Part 2: Topic Research and Planning

     Finding a Topic and Getting Everything Together

    After having watched the documentaries in class, it was time for my group to begin figuring out what we wanted to do for our project. We brainstormed a couple of ideas of what we could do like a documentary on single moms, or immigrant stories, but there was one topic in particular that interested us: the community within theater. It was perfect, especially since two of us out of the three in the group are actively involved in theater, we knew a lot about the topic, and had the connections to be able to get good b-roll and good interviewees. 

    The only problem we had with this topic is that I am friends with someone who did a very similar topic for this project last year, and we wanted to do something more original and still stick to the overall topic of theater. After a bit more brainstorming we realized we could do a documentary that focuses on the behind the scenes of live theater, the technical side. Once we had our topic set, we quickly got to making a shot list of all the B-roll we would need for the documentary. We decided to get b-roll from the school's auditorium and sound and lighting booth, with permission from the theater tech teacher, as it would be the easiest place for us to access. We also planned to use some archival footage from rehearsals and shows to better show the before and after, and just how important lighting, set, costumes, and sound are for live theater.

Document with interview questions

        Once we had our shot list set, we started thinking of who we could interview as well as brainstormed questions we could ask our interviewees. Thankfully, finding people to interview was relatively easy as, like I mentioned previously, me and Gabi are both involved in theater. We decided to ask and schedule interviews with the student heads of lighting and sound for interviews, the head of technical theater at a local theater company, Inside Out Theatre Co., the head of technical theater at our school, and an actor to get an actor's perspective on the technical side of theater. 

    After all this, the group came up with a rough schedule of when we were planning on filming our interviews, getting all our b-roll, and editing. With the plan in place we had set up to film the majority of the interviews and all of the b-roll the Thursday before Thanksgiving break, the final two interviews on that first Saturday of the break, and meet up throughout Thanksgiving break to sift through archival footage and edit.