We started this studio off by watching short documentaries to see what was possible. Each documentary we watched had a completely different style. We saw some that were very direct and to the point and we saw others that were much more artistic and abstract.

BRAINSTORMING:

We then started to explore topics. We looked at the concept of mobility and brainstormed. Then we looked at all those ideas that branched off of mobility, and tried to take those a step further. We next branched off of those ideas then looked back at everything we had come up with.  We needed to pick a topic that was expansive enough to be interesting yet manageable. We then individually came up with a pitch for a documentary.

Once every one had pitched their ideas we tried to narrow them down and combine into groups. Our group ended up getting narrowed down into the topic of time and commute.

Once we had our topic, we just went out and started to film. We filmed busy streets, crowded sidewalks, trees swaying, China Town and general people moving about their days.

We then started editing it down. We had a lot of footage, much more than we needed for our short video so we had to pick and choose what we liked and how long each segment should be.

INTERVIEWING:

We also interviewed and filmed people on the street, which was tricky. Going up to people takes a lot of guts. The first time we went out we had the camera set up and would just watch people walk by, too scared to ask them for an interview. Once we finally built up the guts to ask people they kept saying no. We found that we shouldn’t ask anyone with headphones on and if they didn’t make eye contact you shouldn’t even bother to ask them for an interview. It was probably forty-five minutes in until we got our first interview.

When we were interviewing people we had a few basic questions that we wanted to ask them. We asked them how valuable their time was, if time goes at different speeds for them and what they think time is? Some people got really deep into the questions. It was cool to see people just open up. We completely stumped a few people with our questions and it was interesting to see what they ended up coming up with. We also interviewed people who just gave one-word answers. They weren’t as helpful.  

The people we ended up interviewing were mostly guys. It was really hard to find girls to say yes. A few of the girls who did say yes gave us one-word answers that were unusable. We noticed that the people who work in the small businesses around Cambridge tended to go deeper in their interviews and were much nicer in general.

We also interviewed Jeff Lieberman. He is a really interesting science, artist, time guy. His interview was fascinating. He was really good at thoroughly answering our questions and was simple to understand. He told us some concepts that blew our minds!

EDITING:

Once we had all the footage we had to put it together. We went through all the footage once and edited our voices out of it. We then took the best parts of every interview and made a little database of the usable parts. Next we organized those parts into categories, and started to lay it in the documentary. We then looked at everything that was missing from the documentary and headed out to go film the missing parts.

We then edited as much as our hearts desired…then we edited some more. It was hard to edit after a while because we had watched the footage for so long. We were becoming numb to the footage. It was good when we would get a critique because it would refocus us to the video.

MUSIC:

It was also hard to find the background music for the video. We wanted something with no words and lots of repetition. We all went on YouTube and tried to find some songs that we could use. It was trickier than we though it would be to find a song. In the end I think we were over thinking the music a little bit. We’re happy with the music choices that we made.

NARRATIVE:

We also wrote a narrative for the beginning and the end. It was tricky to write because we wanted to go in depth without giving away the whole story line for the video. Once we had written it we had to speak it. It was hard to talk slow enough and clear enough. We are happy with the narrative we came up with.

Once we had all the pieces we just had to put it all together- that was the best part. It was so satisfying how it came together all at once. We are really proud of what we made.

We created a short documentary, an exploration of time. Time plays a huge role in our lives but we don’t think about it much. Our film explores different perspectives on time, from religious views to views on death. We wrote the narrative, interviewed strangers on the streets, made time-lapse videos and learned how to edit our footage. We used Final Cut Pro to make the video.