Documentary

Introduction

“How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?”

During the last semester at Freestyle we finally got introduced to the Documentary Project, Being labeled the toughest but most rewarding project at Freestyle I definitely wanted to put a lot of thought into what my topic was going to be. After finding a topic/issue in our community we had to go out into the real world and conduct two personal interviews and photograph scenes which best “told a story”. As for the technical assignments they were divided evenly among the three classes so we could have many different media productions of our Documentary under our belt. In English we were assigned a 12-page paper to write, this text was then used to create a 35-page book in Adobe InDesign for our project assigned in Design. And then in Digital Media, we created a documentary intro vid using Adobe AfterEffects and a Magazine Article using Adobe Indesign as well. Overall this project was great at broadening my perspective on what there is in my community to cover and reveal a story that goes untold.

I am fortunate enough to live in such a place where there is lots of talent, hard work, and big aspirations for the future, although I know that my topic had to be something that was more unexpected so it could gain more attention and possibly relate to readers. I personally was never good at sports but all my friends who have a strong passion for them constantly tell me how they fall under pressure having so many things to carry during the year. To be a committed athlete you have to give up lots of free time, and although every teacher and parent emphasizes “academics first” regarding time in the day there is very little left for independent study. So my question was what do student-athletes do to mitigate this stress, after conducting my first interviews I was very interested to hear that these twins maintain active social lives while traversing the academic and physical rigor associated with school and sports. This is not typically the first thing that comes to mind when you picture a hardworking and overachieving student.

introduction video

After Effects Editing Interface

interviewee bios

Left: 17-year-old Julie attends Saint Francis Highschool. She took a leap into her passion by attending Mommy and Me gymnastics classes when she was younger. After going to a recreational gym for years, she finally found the courage to try out for a competitive team in 2017 with a company named Twisters. Ever since joining this team, Julie has grown as an athlete and a person. Being in such a tight-knit community has taught her to speak up and use her voice to earn her spot in the gym. Julie reflects on how her Coach Erica  “Taught me to be more assertive and Confident and to help get out of my shell” (J. Bortolato).  For both Luc and Julie, sports have helped them understand the level that they wanted to succeed within their sport, gain skills, and improved their physical mobility. 

Right: Luc Bortlato is a 17-year-old soccer player who attends Mountain View High School. He has a high ambition to play soccer in college, which has carried his skill through many teams, and made him appealing to the eyes of many scouts. Luc enjoys spending time with his friends ranging from classmates to teammates. Luc explains that he values his relationships both on and off the field because “You’re practicing your skills of socializing with people and you’re gonna need that in college and you’re gonna need that everywhere” (L. Bortolato). Luc is also a part of the Mountain View Track team and is an avid supporter when he goes to see his friends play in their games as well. 

finished product

magazine article

One-page flyer (Mock advertisement)

In Digital Media class we started a mock advertisement assignment, and we had to choose a corporation, event, band basically anything that interests us and make a flyer for the topic. For a little context, my flyer is about the On trend teen section which is placed in a discovery shop downtown los altos. The teen section is to cater to young adults who can come into the store and shop. Because it is run by the American cancer society, all proceeds go to benefit cancer research and patients.

A thank you

Because I had such a rewarding time making this piece I do have many thank yous to share, one of my first is to Julie and Luc, they have devoted time and shared information that made this project interesting and definitely something I wanted to return to. Additionally to the amazing staff at Freestyle Mr. Greco, Ms. P, and Mr. Flo, their guidance has helped me and motivated me to do better, I couldn’t have expanded my knowledge without their efforts.