Documentaty Concept

     When most people think of music documentaries they think of ones made for a specific band or genre of music. I am not saying there is anything wrong with documentaries like that, I mean I wish I could have made One Direction: This Is Us, but what about what got these bands and genres to be where they are today?
     I am making a documentary about the songwriting process and it's effect on the musicians that undergo it. The documentary will follow three to four bands. I would like to interview a band with a female front artist, a hardcore band, an up and coming band, and a band of veterans in the music industry. By interviewing a variety of genres and demographics to the scene I hope to create a documentary that doesn't focus on selling a specific band or genre, but enlightens the audience on what its like to create and share music and how that changes over time.
     My idea for this documentary stemmed from my passion for music. I can't play an instrument or sing, but for every phase in my life there have been songs that I have loved. These songs have been associated with my happiest experiences to my hardest letdowns, and despite how much time has gone by if you play one of these songs from my past I will be taken back immediately. For instance the song You and Me by Lifehouse still reminds me of my middle school crush despite how much time has passed, and Brown Eyed Girl takes me back to a diner in California with my dad when I was thirteen. These memories haven't changed despite how many times I have heard these songs since then. This concept got me wondering how or if this is different for the bands that wrote this songs.
     For the documentary I want to uncover concepts such as what is it like to share a song about something deeply personal with your band, and what it is like from the bands perspective to play that song live. Does the band members associate their own memories to the song? Do memories associated with songs change once these songs are played live? What is it like to play a song about something as devastating as death from someone who has never experienced it. What is it like for someone who has? What is it like to play a song you wrote when you were eighteen? I feel like there are so many questions about the emotional ties to musicians music that no one ever talks about. How do their memories and emotions come into play when performing these songs live for strangers or privately for their band members?
     My hope for the documentary is to create something everyone that cares about music can find interesting. I want to tell the story from a perspective where it doesn't matter who these bands are or where their futures will take them. I hope to bring the audience on an emotional journey, and at the end they are able to have a new found appreciation for the bands they listen to.