Now that all of the interviews have been transcribed, we are now focusing on finding individual sound bites and placing them in our story accordingly. We spent the class physically cutting out people’s quotes from their interviews and placing them on a poster board. For editing purposes, the documentary will be split into three acts. Each of these acts focuses on a specific aspect of the story that we discovered on the island. Although we have set ideas of what we want to show, we are prepared for the storyboard to change.

For example, it is important to touch on the science behind the eruptions, but while on our trip, we learned that science is not the only explanation for eruptions that local Hawaiians see. This is an important contrast that we found and hope to include. By the end of class, we had three poster boards filled with quotes cut out from all of our interviews. At the end of class, we were able to look at the footage that was given to us of eruptions, lava, fire, and destruction. One of our fellow students, Jason, is currently working on using these graphics for the introduction.

The process of building a documentary does not start and end on Tuesday’s. Everyone in our class takes on specific roles outside of the classroom. The steps it takes to make a documentary involves a team that is willing to separate the work accordingly. This includes helping with the promotion, editing, and even managing social media. Looking ahead, there are only three weeks of editing until our final product is complete. With our tight deadline, the anticipation is stressful, yet exciting.