Documentary Project Reflection Essay

My documentary is on the Open or Closed Lunch policy at Blair High School and the reasons behind it. At first I was more interested in the petition to start school later, but I was still interested in the lunch policy as well because it also had a personal impact on my life. By the end of the project, I still found the topic interesting, although I think we have exhausted researching it. I think our group has explored the lunch policy to the fullest extent. I do not regret picking this topic since I learned a lot from Ms. Johnson as well as the security staff about the policy and why it is in place. I was grateful for the opportunity to pick our own groups because it allowed me to choose a topic I was willing and excited about spending my time on.

This project allowed me to speak with Ms. Johnson, who said that she is the first female principal of Blair, which is one of the biggest schools in the county, with 2,800 students enrolled and over 300 staff members. Ms. Johnson told our group in an interview that it is not her decision to have a closed lunch, and that she signed documents before she started working at Blair stating she will not allow students to leave campus during lunch. This is because the intersection at Colesville Road and University Boulevard is extremely dangerous. Drivers are not always aware of pedestrians, especially students, who are rushing across the road so they are not seen, and then again so they are not late to get back to class.

Our group found that getting B-roll was tricky because it was often shaky and therefore unusable because we were walking with the camera and not using a tri-pod. Also, our group planned to “sneak out” and go to four corners during lunch to see if the stores would serve us, but the vice principal did not allow us to go, even with the teachers’ and Ms. Johnson’s approval. This was frustrating because this excursion would have allowed us to film the restaurants implementation the policy of not serving students during lunch, or if they might disregard it and serve us anyway. This would have given us plenty of B-roll, but since we couldn’t go, we had to find other shots.

If I had the chance to create another documentary I would have set aside more time for filming B-roll, and had other options besides the “sneak out” which we were heavily relying on. As a teacher, I think that more built in time to film in class would have made the project go a lot smoother because we had separate lunch periods, so it was hard to find a time where everyone could film. Also, when we filmed during lunch, I was hard to import footage before the bell rang, especially since BNC uses the computers.

Overall, I learned a lot about both the lunch policy and filmmaking with this project and I enjoyed working with my group.My documentary is on the Open or Closed Lunch policy at Blair High School and the reasons behind it. At first I was more interested in the petition to start school later, but I was still interested in the lunch policy as well because it also had a personal impact on my life. By the end of the project, I still found the topic interesting, although I think we have exhausted researching it. I think our group has explored the lunch policy to the fullest extent. I do not regret picking this topic since I learned a lot from Ms. Johnson as well as the security staff about the policy and why it is in place. I was grateful for the opportunity to pick our own groups because it allowed me to choose a topic I was willing and excited about spending my time on.

This project allowed me to speak with Ms. Johnson, who said that she is the first female principal of Blair, which is one of the biggest schools in the county, with 2,800 students enrolled and over 300 staff members. Ms. Johnson told our group in an interview that it is not her decision to have a closed lunch, and that she signed documents before she started working at Blair stating she will not allow students to leave campus during lunch. This is because the intersection at Colesville Road and University Boulevard is extremely dangerous. Drivers are not always aware of pedestrians, especially students, who are rushing across the road so they are not seen, and then again so they are not late to get back to class.

Our group found that getting B-roll was tricky because it was often shaky and therefore unusable because we were walking with the camera and not using a tri-pod. Also, our group planned to “sneak out” and go to four corners during lunch to see if the stores would serve us, but the vice principal did not allow us to go, even with the teachers’ and Ms. Johnson’s approval. This was frustrating because this excursion would have allowed us to film the restaurants implementation the policy of not serving students during lunch, or if they might disregard it and serve us anyway. This would have given us plenty of B-roll, but since we couldn’t go, we had to find other shots.

If I had the chance to create another documentary I would have set aside more time for filming B-roll, and had other options besides the “sneak out” which we were heavily relying on. As a teacher, I think that more built in time to film in class would have made the project go a lot smoother because we had separate lunch periods, so it was hard to find a time where everyone could film. Also, when we filmed during lunch, I was hard to import footage before the bell rang, especially since BNC uses the computers.

Overall, I learned a lot about both the lunch policy and filmmaking with this project and I enjoyed working with my group.

I don't have the video on my computer right now, but when I do, I will put it up.