Social Media Research :3

Media text: "Im A Good Person" By Tasmin Topolski 🐋

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Images and clips from the short film + poster and short of the week nomination.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Posts all use darker, warmer colors (with few exceptions) providing an overall theme to the page. Profile page is a bright green for some reason which kind of just sticks out like a sore thumb (probably not intentional, but its still worth mentioning). I mean the profile picture matches nothing and feels like wasted potential. Topolski also advertises the films poster and short of the week nomination, as well as the fact that the short film is available on american airlines in-flight entertainment. Of these posts, the poster and nomination are really beneficial to the branding, but I feel the american airlines advertisment kind of breaks out of the theme due to the formatting of the post. This might be some light nitpicking though.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: My group can definitely take inspiriation by the simpleness that really helps the page feel grouped up. Although I fear its common knowledge, we WONT be having a random bright green profile picture. I want to use that american airlines post as a guideline for what to do and what not to do, I dont want our social media page to have a post like that, that breaks away from the branding a bit. Instead, a post similar to that should also be themed in our own, original, on brand way.

Media text: HUGE

Social media tool: also instagram i think

Description of types of posts: Many of the posts are about nominations for awards, but I feel the branding us abstract enough to the point where they fit in. Most other posts are posters or shots from the film with the title there, with some having abstract elements. The account also has a few posts talking about their actors and their backstories, in a little mini series. The account seems to be a reused advertisement account for the filmmakers other films, as about 20 ish posts down, the posts are themed around another film.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): The profile picture alongside the various abstract shots posted help build the overall feeling of the short film. Cold colors invade every corner of the instagram. The videos stay on brand. The title of the short film is (though maybe a bit annoying) everywhere, which is definitely helping me remember the name, but idk if its actually helping build the brand. Lastly, the nomination posts stay in theme with that abstract element of the other posts (not sure if its intentional though...)

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: I liked the color theming used in their instagram. I also believe that maybe having the name of the film everywhere (maybe not everywhere but just super common) may benefit us, though im not entirely sure. I liked how the abstractness helped keep the award posts in theme (or maybe the other way around, like the award themes were matched to the abstract element), and honestly I feel like we could do something like that too.

Media text: Grieving by Chris Chi

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Plenty of award posts, poster posts and shots from the film.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Every post in this instagram includes cold colors. The name of the film is posted with more moderation than the last example...  Video teaser helps with overall film i guess. Profile Picutre is on brand even if its the same shot that was posted twice, once with an award on it. Really cool movie poster.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: Okay so I think this is closer to the amount of times I want the name of the film to appear in our social media page. I love the poster (kind of unrelated) but it really just helps build the feeling of the film, and since its posted in instagram that technically helps the branding. I do think they went a bit overboard with the award posts. Lastly, I want our instagram to have a unique profile picture, even though a shot from the film is okay (or the poster too) it just seems a bit bland to do.

I’m A Good Person. (2024b). IMDB. Retrieved March 5, 2026, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27497122/.

Nozicka, P., & Farber, D. (2021). HUGE. Retrospective of Jupiter. https://retrospectiveofjupiter.com/genre-dark-comedy/

Chi, C. (2024). Grieving. Retrospective of Jupiter. https://retrospectiveofjupiter.com/genre-dark-comedy/

more research and stuff i guess

 okay so like i got some more research i guess

kind of tired though

and hungry

and cold

and uncomfortable

and sore

and

okay thats enough

anywayssssss

Dan Da Dan time!

so like dandadandadanadnadand is a cool anime about ghosts and aliens (and unfortunately a lot of naked people). I watched like up until season 1 end so I dont really have like the full story down but its essentially a guy named Okarun who gets his... nuts... stolen (deaduzz).

I like the weirdness of the film though (when its anything but naked people) and I honestly think incorporating that kind of weirdness into our film is very possible and could be very beneficial. I also really love the use of color in the show, especially in the intro.

Unfortunately I am not good at performing EmiSlop writing (check out my group partner Emi's blog at https://emvaicmedia202756.blogspot.com/) So I do not have much to say in detail.

Essentially what I am getting at is that I personally believe that incorporating color in vibrant, obvious ways could really benefit our film, as well as "weirdness".

speaking of color... Im not actually going to research this (maybe) because its not exactly the same genre, but the Jujutsu Kaisen anime has beautiful usage of color in various moments, as well as framing. For example, we have 2 beautiful shots from the anime below.

They just look real nice, honestly I'd love to take inspiration from the framing and color usage of this anime, but thats gotta be like really really hard probably.

this went kind of off topic...

anyways have a good day guys!

IMDb. (2024). Dan Da Dan: First Encounter [Movie still or poster image]. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33343397/

Polygon. (2025, September 22). Image from Dan Da Dan Season 3 announcement article [Promotional key visual]. Retrieved from https://www.polygon.com/dan-da-dan-season-3-announcement-momo/

YouTube. (2025). Thumbnail image from video “hFk4jeciySQ” [Video thumbnail]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFk4jeciySQ

Polygon. (2025). Image from Jujutsu Kaisen Kinji Hakari cursed technique explained [Screenshot or promotional image]. Retrieved from https://www.polygon.com/jujutsu-kaisen-kinji-hakari-cursed-technique-gambling-explained/

Research and stuff

 heyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

okay thats enough

anyways its time for cool research and stuff i guess

uh what do i start with

hm

Ill start with what I know best

ENA (both the video series and the game)

ENA as seen in the video series

So like ENA is a surreal and random series and game that takes place in a seperate world / universe. The ENA series essentially follows the character ENA (woajjjj namedrop!!!) throughout regular life in the abstract world.

Throughout the video series theres a lot of absurdist humor incorporated into basically every interaction. Like meeting a turron vendor in the middle of a breakdown, or having a pink dolphin in a desert say "take a chill pill, i meant no ill will" and other random stuff. I feel like it could be something that we do in our film is just incorporate sparse absurdist humor, though with the current build of our story it seems less likely.

ENA as seen in the video game

Okay so moving on to dream BBQ, this game follows the same absurdism, surreal theming that the video series follows while also incorporating a different story. The game is more objectivized than the series (cuz like most games have an objective to strive for) in which ENA (who is also a different ENA apparently) is working and looking for "the boss" and just like has to go on an adventure and do stuff yada yada game aint finished :( . But this game does actually include some dark humor elements in it, such as mentions of war and death and stuff like that. 

To be completely honest, our current iteration of our film story does not really support this game too much unfortunately, but I still believe that some potential can arise out of this. 

Ferguson, D. (2025, April 3). Screenshot from Ena: Dream BBQ showing Ena interacting with the environment [Image]. TheGamer. Retrieved from https://www.thegamer.com/ena-dream-bbq-beginner-tips/

ENA Wiki. (n.d.). ThisIsGoingToBeSoSoAwful [Image]. Fandom. Retrieved from https://enajoelg.fandom.com/wiki/Ena_%28Animated_Series%29

Chosen Genre and stuff

Hi guys!

Okay so like this post is dedicated to the chosen genre of my team and I's short film.

and the winner is..........

Dark Comedy!

If you dont know what a dark comedy is its essentially just edgy or "dark" (idk how to say it dawg) content being used for humorous purposes. Like Key and Peele and their TSA skit where the entirety of the humor from that skit comes from terrorism attacks and portrayal of the terrorists themselves.

I feel like the genre we chose just generally matches our oh so ever shifting story to an extent, due to the nature of the story we are trying to tell. What other genre would unseriously fit our story? No clue.

I guess another thing that could be seen as dark humor would be like Forrest Gump (i guess) in which it has some dark humor aspects throughout the film. They got jokes about the Vietnam war, jenny as a character, etc. I mean the dudes name literally comes from the guy who made the kkk which was incorporated in a way thats supposed to be comedic.

But yeah i mean as I was saying, our story has various opportunities to include a lot of dark humor so its probably a good idea to do so.

dont really know what else I could say lol...

Paramount (1994) Forrest Gump: Paramount Pictures, Forrest Gump | Paramount Pictures. Available at: https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/forrest-gump (Accessed: 26 February 2026).

Key & Peele (2015) Key & Peele - Al Qaeda Meeting, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHfiMoJUDVQ (Accessed: 26 February 2026).

Portfolio project scheduling!

Hey again!

So this is the post thats supposed to be dedicated to like...

well

schedules

and

stuff...

Okay lets get started!

Here I have a schedule made by my group member Emi. This is gonna be all the stuff we hope to do regarding the project aside from blogging (that comes next)

Week One: 

-Choose package and genre

-Plan schedule for the next couple weeks

-Assign roles to group members

-Begin developing plot for film

Week Two:

-Research genre

-Research real media texts of same genre

-Develop characters

-Begin script

-Develop filming and editing schedule

Week Three:

-Create shot-list

-Begin storyboard

-Research social media pages similar to genre

-Begin planning for social media component

-Begin production

Week Four:

-Continue production for film portion

-Document production for blog

-Post to social media

-Begin print component

Week Five (spring break!!):

-Continue production for film portion if needed

-Begin editing

-Continue social media postings

-Continue print component

Week Six:

-Continue and lock in on post production for film portion

-Finalize social media

-Finalize print component

Week Seven:

-Research for Critical Reflection

-Begin Critical Reflection

-Finish the film portion! Wahoo!

-Finalize print and social media components if needed

Week Eight:

-Lock in on Critical Reflection

-Reflect Reflect Reflect Reflect!

-Submit all portions of project to blog

-YAY!!!

(okay i lowk just ripped that from our group google doc...)

So like here I got a schedule that will outline the blogging the class is gonna be doing over the next 2 months. This one was made by my super awesome teacher Stoklosa :3

Uh okay I have no clue why thats formatted like that...

Week One (2/17-2/22)

two postings

-posting #1 should introduce your project choice for A level

-posting #2 should be a project schedule/timeline (what you wish to accomplish each week)

 

Week Two (2/23-3/1)

four postings

-one post on chosen genre research

-three posts researching real media texts of the same genre (discuss at least two media texts within each post)

 

Week Three (3/2-3/8)

four postings

-one post should focus researching social media pages for content similar to your project/genre choices

-two postings should reflect research or planning (outlines, layout drawings, storyboards, shooting schedules, etc)

-one post should summarize the group meeting

 

Week Four (3/9-3/15)

three postings

-each postings should reflect detailed planning (outlines, layout drawings, storyboards, shooting schedules, etc.) and/or production processes

Week Five (3/16-3/22) – this is Spring break – plan accordingly

three postings

-two postings should reflect production process, reflection on key moments, changes to project (why), etc.

-one posting should reflect research on print components similar to your project choice/genre

 

Week Six(3/23-3/29)

three postings

-posting should reflect production process, reflection on key moments, changes to project (why), etc.

-begin researching/planning for Critical Reflection

Week Seven (3/30-4/5) 

three postings

-posting should reflect production process, reflection on key moments, changes to project (why), etc.

-Researching/planning for Critical Reflection

 

Week Eight (4/6-4/10)

three postings

-one post reflecting final, reflective comments

-one post must be a link to or embedded A level project (all components) with short textual reflection/introduction

-one post must be the Critical Reflection for A level project

Okay so for some reason I literally cannot get rid of this formatting I have no clue why, so im just gonna have to deal with it.

Im pretty exited to get started with this and I do hope we can stay on schedule (or even get ahead!).

And with that, I must say goodbye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think.

Hi again!

Hey guys! Its been a while, but now it appears it is that time again...

Its time for the portfolio project!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh and this time I actually have a team to work with!

Anyways lets get to it.

So for this year, theres a major difference in the portfolio project off the rip. This year we have choices! If you dont remember, last years project was limited to a 2 minute film opening, with no alternatives. This year we have 4 options: 

• Music promo package: Create a music video, social media page and digipak for an existing artist or band.
• Film promo package: Create 2 trailers for a film, a social media page, and a poster.
• Documentary package: Create a 5 minute excerpt from an episodic documentary, a social media page and a magazine article.
• Short film package: Create a 5 minute full short film, alongside... you guessed it: Social media and a postcard advertisement.

Now if the bolding wasnt enough of a hint, my team decided on the short film package, I personally liked it because its familiar to last years project, and it lets us create a full short film that can have something incorporated from each one of us in my team.

So essentially with this short film we came to a conclusion that we wanted the genre to be a somewhat dark comedy, in like a way that can be kind of absurdist maybe (I kind of brought up the ENA Youtube Series and game as a potential refeence, but there is a good chance that the film moves in another direction)? Basically its supposed to make people uncomfortable. Honestly i'm exited to see what this project will have in store for me and my team.

(ENA, I guess…)

Speaking of my team (somehow I forgot to mention them up until now...) Im working with Emi Valdiva and Joaquin... okay I may have forgotten his last name... Anyways!!!!! They're pretty cool and really wierd too (could not ask for better people to work with).

Each member in the group is going to be focused on certain aspects but I dont think the roles are going to be solid, in fact, I think it would be better to simply overlap input into every different element of our project. This way we can truly incorporate something from everyone into the film. However, just for organizational purposes, we do have a quick list of stuff each person would like to focus on

Emi: Actress, social media manager, editor (?), costume designer, storyboarder, art director

Joaquin: Director, cinematographer, screenwriter, actor, editor (?) Andrew: Postcardthey, acthey, sound designthey, waterthey (ripped straight from the google doc lol)

Moving on...

So when we got assigned the project, Emi, Joaquin and I started brainstorming ideas. After some strange ideas we came to like one really strange one over the others. Originally pitched by Joaquin, this film would follow a protagonist who in a moment of depression or desperation (one of those i lowk forgot :3) makes a deal with the devil to feel better in certain ways (its still unclear how to approach this in a school friendly way, since the original idea included... getting high.). Anyways the protagonist is then tasked by the devil to like kill people and stuff.

very

weird

tbh

but its also really funny.

I am very exited to see how we can adapt this idea into a 5 minute film. But for now that is goodbye.

Documentary Critical Reflection

"I Wish I Had Your Class For Lunch" was made to show the effects and benefits that music education provides for students with special needs. Music had allowed these students to comunicate and express themselves better than before.

In class documentaries were a major part of the research for both Ryan and I. The documentaries we analyzed in class really benefitted the inclusion of certain techniques and conventions. Ryan told me about the op-doc "Oasis" he had watched, and how he derived a lot of inspiration from it, with some of that inspiration making its way into our documentary through the heavy focus on diegetic sound, or the soft calm tone originating from that. I watched it shortly after and I can definitely see how he drew inspiration. The titles are very similar, as well as the feeling they both give off. Everything felt very raw in both films, but I think our documentary strayed away from the op doc in that case, as it felt more raw.

Our target audience being people with special needs individuals in their lives or around them, wether it be a student, teacher, friend, or complete stranger, meaning all the conventions we chose to follow or not were there fro a reason. Some segments included no interview to put the focus on the students and their exitement, as well as Dr. Laz, the teacher of said students. These decisions helped to emphasize the importance surrounding the impact of music with special needs students.  

The piece was structured in a way that stylized an average day for the special needs students in that music class. This was formulated to be engaging in a sense that it would feel somewhat intimate, which was followed up with the questions asked to Dr. Laz. All of this was done to replicate a feeling of trust that could be felt through the bond between Dr. Laz and his students.

However, there were a few blunders we made. The intro felt out of place due to its voiceover, since it never really appeared after the first time. Also, the animated sequence I had made felt incomplete, and we recieved feedback that it could've been better if we had simply added another nearing the end of the documentary to tie it back together. The overall point is the documentary could've been more spread out, and tweaked to fit the theme and topic a bit better. If we had made these changes, the documentary would've been stronger in the sense of engagement.

Representation is tough in the media. Dominant ideologies usually focus on the disability of a person rather than the person themselves. I viewed an Op-doc called "View From the Floor" that spoke of how the media will prefer to paint a picture of disabled people constantly being under hardship. It ignores any skill, or personality and simply provides the idea that a person is their disablity, and any accomplishment they make is "against all odds".

Our documentary ignores that dominant ideology and represents these special needs students as themselves. People who have personality, who are motivated, and passionate. This is something that is reflected off of the B-roll incorporated, preferring to have diagetic audio and raw footage, showing a more independent person, over something close to an essay. In challenging these ideologies, we get to toss out sympathy and feeling of misfortune, and bring in inclusion and multiple perspectives.