‘Go Make a Difference’ – Lucille Marottolo’s Story
Skills: Visual Research, Preproduction, Photography, Videography, Video Editing, Visual Composition
Tools: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects
Timeline: December 2024
Overview
This story is about Lucille Marottolo, an employee and alumni if Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. She transferred to the school after not feeling like she was getting what she wanted out of her previous school. 37 years of employment and 3 degrees later, Lucille is still at QU and continues to love it.
I shot and edited this documentary to tell her story.
Preproduction
Due to the nature of documentary filmmaking, there is not much you can do in terms of scripting. The story tends to come together as you shoot it, therefore it is somewhat hard to plan for. That being said there are a number of aspects that I knew I could plan for.
One was using the knowledge I already have to plan questions for her interview. I want to make sure the questions I ask are leading her down the stories that I know she has. I want to elicit emotion and nostalgia out of her.
Another thing I can begin to plan for is what b-roll I may need. This will change as the story comes together through the shoot, but there are certain things I know I will need (i.e. Lucille’s office building, the Quinnipiac University quad, etc.)
Editing & Postproduction
The editing and postproduction process took some time to piece the story together in a manner that made sense and flowed well. Thanks to the planning I did ahead of time, I had plenty of stories and footage to go off of; I just needed to make it one.
In the end I came out with a comprehensive story of Lucille’s time at Quinnipiac University. After editing down the interview, I knew what extra b-roll I needed to fill in the gaps based on her anicdotes.
Conclusion
Documentaries can be difficult to create because you are somewhat working on the fly. However, there are a few key things that I learned in the process:
Plan wherever you can. This will make things so much easier when production takes a sudden turn.
Find the story as it unfolds. This will direct the way you shoot as production continues.
Post production is key to tying everything together. Don’t be afraid to cut out unnecessary fluff.