Critical Reflection - In Action

 December 12, 2025

Critical Reflection

In Action is a documentary about the class and club Latinos in Action. The class and club Latinos in Action are the subject of the documentary In Action. Since I am an officer for that club, working on this project felt very personal. We wanted to demonstrate the work that Latinos in Action does. We wanted to show the LIA students as leaders, mentors, and individuals who care about their community and culture, rather than depending on stereotypes that are often used in the media. The documentary demonstrates how the club impacts the community through interviews with students, parents, and LIA teachers. This includes the students in the class as well as the people they help in the club.

Although the documentary mostly highlights Latinos in Action's positive impacts, it also addresses a significant problem the program is currently dealing with. The school board decided to shut down the program due to the chance of losing federal funding after the U.S. Department of Education ordered Broward County Public Schools to stop it, claiming it violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. We chose to spend the majority of our five-minute documentary showing its importance of the program before discussing the shutdown. The purpose of ending it this way was to make the audience aware of what might be lost if Latinos in Action is shut down.

Club members are not the only target audience for the documentary. Regardless of prior knowledge, it is intended for anyone who wants to learn more about the impact of Latinos in Action. We conducted interviews with people so they could share their experiences in the class in order to make the documentary feel more relatable. The LIA teacher's initial explanation of the class's purpose helps set the scene, even though student interviews offer a more intimate connection with the audience.

Research played a big role in how we told the story. We learned that there is no one "right" method to construct a documentary by watching films like Abstract: The Art of Design and American Promise. This helped us feel more confident using interviews as the main way to tell the story rather than relying on narration. Research also changed our original plans. We initially wanted to film tutoring sessions at an elementary school, but getting permission to record the kids was too complicated and would have taken too long. Instead, we adjusted our approach and used event footage and B-roll from Latinos in Action activities, which still supported the story and followed documentary conventions. 

Overall, In Action focuses on why Latinos in Action matters. It shows the impact the club has on others. Even though there are things we could have expanded on with more time, the documentary successfully communicates the impact of the program and why losing it would affect more than just the students in the class.

Post Production - In Action

December 11, 2025

Editingg...

We finished filming the day before we started editing by getting B-roll from an LIA social. We filmed students writing on turkey hands about what they were grateful for. The filming went smoothly, and it was actually really fun to record. That footage worked really well in the documentary and helped add more visuals to the story.

Charlee and I did most of the editing for the documentary. We ended up making almost two different versions, then combined parts from both to create the final one (It was pretty entertaining). It was honestly pretty stressful because I had work and she was also really busy, but we still tried our best and made it work with the circumstances we were in.

While editing, I went through videos I had saved in my camera roll and focused on placing different clips together. We FaceTimed while editing and worked together the entire time, which helped us stay on the same page and make decisions faster.

Production- In Action

 December 10, 2025

Film daysss!!

We had a couple of production days for our documentary. We first started with the student interviews during class. We went to the LIA room and picked out six students to interview. We had them step outside and asked them a few questions, and honestly, it was really entertaining to do. We had to set up the camera first and then start filming, and for a few interviews, we did two takes just in case. After that, we filmed some B-roll of the class while the students were working.

Our next filming day was in the morning when we interviewed Mrs. Rodriguez, the LIA teacher.!!!!!The interview went really smoothly (thank godddd). We set everything up first and chose the background, which ended up being the large LIA banner. The background worked perfectly and made the interview look more professional.

Mrs. Rodriguezzzz^^^^^^^^^

We also stayed after school a few times to get more B-roll. We stayed for a general meeting and got some footage. It was not the best, so we did not end up using much of it. The shots were too zoomed out, and we felt a little awkward filming people too close. However, we also stayed for a guest speaker, Catalina Fortich, and we were able to get really good footage. We mic’d her so the audio was clear, and we recorded her entire presentation, using clips from it in the documentary.

Research and Planning (Documentary)

December 9, 2025

IN ACTION!!

Me and my team, Fabiana, Lauren, and Charlee, decided to do our documentary about the club Latinos in Action. At first, we wanted to do a documentary about kid influencers, but we realized that Latinos in Action would be a better and more achievable idea for the short amount of time we had. We wanted to choose a topic that was realistic to film and also meaningful, which is why LIA felt like the perfect choice.

Once we decided on our topic, we started planning who we wanted to interview. We used the notes we took in class to help us figure out who the best people to interview would be so that the story could be told clearly. Our first choice was Mrs. Rodriguez because she is the teacher of the class and the sponsor of the club. I talked to her in class, and she agreed to be interviewed on a set date.

At the same time, we were also working on planning our storyboard, which was interesting but definitely challenging. Trying to schedule interviews while also figuring out how the documentary would flow visually made us think ahead and stay organized. Even though it felt like a lot to juggle at once, it helped us get a clearer idea of what we wanted the documentary to look like and how we wanted to tell the story of Latinos in Action.

research

 December 8, 2025

Researchhhhh! 

Hey guys, in class we watched a few documentaries and talked about how they were filmed and edited. We watched Abstract: The Art of Design and American Promise, which were very different from each other. We also watched one at home and analyzed it. It was interesting to see how documentaries can tell stories in different ways.

ABSTRACTTTT

the art of design

In class, we watched a few different documentaries, such as American Promise and Abstract: The Art of Design, both of which were completely different types of documentaries. I really liked it because of how creative and visually interesting it was, showing the design process behind things we see every day. We watched one episode in class and one of our choice at home. Abstract felt more artistic and creative than American Promise, which was more story-driven and emotional. That shows how the documentaries are made in very different ways (in a good way, of course).

AMERICAN PROMISE

American Promise is a documentary that follows two Black boys, Idris and Seun, as they grow up attending a mostly white, elite private school in New York City. The documentary follows them and their families over several years and shows how they deal with challenges with race, school pressure, and much more. 

These two documentaries helped us prepare for filming our own documentary. Since they had very different styles, they gave us ideas for how to position the camera, film interviews, and capture moments in a more raw and real way. Watching both showed us that there is no single right style and that documentaries can look different while still feeling meaningful and authentic.

Links

 

Film Opening Link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gbgmee9dVc3-aIHddiGrMplYrMH035Pr/view

CCR1 Link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XFQfPzHgrTL6rH-bER0ibDX-AwFjK_lm/view?usp=sharing

CCR2 Link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CU4ITNpERu396r7WNxTJc3diqCFsl21K/view?usp=sharing

Final Reflection

 March 23, 2025

My Final Thoughtsss

This project has been such a fun and valuable experience. I have learned SO much from planning and problem-solving to editing and everything in between. It was way more time-consuming than I expected, but in the end, I am really proud of what my group and I created.

Of course, it was not always easy. One of the biggest challenges was the bathroom scene. We had to refilm it OVER and OVER and OVER again, which got frustrating, but it also taught me that sometimes you just have to be patient and keep trying. The whole process was a mix of fun and stress, and we had to push through a lot, especially when it came to editing.

Thankfully, Christian helped us figure out Adobe Premiere, which made things a lot easier. Editing took way longer than we thought. Since we planned everything so carefully, we assumed we would be done super fast, but that was not the case at all. Planning took a whole month because we had to do research, watch other films, and make sure we actually knew what we were doing before filming. Then filming itself took longer than expected, especially with all the refilming. At first, we could not figure out why the bathroom scene clips were so overexposed. Later, we realized the camera settings were wrong, but once we fixed it, the shots turned out great.

We spent hours editing, whether it was at my community clubhouse or at home. None of us had much experience with editing before, so we had to learn everything from scratch. It took a ton of time and patience, but in the end, we picked up so many new skills. Even though the whole process was long and sometimes exhausting, we honestly had a great time. Not only did we create something we are proud of, but we also built a stronger friendship along the way. We spent so many hours together, and in between all the stress, there were a lot of laughs and memories. It is kind of funny how that ended up reflecting what our film is about.

Looking back, I would not change anything. This project challenged us in so many ways, but it also gave us something we can look at and say, “We did that.” It was stressful, fun, frustrating, and exciting all at the same time!