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!!