Final Project:

 

    Here's a link to all three components of the project :)

 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WcYACmsMHIB4iXOxJpFIdHwOUVj2r6VE?usp=drive_link

CCR

Here is the link to the final CCR:

(wrote it on there originally so kept it in a google doc, enjoy :)

Click here!

Reflection

    

    Wow. It's that time. I can't believe that after 8 weeks this has come to an end. This has genuinely been such a fulfilling project to do. Not only was I able to do a school film project with my sister, which is something we've always wanted to do, but we were able to formulate such a relevant and personal feeling/topic into this medium and genre (a documentary), as well as be able to creatively embrace the medium of docu-series further with social media and print. This last week has been an immense hassle, but looking back, I'm extremely proud of all of the work from last year to now. I feel like I would've been able to lean and oftentimes jump into a whole new side of my creativity, as every big idea was amounted to by singular, specific intentional choices that required a lot of energy and commitment, even if they seemed “small”. Those are the things that add up to making an influence towards an overall final product. 

    I am so happy that I took AICE Media Studies because not only did it allow me to express creative ideas that I otherwise wouldn’t have given myself the time or space to do, but I also learned so much about the media world and how it ties into society as a whole, which I am really intrigued by and love to explore (all conversations revolving societal impacts, etc…). I would’ve never expected for us to delve into topics that I’ve always been so passionate about, such as conformity and social norms, or regarding the entire creation process of a piece of art, specifically the intentionality of different production aspects. While I could go on and on about, I want to end off by saying thank you for such an impactful, crazy two years in this class. I have genuinely learned so much and will take everything I've learned with me into the media-saturated world we live in. I wish more people got a chance to create and learn about the things I did in this class, especially in the state of the world we live in and build now. 

    Without further ado, the next two blogs will be links to my Final Portfolio project for this class. This isn't goodbye, just see you later! (I'm gonna try to use blogger still) Thank you for everything Mrs. Stoklosa :)

  

Print Component: Creation Process

     This past week has been A LOT. We have finished filming everything, which I know we should’ve done a while ago but hey!! We went to Town Center to film our intro interviewed once we realized we needed more interviews, which I covered in the last blog. The next thing to cover is print. Earlier in the year we went over specifics needed for the print component, with the one we have to complete being a 2-page magazine article. Here is the past blog that I reference with notes that layout the specific structural/ characterized components needed. I also checked out my notes from last year on print, as we did a project towards the end of the year that required us to create the cover of a magazine. Here are the notes:

     As I have mentioned in this weeks social media blog post, Sofia and I decided that we were going to have our magazine article be directed towards getting to know us as people more, not only naturally reinforcing the theme of connection (trying to reach if you can’t tell!!) but also giving us a space to tell the background that led to why we wanted to create this documentary in the first place, with the reasons being true even though we are obviously creating a fake documentary series (even though I have considered trying to actually create the full thing for fun…) With social media giving us a space to get other important pieces of information/ themes of the doc across, we are utilizing this component to give an inside look at us as people/ creators and of the topics that we delve into regarding societal concepts we are targeting/ discuss with our interviews. 

     As I have mentioned, I am using a mini journal as a hub/ dump for any and all of my ideas, which I used to organize the specific conventionally features of a magazine to include. Here it is:

                                                    

                                         

                                                  

     The made up magazine company is called “Inside Look”, a community magazine that not only gives updates on main events happening around the general community but that also investigates and gets a closer “inside look” at events that are different than the usual, which is why our documentary would be featured. The creative process so far has been experimental, with the more basic part being going into Canva and looking for magazine templates that fit the style that we want. While looking at Canva, I found  good amount of options that we can use but none that struck me to use without editing them a bit.

    To help in the process I looked at old 2 page magazine articles from publications that I stylistically am a fan of (as well as that are well-known for being good companies), such as The New York Times and The Atlantic. Specifically with The Atlantic, as I like something about their visual style not only with the format of the magazine but the artwork as well, inspiring us to implement some of our own artwork (once again thank you Ceci!) into the magazine to better integrate the documentary into the topic of conversation. I also looked around my house to see if I could find any cool magazines to take inspiration from, but didn’t find too much. I did find, however, an Aviation magazine that I took inspiration from for how to write the page number alongside the name of the magazine (Inside Look). Here are some examples of old The Atlantic articles I took inspiration from in regards to heading style, font, and structure, as well as the one I found in my house:

                                     

                            

The Final Product

     The first page we created is more dedicated to establishing the thought process that lead to the creation of the doc as well as getting to know us with a more personal approach, while the second page introduces the documentary series better and introduces some themes/ topics that we target, such as technology. We also reference different episodes for the reader to feel more familiar with the series. The inclusion of visuals was a big thing for us, with the integration of specific visuals that complement what our fake interviewer is writing about in each page. Overall, the process of creating the magazine was actually really fun and made me better appreciate the process of magazine creation, as every choice is intentional from font size to structure/ visual layout. It allowed me to see the true dedication it takes and that the process not as quick as it seemed it was going to be. Here is the final product (I’m really proud of it!)

Street Interviews: FINALLY DONE

     This week is the last week before the final project is due and we still have a lot to do. Regarding the actual documentary portion, we have everything filmed except for one very critical part: the street interviews that lead into introducing Sofia and I. While we went last week to the location (our town center) to film and got two/ 3 really good interviews, it started raining so we ended up not getting as many as we needed, which is like 5 more. We were pretty devastated because we blocked off time to film and had our equipment ready (just a camera and a tripod but still), but we needed to find another day soon.

us the moment it started raining accepting our losses

Readjustment- New Filming Day

     But not to fret! We ended up finding another day that worked for us, with some of our friends coming along for a fun night out and ending up filming 3 interviews that we will definitely be implementing. We went later in the afternoon/ closer to the night and filmed my friends Male, Valen, and Debra, with each giving insightful and individualized responses to our questions. Speaking of questions, creating the questions for the interviews was an interesting process. We knew what we wanted the interviewees to end up saying/ what we to establish at the beginning of the documentary, being the disconnected nature of our current social world. Because we obviously can’t tell the interviewees what to say, we needed our questions to try to reach that topic of conversation without scaring the interviewees off too much with such a direct, deep topic. We ended up coming up with around 6 questions, mainly referencing 3. Here are my notes that helped get to the final questions used, with the bolder being the main ones we asked the interviewees:

 

Readjustment- New Date

    We ended up interviewing a range of people in the end, with four being our friends and then an almost equal amount being people of older ages. We also got two interviews with people from specifically out of the country places (Mexico and Brazil), giving interesting perspectives on how culture influences social tendencies, being that they both exclaimed how the cultural customs in the U.S. have tended to be drier socially for them then in their home countries. Overall, the interviews we got will provide for a good introduction to some of the loneliness and social disconnect in our society, with the process of editing giving us the space to choose specific things that the interviewees said to build towards the point we wanted to make.

some of our interviewees (Debra)

Creating Social Media Posts

    Social media is the gateway to social exposure in the modern day online world. For publications, the same goes. After having learned about the digital sphere of media this past year (and year before some), it has become even more clear to me as to why it's so important to understand and be very completely intentional about one's social media brand. Whether it's the colors used or the repeated #'s, everything adds up to form the viewer/ consumer's perception on the brand/ product, being the docuseries in this case. That's why, with all the information I've learned, being in my class (you can learn about in this blog post), or even in my own life as I make collages for my Instagram profile, I'm really excited for this part of the project: 

    To create an Instagram page specifically for Intertwined where we will get to show a different/ extended side of the docuseries, specifically as we figure out what we want to utilize the social media for other than basic exposure... (ex: do we want to showcase a more personal side of the directors, aka Sofia and I?) This is all going to occur as we create our social media account, which we have already done. Here is what we have done so far and what ideas we have for future posts (which we have to make ASAP to meet the 18 posts that we are trying to have as minimum in a spaced out time schedule):

Current posts

    As you probably know, we have chosen to integrate animation into our intro for each episode, naturally bleeding into the style, branding, and recognizability of the series, like when making any other distinctive creative choice. Because of this, we decided to include the animation into our social media. As the (hopefully) soon-to-be audience gains exposure to our specific style/ repeatedly shown "characters" (that represent our main subjects of the doc), they will begin to familiarize themselves with our brand. 

    We want to use the animated versions of us to introduce ourselves on the social media because we thought it's a good way introduce our relationship to the doc, being involved yet also observers. We also wanted to officially introduce ourselves on the social media, with a dedicated "Meet the directors" post as we are important to the specific perspective being highlighted regarding the current social world we are observing, even though we are trying to remain as unbiased as possible. That balance is something we have been trying to work on in filming interviews but will be a more specific choice while editing, which I will be making a blog post on very soon. Besides introducing ourselves, we are taking inspiration from social media accounts like "Abstract" the Netflix docu-series (mentioned in the linked blog post), specifically with their integration of quotes from their subjects. We have already done one of those types of posts with the psychotherapist we interviewed. Here are the posts so far:

    As you can tell, we are using each post to accumulate an overall picture, something that excites me about being able to do this part of the project. I personally love to make things look aesthetically pleasing, and if that can build up to create a consistent style that's definitely the goal!

Captions Are Important.

    I don't think I have ever fully understood the importance of Instagram captions until now. With social media being a place for media consumers to learn more about the docuseries' main subjects (interviewees/"stars"!), major bigger-picture themes, and specifics about different episodes, we figured that the best place to dump all of that information in an organized, categorized, and strategic way would be the posts and their CAPTIONS. After our first three posts which are almost like puzzle pieces to form an introductory image that hints at our docs style/ future posts style, the upcoming posts require informative captions to help give context/ foundational information that not only serves the post but also comments on the bigger picture idea behind the post. 

    

    For example, our fourth post introduces Dr. Gloria N. Valdivieso, a psychotherapist that we interviewed, with her quote "...our species (we) learned how to survive in groups. So, how to interact with other people is very important for human beings". The overall post introduces the topic of community, as we included the definition of the word to give concrete meaning to a oftentimes vague-feeling word. For the caption, I chose to elaborate a bit on the idea revolving Dr. Gloria's quote, introducing the idea of how connection can lead to community, being a major theme of the docuseries. We also want to write questions to engage/ possibly hear from the consumers, with our main intention being to pose thought-provoking questions that make people reflect on connection/ community in their own lives. Overall, the caption writing process has been not as quick a I thought, but I'm happy to have found a place to directly state what we want to regarding themes, etc... very explicitly.

Ideas

    I'm really excited to continue to develop the Instagram, as Sofia and I have goals of making the page varied, creative, yet still maintain a "professional" feel that could possibly resemble a true documentary Instagram page. Other ideas we have for future posts include more "Meet the ___" to introduce the subjects of the entirety of Season 1 of the series so people can start to have a personal connection with the groups, being a major theme of the entire docuseries. We want to continue to develop artistic looking posts, especially to help establish the tone for each group. We have been using Canva to make our Instagram posts, along with pictures form our personal collections and Cecilia's drawings. 

    Because we have so many ideas, I've been keeping a mini notebook to help document and organize all of my ideas. It's a random journal that I have in case I want to journal about anything but I ended up mainly using it for this project so far. Being the type of person that needs to write down all of my ideas before they escape my mind, this has been a huge help, as I've used it to draw out visual ideas for the intro to send to Cecilia, to organize how Instagram posts might look as the number of posts effects the final layout of all of the accumulated posts, and more ideas about editing structure. With that being said, I have a good amount of ideas for posts on there, with each trying to achieve a purpose. Here are some of those purposes:

• Emphasize importance of connection (big theme of docuseries)
• Highlight connection in everyday life (theme/ point that connection doesn't have to be grand)
• Make viewers feel close/ familiar to directors, as we will be integrated into doc (have something to emotionally cling onto)

    Some post ideas I have that I'm going to bring up to Sof for our upcoming ones include:

• Posts quoting different interviewees, specifically the Psychotherapist we interviewed (Dr. Gloria)
• Director inside look into WHY created (hint in different posts/ captions)
• More animated posts of interviewees (reemphasize style)
• Interactive questions on story with community/ posts targeting community (reemphasize theme)
• MORE OUT THERE: pieces of art that remind us of the importance of connection

pictures of ideas for the intro (sent to Cecilia) in new journal

    While I'm still trying to figure out what to include in the social media, I am also trying to figure out what the confirmed topic should be for the print, as before we established it would be more of a director inside-look that would bring the readers closer to us as people. I think we are going to keep that idea and not get AS personal in the social media to maintain boundaries/ professionalism. anyways, see you in a bit probably to talk about editing because we have to get one that...

The Perks of Having a Creative Friend: Part 2

    Hello blog. It's the moment you've all been waiting for. an update on the very abstract, spontaneous, semi-last minute idea on an intro. Specifically animated type intro...

    Ceci Update

    SO, Cecilia came up with some drafts very quickly, literally a day after we first introduced the idea to her. She's the best. She took what we told her which I described for the most part in the last blog post and ran with it, creating distinctively stylized characters that fit into the larger ideas of the docuseries. Here is a look at the first characters she's drawn:

    

    The first picture inserted follows the second one, but overall I'M REALLY HAPPY WITH IT. It's so weird seeing such an abstract/ "random" idea from my head be actually tangible in a way/ turn into something real, with the stylistic twist of Cecilia's art. I really love the style as I feel like it is recognizable. I also love the colors of the outfits, as the muted tones add on to how the "technology obsession"/ that disconnected lifestyle can drain you/ make life feel less vibrant. I also love the black void that they're in, which Ceci told us is going to change when the groups that we focus on in each episode come on the screen, being the next challenge. For that, she asked us for reference pictures of the main subjects of each episode, being the few that will have more individualized interviews before moving into interviewing/ focusing on the group in general. We sent her pictures of my grandparents for the card club episode, of the group from the retirement home that she also knows as she's been volunteering with me for months, and some more groups. 

    Ideas 

    Some ideas for the rest of the intro included panning over to the groups from left to right and showcasing them in their natural state interacting with one another/ doing the activity that connects them all. For example, for the airplane group they could possibly by flying the "RC's" or remote control ( I learned lingo from our interview ;) airplane, and the volunteering Flamingo garden group interacting with the types of animals they do there. We are going to talk to Cecilia more specifically but we are also letting her take some creative liberty as she already understands what the main things we want to include are, specifically about the end and how it should have some sort of "string" element that proceeds to the name of the docuseries: Intertwined (which was originally Interconnected but we decided to change it because it has the word "twin" in it and thought it was clever.)

    This part of the doc is the one that is the most experimental right now, with us still needing to finish filming some stuff for the INTRO intro (the stranger interviews we are going to do at our local town center). Anyways, thank you for reading and I'll let you know when Cecilia sends us some more clips ;) (THANK YOU CECI)

The Perks of Having a Creative Friend: Part 1

 

    Hello blog, I hope your probably not-break break is going well! ( I say that because you might not be on break like I am, but if you are, happy break!) This week has been pretty busy, with my sister and I being very heavy on family time and trying to be heavy on filming time! To be fair, one of the things we have to film right now (being our introductory message to the audience as the "narrators", stranger interviews for the intro, and b-roll to use for the intro/ when introducing the type of connection we are focusing on in the first episode being through hobbies) we are waiting to do in a local gathering place in my town (the interviews), but the rest we have been filming stuff for. 

    For example, we went to a tourist area and got b-roll of people looking "disconnected", aka being on their phones while surrounded by people. We got a good amount of clips of this, while also filming b-roll for the hobby introduction while my grandpa, dad, sisters, and I played pickleball at a tennis court that belongs to the hotel we went to. I am happy with what we got (we got home today), but do think we might possibly need more. We will see when getting ready to edit, as we will view all the clips we have and make sure we don't need any more. If we see we do, then we can film them easily, as we can stage that b-roll easily. 

Episodic Intro

    Our main focus was the episodic intro, being the 30-second clip that is the same in every episode, summarizing/ overlooking the documentary-series purpose in a short, implicit, and entertaining way. While in most series it's skippable, we are making it embedded into every episode such as in the docu-series The Mind, Explained. While looking at inspiration from other Netflix docu-series, we stumbled upon this one, seeing some parallels in stylistic and filming choices that we wanted/ have already done. For example, we saw that it included stranger interviews to develop a point for the episode, something we might do for every episode but are for sure doing for the first one. We also noticed the style of the documentary series tends to be artistic/ includes sketches at times, and is visibly entertaining/ engaging. It uses a variety of colors and is simplistic yet intriguing. We want something similar for ours, which is where the idea for the episodic intro to be animated/ hand-drawn came into play.

Street interviews, The Mind, Explained

Hand-drawn visuals, specific artistic style from series

Artistic Idea

    Before you freak out, I was also not completely sure that it could be a possibility. The project is due in around a week in a half, when were my sister or I going to learn to animate/ integrate art in this way on a digital platform and make it look good? We have looked at more scrapbooky artistic ideas before on Instagram, where people integrate stop motion with physical print-out art, but we haven't been home in a week so haven't had the resources to make anything. With my optimistic and sometimes too idealistic self, I began to ponder as if I had all the resources in the world:

    I began to try to imagine a visual depiction of what my sister and I are trying to do with the series, grounding it's purpose through what the series actually shows: 5 different groups, each involved with a different activity/ "form of connection". The reason we're focusing on those groups is that groups create connection, so showing the disconnected part of our current reality is important to include in this episodic intro. While technology isn't the main perpetrator, it is a big factor of why people are (ironically) disconnected on a day-to-day in-person basis in local communities, so I also thought it was important to include that. With these specific goals in mind, I introduced an idea to my sister by making her close her eyes and imagine the descriptions I was giving her:

    Basically, an animated version of my sister and me will walk through a crowd of people on their phones, trying to introduce the part of the reality of our current social world as well as introduce Sofia and I as guides for the audience. We will introduce each group that each episode will focus on by having the visuals pan from one to the next, with each one distinct in style. Finally, we will finish off with showcasing the title of the series, with some cool visuals to showcase how they're all connected and "intertwined" in their community. The background will be black, with color coming from the groups, to showcase how the life of the communities comes from the connection that happens in the groups. The title will appear with some cool visual involving threads coming together, to symbolize connection/ wrap it all up.

    

    She liked the idea, and although she didn't fully have the visual of what I was telling her, she trusted my vision! We both liked the concept and after remembering we have a very artistic and very adaptive friend, we introduced the idea to her today and asked her if she could possibly help us out. After a bit of convincing, SHE AGREED. I WAS SO HAPPY! She said she will follow what we told her, but she also has a very specific artistic style so we told her that she can take some creative liberty with the style. 

    She will use FlipAClip, as she's tried it out before but never fully used the program for a project. I'll update you once she gives us some drafts, I'm very excited to see what she comes up with.

Editing: Intro Structure

 

    Hey blog, how has it been going? This week, I'm on vacation for spring break with my family, and Sofia and I have a lot to do. Our checklist for this week looks like this:

• Film B-roll for first half-ish of 5-7 minutes (people looking "disconnecting", ex: on their phones while next to each other people, & people doing hobbies, ex: people playing tennis...)
• Making interview questions + actually filming interviews pf us asking people questions revolving how connected they feel to their communities.
• POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA!!!

    Those are our main priorities, with editing being possibly "intertwined" ;) In the process, whenever we have free time. To be completely honest, I don't expect us to edit too much this week, considering we want to try to get as much filming done so that we have everything/ most of what we need by next week to start dedicating almost all time to editing. I trust myself with editing, as in the past I've put stuff together fairly quickly, so a week will be more than enough time for my sister and me to get a final product that we feel represents our idea the most.

    Today, being that we went on a roadtrip to our vacation destination (4 hour car ride to be exact!), Sof and I are got time to clarify the aspect of structure for the entire "context" sequence, including all parts such as the intro and more. Let me clarify...

Establishing Context

    For the first half of the 5-7 minutes (around 2/ 2 and a half minutes), we are going to e stablish context for the purpose and reasoning for the entire docu-series. The way we are going to do this is by putting some different elements together to form a bigger picture for the audience, with a more explicit communication from my sister and I directly to the audience later in the sequence further clarifying for the audience. 

    We have had a rather blurry vision for the extreme specifics for a bit now, with us knowing pretty much what we want from it, being to establish context for the audience and introduce the "narrators" of the doc aka us, but not specifically how to get it through specific filming choices. On this 4-hour car ride, we started by dissecting what we wanted from the intro, specifically how it relates back to our purpose/ what we want the audience to know while watching the episodes. Being that this is the only episode that is going to include specific introductory context, we want to make sure we get all the necessary information to the audience. While we can also use social media and our print portion to establish further context for the audience, we want to have this sequence be the main source of context. Being that we were in the car, we wrote brainstorming notes on my Notes app. Here are our notes:

    Structure

    Here is the more readable context structure:

• Intro: Includes interviews of strangers where we ask questions that try to show society's state of connection, asking questions revolving around personal connection to community. This also includes a specific buildup in intensity that includes voiceovers of a psychotherapist interview that we have already filmed, as well as b-roll clips that we are filming this week.
• Introducing Narrators: After the psychotherapist references my sister and I off camera by asking "what do you think?" about everything she has just said about the current state of society in terms of connection/ nature of our communities, a whip-pan transition will lead to us in a different location talking directly to the camera (another part we still have to film). Here, we will establish our purpose with the docu-series in a personal, yet bigger-picture way that doesn't focus entirely on us, as we are simply a bridge for the audience to be able to be reminded of the potential for connection in their own communities (a more passionate bridge...)
• Episodic Intro: In this 30-second section, the episodic introduction video will play, being the conventional part of most series that last around 20- 50 seconds that the audience can usually choose to skip. For our series, we will integrate it into the episodes, making them mandatory to watch as it will have a direct link to the overall purpose of the documentary. We will get further into this introduction in the coming week.
• Type of connection intro: This part will be about 30 seconds, introducing the specific type of connection that will be focused on in the episode through the group. For our first episode for example, the specific type is connection in a community through a hobby (airplane group), so we will state how hobbies connect people with some b-roll of people being involved in a hobby. We already have some b-roll footage for this and plan on getting more this week while our family is involved in activities.
• Location/ Specific group establishment: In this last part before officially getting into the interviews, we will do a 30 second montage that introduces the episode specific group, establishing main location of their meetups. For our first episode, we will edit together clips from Markham Park, being that's where they meetup to connect on their shared hobby. This section is also where the episode title will show, as the ending of the section signals the official start of "getting into the episode".

    While the establishing of context (specifically the "Intro" and "Introducing Narrators") will only occur in the first episode, the remaining parts, including the "Episodic intro", "Type of connection intro", and "Specific group establishment" will be in every episode, as they're necessary to give the audience a formal, organized, and consistent understanding of the episode. While there could possibly be an additional beginning to every episode, those are the main parts that we know for sure would be consistent up until the last group's episode, being the group about  how being involved in a group activity purely for personal entertainment (no specific, more "professional" skill required) can connect people, with the episode specifically focusing on a group that plays cards.

    Reflections

    On this four hour car ride I think we were pretty productive, giving ourselves time to fully clarify what we wanted and how we are going to get there with the time and resources we have. This car ride allowed us to put all the choices we knew we wanted to make in our entire beginning sequence and secure them, with specific time limits indicated so that we can give ourselves time to use the interviews we have spent time gathering. Now that we have this whole section clarified, we can fully devote ourselves to finishing any filming (specifically b-roll, the interviews, introduction of narrators, and the episodic introduction) so that we can begin to edit! I will continue to update as progress is made, wish us luck!

    

CCR Introduction: Review and Brainstorm

 

     Hello blog, how’s it going? It’s about to be spring break for me and I’m going in a trip with my grandparents and the rest of my family tomorrow which I’m looking forward to :)) While I could just sit and talk about how much of a whirlwind these past couple of weeks have been and will continue to be, I am here to discuss something much more important: MY CCR!! 

     Truthfully, I haven’t begun to try to organize myself in regards to my CCR, as my main focus with the project as been the documentary aspect. When looking back on last years CCR experience, I definitely have some learned notions about what to do and not to do, specifically regarding time management. 

This year, I want to start earlier so that it can serve as a less stressful form of reflection and summary of how the project experience went, which I think will be easier now that this years Critical Reflection isn't in the form of two videos, but of an 1000 word essay. While that is a pretty long essay, I feel like this new format will allow me respond to the 4 questions in a more direct and less stressful way, as last year not only did I have to answer the questions thoughtfully but also devote time to brainstorming, planning, producing, and editing the two videos. While that was fun, I want to devote as much time as possible to the documentary and the other two aspects of the project (social media and print), so the new medium of an essay is much more favorable!

4 Questions  

    Before getting into this year's questions, I want to compare from last year's questions, being that I felt confident in my responses (click here for my AS Level CCR's) and might undergo the same process to answering the new 4 questions. Here they are:

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions?
2. How does your product represent social groups or issues?
3. How did your production skills develop throughout the project?
4. How did you integrate technologies- hardware, software, and online- in this project?

    There are some differences and similarities in the questions, with the current questions I have to answer being:

1. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
2. How do your products engage with the audience?
3. How did elements of production work together to create a sense of "branding"?
4. How do your products represent social groups or issues?

    Here are my notes for these questions that I will elaborate on in this blog post:

    The bolded questions are the ones that will most likely require a lot of gathering of the same information to last year's questions, such as analyzing the TA and describing how specific choices were made to specifically call to their attention and make the content the most relatable/digestible for them. That's one example, being that to make any piece of media there are general outlined things that remain the same. Being that many of the questions revolve around the same topics, I will probably abide by the same frame of steps (even though last year's process felt more like a rushed miracle than organized thoughts) to answer these new set of questions. If you want to read more about my process with the CCR last year, click here.

    The structure of the CCR is pretty simple, including:

• Introduction: Thesis on the main idea/ theme conveyed through the project.
• Body paragraph: Answering 4 questions (w/ evidence + multimedia posts + link to previous blog posts)
• Conclusion- Quick wrap up that offers a new point complementary/ maintained by the overall essay.

(ex: I did a CCR as this year's Midterm to my group documentary Does This Make You Uncomfortable?

Click here to check it out)

Focus- Dissecting and Analyzing each Question

1. How did your research inform your products and the way you use or challenge conventions?

    The main focus on this question revolves around research and genre. I will have to include research done towards specific production techniques/ approaches regarding my genre, where I will have to specify my genre's conventions, and research regarding specific productions viewed. Once that's established, I will indicate how that process of research mended with the ideas Sofia and I had for our own production in that genre, and dissect what specific decisions we made and why regarding sticking to the "usual" for our genre or diverging and doing something else. This segues into a discussion of the target audience, as specific choices are made for them specifically as well, segueing into question 2:

    2. How do your products engage with the audience?

    Here, a description of the TA (specifically listing age range, gender, and shared interests) is necessary, with dissection and analyzing how specific production choices tend to the TA group. Last year, my project relied heavily on research regarding TA, something I want to have more attention for this project. Additionally, focus on how the other two products (social media + print aspect) are made to best compliment the TA's style/ current state of consumption will also be highlighted.

     3. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?

    Here, the focus is on the intended brand for the product and how we developed specific production choices to build up that brand. Our brand is chosen for reasons such as TA also considering genre, with most aspects tying into each other in terms of production choices. In this question, critiques regarding what could've been done to better develop the intended brand is also a requirement, indicating acknowledgment and self-assessment of problems/ solutions.

     4. How do your products represent social groups or issues?

 

    This question focuses on the specific examples of representation made in our production regarding groups, events, and ideas. Regarding our product, we make representations about specific age groups/ the current state of society in terms of social connection. Our whole piece is based on trying to shine light on a specific part of our reality that we wish was more embraced, being the connection that derives from places such as the local communities we focus each episode of the docu-series on. We will have to get into great detail with this question, with included evidence as to why we made specific representations (ex: psychological interview). Additionally, describing if we were successful in making our representation is also a part of the question.

    Overall, each question requires reference  to research and attention-to-detail on why we make the choices we do regarding production elements for all of our different products, with analysis of the questions allowing me to prepare for my individual response and organize anything else I might need to be prepared to support Sofia and I's production choices.

    

Filming Interviews: Day 2

 

    HELLO BLOGGG!!!! It has been a while. Since the last time I spoke to you I have performed and had the best time at the States level drama competition I mentioned in the last blog, taking over my brain to say the least! sun terms of this project, I am pretty much on the same page as I was before I left, except that Sofia and so now have two interviews done out of three!! Today we got back from the trip very early in the morning (at like 6 am), so after some much needed rest we filmed and got really great footage to work with!!

Interview- Camilo

     Our interviewee’s name is Camilo, also a friend of my dad’s from the local group we are focusing the episode on. We were supposed to film with him earlier in the week but ended up being busy, a problem as he made time to film with us. Knowing this, we planned extra well for today, giving us about an hour to two hours to film anything we needed to. 

     Just like for Armando’s interview, the location type stayed the same, being his workshop of planes. Another reason we chose to have this type of location was not only to personalize each interview and give a look into each persons individual space where they interact with the hobby that connects them, but also to demonstrate the different levels of “commitment”/ “obsession” to the hobby, as well as how ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you have 5 planes or 100, the love and connection in the community is the same. That being said, Camilo definitely is higher up on the number of planes, with 212 model airplanes in his warehouse!! IT WAS INSANE. Here are some pictures of me filming and of the surrounding areas:

Picture of me filming a 3D printer-looking machine cutting a programmed design out

What looks like a bat cave full of planes... Planes everywhere!

     Because his interview would be one of the ones we focus on in the first five minutes of the documentary, we wanted to get as much footage as possible. Sofia, being extremely tired from the return from the field trip, stayed at home and I went alone with my dad. At first I thought it might be a problem but soon saw that it worked well, with my dad serving as an interviewer/ comforter to the interviewee at times, making Camilo’s responses more natural. 

     First, Camilo took us on a tour of his entire warehouse, giving insight into personal connection to different pieces, as well as allowing for an understanding of the complexity and true effort that grand devotion to the hobby implies, shown through his knowledge of specific tools and inner workings of design. After we took a tour, we filmed his more proper interview in his office, seating him at desk, and asking him the same interview questions that we asked Armando in the last interview. 

Reflection

     Overall, Camilo’s interview was very successful, providing meaningful responses not just about the knowledge it takes to truly involve oneself in the hobby of model airplanes but also the rich and irreplaceable connection it can offer that leaves no room for selfish intent, only laughs and good times. Regarding the actual production quality of the interview, I forgot to put the camera mic on the camera, so the audio from the camera sounds pretty disastrous! I did use voice memo to record audio, so I hope that suffices because his voice was rather low in volume... We will download the videos soon and align it with the voice memo audio soon and see how it fits. I’m really excited to see how the two different types of interviews (standing/ more casual and sitting/ more proper) will be edited together for all of the interviewees, with Sofia and I planning to film the final interview either tomorrow or Monday!!

Filming Interviews: Day 1

 

    Hello blog!!! It is the week of filming, filming, and more filming! My sister and I have our State Competition for theater this week, specifically leaving on Wednesday meaning we need to get a good amount done before then. Even though we plan to film after, we want to have at least one interview done, being the one we filmed today! If you read the last blog post I posted, being yesterday (click here to access it), you know that we originally planned on filming two interviews today... Well that didn't exactly happen! Instead, we plan to film the second and third interviews that we need before we are all done with non-creator interviews (aka interviews that aren't revolved around Sofia and I) this weekend, as we come back from the trip really early in the morning on Saturday. Until then, however, we have some other stuff on the checklist! Let's see what we have accomplished...

Hallway Shots

    If you read the blog linked above you'll see that Sofia and I were planning on getting some shots of our school hallway busy with people during a passing period to include in our intro, specifically for the "DISCONNECTED" segment of our intro, done to showcase how even though people are right next to each other there are a number of people who remain emotionally and socially isolated, with a major cause being technology (showcased through students with headphones, students on phones, etc,,,). Right after AICE Media Studies, we both went to the end of the hallway, with Sofia pulling out her camera to record right as the passing period was going on. We tried to get different angles to highlight the number of people/ how separate they might felt, doing so by making sure to capture the length of the long hallway and try to get shots of people on their phones/ headphones. Overall, I'm happy with the shots we got, as they will aid us to establish a specific societal state early on into the doc.

Interview- Armando

    Armando's interview is the first one of three, with his being less shown in the first five minutes of the doc meaning we didn't need AS MUCH content. Due to the structure of the first five minutes of the doc, his interview will be focused on after the 5 minutes are over, meaning the segment we are focusing on doesn't necessarily shine too much attention on him. With that being said, we still filmed around 10-15 minutes of content wit him, as in editing we will be integrating aspects of his interview to establish him as a key subject in the development/ introduction to the "Las Gaviotas" (The seagulls) model airplane group/community that this episode focuses on.

    Our course of action when filming started with having my dad set up a time to film, being that we had already confirmed the date of filming. After arranging a time that worked for our school/homework schedule as well as my dad and the interviewee, we established location. The location is the same type throughout all of the interviewees: their "workshop"/ work space that where they keep their planes. With that being established, we were on our way! Bringing our Sony camera, a tripod, a phone for voice memo recording for audio, and my journal with specific interview questions, we got there and filmed for around 30 minutes to 45 minutes. 

Picture of me filming b-roll of Armando's model airplanes

    The interview went well, being a good test run of interviewee responses to our specific questions which I showcase in the next blog post. Being that we mainly focus on 2 of the 3 interviewees in the first five mins of the doc, whichever interviewee was more comfortable/ entertaining and gave the best quality responses is the one we were going to "replace" with the other when choosing which 2 to focus on. This interviewee was direct and decisive with his responses, sometimes leaving the answers with room for more explicit emotional connection to the group, but overall providing useable information.

Reflection

    The first interview experience was successful, giving us our first perspective of the Markham park airplane group that we will use the interviews to get closer to/ get to know more. The shots of the hallway also were successful, giving us options of what to use for the introduction. The remaining of the week my sister and I will probably be more focused on theater but we will come back on Saturday for our second filming day!

    

Game Plan for Next Week

    Hey blog readers, I hope everything's going well. I finished my show! It was incredible and tears were wept considering it's my last show in the school's theater program ever. I’m still clinging onto the experience which is why I’m starting the blog post with that status update :) In the past couple of days, I’m going to be honest Sofía and I haven’t done too much action-based work… More thinking and plotting which is why this blog post is dedicated to a re-evaluation on what we need to film vs. what we already have, with reference to the structure of our first episode helping us determine what gaps we have to fill.

Intro (0:00-1:30 ish):

    This part of the episode is probably the one Sofia and I are having the most problems on, as we know the feeling we want from it yet aren’t sure about what specific shots will get us there. For this part of the five minutes, we are starting by introducing the “state of the world” that we are attempting to confront, being one of disconnect, loneliness, and oftentimes hopelessness. 

    For this, we want to build intensity to get to a final question that introduces Sofia and I for the first time, being something along the lines of “What do you think?” coming from the psychologist. Leading up to that question, we want shots of people using their phones rather isolated or candid shots that portray individuals not interacting with others, with editing coming into play as the psychologist voiceover moves the shots. We also want it to lead to contrasting shots of fun moments/ group moments that we have already begun capturing, as we are showing an extended part of the reality of the “state of our world”, showing that hope isn’t lost and connection is available and alive.

    Below are some stills from a video I took on my friend Julia’s Sony camera as we were hanging out at the beach to film for her Portfolio project, taking the opportunity to film for the moments of “connection” for our intro:

Sam playing volleyball

Yoav catching a volleyball!!

                                          

    This week we also recorded the psychologist shots that we will be using mainly for voiceovers, meaning the main things we want to film for next week include candid shots of people alone/ for the DISCONNECTED sequence, more shots of people spending time together doing fun activities for the CONNECTED sequence, and Sofia and I's introduction after responding to the psychologist's question "What do you think?" regarding all the information she gives about the state of the world. We will take our camera to school to film shots like the school hallway tomorrow, as we want to maybe put it in slow-motion in the less intense part of the intro montage.

Additional shots that are already taken other than the ones mentioned include:

• Local community hub/Introducing location montage 
• B-roll of the park where the airplane community meets at

Shots that we need to take include:

• 2 long interviews of people in the "airplane community": my dad and his friend Armando (we had to adjust to people's schedules so the person we originally thought it was going to be can't do it anymore) + B-roll of each interviewee where they store their airplane supplies, etc...
• 1 short interview of an additional friend of my dad's from the "airplane community" to include after the introduction of the park (purpose: to have 3 main subjects that the episode revolves around before meeting the whole group at the park; more personal perspectives)
• Any interviews of Sofia and I/ Voiceovers if we see we need to help with narrative (probably won't be needing these types of shots other than in the intro)

    Overall, we are in pretty good shape with filming, as we plan to get some intro shots and the main 2  interviews done tomorrow during and after school. This next week Sofia and I are going on a three-day field trip to Tampa because we have our States level competition for drama. I am really excited, but we want to make sure we have ourselves organized before that so that's why I thought this blog post was essential. After Monday, we will continue getting intro shots that match the psychologist interview/ of "DISCONNECTED" vs. "CONNECTED" moments, and then we should be done filming. I'll update you guys on how filming goes :)