documentary process: pre-production

 pre production of pursuing passion:

finding the topic:

i feel like the hardest thing when it comes to these projects is finding a proper topic. something simple and achievable but also challenging. at first hannah and i were going to work separately but came together because we knew we could make something better together. i was discouraged because i didn't think our ideas were good enough and we were so focused on finding something that would stand out instead of going back to the basics. we had a few ideas that didn't end up working out so we stuck to what we know: dance. both hannah and i have danced for a great majority of our life and were both passionate about it. i thought it was the best thing to do since we could both putt our effort and time into something that actually interested us instead of straying to topics that we weren't as knowledgeable on. at first i thought about focusing on the nutcracker because this is that season of the year (but also because it has special meaning to me and i literally wrot emy college essay on how dancing it changed my view on life BUT anyways). we knew that all dance companies would be focusing our their dance productions right now in december and it could be perfect. this is where we started being unrealistic and i thought: ooo let's email miami city ballet and see if they can let us film.

lol they never answered.

after being unsure what to do, we landed on hannah's studio, a jewish community center that promotes cultural dancing as well as normal dance technique classes. 

narrowing it down:

something particularly interesting about dance is that it's often looked at as an inferior career path. i've always seen in school that liberal arts majors and career paths are seen as those that shouldn't be pursued because they're just hobbies and i'll never make enough money. my teachers and counselors have always pushed for stem careers because those are the ones where i'll be "most successful". while we were talking about dance, the conversation made it click.

THE conversation (or how i remember it):

hannah: ok but you know what's cool

vane: what

hannah: all the teachers have studied something before

vane: like before being dance teachers?

hannah: yeah like they studied law and dentistry. stuff like that you know

vane: wait that's cool

hannha: no yeah it is... should we like do our documentary on that

vane: like how they pursue dance

hannah: yeah..

*boom* documentary idea

okay yeah obviously we talked about it more butttt the main focus of this exaggerated version is that we found a way to make something simple: our passion for dance into something much more interesting.

adults leaving their career path behind to study what they love aka breaking societal norms aka pursuing passion.... ta daaa