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:
John McCarthy
Guillermo Cabrera
Iris Garcia
Nick Oddo

FOCUS/SUBJECT OF DOCUMENTARY:
The idea Notre Dame contributes in a significant way to the segregation of student-athletes in
school in a way that they are seen as different. Probably many of us think that the own
athletes are the ones that treat themselves as different and they they segregate from the rest
by their own means but in reality there are a lot of actions done by the school that contributes or
even opens the path for this segregation to occur. The school's actions taken with studentathletes make the non-student athletes get a different perspective of them which really at the
end creates a potential gap or the feeling of remorse when there really should be none.

AUDIENCE & PURPOSE (in order to help _______ understand):

The purpose is to bring to mind some of the difficult things that athletes have to put up with
during their Notre Dame Experience and how that affects their happiness. This includes but is
not limited to: social stereotypes, social groups, study halls, time management, practicing, and
required events. The goal is to bring these things to mind in order to help other students
appreciate their fellow athletes, and what they have to go through on a day to day basis.
Additionally, we want to build awareness about the fact that the own school helps with the
segregation of student-athletes and make other students realize as well that student-athletes
are many times segregated not by their own means or choices, but because of certain
guidelines the school expects them to complete. That is important since we many times are
blinded to what are really the reasons behind certain approaches. The audience as mentioned
are general students that may not be aware of what is really a student-athlete's daily life. The
audience also branches out to prospective athletes and students. However, the most important
audience will be the Notre Dame administration due to their influence on these athletes lives.

CONTEXT (This subject is important and compelling because; you should think
about both local AND global contexts here):
This topic is important in our context due to the fact that almost of the school's
undergraduates students are athletes. That makes up for a big portion of our community. Lots of
stereotypes have formed about how athletes are treated in college and how they are different
than all the rest of the students when many times the reality says that athletes do not like being
treated as the difference, but it is the school that allows that separation to happen. I think that
if we want to live in a healthy community, everyone has to be treated the same way no matter
what other responsibilities some of the students have. With an athlete being in our group, it is
interesting how he has to deal with a lot of things that the rest of the group members didnt have
clue about and probably it is the same case with the rest of the non athletes here at Notre
Dame. I think it is important to let everyone know and be aware of the different aspects that
being an athlete demands from each one and maybe that way the big gap of how people look
at student-athletes can shrink. I think globally this is something that occurs in many colleges
around the US so the topic will probably address an issue or trend that occurs mostly around
the US as well.

KEY SOURCES/PLANNED TYPES OF EVIDENCE:

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?

Guillermo Cabrera

Interview

Personal testimony of student

athlete backing up claim

The Rhetoric of the Frame Judith Lancioni

Scholarly Article

Background information on
techniques for taking appropriate
shots

Nick Cullen

Interview

Personal testimony of student

athlete backing up claim

Connor Brown

Interview

Personal testimony of student

athlete backing up claim

External and Internal Factors

Scholarly Journal
Influencing Happiness
Article
in Elite Collegiate Athletes
http://link.springer.com/article/10.

A study on the factors that lead to

happiness among collegiate
athletes

1007/s10578-008-0111-z

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.
Tasks:
What we have done so far is organize most of what our documentary will look like. We have
established all the specific shots we are going to take and the purpose behind each one. Our
documentary will be composed by some interviews and some long panning and action shots.
There will be an narrator who adds context to the scenes and interviews as well as being the
voice behind the camera asking the questions during the interviews. Guillermo will be part of
one of the interviews as well as Nick and Connor. All of the athletes will be part of action shots
at the beginning of the documentary as well.
We plan to finish recording everything by next Thursday (December 1st). As we practically know
how our documentary will look like, the filming part should not be that troublesome. The
interviews will be conducted by either member of our group while the action shots will include all
of us. We have established Tuesday November 29th as a day to get all together to record the
dense part of our documentary.
Nick will check out some recording equipment and organize interviews, John will be the voice
behind the interviewer, Iris will do the bulk of the editing, and Guillermo will be interviewed be in
several of the athletic shots.
Timeline:
Tuesday 22nd: Establish and define the total number of interviews and shots we are going to
include. Discuss renting of equipment and the capability of filming with an iPhone. Ask about the
possibility of a removed interviewer.
Thanksgiving weekend: Work on interview questions, Guillermo can take a shot of himself
back home meeting again with his family
Monday 28th: Shoot interviews with each student athlete; interview students on stereotypes of
Tuesday 29th: Shoot long shots of Guillermo practicing, Nick Cullen (or possible other soccer
player) practicing, and Connor Brown (or possible other swimmer) swimming.
Wednesday 30th: Shots of student-athletes getting into study hall, walking to practice looking
at schedule over Fall Break (cant go home, need to practice). Work on transitions between
interviews.
Thursday 1st: Finish shooting what we need.
Friday 2nd - Sunday: Edit and make video look awesome, include appropriate music.

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.

Interview to Guillermo
Shot of athlete getting up really early to practice
Shot of someone going into study hall really tired after practice
Practice on weekends and cant go out
Interview another athlete
Guillermo practicing
Walking to practice so far away
Missing school and catching up
Dining hall for athletes
Needing to stay on campus on Fall break
Interview Questions:
Non-athlete interview

What are your general thoughts about student athletes?

What are stereotypes that you hear or believe about student athletes?
What jokes have you heard about athletes?
Do you know any athletes that fulfill these stereotypes?
Do you know any athletes that do not support these stereotypes?
Is it different for guys and girls?
Athletes
What are some of the stereotypes that you have to deal with?
How accurate do you find some of these stereotypes?
How do you balance your time between school and sport?
*****How would your life be different if you werent an athlete?
Describe your typical day.
How do your responsibilities as a part of the Notre Dame community differ because you are an
athlete for the University?
Is it worse for guys or girls?
Breaking stereotypes
How do you do academically?
Is there truth to the stereotypes?
How would you like to be perceived by other students

Guillermos ideas
You get to register first so you get easier classes--- but also because of scheduled practices
I pay for you to get gear
Professors are nice to you because you are an athlete
You get good grades because you are an athlete
Notes from Professor
Focus on stereotypes
What assumptions have people made that were not accurate and show its complexity
Attention on football or negative cases
Academics

Goal: make the audience be more conscious of stereotypes and how they affect

Be able to get the audience to have a different perspective by the end of the documentary, to
make them think a different way