Looking back at what I thought I was going to be making when I signed up for this studio, I can say that this final film looks very different. It has definitey been redefined by the restrictions of COVID-19, and the welcomed input from Victoria. I had been envisioning a desktop-documentary from the very start, and I’m glad that we slowly moved away from that to create something more cinematic and resourceful. The restrictions from COVID-19 didn’t seem to faze me, as we were pushed to find new ways of gathering and generating content – skills that I think will be great to have practied for future projects.

I think we were given the answer to the prompt: How can we make documentary which engages in new ways of representing and experiencing the environment?  when the restrictions were put in place, because we were forced to engage with different ways of representing the environment through limited media. Our film would have looked very different if we were able to go to stores, production facilities, and talk to people face to face. Because of the restrictions, we were forced to look at what we could use at home, from the internet, and through the affordances of text on screen. We didn’t represent the environment through landscape shots or in-person filming. We took on more materialist approaches like maps and iconography (water cut out of textiles, for example), to communicate things happening around the world. I liked playing with this experimental style as it made me think outside of the box, and disconnect from some traditional documentary tropes that I would otherwise fall back on. I have to thank Victoria for our constant refining of ideas that helped us navigate these constraints. There were some real revelatory moments where we were able to be super creative, just by conversing and reflecting on different ways of using the media we had available to us.

This project made me think more critically about how voiceover and visuals can pair together to tell a story, and how important it is to think about this balance from an audience’s point of view.

If I were to continue working on our film, I would probably elaborate on… everything. How cotton is one of the most toxic products in the world, how much clothing goes to landfill each year as a result of mass production, issues regarding trade and living wages. How brands aren’t transparent enough and there are few things that hold brands accountable for their un/ethical practices. Basically, this topic is very interesting and I don’t think a 5 minute film does it justice! Our film is only the tip of the icerberg. I would love to continue exploring this outside of my studies – in film or through other mediums.