"Over the summer you have to watch two documentaries. That is one of your assignments." As those words left Mr. Cotter's mouth my whole body shut down. It was as if joy was non-existent in the world...
Exaggerating a bit but I think you get the point. The word documentary was a synonym for BORING in my uneducated vocabulary.
How wrong was I, woooow. For the whole month of January I procrastinated watching my first documentary, as I planned to watch one each month. As the month rolled forward and February was around the corner I decided to give it a go and watch the one I had assigned to January.
Where to start? I went to the documentary section in Netflix and decided to look for the "least" boring one. I had heard about one called "Class of 92" that tells the story of Manchester United famed class of 1992.
After approximately one hour and thirty minutes I finished watching "Class of 92" and was amazed. The way the documentary portrays ideas and details is something non-existent on any other genre and one that movies can only dream of reaching.
The main purpose of the documentary is to inform people about a specific topic or event. Easier said than done. If not done correctly it can bore the audience to death and it is here that I learn key aspects for my documentary.
Before watching it I would have just filmed different shots and talk while filming them and it would have looked amateur. However, after watching "Class of 92" I have realized how powerful it can be to film a shot and then use a voice over. This causes the audience to be engaged with the film but not distracted by it when listening the audio. The other lesson I learnt was how to move between shots of the big picture to those of the narrator speaking. This should be done for key points as it causes the impact of the message to be greater and thus, more lasting in our minds.
Obviously after this I am no expert I bet I probably don't even reach Mendo's ankles but I know feel I can contribute to a group of how to make a documentary.
It is amazing how one simple thing as giving a documentary a chance can completely change your perspective on a topic you never even thought on talking about. In one month I have changed from hating Cotter because he assigned this homework to actually valuing his and thanking his decision.
This is one of the many things that Bill has helped me with this year and I will be ever grateful for it as he has made me realize that I am a much more capable person than I ever thought.