Research and Planning!

 Once my partner and I figured out what topic our documentary would be on, we started to research more about the topic. The topic we chose was: College applications. We named it "The Stressful Application". We decided to read some articles to get different POVs and ideas within our topic that will help us understand the process a bit more than just our journey through it. 

These two articles helped our research journey the most (click pictures for links to the articles!):

Both of these articles discussed how the difficult process of applying for different colleges affected their mental health. Many claimed it was one of the most stressful times of their lives. It talked about how even small things can end up effecting your chances of getting in, mental tolls on students, and immense pressure students feel when it comes to the topic of college, especially in the last two years of high school. After our article research my partner and I felt almost seen because we felt the same stress that other kids were/are feeling. I was really happy that we chose such a relatable topic, that even we could relate to!

After we felt our research was finished, my partner and I started to do some planning  (as seen above). We made an outline to organize our documentary. In this outline we discussed/created different shots, the main purpose, our thesis for our documentary and the questions we wanted to ask when interviewing subjects.  After watching many documentaries, which i talked about in my previous blog post, we knew what kind of outline and documentary style we wanted to follow. We connected our purpose of making this documentary to our college application experiences as seniors. We knew many people in our class could relate and connect with the main topic and realize everyone is going through somewhat the same journey! We also wanted to give a preview to upcoming seniors/juniors to what this college application process can look like, so they feel less alone when they actually experience it!