Research...

 You can't make a documentary without some research first... 

So as I mentioned in my last vlog... yeah lots and lots and lots of research. Currently, the main thing I'm researching is the topic of prolonged grief as well as documentaries within the same genre. 

Last night I was able to take some time and watch the documentary "Bowling for Columbine". This was the first documentary that discussed a similar topic as it was a political one that explores the circumstances that led to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre as well as homicide rates. While this piece focused more on the context of gun violence and mine will focus on grief I felt that it would still be a strong example of what I'd like this piece to become. Moore was actually thought to have a very controversial piece due to bias which is something I recognize going into it that "When Your Life Turns to Ashes" might slightly relate to. I plan to take myself out of this documentary to my best effort however that can be difficult when discussing a mass shooting.  

Some of the technical elements I recognized within this film that I would like to utilize in my piece include archived footage like videos or pictures before this happened, interviews with family or survivors, and music. As much as the piece utilizes graphics I decided that with my own personal outlook, I don't think this piece needs to use them. 

One of the only aspects of this documentary I didn't like was the use of humor in the piece. Whilst I do agree that creating a documentary like this may be nice to lighten the mood to me it just merely feels insincere to their grief and loss.

Another documentary I found to be helpful was "The Trials of Amanda Knox." This documentary was a true crime one that discussed the trial of Amanda Knox for the murder of her roommate. While the context of this film is entirely different from mine I found that this piece was incredibly helpful in terms of understanding how to structure a documentary. In terms of my own documentary, I'm having a difficult time structuring the film in a way that would make sense to an audience. That being said, the use of flashbacks and interviews in "The Trials of Amanda Knox" was incredibly helpful. I really liked how the directors utilized flashbacks to show the audience what happened that night and then used interviews to show the different perspectives of the individuals involved. I think this would be a great way to structure my own documentary as I could use interviews to showcase the different perspectives of the individuals I interviewed and use flashbacks to show the audience what happened on February 14th.

In terms of the technical elements used in this film, I really enjoyed the use of music. I felt that the music used in this film was very suspenseful and kept the audience on the edge of their seats. This is something I would definitely like to incorporate into my own documentary as I feel that music is a powerful tool that can be used to evoke emotion. I also liked the use of interviews in this film. The interviews were very well done and they provided a lot of insight into the case. I think this is something that I would like to focus on in my own documentary as well.

But that's all for me today! 

Until Next time 

- Emma <3