project
Why WE Do It
“WHY WE DO IT” is a documentary film that compares and contrasts collaborative teams from different artistic backgrounds. This documentary film uses narrative inquiry, case studies and experiential storytelling to illustrate the connection between collaboration and art.
Year
2020
Purpose
Undergraduate Thesis
role
Director
Project Manager
Videographer
Editor
Year
2020
client
Undergraduate Thesis
role
Director
Project Manager
Videographer
Editor
project
Why WE Do It
“WHY WE DO IT” is a documentary film that compares and contrasts collaborative teams from different artistic backgrounds. This documentary film uses narrative inquiry, case studies, and experiential storytelling to illustrate the connection between collaboration and art.
Introduction
Project Overview
The documentary film answers the question, “why collaborate?” and the data gained through this project is used to draw a correlation between collaboration and collective experience.
On a broader scale, this research project aids in the understanding of how collaboration works in the creative industry by looking at the roles, responsibilities, and individual lived-experiences of team members within active collaborations.
Process
Timeline
Planning
Approach
research
Consult
Equipment
Shooting
Sony A7RII
VHS-C
Post-Production
Editing
Credits
Process
Timeline
Planning
Shooting
Post
Release
Planning
Approach
Most of the research surrounding the project is situated on the methodology of “narrative inquiry”, which involves extracting knowledge and information from the act of story-telling and experience. The main influences surrounding the development of narrative inquiry in the project have been Jill Sinclair Bell, Sondra Perry, Zacharias Kunuk, and Ian Mauro.
Research
Journal Article
Jill Sinclair Bell
“Narrative Inquiry: More Than Just Telling Stories”
(2002)
The legitimacy of narrative inquiry as a research methodology is proven through York University faculty, Jill Sinclair Bell’s journal article “Narrative Inquiry: More Than Just Telling Stories” (2002) [1].
Constructing a narrative comes with a wide set of ethical challenges. How narrative is used is an important subject that WHY WE DO IT takes into consideration. Bell talks about the formation of narratives and their overall purpose in their journal article. Bell states, “Narratives allow researchers to present experience holistically in all its complexity and richness. They are therefore powerful constructions, which can function as instruments of social control (Mumby, 1993) as well as valuable teaching tools (Egan, 1988)” (209).
In Bell’s writing, the importance of a well-constructed narrative is emphasized and demonstrates the possibilities of how narrative inquiry can be used to convey a particular narrative on a subject. Bell also writes that narrative inquiry is a key method in understanding the experiences and cultures that exist within groups and challenge one’s own assumptions by understanding stories told by others. The article also mentions the use of narrative inquiry in a practice beyond just storytelling and how narrative inquiry can be used for analytical examination in order to gather information from any underlying insights within stories that are told (Bell 208).
In the case of WHY WE DO IT, narrative is primarily a learning tool, providing useful insight into collaboration. It is less about swaying the viewer to believe collaboration is good for creative individuals, but more to show the realities of collaboration (both positive and negative) and its effect on the collaborators.
Journal Article
Sondra Perry
“IT’S IN THE GAME ‘17”
(2017)
Sondra Perry’s work reflects how narrative inquiry can be abstractly represented through the medium of film and audio. “IT’S IN THE GAME ‘17” (2017) [2] is a great example of a project that utilizes film and narrative inquiry to describe the issue surrounding the corporate exploitation of Black American men and their likeness for basketball video games. Narrative inquiry is used in this project through stories told from her brother, who’s appearance and likeness were exploited by Electronic Arts (EA) and used within a video game released by them. Her brother was included in a class action lawsuit against EA and this inspired Sondra Perry’s project. The information gained from her brother’s stories is the direct influence for the visuals that accompany the story told by her brother. This project is a good example of letting the issue you are trying to address tell the story and have visuals only serve to aid the progression of the narrative you wish to tell.
Within context of WHY WE DO IT, Sondra Perry’s video installation provides a dynamic way of incorporating visual storytelling with audio narrative. Her work was especially useful when identifying the key points of the documentary that I wanted to have strong visual representation in. I found that identifying significant points within the stories I gathered through my interviews I could construct a narrative that had relevant and attention-grabbing visuals that allow for the viewer to remain engaged to both the audio and visual segments of my documentary.
Sondra Perry Talks About Her Project “IT’S IN THE GAME” (2017)
Journal Article
Zacharias Kunuk And Ian Mauro
“Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge And Climate Change”
(2010)
Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro’s 2010 documentary film “Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change” [3] uses narrative inquiry as a means of explaining the effects of climate change through the eyes of Canadian Inuit people. By interviewing Inuit people, the documentary addresses the effects of climate change on their livelihood and how evident climate change has become for them.This documentary film emphasizes the importance of storytelling and knowledge transfer as a cultural aspect for the Inuit people. In regards to climate change, storytelling from Elders revealed how information about the climate could be gathered from particular aspects of Inuit life. There is a lot of data that can be extracted from stories and experiences and only by engaging in dialogue would this knowledge be able to be passed on.
In the planning stages of WHY WE DO IT, it was crucial to analyze the context in which responses from interviewees would be displayed and whether the responses would be relevant to the overall narrative of the project. Kunuk and Mauro’s work served as a guide for the kind of responses I had hoped to evoke with my interviews. I gained insight from the interviews I conducted and like this film, my research plays a role in the transferring of knowledge that can only be gained by using narrative inquiry as a methodology. Through understanding the experiences of creatives within collaborations my documentary film provides an insight into cultures that exist within collectives.
“Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge And Climate Change” (2010) Can Be Viewed In Full On Ian Mauro’s Vimeo Page
Consult
WHY WE DO IT was influenced not only by the written and creative works of others, but was also guided by the advisement of faculty staff at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. While there was heavy emphasis on the methodology of research throughout the project, there were other very careful considerations made throughout the creation process of this film. Assistant professor at OCAD University, Immony Men [4], assisted in the development of WHY WE DO IT from a abstract visual art piece to a documentary film.
Men is an artist, educator and community-based researcher in Toronto, Ontario. Men’s practice as an artist is rooted in the fields of interactive installation, interdisciplinary performances, social artworks, and community-based research projects. Having exhibited work nationally and internationally, Men is a professional artist and holds significant credibility; having been a part of numerous creative projects in Toronto’s art community.
From initial conceptualization, Men provided a strong foundation of research projects and ideations in which to based my narrative structure around. Men assisted me in conceptualizing how to visually represent ideas of recollection and memories within in the film through the use of other film mediums; including the use of amateur home-video style film techniques. Through Men’s guidance, I was able to incorporate the idea of “remembrance” through the visual mediums used and was able to provide a change in structure to my, otherwise, linear narrative. Men also assisted me in understanding the possibilities of film being used outside of its traditional form; exploring ideas of film and video within a new age context. Men introduced me to the works of Sondra Perry, who ultimately became the influence for my interest in abstract visuals and non-traditional film-making. It was with the advice and guidance of Immony Men that WHY WE DO IT stands within the context of a documentary film.
Equipment
The entire documentary was shot solely on two cameras; the Sony A7RII Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera and theJVC GR-AXM700U VHS-C Camera.
With a very limited budget, the documentary was created with equipment already previously owned.
An entire list of equipment was indexed in a spreadsheet during the planning stage of the production.
The documentary was edited on Adobe Premiere Pro.
A sample of the calendar made for Fall 2019.
Full inventory list can be found here.
Shooting
Sony A7RII
Shooting on the Sony A7RII provided some advantages in terms of dynamic range and low-light performance.
In my prototype shoot, I shot on the SLOG 2 picture profile (Picture Profile 7). SLOG 2 is a flat colour profile, rendering a flat and desaturated image with a higher dynamic range, which can later be manipulated in post-production.
I chose to shoot most of my footage in SLOG 2, however, I realized that shooting lowlight and SLOG 2 didn’t go so well together. As the exposure was brought up in post, the noise of the footage was also brought up as well.
SLOG 2 footage; as shot, no corrections.
SLOG 2 footage; post-processed with lumetri color
WHY WE DO IT - Draft Interview with Ayman (Vymvn)
Proof of concept shoot with Ayman (Vymvn) Abdalla; shot on the Sony A7RII at 1080p in SLOG 2 (Colour-corrected in post).
VHS-C
The idea to use VHS-C footage came to me in the planning stage of the production. After a conversation with Immony Men (OCAD U), I was set on using old video formats to display a visual representation of “remembrance”.
With interview sections planned for the documentary, I knew I would be asking the interviewees to recall on past experiences. The challenge was figuring out how I would visually represent the interviewees recollection and draw the viewer into the past with them, reliving some of these memories as best they could.
My solution to this was to shoot segments on a VHS-C camcorder (JVC GRAXM-700U). The VHS-C footage was converted using a VHS-to-DVD converter and exported files as an .AVI for me to use later in post-production.
Raw footage from the VHS-C camcorder; digitized and uploaded, no post-processing.
Post-Production
Editing
A lot of work was done in the post-production stage. After gathering just over half of the footage, I began devising trailers for the documentary, which highlighted visuals representing the different collectives.
At the time, I had shot 60% of the footage and used this as an opportunity to explore the aesthetics of the project.
Still from “WHY WE DO IT - (Official Trailer) Pt.1”
