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!

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT

 Breaking news!

I think I am 90% done with the magazine article component because I decided to make it just one of the creators of the docuseries being interviewed. I have some placeholders for photos that I will update later but the meat and potatoes are done. I just answered the questions I had created myself because I felt like I was the person who knew what I was looking for in an answer. 

Shreya and I will meet tomorrow to discuss the project and moving forward and I will show her the component and ask for feedback to see what she says. I will post an update soon with what she says about the component. 

Second Semester Seniors Part 3

 Today we had another round of group meetings although the were much shorter than usual because we had instructional time the first half of class. It was really helpful to visualize what the critical reflection essay should look like because I was apprehensive about how to approach that process. In the group meetings we actually spoke a bit about how comforting it was to have some examples and ideas of what the final product should look like.

I mostly spoke to Jen for the rest of the period and it was cool since we are both working on the documentary option of the portfolio project. She seemed receptive to our _____American idea which was a relief because it is nice to see someone who hasn't interacted with our project before almost instantaneously understand what we are trying to accomplish with minimal explanation. Similarly, Jen's documentary about the University of Miami dance team sounds amazing! I can't wait to see it. She mentioned some problems she was struggling with but I wasn't able to offer a solution beyond what she had already tried. I did make some suggestions about other components of the project like using Canva to create the magazine article. 

Canva: Baby I'm Back by Popular Demand, ***** I'm Back by Popular Demand

 Soooooo yeah, I am using Canva again BUT after it burned me while I was attempting to make the title sequence I was worried it wouldn't be as useful. I decided to give Canva another chance since there is no other platform that I know how to use that has extensive templates and media resources. 

Part of the documentary option of the portfolio project requires you to create a magazine article to promote the documentary. Now, to me this was kind of vague and I wasn't sure how to create it at first, that's why Shreya and I asked our teacher awhile ago about what it should look like (that is pretty much where we got the q&a idea from) and I also made a blog post about the questions I wanted to use in said q&a. 

Originally I got carried away and was thinking we might need to create some sort of interview video but then I remembered it specifically said magazine, so immediately I thought of Adobe InDesign and I tried looking for templates on there but there wasn't anything that was really sparking my imagination which is why I came crawling back to Canva.  I will insert some of the different templates I am considering using for the project below. 

That's so Raven, it's a future I can see. That's so Raven it's so mysterious to me-e, yeah-eah. Yep that's me!

 Ok so I am noticing a trend with all these shows from my childhood being referenced in the titles of my blogposts I mean we just did Maya and Miguel but I think I did Phineas and Ferb a while back too. Should I try to keep this running? I don't know maybe if the post really relates to what I talk about but I think thats dishonest because honestly I think some of my post titles have nothing to do with what I talk about there is such a harsh transition everytime, with that said.....

Today's post is about the future! OoOoOoO (hence the reference to the tv show about a teen psychic)

Next week Shreya and I will be in crunch time pushing through this project so we can finish on time. I really want to have a rough draft of the excerpt by saturday the latest. To accomplish this I think what we need to do is start editing midway through the week after regrouping and further planning on Monday. Call me Raven because I think I just had a vision of us celebrating getting a lot done this week, so let's make it happen! :)

It's Maya and Miguel, brother and sister and best friends as well!

 Again if I have to explain what this title means like what were you doing as a child (assuming we are a similar age). Maya and Miguel was the show you guys, and maybe it is just now I am realizing this but I was exposed to a LOT of hispanic children's shows in my childhood: Dora, Diego, Handy Manny, Maya and Miguel too. Maybe my parents were trying to get me to see the only main character brown kids on tv at the time? I don't know. 

Anyways this post is about how my sister will be interviewed for the docuseries. I am not sure if we will use her interview or not but it is better to have the footage instead of wondering whether it would have been useful when we sit down to edit. She is the youngest person I know who can understand and properly answer the questions and we have a relatively young target audience. I have booked her for the thursday after we come back from break because i get that she wants to relax too and she is busy on literally every other day but we will make it work. Shoutout to my sister thank you for saying yes. 

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N in the Summer Sun!

 Ok yes I know it is SPRING break and not summer but it feels hot enough to be summer and I guess I was looking for an excuse to reference this Connie Francis classic. I listen to A LOT of music and I have gone through successive phases where I listened exclusively to music from a certain era (middle school me thought this was mindblowingly cool). Connie became a favorite of mine during my 50s phase, "Stupid Cupid" and "Among My Souvenirs" were also replays for me. 

ANYways the point of this post is to say that I will betaking a necessary break this week although I plan to be somewhat productive I do not think I will be anywhere near my pre-break levels. I am glad I will be able to relax and destress and I think I will come back from break with a renewed focus to get this project done and start editing the interviews we have so far ASAP. I am not sure what class will look like our first day back, but I hope Shreya and I have time to regroup and get our minds in the editing zone.  

Wow that's a great question, I wasn't expecting that question

 Well in our case, while our subjects weren't exactly expecting all the questions we asked, they were definitely informed about the parameters of the documentary. As of this blog posting we have completed 3 interviews which is great because we will have a lot of footage to choose from and different subject's answers could be better depending on how the intro goes. We have also scheduled two more interviews just to cover our bases.

 Shreya has contacted Amy, who can speak about Irish culture. We were planning a lot of stuff for the documentary that her interview would be crucial for and by chance she was in Shreya's group meeting on Wednesday so she had the perfect opportunity to ask Amy if she could be interviewed and Amy graciously said yes. I reached out to Alyssa who can speak about Nigerian culture. Although I do not know her personally I messaged her on Instagram and she agreed as well. I think she will be a good subject because she would be able to promote the doc if we asked her to since she is a model now. 

Quiet on set.....PLEASE!!!

 

Today Shreya and I interviewed Chelsea, one of our subjects for the docuseries. We used Zoom so that Shreya could be on the call while I interviewed Chelsea in person since she lives close by to me, this way we were able to get two angles of Chelsea which will add to our shot variety later. I filmed the interview on my phone and I changed the settings on my phone's camera so that it should have really high quality video. 

There were a lot of problems that dragged out the filming process, the majority of it being noise caused by my family (ugh). My parents were working upstairs and I had informed them previously that I would be filming yet my dad still came bounding down the stairs and interrupted Chelsea mid sentence. My sister, who was downstairs and could clearly see me doing a project, used an electric sharpener to sharpen her pencil while we were filming (I shut down when I heard the whir of the sharpener). And to top it all off my dog started whining, loudly, because he had been put away so he would not interfere with the filming (this was my breaking point). Luckily I was able to regain my composure after taking a five minute break and there weren't many obstacles after that. 

Second Semester Seniors: The Sequel!

 Today we had group meetings pt 2 and I think it went pretty well. Again even though we are second semester seniors it felt like we were all still hard at work, not slacking, still giving our all to create this final project for media studies. My group this time around was more specific than the last one, I don't know if that is really the right word to describe it but what I am trying to say is that most of the people in my group were doing documentaries as well except for 2, Annika is doing a music video and  Sara is doing a short film. 

I felt that everyone gave really good advice about what to do for the opening and I appreciated everyone's input. Annika mentioned the app ProCreate to create eye-catching animations for the intro but all that was playing in my head was "Status Quo" from High School Musical where they sing "stick with what you know.... we can do it...hip hop hooray....she has got to go" basically I am saying that I was nervous about trying a new software this late in the game, sticking to the status quo might be best plus the app costs money. 

I think I was able to give meaningful input when I could and I think Lucia's documentary about BLM will be really interesting I gave her a subject I thought would be perfect to interview and she had actually also thought of that person and had contacted them already but hasn't heard back yet. I think what she should do for b roll is put out a call for help on social media so that people can send her videos of any protests they went to so she can include it in the documentary. 

Script Scrapped Start Over

 So we have been working on our introduction script and it has been through a few different iterations but I do not think it has finished evolving quite yet. Shreya and I met today and we were able to discuss our visions for the introductory speech that will set up the context for the rest of the excerpt. Below is the rough draft I wrote and Shreya edited. 

Generation Z or those born between 1997-2012 are the most multicultural generation the world has ever seen. This is largely due to the massive amount of globalization that has occurred during the second industrial revolution (tech revolution) as well as increased connectedness that allowed for far more intercultural connections. 

The land of immigrants, America, has seen the rise of different communities like Chinese-American, Indian-American and Mexican-American. Migration has been around for thousands of years, it is what made the world what it is today. 

But what makes the present so special is the duality of gen z, being raised in two distinct cultures, pockets of this generation are attempting to preserve their family culture while living in another one.

I am iffy about this introduction because I think it is unfinished which is correct. I think a really important detail to include is how cultures that arrived before more recent ones are more mainstream and have an easier time maintaining culture. Like Italian culture is celebrated through widespread consumption of pizza and lasagna. It is a work in progress. 

Keep Being Curious Keep Asking Questions

 Yes the title to this blog post is a TikTok reference.....but I swear I'm not addicted. I have not opened the app in 2 weeks and I feel pretty good, even if I spend the time elsewhere like on tv or movies I feel like I'm learning more than if I was using TikTok, I feel more fulfilled even if I am still allocating the same amount of time to do homework. 

Anyways, the point of this blog post is to talk about some of the ideas I had for one of the components of the portfolio project, the media article. Right now I am thinking that a Q&A would be perfect because it will allow people to see our thought process. I have seen other films do it this way in order to get publicity but honestly I do not find Q&As enjoyable to read, but there must be a reason it is continually used and I won't let my personal opinion affect the quality of the product. SO obviously the questions should be targeted towards me because right now I am brainstorming questions in terms of my ideas and my experiences so I have an idea of how I'd answer them which would make the creation easier.

Questions:

Q: What made you want to create a documentary about culture or specifically the maintenance of culture?

Q:What do you hope the audience to take away from this production? What's the central message?

Q: Are you planning to do more seasons?

Q:What makes -American unique and different from other docs focused on culture like Ugly Delicious?

Q: What was production like during the pandemic?

Q:Who do you hope to reach with this project? Why?

(the placement of these questions is not set in stone I think I'd organize them differently but I'm not sure)

MOOOOOMMM Colin's making a title sequence *guitar chord*

 Who doesn't love a little Phineas and Ferb? (Candace was the best character let's not lie)

 I started working on the title sequence a little bit today and I am not sure I like it as much as I thought I was going to like it. To me it feels like it needs more, I haven't shown it to Shreya yet though so we will see what she says. It is missing an element of complexity right now it feels too simple and maybe I'm being too much of a self-critic because it is only a rough draft but we are trying to get the ball rolling, I don't want to trip us up on the little things. There are some aspects like music that I haven't even thought about but I am rethinking using Canva for the intro just because it isn't as flexible time length wise as I would like it to be. Don't get me wrong the animation is engaging but the problem is that it is briefly engaging, the movement of the different flags is quite literally 2 seconds. Now I've tried to slow it down but it isn't transferring as well as I want it to transfer. I might attempt using actual stop motion with printed out flags, the problem is I do not have colored ink so I think I am stuck with this for now. I could do the animations in iMovie itself and do it that way but we will see what shreya says.

Can-va's Back Alright!

 If you didn't sing the title of this posting to the tune of 'Backstreet's Back' I don't know if we can still be friends >_< JK jk haha. But in all seriousness I have once again turned to Canva for all my graphic needs. 

I first started using Canva at the beginning of this school year although I have been introduced to it before this is the first year I have used it so often. The school newspaper got a premium Canva account which I am using for this project, it gives me access to loads of elements and options that my free account doesn't. In a previous blog post I mentioned that we had decided on a working title, "-American," and we've actually progressed a bit from there. When we did group meetings someone offered Shreya the idea of doing an intro using the flags of different countries in a stop motion way and I really liked that idea. I tweaked it a bit and used Canva to make a page with a bunch of different flags at different sizes, kind of like a scrapbook/collage of flags of the world. I am not sure where to go from here but I did add an animation to make it cool and visually engaging. It is really fast and I can't figure out how to slow it down yet but I think my only option is to use iMovie and slow it down.