Reaching Out - ID# 297
Highland Park
Documentary
Entry Description
After suicide numbers are going up in our community, students are taking matters into their own hands to help better the mental health of students in Northbrook. Music: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5nNVrUE4oDA&feature=share
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/15 1:33 pm - Excellent range of voices explaining this program and how the school is addressing mental health needs. Enjoyed how you cut between voices and told a coherent story through your subjects.
- 4/12 9:05 am - Very timely and important topic to cover. Every single one of us in education, from admin, to teachers, to students has experienced varying levels of trauma over this past year and it will continue to show up long after this pandemic is behind us. I applaud the students at GBN for being proactive in helping to address the issues around suicide and I hope their efforts will change the competitive culture so indicative around many north shore schools. Keepers: Very well done in terms of crafting your stories via the interviews. The varied voices of students and adults helped to create a story told from multiple viewpoints and angles. It was well paced and informative. Story editing documentaries is difficult and I thought you handled this aspect well. Nice work on the audio mixing to get all dialogue consistent...not always easy to do with zoom interviews. Improvements: The biggest thing lacking in this docmentary is broll. There simply wasn't enough of it. This was essentially a documentary full of too many talking heads. If you cannot visually reinforce your message, your documentary might as well be a podcast. I realize the pandemic creates challenges for capturing broll, but show us the realities of student life during the pandemic. What does it look like to work from home, fill out college paperwork, essays, etc. What do text exchanges look like between mentors and students? What do class environments look like in a remote environment? In a hybrid environment? What does GBN look like? We hardly ever see the school. Footage of the interview subjects going through their daily routines would also help. Again, the pandemic has its challenges but lean into them when creating broll. Just because you have to remain socially distant, it doesn't mean you cannot film compelling broll to support your story. Regarding Olivia's interview...watch her eyeline. She's looking up at her interviewer. The interviewer should always be at the same level as the subject. Having her look up makes her look slightly powerless. It's subtle, but the little details turn good into great. Overall good work!
- 3/10 3:08 pm - What a beautiful documentary on such an important topic in America today. I think it's very brave of you to tackle the topic like this at such a young age and I really do appreciate it. I realize making films during covid is difficult so I don't blame you for some of the footage in terms of Zoom interviews. I think all the people you had speaking on-screen added to the information in the story and I also I think that the story was clear.I'm glad you also include the information at the end as that is very important to this documentary of action.
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