Creative Critical Reflection

And lastly, for my CCR I created a Prezi presentation which you can find here. This has been an incredible journey and I truly hope you have enjoyed following along with me as well as seeing my final results.

We Proudly Represent, For The Last Time, Troupe 6510

Well here it is! Seven long weeks worth of hard work and I finally present to you my finished excerpt, poster, and website for the original documentary series We Proudly Represent Troupe 6510...

Documentary Excerpt: We Proudly Represent Troupe 6510
Poster:

Website: https://troupe6510.wixsite.com/documentary

Sneak Peak

Here's just a small preview of my documentary with a quick trailer I made for website purposes. It's by no means a professional or incredibly put together trailer, but I thought it would be nice to share!

Distribution, poster, website, and more!

Hello!!! I feel like I've been away from my blog for so long because I've been hard at work finishing my project, but good news, it's all finally done! The only thing left for me to do is the CCR which I will start working on tonight and finish tomorrow. Before I dive in and show you all my final products, I first wanna update you all on the work I've been doing over the last few days. This mostly involved working on the poster and website.

Obviously one of the big things for any TV show or movie is how it will be distributed. For my project, since I didn't actually have to distribute anything, I was at liberty to make up and choose any distribution process I felt appropriate, as long as it was realistic. For my documentary series, as I officially decided to brand it as, I chose a direction many projects are now taking in that it would be totally distributed online. I chose this for a couple reasons. Mainly because since this is the direction we are moving in it is more easily accessible to all, and more my main target audience, teens to young adults, they are most responsive to this. Specifying where I will distribute it online, I have decided that my documentary series will be an original series picked up by and distributed mainly by Netflix, in addition to being available on iTunes for those who are not Netflix users. So why these two platforms? iTunes, because it is something most people can access and in all the other documentaries I used as case study research, their content was available on iTunes. Also, I did some research, and for the majority, most Netflix shows are available on iTunes. As far as why I chose Netflix, I did this because streaming services are now becoming huge competitors and even beating mainstream television and out of all the streaming services out there, consumer reports show Netflix remains the most popular. The great thing about Netflix also is that is comes basically built with an audience. Also, Netflix already has a great deal of movies, shows, and documentaries about theater and other art forms (cough cough, First Position) so my documentary series would fit right in.

This choice of distribution affected not only some aspects of my website, but also my poster. Netflix originals have some specific things all in common with their posters so I made sure to check this out so I could make sure to follow conventions and have it in my poster.

The main thing is that they all have the Netflix logo somewhere at thee top, most with "A Netflix..." and the date the episodes will be available at the bottom. Though there are variations, as you can see, with most posters I found, the Netflix logo was at the top in the center and the availability date was in the bottom right corner, so I incorporated these elements into my poster. 

In regards to my website, I pretty much did all I said I would with the exception of adding a playlist. For one, the program I used wouldn't let me upload music in the fashion I wanted to and also I thought it wouldn't really make sense to add song that were about the topic, but I wasn't actually able to use on the show. I thought about adding the professional versions of songs the troupe had performed but that also seemed redundant since I already have a performance page. Other explanations for more specific choices can be found in my CCR, but for now I just want to discuss the social media platforms I created and linked to the page. I decided to make a Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Like I said, my main target audience is teens and young adults, but since art appreciation is a subject many older adults can relate to, I'm also hoping to target a few of them and so the Facebook is really for them but it also targets the younger audiences, according to Forbes, 41% of millennials use Facebook everyday. The Twitter and Instagram, however, are for the younger group since these are among the top social media platforms for Generation Z and Millennials. I could have included Snapchat since it is rising into the top three social media platforms used by Millennials and Gen Z, but the truth is most older audiences don't utilize this platform so I didn't want to exclude them completely; plus, with the other three accounts I think it would be enough. Although I wasn't able to create a YouTube page which is something I wanted to do, I was able to embed performance videos in the website itself. 

Lastly, just to get this out of the way, I want to site where I got the music for my documentary excerpt. In total, I used 4 sounds: the sound of an orchestra tuning its instruments, a camera flash charging sound effect, a camera flash sound effect, and a song. Both sound effects were from a YouTube account called "Jojikiba" which provides Royalty Free sounds.

The sound of the orchestra was from a YouTube account known as "Urb Mak" and he had previously assured another use that this sound was in the public domain, i.e., anyone could use it.

Lastly, the song I used was a Royalty Free song that was included in Filmora, the software I used to edit, which was called Little Maps by Eddie.

That's all for now, next time I post it will be the final reveal of everything I've been working so hard on. I hope you will all enjoy it!



Sources:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/21/overwhelming-majority-of-people-watching-streaming-services-still-choose-netflix.html
https://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/how-to-get-your-indie-film-onto-itunes-netflix
https://www.lifewire.com/hottest-social-app-trends-for-teens-3485940
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenfriedman/2016/12/29/4-millennial-social-media-trends-to-watch-in-2017/#171f0fe66e69

Picture Perfect

As I'm working today on editing and creating my documentary's poster, I realized I never updated you all on how shooting for this went. I took the pictures in school Thursday as I had said, and although I'm happy with the results, they are a bit different than I planned. Before I show you the final image I'm currently editing and manipulated, I wanted to do a kind of spot the difference and just reflect on what I said I was planning to do vs. what actually ended up happening.

The plan:

• Utilize blue, purple, and white lighting
• Have silhouettes formed by the back light, in other words, just have black figures as my performers
• Use of solid black for stage floor

The result:

• Utilization of pink lights and bright white spotlights in order to create the "silhouettes"

As it turns out, although I have spent endless hours throughout the years on and in my schools stage and auditorium, I am one hundred percent a performer and not a backstage technician. I completely overestimated the lights we had and the ways I could manipulate them. The blue and purple lights were originally inspired by an image I took in the wings of Morsani Hall in the Straz Center- a theater primarily used by professional touring companies and performers. The blue and purple lights I wanted to recreate, I was trying to do so in my public high school's amateur theater. We did have these colored lights, they just didn't really read well and were not as bright and powerful as I remembered, so, I opted for a pink tint in lighting which is just what ended up working best. 

The ceiling of  the stage where the blue lights were located.
They're clearly there, just didn't do much for the shot. 

The pink lights were located in a manner where they
more faced the stage rather than came down
right on it. You can see the pink was capable of totally
taking over the auditorium. 

• The "silhouettes" are actually completely visible colored bodies

Again, an misunderstanding of the placement of the lights in my theater. The colored lights, like I said, were not bright enough and faced directly down on the stage, not able to give me the silhouette effect. The only way I could get the effect of shine and light falling on the performers was by using spotlights, which although got the job done, created a different look than I anticipated. Because of this, you can see the performers clothes perfectly; and because I didn't plan on this happening, I didn't tell my subjects to wear anything specific. Now, this could have been awful and ruined my entire picture, however, I think it actually worked in my benefit. All of my troupe-mates that volunteered to be in this picture for me were conveniently wearing solid colored shirts that worked well together, giving the shot a nice bit of color, but nothing too crazy. 

• The part of the stage I shot on is actually wood, but I didn't even end up capturing it in some shots. 

This one is actually up in the air; it could go as planned, but also maybe not (I'm making two versions of the poster right now to decide which is best later.) Originally I had planned to have my actors stand on a black stage, which is what I thought the stage I would be using was, and I mean, it was, but not the mantel, which is where my subjects had to stand for the picture to work with the lights. If I use the image that shows the wooden, unfortunately not black, stage, this means I have to crop my "6510" title and get rid of the background to be able to use it on my poster (since the background of this picture is black). If I use the image that doesn't even show the stage, I may just end up putting black at the bottom of it and easily pasting the picture over it. But this will all be decided with the final result.

Anyway, enough explanation. I'll just show you the two pictures I'm using for my poster. I guess the one I will actually end up using for the poster will be a surprise, but for now, I think I'm leaning towards the second. 

 

Website Wonders

As I've started working on my website, one of the largest unexpected challenges that I've encountered is creating a compelling and representative synopsis for my documentary. As I established before hand,  the about/ synopsis page is an integral part for any film or tv show's website since it is what audiences unfamiliar with the piece will first be drawn to in order to gain immediate information; therefore, it should give consumers enough information so that they can decide if it is something they are interested in, not enough information so that they feel they know the whole story, and engaging enough that they desperately want to watch. A good synopsis is also extremely telling of a stories character and quality. "When a plot synopsis is still compelling without all the little details, that's the test of a story's foundation." (www.scriptmag.com)

That being said, this is what I've come up with so far. I may make some edits, however, I'm pretty satisfied with it.

"The theater community is one that expands globally, capturing many individuals with its diverse art and performance forms; the connection felt among performers and theater connoisseurs because of their love for this craft is unparalleled to most human connections. The foundation of this bond and community often begins early on among students and young performers alike.

In a high school in South Florida, students in its award winning drama club work year long as a troupe preparing for the Florida State Thespian Festival and competition. With over 7.000 thespians in attendance each year, the festival is identified as the nation's largest gathering of high school theater students of its kind. Here, students spend a week in Tampa, Florida immersed in performances, workshops, master classes, and the ambiance of the city being completely taken over by theater.

Following the troupe’s journey from initially imagining and rehearsing their pieces for the district festival in hopes of receiving the coveted Superior ranking to be able to qualify for the State Festival, to capturing the devolvement and growth of their relationships and performances through States, We Proudly Represent Troupe 6510 witnesses it all. It tells the story of art, passion, camaraderie, and community as these thespians transform from just a troupe, to a family."

Editing Feedback and Updates

Since I last said I finished editing, I went back and made some adjustments on my own before actually showing my documentary to anyone. The most relevant change from my first draft to the second draft, and the one I'm most excited about because I think it looks so pretty, is the look of my title! By this point I think you've heard me talk about this title so much you're probably expecting something good, I hope I don't disappoint. It's nothing too fancy and extravagant but I really like how it turned out, and really, it was exactly what I envisioned. Here's the grand reveal.

Here's the original title, which I had displayed in a previous post 

And here's the title now, complete with the marquee light 6510 my brother so kindly created for me

Maybe it's silly to be as excited about an aspect as seemingly small (in comparison) as a title's graphic, but it's just so encompassing of theater and the "big time" dream that I think it embodies a very important aspect of my documentary very nicely. I'm also happy because now this means I get to work with and adapt this title for the other minor components and I know the final results will probably look just as good.

Now into the meat of the update: tonight, after finally being pleased enough with my editing to feel ready to show people for critique, I shared my project with a few peers from my class. Lari, Celeste, and Isa were the one's that mostly gave me feedback and they had a lot of great things to say that going back and fixing will make my piece just that much better. From everything they told me as well as a few things I personally caught when viewing my draft for the millionth time, I complied a list of some general, but also very specific things I have to fix and edit in order for my documentary to be as complete as I want it. Though it wont make sense right now, I'll post my notes here and in time, once I finally share my end product, I'll come back to insert my drafts so my progress and changes can be seen. But for now, here's just this:

Overall, however, my friend's really enjoyed the piece and said that their notes were mostly knit picky which makes me feel really good about my project so far since I worked so hard on editing. With this all finally coming together, although there was never really a doubt in my mind of the subject I wanted to focus on for this, I'm glad I chose what I did. Not only was it perfect timing to be able to film and what not, but it's also a topic so personal and important to me that (it's about to get really cheesy and borderline lame in here) I've enjoyed creating the project and now have a reflection of incredible memories that I know will last me a life time. Now onto the next! I've already started working on the website and this Thursday I will officially be taking the pictures for my poster, so that's what this week is looking like. 

We are LESS THAN 2 WEEKS away from the due date!!! But I'm making great time. I want to have all components finished by Sunday, the end of this week, that way in the final week I can take a few days to do the CCR and still have time to spare to fix any mistakes and then finally, enjoy my spring break and time off. 

Done Editing!!! (Kinda)

Last night, I am happy to say I finally finished editing my documentary!!! I am pretty happy with the way it turned out with the exception of one transition in the end of it that seems to change subjects with no meaning or purpose. This is where the "kinda" done editing part comes in. I really love everything else about my piece, but this week I'm going to show my product to a few classmates and have them give me input as to whether or not they think the transition/end is weird and or abrupt. I also want to ask, obviously, about what they think overall so that if need be, I can make changes while there's still time. I think a main critique that I may possibly receive is that the task at hand it to create an excerpt from a TV documentary- my entire TV documentary capturing the Troupe's work and challenges leading up to and after states, with my excerpt documenting the time at states- but I think rather than an excerpt I made more of an "op doc". If the people I show this to absolutely hate that aspect of it, it can be easily changed and I already know how I would go about it, so that part I'm not too worried about.

Other than that all I need to do to finish is insert the graphic for the title which I'm waiting on, and also I'm still looking for background music to include for the end. I mentioned my struggle with music before and not being able to use the tracks I originally wanted, but the way it worked out, I don't think those tracks would have all fit into the piece anyway, so really, it was nothing to stress about.

I'm nervous, but mostly looking forward to sharing my excerpt with others and getting feedback on my work.

Poster Updates

I previously created a post discussing my ideas for the documentary's poster and although I was still unsure of the final image I would be using, this week I met with a few of my class mates to discuss our projects and they gave me some insight on the topic. I explained to them my idea and showed them the images I was using as inspiration; collectively we all decided that, yes, the backstage picture was the best and most capturing of the purpose of my documentary. They suggested, however, that rather than having the image be backstage from off in the wings, it be a shot on stage of the silhouettes of the troupe facing out to the audience during something like a "curtain call." I really liked this idea and in fact, had already thought about it, the reason I never really considered it too heavily though was because something like that is already very similar to another famous production's poster:  A Chorus Line.

Not only a musical theater production created for the stage, but also a movie making grand impacts on screen, A Chorus Line is a well known piece for both younger and older audiences, especially those who are involved and interested in theater... aka MY EXACT TARGET AUDIENCE. Not to mention, it is also very similar to the Thespians documentary poster.  This is mainly the reason why I had some hesitations for choosing this as my cover image. I didn't want it to come off as unoriginal, uninspired, or become easily mistaken for Piece of media other than my own.

On the other hand, this image is PERFECT for my TV documentary and portraying its true underlying themes, and soo... my peers convinced me to go this route. I'm going to be taking the shots next week on my school's stage once I have access to the light booth and am able to properly light the set how I want it. Unlike the image used for A Chorus Line and Thespians which utilizes classic white and yellow lights, I'm planning on orchestrating my lights so that they are comprised of a blue, purple, and white light color scheme, similar to the lighting in my original backstage inspiration picture (and looking back on it, the lights in the heading of the Thespians websites home page).

Something about this just makes it feel more original and distinct from A Chorus Line's poster, as well as part of the modern theater world. I'm including the white light so that there is still something within that color scheme that will match and pair well with my "marquee light" title which will most likely be white/ yellow lights. For this reason, I will also do my best to take the cover shot with white and yellow lights shining on the performers, just in case the blue and purple look too off with the title.

Another distinction that will separate my documentary's poster from others of previous productions is the physicality and body language of the subjects in my shot. A Chorus Line is all about individual performers sharing their personal stories and auditioning to further their own career. It's really about the pressures of the performing industry and the toll it can take emotionally and physically on individuals, and the poster reflects this, with many of the performers in the cover standing in solidarity and off on their own. Since my production is about the polar opposite, relationships and community built on the bond of theater and performing, my subjects will be proudly holding hands, standing together as one. 

Playing With Fonts

I'm getting closer and closer to completing editing every day, but with continuous thinking about my website and poser, I realized something all three of these components should have in common in order to all go together cohesively, and that is a font; so, I took a break from attempting to finish editing  my excerpt and started working on creating the graphic that will appear with the title in my documentary, since until now, I've just been avoiding it with a place. The title of my documentary, right now, is hesitantly We Proudly Represent Troupe 6510 or simply 6510. I always knew for certain I wanted to incorporate the classic "Broadway"  font in it somehow, but now I've also gotten the inspiration to have my title be sort of like something you would see on a theater marquee. Because my poster will already have a lot going on most likely with lights (I've made some decisions about this with the help of my peers, updates to come!) I think I will just use the standard Broadway font, but for headings on my website and the title in the documentary, incorporating marquee lights is something I really wanted to accomplish. Something along the lines of this:

Decor found on Pinterest

Cover art for season one of the musical TV show, Smash

Final product of a photo shop tutorial

This was inspired also by the picture of the Tampa Theater I included in an earlier post "Wrapping Up Filming and Poster Planning".

I tried creating a style like this using the tools on Filmora since they do have a nice variety of options for creating titles on their software, however, the best I could come up with was (roughly) something like this.

 

With The Broadway font and a glow sort of outline. I can of course play with the coloring of the text, the background, a potential background image, and further font dimensions, but either way, I just don't think I would be able to get the exact result I want, so I looked into searching up marquee style fonts that I could copy or download but I wasn't very successful in this so I looked toward making my own. I'm no artist or graphic design wiz so I knew this would also pose a challenge, but thankfully, my brother is. I found a few tutorials online and realized you can make marquee light graphics not too difficulty on Photo Shop, which my brother also has access too so I plan on asking him and seeing if he could possibly make me a graphic for my documentary. If i choose the longer title, I'm not sure I want the whole thing in lights because I think it would look too cluttered, but for either title, I definitely want the 6510 in lights. Here are a few of the tutorials that I'm sending to my brother that would be helpful to him in creating this image: Realistic 3D Casino Style Bulb Tutorial, Vintage Light Bulb Sign Tutorial, SMASH Theater Text Effect Video. 

Although I didn't make much progress with the aesthetic of my title from the point I was when I started this post, at least I know have a more solid set idea in mind and I'm excited to see potential results. In the off chance that my brother isn't willing to help, I know my rough draft of the title is not terrible, and like I said, I can most definitely continue working with it. 

Website Essentials

Today I've been exploring some documentary websites in order to just kind of see the necessities of what they all include and to gather inspiration for extra things I can include in order to make my website stand out. Since the two of the main case studies I have been looking at are Thespians and First Position, I of course first headed over to their website; the only problem is that Thespians, since it seemed to be such a low key and small scale film, has a very limited website and First Position's website, although it appears in a google search, will not open for the life of me. Nevertheless, both films found a way to be beneficial to me anyway.

The heading of Thespians' websites Home Page 

For one, the Thespians Home Page has a very clean and dark "backstage" vibe that with the poster and website, as I've been saying, I think I'm trying to embody. I also saw that on the bottom of the Home Page is a reminder that says "15% of the net proceeds from the sale of this film will benefit Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS", which is a huge organization that many theatrical events and institutions commonly choose to donate too. Specifically, which is why I think Thespians contribution to that foundation is so relevant, is because Florida State Thespians and even many of the participating districts are huge donors to  Broadway Cares. I never thought about it before, but perhaps if I chose to donate proceeds from my TV documentary to Broadway Cares, this could spark interest in my target audience to even further support and consume my project. I think this would be a cool way to do that, but I also need to further consider how it will be distributed, because for example if I choose to have the show streamed on Netflix, like Making a Murderer, I wouldn't be making direct proceeds from my consumers and therefor, probably would not have much left over to donate, but it's something to consider. Other than that, like I mentioned, their website is pretty rudimentary and only includes the basics. 

The simplicity of the text on Meru's website allows for
beautiful changing images to play behind it

Cartel Land's adapted poster art as its home page screen

I also took a look at a few other documentary's websites, though, disclaimer: none of them are TV documentaries and none of them deal with the arts, but I figured this would still be helpful. Earlier in the year when my class did a documentary unit we took a look at a few documentaries, two of which were Meru and Cartel Land. Meru is a sports documentary that captures the intense art of mountain climbing while Cartel Land is about two vigilante groups trying to take down violent Mexican drug cartels. Although the sites are both very different, since they are catered to two very different films, they both have a few aspects in common.One thing I noticed is the similar techniques used on their Home Page. Cartel Land as soon as you open the site, the trailer for the film automatically begins playing. Meru's website doesn't do this in the sense that the trailer plays automatically, but it's Home Page is so clear of text other than the title and a button that says "watch trailer" that you, as a consumer, are definitely inclined to check it out. Part of my project is not to make a trailer, but what better way to peak interest in my documentary than to give a sneak peak? so I certainly plan on putting together a trailer I can feature on my website, even if it is a small one. Visually, both Home Pages are very interesting. Meru's is engaging because the visuals are always shifting from pictures and short videos from the documentary, which are not only visually stunning, but also visually very intense so I think this choice is an excellent one. Cartel Land's Home Page features its promotional poster which is what I think I'm leaning more towards since my documentary is not as heavily focused on intriguing visuals as something like Meru is. An article from MovieStud.io discussing website creation for films confirms this choice as a possibility because it mentions a "trailer, still from your movie, or your poster art" when discussing the design for the websites home page. Something this article says that I love and will definitely consider when designing my home page is that "Film is a visual medium so the front page of your site should reflect that."

Something cool I noticed about Meru's website is that other than the necessary tabs that should be featured on all promotional movie/ TV websites is that they have a page just for photos, which of course is brilliant since the film is so reliant on beautiful visuals and cinematography that document the climb. This inspired me and gave me the idea to do something like this, but instead feature a page that is filled with my troupes various performances which capture our teamwork and talent, the entire purpose of the State Festival and competition. I think this page would be great not only to give a closer look at the troupe, but also to give my consumers extra content to consumer and will ultimately "whet [my] fan's appetite for more" as an article on Film Courage predicts.

Other than that, all three websites pretty much feature the essentials which seem to be:

• Home Page
• Synopsis/ About
• Distribution Information
• Contact Information/ Social media buttons/ Mailing list
• Press (unlikely for me since press wont be covering my piece anytime soon)
• Filmmakers (which in my case, would only be a page about my, so I'm thinking of either not including this page at all, or doing a "meet the cast" type of thing in order to, again give more content and allow viewers to create a personal relationship with the piece.)

 Lastly!!! Another feature I'm thinking of adding to my website is a playlist that will play automatically once on the site. I'm thinking of doing this in hopes of making the site more interactive, giving it a specific ambiance, and also because this will be a way to get around not being able to use songs I wanted to put in my documentary, but still including (legally) in my project.

Schedule Updates

A few weeks ago I posted a tentative schedule for the progress of my project that gave me time to complete all aspects of my project and allotted me time to take care of any mistakes or fix any problems that occurred. However, this has changed a bit. The original due date of the project was April 8th and obviously I had created my schedule with this due date in mind. Now, our deadline has been extended to April 16th, giving me an entire extra week to work on it which, although I know will go by fast, any extra time is appreciated. According to my previous schedule, I would have finished editing this weekend and would have begun and finished working on my website and poster this week. I did start editing last week, but because I knew I now had extra time, I allowed myself to fall a little behind my original timing and have only completed editing about a third of my final piece. This being said, I plan on definitely, absolutely, 100% finishing editing this week, while simultaneously working on the website and poster. Editing will be my main focus of course, but it doesn't hurt to work on the other aspects so I get a full view of my entire project. The good news is I already did a bit of research and planning for the poster last week, so this week I need to start doing the same for the website. Because I have already created many websites, but have never made a promotional poster, I anticipate the website being the easier of the two to complete. 

We're three weeks out from the deadline. I'm excited for all of the aspects to start coming together!

Curse You, Copyrighted Music!!!

Ah yes, I have arrived to arguably one of the most frustrating parts of this project, attempting to get the rights to use big name songs in my production, but more realistically, when that fails, searching for good royalty free music to use. My frustrations in this feat lie in the fact that I have, essentially since the beginning of this project known which songs I've wanted to use. There's three of them, and although I didn't know exactly where they would fit in before, now that I'm editing, I do!!! And they would be so perfect!!! The three songs I'm talking about are: What I Did For Love from the musical A Chorus Line, New York, New York by Frank Sinatra, and finally, On Broadway by George Benson. I have been attempting for a while to get the rights to these songs, but something always goes wrong. Nevertheless, here I am, basically pleading to the companies that own these tracks to let me use them for an innocent school project, either hoping they forgot about my previous attempts or that by some miracle they will find it in their hearts to help out an amateur documentary maker like myself.

Being the pragmatic person I am however, I realize it's time to start looking for other options. I've began searching a plethora of royalty free music archives and honestly, doing this last year really was not as complicated as I'm finding it to be now. The problem this year is that I'm looking for a very specific style and type of music that, as I'm learning, is not greatly abundant in these archives. Unlike last year when I just needed some soft, yet edgy alternative/ folk music, a relatively popular genre already, this year I'm searching for old school Broadway musical theater meets jazz or something in between. I've found a few options I think I could make work, but nothing that screams to me, yes!!! please use me!!! you need me!!! and really, that's the feeling I wanna get when I find this music. I'm obviously going to keep searching until I find something I'm happy with, but until then, please pray to the Music Licensing Gods above.

First Position

As I'm look through the footage I have for my documentary, I'm realizing that I have so much great content than can most definitely surpass five minutes. The challenge I'm facing is figuring out how to organize all this content in order to create a clean and tightly edited piece which tells a cohesive story. I think what I;m must struggling with is how to organize my interviews; I don't to have one section per main subject I interviewed, but I also don't want the interviews to intertwine in a way that is sloppy and confusing. While thinking about this I realized that in the busy weeks leading up to States and filming (three weeks of daily after school rehearsal and show week for my school show) I never had much time to watch any actual documentaries for inspiration, so I decided to do that now in order to gain some perspective on how exactly I may like to edit my piece. I took to my trusty Netflix account and decided to watch First Position, a documentary as described by IMBd as the story of "six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world." Below is the trailer. 

I thought First Position would be the perfect documentary to watch because of all the similarities it has to mine: it's about a beautiful art form of performance, it follows an important competition and event pertaining to this craft, and documents several young dancers who are passionate about the subject. The main subjects of this documentary are all independent dancers and have no relation to one another other than their hard work, dedication, and the passion they possess for this craft. For this reason, however, this documentary doesn't focus on the bonds ballet creates in the way that may documentary will with theater, rather, because of the immensely different backgrounds of all the dancers, it shows how ballet is a powerful force affecting individuals all around the world from different cultures and histories, which is just as powerful a message. Although First Position is a lot like Thespians in that it focuses a lot on the preparation and actual competition (if full length, mine

The promotion poster for First Position 

would do the same but alas) I still managed to get some great ideas from it. For example, like in the trailer, the graphic match they do of the little boy twirling in his room to twirling on stage is something I would like to do using archive footage of the performances we brought to state with the footage of the actual performance at state in order to show the growth and prosperity of our troupe. As far as the interviews go, this documentary did dedicate a piece of time to each subject and then go back and forth between all of them for the most part, but there were also times where different interviews would collide if all the subjects were talking about the same thing. I love this because it shows the universality of the triumphs and challenges ballerinas and ballet dancers face, no matter how different they are. I definitely plan to incorporate this into my editing.

Drawing from another aspect of this documentary, I have also taken inspiration from it's promotional poster. Again like in Thespians we see the usage of back light it forming the silhouette of a dancer in beautiful, majestic form. Seeing this trend in yet another artistic documentary is slowly but surely reassuring me to go with an idea like the one I talked about in my last post. Something about hiding the identity of the person on the cover and making the craft so universal to performers everywhere... I just love it.

Also, completely unrelated to my project, but still very cool: I found on YouTube that one of the main subjects from this documentary gave a TedTalk sharing the story of her childhood and (spoiler alert) how she ended up getting offered a spot in a professional ballet company. Her name is Michaela DePrince and her talk is called "From 'Devil Child' to Star Ballerina". It's not surprising to me that she was invited to give a TedTalk because in the actual documentary, she touches on her background and it was truly and incredible story, I'm glad I got to hear more. To just give you some incentive to go view the talk, Michaela was born in Sierra Leon, West Africa, four years after the awful civil war with a skin condition known as vitiligo. Her parents were killed by the rebels and she was put in an orphanage where she endured some terrible and traumatic experiences before coming to know the life that she lives today. It's a remarkable story considering where she started to where she ended up and the fact that just by looking at her dance in the documentary, you would have never suspected a thing. I definitely recommend checking it out as well as First Position all together.

Wrapping up Filming and Poster Planning

The past few days have been a crazy ride filled with performances, music, theater, filming, and little to no sleep. That being said they have been some of the most fun of the year thus far and I'm a little sad that their over. Like I've said before, Thespians has been an integral part of my high school experience and with the conclusion of States, it's now actually over. I'm a little nostalgic for sure. But this only further validates my inclination to document the experience because at the end of this entire project, I will hopefully have an incredible piece that I will be proud of and is truly representative of the overall experience.

Throughout the festival I was able to film and capture all the footage I needed. Of course I haven't began editing yet so I can't say for certain that I will not be missing any footage, but just looking over everything I captured, I'm fairly confident that I will have more than enough for my piece to come together. The only thing I still want to film are a few more interviews with members from my troupe just for the sake of sound bridges and being able to flawlessly move forward my story through the voice of others. Once those view interviews are over, which I will take care of today and tomorrow, that will be a wrap for all of my filming!!!

Staying true to the schedule I created for myself at the beginning of the entire project, this week will be completely dedicated to editing. Because I have a Windows laptop, I don't have access to iMovie other than the limited version that is provided on iPhones and iPads, and I absolutely do not want to use MovieMaker because as I've learned from experience, that's not the best, so for editing, I plan to try out Filmora, which has been requested by many of my peers, or look into other editing software.

I plan to edit this week mostly at home and especially during the weekend when I can dedicate my entire day to this endeavor and throw myself in full force, so to not waste time, while I have the opportunity to work on my documentary in school this week, I plan to begin research on and exploring the best ways to create a promotional picture for my project. Already I found a great article from the New York Film Academy's website discussing tips and guidelines for creating promotional posters and giving examples for creators to possibly gain ideas ad get inspired. They list a set of questions and ideas creators should initially consider before attempting to create a poster, these being them along with my personal responses:

• If you haven’t already, create a mind-map of your target audience and the message you want to send out... My target audience is young adults to adults in the artistic community who I'm trying to impact with the message of how theater builds relationships and community.

• With the above in mind, think of some layout designs i.e. fonts, images, colors etc. that make your poster really pop... As for as color schemes, that will be dependent on whatever images I end up choosing and font is something I will also consider later. I'm mainly concerned right now with what image will be on my poster. Right now I have three images I took in Tampa that I'm drawing inspiration from, however, I'm not sure If I will end up using any of them in the final product, I may have to recreate something. 

  

  I love the idea of something like this because it is simple with only a few colors and I think would look very clean and pleasing to the eye. Not only that, but most importantly, it conveys the sense of a human bond established in the theater and a sense of emotion felt just before going on stage. I love the silhouettes because it sort of masks the identity of those featured in the picture and allows the audience to put their face to the emotion felt by the picture.  If anything, I think I could edit it a bit and this image would be great to use. The only thing is, even though there are actually four people hugging in the picture, it seems like only two, so this may seem to convey a smaller scale relationship than the one I'm showing. The good thing about this is that my school has a pretty nice theater where I have access to that a shot like this would be relatively simple to orchestrate; I just love this stage because it is backstage of the Straz Theater which is so much larger and more professional than our armature theater at school, but with angles and editing, I think I would be able to make the smaller theater look just as impressive.

  
  

  

  This is a shot of our entire troupe at States in front of our hotel. I don't know that I would be inclined to use this image, simply because my troupe, though the center of my documentary, is more of a case study for much greater themes and a much larger message. It's also a very simple picture that to me doesn't seem very professional or intriguing for a poster that may be the first impression of my final piece, but again, it will serve me for inspiration and reminder of the story I am trying to get across. 

  
  

  

  This is the marquee outside the Tampa Theater, one of the top venues for the Florida Thespian State festival, and one of BBC's top "10 most beautiful cinemas in the world."  The theater is a beauty not only on the outside, but also on the inside with intricate and exquisite design capturing the true power of a different form of art. I think also with the clean background this is a pleasing imagine to look at overall, however, it doesn't scream Florida Thespian State Festival!!! It really just says, hey look it's the Tampa Theater. Unless you knew about the location of States you would not necessarily relate this theater to the festival, but, I don't know, I guess I just like the image, the lights, and the message of "Welcome To The Show!", perhaps I will be able to make some use of it. 

• Research, research, research! The Internet is a wonderful thing and can give you an endless amount of information on different color schemes, font sizes or image placement and what they connote in order to send the right message... more work on this will come when its time to actually focus on the poster and website. Until then, these are just some off my brain storms!

Helloooo Tampa Bay

We made it!!! Today was the first day of States and I already have some great footage that I'm very excited about. Since it was the first day, other than opening ceremonies, we had a relatively free day to roam around Tampa and explore. My main focus of filming today was following our troupe's State selected pantomime to their opening ceremonies performance and documenting their experience. Other than that I got a few interesting shots of our troupe rehearsing and just hanging out on the bus, which I know I want to include in the documentary, but since my excerpt is mostly focusing on already being at States, I'm still thinking of a way to incorporate it with out making it about the journey to States.

a sneak look at the beautiful Tampa Bay area and our hotel

Tomorrow our large group, which I'm a part of, is performing so that's gonna be all about capturing our rehearsals, our performance, and our troupes support. I also need to start getting a majority of my interviews and get footage of my troupe as a whole. It's a busy week, but I'm taking it one day at a time and I'm already off to a great start! I also have great friends who are helping me out with filming since I obviously can't be everywhere at the festival at once.

I was so set and ready to film my documentary that I kind of just dived in and realized I never updated you guys on some of my specific plans, SO, just a few updates!!! Last week my class met in groups to discuss our projects and they helped me decide on a few important factors of my project; the most important being that since I am so involved in my drama club and am part of two of the six performances that we took to States, I'm a rather large part of my troupe in this festival. However, the documentary is about my troupe and our community and being the documentarian, I felt that if I included myself in it, I would take away too much of the attention and the documentary would end up becoming about me, something I definitely DO NOT want. And so I struggled with the decision of whether or not I would be part of my project. Ultimately my group helped me decide that although I wouldn't be a main subject in my documentary, it would be okay and honest if I showed up in videos of my large group performance and acknowledged my participation in that event. Something else we discussed was concerning my usage of handheld shots, if they would be used and to what extent. I brought a tripod with me (thanks tstock) so I could easily and efficiently film interviews, establishing shots, performances, etc., but since my documentary is about bonds and relationships and is more of an intimate piece, my group and I felt as though a few handheld shots would be appropriate in making the footage seem raw, real, and making my audience feel as though they were involved in the festival and part of my troupe. If used purely stabled pieces I feel as though the final piece would look to picturesque and "fake".

That's pretty much all I have for now, like I said, today was relatively filled with free time so I'm happy I got a lot done for my project today and was able to focus on it. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be the same, if not, tough luck because it's gonna have to be!

"Moore" Over and Make Way for Ale Duque

Michael Moore: documentary filmmaker, author, activist, super woke

As an avid consumer of documentaries, I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two about this art form simply  just from viewing. As a creator however, I’ve only ever made one documentary, it was a collaborative effort, and if we’re being honest, it definitely had a lot of issues; but that's okay, nothing is perfect the first time, or ever really, and now at least I have the experience of attempting to create a documentary and I know what went wrong the first time and what I need to improve on this time around. For additional tips of what to consider and keep in mind while creating my documentary, I took to the internet and found Michael Moore’s 13 Rules for Making Documentary Films. I absolutely adore Michael Moore and his films (not to mention he is one of my favorite twitter follows), so of course I eagerly read what he had to say and as always, he had some pretty insightful advice.

Editor's Note: Moore’s documentaries usually strive to inform about and expose some dark truth, serving as a scathing commentary on our society. His advice was also specifically catered for documentary “films”. There are some discrepancies between these characteristics and the ones particular to my documentary since mine is looking to be more lighthearted and explorative and is being made as an excerpt from a TV documentary, so needless to say I took some of Moore’s words with a grain of salt, adjusting them for my specific goals.

1. “We are not documentarians, we are filmmakers.”

Moore makes an excellent point which although I knew in the back of my mind, it was not something I ever really thought about. When one examines what a documentary really is, it is a form of art, a form of cinema that is striving to tell a story. One could say the same for a movie, or in my case, a TV show. Moore points out that although many documentarians may look down on films and the aspiration of “entertaining” audiences, because they somehow see their project as more serious or professional, this is exactly what their goal should be! No one wants to go see a didactic documentary where he feels he is being scolded or lectured; no! Audiences want to be entertained and there is nothing wrong in a serious documentary doing this while still being effective and getting its message across. As Moore says, “ You’ve chosen this art form — the cinema, this incredible, wonderful art form, to tell your story. You didn’t have to do that.”

2. “[The audience] doesn’t care whether you make them cry, whether you make them laugh, whether you even challenge them to think…”

This goes back to the no lecturing thing, as well as not making your documentary something the audience already knows. In other words, make your audience FEEL something!!! It’s what any good and successful work of art does. I also love the idea of making my audience think. Seeing as my documentary is about a theater competition (pretty nerdy stuff in the eyes of many) my target audience is mainly young adults to adults in the artistic community, but overall this community in general; however, for anyone not already appreciative of the arts that may stumble across my production, I want them to be able to see and understand how art affects communities and relationships and for them to be able to begin thinking of art and theater as a much bigger concept than they already see it. Same goes for theater fans who may only see this craft on a shallow level.

3. “Make you films personal”

If you make your film personal, chances are your unique personality will shine through and it will be different than what anyone has seen before, thus peaking interest in your production. This is definitely a goal, especially since my documentary topic is something so close and personal to me and the community I surround myself with. I want it to be seen how much I care about this topic, that way, perhaps my passion will extend to others. From an artistic point of view, as I keep creating, it would also be cool to develop a personal style and touch that could be evident in all of my productions, making them undoubtedly mine.

4. “ Less is more. You already know that one.”

It’s true. I already know that; you, whoever is reading this, already knows that. This one is obvious and goes without explanation. Nevertheless, it’s an important reminder because whether it is in writing, filming, editing, whatever, this always seems to be a problem (why do I do these things to myself?).

5. “Sound is more important than picture”

“Sound carries the story.” This might seem a bit hyperbolic, but just think about it. In an example that Moore gives, if in a film at the movie theater, the projection is a bit shaky and glitchy at times, people might question it, even complain, but at the end of the day, no one will really say much. However, if at this same theater, the image is squeaky clean, but the sound keeps going in and out, or worse, it’s completely inaudible, RIOTS WILL ERUPT! Because without sound, without dialogue to explain and advance the story, without diegetic sound to remind you of the realness of the piece, without music to help insight emotion, the piece of film being seen is nothing. This is an extremely important tip because in my amaeture career as an editor, sound is the component I have the least experience with and honestly, am most afraid of; but soon, that’s gonna change!!!

With these ideas in mind, coming directly from a well established individual in the industry (alliteration alert) who I greatly respect, I feel even more ready and prepared to make my debut in the documentary world. Make way for documentary filmmaker TV show maker, Ale Duque.

Question Time!!!

One of the most important parts of a documentary, and a strong driving force of it,  is interviews! The main task when thinking of questions to ask your subjects is to make sure you can establish the foundations of your story: who, what, when, where? After this, you need to make sure you create questions that elicit the type of responses you are looking for. Because you obviously can't control what your subjects say, this means you must cater your questions so that you almost guide your interviewees in a specific direction. This is what I tired to accomplish with my questions. Right now I have 20 of them, I may add more as the come to me or as I see the direction my interviews start taking; as i researched tips for creating interesting questions, spontaneity of the moment was one of the biggest ones, I think this will really help me get natural ad truthful footage of responses. I have a few main subjects I plan to focus my documentary around (two returning States performers and two "newbies") so for them I will ask them the full list of questions; in terms of gathering sound bridges and extra clips, I plan on interviewing other "random" members of my troupe with a watered down set of my interview questions.

Other things to consider for the best possible interviews: even though I may not end up using all of the visual footage, I have to make sure I scout out interesting, appropriate, and diverse interview locations. Another thing to keep in mind, which I learned very well from my first attempt at documentary making earlier this year, is to really figure out the frame of your interview shot. Head room and natural vectors are two VERY IMPORTANT aspects to think about. As far as the actual process of filming the interview, it shouldn't be a problem to have my interviewees feel comfortable  because I have a personal relationship with all of them and they are all performers who are not shy in front of a crowd or camera, but this closeness may make it difficult for both the subject and myself to remember that this is a formal interview and not a casual conversation between us. Me keeping quit during the interview so that anything they say is clear and an option for usage, and having them repeat the question (two very helpful tips I also found) for clarity and continuity reasons will be vital for a successful interview.

Without further ado, here are  the questions!

States questions:

1. Introduce yourself- name, grade, first time at States, how long have you been performing, etc.
2. how big or small of a part would you say theater, the arts, and performance have had in your life?
3. How did you get into theater and become interested in it?
4. Which aspect/aspects of "the arts" do you feel is most personal and important to you?
5. What did you perform/ create at districts that got you a spot on the trip to States?
6. What are you doing at States this year- observing, performing?
7. What are you most excited about for States/ what are you most looking forward to?
8. Why do you think States is important?
9. Why do you think the arts are important?
10. How do you feel trips and events like this impact your life and relationships?
11. Do you feel a sense of community not only among your troupe, but at States?
12. If you've been to States before, what is your favorite States memory?
13. Do you plan to pursue theater, whether it be performance or technical aspects, in the future?
14. If so how do you feel States plays a role in accomplishing those goals?
15. What do you think makes our troupe unique?
16. What reputation, if any, would you say our troupe has among the many that participate in states?
17. What's something you think everyone should know about States?
18. What does a typical day at States look like for you?
19. Do you branch out from your typical social group in the troupe at States?
20. Your overall opinion about the experience?

resources:
http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/interviewing-tips.html
http://www.thewildclassroom.com/wildfilmschool/gettingstarted/interviewquestions.html

Thespians the Movie

"Everything has already been done. Every story has been told every scene has been shot. It's our job to do it one better"

famous film director, Stanley Kubrick

 Whether or not you agree with this statement I suppose is subject to personal interpretation. As I've just discovered through research and exploration for my documentary, I personally believe this to be true, because...

... this exists.

Thespians the Movie, a 2011 documentary following four high school troupes' journey to the Florida State Thespian Festival, who would've guessed! While this obviously has the same premise as my excerpt TV documentary will have, they both strive to capture very different aspects of the festival. This film seems to be more focused on the intense and rigorous process of performers around the state preparing and competing at the festival alongside there cast mates, directors, and performance coaches, while mine is more centered on the special experience of one troupe as a whole. 

Despite the differences, I still wanted to watch the documentary to possibly gain inspiration for shots and filming locations since part of the film is shot in downtown Tampa at the actual festival, unfortunately I cannot seem to find it anywhere, not even on iTunes as advertised on their website. I'm going to keep searching, but until then, the trailer alone has already given me some ideas. 

Another aspect from this film I will definitely take into consideration is their promotional poster. Although I'm not quite at the stage to begin working on the poster, I think its important to have ideas so that I know what I want to take pictures of in Tampa that can potentially be part of my poster. This promotional poster is something very similar to what I initially had in mind, performers looking out into a beautiful theater reveling in their craft. This image is just the first thing that comes to mind when I think of theater and the love of performance, so while I may end up doing something similar to this and go this route, it also might be a little cliche and overdone for my liking, so as I go on in the project, perhaps I will go a completely different direction. 

A Glimpse Into the Future

Week two out of six that I have to work on my documentary, which when put in prospective means that by the end of this week, one third of the time I have to finish all components of my project will be over… which is scary, but I remain confident. Next week is States which means next week will be completely dedicated to filming and immersing myself into the production of my documentary. I’ve officially decided the route I will take will be to document my troupes experiences and successes at the State Festival. Toying with some title ideas I’ve come up with Troupe 6510, And We Proudly Represent, or Superior, all which I really like and think are appropriate and accurately represent what I’m trying to portray; I think I’ll decide on a final concrete title once my documentary has been (at least roughly) edited and I see the transformation of the final product.

Speaking of editing: Next week is all about filming, but to keep on task and maximize my time making sure none of it goes to waste, I plan to completely edit, or at the very least have an extremely probable rough draft, by the end of the third week so that I can have my major task completed by the halfway mark of my schedule and then I can begin working on the minor tasks. This is something that seems helpful for my process also because, once I have the final product of my piece, it will be easier for me to decide how I want to market, advertise, and portray my documentary to the public. This will aid me in making the best choices as far as designing my website and promotional poster and deciding what content will be included.

This week, in addition to finalizing my plans for the actually content I want to capture for my documentary, I will be doing research in order to gather more inspiration and get an even better idea and understanding of how I’m going to portray this slice of life. I would also love to say I’m going to begin the rudimentary work on my website, and while this will certainly be my goal, I am in my school's production of Hair the Musical this week so I will be balancing performances, school work, and other daily responsibilities. It’s a busy week for me, but since I will be immersed in theater, the arts, and my cast mates who will also be attending States with me (subsequently being the main subjects of my documentary) I am ready to dig into the meat of my project and hope to only be further excited about my work.

Below is a schedule I have made for myself in terms of deadline goals. Cheers to week two!

March

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15 FILM- trip and opening ceremonies	16 FILM- performances, workshops, free time, etc.	17 FILM- performances, workshops, free time, etc.	18 FILM- performances, free time, closing ceremonies
19 Catch up on any blog postings, edit ones from past week	20 EDIT & plan to film any missing or follow up interviews/ b-line footage	21 EDIT	22 EDIT	23 EDIT	24 EDIT	25 SERIOUSLY IF NOT DONE EDITING BY NOW… WHY?!
26 Poster & Website (figure out exact distribution of time as needed when this time comes)	27 Poster & Website	28 Poster & Website	29 Poster & Website	30 Poster & Website	31 Poster & Website

April

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
						1 Strive to FINISH poster and website by this time; if not, should be relatively finished with only need for minor touch ups.
2 Begin drafting CCR	3 Produce CCR, should not take more than one day to finish	4 Final touches	5 Final Touches	6 Final Touches	7 Final Touches	8 FINAL DUE DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!