Documentary Project Reflection

Our documentary topic is Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, and how it has the potential to harbor life.  I think our film turned out pretty well, but I would’ve rather done a documentary about the furry fandom because it would’ve been a lot more fun (who wouldn’t want to interview a person in an animal costume?) and it would’ve been more informative.  Many people know that there are places out there besides Earth that could potentially harbor life, but not many people know about the furry fandom.

While making the documentary, I learned that there’s an artist on the Internet named Michael Aranda who has created great Creative Commons audio tracks.  We used one entitled “Jerkface and Jujube” in our film.  It matched the tempo of the film just perfectly!  I plan to use some more of his music in my future independent films.

The biggest challenge we faced was making sure that the film didn’t go too quickly, and bombard viewers with information.  Honestly, I think that it still has too much information for its short length.  I don’t really think that the fast paced style we were trying to emulate was completely appropriate for a documentary about outer space.  If we were to make the documentary over again then I’d suggest making it in a different style.

If I could make another documentary, I’d probably choose another topic.  If I remember correctly, the idea was proposed as a joke, but we decided to go through with it after thinking about it.  I would’ve chosen the furry fandom because then I could take charge of the project, since I have so many contacts within the fandom and because, of course, I know the most about it.  I really want to get the people in CAP 10 to know me better since I’m new, and I think that giving them an in-depth look at one of my interests would’ve been a great way to do that.

I think that you should’ve had a bigger role in helping us to choose a topic, i.e. we brainstorm a list of ideas that we like and you select one that you think will make the best documentary.  Also, I think that you should’ve enforced deadlines a bit more strictly.

Finally, I really liked of idea of us making our own documentaries.  It gave us a chance to make a film that was a little bit longer than the films we usually make, and to make a film about something that we’re passionate about.