Tea

   Hey blog,

 Today is a short post and I just wanted to update you all that I have decided to create the short film I mentioned in the last blog post. I spent today realizing I was never going to reach out to the people I needed to if I was going to do the documentary excerpt or music video, so short film it is.

  Tomorrow's blog will be a lengthy post as there is a lot of planning to do!

  

Unrelated:

  I watched the new Ant-Man today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Prior to the watch I read a few negative reviews and saw lots of people compare it to Thor Love and Thunder which I was not a huge fan of so I was somewhat concerned going into the film. However, this experience just retaught me that not everyone is going to like the same films and this is something I will for sure be taking into consideration when creating my short film. I want to create something which I am proud of even if that means it is not everyone's cup of tea, but hopefully it is everyone's cup of tea. 

Think Brain Think

  Hey blog, I took the day to plan and have come up with three ideas that are nowhere closely to related to each other. I will now give a small summary of each with the pros and cons. 

Option 1:

  Short Film

  Genre: Psychological Thriller

  A girl drops her id and another girl sees this happen from afar. The viewing girl grabs the id hoping to return it to the girl who drooped it, but that girl has now disappeared. Will girl two ever find girl one?

Pros:

- I am decently experienced in creating a psychological thriller film as this is what I did for my AS project

- My friend Paola who helped with my AS film said she had an interest in being in this film

- Filming locations could be anywhere

- Easy costuming/props

Cons:

- Will require a larger cast than I may be able to find

- Would this be too long of a story to fit into a short film?

Option 2:

  Documentary

  Genre: Sports

 

  An episodic documentary covering women in sports focuses less on the difficulty of it and more on how these women are impacting society.

Pros:

- This would interest me to film as it is something I am passionate about

- I know women involved in the sports industry

Cons:

- Would the people I know be interested in partaking in this documentary?

- I saw a previous AICE Media Student had a project covering women in sports, would mine be too repetitive?

- Filming locations may be difficult as I am unsure if I could film at school games

Option 3:

  Music Video

  Genre: Promotional/Story Telling

Pros:

- I would enjoy making a music video as I love music

- I know someone who creates her own original music

- Filming locations would be accessible 

- Costuming/props would be basic

- Creative ideas for lightning

Cons:

- Would the person I know have any interest in being a part of this?

Overall:

  It is clear that these ideas are all underdeveloped and all share the common con that I am really bad at reaching out to people to be involved in my creations. I posted something on my social media story that did not directly ask my musically inclined friend to have her as my artist if I did the music video, but I think it got the point across. I will be waiting to see if she replies to this and if she does not I may reach out to her and see if she has any interest. If she does not, which is my assumption, I can easily cross the music video idea off of my plans. Then I may reach out to one of my athletic friends and see if they would have any interest in being part of the documentary. If both people say no then I believe the short film will be the way I am heading. 

Wish me luck, 

I will update you all tomorrow

Lost Focus

  Hey blog, I have some news.

  I have decided to do my project alone as I believe working with someone else may be too complex during this time of mental difficulty. I have no set plans yet and that is an issue as my time is ticking away. For example, I just spent a half hour staring at this blog post questioning what to write. Nothing is clicking like it did for me with my AS project. Also as I was staring at my computer I was hit by the fact that I am so stuck on seeing what is happening in other people's lives that I can never stop and focus on my own. Maybe this is an idea I could develop on? 

Apologies for the lack of updates and the lack of creativity flowing through my brain. Tomorrow I will try and have a brainstorming hour and develop some sort of clear plan and then will share that here.

Project Timeline

 Hey blog, I feel as if I am already behind on this project. Lately, my brain has just been a cluster of thoughts and I have been unable to come up with a clear plan. Below is my proposed project timeline which will hopefully get me focused and on track.

Week One:

- choose if I am working alone or with a group

- choose which option I am doing (doc, short film, trailers, music video)

- post to the blog

Week Two:

- choose the genre of the film

- research similar films

- develop overall plot

-post to the blog

Week Three:

- develop a script

- create a shot list/storyboard

- post to the blog

Week Four:

- find props/filming location/cast

- create a film schedule 

- post to the blog

- create social media 

Week Five:

- film project

- begin to edit the project

- document production process

- post to social media

- post to the blog

Week Six:

-create postcard advertisement 

- continue to edit a short film

- post to social media

- post to the blog

- receive feedback

Week Seven:

- make changes based on feedback

- finalize social media and postcard advertisement

- post to the blog

- post to social media

Week Eight:

- receive feedback

 - research Critical Reflection

- post to the blog

- post to social media

Week Nine:

- finalize all aspects

- create Critical Reflection

- post to the blog

- post to social media

Week Ten:

- post all project components to the blog

News:

  I have decided to work with my friend Brooke on this project. I am hoping the two brains focusing on the same tasks will benefit our project! We both agree that we will likely do a short film or documentary

  Topics:

  Last year when brainstorming for a film theme I typed them up into a notes document. I still have this document so I decided to add to it with a few new ideas. 

  If we decided to do a documentary I am leaning towards doing it on women in sports. If we do a short film I am leaning towards doing my AS level idea which is related to seeing someone and trying to see them again, but failing. 

 Wish me luck as I continue my planning stage!

Finding Purpose

Hello, again blog, 

 

    It is that time of year when I have begun thinking about what I will be doing for my AICE Media Studies A-level Portfolio Project! 

    This year, unlike last year at this time, I have been dealing with some mental health challenges and am really hoping I will find an interest in my project that will help me overcome this For the A-level project I can either choose to do a music component, a documentary component, a film promotion component, or a short film component. 

    I am leaning towards either doing the short film or the documentary option. In an ideal scenario, I would do the music component, but I believe this will not be possible as I do not know any artist/band I could work with. I am excited about this opportunity to create a project specifically since a portion of whatever component I choose has me creating a social media page. I believe social media marketing may be what I pursue as my future career so this will benefit me. 

    Tomorrow I will spend finalizing which opinion I will be completing and then will begin to dive into the specifics. 

    Here's to finding a purpose through the film!

Documentary Critical Reflection

  Our documentary posed the question of why people continue to pursue theatre when there are stigmas surrounding it. This documentary shares the experience of putting together a performance whilst interviewees share their love for theatre and address the stereotypes in the community. 

  Prior to creating our documentary we watched a documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, by Banksy. This documentary explored the passion behind street art while also capturing beautiful works of street art. I think this aligns with our documentary as our documentary focuses on passion (of the theatre) while also capturing beautiful works of art (performing). Unlike Exit Through the Gift Shop whose focus somewhat changed throughout the piece, our documentary from planning to post-production had the same topic. One way our documentary The Show Must Go On challenges genre conventions of documentaries in that it does not include a voiceover. Instead, our interviews almost act as a voiceover. We did not feel the need to include a voiceover since we believe our B-Roll being chronological from pre-production to post-production of a show was able to be understood without narration. 

  Our documentary represents the theatre social group which includes people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, backgrounds, etc. When choosing interviewees we wanted to make sure our subjects were at varying stages in their theatre experience. From our youngest interviewee who was participating in her first show to our oldest interviewee who has been directing shows for years. We knew not everyone has the same experiences and we wanted this to be shown. One of our interview questions discussed whether or not the interviewee planned to pursue theatre in college so we had multiple interviewees around the about to go to college level age and one who was in elementary to show how your want to pursue theatre can change as you age. Also, we made sure multiple genders were represented since males and females do not share the same experience in theatre. Our documentary also represents social issues, which are the stereotypes people place on theatre people. Through interviewing we found the theatre community had varying beliefs on these beliefs, some being that the beliefs are rude and wrong, and others that find the beliefs true. We made sure to share these varying beliefs to increase representation.  

  

  Our documentary is very engaging for the audience. Our target audience was people who enjoy theatre, whether that is being in productions, working on productions, or watching productions. Since we were documenting the creation of musicals the topic alone we believe would keep people engaged. We did not only want to engage our target audience, we wanted to engage non-theatre lovers who were interested in finding out why theatre people are so dedicated to their craft. Our documentary impressively features nearly endless amounts of B-Roll covering a variety of theatre-related topics whether this is a difficult choreography that is engaging to look at, a cast wearing bright costumes, stressed faces as final makeup preparations for the show are being completed, or rows that could go on forever full of seats. Multiple camera angles are used throughout our piece not just for closeups of scripts or pans of a stage full of dancers,  but also for the more relaxed aspects, the interviews. The addition of multiple angles to a few of our interviews adds depth in that it looks more professional and makes audiences feel as if they are talking to the interviewee. Not only is our piece visually engaging it is also auditorily engaging. Our sound was layered over the video so there were no times when audiences just watched B-Roll in silence, There were no pauses in the piece, and there was always something for audiences to listen to and look at. 

Documentary Creation

 I'm back...

  Hello blog, another summer has come and gone and I am back to producing pieces, but this time in AICE Media Studies A level!

The Assignment:

  One of my first AICE Media A-level assignments was to create a ten-minute documentary. I was given creative freedom which at times I have trouble with because usually I like to have some sort of preset idea to work with, but luckily my friend Nethumi asked me and my friend Sachate to work with her and she had a strong idea on what she wanted to document. Nethumi wanted to do a documentary about why students continue to pursue theatre even when there are stigmas around it. 

https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/preview/5652476163938694739/1366351320149178031

  If you read the above blog you would know I love musicals. I have been doing theatre performances since I was in elementary school and most recently did the show Something Rotten, so our documentary covers that production and also the production of Beauty and the Beast junior so that it covers a variety of viewpoints.

Pre-Production

  I did not realize coming up with an in-depth topic for our documentary would take as much time as it did. For a full day, our ideas kept being too broad. Eventually, we developed the topic I mentioned before and got to planning what b-roll we would film and I helped come up with interview questions. The planning document is linked below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AViN_4gFkRZSb3Kit7IoknzzNPirlZgX7GMi8wdTVl4/edit?usp=sharing

Production

  From November sixth till November eleventh I worked to gather B-Roll footage of all things Something Rotten related. This was going great! Then a hurricane hit! I was supposed to be gathering footage throughout the tech week (before show week) which I did other than on the ninth since our rehearsal was canceled due to the performance center being closed. Whenever I had free time whilst not on stage performing I walked around the theatre and captured people in action and also captured many still shots of props, sets, costumes, etc. Filming during tech week allowed us to record in show-like situations without interrupting the real show. 

Favorite Shot I Captured

  During this week I also interview my friend, and AICE Media AS level student, Angela, this interview was done outside but luckily did not sound as windy as the interview Nethumi did of her friend, and fellow AICE Media A level, student Keira. My interview ended up not being used in the final edit. 

Interview I Captured

Post-Production

  Once all of our B-Roll and Interviews were complete my group members and I uploaded all of our footage into a singular drive. I then went through and deleted any clips that were somehow imported twice and shared with my group any footage I believe we would not use and had them decide if I could delete it. 

B-Roll Drive

  Editing wise at first all three of us group members were going to edit the full documentary and compare it to see how we did. Once Nethumi started she informed us of how long the process was taking her and we decided that only she would edit. She also had trouble uploading Keira's interview footage clearly and Keira had great answers we wanted to use, so Nethumi edited due to having access. Sachate ended up editing a section of the piece and also created an intro graphic. I was the only one not to edit, which I regret, but I was not sure how my section would fit into the documentary or if it would not be used.

  Speaking of not being used, the majority of my B-Roll was not used which I found a bit upsetting, but understandable. I think if I would have edit my own version I would have included more of it since I could see the potential it had. 

  I am proud of my group in our creation during a hectic time. This project taught me that your creations may not always be used and that you have to accept that and trust that everything will turn out to be okay.