What is Documentary?
Assignment #1 - A Definitional Essay
The PursuitAnalysis
This first assignment of class was to help us broaden both our knowledge and our opinions about documentary work. The essay's thesis is focused around our own opinions, formed from discussions in class and researching and reading various works on the issue, a prominent source being Robert Coles' Doing Documentary Work.
Reflection
Generally, I feel that writing is one of my strong suits - that doesn't mean I always enjoy it. As my first college essay, I was feeling apprehensive about the assignment, not knowing what the teacher expected, what the "norms" were in college-level writing - so naturally, I put the assignment off in fear of not writing a paper worthy enough to be turned in. However, much to my surprise, I believe my first essay was a success.
I've always liked expressing my opinion in written form, and this paper gave me an outlet to do so. Exploring the concept of documentary provided several ideas and controversies on which to base my arguments, which, after careful organization of thought, had merit. I am also proud of the general flow of the essay and the use of several quotes from the Coles' piece to reinforce my ideas.
Although I am generally happy with the outcome of my efforts in the course of this assignment, some improvements could (and should) be taken into consideration for next time:
- More research = better arguments. I believe more support from more sources could have helped validate my views with my audience.
- Less procrastination = higher success rate and lower stress rate.
I also learned the importance of utilizing some very useful skills during the course of this assignment:
- Rough drafts are wonderful things. After revising it, I finally realized just how many things you can do that much better the second time around.
- Correct documentation of sources is very important in professional writing.
The Act Itself
Assignment #3 - Documenting a Local Event
Analysis
This assignment tested the opinions and theories we had formed thus far in the semester by putting them into action. Initially working in groups of 4 to 5, we set out to document an approved event of our interest on campus and collect enough data to be able to represent key elements of the event visually and orally as individuals in the form of posters accompanied by an oral presentation.
Reflection
Documentation
The first stage in this rather large assignment was one of documentation, and probably for me, the most chaotic and disorganized stage. Generally preferring to work alone, I was a bit wary of setting out to document an event as a group - questions asked, pictures taken, and video shot would all be left to the discretion of the documentarian, whose opinions and views about what was to be recorded could differ from mine. Although our group did fine in collecting data, more discussion and organization beforehand would have made all of the data more useful for everyone in the group.
Visual Representation
After collecting the data, the class was to create a poster as an individual that accurately represented the event. For many of us, this meant familiarizing ourselves with a new computer program, a daunting task indeed. However, after several help sessions and tutorials, I was on my way to creating a visually effective poster.
Through this assignment I learned several elements about visual design:
- Direction - It's important to be concious of what elements are most important and how you can lead the eye directly to them. In my poster, I used a large background image of a praying mantis to draw the eye to the title of the poster. I also placed the photographs on the right hand side in a specific sequence which follows action - notice how the orientation of the subjects in the pictures leads you to the next picture/element in the poster.
- Color Scheme - The green tones are appropriate for the subject - an Insect Horror Film Festival.
- Chunking - The three seperate green boxes helped to organize the main information from the event into three seperate categories, so that the viewer is not bombarded with a lot of text in one area.
A fan of layout and poster design, this stage of the project allowed me to relive my days spent with a pair of scissors, construction paper, and a gluestick - metaphorically , of course. I'm pleased with the outcome, and I plan to apply the concepts I learned to future projects.
Oral Represenation
The final stage in this assignment was to give an oral presentation on our event with the aid of our poster to our peers. Within two minutes, we were to give an accurate description of the event, including what we felt was interesting or important about it, and convey the goal of the event. The presentations were held as a conference-type format, where you would have to grab your audience's attention before they got bored and moved on to the next poster. As a result, I learned about effective elements in an oral presenation:
- Anecdotes - Anecdotes are a wonderful way to make your presentation more personable to your audience. I used an anecdote of a cute little girl asking one of the men running the event "Do ants have stingers?" which drew a chuckle, and ultimately more attention from my audience.
- Incorporate the Visual Aid - By displaying certain aspects of the event on my poster and incorporating them into my presentation, I was able to reinforce these ideas with my audience and fully engage their attention.
This presentation was a vast improvement from my oral diagnostic at the beginning of the semester. Memorization connected me with my audience, and the more formal setting helped me to know what was expected of me, which made me more comfortable. An improvement for next time would be to slow down my speech - I felt that I might have rushed at times, causing me to slip up on a couple facts.