Critical Reflection

 

For my documentary project, my team and I tackled the topic of walkable cities, talking about the benefits they bring and comparing them to unwalkable suburbia, more specifically we wanted to comment on the South Florida cities of Miami and Weston.

The main inspiration for this documentary and the one thing I did the most research on was Michael Moore’s many documentaries, but especially Roger & Me (1989) and Bowling For Columbine (2002). I’m a big fan of his documentary style, his dark edge always engages me thoroughly and I think it’s very effective for telling this type of documentary that is focused on larger issues in a society rather than some of the documentaries we viewed in class like Exit Through The Gift Shop and American Promise which had a focus on an individual level. We knew how relevant and at times polarizing the topic walkable cities was during the time we were making the documentary (the incredibly widely talked about NYC election that had just concluded before we began working on this documentary bringing this topic in particular to the frontlines) so we knew that there wasn’t a way of handling this topic without being a bit political, that's why recreating the style of a Michael Moore feature was so important to me in the making of this, from the narration that can be a bit drab and quiet, to the sarcastic dialogue that is far more biased than you might assume from the tone of the speaker.

One thing I believe we really failed at was at connecting with our audience with these issues we wanted to talk about. Yes we certainly commented on a lot that makes suburbia such a headache but we never really got to the root cause of its many many issues, plus we never really discussed the ways in which suburbia tries to make up for their lack of any real walkability. We originally wanted to comment on Weston’s Town Center which is an incredibly compact area that promotes walkability and community, filled with shops and services which has lead it to be incredibly popular in Weston, and we did actually film a lot of footage while we were there, there was even an event happening where a lot of people set up shops and made a little market area to sell their goods. The problem we ran into was that Alejandro, who was responsible for the script, wound up cutting out a big portion that delved into this aspect of the community. Were we to have added this it would have made the documentary far less biased and probably more informative. That's without even mentioning how we didn’t mention any downsides to living in a city, even if it’s walkable. I understand that documentaries are meant to show bias from the creatives behind it but I think we weren’t able to deliver on our themes to our audience very well and ended up just preaching over teaching.

Another overall issue we had is that the documentary lacked a sense of branding. While most of our peers were able to find a style that suited their documentary and made it stand out, ours felt kind of standard and average, which is a shame on account of how heavily Michael Moore inspired me as I said since his documentaries are filled to the brim with personality, originality, and life. We did have some elements to make some brand identity, for one I always knew I wanted our B-roll to look kind of empty and deserted, especially when filming the suburbs, both because I just like the way it looks, making the footage look cold and distant, reflecting that same aspect of the suburbs and how lonely they can be. This also worked because when we got to the city it was impossible to film without showing multiple buildings and people in a shot, adding to the whole community and walkability aspect of the video.

The conversation surrounding walkability in cities is pretty complex and there is a lot that our documentary didn’t really delve into. We never really went into the aspect of public vehicles and how they do a lot in helping cities be more accessible, even if they aren’t necessarily walkable, we got footage in a monorail in Miami but again that segment was cut out of our script, I ended up editing some of that footage into the final video but all that is shown is more implied than anything. We also didn’t really delve that deeply into the community aspect of the city, we got a lot of footage while getting our B-roll but it wound up going mostly unused. There was certainly a communication error between us, we weren’t able to get a lot of our ideas across and by the time we had the full script finished it was too late to make any changes and I just had to get to editing and finish it.

Overall there were a lot of things that I enjoyed about our documentary, in better hand some of that B-roll and that entire topic could have turned into a better documentary but I’m glad we got to delve into the topic, both because it is incredibly interesting to all of us but also because of how important it is to the world we’re currently living on. I’m sure a topic like this will still be considered relevant in the years to come and documentaries like mine will be seen more and more.

Documentary #4

 #4

    I was the one responsible for all of the editing behind the documentary, I was running out of time and had to edit the entire thing in less than a day which was stressful and forced me to cut a lot of corners, especially due to a lack of certain aspects that would have been necessary for this documentary to be good. For one, I asked Nina if she could get music for the video which she never got to, I later found out she had an emergency and couldn't get to it so I just used my usual pick for music when I don't know what to use, Claire De Lune by Claude Debussy, the song wasn't a great fit but it was good enough for my melancholy dialogue and blue and liminal looking footage.

    Another big problem I ran into was that Alejandro was still working on the script while I was editing so the whole video was essentially a train going at full speed while train tracks were being placed in front of it. It was a messy, problematic, and unfruitful production, and after the headache it was to get this video together I doubt that next time I'll do as I did here, I'll probably work with a different group and focus more on planning.

Documentary #3

#3

     Production for this project was all around pretty awkward. When we got to Miami to finally film we were pretty unprepared, all through out the car ride I got multiple shots of the street as we were driving, most of which wound up finding their way into the final film. When we actually got to Miami we mostly walked around and filmed anything visually interesting, the hardest part to deal with was that by then we didn't have a finished script and had to guess what we wanted to film. We also didn't have anyone to interview in Miami so by the end of the few hours we were up there the whole trip felt pretty aimless.

    The second trip to Weston wasn't helped either. In this second trip Alejandro and Nina could never fit the filming in their schedule at the same time so me and Nina wound up having to do it alone which didn't help our finished product as Alejandro wound up writing the script and cutting out any inclusion of Town Center and the time we spent there. Me and Nina also wanted to get our interviews there, we had a few questions planned but we couldn't get anyone there to agree to an interview, we went around to about 5 or so shops before we bit the bullet and decided to interview Nina as a last resort, this is really our fault for not having a real alternative for the city planners even though it was pretty reasonable to assume we would get at least 1 interview from any of the vendors. I guess not even Town Center can make that much community happen in the suburbs after all.

    The last interview we filmed for the interview was filmed by me over a face time call with my sister's room mate Anha. Anha was a pretty good get for the interview as she had experience living in both a city and a suburb that had a wider sense of community around it as she grew up in Pensacola for many years. Unfortunately I didn't send Alejandro this interview so we wound up not having any real spot to talk more about Pensacola and had to go mainly with Nina's experience growing up in a suburb.

Documentary #2

 #2

    The first thing we had planned for the documentary was getting an interview with South Florida city planners, specifically for Miami and Weston. Nina was the one in charge with emailing them and seeing if we can get a good interview but we sadly never heard back from them so we had to switch to an alternative.

    We knew we wanted to film in Miami first but we didn't really plan out too well what we were going to film which did end up being very inconvenient at the end of the shoot, same thing applies to when we filmed in Weston Town Center, although when the time did come to shoot we were lucky that Town Center was full of merchants selling goods, that really helped the whole community aspect of the whole thing.

    Our original outline was pretty good, we wound up focusing more on the suburbs than we expected but if anything that made it better to me.

    For our script, Alejandro was responsible for it, all I added was the opening paragraph and a little blurb at the end, ending the whole thing off with the title "A Walk In The Park"

Script: 

• (V.O.)  

INTRO: 

South Florida, the deepest part of the American Peninsula. From the humid swamps to the lively beaches, to the empty uninhabitable fields, to the Orlando mouse parks, to the lively city, and the quiet suburbs, South Florida is one of the most diverse and popular parts of the country. Many out-of-state tourists will flock to beloved beaches in Miami and experience the state’s large melting pot community. 

However, this is not the reality for many of us living in Florida. Some of us live in tightly compacted suburbs locked behind a gate, such as the master-planned Weston. Founded in 1996, Weston is any suburbanite dream home; it’s even filled to the brim with almost identical housing, so you can feel at home wherever you are! 

Now a big issue with the suburbus is the very sidewalk you walk on. In the suburbs anywhere from anywhere is too far away to walk, if you don’t have a car then you won’t get far. This issue is nonexistent in most cities where the infestructure focuses on keeping all places you might need to go to close together while the suburbs have planning more focused on keeeping you safe. 

Suburbs: 

But what does this kind of planning really breed? 

If the goal of the city is to bring people together, the goal of the modern suburb seems to be to keep them apart. Look around. We are surrounded by high walls, meticulously manicured hedges, and gates that separate us from the outside world, and from each other. Weston and countless suburbs like it are designed to be driven through, not walked. The streets are wide, the sidewalks are often empty, and the places you need to go, like the grocery store or a friend’s house, are just too far away. This is not a failure of will, it’s a failure of infrastructure. 

(B-ROLL: Slow, steady shots of wide, empty suburban streets) 

In this landscape, socialization isn't an accident; it has to be a planned event. You don't bump into your neighbor while grabbing coffee; you schedule a meeting at the community pool. The only truly shared space is the road, and that’s a place reserved for single-occupancy vehicles. Walkability isn't just about fitness; it's the invisible framework that enables community. 

City: 

The contrast is clear. Just a short drive away, the city itself functions as one massive, accidental social club. 

Look at places like Brickell City Centre in Miami. 

(B-ROLL: Fast-paced shots of crowded sidewalks in Brickell. Show the MetroRail, people eating outside at restaurants, and the "iconic photo angle" footage of tall buildings.) 

Here, density is an advantage. People live stacked on top of each other, sharing walls in apartments and condos. While this can lead to its own issues like overcrowding, noise, and traffic, it ensures one crucial thing: constant, unavoidable interaction. People HAVE to mingle. The proximity of essential commodities, from the bodega to the entertainment venue, means that hundreds of people are compressed into the same small geographic area every single day.  

The community is built right into the pavement. 

Toss to interview: (City) 

For people who grew up in this environment, this kind of spontaneous community is simply the norm. 

(A smooth transition into an interview clip, maybe with some dramatic classical music to kind of interrupt the serious nerd talk with something unexpected) 

We spoke with (NAME OF INTERVIEWEE 1), who grew up in a city environment where everything was just a walk away. 

(INTERVIEW CLIP 1: Start the interview. The interviewee talks about growing up in a city where facilities were walking distance.) 

Toss to interview 2: (Suburbs) 

So, what is the cost of the single-family home, the two-car garage, and the master-planned isolation? It’s not just inconvenience; it’s a fundamental difference in how we build a life. 

In the suburbs, the car is king. You cannot participate in the community, even the “perfectly” planned Weston, without it. 

(B-ROLL) 

The vast parking lots and multi-lane roads are the veins and arteries of the suburbs, connecting houses to the few commercial centers. They also act as insurmountable social dividers, physically separating us from our neighbors and forcing us to experience the world through a windshield. The city, on the other hand, prioritizes public and active transportation—the bus, the train, the bike, and your own two feet, all of which put you in direct, unfiltered contact with the public. 

To understand how drastically this changes the experience of growing up, we spoke to (NAME OF INTERVIEWEE 2), whose childhood required a car just to buy a snack. 

(INTERVIEW CLIP 2: Start the interview. The interviewee talks about growing up where facilities were NOT walking distance.) 

Conclusion: 

The difference isn't about better or worse people; it’s about better or worse city design. 

While the suburbs offer the undeniable advantage of personal space and less density, they trade this for social distance and required planning. The city, for all its chaos and crowding, forces people together, creating the kind of tightly knit community that relies on constant, unplanned collisions. 

It's difficult to create a truly integrated, diverse community when the infrastructure itself is designed to lock people in and keep the world out. The people living behind the gates of Weston are often friendly, but they are not a community in the way the city is. Their proximity is chosen, their interactions scheduled, and their connections require an engine and four wheels. 

(B-ROLL: maybe a slow, meditative shot contrasting an empty suburban street with a bustling, diverse city square.) 

The suburban dream promised peace and quiet. For many, it delivered on the quiet, perhaps too quiet. Some may still see the safety, beauty, and education of the suburbs as enough of a reason to claim them as their home, and if you do then I’d reccomend maybe going outside for a bit, experience the beauty of life, walk down the sidewalk not that you have an option. Wouldnt it be nice to be able to get to do it every day for a short period of time to get basically anywhere? It’d easy, as easy as a WALK IN THE PARK 

(FADE TO BLACK.)