My project partner and I filmed interviews. These interviews were set up in my living room and we had used questions we had previously written. We tried to have the most authentic answers we could, so we didn't practice our responses too much before. We shot our interviews in the same place because we thought it looked better that way, but after some class feedback we realized we should have done it in two different places so it would've looked more interesting.
After filming our b-roll, we had to get started with editing, the outline we made when planning really helped us during this process since we knew how to structure the documentary. I did the editing but my partner helped a lot with creative direction since we were together at the same place so she saw me editing. We knew we wanted to add b-roll that was related to our responses while we were stating our responses, these clips would also allow for context and engage the audience. We added things like rolling credits at the end of our documentary and a intro which I made with Canva. Here is what the intro and rolling credits looked like.
My project partner and I began production for our documentary by filming some b-roll in school. We looked for college related flyers and also included our schools college and career center. This is some examples of what the footage we got looked like:
We also had to film more b-roll at home, we wanted to use these flyers my parents had gotten for me last year when I was researching colleges. We also filmed some b-roll of us looking at common app and of us scrolling through different college websites.
We thought these different shots of b-roll would be entertaining yet effective when conveying our message. We wanted the documentary to be entertaining and engaging so we tried to add b-roll to make it more fun to watch and help build context when discussing our different topics. The b-roll showed in the various documentaries we viewed in class helped us understand what type of b-roll would help the documentary properly progress and be more exciting.
My project partner and I did research for our documentary. Our topic was the college application process and our documentary is called The Stressful Application. We wanted to look at some articles to get a better understanding on the stress applications put on students.
In this article the psychological issues that come along with the application are discussed. My partner and I understood that the process was mentally draining on majority of students, but we wanted to do further research in order to understand how many students this really affected. This article allowed us to comprehend the toll applications can have on teenagers mental health.
This article also allowed us understand just how many students were stressed about this rigorous process, even the title was helpful to our understanding of the immense amount of students that are worried about this application. This article spoke about how even making small mistakes in a college application could slim your chances into getting in, hence why it is so stressful to complete these applications. Both of these articles allowed us to further understand just how stressful these college applicants have been going through. The research portion of this project was super interesting to do since I'm currently a high school senior and I recently applied to college.
As seen above, my partner and I also did some planning. We came up with an outline for the documentary and how we would organize it. Having watched documentaries as mentioned in the previous blog post, we had an understanding of how we should organize the documentary. We also came up with the main question and thesis of the documentary so we understood what was being addressed throughout the piece.
We also discussed our purpose, which helped us understand why we were making the documentary in the first place. We wanted for seniors to feel less alone, we wanted to show them that this application is stressful for all of us and that were in it together. We also wanted to give advice to upcoming seniors and give them a look into the process. We brainstormed twenty different shots we could do, it was helpful when filming to have shot ideas, it made the process very smooth. We also came up with some questions to ask during interviews which were connected with what we wanted to discuss.
In class, after having a lesson about documentaries, we watched some in order to visually understand the formats of them.
One of the first ones we saw was American Promise, this documentary followed two black boys through their education at a prestigious school in New York. It discussed growing up, racism, and the pressures of school such as parental pressure. This documentary really helped me understand the format used, like the indirect and direct interviews and the way the subjects were place on one side of the screen rather than in the middle. It also made me understand how to incorporate b-roll into my documentary.
Another documentary we watched that was called Exit Through the Gift Shop, this documentary spoke about famous street artists like Banksy. The documentary was originally being told through the perspective of a man now known as Mr. Brainwash but he did not know how to edit the film, so, Banksy took over the film. This documentary had a lot of hand held shots in the b-roll. which made the documentary feel more realistic, this was something I considered when making my documentary with my project partner.
We also viewed op-docs, these shorter documentaries were nice to watch since our project was meant to be 5 to 7 minutes, so it helped me understand how a shorter documentary would look. We got to watch the op-docs of our choice from the New York Times. One of the op-docs was named "Roaches Lullaby" it was super interesting and discussed roach problems in New York City. I also watched a op-doc called "Not for Money, Not for Love, Not for Nothing" which told the stories of women who did sex work in Wales, this op-doc was animated, which was very interesting to watch. Both of these op-docs helped further fuel my understanding the ways in which documentaries were formatted. The pieces included amazing examples of b-roll and how to organize a documentary so that it's engaging but it still makes sense.
Wow, I'm done with this project. I really really cannot fathom it. This felt like a long journey but it also went by so fast. I remember brainstorming for Blue Hour like it was yesterday. It's pretty surreal that this project is done. I made a few changes along the way of the project, like some of my storyboard and shot list isn't exactly the same as my opening, it's for sure very similar. This is because while I was filming, I realized some things wouldn't look as good as they did in my head. I like that some aspects changed though, I think it shows growth to be honest. I also remember I added a few accessories to Georgia's outfit but I changed them, because they just didn't look realistic on camera.
I think this may have been one of the most informational projects I have ever done in my 11 years of school. I learned so much about costuming, screen writing, planning, organizing my time, and so much more. I'm so happy I decided to take this class, it has been so fulfilling and fun. I am really proud of how I managed my time and took time to do research and plan things accordingly. I am so excited to take AICE Media Studies A level next year, YAY!
Ah! I finished editing my CCRs. I can't believe how fast this project has gone by. It feels like I just started my journey yesterday. Editing my first CCR was a bit tricky. I wanted to add a lot to me getting ready because I didn't want it to be boring, so I added clips from my opening. I also added clips from other movies and also some articles (which I credited of course) I was referencing as I was speaking in my video. This sounds a bit confusing so let me show you how the editing screen looks like.
Here's what it's looking like-
As you can see here, there's clips overlayed on top of each other
I think these clips make the video more engaging and entertaining. I'm glad I added this detail, I think the CCR might have been boring if I hadn't. To credit all the sources I used, I had the idea to use a credits screen at the end (kind of like how movies do it).
This is what I'm referencing-
It was very easy to add this at the end of my CCR since iMovie has a template for scrolling credits-
I changed the font a bit on mine because I didn't like how they made it bold but besides that it looks super similar. I thought this was a super cute way to incorporate something that happens in film into my CCR. I didn't know how to cite my sources without it being too much on screen but as soon as I saw this template I knew I had to do it this way.
Here's what mine looks like!
Most of my resources I used I had already found due to previous research I had done ( which is shown on my blog). However, I had to do some research for my first CCR (the getting ready one), which I totally forgot to mention in the last post! I did research on target audiences for dramas and found this awesome website that drew everything out for me, I'm so thankful I found it.
Here's a picture of the website-
They also have a chart on there, isn't that amazing?! According to this website the target audience for dramas is mostly women that range from the ages 18-29. I think my film opening is perfect for this target audience since the main character is a woman and women are the target audience. The main character being the same gender as the target audience may grab their attention and create a sense of relatability. Also, being in your early adult life, i've heard, can be very emotional and difficult. So I think the fact that this piece is emotional and a bit sad is perfect for this audience.
Hi! I have officially finished filming both of my CCR's, yay! I'm so so happy I can't believe I did it. I decided to do the getting ready one and I tried to do the dog one, but me and my friends schedule didn't match up. She just got back from a trip and so did I, so our schedules were both very hectic and it just didn't work out. I'm really sad about that, but there was nothing we could do. I also tried the 10 things that made Blue Hour idea. But, it was very messy and I didn't like it. So I did a powerpoint, which I tried to make pretty and decorate and of course add examples and a voice over to so it could at least be pleasing to the eye!
I also of course did some planning-
(Don't mind the makeup smudge,
as you can tell, I filmed the get ready one)
Here's a sort of script I wrote for myself
(It's more like points I need to make, but you get it)
This script helped a lot, I was scared for mostly the first two questions, I felt like they were a bit challenging to answer. So, writing it all down helped me a lot, it helped me feel a lot better about the questions and more organized. I also used tips our teacher gave us to answer the questions, we sort of broke them down in class, this was so beneficial and I don't think I could've answered the questions appropriately without her help.
I looked through a few templates from Canva and decided this one was fitting because of all the blue of course. I'm currently editing my first CCR, I'm really liking how it's turning out so far, I was really nervous about my CCRs, but I think I did pretty good. My CCRs took a few hours to film, I started at 1pm and finished around 6:30 pm. I wanted to make sure everything was good and I was actually happy and proud of the result, and I am, yay!
Hi! So as I get closer and closer to the end of this project, I have begun finalizing most things, for one, my editing is almost complete. There is one thing that I need to add though, and that's credits. I did some research on dramas and the order of their credits in the film openings. One opening I looked at was Pricilla directed by Sofia Coppola. In that opening specifically, they introduce the production companies first and then begin listing the actors and finally the director and co-producers. Another opening I viewed was from The Florida Project by Sean Baker, in this opening the production company and who the film was by was credited first and then the actors and other roles such as editors. To me this made a bit more sense, I think it makes sense to credit who the film was by and then the actors and editors, etc. So this is the format I chose for my opening! However, I did credit the actors before the producers just because there was a shot with both actors and I felt that the names were meant to be placed there.
Here's a screenshot from me editing, you can also see one of the credits i included
Here's another screenshot of my editing process where you can
also see a credit
I also did some foley for one of the sound effects i included. We learned about foley in the classroom when we were doing a sound project. According to this article, foley makes sound feel more realistic.
I thought foley making the film feel more realistic would be helpful since my film is meant to feel real. So I decided to put my phone down and have it record while I went outside and rang my own doorbell, which is a sound effect I needed for the end of my opening. My home has a realistic and average sounding doorbell, so I thought this was the best way to get the effect. I rang it twice to be safe but I really didn't have to.
The CCR is an important aspect of this project, and as I've mentioned before I want my two products to be creative. So of course, I've been brainstorming throughout the week and here are my favorite ideas I've had this far.
My first idea is similar to this concept of an interview-
The concept of that video is for the celebrities to show 10 things they can't live without. But I would take a twist on it and show 10 things my opening Blue Hour couldn't have succeeded without. In this interview specifically Gosling shows 10 things that are related to the Barbie movie. I think it's a really entertaining way to do an interview! I think this would be far more interesting then just hearing me speak. I would of course include pictures in videos of my project and other sources (that will be cited).
I could answer these two questions with this format-
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
Since I would show hardware and speak about software when mentioning 10 things that made Blue Hour successful. It would also make sense to speak about how my production skills developed with all the items I would show and speak about.
My second idea is similar to this concept-
I had an idea to do an interview with my friend's dogs Sally and Frida, they are adorable and energetic so I think this could be fun. She would help me film and I could help her film in return since she also takes AICE media studies. I would play with the dogs while answering questions, which could be fun and entertaining, I might have to bribe them with treats though. I could also bring my cutie dog, Brownie, but I think she would just run around with Sally and Frida the whole time, she's super energetic and social. I would again integrate media to make the interview even more interesting.
Here's Sally and Frida, they're so adorable
However keeping these dogs still may be a little hard so if anything, here's my next idea-
This concept involves me getting ready for the day using skin care and cosmetics, usually people talk about the products they are using, but I wouldn't. I would mention what I'm doing in the beginning, which is getting ready while answering questions, and then speak about Blue Hour while I get ready. Again integrating media is something I would do while I speak to make the video more interesting and engaging, I would do this for all concepts I included in this post.
Here's my last idea-
I had the idea to do something similar to this concept, here Edebiri is mostly speaking about the food being cooked, but I would speak about Blue Hour while baking. I would cook but honestly I'm not amazing at it, so I would rather bake! I love baking cookies for friends and family, specifically chocolate chip ones, so that's probably what I would do.
AH! I'm done with filming! I cannot believe it. Yesterday was very long day of setting up and filming, but it was for sure worth it. I started setting up very early, around 5:30 pm, and the sun usually goes down around 7:15 to 7:30. Wow, I'm so grateful I did that because setting up Georgia's room took a while! I had to remove all the posters I had on my wall, which are a ton, and remove everything from my night table, and change my bedsheets, you name it, I did it! I also had to set up my camera and make sure things like the lighting was good. This was a challenge since during blue hour it's typically pretty dark outside, so I used my desk lamp which honestly worked very well!
Here's me setting up the shot of Georgia's room before blue
hour, also, here's how the room ended up looking!
Anyway, once the sun was not visible anymore, I began to film! Yay! Filming was so smooth because of my storyboard, I knew exactly what I needed. I also tried other shots I had not planned out to see how they would look, and I think they look awesome honestly, so as I predicted in my storyboard blog post, things did change, but for the better.
Here's a shot from today
I love how Georgia's room turned out. Also, as you can see, I removed and added props. I removed the tissue box I was going to put because it popped too much on screen, it has a lot of green. I also added books, blue ones of course. I though the books fit Georgia, she overthinks so I feel like sometimes she would just want to pick up a book and forget about reality.
Another thing you can see here is that I'm editing! I started yesterday, I love editing, it's very satisfying to me, so I'm having fun doing it to be honest. This article discusses how editing is time-consuming, but you really don't notice the time passing by while you're doing it. That's so relatable, for me, I get so focused I forget about everything else (not literally but you know what I mean). I'm editing on imovie just because I know how to use the app very well, I've used it for years to make random projects (not for school, just for fun). I thought it'd be a wise decision to use a program I know very well so things go as smooth as they can.
Hi! So, as promised, yesterday was my first day as filming. Yay! It actually went very smooth, I was super nervous to film since this project has been building up to this moment for so long, but everything went great. My friend who is in the class, Sophia, and another friend who took the class last year Arianna (I always call her Ari though) were both there. Ari played Ivy while I played Georgia. Yesterday we filmed the flashback scenes near the lake. I set up the camera and made sure the camera settings and shot angles looked good. Since I was in the scene, I had Ari sit were we would both sit to set up the shot and see what it would look like. I also had Sophia double check if it looked good.
Here's me setting up the flashback long shot
Here's a little sneak peak of what it looked like!
We also filmed the long shot where you see both Ivy and Georgia speaking, this is the shot I was most nervous about, since it included dialogue. We tried to be as accurate as possible with the script, but my favorite shot we got was different from the script, we still followed the overall format, but improvising made it feel so much more natural. As i've said the conversation needs to feel raw and realistic since the overall film is, so I was willing to improvise in order for it to feel that way. Also, me and Ari have taken film classes together before, so we have experience in working together and I knew she would take this seriously. We also have good chemistry so I thought it would look authentic.
Also, something worth mentioning is blue hour is very short, so I had to use my time wisely. According to this article blue hour lasts about 20 minutes at most (it felt more like 30 though, maybe since winter is almost over) , but I had plenty of time since I set up way earlier so we would have a good amount of time. We went about 25 minutes early to set up the camera and walk to the park. It was sunset when we started going there and we had just the right amount of time before the sun went down.
Here's me beginning to set up the shot during sunset
I also got plenty of footage, we overshot so I could have a lot to play with, even if we got it right the first time, we would do it at least another two or three times. I want to have more then enough footage during editing so I think this was a smart decision, it's better to be safe then sorry.
Today I'll be doing my second and final day of filming, I'll be mostly focusing on Georgia's at home scenes today, I'm pretty excited.
Okay, sooo tomorrow is my first day of filming, ahhh! I'm so excited yet so nervous. I plan to also film on Wednesday as well, since I want to have plenty of footage. Me and my friend Sophia who's also in my class will both be meeting up to help each other film along with another mutual friend of ours. So I have planned all my costuming and mise-en-scene so that the filming goes as smooth as it can go.
So let's get into costumes! I previously made a blog post about costume design research where I learned from this article that you must consider the characters location and colors. Which I for sure did when coming up with these outfits.
Here are Georgia's outfits-
Here is her outfit when hanging out with Ivy
Here is her outfit at home
And here are accessories for when she's out with Ivy
These outfits look simple, but a lot of thought was put into them. Georgia's outfit reflects on her character a lot, the flared jeans symbolize her trying to fit in, according to this article, flared jeans are back since they are easy to pair with tops and shoes and are comfortable. Many teenagers wear flared everything now. However, the shirt contrasts these jeans. I actually chose one of my mom's shirts, that she gave me permission to use, since it's not very trendy. Just Georgia's costume shows us she really tries to fit in and be perfect, however, but it doesn't work out for her. Also, the outfit is blue of course, as I had always planned. The accessories are simple because Georgia doesn't want to stand out, she tries her best to be the perfect girl in every way. The bow again represent Georgia attempting to fit in, according to this article, social media has really popularized bows as of recently.
Georgia's at home outfit is very comfy and has of course a lot of blue aspects. Again, the pajama pants are originally my moms (I got permission from her to use them) and the sweatshirt is mine, which again shows Georgia trying to fit in but it not really working. I feel like Georgia's outfits are casual and comfortable but you can tell she is still trying, especially the one she wears when hanging out with Ivy. Speaking about Ivy, my friend currently has the outfit she will wear, it's a gray sweater and jeans, very normal, which is what Ivy is like, she really fits in.
Lastly, I added a few mise-en-scene elements! Here they are-
Bed sheets for Georgia's bed
Some items that will go on Georgia's night table and desk
Of course, keeping the theme consistent, everything here has a blue. Some items have hints of green but that's on purpose since the piece is realistic and in real life it's very likely not everything would be completely blue. The bedsheets shown are from Target, I got them a while ago but i thought they fit perfectly with the aesthetic of the opening, and of course, the theme of blue.The other items include the note book Georgia will write in, a few blue pens and Sharpies, a candle, some tissues (since I feel like most people have them on their night stand and also since she's very emotional), and a frame of a butterfly my older sister gifted my family. According to this article, butterflies represent transformation/change, which really fits Georgia, since she is clearly going through some hard changes in her friendship with Ivy and internally.
Using equipment is really important for me, I like to get the best quality I can get. So, I went shopping today for a tripod! I went to a store named Best Buy. The tripod was a bit pricy, but I know it's something that I will put to use, and not just now, but also next year, since I plan to take AICE Media Studies A level! Therefore, I thought it would be beneficial to splurge on.
Heres some pictures of the tripod-
Here it is at the store
And here's a better look!
I actually had a tripod before, but it wasn't very sturdy so I thought I should get a new one for this project since quality is important to me. I read this article which states that without tripods, your video may be a little shaky, but with a tripod, your video has a more cinematic aesthetic. However I will say that for some films a shaky camera really match the aesthetic, but for this one, I want to go for a more cinematic approach and I just think a tripod would really help me with that. The article also speaks about how tripods are a secure place for your camera, which of course, if super important to me. I don't want it to fall or break and a tripod will help me prevent that.
Speaking about cameras, i'll be using the Canon G7X Mark II! I've had this camera for a while, it's perfect for me. It's a small camera but has so many different setting options and the video always turn out great. I love everything about it and I really know how to work it since I've had for a while now.
Here's a picture of my camera (on my new tripod, yay!)-
I also found this awesome YouTube video-
I found this video to be super helpful since as I said earlier, I want my opening to be as cinematic as I can get it to be. He speaks about camera settings you can adjust and why he recommends you use them which is helpful to me since I want the best quality possible. He also talks about other tricks you can use while filming, one of them is stabilization, which is pretty much checked off for me because of my tripod, woo!
Recently, we learned about another part of our portfolio project, the creative critical reflection. The purpose of this part of the project is to reflect on the planning, production, and final product of our portfolio project. I think this aspect of the project is really important, I can learn what I can improve on and what I did well for next time. I think reflecting on this large project is really important.
This section of an article I found describes why reflection is beneficial-
Reflection will allow me to improve my skills in the future, which is really important to me since I always want to grow my skills.
We have to make a minimum of two products for the creative critical reflection, I have already started brainstorming a little, but I'm not 100% sure what I will do, I think i'll do a different blog post on my brainstorming for my CCR!
We must answer these four questions in our CCR-
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
The teacher provided these questions to us on canvas and also imbedded them on a power point to really break them down and guide us toward how to answer them appropriately and fully. This was so helpful, I think if we hadn't gone over them I would've been to overwhelmed, our teacher has been so helpful throughout this entire portfolio project, she pushes us toward the right direction but we still do the work, which is really great.
Some tips we received from our teacher was to create a script, be creative with the way we present our information, and incorporate research. I was planning on making a script from the start because I think if I didn't, things wouldn't go very smooth. I also am trying to think of a creative way to approach my CCR. I want to brainstorm for a bit so I find the closest to perfect products to create. Research is something I've been doing throughout this project and I think it's really helped me succeed. I can use some sites I have already cited on my blog because a lot of them are related to these four questions. However, I think I will do some extra research if i need it!
My character's costumes is something I want to pay close attention to. I know costume design is very powerful and important when telling a story. An article I read speaks about how before even starting the costume designing process, one must fully understand the script of the film as well as tone, themes, etc. This is something I'm very fortunate to already understand, since I have created the aspects of my opening. However before I fully decide on my costume design, I will re-read my script and story outline to put myself in Georgia and Ivy's shoes, to create the most accurate costumes possible.
I also found this youtube video that I thought broke down costume design very well, it was linked to the article I previously mentioned-
In the video they speak about how you have to consider things such as where the characters are located. Georgia is for sure going to dress very casually in this opening. She's just at home and hanging out with her friend. I feel like she would wear baggy clothes. A lot of teenagers do, so it's realistic. I also feel like she would find it comforting, which she would like. I could also imagine her with a flannel that looks very worn out. Ivy will look a bit more put together. I feel like Ivy has her life more put together then Georgia does, so it would make a lot of sense. I have many of the things I'm describing at home, so I have to go through my closet and see what will work. If I'm missing something important, I can go shopping for it. They also speak about colors and how much of a story they can tell, which is why I will of course dress Georgia in blue.
Lady Bird is a film I think did costume design very well. Lady Bird's costumes are very realistic and fit her so well. Most of the colors are very brown and sort of feel dull which I think fit the overall story of the film very well. However, she still add funky things to her outfits like jewelry and prints, like stripes, showing us the type of person she is. Accessories is something I will for sure add to my costume design.
Here are two examples of costume design in Lady Bird-
Now that I'm getting closer and closer to filming, I've been looking for things that will enhance my opening. The other day I saw a store that I know has affordable stuff and decided to go in, it's called Five Bellow.
I found this awesome LED light bar that can do all these blue settings:
It's perfect! It can enhance the blue within my opening if for some reason the blue hour outside is not prominent enough. I also did some research on lighting to further understand the importance of it. I found in this article that states lighting really impacts the mood of your film, which i totally agree with. I think having blue lighting throughout the film will really enhance the mood I'm trying to go for because of the color psychology behind blue, it represents sadness. The article also speaks on how lighting "breathes light" into the film, which is something I find very important because I want my film to feel raw and real.
Not only did I find a lighting device, but also a prop! Specifically this poster:
I want to place this poster behind my bed. I already have posters there, but they don't really fit the theme of the opening since they aren't blue, but this one has a ton of blue! It's perfect! I feel like props could really enhance the aesthetic of my opening, I read an article about how no matter how simple an element of your film may seem, it will add to the overall mood of your film. Props matter, they really do. If my props are consistent, I think they will add so much to the opening and the feeling of it. I'm going to look for a few other props to add to the opening, but I feel like I have a lot of things I could put to use already at home.
