CCR

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Project Components

Finally all of this stress has come to an end. I hope you guys enjoy all of the hardworking that went into each and every component.

Website link - Click here

Documentary link -Click here

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Final comments

Finally this is all over. I am so ready to be done with this project it has been so stressful to do and I am so thankful it is over. Camila and I worked very hard and this is one of the best pieces we have created. I am happy we chose to do a documentary because it was interesting to let the subjects do the story telling instead of us getting actors and writing a script. After finishing the project, I truly appreciate all the film makers who make documentaries.

Aice Media studies was such a fun class to take, it is the only class that I have taken in high school that allows me to have creative freedom. I enjoyed collaborating with my peers and learning all the techniques behind films, magazines etc.

PEACE GUYS it's been so awesome

-SK💗

Quick update

Camila and I just re-did all our interviews and got a ton of b-roll! Now it is seriously time to edit this weekend and get it all done.

-SK💗

Group Critiques are so helpful

Since the last time we had group critiques, I have been looking forward to the next. Today in class my teacher separated all of us in groups and we each got a chance to give each other advice for our final projects. I was so happy with he people who were in my group because they include some of the people who I look up too artistically. Below are some notes I took :

• Since the series is going to go to each high school, you want to make that clear to the audience watching. So each episode should start with an establishing shot of the school or auditorium. 
• For the print ad try to incorporate pictures of the high schools that your series will be covering 
• Try and get audio of drama kids singling to use as background music 
• Show scenes " After the break on Press Play" 
• gather more b-roll of rehearsals 
• contact drama kids for permission to use their social media posts 

-SK💗

Yay literally redoing all our interviews

Since recording our interviews, I have been thinking about all the things we did wrong. I was so upset because I wasn't sure if Camila felt the same way. I decided to finally bring it up, and turns out she felt the same way so it wasn't awkward.

Since confronting the fact that they were terrible, we immediately re-did all our interview questions to better cater the segment of the documentary that we are going to create.

We also realized that we needed to get much more b-roll footage because the interviews are going to be extensive since they are going to serve as the narration of the documentary.

On Friday, we plan on recording all of this and until then I will be very stressed.

-SK💗

After my panic attack... I got so much done

Today as the day I really felt the deadline of the project creep up on me, I became stressed out of my mind. Immediately after my panic attack, I texted Camila and told her that I was going to basically finish the website and leave open the spots for a clip from our documentary and a spot for our print ad.

The colors I wanted to incorporate was red, maroon, and black. Those are the main colors on the website, and the accent color I chose was yellow because it in a way resembles some sort of light (( similar to a spot light)).

I also wanted to go the extra mile and create merch for our brand. I created a t-shirt, phone case, and a hat. I thought this would be a great way to adversative our brand and it also really focuses on our target audience. Generation Z is always copping their favorite YouTubers merchandise and I thought that this would be a great way to cater to them as well.

Another element I wanted to incorporate was a logo for our brand. I wanted it to be something that could stand alone. So I chose to do a triangle that is on its side, it clearly represents a play button and corresponds with the name. I chose to make it maroon to tie in with the color scheme.  

Last little hint for how the website looks, I chose to make a menu bar to help navigate. I will tell you the names of the pages but not show you anything else thats on it... just to keep you guys on your toes. 

-SK💗

Editing process...

Hi guys, my partner Camila and I finally begin editing some clips. As I said in an earlier post she is in Jacksonville on vacation and that has where she's been for the entire spring break. So we have been communicating almost every single day and update each other on our editing processes. Camila began editing some of the interviews and b-roll footage that we got of the group rehearsing and I have been editing the the footage from the actual play. When it comes to editing, Camila has more of an eye as to what should be where and how we should cut the clips so I'm sure on Monday  when I show her what I have done she will have a few suggestions and corrections. I am excited to see what she has edited so we can actually start to piece things together and so we can quickly figure out if we need to get more footage of something. Camila had already expressed to me once she began editing this past week that we either need to edit our interviews really well or we need to redo them. She feels as if the actors were rambling too much and that the questions were not that precise. Hopefully we can get all this straightened out on Monday so if we need to redo the interviews we can do it with time to spare. 

The editing process is always so stressful for me because I always second-guess myself and as soon as I'm done doing something I'm always looking for a second opinion because I feel like mine is never good enough. That's why I prefer to edit within a group setting so I can get creative feedback from my peers as well as put my creative take on it. I have a few clips ready to show you guys but because of my lack of confidence in them I'm going to hold off until Monday when Camila and I can sit down together in class and go through them so we can fix whatever needs to be fixed.

-SK💗

I woke up to a great idea

Storytime... so today I woke up as per usual and did my basic morning routine. After that, I sat down in my bed and literally just stared at the ceiling and BOOM. It hit me. You guys are probably wondering what hit me right? Let me explain. 

For the longest time Camila and I couldn't agree on or come up with a solid name for our documentary series. EVERYTHING we came up with was either really lame or it didn't fit the vision we had. 

Now back to what hit me... THE NAME.. THE NAME OF OUR DOCUMENTARY JUST CAME TO ME. The name should be " Press play " not only is this a play on words but it also sounds nice when you sound it out loud. When the viewer is scrolling through their TV guide and see our show they are going to press the play button and the show is all about high school plays. BOOM right? I'd like to think thats pretty punny and cleaver.

I hope Camila likes it... fingers crossed.

-SK💗

Searching for inspiration

I have started to brainstorm ideas about what our print advertisement should look like. I was thinking that since our entire series is going to feature high school productions, that it would only make sense that the image on the poster was a stage. Yes, I know when I say it like that it sounds pretty lame. But, I'm thinking a big spotlight will shine down onto the stage and in that spotlight it will say the name of our series.

I usually have a clear vision with how I want things to look, but for this I need some inspiration... so I turned to the internet. I began researching posters from documentaries and this is what I found.

"Super Size Me" is an extremely famous documentary that was released in 2005 in which a man explores the consequences of eating fast food for a long period of time. In the poster we see a super simple picture, but it says it all.

In my opinion the picture perfectly encompasses what the documentary is about and the simple saying "I'm Lovin it" is globally known and immediately associated with McDonalds which is what the entire film is about. 

Another famous documentary that has a poster that I want to emulate in some way is " Inside Job". The film was released in 2010 and basically zooms us in on the financial crisis in 2008. Again, this poster also speaks a thousand words. 

The man standing on top of the mountain of money is so powerful and is truly a eye opening picture. The man standing with his back turned to the people and the positioning on the center of the money is AMAZING. Moreover, the words in the background I found to be very interesting. It is reviews from critics on what they thought of the film. I like this idea because it immediately makes the audience think that they are about to watch something great because all of the reviews are positive. 

From my research, I have concluded that the image needs to say it all and has to convey clearly what the audience is going to watch. 

-SK💗

Fri-YAY

Its officially spring break and this excites me but it also scares me a lot. I know spring break its good to relax and have fun with friends but I can't fall behind with the project. Camila is going to be in Jacksonville for her spring break so we will be staying in touch and editing pieces of the project on our own. The goal is to have each piece of the project edited so we can then put it all together and then revise. I also want to start planning the print ad and also picking a theme for our website.

I keep telling myself that I will not forget about this project due to spring break shenanigans and I hope I don't go back on my word. Wish me luck!!

-SK💗

Today is a big day

Today we got all of our interviews done and we were also able to sit in on one of their rehearsals for a song they are going to perform.

A little side note, one of the girls ( the actress)  we interviewed I definitely fan-girled because she is such a star. She has such an amazing voice and truly captivates the audience when she is on stage. I have been a fan of hers for a couple years now (( yikes I sound kind of creepy)). But anyways, when I tapped her shoulder and asked " hey can interview you" I was literally star struck. She is so kind and seemed so interested in our project. She gave us an awesome interview and I honestly hope she ends up on Broadway or something like that because she is a gem. Her name is Yazzmine by the way and you guys should all check her out if you have the chance to see her perform.

The tech girl we interviewed was really nice ane gave us a good interview and same with the actor we interviewed whose name was Charlie.

Overall, today was a great day and we got cool b-roll footage of rehearsals. I'm so excited and ready to start editing.

-SK💗

Interview questions for the tech girl

Hey guys, next class we are getting all of our interviews done so we have to have all of our questions prepared so we are organized and are able to get precise answers. In a previous post I wrote the questions for the actor/actress and in this post I will be discussing the questions I will be asking the tech girl. Since we established that the excerpt from our documentary will transition from preparation of the play to backstage I began to think of a few questions.

Preparation questions 

• How many times a week do you practice all of the tech aspects with your team?
• Was there any technique in specific that you had to learn for RENT?
• The days approaching the show did you get nervous or did you feel you and your team was well prepared?
• How many run throughs do you rehearse with he actors?

Backstage questions 

• Do you feel a lot of pressure with the technical aspects while the show is happening?
• What exactly are you doing backstage?
• Are there any on the spot decisions you have to make?

Im thinking that once we begin to interview we will get a better idea of the questions we need to ask... but as of right now I think we are in a really solid place

-SK 💗

Realizations

Today we had the opportunity to have a meeting with our teacher to discuss the progress of our projects. She was able to raise some very important points that my partner and I seemed to ignore. Below are bullet points that include major pieces of our final portfolio that we need to establish ASAP.

• where will this be distributed?
• what channel?
• who is our target audience?
• why should people care about this?
• freeform- possible channel
• name for tv series
• website

Moreover, Camila and I are in the midst of the editing process, but are editing a bit blind. What I mean by that is we don't know which excerpt from the documentary we are trying to capture. So after the meeting, we figured out what would be best. We would include the transition from preparation of the show to the next part which is behind`the scenes. In order to achieve this we would need to make focused interview questions and get good people to be interviewed because the interviews are going to serve as the narration for the piece.

-SK💗

VLOG #3

-SK💗

Figuring everything out

Today in class my partner and I sat down gained so much clarity in regards to this project. 

Our Purpose

The purpose is to expose how much work goes into putting on a school productions 

Who we will interview

• Actor
• Tech 
• Director/Advisor 

Location of interviews

• Actor- in drama room in front of wall with posters from multiple plays
• Tech- background will include cameras, lights, and all the controls 
• Advisor- at desk/ or stage in background sitting on side of stage 

Our production name 

Marklo productions

About our TV series 

Throughout our series, we want to feature different high schools in regards to the productions they put on. We want to high light the differences in "culture" between each school and what they do in order to have a successful show. 

What else we need to get b-roll of

• practice 
• tech room preparations 
• team meetings 

-SK💗

March- April Schedule

Here is the following schedule to keep us on track for the rest of the project. Please click the image below to enlarge it :

Group critiques

Today in class my teacher separated us into groups of six and we all critiqued each others projects. The people who were in my group had such good ideas, everything was so planned out and their concepts were very original and not cliche at all.

When it was my turn to present my ideas and blog they  liked my idea and gave me advice on how to improve it. I asked them the following questions: Since this is going to be shown on TV, what part of the documentary should be shown? What should the end part that leads in the commercial be like? Where should I take this project, as far as the overall concept? I expressed to them that this idea was made very quickly and I went in and just got as much footage as possible without making a story board or anything like that. The reason for that is because it is a documentary and I recorded live footage so I couldn't really plan what was going to happen next. 

 Advice I am going to implement

•  Focus on how much work goes into putting on a production... all the hours of practice, the ticket sales, consumes etc. 
• Get interviews from interesting subjects that love drama and go the extra mile to put on a school show 
• End the documentary with some sort of scene that hints at the fact that there will be another production put on in the following weeks 
• Choose the b-roll wisely so it can go along with what is being talked about in the interview 

-SK💗

The interview questions for the actor/actress

Since I am going to be interviewing the actors in the near future, I thought it would be smart to write up some potential interview questions and then review them tomorrow in class with my partner.

1. What makes RENT different from the other performances you have put on at school?
2. How much preparation went into this production?
3. What is going through your mind when you are on stage?
4. What are you thinking about when you are backstage?
5. What was a major problem you encountered during the performance of RENT?
6. What is the next step for you guys as an AMT team?

This is all I can think of at the moment, but I'm going to sleep on it and hopefully I can come up with more. 

-SK💗

Update

VLOG #2

-SK💗

Technology

I completely forgot to tell you guys about what devices I am using for this project. I recored everything on an iPhone 8+. The camera is sooooo clear and makes everything look professional. Here are some features on the iPhone 8+ camera:

1. Exposure is balanced well thanks to the auto-HDR mode
2. You can focus accurately even up close
3. It does well in low-light
4. Captures the tiny scrapes in metal, dust on bricks and individual hairs on a head is fantastic
5. Able to shoot more frames per second gives footage a smoother look and is especially great for shooting motion, such as sports.
6. 10 filters/ camera settings to choose from

To keep the camera steady I attached the iPhone to the stick I use for my GoPro. It is called the Waterproof GoPro Handler Floating Hand Grip Stick Mount and it really helped to prevent the phone from shaking as I recorded. 







To edit the project, I will be using iMovie because I find it is the easiest platform to put projects like this together. For both my years in Aice Media Studies, iMovie has never failed me, thus I will continue to use it.

If I use any other technology I will inform you guys here.

-SK💗

What a night!

I just got home from filming the play RENT at school... it was such an AMAZING show. The actors were fantastic and the plot was extremely engaging. I was able to sit front row and get some great footage of the actors on stage. During Act II,  I went backstage and recorded what was happening behind the scenes. The one thing that made me upset, was that it was so dark backstage and the camera couldn't focus on certain things. I wanted to use flash to record but that would have distracted the actors and that is something the tech girl told me not to do. I went back home and reviewed the footage and I have a combined 1 hour and 4 minutes of film.... this is going to take a while to sort through. Turns out, the backstage footage is not as dark as it seemed to be, so thats good news. On Thursday hopefully Camila and I can begin to find the best clips to include and maybe even start editing. During 8th period either tomorrow or Tuesday we need to get the interviews so we can really being putting everything together.

-SK💗

Case Study Research

In the beginning of the school year my teacher introduced us to the OP-doc section of the New York Times. I thought would help me in this documentary journey if I revisit it and get inspiration. Below I am going to be documenting some case study research.

Case study #1 -  Arctic Boyhood

• incorporates pictures with transitions to create movement 
• uses subtitles 
• focuses a lot on sound 
• uses subjects that the audience can root for 
• gives insight on what it is like to live in the arctic as far as activities you do when you are a child living there 
• not much dialogue 
• indirect interviews 
• warm lighting with the interviews 
• close up on facial expressions 
• b-roll footage was used strategically during interviews 

Case Study #2 - Birth Control Your Own Adventure 

• voice over 
• Story about a girl who goes on birth control
• subtle movements that convey meaning related to topic without showing a face (in beginning) 
• highly uses the color red and pink
• never shows a face
• conveys meaning through objects, music, and tone of voice 
• loops to references made throughout the documentary at the end 
• creates a full circle story 
• makes you want the best for the voice even though we never find out what she looks like 

Case Study #3 - Spider Drove a Taxi

•  profile on a NY taxi driver who was nicknamed spider
• black and white pictures from the 1900's in NY city
• cool tones 
• voiceover 
• indirect interviews 
• brings up issues involving social economic status and race
• music playing softly in the background 
• voiceover continues even when the credits play 

Case Study #4- Santa Is a Psychedelic Mushroom

• colorful graphics for first half  
• voiceover 
• talks about he myths that revolve around the whole Santa persona
• many different voices tells he story 
• includes facts 
• taps into imagination of audience 
• the colors change from all color in the begininng to strictly black and white at the end 

-SK💗

Things are happening...

Today I had a meeting with Ms. Lutwin at 2:00 p.m. She is in charge of the AMT program at my school and she told me to come in to meet with her and discuss exactly the goal for the project and how she can help me achieve that. I told her how I want to do a documentary on all the effort that goes into a musical production as well as what happens on stage and backstage, giving the viewer the " full 360". She proceeded to tell me that today is the best day to film and that she will notify the backstage crew that I will be back there filming. Moreover, she said to come in during her 8th period because that is when the actors have her class and that will be the best time to get interviews.  The meeting lasted about 10-15 minutes and I immediately went home to do some case study research so I can have a better idea of how this should all come together to create a cohesive piece. 

-SK💗

Quick check in

FIRST VLOG!

-SK💗

Making an executive decision

Like I said in an earlier post, my partner Camila has been out sick for several days now. Due to that, I feel like I am put in a position where I have to pick the route for our documentary quickly. Last night, I pulled out the rubric/ timeline that my teacher handed out about a week ago. I thought we had so long to do the project, but turns out its due in a month! I began to freak out because we haven't even agreed on an idea. I was up all night thinking and I realized that doing a documentary on a production at school would be the most realistic given the time frame we are given. I don't want you guys to think I am settling for this topic, I am excited about it and have always been a fan of the performances at my school.

-SK💗

General research

I wanted to get more insight and review the characteristics of a documentary. 

Key points from Filmsite.org:

• Factual 
• Slice of life
• Many different types : sports, historical, live performance, adventure etc. 

How to frame interviews from the faculty at FIU: 

• Plan the background strategically because it influences how the person is perceived. So it is smart to put items in the background that reveal something about the person
• Have the subject fill 1/3 of the screen 
• Make the sure that the person who is getting interviewed is into negative space
• Don't interview in front of a wall 
• Leave enough head space
• Watch out for reflections in windows or glass

Tips on making a documentary - advice from a video I found on YouTube:

• Pick a topic that you can get excited about... because if the filmmaker can't be excited that will show in the film due to lack of passion toward the project 
• Pick people who are comfortable in front of the camera-- who won't hold back and will talk with ease-- who can clearly convey the message -- who are well versed on the topic 
• schedule - be organized and assign dates for certain tasks
• Get enough b-roll footage, you never know how much you will need until you start editing 

-SK💗

Brainstorming

I am currently trying to think of a good idea for my documentary...

Camila has been very sick lately and we haven't had time to discuss much about our project. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and come up with a couple ideas for our documentary.

Idea #1: Student activism- Post MSD tragedy 

Recently in Parkland, Fl there was a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 17 people were killed and five others were hospitalized. Since the shooting, many kids are taking matters into their own hands to fight for change regarding the gun laws in the United States.

I thought doing an interview driven documentary with students who are fighting for change post tragedy could be a solid idea. The documentary would have three students talking about their perspective on what happened and what they are doing now to prevent it from ever happening again. The ideal scenario would be if we could interview three kids that currently attended MSD and survived the shooting. I have been noticing many students fight for change on television and social media. After doing some research I hope to get : 1) Julia Cordover-  the senior class president at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School, went to the White House to talk to President Trump about what occurred and what should change, is attending March On Washington, and is a survivor. 2) Emma Gonzalez- Spoke at Town Hall directly to the NRA spokeswoman, gave speeches at gun violence rallies in South Florida, survived the shooting, is attending March On Washington, known for her activism, and the chant " we call BS". 3) David Hogg- expresses his voice on social media and has grown the hashtag "never again" tremendously, spoke at the Town Hall meeting, survived the shooting, attending March on Washington.

Click the links below to learn more about the students I want in the documentary :

Julia Cordover - https://youtu.be/yedsw54meS4

Emma Gonzalez- https://youtu.be/ZxD3o-9H1lY

Popular tweet from David Hogg-

Idea #2 : A production put on by our school 

The Drama program at our school consistently puts on amazing plays that sell out very quickly. They are putting on a production called "Rent" this upcoming week. The Drama program won't be putting on any other performances until after this project would be due. So if we were to choose this idea we would have to get organized very quickly.

If we choose to go this route, we would show the backstage chaos, the the poise actors when performing on stage, as well as interviews back stage and post performance.

-SK💗

Guess who's back

I can't believe this time has finally arrived...AGAIN. Last year at this time I was stressed about starting my foundation portfolio. My ideas were all over the place and that made the whole journey unorganized, which resulted in a final product that I was not proud of. But because of the rough journey I had last year, I know what I need to do in order to be successful.

This year I have chosen to do a documentary for my final portfolio. Documentaries have always intrigued me and after making a documentary for a project earlier in the year, I was thrilled that I chose this for my major task. My partner Camila Martinez and I are so ready to get started and piece all of our ideas together.

There are 2 things I want to really focus on in the pre production, production, and post production stages:
- Organization
- How will we create a sense of branding ( how each of our decisions will work toward one common goal)

Be sure to check back on my blog so you can see my whole journey...

-SK💗