Recovery is a story about how one thing that holds so much meaning can change in seconds. The way that a somewhat insignificant object holds so much value seems crazy to some even though they have it too. This documentary follows Alex in his discovery of his seemingly 'insignificant' object losing all meaning.
This documentary was a bit of trouble to film especially with the constant back and forths between ideas. When we finally landed on a solid idea we only had so much time left, so we needed to use different techniques to keep the story interesting and engaging to the audience. Our main model for the documentary was the production Exit Through The Gift Shop, which followed a man and his passion for street art. Basically throwing himself into the culture, and people, and gets involved with the actual art. We really liked how the documentary was created making a broad topic and narrowing it down into a controlled focus. At the start of the project, we had wanted to have multiple people interviewed making it so the viewer has more content to consume, but once we started filming we ran into an unexpected miracle. One of our interviewees, Alex, had an SD card that he'd keep on his desk as motivation to keep on creating because you never know when your file will be corrupted. We felt like this could become the main focus of the documentary and totally scrapped the other idea, which in retrospect probably wasn't the best idea. We lost track of our original plan and changed the course of the whole project, making it a little less effective than if we were to combine the two and change ideas mid-way through the documentary by showing Alex's reaction to the recovered SD card.
The main goal was to capture the attention of young, aspiring media creators that understand how big of a deal this whole situation was. Making them appreciate their artwork more and giving them the idea that although things change, it might be for the better. The way we grabbed our audience is by catering to a much more relaxed, easy-to-grasp, and familiar choice in style. We wanted our audience to relate to the topic and the subjects within the production creating a connection between the viewer and the documentary. We took into account the setting, the angles, and even the way the interviewee talks into consideration. We wanted natural, genuine responses to our questions to make the audience feel like they'd known the interviewee for a while. Getting Alex's reaction to the corrupted files loading and not being corrupted anymore was a miracle, to say the least. This emotional moment allows for relatability in the eyes of the viewer.
Making Recovery was like going on a rollercoaster blindfolded, we really didn't know what was going to happen. The overall piece was produced off of risks that ultimately paid off in the end. The planning, filming, and editing were all very unexpected and didn't come out how we initially planned for them to, but the end product was a success, to say the least. This whole project was in new territory and something I'd never done before. I am glad I got to experience this whole process and with the newfound understanding of how this works with the critiques received I believe my next one will come out more focused, and not based off of miracles.
