Critical Reflection

Final Documentary

The Full Story

Since we are only going to be submitting the first five minutes of our documentary, I thought it was important that I talk a little bit able the full documentary. The beginning five minutes of our documentary end with one of the comedians talking about the art of stand-up comedy, that soundbite is the purpose for our entire documentary. We introduced our characters in the beginning and allowed for them to speak for themselves and tell their stories. We felt that this would capture the viewer's attention.

We do not have any voiceover in our documentary because we felt like that allowed for the story to breath. It is easier to relate to someone in front of the camera versus an unknown voice. We wanted our documentary to be very personal and have a lot of charisma and I think we were able to capture that. Instead of striving for a factual story based on statistical data, we wanted the viewer to feel like they could relate to the characters. We felt like we needed to make sure the entire documentary stayed light and relatable with some comedy as well.

The story continues into the two comedians talking about their stand-up comedy. We then follow Robert to his second ever gig and watch him perform, he tells the viewer about what he experiences before and after the performance.  We also follow Chris to one of his bigger performances, this allows for the viewer to see the contrast between the two stories.

In the end, it is clear that they both have one thing in common, that thing is hard work. Although it did not come right away for either of them, stand-up comedy is a lot of preparation and dedication. This is a common theme that our entire audience can relate to and this is what is going to make the audience love our "sweet" documentary.

Website Link

Visit our official website:

www.theartofcomedy.weebly.com

Poster....

Documentary coming soon.

Creating the Website

When creating the website for our documentary, we wanted it to be bright and carry the same tone as our documentary. The website is going to have a fun look and allow for the "fans" to find out more about the stand-up comedians in the documentary. Since this is only a five minute excerpt of the entire documentary we felt that the website should be about promotion, since our full documentary has not come out yet, in order to get people excited to watch the full documentary the website it able to show the background of our subjects.

We only introduce two people in the first five minutes of our documentary, but later on more people will get introduced, once we release the full documentary we will continue to use our website to get more background information. All the information can be found on our website. We chose the color red for our website because it reminded us of the red carpet and getting on stage at The Improv, the lighter red allows for it to be less powerful and have a happier feel to it.

Documentary Outline

When creating a documentary, it is important to set a specific tone. Laura and I want our documentary to be very raw and believe that the people we talked to are able to articulate their stories on their own. Each of the individuals we talked to have enough emotion in order to keep the audience enticed.

Our documentary is focused on the art of stand-up comedy and the work each of these people needs to put into their sets. The audience can relate to the idea of wanting to laugh, but being on stage as the person who wants to laugh is very stressful to them.

We are going to start with Robert talking about his past experiences with making people laugh, then get into Chris talking about his past experiences.

Talking to Robert

Our documentary is going to focus on an 18 year-old amateur stand-up comedian from our area. Last night we sat down with him to get an interview. Laura and I learned that he cannot take any moment seriously and enjoys to make people around him uncomfortable, because he thinks it is funny. After talking to him for a while he opened up to us and we saw that he is actually a very shy person.

He enjoys acting just as much as he enjoys stand-up comedy and has practiced keeping a straight face since he was in middle school. He tells us that it is very boring to answer the way people expect and it is a lot more fun to say something that will form a reaction. He also thinks it is funny to be exceptionally mean to people.

Robert Solomon, performed his first ever stand-up comedy show last Tuesday and we're going to tell our audience about his journey to get to where he is and why it means so much to him. Stand-up comedy is an art that takes a lot of hard work and is underestimated by the commoner. Laura and I will be going to watch his second ever performance at the Improv at The Hardrock Cafe tonight.

His inappropriate sense of humor and lack of motivation caused him to put of performing for a while and he has finally started his career as a stand-up comedian.

Filming Day 1

After coming up with the idea, our friend Shanna told us she knew a stand-up comedian that would be willing to talk to us. He was teaching a comedy class at Bluedog Acting School for kids last night so Laura and I took this opportunity to go talk to him and get some footage.

The school was very cool and relaxed. Also, our subject, Chris Perez, was very approachable and one of the funniest people I had ever talked to. He was willing to let us interview him for 15 minutes!  Within his interview he was even nice enough to give our friend Robert, the up and coming comedian, a little advice and addressed him personally.

In our documentary, we will be showing the art of stand-up comedy through two different viewpoints, one is an up and coming comedian and the other is an older comedian. It is clear that this means a lot to our first interviewee because he said in the interview that he uses stand-up comedy as a way to release all the struggles of his day. He also mentioned that stand-up comedy is a lot of hard work and that many people underestimate this. "It is definitely an art form," says Chris Perez.

Stand-Up Comedy

The topic of our documentary is the art of stand-up comedy. We want to show people what stand-up comedy means to people. We came up with this idea after we heard that one of our friends had is first stand-up comedy show at the Improv at the Hard Rock Cafe. We know this guy is a very funny guy so we were both very proud of him.

This topic became of interest to us after hearing our friends excitement, we felt that this art was not very understood. Our documentary is about two different comedians, our friend Robert, who has recently performed his first show, and an Improv comedian who has been performing for years.

Coming Up With the Idea...

When it comes to documentary filmmaking, Laura and I don't know much. So when it was time to come up with our idea, we had to first decide the style of documentary that we were going to create. In order to figure this out, we looked at three different examples to base our documentary off of:

1. Catfish-MTV
This show uses very raw footage and authentic moments to tell the story. It is more of an investigative type show and the videographer is part of the story. They use shaky shots to make the story seem more real.

2. Life of Jenks- MTV
In the show Life of Jenks Andrew Jenks gets into his story and follows an interesting person around for the day in order to see their struggles and take a look outside the box.

3. Blackfish
Blackfish is a serious documentary that uncovers corruption in a tourist location. They use a variety of resources in order to tell the story. This is a factually based documentary in which the creator investigates deeply as well as gets opinions from many different people

After watching all three of these documentaries, we wanted to create something that related to our teenage audience. We thought the best way we could go would be with the style of Andrew Jenks, Life of Jenks.

Directors Commentary

Final Project

The Narration...

Below you will find the transcript for our film opening:

When I was 8 years old, all I wanted was to be a superhero. I dreamt of being unstoppable; flying through the air, strong enough to save a city.  It was only a matter of time before I realized that I couldn’t have super strength or shoot fire from my hands, but that didn’t stop me from feeling limitless. I had the power to dance.

My mom used to take me every Saturday to her dance studio where I sat and watched her teach dance classes.  

   I was mesmerized by the way peoples’ emotions took over their bodies and told a story. I loved watching them lose control and glide and spin. They seemed unstoppable. From that moment on, I knew that I would give anything to dance.

Dance has the power to move people, to bring people together, to tell a story. It is a way of expressing yourself and freeing your soul. There is no limit to what can be done when you let your body take over.  They say that dance is a way to free yourself and lose yourself all at the same time and every move allows the dancer to reveal a little bit more of themselves

My mom taught me to always dance from the heart. She used to say that dance was the rhythm of life. When I was 15, my mom was diagnosed with Leukemia, and a year later she was gone. Ever since then, I’ve devoted myself to dancing because it’s the only place that I can still feel her with me. I felt that if I let go of dancing, I would be letting her go too. So I told myself that I was going to dance forever. But that was until I got into an accident and in a split second, everything I knew, disintegrated.

Capturing the feeling of Dance

There are different types of dance and our film hopes to focus on all aspects of dance.

Before we film, we felt that we needed to get organized and prepare a list of shots we need for our film opening. This will help us make sure we are getting everything we need. The list is as follows:

Main Character

1. Feet stretching-CU

2. Feet dancing quickly-CU

3. Pan of arms moving

4. Shallow focus from floor

5. Focused facial expressions-CU

6. Face- MS

7. Full body dancing-WS

8. Low angle of fall

9. High angle of her slowly dancing 

10. Tilt down of full body

BC Students
1. Dancing in street-WS
2. Dancing in street one person-MS
3. Dancing in street two people-MS
4. Low angle flips
5. Group clapping and dancing-WS, MS, CU

Grandparents
1. Dancing slowly
2. Leaning into one another
3. Counter shots of both grandparents eyes
4. Laughter-CU

Kids

1. Old home videos- make video to look grainy, add time graphic 

2. Practicing in studio- WS and MS to make it seem like a parent filmed the footage
The actor is going to have blonde hair and act as the main character as a child

Each of these shots is going to be paired together with a narration of the main character explaining what dance means to her. The home videos of her as a child will be used in the beginning of the opening to show the audience that dance has been a part of the main characters life for a very long time. She will then continue to talk about how there are different types of dance and different means of expression. Ending with her fall...

How the Idea was Formed...

After 2 weeks of brainstorming and trial and error... My partner and I have finally decided what our film opening is going to be about. In its entirety, the film will focus on a teenage dancer who has danced her whole life, the viewer will see her life as a dancer and be able to see how much dance means to her. The twist? One day she gets in an accident and can't dance again... But she doesn't say no for an answer. 

The film begins with our main characters on stage practicing her dancing. That moment will be paired with video of children, adults and grandparents dancing in different places. There is a narration of the main character talking about how much dance means to her and then the music stops, the audio gets lower and she falls.

Movie Poster

The Overview of a Movie Poster

The project I am working on includes making a film opening and also making a movie poster to go along with the film opening that I will create. Although I spend much of my time at the movies, I never knew the rules to making the poster with the correct information.

I am planning to make a poster that does not follow all the conventions, but now I know what information I would need to have.

Telling a Great Story

Andrew Stanton of Pixar tells the audience how to tell a good story.

Tips to telling a good story are:

1. "Storytelling is knowing your punchline."
2. There isn't anyone you couldn't learn to love once you've heard their story.
3. You have to make the audience care.
4. Promise your viewers that the future story will be worth their time.
5. One of the most involved forms of storytelling is without words.
6. People are born with deductive reasoning.
7. Make the audience put things together (2+2).
8. Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty.
9. Your story needs to have truthful conflict, pull from what you know.
10. All stories have an underlining theme.
11. Are you able to evoke wonder?

Andrew Stanton tells the story from the end to the beginning in order to engage the audience. After listening to the TED talk with Andrew Stanton, I feel that pre-production is one of the most important steps in planning a story, as my partner and I begin to plan our film opening I understand that we must have the full story. We have two minutes to get the viewer involved in the storyline. This means we must promise them something good.