that I would love to dive into. In addition, I am curious if there is a way to juxtapose the stories of these alumni with current women in the BSU.

TOPIC 2: What’s Next? Resilience and solutions in the face of climate change in the Midwest.

Throughout popular imagination, the Midwest is viewed to be a space, overall, escaping the harshest effects of climate change (often, the most reported on communities come from coastal areas). For this topic, I will explore what climate change looks like in Central Ohio. What does environmental change look like here? Even through this topic is immensely polarizing, the environmental challenges facing communities are still present. I am interested in examining how the experiences of farmers (whose work is dependent on weather and hypersensitive to climate changes) are mobilizing against these new challenges. What are the creative ways people are adapting and responding to these changes? A possible place to start for this project is Kenyon’s Philander Chase Conservatory.    

TOPIC 3: 50 Years of Women at Kenyon

         The first class of women at Kenyon paved the way for generations of women after them. For this project, I will examine the stories of the first women at Kenyon who made up the Coordinate College. I am interested in diving into how the experiences they had in college (as this first class of women) impacted their lives after Kenyon. I think tracing these narrative lines could offer deeper insight into what it means to be the “first” and the lasting impact this has on one’s identity.  

Topic 4: “The Community Within” and Oral History in Communities of Color in Mount Vernon

Rick Sheffield, Professor of Sociology & Legal Studies at Kenyon College, studies communities of color in Mount Vernon. His recent work has revolved around collecting oral histories from these communities and founded the project “The Community Within,” published on Digital Kenyon. I am interested in creating a film on the story of this project. Another avenue could be talking with Professor Sheffield about a particular community or story within this project that he thinks offers potential to further explore through the medium of Documentary Film.

Black Colleges in the Age of Trump, produced by Stanley Nelson

Oct. 9, 2019

Stanley Nelson’s New York Times OP-DOC “Black Colleges in the Age of Trump” examines the current and historical significance of HBCUs in the U.S. I chose this piece because it is structured using archival footage, news reports, and interviews. Investigating how Nelson intertwines each of these pieces of footage and b-roll while making them core pieces of the narrative is particularly interesting as I explore ways to use these types of material in my own documentary film.   

 Throughout the film, Nelson’s straight forward narration style pulls together extensive historical research with a personal through-line – his family’s relationships with HBCUs. A couple of minutes into the film, Nelson places himself into the narrative, stating, “My own family’s trajectory was shaped by these schools.” This choice effectively links the viewer to the documentary in a way that deepens their investment (especially, if they are just learning about HBCUs for the first time) because it becomes a personal link between narrator and viewer. In addition, Nelson’s narration allows him to be clear about moments of tension in the plot. This is exemplified when he evaluates the tension between the current administration and the HBCUs. He describes this situation for them as being “Caught between a rock and a hard place…caught between an antagonistic president and a community that feels targeted.”

 Another significant part of Nelson’s narrative structure is the repetitive use of particular editing techniques and effects to create connections within photographs and film footage. One of the most prominent of these is the use of multiple close-ups in a photo, moving between parts of the image before scaling back to show the larger context. This is exemplified by the image of Trump surrounded by HBCU leaders in the Oval Office. In this cut, Nelson moves between expressions on the leaders' faces around President Trump (while one leader narrates about his experience purposely trying to hide in the back of the group, so that he would be missing in 95% of the photos). Nelson then scales back to reveal Kellyanne Conway kneeling on the couch. This particular edit allows the viewer to follow the discontinuities and tension that exists in this image. Because of the jarring nature of the wide-angle shot, the viewer sees this image from a different perspective.

At the Heart of Gold (2019), directed by Erin Lee Carr

Nov. 13, 2019

At the Heart of Gold (2019) dives into the story behind the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal in 2016. Intertwining in-depth interviews with striking archival footage, this film examines the systems that enabled the cover-up sexual abuse for decades by Larry Nassar (the doctor for the women’s national team, the University of Michigan, and numerous other local organizations). While this film is structured chronologically (from the beginning of Nasser’s work in the 1990s to his 2016 trial), each moment captivates the views attention because of its clear through lines that lead up his public exposure.

As the film moves through time (getting closer to 2016 and the Me-Too movement), each reported assault and its response by officials becomes a piece to a larger puzzle that sheds light on the ambiguity, secrecy, and ignorance of Nasser’s actions, perpetuating a culture of fear and intensity that quickly becomes abuse. Adding to this tension, the use of music (specifically, the quickening of the music tempo) creates a consistent pressure that heightens viewer anticipation at pivotal moments.   

 Brainstorming questions for a conversation with Nick Loud:

1.     Throughout the film, moments that particularly stood out to me were one’s where you chose include the interviewer’s voice (often an emotional reaction/ response to something shared by one of the victims). This decisions evokes an intimacy and humanity to the larger documentary project (which is covering a horrific action that effected hundreds of women). What was the thought process for this decision and why did you choose those particular moments?  

2.     What was the most challenging piece to edit/film in this story?

3.     What did your editing process look like?

Documentary Film Outline Draft (in-progress)

Nov. 3, 2019

(run time: 10 minutes)

INTRODUCTION

Audio Ideas: Voice over of Selam (Kenyon College’s current BSU president) reading the BSU charter/ mission statement

Visual ideas:  sharp cut between words on the page as she reads/ archival material, time-laps (video of a BSU meeting (everyone entering the meeting), establishing shots of Kenyon/ light moving through spaces on campus / shadows etc.

•  Shift to images of setting up interviews/ moment before first questions

 TRANSITION

Visual ideas: Selam in movement, shots of her walking around campus, begin to unfold her story as a leader

Audio Ideas:

• Possible question for future interview: Did you receive any advice from the last President? If so, what was it?

• Selam talking about the powerful history of the BSU at Kenyon

MOMENT OF TENSION: HOW ARE WE DEFINING WOMEN OF COLOR?

Quote from an interview with Selam: “The black student union is an organization where students can define and redefine what blackness means to you”

• Weave together interviews from other women students in the BSU

• Story from Selam: what it means to move between space of Kenyon and her home life

• Interview with Mikala – transition to Kenyon

 MOMENT OF TENSION: SAFETY & BELONGING (relationship between physical safety and emotional health)

 Visual Ideas:

• Incident with sheriff/ body camera/ photo footage

Audio Ideas:

• Voice over of Interview with Mo explaining in detail what happened (what she saw, felt etc.) and aftermath: experience walking around campus

CONCLUTION  

OTHER NOTES:

• Music by Jacob Adams

• Possible use of text to connect key moments in history

Project Update: Cinematography

Dec 3, 2019

Today, I collected the final b-roll footage of Selam and placed it in our Premiere Timeline!

As I started to lay out our narrative structure in Premiere (my focus for the past couple of days), it became clear that we were missing imagery to illustrate an audio section in the very beginning where Selam is describing why she chose to come to Kenyon and footage of her to place at the very end. I am really excited how this shoot turned out. After an early afternoon of gathering additional footage of her hanging out with friends at lunch, I spent about an hour filming her in her apartment this evening. Afterwards, we took a walk along middle path. During the walk, we caught the end of a light snow fall. In the moment below, Selam stand underneath a lamp post. In the background, are the soft lights from department houses.

Project Update: Cinematography

Dec 8, 2019

Ok, so maybe my last post wasn’t the last time I collected b-roll. While Eryn and I had planned to be fully immersed in editing for the next few days, an exciting opportunity came up. Tonight, I had the chance to film the last Black Student Union meeting of the decade. At the end of the meeting, Selam led the group in the creation their own timeline of the last ten years. I captured the moment in wide angle while student wrote down their ideas and then got some great close ups of the individual events at the very end. I am thinking that this footage may be a great match with the moment of Selam in the snow from a couple days ago.

Also starting to think some more about music. After the BSU meeting, I spent some time listening through numerous music libraries. While there are a couple moments (like the BSU reunion) that I think could match well with lyrics, I am playing around with the idea of using an instrumental track as a cohesive element.

Project Update: Editing

Dec. 10, 2019 (3 days until the film screening!)

Over the past couple of days, Eryn and I have been living in the editing studio! Luckily many of our peers are doing the same thing, which has made for some joyful moments, amongst the pressure to complete our film. Last night, after hitting a …[what’s the word for writer’s block in film]… while working on narrative structure, we decided to take a break. I headed home to watch some New York Times Op-Docs for inspiration. I ended up watching them for a couple hours! I found myself not only refreshed with a lots of new ideas, but also a clearer ideas of our narrative structure.

There are a couple films that I came across that I want to note because I they offer particular techniques and structural possibilities that are providing inspiration as we edit our film.

Dulce, produced by Guille Isa and Angello Faccini: I actually watched this film a couple of weeks ago for class, but watching it in the context of editing my film, I was completely mesmerized (again!) by the intimacy and power of many of the small moments throughout the film. What is especially poignant about these scenes is that they allow the viewer to really “sit” in a scene as the action unfolds (whether it is a walk through the mangrove forest, or the opening scene where we see Duce with her mother learning to swim). As I have been editing, I have been concerned about making sure there is enough visual “action." However, as I watched Dulce, I realized that the problem wasn’t that some of the scenes were too slow, but actually the opposite. They were moving too fast, which wasn’t allowing the moment to fully develop.

A Conversation with Native Americans on Race produced by Michèle Stephenson and Brian Young: This film was an wonderful and expected surprise to find. It is made up entirely of interviews in a lighting studio. This film is brilliantly edited together, cutting together many of the interviews as if they are in conversation with each other. One of the major challenges we are facing is figuring out how to cut together all of the interviews that we collected. This film gave me one perspective into how this can happen. I love the idea of putting so many generations of powerful women in conversation with each other. Perhaps this could be one way of showing the similar challenges each generation has faced.

When I Belong

Dec. 11, 2019

Today, we came up with a film title!

I am so excited to share that our documentary film When I Belong will be screening on Thursday, December 12, 2019 at Kenyon College in the Gund Community Foundation Theater. Here is the film’s logline:

“Without us, this school is nothing. It is built on our backs. It can’t continue without us,” Selam Bezuneh, BSU President 2019-2020.

Black women have been the heartbeat of Kenyon’s Black Student Union for half a century. Forging a space of creation, these powerful leaders have built new doors for the next generation while claiming their right to belong.  

Final Cut Edit Feedback

Dec. 12, 2019

We are now 24 hours before the screening of our film and Eryn and I are hard at work color correcting, adjusting sound, and making final editing choices. It is such an amazing feeling to see it all come together during this last push!  

Throughout the process of editing this film one of my favorite parts has been receiving the thoughtful feedback from our classmates in Documentary Film. Whether it is watching the film on full screen, while standing across the room (Professor Martha Gregory’s suggestion), only listening to the film’s audio, or watching the film on mute, while a classmate listens with earphones, each time we view film differently opens up new editing possibilities. In addition, since Eryn and I have been breaking down the editing into sections (or film is divided into short chapters), watching entire film through is a completely different experience.

Since narrative structure has been one of the most challenges pieces of this film (especially the middle interview sections and figuring out our ending), watching people’s reactions as they view the film and asking them questions about how they feel afterwards has been an invaluable question. At the moment, I think we are getting closer. With addition of instrumental music, the ending is coming together, and we have consistently been receiving strong feedback.

Final Reflection:

Dec. 19, 2019

(these responses are based on evaluative questions we received from Prof. Gregory at the end of the semester)

Making my first documentary film this semester was a really amazing, incredibly challenging, and eye-opening experience. I had the opportunity to build new relationships and capture the powerful story of an organization (Kenyon College’s Black Student Union) and community of students that I had not closely worked with before.                 

         Some of my favorite parts of this project were conducting alumni interviews during the BSU 50th anniversary weekend, filming b-roll of Selam, and editing the b-roll into scenes in Premiere Pro. From the very beginning, Eryn and I threw ourselves into the intensity of this project. The BSU alumni weekend occurred during one of the first few weeks of class, before we had even started to really think through our project’s story. Throughout the anniversary celebration, we conducted numerous interviews in the lighting studio and across campus with some incredible women. I really enjoyed building thoughtful interview questions. I feel privileged to have been able to document the powerful stories these women shared about their time at Kenyon and how they created/ and are creating their lives after graduation. In addition, throughout that weekend, we were constantly thinking “on our feet.” Plans changed, interview spaces were available/ not available, technology failed, and new questions came up as we attended the panels, researched, and heard new pieces of the narrative that had not been shared before. I am really proud of our initial project work because I think it gave us a critical foundation with which we then began piecing together our story. In addition, this weekend allowed us to build invaluable relationships with the alumni. Finally, Eryn and I worked as a strong team that weekend, problem solving in the moment and working off of each other’s strengths. 

The second piece that I am especially proud of is my b-roll of Selam. I think coming into this class with very strong photography foundation was especially valuable for my camera work this semester. I think this is especially visible in the b-roll I collected of Selam (i.e. the shots of her walking, putting on make-up, reading, standing in the snow in the dark, enjoying time with her friends, and the chalk board footage of the last BSU meeting etc.). Composing and filming these more intimate moments was critical because it created a visual weight necessary for the powerful audio we collected. Editing these scenes together with music and audio was an exciting challenge. I am especially proud of my work in the beginning (introducing Selam’s story) and ending (where the BSU makes their timeline of the past decade). These moments feel essential because they intimately connect the viewer with the story and the incredible lives that fill it.  

I am very proud of the final product Eryn and I are turning in. Next time (if I were to do things differently), I would begin to make edits a lot sooner and streamline my editing process. Going into our final editing, we had cut three scenes, which was really helpful, but I wish we had started to work on the introduction and conclusion sooner. Also, if I am faced with a large collection of interviews (which we were for this project), I would start to edit the interviews a lot sooner (so that the conversation is fresher in my mind and there is less overall interview editing to do).        

Something I would absolutely keep the same is working with a film partner. It was invaluable to go back and forth with someone equally as immersed in this project. Brainstorming scenes ideas, collaborating on interview shoots, discussing film structure/ narrative, and reviewing edits were just a few necessary pieces of this collaboration. This collaboration allowed us to challenge and push each other’s ideas, developing an even stronger project.