Introduction
The documentary project is perhaps the most challenging and time consuming project of junior year for freestyle students. We were tasked with writing an in depth article on a local topic of our choice. We had to gather primary sources through interviewing people, and secondary sources through online research. These sources were then used to help us form a distinct perspective on our chosen topic’s significance within the community and/or world. The article we wrote was challenging, as we had to blend research with narrative in a compelling way, building on all of the skills we had picked up earlier in the year. In Digital Media, we then formatted that article into something that could be printed, using Adobe InDesign. In Animation, we took a sound clip from one of our interviews and animated it.
For my project, I chose to do a documentary on birding and bird conservation within the Bay Area, though also looking more broadly into the world as well. I chose this subject as, at the time of the start of the project, I had recently gotten into birdwatching as a hobby, and wanted to learn a bit more about them and the people who work to protect them.
English
In English class, we first had to brainstorm and get our topic approved in order to move onto the actual work. I found that choosing a topic was fairly easy, and I stuck with it the entire project. We then had to get interviews and start on the research process. At this point, I didn’t really know what direction I wanted to take my project in, just that I wanted to connect birding as a hobby with the field of conservation. My first interview somewhat changed the trajectory of my project to include the importance of education in conservation, and how that connects to both birding and an increased care in conservation. The actual writing of the article did take some time outside of class to work on, as I had fallen slightly behind when working on the article, but I am overall quite proud of my final product.
This section of the project was so crucial to the entire rest of the classes that it was slightly daunting to try and tackle. We had the most time to work on this section and I was initially on top of all of the parts to it, but as the project went on, it became easier to fall behind. We had a lot of time to do planning and research, but what felt like not enough to finally write the article. I did get it done on time to be printed, but it was quite a struggle.
Digital Media
The next part of the project happened in Digital Media, where we had to format the article to look like an actual magazine article and not just a research paper. This part was relatively simple to complete. We had to create graphic design elements (GDEs) to place into the document and we had to add photos that we took to fully complete the look of the article. We used illustrator to create the GDEs, where, once finished, we placed them into InDesign and played around with placing them. This was the easiest part of the entire project, but it did still take time to do. I wrote so much that I couldn’t place very many GDEs and photos without running out of room, but I am quite happy with the result.
The act of formatting the article was quite calming in a very stressful time of the year, and I value the skills I picked up thanks to this experience. I am also quite fond of the photos that I took and how I formatted them in the article, and I enjoy the minimalist look that resulted from my hard work. I did end up getting published in this years magazine, and I am proud of myself for that.
Animation
Animation was perhaps the most challenging for me to complete, as we had just finished another big project right beforehand, and I was quite burnt out. We took the audio from one of our interviews, shortened it, and had to animate about a minute and 30 seconds of animation to go along with it. I struggled to get my work done, as I was going through an artist block, but I completed the animation eventually and don’t hate the result.
I decided to make a storyboard to go off of, to figure out timing and exactly what I wanted to animate. I then shortened the audio of my interview and set the images of my storyboard to the audio to figure out timing in an animatic. I also ended up changing the ending of the animation slightly in order to meet the time requirements.
For the finished animation, I decided to animate in a lineless style, which is not a style that I usually draw in. This made the process somewhat more streamlined, as I didn’t need to draw lineart, just the sketch and color. I also opted for more simple animations instead of complicated ones, as I was still art blocked. I also animated very little humans, as I wanted to focus on the birds. Overall, I am quite proud of all of the birds that I animated, but if I were to do this again, I might have tried to challenge myself a bit more than I did with this one. I used photoshop to animate all of the scenes.
Interviewees
Matthew Dodder is the executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, and has been an avid birder since a young age. In addition to his advocacy work with the SCVBA, he teaches a popular class on birding at the Palo Alto adult school. Through his work he showcases a genuine concern for the welfare of wildlife. He is also an artist and draws birds.
Carolyn Knight is the education and outreach manager for the SCVBA, where she strives to introduce students to the local wildlife and environment. Their education approach deals with hands on learning designed to get people to care about conservation through fun activities.
Reflection
Writing a magazine article is no easy task. The time of year that we wrote the article did not help with its difficulty, being the time of year I tend to get the most burnt out. I deeply value the effort I put into this project, though, despite personal struggle, and am really happy with the result. I value the skills I picked up on how to blend narrative with research, and how to better manage my time.
The content of the documentary has become deeply personal to me. When starting the project, birds were a new interest of mine, and I did not know much about them. Throughout the course of the project, I learned quite a bit about my subject, deepening my connection to it. The research I was doing was deepening my understanding of subject, which in turn eventually led to a more coherent final product.
In Digital Media and Animation, I was able to build upon skills I had already learned throughout the year to fully make the whole project come together, and I am quite proud of the final result. I am grateful that I was able to complete this project and get published.
Thank Yous
I want to thank my interviewees, Matthew Dodder and Carolyn Knight, for giving such insightful answers to my questions that really helped shape my article into what it became. I would also like to thank Mr Greco for giving great feedback and believing in what I could do with this article, and for all of the bird recommendations. Finally, I thank my mom for being there for my frantic writing sessions in Japan and after, and for giving feedback to polish the article into the best version of itself. I could not have written this article without these people.