Critical Reflection

      Upon beginning the approximately 8-week process of creating my final media project of my high school career, I made it a point to do extensive research, in addition to what had been done for our documentary unit, in order to ensure that I could create an engaging and technically sound documentary of my own. In doing this research I watched various documentary forms from film length to episodic to get a feel for the techniques that are used in creating a documentary. The most notable documentary that I viewed during my research was Drive to Survive, which I have continued to watch even after finishing the project. This episodic documentary gave me a significant amount of ideas about how to connect the various episodes while also being able to change the subject per episode. However, I feel like I strayed from the conventions of this documentary by having only one interviewee shown in my excerpt, if I were to expand on this episode however I would include other interviews that connect with the main subject. I also found that most modern documentaries don’t often create magazine articles anymore regarding the production of their piece which provided me with very few examples to derive inspiration from to create my own article. 

 

Now having completed the project and looking back on the process as a whole, I have accomplished exactly what I wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the year by opening a forum and a conversation for people to learn to understand others on a deeper level. This year I wanted to brand my work through the idea of promoting empathy, which I believe that I did pretty effectively through the stories that I will be telling in this documentary series. I hope that those who watch my excerpt have a better understanding of the experiences of others that they may not relate to, but are able to empathize with on some level. This is very important to me and is part of the reason why I was determined to create this documentary and have started off with a story that is close to home, my family's story told through my mom. In order to continue to expand on my brand, I would have to continue the episode and the series to tell as many stories as possible and ensure that as many people are heard in order to give all those who may feel silenced or overlooked a voice in the media. 

That being said, an aspect of my time in Media Studies that has stood out to me the most is the ideas and theories surrounding representation in the media. Coming from various underrepresented groups myself, I believe that this is a topic that I have lived through firsthand. However, what stuck with me on a deeper level is that representation does not only account for gender, race, etc. it also accounts for unique experiences and uncommon lifestyles that may not be seen as much in the media. Keeping this in mind, I believe that, while not as uncommon or unique that some would assume, my family and I have lived through an underrepresented and often misrepresented experience that I wanted to bring to light. I hope that my project was successful in showcasing what has been my normal for going on 16 years, but many may not have an understanding of. While representing underrepresented groups along the lines of gender, sexuality, race, etc. is extremely important, I believe that showcasing the experiences of individuals beyond these parameters is also expensive, which is what I set out to do with this production. This is further expanded upon within my magazine article and on my social media account showcasing stories of people who may not get much media attention.

I believe that this focus on representation will be what ultimately engages my audience and encourages them to consume my media. My target audience are millennials, because I believe that they are of the age that would be able to watch my documentary and truly internalize what is being shared and commit to understanding the experiences of others that may alter their views of the world. Being that my product can be classified rated R I think they would also be the only ones “allowed” to consume my product. Surveys have shown that Millennials are the group of the people who are most likely to watch documentaries and to shape their view of the world around what they are able to learn which is my ultimate goal. It is also believed that Millennials would be the most receptive to heavier topics such as the one at hand. Beyond my video component, I am confident that while viewers in my age group (Gen. Z) don’t often view magazine articles, those under the Millennial age group grew up with magazines and would be more inclined to read my magazine piece discussing my product. My magazine article works to expand upon the ideas of my documentary and I believe adds to the overall project. 

All in all, I feel as though I put a significant amount of effort into creating this product and I am for the most part happy with how it came out with minor changes that I would have made to my process if I could do it over again. My ultimate goal is for viewers to be able to get something out of it, learn something new, or just take something away from the story that is being shared. The one thing my mom always tells our family is that our story is meant to be shared to impact someone else's life even if only just a single person, and I am glad that I have been able to share this story and experience with whoever will view my project, and hope that it may provide comfort to someone who may also be struggling with a loss even if not the same as my own or my subject’s loss.

Project Components

 Without further ado...

After Life Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afterlifedocumentary?igsh=NnE5M2p6bHZ1ZmNr&utm_source=qr

After Life Magazine Article: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGBysyoom4/_a8hqch-dWI_Ik4LUaBxuw/view?utm_content=DAGBysyoom4&utm_campaign=share_your_design&utm_medium=link&utm_source=shareyourdesignpanel

After Life Documentary: https://youtu.be/P-3uiDy1sZY?si=GsQ6LzAmjOMKvOOy

    I hope all viewers find something to take away from my project! And I hope those who may have struggled with loss feel heard and understood. Thank You!!

Portfolio Project: Finishing Touches

         I have completed the editing of my documentary excerpt, and I am pleased to say that while it is not perfect and I can see now areas where I could have done more throughout the process, that I am proud of what I created and what I have been able to accomplish in the two years that I have been in this class. I believe that I have come a long way in my skills of media production despite there being even more to do to get better. While I will expand more on this in my CR, I wanted to reflect on my time in this class and high school in general as I am a senior with less than 2 months left to go until graduation. I have learned so much in this class that I will take with me into the future despite not currently planning on going into a career in the media, I feel that I have learned universally valuable skills through this class.

    I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to create not only this documentary, but every project that I have made within the last two years. While many of my projects were not good, I believe that they helped me grow creatively. Everything that I have learned in this class has led me to this project and I believe that I was able to create something that I wouldn't have thought possible at the beginning of junior year when I enter my Media Studies class for the very first time. I have posted this preview on my social media account, but I felt that is also belongs here. My documentary is coming soon...

Portfolio Project: Editing cont.

    I have spent this final week before the project submission collecting the last bits of b-roll that I wanted to add into my documentary to break up the interview videos. I found finding b-roll for this documentary to be significantly harder than the documentary that I previously created in the year because the topic is so specific, and collecting visual representations of grief can be quite difficult especially when telling an almost 16 year old story. Nonetheless, I did my best to collect videos of people being happy, and families eating out at restaurants, etc. to contrast the more sad videos that I have collected.

    I feel that this contrast will really put into perspective the topic at hand, and the tremendous impact loss on such a great scale can have on every aspect of a person's life. I also believe that this will connect with the information and stories that my subject is mentioning within the interview. Family is the overarching theme of this documentary and I believe that this b-roll does an amazing job at showcasing that. 

    I am continuing on in my editing and hope to be finishing up by the end of the weekend.

Portfolio Project: Magazine Article Creation

     I have begun working on the formatting for my magazine article and have found that the templates in Canva may be my best course of action. I enjoy using Canva for all of my creative needs so I am well verse in what different elements I can add to my magazine article to make it as engaging as possible. I have found the template that I will be using. It is a basic template, but I feel that I will be able to accomplish what I intend to with it. 

    Within this article, I will be writing it as an interview with the director (aka Me) discussing the purpose behind the topic of this documentary series. While the director will be the one being spoken with, the magazine will ultimately be topic based. I wanted to structure it this way because I feel that I would like to share my mission statement  in a way to emphasize why I believe that stories such as these ones should be told in film. I believe that my goal with sharing these stories is in increase awareness and reduce stigma which I hope to get across with both this article and my piece as a whole. 

    I am very excited to write in article and supplement the creation of my documentary with what I will be sharing. I hope to be completed with the entirety of the article by this weekend and will be moving forward on then writing my CR and completing the finishing touches in editing my documentary. 

Portfolio Project: Group Meeting

    During our final group meeting of this project, I mostly wanted some advance on how to go about producing my magazine article as I was stuck as to what I needed to get done. I asked my fellow group members who are also doing a documentary as many had either already completed it or were in the process about where I was. Being in a group with other documentary makers was very beneficial as I had previously not had access to group members that were working on what I was. I believe that this group meeting really helped me, and sparked ideas of how I will be producing my magazine article. 

    I have decided that I will be doing a topic focused magazine article, because I believe that this will be easiest for me and it will compliment my documentary the best. The focus of my documentary is loss and recovery which I hope to explain further in depth through my magazine article in order to expand on what I will be sharing within my documentary. I intend to advertise this article on my Instagram page as being related to the documentary, and hope to write as a sort of interview with the director in order to link the two products better. I think that this will allow my project elements to be more cohesive in nature which is what I am hoping to go for. 

    I am continuing in my editing process and then I will also begin promoting my episodes on my Instagram as well. I will try to not only reference the episode that I will be producing in my magazine article, but also reference the episodes that I will not be producing, but are apart of my episodic documentary. I believe that this will also improve the cohesiveness of my documentary series as represented through both the Instagram and the magazine article. All in all, I found this meeting to be very helpful, and I believe that this is what I needed to feel confident in the remaining work that is needed to be done on my project. 

Portfolio Project: Editing

     I have begun editing which I believe will be the hardest part for me throughout this entire project as I have never been the most advanced where editing is concerned. I will be using adobe premiere which present even more challenges as I am more well versed in using IMovie. However, I wanted to challenge myself to use the more advanced platform that I believe may help my documentary look more professional that I believe that IMovie would be. 

    

    I will begin my splitting up the different questions within the interview as I kept the camera rolling rather than cutting after the answer for each question. This will give me a better idea of whether or not I will have to cut some of the questions or part of my voiceover. However, I believe that after I cut the part needed it will be the perfect amount of time to fit into the 5 minute excerpt.

Portfolio Project: Music

     I have begun looking into potential music that I could add to my documentary. I am looking for slow, sadder music that will match the tone of my documentary topic. I am leaning toward having music with no words to it as to not take away from the topic at hand and the information that is being shared within the documentary itself. While I yet to pick the specific song that I will be using in my documentary, I know what I am looking for in a song and will have one picked by the end of the week.

    I have been looking at websites such as https://pixabay.com/music/ in order to find some options that I will be choosing from in order to pick the perfect one to fit the tone of my docuseries. This has proved to be slightly difficult as thus far I have been unable to find the perfect song for me, but I will continue looking and gathering options.

Portfolio Project: Filming

     I have completed the filming of my interview and have gathered some b-roll of my subject as well. My interview came out to about 5 minutes and 30 seconds of footage. I am really happy about how it came out and the answers that I was able to get as I felt that this was exactly what I was I looking for when I decided the subject that I would be doing my interview with. 

    I was also able to get some b-roll with my subject that I will be adding to the documentary as well along with the neutral b-roll that I have been gathering as well. I am pretty happy with how this project is turning out thus far and moving forward I will be focusing on the social media, editing, and beginning my print component.

Portfolio Project: B-roll

     I have been trying to get decent b-roll that has some movement to it without have to have my subject in it consistently. I want to add some variety in shots that don't require people to be in it. However, I do intend to stage some b-roll with my subject as well. I want shots such as her walking through Weston Town Center looking around. I will continue to gather as much b-roll as I possible can so that when I begin editing this upcoming week I will have plenty to choose from.

    Recently, it had been raining and I though that this would be a perfect time to gather some tone specific b-roll. I will be mapping out how I want my b-roll shots to go in order throughout the documentary. 

Portfolio Project: Voiceover Recording

     In order to be able to edit during spring break, I dedicated today to recording my voiceover. This voiceover will likely be the first voice that is heard during the opening of the documentary. While for my groups documentary project we had my mom record the voiceover, due to the fact that she will be my subject, I will be voice on the voiceover instead. I have done this to give a distinct contrast in the voices that will be heard throughout the duration of the documentary.

    I made my voiceover a little more professional with an emphasis on statistics, because I believe that this will match how my subject will be responding to my questions. My subject has been using her free time turning this story into book form so believe that she will answer my questions more professionally than a casual documentary. Understanding this I want to have the tone of the voiceover match that of the interviewee.

Portfolio Project: Filming & Social Media

     I will be filming my interview with my subject this weekend to be able to use the entirety of the week of spring break to edit and begin work on my print component and begin thinking about my critical reflection. I will also be going out and gathering some b-roll in public. I hope to be able to capture families and couples that would connect with the subject of my documentary. I believe that Weston Town Center would be a great location to gather b-roll of people out to each with their families and loved ones. 

    Additionally, I have been going through some old CDs to find more pictures to add to my social media. I was able to find some that I believe will connect with the topic well. I will be using Canva to format these photos to be posted on my social media. I also want to create quotes and other photos, likely inspirational, to post on my social media similar to what is seen on the Abstract. I believe that the addition of these quotes will add the element of hope and possibility of healing that I hope my documentary would be able to bring. 

    So far these are some of the pictures I have found. I hope to transform them all into pictures for Instagram such as the polaroid format that I was able to accomplish with one of the pictures. I believe that this format adds a bit of nostalgia and looking back on the past which is ultimately where I will start with introducing all of my subjects.

Portfolio Project: Social Media Posts

     I have been thinking a lot about what I will be posting on my social media account and what connect i want to share from the creation of this project. My account's username is afterlifedocumentary as I found may projects that are shared on Instagram do this for movies, documentaries, etc. I have continued looking at the social media accounts for various projects even some that are not documentary, but well made movie accounts as well. I have found seme great inspiration and hope to put some of the elements that I have seen to use.

    My first inspiration is the Instagram account created for the new Bob Marley biopic. The creators made a point to establishes the perfect colors for their brand and use them throughout the entire page which I intend to do with my own. I also believe that this page really gave an insight into the story that was going to be told within the movie itself. 

    My second inspiration was from a documentary series that we viewed during our documentary unit that I believe created an amazing social media for the tone that they set within their episodes. I will attempt to match the tone of my social media posts with the tone of my documentary pieces.
    

    Lastly, due to the nature of my documentary topic, I believe that is important to emphasize the idea of memories and remembrance, in order to accomplish this, I will be using templates such as the polaroid above within my social media to share photos and memories that relate to the topic of each episode that I will be posting about. I believe that this will pair well with the tone of my piece.

Portfolio Project: Completing My Script & Questions (Content warning)

    I have officially completed my documentary questions and voiceover for my documentary. I believe that my voiceover script includes a perfect balance of statistics that enhance the information that I will be sharing and appealing to the humanity and empathy of those who will be viewing my documentary. I also believe that is voiceover will provide the necessary introduction to the topic that is needed, which allows viewers to understand what this episode will be discussing and take into account the overall impact of this topic. This provides an understanding of how many people are actually suffering that we may not even know about. 

    When writing my documentary questions, I found it difficult to determine where I wanted to start within the story in order to tell the story as I wanted it to be told. I determine that regardless of where the episode will end up going, I would have to start from the beginning in order to familiarize my audience with the topic and build up pathos and ethos between my audience and my subject. I think that while I don't have very many questions, I believe that these questions require longer answers that will introduce the story effectively. 

    Additionally, I would like to offer my subject the opportunity to discuss the aspects of her experience that she would like having been given a starting point as this would provide me the most authentic response and the most personal reproduction of the story. I do hope to add a content warning at the beginning of my episodes as well as I believe that the content of my episodes can be triggering to some who may be working through their own grief or other mental health concerns. Due to the nature of my content this documentary would being rated R if given a rating; thus, reinforcing my millennial audience.  

Portfolio Project: Print Media Research

     The first example of a magazine article that I have found regarding a documentary, was one by The New Yorker. This articles centered around Michael Moore, a prominent film maker turned political activist that has stunned the nation with his work. His most eye opening piece came in the form of his documentary Bowling For Columbine. This magazine article goes into the career of Michael Moore giving an insight into his career and the impact that his documentary has made on the nation that has been affected. 

    Within this deep dive into the life of Michael Moore we come to understand that following the attention that Bowling for Columbine received, and the use of this in debates surrounding gun laws or the lack thereof, he has continued to champion change with the United States and beyond. He shares his views on abortion, gay rights, the war in Iraq, etc. and uses his now enlarged platform to endorse candidates that agree with these ideals as well. He works to mobilize voters, and encourage others to use their voices in the most influential way possible by going out and voting for those who will actually make the changes that they want to see.

    This article shows a fantastic way to discuss the filmmaker responsible for making the documentary, and allowing readers to see the full picture surrounding the creation of the project and what the director continues to do in relation to the documentaries topic/issue.

    The following article that I found was one that was discussing the documentary American Promise. I am familiar with this documentary as my class watched it in class during our documentary unit. The primary focus of this article was to discuss the topic at hand. This includes a sharp focus on the challenges that the boys within the film faced during their experience through the school system. This article shifts focus from the implications of the parents navigating such a delicate age with their children, to the children navigating their lives as young black men, specifically Idris whom goes to a predominantly white school. 

    This article took a different approach and maintained focus on the topic that is discussed within the documentary which I believe that I may want to do with my own magazine article that I will begin constructing after I film my documentary.

    This articles were both made digital meaning that I was unable to see the spread that they would occupy with a print magazine so to compensate, I have been researching magazine spreads in order to get an idea of what I want mine to look like when I create it. It has to take up two pages and I intend to use a significant number of pictures as I believe that this makes the spread all that much more engaging. I also find the pulling out of quotes to be rewritten in larger font that uniform to be very interesting when reading an article which I hope to incorporate as well. 

Portfolio Project: Questions and Script

     I have been having trouble with coming up with what to write for my voiceover and my interview questions. I would like to have these done at the start of the new week so that I will be able to complete the actual interview and continue getting b-roll and post on my social media. I have started my script and my questions, but have been stumped as to what I should be writing. I hope to dedicate tomorrow to completely these, and then set up a time during which I can interview my mom which shouldn't be too difficult.  

Introduction to topic:

            “In the United States, over 900,000 people lose their spouses making more than 13.7 million people widowed, with the vast majority being women.

    So far, this is what I have written for the voiceover. I don't intend for the voiceover to be long; however, I think that I want it to mostly consist of statistics and information that relates to my topic. I am having even more trouble with coming up with the questions that I will be asking during the interview as I already know of everything my mom will be sharing and I am unsure of what exactly I should be asking. I want my documentary excerpt to begin at the start of the episode thus my subject will have to introduce themselves and their story, but I am unsure of how I will be going about this. 

Portfolio Project: Title, Theme, and Social Media

     I have decided that the name of my documentary series with will be "After Life." I believe that this name sums up the content of my project. I have decided that it was best to separate the words to remove the theme and connotation of my project from any spiritual nature as this is not what I was aiming for and rather a focus on the aftermath that comes from losing a loved one. I have thought a significant amount about what my name with be, and I believe that this name is the perfect fit for what I was going for. 

    To make my social media uniform and create a theme surrounding my project I want to work primarily with the colors of blue, grey, and black. I believe that these colors create the tone that I will be going for within my documentary as the topic with be overwhelmingly melancholy and primarily sad. These colors with go well with the tone of the information that is being shared. I intend to have my subject wearing these colors as well within her interview in order to ensure that the tone is uniform between my documentary and my social media. 

    I will be using these colors in the logo that I create and in all of my posts on social media as well. For my social media I will primarily be posting real photos and curated photos in order to introduce the different topics that my various episodes will be exploring. 

Portfolio Project: Group Meeting

     During class I got to meet with a group in order to discuss my project and get ideas from outside perspectives. I found this to be very helpful in expanding some of my ideas and getting input from others who may have different ideas than what I have thought of thus far. Some of my biggest setbacks at the moment are coming up with the name for my project which I will need in order to continue my social media platform. I was able to get a few good ideas from the members of my group that I will be considering for the name of my documentary series. Another setback has been what I will be doing for b-roll which I was also able to get ideas for. 

    During the group meeting I was also very inspired by the projects of my fellow group members and how far they have come with their projects. I will be putting some of their suggestions for me into my project and continuing to think about my project title. My thought that I should be finalizing my questions and my voiceover script this week was reenforced which is primarily what I will focusing on this week in hopes of getting to be filming the interviews by next week. 

    During this meeting I was also able to discuss who I will be interviewing, and I am hoping to get two interviews that will be seen in my 5 minutes excerpt. One will be the main subject, my mom, and the other I am hoping to get one of my brothers to sit for a short interview discussing their perspective of my mom's experiences. However, I will have a relatively small window of time to interview the brother that I believe would provide the best answers as he lives in Orlando full time, but will be visiting this weekend. 

    I expressed that I will be conducting all indirect interviews, and with some input I decided that it may be cool if I am able to get the interviews from various perspectives and angles to make my documentary more visually appealing. All in all, I felt that this group meeting was very beneficial, and provided me with a lot of ideas for how to move forward with my project. 

Portfolio Project: Social Media

     For my social media page, I have decided to go with an Instagram page. Due to my target audience being millennials, and Instagram being one of their most used social media sites, I felt that this would be the best place to promote my documentary. During my research, the documentaries that I was coming across most often had an Instagram page above anything else. Furthermore, I believe that this will allow me versatility with what I am able to post including photos and videos. I think this will also allow me to interact better with an audience in terms of my social media posts. 

    On my account throughout the remaining duration of this project, I intend to post photos and videos relating to each of my documentary episodes and subjects. However, I will be focusing on the subject that I will be filming for my final project. I hope to share snippets of these stories that would encourage viewers to watch my documentary and help those who may have experienced some of the same tragedies to feel seen and understood. I will be starting my Instagram today!!

Portfolio Project: Documentary Research

     I have been challenging myself to watch more documentaries, episodic ones in particular, to understand better, what techniques I should be using and how I can tell my stories over the duration of an episode. I have particularly fallen in love with Netflix's Drive to Survive, which follows a single season in F1. I have found this documentary to be very interesting, and has introduced me to a new sport that I find that I enjoy. Each episode more or less follows a different driver/team, with a few repeats through the season, as they overcome a challenge or experience a setback. 

    Throughout my time watching various documentaries, I picked up on various techniques that I will be taking account. This includes the addition of primarily instrumental music that matches the tone of what viewers are visually seeing. While I personally would rather include music with lyrics, I believe that this may take away the focus from the topic at hand; thus, I will be using instrumental music instead. Additionally, something I really want to accomplish in my documentary is being able to hear the interviewee without seeing them first. I intend to write a script and add a voiceover as well to my documentary; however, it will be minimal as I want the stories to be told overwhelming by the subjects.

    I have yet to decide what portion of the first episode I will be creating; however, I am leaning toward the beginning 5 minutes to start with the introducing of my subject, and going from there. I feel that starting from the beginning would be beneficial when coming up with appropriate questions to ask for each specific part of the documentary. I will be filming these interviews as indirect interviews as to not take the focus off the subject, and instead have the subject rephrase the question when answering, this was common with the Drive To Survive docuseries.