Portfolio project- Documentary

Documentary excerpt 

magazine article

social media page

These are the links to the three components of the portfolio project. With "______American" we really wanted to create a piece that we could relate to and that Generation Z as a whole could relate to as well. The magazine article conveys the inner workings of our minds and the question and answer format allow the reader to get a better idea of where we are coming from with this project. Similarly the social media page reflects reaching out to our target audience and develops the episode format of the project including clips from the series not included in the excerpt. Also the social media served as a great form of distribution. 

Critical Reflection

The docuseries “Blank American”, stylized as “________American” is meant to explore the various ways that people, specifically Generation Z, maintain aspects of culture without living in that culture. The perennial immigration story is given a twist here because the series explores the life after immigration and focuses more on the children of immigrants rather than immigrants themselves (although two of the subjects did immigrate from other countries to America they were very young at the time). The series explores the overall use of the mediums of food, art, and technology/media to maintain a cultural identity in America.


In order to properly create a docuseries, researching existing material that had a similar topic or target audience was crucial. The docuseries “Ugly Delicious” achieved something close to what the desired accomplishment was with this project. They used one medium throughout, food, and explored different cultures and methods of cooking one food while this series is using various mediums to maintain different cultures. We incorporated several elements from “Ugly Delicious” in “________American” including using multiple subjects instead of focusing the documentary on one person/culture. Another docuseries “The Toys That Made Us” used a lot of b-roll when mentioning the past but kept it engaging by making the cuts fast and having a variety of visual stimuli instead of a few old photos. “________American” definitely emulated this during the history/context portion of the excerpt where the voiceover about the history of immigration in America is played over a diverse group of images that are copyright free.


However one way that the project challenges documentary conventions is having two narrators instead of just one. “________American” has two narrators to make the project even more engaging because one narrator might have been too monotonous. Now in hindsight this may confuse the audience more than grasp their interest but the intention was to try and subvert conventions in a way that would help gear the project further towards a younger audience. Another convention that was somewhat subverted is the use of music or background music. No music is used in the excerpt, purposely, because the focus is supposed to be on the subjects and what's on the screen stead of the music. The point of this subversion was to not detract from what was being said and have the focus truly be on the answers to the questions.



Technically, another way the project challenges conventions is the use of a singular angle to film the subjects the production was restrained by the circumstances of the pandemic so software like zoom and Microsoft Teams had to be utilized to attain the level of diversity that was necessary for the project. The audio for some of the interviews is mediocre and one way to fix this was to get microphones but then again because only two subjects were interviewed in person, this would’ve only fixed the audio for a small portion of the excerpt. The camera quality is also quite poor because we had to rely on the webcam of the subject’s laptop while really only one subject was able to have quality footage, free of grain.


Because the target audience, which is Generation Z, has such a short attention span, including a wide variety of images and videos interspersed with the interviews was one way the project sought to maintain interest. Usage of stop motion videos to add variety to the project helped to diversify the shots and kept the excerpt engaging. Stop motion is unique in that the subjects are represented by chess pieces and props were created to better visualize what the subjects are saying. Since they discuss complex ideas and situations, breaking down the nebulous idea into a more palatable or bite size format helps drive home the message of the project and keeps the integrity of the message while also giving the younger audience the opportunity to better understand it.


The subjects included in the project are a testament to the diversity of Generation Z and the commitment of the series to showcasing several identities and maintenance of various cultures. “________American” was able to include a variety of races and ethnicities even though only five subjects are utilized. Representation and diversity was really important to the project because the idea was to create a docuseries that would represent a multicultural generation and show how hybrid American cultures were becoming more commonplace. However one critique of the representation is the lack of male representation but perhaps this accidental/circumstantial exclusion can provide a refreshing view since documentaries are dominated by males.


“________American” is a docuseries geared toward Generation Z. That is why there are so many visuals, they keep the excerpt engaging so that the target audience is not bored. Generation Z has a notoriously short attention span, that is why our episodes were planned to be 20-25 minutes at most. Generation Z is the most multicultural generation in history, so using a diverse group of subjects allows “________American” to appeal to a wide audience. Although the target audience is skewed younger that doesn’t mean that older age groups wouldn’t relate to the series. Since the topic is almost universal and personal to millions of people around the country/world the series is easily marketable.


Integration and continuity of the brand identity between the social media page the magazine article and the documentary excerpt showcase the cohesive nature of the brand. Since the stories told by each subject are so personal and the questions asked are so deep and thought-provoking the idea was to create a digital scrapbook. Because subjects refer to their memories and their past as well as their present, a scrapbook best represents looking back at the past but also pages can be created to commemorate the present. This was maintained through the beige background of the title cards in the excerpt and the beige background of the social media as well as the name plates included in the excerpt. The tape graphics used in social media all work together to perpetuate the scrapbook idea.


Even though the excerpt is not perfect what it really breaks down to is time. Although even if we did have even more time I’m sure there would still be beautiful imperfections that hamper the effectiveness of the excerpt. The diversity of the subjects is both a strength and a weakness because while various races/ethnicities are represented we did not have any male subjects. The social media integrated the scrapbook theme with the excerpt and the magazine article also emulated that aesthetic with its background. Overall, I am proud of the work my partner Shreya and I were able to create.

Alexa play "End of the Road" by BoyzIIMen

 So we've reached the final moments of our portfolio project for A level. Honestly I am really proud of what we were able to accomplish while being secluded in our homes due to the pandemic. I know that if we had been able to be more mobile we would have done some things differently but I am truly pleased with how the documentary excerpt and the other components came together. 

This past week has included a lot of zoom calls most of them in excess of 2 hours and a lot of editing on my part since we can't share the editing responsibility. Overall, Shreya and I work really well together and that is why we've worked together on both this year and last year's projects. We are basically done with the project at this point, just a few more edits to iron out and Shreya is finishing up the social media. The excerpt will be up in 48 hours 👀so show it some love when you get the chance!

It's the Final Countdown

 The Final Countdown

And so we are heading into the final week of our portfolio project. I am happy with where we are at right now. I am currently editing a lot of the content we have curated through our interviews and the intro we want to do. I think I am about 40% done with the excerpt. I really have been working on the meat of the project, the middle of the excerpt because I felt like that was the best place to start with all the footage I had to go through and stuff like that. 

I think are on track to finish by Friday which is my goal. Shreya sent me her recordings for the intro today and I recorded mine as well. The clip I have right now is at 2:15 and with the intro we will probably end up at around 4 minutes maybe less than that. I really think that we won't be able to include more than one more subject (I have two edited together right now) maaaayyyybbbeee we can squeeze another one but it would be hard to keep it under time. 

Shreya is working on the instagram and we need 20 posts. She is using canva to complete it and she is making great progress. We haven't posted anything yet but I think I might start promoting the account on my personal instagram account to give it more visibility and followers. 

Stop!(motion) In the Name of Love

 Bringing back my (nonexistent) stop motion skills just like I'm bringing it way back with this reference to a Supremes song. I used to be quite adept at using different apps on my phone for stop motion since I did several projects in that style for Film class in middle school, and let's just say its been a hot second since I have used this technique. Shreya and I wanted to ensure that our docuseries would be visually engaging, and because some of the subjects talk about abstract ideas like religion, we wanted to visualize what they were describing. We decided to use stop motion because we found it would be a cool and fun way to spice up the doc but it is not exceedingly simple. 

The hardest part about this stop motion for me was finding the right space to do it. I really wanted to find a space in my house that had a plain background but it just wasn't working out. I tried to create my own with blankets and that didn't look good at all. Also the baseboards on the walls made the floor less of an option to me. I ended up using a book shelf and honestly I might redo the stop motion I completed just because i want to make a better background. 

In the interview, Dani spoke about how christianity and catholicism were bug parts of her parents way of maintaining their hispanic heritage. I visualized that with some things I had around my house and I will include the short clip below. 

C'mon VOGUE

 Let your body move to the music, move to the music

ok ok i'm done 

This might be a stretch for the title but I am going to make it work anyways. Basically I am trying to say that we have finished the magazine article component of the project. How does this relate to Madonna's 1990 smash hit you ask? Well it is quite simple really, Vogue just also happens to be a very famous arts and entertainment magazine, precisely the kind of medium our article would appear in to be marketed. Does that all make sense? Ok maybe I took it too far with this one 😂.

Our teacher gave us some feedback on the article and I was able to complete all the subsequent edits Shreya and I came up with. I will include it below. 

magazine article

Check On It by Beyoncé feat. Bun B, Slim Thug

Ooo Boy you lookin' like you like what you see

Won't you come over check up on it, I might let you work up on it
Ladies let em check up on it, watch he while he check up on it
Dip it, pop it, twerk it, stop it, check on me tonight

^this has been playing in my head recently because Shreya is going to check on my work on the magazine article haha

Anyways Shreya and I met yesterday and I was able to send her a zoom link so we could share our screens and show each other our progress on what we have been respectively been working on. She said she felt bad because she felt like I was doing work and then she was just criticizing what I had done but that really wasn't the case because her critiques will make the final product better. Her suggestions weren't condescending at all and I really appreciated her taking the time to thoroughly digest what I had accomplished and offer suggestions. 

Shreya said that I should reorganize the flow of the questions which is something I had mentioned in my blog post about making the questions. She also suggested that I remove one question and replace it with a question about our subjects to show our gratitude and talk about our reasons for choosing who we chose. I will include the updated article below, however there are some placeholders because I want to include a screen grab of the doc itself and we aren't far enough along for that yet but we will be soon!