Critical Reflection: Change Over

Change Over Reflection:

Change Over focuses on the effects of serving in the military such as PTSD and how the gym can help overcome issues that veterans go through due to being on the field. Throughout the documentary, Justin who is the interviewee speaks about his decision in joining the army and what was most impactful when he was on the field, and how he was off the field. 

When it comes to producing a documentary, the important factors that make it a documentary film are interviews. With interviews come questions, the right ones of course. The interview’s purpose was to progress and tell someone's story. The documentary transitioned from a conversation about what war and military life are like to what the transition into civilian life was like and what helped Justin overcome the hard times which in his case was the gym. We used indirect interviews because we wanted to go for a form of realism for this documentary. When it came to the interview we had to do a good amount of research. That includes research about veterans and how PTSD affects them when they're off the field, the number of suicides, and questions we could ask a veteran. For the research, I read various articles and a few documentaries. While viewing them I wrote down some questions I thought would have helped develop our theme and purpose more forward. 

We chose not to challenge any conventions in our documentary. You can say we decided to go the safe route and try to keep the documentary as straightforward as possible. Challenging conventions could put us at risk of losing track of our overall goal in the documentary. Which is something we could and should have done. 

Our interview questions were also decided on the social groups we wanted to represent in our doc. The social group we represent is veterans that served in the army. Not just veterans but families who have loved ones serving and those who in their own way relate to the gym as a place where they can express themselves and cope with personal things like PTSD. This brings me to my next point is the issues we are representing that aren't covered much in the media. We see what veterans go through after the time they served but there's little media coverage of what they do to cope with their transition. Justin who served in the U.S. military throughout this piece speaks about what he went through during and after the army, and what he experienced. Later on, he explains why the gyms helped him cope with the big transition he endeavored after leaving the military. 

Our goal with the representation is to show the viewers that these veterans must go through hard times but they find things that help them readjust to the life they had before. Justin also expresses how he sees the world so differently now that he came back from the field and how it impacted his perspective of life. 

Our content helps our audience be able to engage with this piece by inserting b-roll that not only is of Justin working out but also pictures of Justin in the field. We thought it was important to include what life was like for Justin before he departed from military life. It gives the audience a better understanding of how different life is when you're on the field rather than when you're back to living in your civilian life. The extra footage that we gathered from the internet of soldiers in action helped make the documentary more entertaining and including it, in the beginning, will help build up a story in a cause-and-effect manner. 

By the end of the project, there were a few more tweaks and adjustments we could have done to perfect it more. If it was making the purpose clearer, including credits, specific shots we could have filmed differently, and etc. Based on those imperfections we can only build up from there.