Introduction
For the Junior Documentary project, we were given the task of going out and exploring a topic that evokes our passion or curiosity. Once we found a topic that was of interest we had to locate a specific issue and investigate the current debate. In our english class we wrote a documentary essay and in my design class I created a book. We learned new skills like how to conduct an interview and use new Adobe applications. We created a graphic design elements and took a lot of photos which we edited to fit into our book.
My documentary was a profile on Rusty Hodge, the creator and owner of Soma FM. Soma FM is an independent listener supported radio station. I interviewed Hodge and spoke with him about his life and how Soma FM came to be. I also interviewed his brother in law, Toby, who is a listener and avid supporter of Hodge. Throughout the production of this project I was able to learn about Hodges whole story, from growing up in Los Angeles to operating a business in San Francisco. From doing a lot of secondary research about how difficult it is for independent radio stations to survive I was able to understand the overlooked issue of Music royalties. I created graphic design elements and pictures to help enrich my story visually.
English/Digital Media
In our english class we had to write a documentary paper. Since I was going to be making a book in my design class, I had to make my essay longer. At first I thought it was going to be a very long drooling few weeks but I actually found that once I started writing the process went by very quickly and successfully. In class we read some documentary books which helped me create the initial rough draft and plan.
My main interviewee and the subject of my profile documentary is Rusty Hodge. He is living out his childhood passion as the owner and operator of SomaFM, an internationally known and successful internet radio station. Many music lovers feel that mainstream radio is repetitive, boring, simplistic, and lacks creativity—not to mention it’s overrun with advertisements. People tune into radio stations to listen to music, not to be sold things that they don’t need. Hodge and SomaFM are proving that there is another way to experience radio rather than simply putting out traditional mainstream pop music with commercials between every song.
Mock Advertisement
In our digital media class we had an assignment to create a one page flyer for some kind of event. Using the skills I learned in Adobe Indesign I created this Mock poster for a Jack Johnson concert in Mountain View.
Documentary Article
In digital media we were also tasked with creating a magazine article about our documentary subject. This was created in Adobe Indesign using the essay I wrote in english and th
Design
In design we created a documentary book that followed our subject. We used applications like Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign. In Illustrator we created graphic design elements that we could put into our book. We used Indesign to actually create the book. After learning how to use Indesign I feel much more confident in creating books, articles, and infographics in the future.
Reflection
During the months that we worked on our documentary projects I was able to learn countless new skills. From learning how to use new Adobe applications to learning how to conduct a personal interview. I would like to thank all of my interviewees for lending me their time to research my topic. I am very grateful for the resources and information they provided which allowed me to create my book. I would also like to thank all the freestyle staff who supported me and gave me the opportunities to explore my creativity.