The Heat

            The video I watched was called The Heat. The documentary follows a girl named Heather “The Heat” Hardy. She had plans to get her degree in forensics and then continue on to work for the police force. She dreamed of traveling the world and fighting crime. All of these plans changed when she found out that she was pregnant. She did not want to get married and become just simply a mother so she decided to start boxing. Hurricane Sandy hit her hometown and now boxing is how she provides a life for her and her daughter.

            After reading the first chapter of The Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction by Patricia Aufderheide, it made me pay a lot more attention to how the short video for the documentary was filmed. The first thing that really stood out to me was the music that was used. For a majority of the video the music was soft and had a sad tune to it. This music was used while Heather told her story about all of her dreams changing and getting caught in Hurricane Sandy. This music causes the viewer to feel sadness and empathy towards Heather. It draws them into her story and almost feel what she feels. A little over half way through the film, the music changed drastically and suddenly. The music changed into a louder and more upbeat tune. This music was played while showing her in her fights and making accomplishments. This gives the audience hope, and also shows Heather's strength and accomplishments.

            Another thing that stood out to me was the shots they chose to include and how they shot them. For example, including some live footage of her fight scenes gives you a better sense of what she does and you feel like you are there watching. Using what looks like hand shot, home-made footage of some of the scenes makes the viewer feel like they are there and gives more life to the scenes. The footage of Hurricane Sandy makes the viewers empathize with her more. It also gives the viewers more of an insight on the hardships she went though, and how damaging the hurricane was to her life and everyone else’s. Another scene that really stood out to me was the one with her and her daughter on the couch. It was a close up of her daughter laying her head on her shoulder. The close up really added drama to the shot and caused the audience to empathize with her. All in all, after reading the text I became much more observant of the techniques that go into making a documentary.