Docu-series Research

 I believe that the process of researching what our group would plan to produce for a docuseries in its entirety would help us create the best documentary for the UM Sunsations. My group members agreed in a meeting we had and after discussing in our group chat.  We all came to the conclusion if we choose a good layout for the overall series and make our decisions equally as important, then the success of the production we actually will create will have a more professional and clean appeal. When choosing the different schools for the college dance team we will be focusing on we had an order and reason to each of our choices. We all agreed on including the top 3 dance schools in Florida, the University of Miami (our doc choice) as well as the University of Florida and Florida State University. 

     We thought harder about the other 3 schools we chose because we wanted it to have meaning and purpose to it.  My group member Jennifer educated me a bit more of what she knows about competitive dance in college and those that she believed would be a beneficial choice. We wanted to choose one that was popular enough that would catch the eyes of our target audience as well as good enough to help us compose a strong piece. When discussing the Power 5 conferences in our meeting we all looked over an article that I found to give us the media's perspective on the best college dance teams. After discussions and research on the Dance spirit article we learned that there are so many amazing teams to choose. Considering the fact that my group members all to a certain extent fit the target audience of this piece, we decided to come to an agreement on what schools we would be interested in watching ourselves. This really enhanced our point of view on what we thought would be the best other teams.

It was important to find a reputable and well known source from within the dance world to help us pick our docu-series episodes. We concluded that the teams we wanted to included more than the others were  Arizona State, the University of Minnesota, and Penn State University. This process really made me understand the importance of research. I learned that this dance source was one that included valid and accurate information about the dance world and upon more digging on their website I learned more about dance in college and competitive dance. This research helped me gain more of an interest and passion that I didn't really have going into this project. I am excited to learn more and stay focused on the goals I have with this production 

Here is the link↓↓↓

Best College Dance Teams in the Nation

The Docu-series Episodes

 My group and I came to a mutual agreement on the structure and episodes for our project. In order to do this we incorporated some research to influence our decision making.  The first thing we did is check various streaming services to see different docuseries related to our topic. On the services Netflix and Disney+ we payed attention to the amount of episodes and the titles they used within the series. One of the examples we looked at was On Pointe, it related to the topic of dance and was found on Disney + with a total of 6 episodes. Another show called We Speak Dance found on Netflix had 5 episodes. We noticed that the docuseries did not have a lot of episodes but just enough. We continued to research some more college sport related shows and here is what we discovered: Cheer on Netflix has 6 episodes and Last Chance U had nearly 8 episodes in each season. Most of the examples we looked at were in the range of 5-8 episodes. In conclusion, this helped our group make our decision on our structure; we wanted to have a similar balance as some of the examples we described, but we also wanted it to be different in our own way. We chose to focus on a different college dance team in every episode within our dance themed docuseries. We thought this approach would be an engaging way to entertain and inform our audience about what dancers in college and what their experience is like. Down below I listed the college dance teams we researched and chose as the best fit for our production. 

S1E1 University of Miami Sunsations 

S1E2 University of Florida Dazzlers 

S1E3 Florida State Golden Girls

S1E4 Arizona State Sundevils Dance Team

S1E5 University of Minnesota Dance Team

S1E6 Penn State Lionettes 

Plan A is back!!!

 My group member notified us that we received a response of approval from the University of Miami Sunsation Coach. This was amazing news for us because we are able to continue with our original documentary idea. There was a slight delay in our planning process on this concept because we were still unsure if the dancers would be approved for interviews. Now that the wait is up I am excited to carry through with our documentary on the Sunsations dance team and begin a more focused production planning process! This shows that in the film and media world, sometimes getting approval and connections to make your ideas come to life is sometimes not that simple. It is important to notify whoever you may want to work with in advanced to make sure there is enough time to accomplish your goals. In this case my group and I made sure to have a backup plan in case things didn't fall into place as we hoped. Luckily for us we established an idea to work with a local college team, and the outcome was in our favor. I am eager to continue to research and plan and establish set dates for filming, I am hoping for more meetings and progress for next week!

Docu-series Example

 Deaf U - Television Series

     I watched this docu-series on Netflix that helped me understand what our process will be similar to. Although it was unrelated to dance, I think it was unique to see the perspective of college students and I got ideas from their interviewing approach. I really think this example was beneficial to watch because of the similar target audience, and how the main subjects were young students as well. 

    This show is a docu-series that included a cast of Deaf-American college students that attend Gallaudet University. This show revolves around the reality of these students' lifestyles and what obstacles they go through, as well as what goes on in their daily life as a young Deaf adult. This show highlights the Deaf community in a light that is typically not seen in the media world especially in film and television considering that they are underrepresented. The writer of this show Sarah Novic stated in a tweet, “d/Deaf people are so marginalized and starved for mainstream representation that we have to pin all our hopes and needs on this one (or any single) series...if Deaf people were routinely, authentically represented (especially including BIPOC and LGBT intersections) outside the fetish zone, could the problem be fixed.” 

    This demonstrates the genuine goal of Deaf U, in which is to create this representation of Deaf students in a raw and authentic manner as well as incorporating people of diverse races and sexual orientations which is not strongly represented in films. Even though there is so much beauty in the way that Deaf people are presented, there is still some controversy. The series received some backlash because the Deaf community does not want people to watch this and assume that the situations these college kids go through happens to all d/Deaf people. Although this occurred the writers and producers feel that  “Deaf U” demonstrates eloquently that there is in fact no right way to be deaf. Deaf actress Shoshannah Stern tweeted: “The triumph of ‘Deaf U’ is in its ability to show that deaf people make the same mistakes that hearing people make — and, more importantly, have been allowed to make.” 

     

Research

I have been using this time to find inspiration for our dance documentary. I found a list of some popular dance documentaries that can be found on various streaming services, all of the doc’s goal is to step into the dance world which is something our group is aiming to achieve in our production. Here is a list of the documentaries based on playbill:

Alive and Kicking

Swing is the name of the game in this energetic film, which explores the artform from its historic origins to its cultural impact in the 21st century.

Ballerina

Follow five Russian ballerinas from the Vaganova Academy and the Mariinsky Theatre in Bertrand Normand's documentary, narrated by Diane Baker.

Ballet 422

Choreographer Justin Peck highlights the journey from a new ballet’s initial concept to its world premiere. Set against the backdrop of New York City Ballet, the Jody Lee Lipes-directed documentary also features Tiler Peck and Cameron Grant.

Black Ballerina

Frances McElroy's 2016 film tells the stories of Black ballerinas over various generations who have navigated racism, exclusion, and disadvantages in an industry largely comprised of white artists.

First Position

The Youth America Grand Prix, one of the world's most prestigious ballet competitions, is the focal point in this documentary from Bess Kargman that follows six young dancers as they compete for jobs and scholarships.

Getting to the Nutcracker

Go behind-the-scenes—from auditions to the final performance—as the Marat Daukayev School of Ballet prepares to put on one of the world’s most popular holiday traditions. Directed by Serene Meshel-Dillman.

Mad Hot Ballroom

Go inside the world of youth ballroom competitions in this documentary following the 5th grade students at several public schools in NYC as they learn to tango, foxtrot, and more. Marilyn Agrelo directs with Amy Sewell serving as writer.

Rebels on Pointe

A ballet documentary with a twist: learn more about Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the drag dance company that has garnered a cult following since its founding over 40 years ago on the heels of the Stonewall riot.

RIZE

David LaChapelle’s documentary debut follows the subculture scene of clowning and krumping. Filmed at several competitions in Los Angeles’ South Central district, and featuring interviews with the originators of the form, RIZE examines how a disadvantaged neighborhood can protect its own through dance.

Shake the Dust

Rapper Nasir "Nas" Jones and journalist Adam Sjöberg join forces to break down break dancing in various underserved communities around the world.

STEP 

A group of steppers at a Baltimore high school use the form as a way to create new opportunities for their future and heal from social injustice in America today. More than a dance documentary, Amanda Lipitz’s film is one of young women on the brink of change and a group of teenagers supporting each other.

Group meeting for Plan B

We were put into a Microsoft teams breakout room to discuss plans for our documentary, we took advantage of this time and we spent an hour sharing our ideas. Today my group and I officially decided that by this week if we receive no response back from the Sunsations, we will need to begin the production process for our plan B. My group members are extremely passionate about the topic of dance and they feel that our project will be the most successful if we carry out the project with a production on the topic of dance. I feel that this is something that will be interesting, engaging, and will be a great topic for a documentary. My group members Janey and Jennifer made a production based on the topic of dance earlier in the year, and they want to make an even better piece for our final project. Their previous documentary was about how a dance studio was affected by corona and how the dancers adapted to the new learning method. When discussing the approaches for a possible plan B, we all understood that the concept should be interesting but different than the other dance piece they made. We all decided on the idea that we can create a piece that focuses on dancers in college. Another idea we touched on that was different was showing the audience what dance competition is really like. This topic could be very engaging because we are able to display how the process actually works. This can be interesting for other people who are not in the dance world that have only seen the depiction of what competition is like through the show Dance Moms. Another element of our project that our group talked about is the different people that we will potentially be interviewing.

Target Audience

It is important to figure out what target audience the production is aiming at in order to know what film decisions to make that would appeal most to the desired audience. It is also important to know this from the beginning of the production process because it will help guide and insure that the piece is filling its maximum potential. For dance documentaries it combines two things that commonly appeal to a younger audience. One of which is that documentaries are growing in popularity and streamed on various platforms that appeal to younger generations. Also dance is popular amongst individuals from the ages of 12-19. According to a study done in 2018 it stated that due to popularity increase in documentaries and docuseries. 68% more people would watch one compared to three years ago. While researching a lot in regards to the target audience my group and I decided that our production will target the age group of pre-teens to young twenties. This target audience will also include anyone interested in dance.