Mini-Documentary Proposal and Storyboard

(20 points)
Due In Sakai on 11/21 by 11:55 p.m; be prepared to discuss these items in class on
Tuesday, 11/22
Directions: Complete the following proposal and for your mini-documentary project (you
may type on a separate document, if you wish). To earn full points, these items should be
detailed and should reflect your careful thinking about your project.
Part 1: Proposal
GROUP MEMBERS:
Alexis Bazos
Amanda Ferraro
Kim Falcao
FOCUS/SUBJECT OF DOCUMENTARY:
We will be focusing on the community feel of residence halls at Notre Dame and how they are
better substitutes for sororities and fraternities. We will open with a larger sense of the family
feel of the University, and then quickly bring the focus to the Universitys emphasis on creating
tight nit dorms.
AUDIENCE & PURPOSE (in order to help _______ understand)
In order to help high school students who are going through the college application process to
understand the importance of a strong community in a college and that there are other
alternatives to greek life that can serve to enhance their college experience.
CONTEXT (This subject is important and compelling because; you should think
about both local AND global contexts here)
This subject is important and compelling because many high school students are not certain
what they are looking for in a college experience. Many students talk about greek life in both a
negative and positive context, but the presence of greek life is something that most, if not all,
high school students think about when choosing a college. Notre Dames absence of greek life
is unique and adds something special to the university. Many students discuss how the
residence life at Notre Dame has greatly impacted their well-being for the better.
KEY SOURCES/PLANNED TYPES OF EVIDENCE:
We will show how the dorms foster sisterhood/brotherhood type of relationships. We will also
show how each residence hall has a unique identity and how the community comes together to
partake in community service events, school spirit rallies, and inter-dorm competitions. In order
to convey this to our audience, we will want to include many interviews from students and hall
staff along with clips of dorm life in action. We might also choose to include quotes from
students who attend schools with greek life, which could further support our reasoning behind
promoting dorm communities over sororities and fraternities.

NAME/TITLE

Type of source?
News article?
Scholarly journal
article? Interview?
Other?

What does the source offer

your project? Background?
Statistics? Personal testimony?
Expert testimony? Definition?
Counterargument?

Residence hall staff

Interviews

This can offer prospective

students, and their parents insight
to residential life at Notre Dame.
The rectors and RAs have
experiences life in the residential
system for years, and may have
stories and insights that illustrate
the strong sense of community
that is special to Notre Dame.

The How of Happiness, Sonja

Lyubomirsky

Book

This source will offer our project a

background on the myths
surrounding happiness. Many
students applying to college have
myths about what will constitute
their happiness in college. This
excerpt can help us to develop a
context and discuss these myths
on happiness.

Happy

Film

The film Happy breaks apart

preconceived notions on
happiness and focuses on the
how happiness is rooted in
community. This relates to the
focus of our project, and how the
happiness of students at Notre
Dame is rooted in the inclusive
community that the residential life
offers.

Notre Dame students from

different residence halls (Dillon
boys after chem tutorial)

Interview

This will offer first hand

experiences on how the
residential life influences the
wellbeing of college students.
The experiences of the students
from different dorms can show
prospective students how the

community of the residential life at

Notre Dame replaces and adds to
what greek life has to offer.
College students from schools
with greek life

Interview

This will offer insight to the

experiences from students who
are at schools with greek life. We
will interview students who are
involved in sororities and
fraternities at these schools, and
those who are not in order to see
how the presence of greek life
influences their sense of
community.

Part 2: Primary Roles, Current Progress, and Timeline

Describe your groups plan for carrying out the production of the proposed project. Who
will be in charge of leading which tasks (e.g., filming, conducting interviews, research,
drafting the paper, editing, providing voiceover narration, checking out equipment, or
other tasks that will be necessary for completing the project by the deadline). What have
you done so far? What do you still need to do? How will you manage scheduling
constraints? Provide a timeline for completing the project.
We will be dividing the roles as equally as possible. We will each reach out to friends at
home in an effort to obtain some quotes about the sorority/fraternity life at their schools. Once
we are back on campus after break, we will film and conduct interviews together. Kim and
Alexis will create the script for the documentary, and Amanda will record the voiceover narration.
We will all take and compile video segments of residential life here at Notre Dame, and come
together to decide what fits best into our documentary. Our work will primarily be done on the
weekends, or at nights on weekdays, as our schedules during the day conflict quite a bit.
Timeline
Week of Break- gather quotes from non-Notre Dame students, get a flash drive, create script
and finalize people to interview, practice using WeVideo technology, come back to school
prepared to film
Monday November 28th 7:00 p.m.- meet to discuss plan of attack for interviews, go over script,
setup WeVideo project
Wednesday November 30th 7:00 p.m.- compile interviews to date, narration, and video clips
Thursday December 1st 8:00 p.m.- add more interviews, images, and work on transitions, begin
writing paper
Sunday December 4th- meet to make final edits, finish up process paper and submit for grading
Part 3: Storyboard

Please include a storyboard with this proposal (a storyboarding worksheet is provided in

Sakai, though you may choose to use a different template, if you wish). Be attuned in this
storyboard to what kinds of shots you need at each point of the project (long shots?
Close-ups? Panning shots? B-roll?), how much time you plan to devote to each frame,
and what other sound/text will be included with those scenes.

Ideas
-Show film from sororities/fraternities then show Notre Dame community (juxtaposition)- people
think greek life harbors community but show them what it really looks like at Notre Dame
-Focus on community service, inter-hall competitions, study groups (STEM)
-Explain how residential life is all inclusive in every aspect
Location

-Mostly Notre Dame campus (show classic ND sites in order to attract viewers)
-Some shots from sororities and fraternities
Possible People to Interview
-students who partake in community service with dorms
-students with dorm pride
-rectors, RAs
-students from universities with greek life