As a filmmaker who specialized in filming documentaries in the past, I decided to take the opportunity the Student Board gave me and attempt creating a narrative film. While the process in making a documentary or a narrative are vastly different, they are both equally rewarding.
In the past, my favorite part of making a documentary has been the interviewing portion because that is where I get to play with the settings on the camera and decide how I want the interview to look. With narrative, I am excited to try editing the scenes since I won’t have to create the story there, unlike documentaries. Instead, I would be able to put a heavier focus on the color correction and be more creative with the style and aesthetic of the film which is my favorite part of filmmaking.
One habit that I have picked up and cannot shake from making documentaries is allocating the majority of my time to editing since documentaries take so much time to edit. This habit has both its pros and cons, since it can put me ahead of schedule and finish my film before the due date but also lead me to panic when I have to postpone some of the filming dates after both my audio recorder and I came down with COVID. Because of this setback, I have not had as much experience with narrative films as I would have liked by this time, but I’ve still grown to love narrative filmmaking as well.
Being a creative person, working on narratives has allowed me to really expand my creativity and implement it a lot more than making documentaries lets me. Creating documentaries, although it doesn’t allow for as much creativity, lets me share and express my own perspective on certain topics or issues. Not only do they let me share my own perspective, it lets me share other people’s stories as well and meet people who have similar or opposing viewpoints which I find to be very interesting to listen to. Being able to use other people’s voices to express my own voice still provides that creative outlet for me and creates a sense of unity that I love to create in all of my documentaries.
While making documentaries was the first genre of film I learned how to do and instantly loved, creating this narrative film is definitely an exciting experience and I am so grateful that I have been able to learn about a new type of film and expand my skill set.