Blog Post #4: What I learned from the Documentary Storytelling Assignments

I loved getting to work on our documentary storytelling assignments. I thought it was a great experience to not only direct, but to get behind the camera. More than anything I loved being able to choose our own topic and see our classmates and where they went with it, especially since it was our first big project in the class. There were several things that I learned from this project as a whole.

1. You're only as good as your weakest shot. This was a big one for me, because I feel like as a dancer, I had a specific shot in mind for a specific spot in the music, so I used shots even if the lighting wasn't perfect or if there was a part that was out of focus. Through this project, I learned that sometimes your original idea isn't going to work, so it's better to be open to options that make your project the best that it can be rather than what my idea was.
2. Be passionate about what you are filming. After watching all of the projects, I found that when people were excited and passionate about their topic, their projects came across better as a whole. For me, dance is something I am really passionate, so it made working on my ARDT project enjoyable and fun rather than like work. Obviously, we don't always get to film things we want to film, but it definitely is nice when we can.
3. Filming dance isn't easy. From quick, drastic light changes to constant movement, filming dance was hard. It was definitely a process trying to get the camera to work correctly without getting the time to white balance and find your focus. However, it was a great learning experience for me, especially since I want to film dance after my professional dance career. Through the course of show, however, filming the pieces and working the camera came much easier as a whole. Now I'm interested in experimenting with other cameras and seeing how they do under the circumstances filming dance brings.