Stratford's Chocolate Trail
Documentary, 2021
A short documentary about Stratford's intriguing and fun chocolate trail and its impact on local businesses.
Production Team
Directed by Chris Kalil
Edited by Davis Bray
Animations by Jacquelyn Yu and Carine Ho
Written by Carine Ho and Jacquelyn Yu
Narrated by Carine Ho
Music by Chris Kalil
Filmed by Chris Kalil, Carine Ho, Davis Bray, and Jacquelyn Yu
Skills
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Videography
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Interview Preparation
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Documentary Scripting
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Animation
Tools
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Adobe After Effects
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Google Docs
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Canon SLR Camera
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Zoom H5 Recorder
Creation Process
Planning
This was made as a final project for a university course on film production. Our team heard about Stratford's Chocolate Trail and decided that it sounded like an interesting and fun topic to explore and show.
We started by doing some research about the Chocolate Trail and its history and planning the visual and thematic approach for this documentary. We decided on a fun, lively, vlog-style documentary to capture the adventurous and fun aspect of the Chocolate Trail with interviews focused on building a sense of community and locality.
Interviews and Preparation
To show off the variety of products on the Chocolate Trail, we decided to focus on three distinct but popular trail stops: Rheo Thompson for their mint smoothie chocolates, the Livery Yard for their mochas, and Junction 56 for their mint smoothie liquor. We decided to interview Destination Stratford as the tourism office that established and organizes the Chocolate Trail to understand where the idea came from and the general history of the Chocolate Trail.
After we reached out to each company and received confirmations, we scheduled interview dates for each one and prepared interview questions and a shot list in addition to model release forms to collect legal consent for filming and publication. Interview questions included background questions about the company's history and focused questions about how the Chocolate Trail in specific affects their business.
On the day of each interview, we brought equipment including 2 Canon cameras, two tripods, a Ronin gimbal, a flexible phone tripod, a Zoom H6 audio recorder, and two wireless microphones. We talked the main interviewee (the company owner) and any additional staff through our planning shooting schedule and ideas, discussing with them the best method for executing them, and made sure they were alright with the types of questions we were going to ask and the shot list. This initial communication and clarification made the filming process much smoother and helped us work effectively with the company kindly hosting us. Everyone we worked with and interviewed were very welcoming and offered great content and ideas to use.
Collecting B-roll
Beyond the interviews and clips of the foremost businesses, we wanted to give other Chocolate Trail stops some showing as well. This was another way for us to show the extensive network of businesses connected by the Chocolate Trail and their unique products. We spent numerous additional days carrying equipment around Stratford and essentially completed the Chocolate Trail twice over so we could film interactions with as many businesses as possible. We were also given access to additional footage from Rheo Thompson of the kitchen to use, since we couldn't bring equipment in there to film ourselves. The owners we met were incredibly kind and happy to help us as well, making the experience worthwhile even though we, unfortunately, couldn't fit all of them into the final documentary due to time constraints.
Scriptwriting and Narration
Because this was an interview heavy documentary, and we wanted it to be as authentic as possible, we had a bare-bone script to guide us in filming and editing. As we were collecting our A-roll and B-roll, we were combing through all of our collected footage to continually update the overall narrative arc that we wanted to make. For this reason, some of the narrations were written ahead of time, such as the opening introduction, but other parts like the voice-overs were written after certain interviews were conducted. While it was harder at the end to determine which segments and clips were important to focus on, I think gave the overall documentary a more authentic and genuine presentation.
Editing, Animation, and Feedback
This documentary went through numerous drafts and feedback cycles. Some of the first drafts lacked the vlog-like style that we originally wanted. Our team went back and forth for some time to reach the vision we collectively wanted. I think this was due to a lack of communication when it came to editing style and expectation since the video editing was done primarily by one person, and maybe our original visual concepts were not clear when we first decided on them. Similarly, the animations were made by another team member separately from the raw footage editing. It also required some feedback cycles so everyone in the team could make input and build on ideas. As such, feedback cycles were very useful as a tool for our team to iterate and discuss ideas for the final video.
Afterthoughts
This project was a great experience for general filming, especially as an introduction to professional filming and interviewing. The process and group aspect taught me the importance of an excellent production team and communication. Without the effective and excited energy of each team member, I do not believe we would have been able to make a documentary we would have been as proud of. Everyone on the team brought unique ideas and were fully engaged and excited for our project, which made working with them and sharing ideas much easier. I have certainly learned a lot about filming and producing a short film from this project, but more importantly, I learned about teamwork and the importance of team positivity and engagement.