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.

Post production

Okay so during those 2 ish days that I was grounded I was tasked with one thing, to find some uncopyrighted songs on Bensound or Pixabay. Unfortunately, me being extremely stupid and somehow not remembering to expect an assignment like this, I didnt document the exact song I got, and it was deleted rather quickly. However, the process of doing this was mad annoying.

Bensound and Pixabay free music is so bad it makes me wanna rip out my ears.

Dont use these | (just kidding I just hate them) /\

Dude omg i dont have anything to really write for this I mostly just worked on the animation. I was kind of barred from editing since Ryan really wanted the documentary to come out exactly as he picutred it (no hate I lowk respect that but like I didnt have much workload or contributions.)

anyways... since I was grounded I could only really work with my phone, which is fine just slower than normal. The biggest issue I had was with files. I HATE I PHONE FILES APP WHY IS IT LIKE A MAZE. I'd download a song and save it somewhere and then for some reason I have to perform a ritual just to access the folder I just made because apparently it was hidden down there with atlantis. Also looking through music, finding a song that sounded good and then realizing it was paid (on bensound) was super duper tragic (At the time I didnt realize there was a filter paid songs out button).

As always everything worked out 😎

um

okay

bye

Production 1

uhhhhhhhhhhhh sooooooo


By the time I started working on production, Ryan had already filmed basically everything we needed. This meant B-roll, Interviews etc. This was really unfortunate for me since it left us with an unbalanced workload that I didnt really want. Ryan told me that I could contribute to the production with an animation, and aspects of editing. I was kind of bummed out that I wasnt able to make it to the filming because the teacher Ryan interviewed seemed like such a cool person, but it was whatever.



So anyways, onto the animation.........

I hate it so much.



Okay so the thing about this is I dont really have animation experience. I have literally only created very simplistic animations with 0 technique incorporated in the past, with all of them being purely for fun. That meant that I was supposed to create an animation (that was originally supposed to be like minimum 15 seconds long) surrounding Ryan's original idea, with essentially 0 good experience and very little knowledge.

I did it anyways :3

I began with a few test trials, such as the one provided. I personally liked the direction this one was going in, but Ryan felt it didnt really capture his vision, so I moved to a more simple style, which did help speed up the pace of which I could make it.

The day after this attempt, I had a class with a friend who had proper animation experience, so I decided to ask for help with techinique. What I ended up learning was that sometimes making certain slower frames play twice (or atleast a indirect copy with no actual movement) can help create a pace in the animation, compared to just having everything be at the exact same speed. Its like flowy or something idk.

With the final draft nearing, I felt a bit more ready to approach it, so one day I grabbed my laptop, and........



Wait.....


Okay so everything sucks I got sick (just like I am rn typing this!!! :333) and everything got delayed further. I feel like such a slob because I really didnt do much during those like 2-3 days in which I was dying.

Alas, I had to eventually continue, with few days left I panicked and finished a version of the final animation I wished to polish.

I kind of got grounded (I cant do anything right can I) so I really just like couldnt send it or work on it until last minute... yknow... cuz i didnt have my computer...

When I got ungrounded (day it was due I think) I polished up the stuff that bothered me the most and sent it. 

phew! I hate it so much 😁🥹🥺

Research and Planning...

 When I started working with Ryan, I had 0 idea of what to do for our documentary. We sort of went through an entire class of trying to come up with something that could be the foundation of our documentary. What ended up happening was ryan came up with two ideas, one about the people affected by one of his friends being taken by ICE recently, and the other about another friend of his who has autism and plays drums, and a teacher who teaches special education music. We decided on the second topic, originally focusing on the friend of his who played the drums.

We ended up making a rough documentary outline on Ryans friend, who btw is named Jacob. We created a goal for the documentary to correctly document the special connection between autism and music. We also created a list of B-roll we should use. 

This documentary outline was created by the both of us, we finished off that day with a general idea, and ryan attempted contact with his friend. Everything up until this point was going at a decent pace.

what? He's where???? 

You cant ever have one of these projects without SOMETHING going wrong silly! As it turns out, Jacob, our MAIN subject (and possibly only planned one at the time) was in the hospital???? I forgot exactly why, I think he was like really really sick or something. This completely restarted our positioning back to the start, the only lingering thing was the idea to still document the relationship between music and autism.

After a bit of thinking, Ryan told me about how someone in his family goes to a school with a music program for kids with autism, down syndrome etc. and how we may be able to film the teacher as the subject of our documentary. This was a great change honestly, because it increased the overall credibility past a high school student. Honestly, we did need that change from the original topic.

We ended up working together to create a new outline that sort of piggybacked off of the old one (which I unfortunately do not have any access to, since it was on paper and I forgot to take an imagr). The document had meaningful questions to ask the interviewee (teacher), as well as more solid framework. With this new outline, ryan contacted the teacher and decided to leave early one day in order to film the majority of the content (I was kind of left out cuz I literally could not leave early on a B day). So I was told to consider making some animated B-roll, which honestly I dreaded, but took on the challenge and began some light research and consultance (bombarded my animator friend with questions).

“How much of the footage did you help film?”

Documentary Viewing and Research!

 We got our second big project while learning about documentaries! We first watched a few documentaries to take notes on the techniques utilized and also view different stylizations. I would like to say I like how different documentaries can be, before this lesson if you had asked me "What do you think documentaries consist of" I probably would've answered something about generic natural geographic style and applied it to everything. I do know now that documentaries are very fluid and unique.

The very first documentary we watched was an episode from an episodic documentary called Abstract: The Art of Design (2019). The episode we watched in class was about costume design. The episode documented costume designer Ruth Carter. Her background, her career, and what she represents was also documented in this piece. The technique I learned from this documentary was very interesting. For example, because it is an episodic documentary, every episode starts off with an intro and theme song. Though, the intro is different per episode including scenes from popular movies and shows with a focus on the costumes. This piece utilized plenty of B-roll in most scenes, which kept it interesting and focused in a charming way. It was overall a nice documentary (episode), but It really didnt have as much of an impact on me as the other two did 

The next documentary we saw I had the misfortune of not being able to watch fully (I missed the end :cry:). This one was called American Promise (2013). It is a documentary that spans 13 whole years, documenting the producer's son Idris & his best friend Seun living in New York. The boys are attending the Dalton School, a prestigious school. The overall motive of the documentary was to document the pressure placed on students and there was also the documenting of racism and how it was like to grow up in New York in such a presigious school as a black student. The most notable thing from this documentary's technique is how raw and alive it felt. The majority of the documentary was filmed by hand by the parents of Idris and Seun. A lot of the content was completely raw, with real emotion behind it, even the interviews were done rather suddenly, resulting in most of what was being said being 100% honest.

The very last documentary we watched before switching over to Op-docs was Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010). This was also my least favorite, but thats kind of because im biased and dont like Bansky. Anyways, the documentary follows a guy named Thierry Guetta, and Bansky. The documentary began showing how Guetta always loved video taping things, so after a few events he started taping street artists creating their work, shifting focus over to bansky for a bit. The documentary also puts an emphasis on the relationships Guetta made. However, the documentary shifts focus back to Guetta after he attempts to become a street artist without any proper meaning, resulting in controversy and displaying how people make meanings for the stuff they see. The style of the documentary is nice, it features lots of raw camera movements and jump-cuts, the B-roll did make the documentary more interesting, but it just wasnt my thing. I will, however, say that the documentary was a stylized version of rawness (you could equate this to boiled chicken :brokenheart:.

The next thing I watched was an Op-doc called View From the Floor (2025). The Op-doc talks about Mindie Lind, a disabled person with no legs. The overall topic is very interesting, talking about how people utilize disabled people as a source of "inspiration porn", or content one watches to make themselves feel good / better. I liked some of the decisions made, such as making interviews have an animated character to accompany the voice, but to be honest the downsides far outweigh the upsides in this piece. I would've loved this documentary as maybe a podcast or something, but the animation utilized for the entirety of the Op-doc is so damn ugly I straight up just cant be nice about it. I feel like its too oversaturated and it looks too similar to those "ugly adult show" artstyles. On the other hand, I feel like everything being animated didnt really allow for much technique. I view this documentary visually as a "what not to do" piece.