This documentary film was a passion project that I created. The synopsis goes like this: “On August 6th 2017, police officer Gary Michael was shot and killed during a traffic stop in the small town of Clinton, Missouri. This was the first time the town lost an officer, but the community rose to the occasion and showed their support in an unbelievable way.” I grew up in Clinton, so I was there to see all of the events of this documentary take place.
This documentary required many interviews with family members and friends of Gary Michael. The most difficult part of the project was taking the many hours of footage and turning it into a 30 minute film. Even though the events of the story were a few years ago, this documentary still followed a 3 act structure. It is important for a film to have structure otherwise it will have no direction and make the viewer confused or lose interest.
This documentary film is incredibly important to me and was a big turning point for me as a filmmaker. Just being able to sit down and hear the stories of people that experienced so much hurt but also so much pride was something I will always cherish. This project also made me realize that while visual quality is important, the story and how you tell that story is far more important.
