Documentary Video
I am a video creator and I love what I do, so being able to make my own documentary was a chance I thought I would never be able to get because I wouldn’t know what the topic would be. That was, until I came up with an idea after a meaningful Facetime call changed my life.
The Beginning of This Nostalgic Journey With Friends
This whole idea started out on my 18th birthday, when a bunch of my old friends decided to Facetime me out of nowhere just to say happy birthday and catch up. I was the one who told them to call up as many others as possible and we ended up with a call of about 20 of my friends. After that day, I came up with the idea to record a version of that experience as a video, and came up with the concept of it being a “retrospective” style video where I would get those same friends to record a short video of themselves answering the following question:
How would you describe Joey both as a person and as a friend?
Once I receive all the videos I am going to get, I then figure out the “vehicle” of sorts that I will deliver these videos to the world in one neatly wrapped package, and so the story of the first video was created with 2 newer friends I met on campus.
Meet My Friends From The First Video
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Will
First (in person) Friend In The Video
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Frank
Second (in person) Friend In The Video
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Seth
Old Friend From High School
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Isaiah
Old Friend From Elementary School
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Lena
Old Friend From Middle School
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Ben
Old Friend From High School
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Rose
A New Friend I Met On Campus
From Part 1 To A Sequel Video
After it was produced and uploaded, I got some people's submissions late and decided I would make a sequel so their videos wouldn't go to waste and that is how I ended up making this video.
Then came the task of making a different A-plot for the video than the last one, and that's how I came up with the story to follow up on how I was doing after the podcast I had made recently and how that affected me mentally.
Then, out of nowhere the videos of my friends would play and lift my spirit up, remind me that I have friends on campus not too busy to say no and that's how I would come to interview a buddy of mine who I love to talk to and hang out with.
I knew that I wanted to make a sequel video for those few late submissions I mentioned but also because I realized I could make an even better video than before. So began this journey again to make the sequel.
Pre-Production
Now, I knew I always wanted to do a sequel video, so making the second one more of a documentary style and less of an overarching story was my main goal with this next installment in the series. As shown above, my settings were different this time around too, as I was on a different campus altogether since the first video and it opened the door for new possibilities. I not only had a new shape and size to my dorm room, but I had a wide open common room with space for the in person interview and conversation, and the outdoors area just outside my building made for a wide range of locations.
Pre-Production Document
For a more well detailed analysis of my pre-production, all the notes for the smaller details are in this pdf document.
Meet My Friends From The Sequel
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Larry
The only (in person) friend this time.
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Liam
New Friend I Made At College
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Morgan
Old Friend From High School
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Brody
Old Friend From High School
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Ally J
Old Friend From High School
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Cory
Old Friend From Elementary School
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Jaron
Old Friend From Middle School
Why the Rosters For Both Videos Are Different?
The reason for the rosters of both videos are different is because I didn’t want the first batch of people to repeat what they said before in the event they had no new information about me, so my first goal was to pick a completely new batch of my friends so I can keep this series going in the future if I wanted to.
When it came down to the call to action and help me with this video, so many of my friends did answer the call, and even one I was surprised went out of his way to reach me about and ended up giving me extra B-roll footage for this exact video to then overlay the submissions on top of.
The Filming of the Sequel
I needed a storyline through the video, and what better one than to catch up with me to see how I was living after I recounted that story for the podcast. To some extent, the footage of me going about my day and being affected by the memories of the story was (and still is) true, but exaggerated enough that the audience can visibly see the difference.
Given the new setting since the last video, I made full use of my new filming location, including going outside to film a small segment for the documentary. Not just that, but I also leveled up on the technical aspect of how I edit my videos and made use of some new ways to make the footage I filmed useable, like dramatic zoom ins, change color to black and white, speed up and slow down footage, and other tricks I picked up myself like how to use a green screen and how to animate the video submissions I got with transitions to go along with them.
Final Video
This is the final video. A documentary style video being a sequel to a video idea I had just because I wanted a time capsule of how my friends view our friendships and our memories.
To that end, I am grateful for all my friends who did submit footage for me and I wish all my friends well if they view this video. I also want to thank Larry, the friend who showed up in person, gave me an interview and genuinely made me laugh and smile as I realized, (in the famous words of Timon from The Lion King) "you got to put your past behind you".
Behind the Scenes
With all the footage I managed to get, I did not use all of it, and in fact I had to reshoot the same interview scene on a different day. So that whole cut version of the interview plus the other conversation that made me feel better is here in this folder to see those behind the scenes moments and all the individual video submissions as well.