This document discusses different ways to show phases in someone's life in a documentary. It notes that documentaries often use props, footage, photographs, acted scenes set in the appropriate time period and location, and timelines to provide historical context. However, for a documentary about the author's grandmother in Brazil, obtaining accurate Brazilian props from different eras would be difficult. Instead, the author proposes crafting pieces in decorated suitcases to summarize the phases of her grandmother's life, inspired by the film "White Oleander" where suitcases expressed life experiences. The suitcases would symbolize the reasons for distance from family as well as the author's journey to learn about her grandmother by interviewing her grandfather in Germany.

1. One of the ideas I am clear about is
that I will talk about is different
phases of my grandmothers life, a
common way to show this in
documentaries is by showing props
from the time, footage, photographs,
acted scenes with the background and
costumes of the time and a graphic
designed time line. This would be very
hard for me to do as Brazilians props
of the time would be hard to find and
to create a scenario of Brazil.

2. Here are a few examples
of what documentaries use
to show time reference.
Scenario,
props and
costumes of
the time
being used
with, to
make the
reacting of
the scenes
more
realistic.
The graphics
used to
create a
timeline with old
photographs to give
the audience a
clear idea of the
time frame of
incidents. They
also used notes and
a map to help explain where it happened
and how.
On these two
documentaries they
recreated with
graphics to show how
it looked in the
past.

3. Because I have no experience and resources for the graphic work, I
will instead make crafted pieces as a summary to her phases in life.
This idea comes from how in the film ‘White Oleander’ she gave a
message to explain what she learned from her life experiences, where
she made decorated suitcases to express her idea from each experience.
I think this suitcases would be a
good base for the crafted pieces
because, is what signifies the
reason why I am not as close to my
family as others, the target
audience could also like this idea
because they would recognise the
vintage suitcases they could have
used or have at home. The suitcase
also connotes travelling, I could
use the suitcase to travel to
Germany where I will interview my
grandfather. The suitcase will
symbolise my journey to find out
about my grandmother.