Welcome to the Documentary Project!

For this project we chose a topic that interested us so that we could create a story around it. I choose the topic Collectors.

 

In English, we wrote a research paper. The paper had to have several primary resources as well as much secondary information. In the paperI answered the question; When does obsessive collecting become a problem for the collector? I explore the idea that something seemingly harmless (a hobby like collecting) can turn into something unhealthy and dangerous. I also looked at what different types of collectors there are. ( Casual, Serious, Obsessive.) I chose this topic because I feel that everyone in their own way is a collector. Everybody kind of has something that they like, so people can easily relate to this interesting topic.

 

To further our knowledge on the topic, in Design we made a photobook. It's basically exactly what the name sounds like. It's a book with text and photos. The text used in the book comes straight from my Research Paper and the photos are ones I took in the homes and workplaces of my subjects (different collectors). The hardest part of creating my book was probably figuring out what to use for the cover. Because even thought you're not really supposed to judge a book by it's cover, people do all the time. Keep an eye out for some of the full page spreads of posters, those are very cool.

 

Finally, in Web, we made this website and an Audio SlideShow. Which is basically a podcast put to pictures. My Audio SlideShow sort of goes hand in hand with my research paper but gives the topic a little different view. It showcases the interviewees opinion on collecting. I interviewed three people; Ben Komins, Jennifer Wu and Elizabeth Anderson. They were all great to talk to and offered very interesting insight. Make sure to listen for Ben's daughter, Katherine who pipes up at one point during our interview.

 

The music you are hearing right now is something I made up on the piano. I don't actually play the piano, I play the guitar, but I enjoy just messing around on it. However I do know a few songs on the piano and I would like to learn more. This song is just a few chords that I know put together with some twists and I guess you could call it 'emphasis' on bits. Well I hope you like it!

 

This unit was definitely the most challenging for me so far. Finding a topic that could be interesting visually and informationally was tough. However, once the ball got rolling it turned out to be very fun. We learned how to use Pro Tools (to mix our audio) and InDesign (to layout our book) which turned out to be very useful. Overall, the documentary unit was very productive for all parts of learning.

 

Best of all, you can see all these projects here, on this very site. So go have a look around, ya lucky!