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!