Sunday, April 18, 2021

Critical Reflection

 The documentary series, "Immigrants in America", is a series in which people from all over the world share their experience with moving to America. The series includes multiple episodes of countries in which people share their stories. 

The five minute extract is from the episode of immigrants from Romania. This is especially special to me because I am from Romania. Coming up with an idea for a documentary I decided to work with something that I am passionate about. Living in Miami I have come across many different cultures, I live in a very diverse area. I have met so many people from different parts of the world and noted that they each have their own stories. Documentaries are about informing and educating, they illustrate a "slice of life." 

 Immigration is a topic that is usually viewed differently, so I decided to create a piece that gave viewers insight on these personal experiences. As an immigrant myself, I tend to feel closer to people who come from a different country, not necessarily my country. This is how I drew my target audience, which are immigrants that came to the United States, ages 7-75, male and female. I want to give viewers the feeling of comfort and relation.

In the extract, the interviewee is discussing the feeling of flying for the first time, first impressions, how America is viewed in his country, obtaining his citizenship. In the interview he also discusses the language barrier and how learning English in a classroom is not the same as needing it in the real-world, this is a part of the extract in which I felt was something many people can relate to; however, I did not use this part of the interview in the extract. I feel that this could have added greatly to the piece, but I could not fit it into the extract due to the flow of it, it felt out of place.

The article was a “director’s” interview, but being the director, editor, producer, writing, etc. I included questions and answers about how the piece came about and how the editing worked. This product engages with the audience because it also has the feeling inclusion, the interviewee is also an immigrant in which the audience can relate to.

To promote the piece, I used Instagram. Instagram has recently gained a great deal of popularity among businesses due to their feature which helps promote and reach a large audience based on their likes. I created a business/promotional page which shares my posts with people who engage with similar posts. Something I felt lacked in my page greatly was a set theme. Instead of having a color scheme I posted images and videos of countries and interviewees from those countries. I was able to obtain short clips of interviewees introducing themselves to share with the viewers other episodes that are going to be included in the series. This brings me to another topic I want to discuss about the social media page. While I included information about other countries, the last couple of posts only focused on the episode of the extract, this is because it is the most footage I had. Not having a color scheme definitely does not attract the audience, however, I feel that it works because the documentary is a non-fictional piece focused on immigration which is usually correlated to more serious and neutral tones.

I chose to follow genre conventions, the five minute extract includes, interviews, b-roll footage, archived footage, and the use of a hand-held camera. While the overall episode would include multiple interviewees, the extract only included one interviewee, this is something that I felt I could’ve done a better job on, I could have included an interview with the interviewee’s wife to describe how she felt. However, I am proud of the way I shot the interview, it felt very professional, the interviewee was placed perfectly and the lighting was great. I also used archived footage, while it was minimal, something that I felt made the piece better was the use of the footage from the first house he lived in. The use of the hand-held camera worked well because the main feeling I wanted to convey with this series was for the audience to relate, and this created a sense of realism, as he is walking into his office.

The brand is developed mainly through the five minute extract. Diversity is the important part of this series. The different episodes focus on immigration from one country. Immigrants feel a relation to other immigrants because they share similarities; struggles and happiness with leaving their home countries. They see themselves as foreigners, however, they work hard and try to become the best they can because they have been given the opportunity to move to the country with limitless possibilities.

Overall, I felt that my products worked well to engage with the audience. My main focus was on making sure the target audience felt relatable. Being able to watch people who come from the same country, hearing their stories, it makes the audience feel like they are watching family. I know that my products could use work, for example, adding more b-roll as well as transitions to the extract could strengthen it greatly, an additional interviewee, such as his wife would have also added to the piece. The social media page could have been structured with a color scheme to attract the audience more. The article seemed to engage with the audience as it relates to the audience.  


Friday, April 16, 2021

Final Reflection

 It's all coming to an end. Tomorrow I will be sharing something I have been working on since February, and you guys have been with me through this whole journey. Last year I chose Media AS Level because I wanted to try something new, while trying something new I found something that I really enjoy. I learned so much throughout these two years of Media Studies. Although it is only 5 minutes, so much work has been put into this short excerpt. 


From the beginning of this class I knew I wanted to create a documentary. I knew that I had to do something meaningful to me. So I chose to stick to something special about me, my country and moving to America. It was something that was also accessible to film during this time. This documentary is extremely special to me because I got to interview my father and learn about my move to America, I was extremely young and I don't really remember the journey, on the other hand, for my parents it was a huge change in their lives. So this idea was really personal to me and something enjoyable to work on!


After establishing my idea I had to gather research to create a good foundation for the documentary. I researched immigration to the United States, but mostly Miami, because that was the focus of my extract, moving from Romania to Miami. I also researched target audience of course because (and I said this last year) it is what is important to keep the audience attentive and attract them. This year the portfolio project had more components, it was a package and because we learned about how to promote media we had to create a social media page. Social media has been a big part of my life, I had first downloaded Instagram at a young age and I have become very familiar with the application, I chose Instagram because it has become a very big part of sharing information. I created a business page to be able to see insights and make it easier to promote the docu series.


Editing this year was great! I used Final Cut Pro last year and I was not familiar with it at all. I have been using it and playing around with it since last year and although I am no professional, I can safely say that my skills have improved massively. The one obstacle I came across was that I was using the trial and it ran out so I lost what I had been editing. However, I was able to use my fathers trial on his laptop so I had to quickly get back to editing. Some new features I found were audio effects which I thought were really cool, I messed around with them but didn't really use them in the extract. Something else I had to learn to fix was when I imported my footage it converted the HDR footage to SDR which was very annoying because it messed with the lighting, I researched what I could do and found a video on how to fix this through the settings, so now I am very happy with how it looks. 


My magazine article was also just overall enjoyable to write. When I first thought magazine article I had no idea what to write about, but I spoke with my teacher and she gave me some great ideas, the one that stuck with me was a director interview. I researched a great deal of director interviews and connected commonalities between questions which helped me form my own questions. My teacher also recommended I use Canva a great online tool which I used to design my magazine article. 


Overall, this was such an enjoyable project, that had its ups and downs, but I persevered through! I learned so much and I am so grateful for this class. I hope you guys enjoy my piece tomorrow as much as I enjoyed creating it! See you guys tomorrow! 😁

Sunday, April 11, 2021

Changes to the social media

 Hey guys! When told I had to create a social media page as a part of the documentary promo package, my initial thought was, "wow, this will be easy for me, I use social media almost daily", however, I have found it difficult because I am so critical with what I should post! So today I spent all of my time brainstorming ideas (I know I've been doing a lot of brainstorming recently), I need to have everything planned out in my head before execution. In past blogs I mentioned the idea I was given by my classmates to have clips of other interviewees to give a glimpse of other episodes in the documentary, which is what I am planning to do because I have the videos already, but I need to add more than just the videos. So today I have come up with a plan to add pictures of the different countries the interviewees are from with facts about immigration from those countries as well as posting graphs! I have also come up with the idea to add links to immigration websites with even more information. I am a little upset with myself for not coming up with these ideas sooner, however, better late than never! See you guys in the next blog... ITS OFFICALLY EXACTLY ONE WEEK TILL THE DUE DATE!!! 😅

Saturday, April 10, 2021

A new day

 Hello everyone! Today is a new day, only positivity today trying to get past the tiny set back from yesterday. I tried working on a combination of things. I worked on editing today trying to get it done, I continued brainstorming for my critical reflection (however I feel that I can't quite write it yet because I haven't exported the extract or finished the article or the social media page), I also worked on a schedule for posting on the instagram page, I want to have around 20 posts before April 18! I have 8 days to do this so I decided to post 3 a day until I reach 20. Creating promo posters to post using adobe illustrator. Today was a really chill Saturday, however, big things coming soon so stay tuned! 😊

Friday, April 9, 2021

No set backs!

 Hey guys! Today I stumbled upon a problem, I wanted to finalize the extract and export it, only to find that the video editor I was using (Final Cut Pro Trial) expired yesterday... I couldn't even get in to save what I had because it was saved in to the trial :(. This was today during class, I tried getting the trial on my father's laptop, however our iclouds are synced. Fortunately for me my friend bought the full version on their laptop and is letting me work on his computer. This sets me back a bit (ironic to the title of today's blog), however, I will bounce back. So while I couldn't really work on finalizing the extract I decided to go ahead and start my critical reflection. I brainstormed answers to the questions that are to be answered throughout the essay, and started a rough draft. Hopefully I can get it done soon and focus on finishing up! Everything is coming together slowly and I am excited to share everything I have worked on soon! We have almost less than a week till the due date 😅 no pressure! See you guys soon!! 😁

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Magazine Article

 Hey guys! Today I worked on my magazine article! Last week I spoke with my teacher on how I should approach this. She recommended using Canva a great graphic design platform that can help in creating the article. She also helped me brainstorm ideas as to what my article should be about. We came up with a couple of ideas: an article featuring highlights from the series, an article of it being an upcoming film, or a director's interview. I have decided to do the director's interview article! My teacher also recommended I check out the articles on Entertainment Weekly and Documentary Magazine. Today I spent time looking through these websites as well as reading director interviews. 

Here are some links to interviews I read:

https://filmmakermagazine.com/111199-we-sat-down-and-considered-pushing-production-to-spring-of-2020-erin-vassilopoulos-on-superior/   


https://filmmakermagazine.com/102444-jon-nguyen-on-david-lynch-the-art-life-how-twin-peaks-delayed-production-and-the-downside-of-kickstarter/


The second link is interviewing a director from a documentary. Reading them not only helped in viewing their structure, but also what kinds of questions I can include. After reading through a couple more from this website https://filmmakermagazine.com/category/director-interviews/, I went on canva to search for a template. I couldn't find a template for a film article, but I have decided on this travel one, which I can use to create my magazine article. I believe I will be done with the article as well as the extract by the end of this week! See you guys in the next blog!


Saturday, April 3, 2021

Documentary Conventions

 Hey guys! Today I spent time researching. While editing this week, I was thinking of how to put things together. I realized I lacked in research. I researched the genre conventions for my piece. My favorite website I found was research site. It was heavy in information. I found that many of the conventions listed and discussed I was already including. For example, talking heads and voice over narration. It also gave me a great idea to use archival footage and photographs, which according to the article, Archival materials include old photographs, newsreel footage, and even shots from fiction films. It gave me the idea to use footage from when I visited my family in Romania. Romania was actually the first time I used my drone, hopefully I can find the footage, it has been a few years since then. I also want to use old photographs from my fathers work in Romania. I will get on adding those to my documentary, I am beyond excited with how it is turning out. Up next is finishing my magazine article! I will discuss this tomorrow in the next blog! 😁

Friday, April 2, 2021

New equipment!

 Hey guys! Happy Friday! Today was a long day and I am coming to you with updates at a late hour! But believe it or not today I felt like I was on an adventure! As my editing process continues (I feel it may continue into the next week) I have noticed many missing shots. Not missing, but some shots I have thought would make the extract come together. I finally got my stabilizer in the mail today and started playing around and learning how to use it. After, I wanted to refilm some shots because I was walking with the camera and they came out very shaky. Then I wanted to film other shots that I thought would be some great b-roll. For example, walking out of an airport and I also re-filmed the airplane landing with the stabilizer. In my time editing, I realized how much research I am lacking. my future posts will be more research! Here is a picture of my new stabilizer! 


😍 see you in the next blog!


Thursday, April 1, 2021

The week of editing and more news

 Hey guys! Happy Thursday! Yesterday we were given an extension on the project! Although I believe that I have organized my time to be done by April 12, this extra week will give me some room to breath. The due date is now April 18th. To give you guys an update on the editing, I've honestly been having a lot of fun! I am using Final Cut Pro, it is what I am most familiar in. I feel that the shots come together quite well and now I need to start working on the voice over, which I have decided to incorporate. While editing, I noticed I needed to refilm some shots in Miami that came out pretty shaky. I bought a stabilizer to make it smooth and I will try and refilm tomorrow when the stabilizer arrives! In other news, last class we learned more about the critical reflection and what questions we have to be sure to incorporate to our essay. Those are my updates as of now, I will see you guys tomorrow! 😁

Critical Reflection

 The  documentary series, "Immigrants in America", is a series in which people from all over the world share their experience with...