The Perks of Having a Creative Friend: Part 2

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!!

The Perks of Having a Creative Friend

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 is 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:

                                          

    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 :)

Print Component- Brainstorming

    Hey blog readers, how's it going? Oh how am I doing? I'm doing pretty great. I had the opening night of the show I'm putting on right now at school (Pippin :) last night, with two more nights to give it all the cast and I have coming up today and tomorrow. While that's happening, I also want to give this project all I have but it's been hard with the theater productions I've been involved in in the past two months. But, I am here to talk about a positive step forward into another part of the project for this year, hopefully paving the way for a more dedicated Victoria: 

The Print Component- Magazine Article

    The print component tied to creating a documentary is to create 2 pages of a magazine article. There are specific requirements, with the bullet point list below highlighting the things we need to have in ours:    

• Typical Format of a Magazine: Prominent title, page #'s in bottom outside corners + magazine title on top corners, byline, bolded interview questions (standout in some way)...
• Self-taken pictures
• Publishment exs: Entertainment Weekly, Film magazine...
• Optional: Extra info boxes

    While we still want to look into examples to see what type of style we want to make the magazine, we have already decided on the concept of the content of the magazine, as we have a strong idea of the larger picture of the different things we want to say in our overall project. Out of the three main "alleys" that are conventionally chosen that we were presented with (BTS content, explain concept of doc, or a director focus), we want to combine director focus and explanation of concept to give a more serious perspective on the sociological implications/studies of the state of connection in our modern world. We have already filmed with a psychologist (I'm sorry I never updated you about that) that we will be implicating throughout the article to help move the topics which we are very excited about! 

    We will probably start to actually work on the magazine closer to the final two weeks of the project deadline, as we want to focus on finishing the beginning of the documentary first. Below are pictures of notes from the class presentation on all of the print component details:

                                               

                                          

      

Film Day: Psychologist and the Park

    Hello blog readers, I have some exciting news...

    WE FILMED OUR FIRST INTERVIEW!!!

    Yes. We did. Well by we I mean Sofia because I had to be somewhere else, but still. While I would've loved to be there, Sofia did a good job as she filmed both our first interview AND b-roll shots of the park where our focus group meets to fly model airplanes: Markham Park. Here is how her day went, with specific planning involved so that she wouldn't waste time and get all the shots she needed, being that lighting is important for the outdoor shots.

The Park

    The first place Sofia went was to Markham Park, where she would complete filming the introductory montage of the hub where the focus "local community" of the episode, being the "airplane community", meets and connects. We want the montage to be about 25 seconds, including the title of the show, Interconnected, and of the episode, tentatively called "Flying High". Considering that the last Top Gun movie came out not too long ago and has since become heavily associated with anything airplane-related (at least for my Top-Gun-loving dad), we want to stylize the location introduction to be inspired off of the fast-cut, movement-filled energy of the movie sequences, as each episodes location introduction will be stylized to match the energy of the activity/ environment of the group. Because we want to do this, Sofia made sure to get a lot of shot variety including different angles, ultimately landing upon this gem of a video from one of my dad's friends... (it's been shortened so I can fit it in this blog post the actual video is much longer and has other moments we want to use):

     COOL I KNOW. We are both very excited about that shot, as we can play around with shot variety and it adds such a cool dynamic and different perspective of the airplane.

    Our shot list included mainly establishing shots of the flying field, the hut where the planes are fixed, and any surrounding areas of the park that are eye-catching/ add to the overall portrayal of the group's usual environment. We want to use their shared hobby to bring focus on the actual people and their own willing choice to continue to show up in this one place to do what they love together, so Sofia was sure to get shots of not just the planes but also the people flying them, as my dad brought her on a day when some of the group we are focused on was there flying. To film she brought her Sony camera that we use for most of the shots, as well as a tripod in case she wanted to stabilize any shots. 

                                                 

   The Psychologist

    

    After she filmed those outdoor shots of the park, she went to her therapy session where she would film the interview that she agreed to beforehand. We were really excited about this, as it adds a level of professionalism and credibility to the ideas we are getting at about connection, also inviting another perspective that would be essential in the opening sequence and recurring perhaps in the other episodes. After she graciously agreed, we wrote down some interview questions including:

• Do you see a shift in the way that society connects?
• Do you think technology has had an effect on today's social world/ local communities?
• Do you see a difference in the way that different generations connect in the modern world?
• Do you think there's a bigger (social) disconnect in a specific age group?

    These are just some, with Sofia ending up asking her additional questions as she saw that she wasn't receiving the responses she wanted to help guide the introduction, as we want to use her interview as a narration/voiceover for the first minute of the episode. I will talk more about the introduction later in the week once I clarify what we want from it with Sofia. Sofia used a tripod to film, especially because there was no one there to help her. I'm really excited for this one specific shot where the therapist asks the question "What do you guys think?" or something along those lines, being where we introduce ourselves to the series with a quick whip-pan transition, taking the audience from the therapist office to what will probably be our room. 

Sofia outside of the therapy office ready to film!

    Overall, the interview and b-roll shots went really well, and I am excited to ultimately edit everything together and transition from the intro sequence to the location introduction in a seamless and fun way that's complementary to the feeling of the show and the specific episode.

Seasonal Group Meeting

 

    The group meeting that I had with Mateo, Manu, Dani, and Mariano regarding the current status of each of our projects, being an exchange of ideas and opinions towards solving any present-day conflicts was very beneficial, as not only did I get good ideas to consider implementing (so did Sofia that we shared together from our individual groups), but it also gave me the chance to summarize where I am at with my project and reestablish my current goals, such as storyboarding and uploading social media. Although I completely forgot about this part of the midway check process, I think it served my group well, with notes on my peers and my own suggestions down below:

    

    In terms of my project, I introduced the conflict of trying to balance the dual narration of Sof and I as well as the being observers/narrators balance, as well as the conflict of the introduction/ how we are still trying to find secure options for that. A suggestion following that was what if we integrate ourselves into the hobby/activity that the local community does, that way we can indirectly by putting ourselves in the frame for narration and also just allowing the group to take over and interact with us/ give the audience as well as us a sense of who they are. 

    I introduced this idea to Sofia and we are considering it, reminding me of Ugly Delicious in the way Chang gets close to the guests on his show and also leads the narrative more implicitly/ with a balance, letting his guests make their impressions on the viewer through his dialogue with them. Some suggestions Sofia received from her group meeting (which you can hear more about here), were to ask similar interview questions to each interviewee to show how they differ, as well as to highlight how each ep. has a distinctive local group it is focused on, yet the entire docu-series is about overall connection and society as a whole. From this, I'm reminded to not lose sight of the overall purpose while making each episode a different feel complementary to the group being focused on. Overall, the group meeting allowed for different perspectives to give their insight and also was a nice way to catch up with friends on how they're evolving their projects.

First Filming Day!

 

    THAT'S  A WRAP ON FILMING DAY ONE! As you can tell, I am very excited that we have begun to film, as not only does it feel good to know that we are progressing towards actualizing our vision for the docu-series but also that we are checking off specific clips we need to start editing in around 2 weeks, spring break. Let me run through the day of filming:

1.     Being the busy theater girls we are, we had tech week all week this week for our upcoming production of the musical "Pippin", which is coming up in a couple days and demands major planning from Sof and I for this project, but that's for another blog post! That being said today was the last day of tech rehearsal this week, meaning that after we were done at 5:30 we would go straight to Markham Park (the park where they all meet up).
2. Knowing that we would have to go straight from school, Sof brought her Sony camera as well as asked one if our best friend's Julia (whose also in this class) could bring her tripod, just in case we wanted more stable shots. (She ended up saying yes! Thank you Julia!)
3. We finish rehearsal and go straight to the park, with the sun setting causing a BEAUTIFUL sunset that you can see below with the rest of the pictures we took at the park. We used this to our advantage and got some really cool shots that we still need to download, mainly including scenic shots of the surrounding areas close to their meet up spot.
4. We will surely need to return to get some day shots of planes as we didn't get any with the planes, as well as more specific location shots for the introduction montage of the location that would be consistent for every episode, of course revolving around the different locations that each community is in.
5. Found out that we have at least 2 interviewees for the more individual segment of the episode, and want to find a third to focus on as the three main subjects of the episode until the episode would move into them as a group (the part of the ep. that we won't be showing).

    Below are pictures from the night of filming (it was cold that's why I made that face in one of the pictures, enjoy):

 they gave us food from their barbecue!

    Overall, it was a successful filming day and I'm excited to download all the footage. The shots allow us to play with color-grading in the way we wanted to/ let us experiment with making a more cinematic look before focusing on the more grounded, raw interviews, a key reason as to why we wanted to do a short film in the beginning stages of the project. While we will do what we need to do to serve the story, we will also be bringing in our personalized touch that offers our perspective through our production choices, such as in editing.

Planning: Episode Overlook

 

   From doing documentary research to watching sample media text examples, Sofia and I have been building a strong foundation in order to build upon our ideas regarding the docu-series "Interconnected". From the lack of time we've had to solely focus on our approach of the currently nameless episode of the documentary we are making, Sofia and I felt a little bit all over the place with what we wanted to film, specifically with how exactly we wanted to approach the first episode of the series, as we already knew half of the first 5-7 minutes is going to contain a specific intro that implies the purpose of the doc/ connects the audience more to the directors/ "narrators" in a way.

    To help us ground some of our lingering ideas, we decided to have a meeting (in my bedroom!). We ended up developing a clearer sense of structure and understanding towards the importance of ALWAYS thinking about how the audience will feel after every choice made. While it may sound excessive, I practiced this type of mentality during my last documentary project, as the bigger-picture, core points needed to be strongly implied and led up to in the midst of an unserious topic (feet.), making it extremely necessary to be aware of the bigger picture at all times so that every choice adds up in an effective way so the points are developed fully and clearly, leaving no room for confusion. While this is a general takeaway from our meeting, below are notes that I took as well as Sofia's very early version of a "storyboard" for the intro, a tool to help us process what we want the opening sequence to be:

    The main part of the episode that we are still grounding and trying to fully dissect is the introduction to the episode/series in general, that we plan on making around half of what we have to film for the episode. Similar to Ugly Delicious' first episode where David Chang actualizes the aspect of passionate  competition/comparative investigation that's present throughout most of the series by making an actual contest with a panel of judges that try two types of food, we want to include a more abstract, one time introduction to establish the nature of the rest of the series, which we had a couple of alternative ideas for. 

    The last one we landed on was beginning by establishing the "state of the society", being mainly negative towards daily opportunity for connection (depict isolation, technology relationship to social disconnect (referring to the U.S.), and then transitioning to us and establishing our relationship with that reality/ introducing why we are making the doc. While that's a very simple explanation and the way we do it is going to be more implicit, we are thinking of including things like a psychologist, news segments, and maybe even a segment similar to one in the docu-series Abstract where the main subject of the costumes episode walks through a hallway /is recounting childhood memories through staged b-roll, with Sofia and I wanting to emulate the creative and "show don't (just) tell" approach to giving the audience necessary context.

   Lastly, we also picked a FILMING DAY! Now that we are clearer on what we want for the airplane shots, including b-roll, interviews, and location shots, we are going to go tomorrow to the park where the local community group meets up every week, as my dad who is a part of it is going to meet up with his friends and is brining us along :) We plan on filming location shots/ hopefully some shots of the airplanes being flown and with the people there.

Key Elements- Initial Ideas

     Based on the last blog (which the link for is here), Sofia and I have gathered some ideas for our own project, combining elements from the last two documentary pieces we’ve looked into, Ugly Delicious and Bowling for Columbine , as well as from others from the past such as Exit Through the Gift Shop. 

     We are still in the process of concreting our approach method, as our base foundation requires us to fully flesh out how and to what extent we are going to “narrate”/ include ourselves in the progression of each episode, but below are some implementations we are experimenting with and think that we want for the structure of each episode. Although we only have to make 5-7 minutes of one for the Portfolio Project, we want to know what the overall approach will be so that we can accurately create our piece for submission, meaning that we want to think deeply about each of these elements. Here are some priorities to figure out soon/ ideas we have so far: 

Intro- Beginning Structure

     For the intro for each episode, we want to take inspiration from David Chang’s Ugly Delicious intros, with each episode ranging a little bit from each other but ultimately serving the same purpose: to set a conversational and casual tone while introducing the species of food that the episode is revolving. Although the first episode differs from the next two, as it includes a skit-type of debate into Chang's comparison and contrast journey of dumplings vs. Italian pasta, it sets up Chang’s unserious and easy-going personality, while also learning from successful chefs about the two types of cuisines, introducing the flexible and balanced nature of the following episodes. It also ends up establishing the purpose of the doc implicitly, being so explore the relationship between culture, travel, and history and food.

     For our intro, we want to set up the purpose of the doc-series, whether it’s through direct interviews of us asking a range of people how they see current day society in regards to connection (we would phrase it better) and possibly introduce an outside perspective confirming the more isolated/ lonely state of modern Western-society (possibly by a more "credible" source like a psychologist). We could then introduce ourselves (Sofia and I) through dialogue and move into the focus group/ "local community" for the episode, done through a montage of the central location the group meets up (inspired by the way Chang sets up each episodes location/new food group he's focusing on).

Context

  

     For establishing specific context such as locations, subjects names, and background information about relationships etc…, we want to use the “show don’t tell” method/ not have to explicitly state every piece of information as the “narrators”. Whether it’s by showing signs at our location, or through dialogue (MAINLY DIALOGUE), we want to let the subjects say things about themselves through the questions we ask/ through dialogue with other people in their local community. The clip below exemplifies how Chang, in his docu-series, reveals the bigger picture/ deeper messages about his passion without going directly to the camera/ telling the audience through a direct interview, connecting with his subjects through dialogue and also telling the audience more about himself and his background:

    

    

    In regards to context through interviews, Sofia and I were thinking about how we want to balance more formal feeling "sit down" interviews and the more casual dialogue discourse discussed above. We decided will use indirect interviews to ask more personal and individual questions such as "Why did you choose to start this hobby?", allowing the subject to create a sense of individuality even though the group is the main focus in the end. To create the more conversational tone, we want to also use dialogue (hopefully with more than one camera filming for shot variety) to get to know the subject and shared hobby/activity more, posing questions that will allow them to SHOW more, such as asking the subject how to do something physical that is related to the activity/hobby.

B-roll

    Regarding b-roll, we want to focus on the local community's shared interest (bingo, model airplanes, dance...) and capture individual and communal action of that hobby/passion. For example, for the episode we are most likely going to be filming for our chosen 5 minutes, being one of a weekly meetup at a 669 acres park for fishing, camping, etc... where a group of middle-aged men and some deviated-aged men go to fly their model-airplanes, we would film b-roll of our main subject's in their garage/ working area where they have their working area, establishing a sense of individuality for each main subject before showing them in the local community-group setting. Like in Ugly Delicious, we want to use shot variety to keep the viewer engaged, with editing helping as well. 

Narrator Involvement

    As discussed earlier, the topic of how involved we want us as the "narrators" to be in the progression of the episode is one that we aren't 100% clear on yet, but watching the two documentary pieces (Chang's and Moore's) did help establish that we want the audience to feel like they are "in" on the experience of the "sociological study". Both Chang and Moore involve the audience, with Chang being a specialized person in his field of study in the docu-series, but still finding a way to make him and his subjects feel extremely down-to-earth. We want to develop the "in on it" feel also through our social media page, with interactive posts like polls all working to make the audience feel included and further connected to the overall meaning of the documentary.

    

Conclusions

    These were some of the main elements that we wanted to begin to develop, as elements such as interviews, narrative, and b-roll are main aspects of a documentary to have a focus point on. Although our interviews can't be foreseen, we will begin to plan questions and filming days soon, as originally we wanted to film next weekend... LET'S SEE...

     

Research- Ugly Delicious and Bowling for Columbine

    The switch from short film to documentary was an unforeseen one, meaning my sister and I have had to act rather quickly regarding research and decision-making on what to infuse from our research to start creating our own documentary outline. Before touching on what we want to implement into our documentary, which so far is tentatively called "Intertwined" and is a sociological study on how local  community forms naturally, reaching out to current-day viewers and hopefully remind them that there is opportunity for connection at their disposal if they are open to living and spontaneously develop it (I can pitch it better get back to me soon), this blog post is dedicated to the research we gathered while watching two different documentaries that our teacher recommended us to watch after discussing with her long and hard about which way to take our ideas: the Netflix docu-series Ugly Delicious and the 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine. While they're very different, they both offered insight into different ways to develop a narrative/ a sense of path regarding different type of topics, with structure and narration (creator input/involvement) being our main focuses when coming into watching these two pieces.

Ugly Delicious

    This Netflix original docu-series, led by Award-winning chef David Chang, explores how different cultures blend and how they differ, combining travel, cooking, and history. It includes special guests that are friends of Chang, and confront cultural barriers and misconceptions with other well-renowned chefs.

    Sofia and I watched about 3 episodes of the series, because we wanted to view the progression of episodes and also because it was entertaining. While watching both, we decided to take notes on specific observations, with specific choices that stayed consistent in all three episodes and some that evolved as the audience got more accustomed to the show. Below are a picture of some of my observations of the first three episodes of Season 1:

    Overall, this series gave both of us a spark towards structure ideas and narration type that we want for our piece, but also proved to me that we can make the documentary as us as we want to, with Chang implementing his usual jargon and nature, showing up as his fully authentic and casual self (seemingly at least) as the experience is investigative for him and his friends. As we try to find our own balance of "formal" vs. "personal", I remember that we don't have to choose one over the other and that we can approach our docu-series in an extremely personal way, but still maintain professionalism and quality so that the audience will be willing and interested enough to want to watch it.

Bowling for Columbine

 This documentary was released in 2002, written, produced, narrated, and directed by Michael Moore. It's considered biographical, as it covers the events leading up to the 1999 Columbine High Massacre that killed 168 people, confronting topics like the need of gun control/ the high homicide in America in a less sensitive and more parodical manner.

    Although I didn't end up fully finishing this piece (I do plan on it), Sof and I went through a rollercoaster of emotions when we did watch it, feeling hesitant towards the open and completely casual nature of Michael Moore as he leads into discussing an unimaginable event. The way he alludes to things was effective, with his progression of events catching me Sofia and I off guard giving us ideas towards how we can keep our own piece surprising and well-driven by us as "narrators". Below are some of my observations while watching:

    This documentary once again reinforced the narration type that includes the creator throughout the documentary, indicating the role he/she has in setting the tone (as he very much does so in this piece!). Aside form technical elements, the idea of setting a specific tone, with each topic and what one wants to say about the topic distinguishing the tone, is always a really big factor for me, as it was a major factor in my last group documentary project Does This Make You Uncomfortable?, being that the topic was one of comedy and even disgust in some of today's society, so developing a shift in tones was necessary to grasp the audience at the start and develop a more insightful conversation/points at the end (which we didn't fully execute but it's okay!). With this specific piece, we want to keep it light and entertaining like David Chang's Ugly Delicious, yet also balance the tone drawn in my our own voices and the bigger picture purpose of the doc, with a shift in tones being possible in editing.

Conclusions

    Overall, watching the two documentary samples gave us ideas for our own narrative and chronological structure, that will obviously be affected by our interviewee responses but having a layout is helpful regardless. I will discuss our ideas in the next blog!