A Level Endeavors ~pt. 1

There have been many projects that I've had the great opportunity of working on this year in Aice Media A Level. All of these projects allowed me not only to grow as a media student but it's prepared me for the upcoming portfolio project. One of the projects I will be discussing from this past year was the Documentary Project.

Documentary!

The documentary project was to make a short seven-minute-long documentary on a topic of our choosing. My group, Maya, Nicole, and I, brainstormed a variety of topics such as interviewing ESE teachers and their experiences, before deciding on the topic of creative careers, its stigma, and the effects it has on those who wish to pursue creative careers. 

Our documentary was titled Don't Quit Your Day Job, and you can watch it by clicking the image below.

As mentioned above, our documentary aimed to talk about creative careers throughout all of its stages. We began our documentary by interviewing three middle school-aged kids who wished to one day pursue a creative career, such as acting and dancing. 

Nicole interviewing Samuel

We followed this along by interviewing three college students who describe why they chose their major, whether creative or not, and the challenges they are facing because of it. Katina, for example, is pursuing majoring in architecture. She describes her experiences of originally wanting to pursue computer science and what made her switch to the major she has now, mentioning that the arts have been and always will be a part of her and that she could not live without it. We also interviewed a student who originally wanted to pursue animation, however, due to the instability of a creative career providing a paycheck and her medical condition, she decided otherwise and is instead to pursue a career in the medical field. 

Lastly, we finished the documentary by interviewing two adults who recount their experiences growing up in and out of the creative field. David, the last interviewee, initially wished to have an immense career in music, however, today has not pursued that, he states that he has no regrets about where he is now, and poses the advice for younger creatives to "Not quit your day job".

We face many challenges throughout this whole experience. Many of which included organizing our time together as a group and, most notably, filming b-roll. We also had many issues dealing with video and sound editing which could all have been avoided if we had simply organized our time better. 

However, despite all of the challenges we faced, I am glad to have had the opportunity to not only do something I never had the chance to do before but also to work together with incredibly talented and creative people.