# Documentary Opinions?



## CaP17A (Sep 23, 2011)

I am taking a film/editing class for school and for my final I'm 90% sure I'm making a short documentary about snowboarding. That being said, I do have a few ideas, but I figured since it is going to be geared more towards the snowboard community, ideas from the snowboard community would be good. If anyone has seen the documentary about skateboarding called "Freeling" it would be kinda like that. Like what snowboarding FEELS like, not just what it is as a sport. I'm planning to keep the "cast" small, mainly just a couple of my friends for the interviews, and then a handful more people for actual snowboarding footage. Other than those basic ideas I don't have much, so anyone's suggestions would be great.


Thanks in advance for feedback guys.

Here's the Freeling link in case anyone wants to see it who hasn't...best documentary I've seen evar! Freeling on Vimeo


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## Toomeyct (Apr 4, 2012)

Seems like a pretty cool idea to me and that documentary was pretty sweet. Shot very well. 

The only tip I have and this is just a pet peeve that I have, is that when you are interviewing people try to mention to them not to use the word "like" every other word. I actually had this problem when I spoke in public and fixed it during a public speaking class in college as I had to tape myself once and then critique my own speaking skills. Once I saw myself talking like that, I never did it again. 

Like I said, this is a little nitpick and wouldn't make any difference in your video. Its just much nicer to watch interviews when they aren't using that word all the time.

Overall though this is a sweet idea for snowboarding. I talk to my friends all the time about how the sport makes me feel. There is nothing more original or freeing than picking your line down a run and just nailing it perfectly and thinking that you may be the only person that day taking that exact same line.


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## CaP17A (Sep 23, 2011)

Toomeyct said:


> Seems like a pretty cool idea to me and that documentary was pretty sweet. Shot very well.
> 
> The only tip I have and this is just a pet peeve that I have, is that when you are interviewing people try to mention to them not to use the word "like" every other word. I actually had this problem when I spoke in public and fixed it during a public speaking class in college as I had to tape myself once and then critique my own speaking skills. Once I saw myself talking like that, I never did it again.
> 
> ...



Good call haha that is the only thing that bothered me about the documentary. It is a huge group of skaters and in my case, snowboarders so it will most likely be thrown in there a lot haha.

I like you, fly over to Vermont and let me interview you haha. Thanks for the input!


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## Toomeyct (Apr 4, 2012)

CaP17A said:


> Good call haha that is the only thing that bothered me about the documentary. It is a huge group of skaters and in my case, snowboarders so it will most likely be thrown in there a lot haha.
> 
> I like you, fly over to Vermont and let me interview you haha. Thanks for the input!


Yeah skateboarders and snowboarders are just a group of people that this is a particular problem. Its nothing against their culture or their personalities as I love the culture myself and honestly I didn't know that I talked that way until someone told me. Most people probably don't. Its just something that I would mention to them before the interview. I don't think anyone would take it personally as I highly doubt anyone really wants to talk like that. It was explained to me that we use words such as "like" or "um" to fill in gaps in our speech between our brain composing our sentences and those sentences actually coming out of our mouths. If you just talk a little slower and use pauses in your speech, things like this go away. Its really amazing how easy it is to fix once you realize you are doing it. 

But on to things that matter. Another idea I had is to maybe bring in some people passing from the beginning stage to intermediate. I remember that being my eureka moment. The first run that I made that was longer than a few minutes was also probably the first run that I started to make real turns and plan real lines. My friend and I who were of the same skill level made that run together. As soon as we hit the bottom, we didn't even speak. Just high fived and knew exactly what the other was thinking. It would be interesting to hear the ideas and opinions of the people who just caught the bug.


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## CaP17A (Sep 23, 2011)

Toomeyct said:


> Yeah skateboarders and snowboarders are just a group of people that this is a particular problem. Its nothing against their culture or their personalities as I love the culture myself and honestly I didn't know that I talked that way until someone told me. Most people probably don't. Its just something that I would mention to them before the interview. I don't think anyone would take it personally as I highly doubt anyone really wants to talk like that. It was explained to me that we use words such as "like" or "um" to fill in gaps in our speech between our brain composing our sentences and those sentences actually coming out of our mouths. If you just talk a little slower and use pauses in your speech, things like this go away. Its really amazing how easy it is to fix once you realize you are doing it.
> 
> But on to things that matter. Another idea I had is to maybe bring in some people passing from the beginning stage to intermediate. I remember that being my eureka moment. The first run that I made that was longer than a few minutes was also probably the first run that I started to make real turns and plan real lines. My friend and I who were of the same skill level made that run together. As soon as we hit the bottom, we didn't even speak. Just high fived and knew exactly what the other was thinking. It would be interesting to hear the ideas and opinions of the people who just caught the bug.


Yeah sounds about right. I say that a lot and definitely wouldn't take it personally if people pointed that out. Problem is that some of my friends would say it more on purpose after that :laugh: 

That sounds pretty interesting too, I'll definitely take that idea and see how it works out.

On a note of making edits as well as filming for this documentary. Do you think that using the same footage in edits as I would in the documentary would be fine? Or should I say the absolute best clips for the documentary only? I personally don't think it would matter that much since its not like a full length movie made for watching the tricks.


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## dopamean (Nov 1, 2012)

I think you should just wing it, do what feels right, edit wildly without worry and throw some kick ass music in to top it all off. 

I enjoy documentaries and films in general, that don't follow constraints or adhere to any guidelines or preset rules; which is kinda what snowboarding is about anyway.

Be sure to post a link when this masterpiece is complete for all of us to enjoy!


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## CaP17A (Sep 23, 2011)

dopamean said:


> I think you should just wing it, do what feels right, edit wildly without worry and throw some kick ass music in to top it all off.
> 
> I enjoy documentaries and films in general, that don't follow constraints or adhere to any guidelines or preset rules; which is kinda what snowboarding is about anyway.
> 
> Be sure to post a link when this masterpiece is complete for all of us to enjoy!


Hrm...smart idea indeed. Out of the box for sure. That will probably end up happening. Probably less than a day of interviews and then filming the rest of the year knowing my friends hah.

Will do! If you can remember by May that is


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## snowklinger (Aug 30, 2011)

show behind the scenes stuff other than riding, like travel, tuning, prep, shopping, bootfitting, apres, party girls, titties.

I get titties as much as we love them may not be appropriate, but please consider the spirit of my concept. I find clip after clip of a Finnish French Canadian jibbing the same piece of urban in the dark to be mind numbing at best. And don't get me wrong, I love the steezy jib, but when there are 4000 smashed into a 6minute clip with little variety, my brain has a hard time appreciating any of it. 

Also don't just repeat the encyclopedia entry about the history of snowboarding, the sport is mainstream enough now that it's been done to death and is just boring. Recapping the history of the USopen in VT or showing Jake shredding his Backhill - also yawn.

Some ideas: 

-edit it all into a "day in the life of" even if it show different people, you could cast them all as 1 generic rider (reminiscent of Boozy the Clown from the Whiskey vids back in the day).

-in preparation for your project, watch and re-watch the best examples of what you are trying to do. Anything by Red Bull in the last 10 years while pretty, is probably a terribad example unless you have $100000000. Especially older stuff, as it has lower tech film editing and will be easier to mimic (remember film tech is not what makes good storytelling). 

examples:

-the Whiskey series
-80s and 90's Powell and Peralta vids ie. P&P3:The Search for Animal Chin
-The Endless Summer

imho the 2 best documentaries ever (yea I'm a bit of a nut):
The Thin Blue Line (documentary absolved falsely accused and imprisoned man for murder, held over a decade)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (self explanatory)

GL look forward to watching.


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## OldDog (Oct 7, 2012)

Yeah what he said...



snowklinger said:


> show behind the scenes stuff other than riding, like travel, tuning, prep, shopping, bootfitting, apres, party girls, *TITTIES*.


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## CaP17A (Sep 23, 2011)

snowklinger said:


> show behind the scenes stuff other than riding, like travel, tuning, prep, shopping, bootfitting, apres, party girls, titties.
> 
> I get titties as much as we love them may not be appropriate, but please consider the spirit of my concept. I find clip after clip of a Finnish French Canadian jibbing the same piece of urban in the dark to be mind numbing at best. And don't get me wrong, I love the steezy jib, but when there are 4000 smashed into a 6minute clip with little variety, my brain has a hard time appreciating any of it.
> 
> ...



That was the plan, to have something like that going on (probably not titties, school won't like that )
It isn't going to be so much on the history as opposed to what people who ride now feel when riding. More of a here and now thing.

Side note: ANIMAL CHIN IS THE FUCKING BEST.
End side note.


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## snowklinger (Aug 30, 2011)

CaP17A said:


> ANIMAL CHIN IS THE FUCKING BEST.


It seems you smell what I'm stepping in. Coulda saved like 300 words :cheeky4:


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