Our documentary is told from the point of view of the students from York Mills. We initially wanted to compare religion from the point of view of adults and students, however, we ended up finding the different religions apparent in York Mills. Our documentary looks at religion from the point of view of students from the many religions at York Mills. From Hindu to Agnosticism we looked at the values that are associated with each. We were curious to find out whether religion continued to play an important role in the lives of students in the 21st century.
2. Which documentary techniques are used most effectively in this film?
Our documentary was based on interviews and answers to to the questions that were asked of the interviewees. The answers, however, were spontaneous during the interview to observe the true life with little intervention. We added voice-overs, quotes and music to add to the intimacy and revelation of the characters in the ordinary life situation. We started brainstorming a completely different idea, however, with all the difficulties encountered, we turned to religion, a topic that we know a lot about, although we were curious to know from the point of view of other students. We didn't feel storyboards were needed so late in the game. We previously had all our footage for our previous documentary, it was just necessary to put all the shots together to make the documentary. However, because of the circumstances, we were forced to film new interviews. We kept up to date with all the production logs to ensure we remained organized and on time. We edited the film to allow a more of a personal feel. To get a real sense of what religion truly means to students at York Mills. We interviewed people from different religions to ensure that every aspect was touched upon. With the addition of music it allowed for a true feel of what religion is to York Mils students. We introduced every section with a title which allows the viewers to know what questions were asked. We also decided to add a quote to catch their attention. Once our group was finally established, our cooperation was impeccable. We were able to work great as a team of two to produce our documentary.
3. How does the style of the film serve the content?
The style of our film serves our content in a very direct way. Because we were looking at the point of view of religion from the eyes of a York Mills students, we had to ask direct and sometimes controversial questions. Looking at religion from the students we decided that we were just going to observe and have the answers the questions spontaneously, rather than imposing our view on the students. We were in search of the true point of view of religion and therefore, our content was excellently depicted by this type of film and not being prominently involved. Our commentary at the beginning and the end let the viewers become aware of what our overall goal was for our documentary.
4. Who is your favorite character in the film? Why? If this were turned into a feature film, who would you cast in this part and why?
Suraya, was our favorite character in our film. During our interview with Suraya, she was very opinionated which helped us become more aware of her view on religion. Although we were not able to use all her footage, she gave us a lot of very good information, as well as a lot of footage that could have been used in our documentary. If our film were turned into a feature film, the person we would cast in this part would be Julia Robert because she is also very opinionated on their points of view. She has yet to allow a controversial topic to stop her opinion from being told, and Suraya had that kind of feel to her interview. She said all she thought was appropriate to say and it gave us a very raw and personal interview.
