Production Schedule

    Entry 12: 2/28/22

    Hello again! We are now on week four and getting closer and closer to the deadline. Full disclosure, Isa and I are behind, maybe not by a lot, but definitely behind. To set ourselves straight, we have created a schedule for ourselves. It is definitely very basic but at least we have the major things in mind. I pasted it down below. 

This week (Week 4): 2/28 - 3/6

• Structure

• Interviewees

• Old equipment in CBTV room (possible props)

• 4 blog posts

Next week (Week 5): 3/7 - 3/13

• Additional props (thrift stores, craigslist)

• Questions

• Location 

• Equipment from Shortcuts

• Filming plan (detailed)

• 4 blog posts

Spring break (Week 6): 3/14 - 3/27

• Filming!! (3 days if possible, one interviewee on each day)

• Transcribing interviews

• Reviewing footage

• Create official social media page for documentary

• 4 blog posts

Week 7: 3/21 - 3/27

• Complete line-edit

• Start social media posts (use stills from project and other graphics)

• Begin working on magazine article for documentary

• 3 blog posts

Week 8: 3/28 - 4/3

• B-roll

• Color grading

• Sound

• Any final changes to documentary

• Begin working on Critical Reflection

• 3 blog posts

Week 9: 4/4 - 4/9

• Final blog post (closing thoughts)

• Critical Reflection Essay (post)

• Project with all embedded links (post)

    Things may not go as planned so I plan on being opened minded. Isa has also created a blog post schedule for herself. I probably will not be following this but it is nice to have in case I am stuck on what to write. We also have a planning document highlighting a few important things. Right now, it is relatively empty but soon enough it will full with our questions, film plan, and more!

Week 3: 2/21 - 2/27

• Documentary examples (research)

• Prop searching and ideas

• Location scouting and ideas

• Potential interviewees

Week 4: 2/28 - 3/6

• Class meeting

• Props: further search

• Location: further search

• Contacting interviewees

Week 5: 3/7 - 3/13

• Refined structure

• Getting props/equipment

• Plan for filming

• How to do live feed on monitor (if we end up doing this)

Week 6 (Spring break): 3/14 - 3/27

• Questions

• Filming

• transcribing/reviewing interviews and footage

• Starting social media page (getting stills from footage, making page bio, coming up with documentary name, etc.)

Week 7: 3/21 - 3/27

• Line editing

• Social media posts (progress update)

• Magazine article

Week 8: 3/28 - 4/3

• B-roll

• Color grading, sound, etc.

• Begin working on Critical Reflection

Week 9 (4/4 - 4/9): PROJECT DUE 4/1

• Closing thoughts

• Critical Reflection Essay 

• Project with all embedded links 

    The most stressful part right now is time. I feel like I can literally see a clocking judging me for how we are handling our time but I think it will all work out in the end.. hopefully. Happy last day of February, I'll see you in March.

Interviewees

    Entry 11: 2/27/22

    The potential victims of our documentary have been decided. After careful evaluation, Isa and I have found potential interviewee's for the documentary. We will likely only end up working with 2-3 of them but it is good to have options. We also need to think of how they would do on camera because they will be doing a lot of experimental b-roll with us and posing. Their knowledge on the topic will also influence if we chose them or not. It will be a tough choice but I will list the options below.

#1: Fellow Artist

    This first person is a friend of Isa's. They are an artist and I saw their work at the Cypress Bay Art Festival this year. They are extremely talented and are also basing their AP Art portfolio on oppression and women. I have not personally talked to them about this topic but I hear wonderful things from Isa. This person appears to be extremely mature and impacted by the topic. They also says that their sexuality has been influenced by the male gaze but they are not sure if they are comfortable talking about it on camera. Despite that, they are a wonderful potential interviewee and I think they would be a lovely person to work with. I have never worked with them before so I am excited to see how that goes if we pick them. Also, I have heard many things from other people about this person and they seem like an extremely fun person to be around.

#2: Close Friend

    This second person I would LOVE to work with. We have worked with them before and they are such a pleasure to be around. This person is wonderful on camera and would be perfect for interviews and for b-roll. Isa and I worked on a project with them last year and they are extremely knowledgable and know a lot of the topic. We also already talked to them about being in the documentary and they said yes! 

#3: Acquaintance

    This third person is someone Isa knows of but is not acquaintances with. I know of them as well but I have never spoken with them. I plan on DMing them soon so I can ask them if they are interested in being in the documentary. They are extremely involved in Debate and are advocating for women rights. They are extremely outspoken and Isa and I both feel that they would know a lot about the topic of the male gaze. This person is also very aware of everything around them so even if they do not know about the male gaze, they may know of how the media affects women's self concept. Isa also learned that they are friends with Florence Laurent, a past person we interviewed, so maybe they may know of our work and be comfortable in being a part of our next one.

#4: Friend

    This last option is a friend of ours that we have worked with before. They would give us some really good answers, the only problem is that they are an extremely busy person. They have been unreliable a few times so it will be a risk for us if we work with them. They are a last minute resort in case all goes wrong.

    That seems to be all I have got for today! I am going to take a long nap because this week has been a stressful one with all of my makeup work. Next week will also be a tough one since Isa is going to DECA States, but we shall see how it goes.

UF Gator Blogging to You

    Entry 10: 2/25/22

    University of Florida decisions came out today at 5:30pm and I was luckily accepted. I have many friends who did not receive the same news due to the amount of applications there were this year, so I am extremely grateful to have committed to this school today and I am rooming with my family friends in an apartment near campus! WOOOO! I can not really express my excitement professional on this blog but I was bouncing up and down when I found out.

    In terms of our lovely documentary, I have been thinking of a few things lately. One being how we are going to shoot our interview, the products that follow our piece (for example, the magazine and social media), and how we can engage it to our audience. 

    For our interviews, Isa and I both believe we should try to switch it up. For example, instead of doing the standard person in front of the camera looking to the side, we were thinking of putting their interview into a 3d model television. I am no master in 3d anything but Isa said she watched one of our classmates do it and it is fairly doable, so I have full faith that she can. Another thing, is that maybe we can have their faces covered. This is obviously is not finalized but the whole ideal of the male gaze is the effect on women’s self concept, not being able to recognize themselves. I don’t know but it would be something cool to play around with. Maybe at the end when they talk about breaking from the standard they take whatever is covering them off. 

    I also wanted to talk about the social media and the magazine. We are in no way ready to start the magazine but I feel like we can start the social media soon. I am thinking since we are targeting women our age, using either Instagram or TikTok would be the best idea. I feel that TikTok could be taken as a joke and I do not think that is the message we want to send across so Instagram is the way to go. Until we have a name for the documentary, we will probably just name the account something like documentary#2. Just so we can start posting and get the ball rolling. To engage with our audience on social media, we could probably follow what we did for one of our past videos. We were working on a video about misinformation and to promote the video, we created a fake news article and posted it everywhere. It said that Apple was reading your text messages or something like that and instead of linking the article, we linked our video about Misinformation. A lot of people fell for it and ended up watching the video. I think if we can do something along these lines for this documentary it would be really cool. Also, instagram has several features to engage with your audience like asking questions, doing lives, and, the obvious, posting pictures/videos. I think we can really play around with our social media if we start thinking about it now.

    Anyways, I may be getting ahead of myself with the social media but I think that if we plan it out, it could be a huge asset to our project. That’s all for now! The next few blog post are going to be jam packed so look out for that.

Location Planning & Equipment

    Entry 9: 2/24/22

    I talked a bit about this before but Isa and I did a bit more location scouting since then. Isa was talking to our friend Wade and he said he is more than willing to lent the soon to be empty room in his house. There is also his room that he said he would not mind clearing out for us. What a G. I attached a few images below.

    This is a last resort option. Even though we cannot thank Wade enough for offering his room, we want a bigger vicinity to establish the empty, spacious vibe for the b-roll. If all goes wrong, we may resort to this or even to Isa's house. I have also offered my garage but it is filled with boxes. I would not mind trying to find space for them but I cannot say the same for my parents. I also think that working in a house is extremely beneficial to us because it is easy access and we can move around what we want. It would be hard since the rooms are smaller than we would anticipate but if it comes down to it, I think we can work around it.

    Again, the best thing would be to rent out a photography studio. We do not have a budget but I was looking around to see what is available to us and I'll show you guys. First one I looked at was a local one here us called https://www.photographybyluigi.com/. The only problem with this is that it is expensive. We would need it for at least 3 days and each 2 hours is $450. This is unfortunately not possible. If the price were feasible, the location would be perfect.

    
    The https://store.cady.com/ is the second place I looked at. I took a slight glimpse at the price and I completely just denied it but the concept of different rooms to film b-roll in would help us a lot. If only it were possible to have like a million dollar budget and rent out all of these. There are several photography studios among us but they are extremely pricey. I think we may have to resort to someones house or hope that we have connections to someone else who can help us.

    The other topic for this blog post is equipment. For Counter Conformity, we checked out equipment from Short Cuts and we most likely will be doing it again. The only issues is that several other people in our class will most likely be doing the same so that will be an issue for us. We have to talk to Short Cuts way before we film so we can make sure we have that equipment. 

National Winner Right Here

    Entry 8: 2/22/22

    By the title of this blog post, you can already guess what I am going to say. Yep, the competition that I went on and on about we actually placed in! For Crazy 8 News Magazine we placed 1st in the nation. This is the first time in Cypress Bay History that CBTV, Cypress Bay Television, has placed 1st in this competition. There were old alumni that were contacting us saying we made their high school dream come true. It was a very nice moment. My group also placed 2nd in Feature Story! This was also a big accomplishment and I am so proud of my group. I have linked the videos below if you are interested in viewing them! 

Feature story: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CadgntsFW1s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Crazy 8: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CadkwOpNhH-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    But I know you guys are more interested in the documentary planning so let's jump into it. A few nights ago, when I was up late doing homework for a different class, I received a lovely text from Isa at 4AM. What were we both doing up that night, I have no idea but basically, it was a very basic outline of the documentary.

    

    As you can see, it highlights some of the main points we need to feature in the documentary and how we could potentially start the documentary. Even though this is a basic first idea, it is beneficial to already have an idea of how we want to start the documentary. For Counter Conformity, we had them talking about their style and how they normally like to dress. We can not do the same thing unfortunately for this new documentary but we can have our interviewee's talk about their role models and how they influence them. This would be a simple way to ease into the documentary. The only risk is that we are not sure what to put over it in terms of b-roll. But the beginning, not only would be easy for Isa and I but also allows the viewers to connect with our interviewees. 

    Something Isa also mentions is the aspect of hyperrealism. I honestly love this topic and I could right a whole separate blog post on just hyper realities but for the documentary, Isa's idea is that hyperrealism and the male gaze both create a simulation of unrealistic standards. Even though many of us know that people can fake their lives on social media completely, we accept it and try to be like them. The effect of this on people is one of the aspects of the male gaze that we want to include. 

    Also, Isa and I were talking and she said that we should start writing interview questions despite not finishing the structure. She said this would help us with the structure and to bring up any topics we want to talk about. I completely disagree with this. Maybe we could start thinking of the super basic questions but I think that the structure is vital to writing the best questions for us. Without the structure, we could ask questions that do not even fit the message we are trying to say. I think that with all the news segments I have done, I have learned that having a structure is essential to writing questions. The structure most likely will change but at least you know what information you were asking.

    Anyways, that is all I have for now. University of Florida decisions come out this Friday AH! I will probably write after then so wish me luck!

Film Festival + Updates

    Entry 7: 2/20/22

    GUESS WHAT! Isa informed me with some lovely news today, our documentary, Counter Conformity, which we have released to several film festivals, was officially selected to one of the biggest student film festivals in the country. This is bananas! We cannot announce the name of the festival because the rules state that it may jeopardize our selection so I will have to update you guys later but OMG! We will see our film play on the big screen, maybe win some awards, and even film all the way to the other side of the country. I am so proud of Isa and I because that documentary was our first and seeing it do so well makes us extremely excited for the next. I am still in disbelief that we got in. Too many victories this week, not too good for my ego (kidding😅). 

    Because of this film festival and of how well known it is. Isa had to create a website for the documentary. It is not done yet but it is making this feel all very professional.

    I also feel like having this website allows Isa and I to have our closure on this project. Of course, I am hoping for many more film festivals and maybe some awards but it is time to focus on our new documentary. Speaking of which, I have been trying to find people to interview for it, have not gotten too much luck, but I have been able to hear about the topic from other peoples stand points. It is crazy how the male gaze affects people in different ways, ones I did not even know about until I learned of the topic. 

    In terms of our new documentary, we are starting to dive into locations and interviewees. It is a difficult choice. If we choose the wrong place, the vibe and style that we envision for the piece may not go the way we want it to. If we choose the wrong interviewee's, it could ruin the story we are trying to tell. It is all a very tough decision but it will be worth it in the end.

    Sorry for the short blog post today, tomorrow is closing ceremony for STN, yep I am still in the Golden State, and our flight back home is also tomorrow. Hopefully, we get some wins and if we do, I'll be sure to update you guys!

Clock is Ticking

    Entry 6: 2/18/22

    You guys would never believe it but I am currently blogging from Long Beach, California. Look, you can even see LA from our hotel window! I feel like a #influencer.

    We are here for the competition I mentioned before, STN. We have been practicing for months now and I am so excited to compete against schools from across the nation. At opening ceremony, they said there are around 1,400 students competing in person and 700 online. AH! Unfortunately hotel wifi cost $14 per night?!? therefore, I am using my phone hotspot right now to write this. So no matter what, I am here to supply you guys with our plans for the documentary. 

    What is next? So the clock is ticking on Isa and I and we really need to start jumping into the documentary, there is not much we can do right now since we are completely busy with preparing for our competitions but we can set ourselves a to do list so once we are back we can go crazy. Just today, we competed in the Crazy 8 News Magazine competition and on Sunday we have Feature Story, wish us luck! But here is a list of what we need to do:

• finalize our structure:

    This is like top of the list. The male gaze is such an intricate topic that Isa and I are struggling to figure out the exact structure we want. The trick part is that this documentary, if we wanted to, could get extremely theoretical. The most important thing we need to keep in mind right now is the human aspect of it or the slice of life we are representing in our documentary. Like the other videos I have made this year, we need to focus on what is important to the people. Capturing how they feel about the topic and raising awareness in the end. Following STN's motto, the most vital thing is to tell the story. As easy as it may be to just write about it here, we are struggling with the structure. It is taking a very long time to think of it and we are also so busy in the moment right now. 

• decide on interviewees:

    Another very important task, finding the interviewees. Isa and I have talked a little bit about who we want, but being all the way across the nation is not really helping us decide. There is someone in our AICE Media class and Television Production class that I would have to have in it but we have to see. The interviews are one of my favorite parts, I love being able to start the conversation and building off what they say. Also for our interviewees, we would most likely only get women of our age to focus on a specific group and how it impacts them.Our interviewee's were awesome for Counter Conformity and the whole piece quite literally depended on what they answered. They also were extremely helpful and very easy to work with so I really appreciate them for that. 

• location scouting:

    This part will be tricky I already know it. With the type of b-roll we have in mind, we would need some type of empty studio, garage, or room to be able to do it. Not only do we need to do location scouting for b-roll, but also for interviews. For Counter Conformity, we kind of just relied on someones house to do it but it would be much easier to have a specific place in mind for this documentary. I looked online for renting studios just to see how much it is and they are EXPENSIVE. Isa and I have no budget and with college right around the corner, I cannot sure a large amount of money for this project. This is why location scouting is so important because we have an idea in mind but it is hard to actually find a possible way to do it with the astonishing $0 budget we have. I hope that we are not getting too ahead of ourselves and it is all actually doable. I have full faith in Isa and I though.

• finding our props:

    As you saw from the Pinterest pictures, we need old televisions, and a lot of them. I know that Isa went on Craigslist to try and see who is giving away old televisions, but I was thinking more of just asking our television teacher. Before I talk about that, Isa did find several options online but they were far and too big for us to pick up. This is extremely annoying because they would have been perfect. But, like I said, at our school we have a studio with a room FULL of old equipment. Like when I mean full, I mean there is no floor left in that room because there is so much inventory of equipment that the school does not allow us to dispose. If we are not allowed to use the school equipment available, someone in our class mentioned that we can always go to thrift stores to get some. I do not know how Isa and I did not think about this because (more Isa than myself) we are frequently at thrift stores.

• setting deadlines:

    This is going to be so helpful for us. We need to set some deadlines in terms of when we want to finalize structure, when we should finalize our interviewees, when we want to start filming, etc. We have been very stress free about the time that we have for the project because we do not realize how close the deadline is coming and how big of a project we have. I may include a whole other blog post about the schedule that we set for ourselves and our deadlines.

• the social media page:

    I do not have much to say about this right now but I know that we need to start making one. The only issue at hand is that we have not started filming yet so we would post like pre-production pictures and we also do not know the name of our documentary so the account name is unknown. We will likely start this up soon so I will keep you guys updated. I would like to go all out with this like we are with our documentary. We have not even started talking about this yet so we will need to do that 😋!    

• interview questions:

    AHH! One of my favorite but stressful part, interview questions. These make or break your video. If you do not have your questions narrowed down, your interviewee may not give you the information you want. This is definitely something that will come after the structure is pretty much finalized but it is still something we need to keep in mind. We have a few interviewees in mind though so I will write a blog post on that soon.

    Alright so, as of now, this is what we really need to finalize. Of course, there are going to be a million more things but I feel as if these are the most important as of now. This has been a jam packed week and it is extremely stressful I can not even lie but I am excited to see how this all unfolds.

More into the Male Gaze

    Entry 5: 2/15/22

    So, I said we were making a documentary on the male gaze but.. what even is the male gaze. To start off, this topic is super underground and not talked about enough at all. I did not even know about this until Isa told me about it and sent me a few of videos to watch about it. Honestly, there is not a lot on this, very little people are actively talking about this and I find this extremely alarming especially since the topic is so important!! Let me stop dragging it on and let me explain what the male gaze is.

    The official, very wordy definition is "the perspective of a notionally typical heterosexual man considered as embodied in the audience or intended audience for films and other visual media, characterized by a tendency to objectify or sexualize women," but I will break it down so it is easier to comprehend. It is simply a fact that a lot of things we know are male dominated and created by men. To add to this, most of those men are normally heterosexual men. This means that everything created for media, business, etc. is all through a man's lens. This changes a lot since everyone grows up with different ideals, belief, and unconscious prejudices. Naturally, these ideals that they base everything they do on can end up harming or representation a group incorrectly. More specifically, women and how they are represented in the media. But what do I even mean by that? I mean the unconscious decisions to automatically have women wear tight clothing, have the camera angles focus on a women's body, and much more. The male gaze inevitably portrayed women as object or sexualizing them instead of actually showing them as a human being. This portrayal in the end is all for the entertainment and eyes of men. 

    It is a no brain that the way women are portrayed in media causes a huge issue. This representation causes viewers to build their perception of women or even different groups as what they have learned from the media; imposing gender roles and affecting the way society treats them. Not only this, but it creates unrealistic standards. This whole objectification of women makes young girls question themselves in terms of self esteem and who they even are. The male gaze impacts a huge amount of people such as different ethnic groups, religious groups, races, and much more but it would physically be impossible to include them all in our documentary. We would mostly focus on young women and how the male gaze affects them growing up and now. 

    The topic of the male gaze is a lot to unpack. It is extremely upsetting to find out that no matter what you do, as a women myself, I will always be first thought as different from a man and constantly being sexualized. This has already happened a lot but I was never able to pin point how I was feeling. It feels no better to know there is a word to it but its nice to know that it is slowly being more talk about. 

    Here are some of the videos Isa sent to me so I could find out more about the male gaze:

Jill Soloway's Masterclass

Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze Theory

Portrait of a Lady of Fire

    That is a very short summary of the male gaze. This documentary is going to be a hefty one and I really hope we are not putting too much on our shoulders. 

Documentary Part 2

    Entry 4: 2/14/22

    Now that is has come for Isa and I to complete our second documentary.. we are struggling way more than we did for Counter Conformity in terms of coming up for an idea. I have always been interested in being able to capture a piece of life and sharing the story behind it while raising awareness simultaneously. And while that had always been an easy passion of mine, I hit a roadblock this year. 

    I have been a part of the journalism/broadcasting/television production world since I was in 5th grade. I progressed from anchoring in Gator Run Elementary School's morning announcements, writing (very basic) stories, anchoring, and producing in Falcon Cove Middle School's morning announcements, to very small freshman starstruck by the opportunities available in a school like Cypress Bay High School. And now, a senior on the weekly school called Aftershock, but why I mention this? Well this is because, even with all my years producing news segments, interviewing subjects, and editing the piece all together, I had never been affected by one of the topics I had covered. I had never questioned my journalism career and why I was doing it. On January 29, 2022 I was doing a Student Television Network, STN, Feature Story practice with my group. This was as competition in which we had 6 hours to create a news package with a prompt that was released to us at the beginning of our competition. This is super clique, but this day was a turning point for me, one of frustration and one that led to several days of self reflection. Now let me stop dragging it on and jump into it. Basically, we ended up finding a story of a human trafficking awareness event. The participants were walking from their start point to city hall in order to raise awareness to human trafficking for black, brown, and indigenous people. One of my jobs on the team is to interview people for our video. That day, I had met human trafficking survivors, people who were older than me, and ones who were my age and even younger. They told me their stories and, frankly, I was heartbroken. I felt like I was not doing enough to help the women and children I meet that day. After the video was done, I was extremely conflicted. Was making a short 2-3 minute video all I could do to help these people? Was that what journalism was all about? Covering a topic that deserves all of the attention and then forgetting about it? I was completely overlooking the fact that I was helping these people in a way was different then what they had. I could not realize this until I talked to our teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa. I can not thank her enough because she made me realize that making the video was taking the story and sharing their experiences around the world. I was taking this small event that I saw with my own eyes and publishing it to be seen to several many eyes. It was inspiring, I had felt so refreshing to know I was doing such a task. Before realizing this, I had so many doubts about the path I had been building for myself since I was little, but now, the passion I have for journalism is even stronger. 

    After the human trafficking video, I had felt a spark being relit in me. I took the opportunities I had and used my self reflections to bring out the real story in all my videos and raise as much awareness as possible. My next story ended up being at a practice for STN's Crazy 8 News Magazine Competition. Basically, with a group of 23 students, we have an 8 minute show with news packages and a PSA following a prompt we are given. For this competition, there are 4 news groups, 1 PSA teams, 2 producers, and 2 anchors. I am on a news team and I am the reporter. That practice, I did a story on Make a Wish. I met children way younger than me who were telling me their experience with their condition and the parents who talked about their kids as well. It was heartbreaking. Another story in which the topic was a big one. But this time, I was not as conflicted as the last. I crafted the story in a way that I was extremely proud of in the end. Now, normally I am always proud of the end result, but this time it was different. This time I had learned so much from it. I allowed myself to really take in this learning experience and put my new ideals into this video. 

    So why did I go on and on about that to introduce the documentary ideas? Well, I felt as if it was important for me to realize how much I have changed in these past months and how I have become in terms of my projects. For the documentary, I want to raise awareness and create something that I will be proud of to look back on and call it one of my works. I want another Counter Conformity.. but even better. This is going to be (excuse my language) one hell of a project and I am looking forward to it.

Idea #1: 

    Isa has been following this girl on Instagram who skates nearby at a skate park. She has several videos of her skating online and is extremely dedicated to her craft as she basically online journals her progression with skateboarding. For this idea, it would be a documentary where we capture the story of her and her female skating friends to bring to light a serious matter. We would question the whole "girl power" ideal and how, even though many use it to credit woman, it creates more separation than empowerment. 

    A few issues that we have with this idea is that the skater may not have the same feeling about the term girl power. As much as I loved this idea and was extremely interested in the topic we would bring up. The risks that were present were too much for the time frame we have for this project. Something Isa was worried about with this idea was that our friends created a skating documentary called "Changing Bearings." Isa really did not believe it was the best idea for us. I disagreed because the topics are extremely different, just the sport is the same. But regardless, the risk involved with the documentary were too much and frankly, as much as I would have loved to do this, I think this is an idea that should be saved for another project. 

Idea #2: 

    This next idea is SUCH a good one but an extremely tricky one. When Isa first pitched this, I was in awe of how good the topic is but I almost immediately shut it down because it is a lengthy one. Basically, its on the effect called the male gaze. I honestly had no idea what this was before Isa brought it up but I believe she learned this from a Tik Tok video someone sent into our AICE Media group chat a bit ago and continued on researching about the topic. 

    Basically, the male gaze "invokes the sexual politics of the gaze and suggests a sexualized way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, woman is visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire."  The male gaze most specifically is depicted from the media and how women are represented there. 

    Here is the exact postcard Isa showed me when she first brought up the idea:

    As you can see, this documentary could be at least an hour long because of how extensive this issue is. I know that if Isa and I had the resources and more time, we could cover each and every bullet point in a very very long documentary. But unfortunately, that is not possible. We would most likely only cover a few points on this card like how the male gaze affects people's self concept and how they view themselves but then how individuals can break free from that view and have their own confidence. I brought up in our conversation that Isa is obviously extremely passionate about this idea so we most likely will end up doing it but we have to keep in mind how much we put. This is something I have had to learn throughout this year, as much as you may have a clear structure, it is so easy to veer off and find a whole new topic to add. If we were to do this idea, we would need to almost have the words of the interviewee's planned out ahead of time (I'm over-exaggerating incase you can't tell) so we do not veer off the message we want to bring out. And since Isa has been really passionate about this topic for a while, she has shared to me the stylistic view she has for the documentary and OMG! This documentary is going to rock. She has built a Pinterest board for the type of b-roll we would do and I need to share a view pictures of it.

    That pretty much wraps it up. One of the issues I know Isa and I will encounter during this project and even now is that we are starting to get a little burnt out. With our classes, making videos every week for Aftershock, competitions, and other personal things, it is definitely all a hassle. But, it is very refreshing to have an idea we are both interested in and I know that we want this documentary to turn out the best of the best so we are going to put our all into this. Will it be stressful? Absolutely but sometimes stress is good, it shows you care. I really love the ideas we have and I hope we end up doing the male gaze one now that I understand it more but we will have to see.

Counter Conformity: Documentary

    Entry 3: 2/8/22

  Time for my favorite project so far this year, the documentary project. This blog post could go on for thousands of words but I will try to keep it short and sweet.. key work (try). The documentary project extended over a period of two to three weeks during the second quarter I believe. The time frame for this project was so stressful, it was around the time that college applications were due. We had to make a 5-7 minute documentary and I was with Isabella and Luis. I can say that this project is one of the few projects in high school that I am actually really appreciative of and learn SO much out of it. 

  Let's start with the basics, the research and planning. Isa actually had done research prior for a different assignment so we had a very simple outline done on the first day. The topic of our documentary is that if fashion is nonbinary. To open our eyes more to the topic and see different ways to film b-roll, we found several other documentaries about fashion, clothing and gender. We also needed to figure out where we were going to film and who were going to be our interviewees. This part was tricky since we were DMing people we found on Instagram who would seem interested in the documentary. Everyone, to our luck, ended up saying yes and was really excited to be a part of it. For location scouting, we were really going for an outdoor look so we chose a park that is near to use. 

  When my group went filming, we had a dynamic set. Since we had so many props and items around the park that we needed in the shot, T was in charge of that and also hyping up and encouraging our interviewees to be themselves. They were being filmed by people they never met before so we really wanted them to feel comfortable. I also was in charge of conducting the interviews and that was one of my favorite parts. At the same time, Isa and Luis were filming with two different cameras. We would walk around the park and set out props up in different fields and tree areas. I had so many little seeds stuck to my shoes after. Speaking of equipment, we actually rented equipment at this place called Shortcuts from BeconTV. We were given different lens and ronins that helped us a lot with filming. We had carts full of equipment and props to carry around while we were recording.

  Right after we would film b-roll, we would go to either Luis or my house to conduct the interview. This part was exhilarating since I really enjoy doing interviews and Isa and I had written questions prior. We got amazing answers from all our interviewees and we had to start thinking of how we were going to structure the documentary itself.

  Once we were done filming completely, we now needed to think of several things for editing. The overall structure, the fonts we were going to use, which interview clips we needed to include, title graphic, and lower thirds. This was all a hassle to choose. For the font we wanted a simple one but it had to stand out, look different. You can not see it through the images the but title font is actually animated and we fell in love with it. One of our group members had originally produced a title graphic but we all agreed later that it did not fit the piece and needed to be changed. Although, all this graphics and fonts were difficult, the choosing of how we were going to put our documentary all together was hard. Isa made a Google Docs to keep everything organized and it helped us in the long run. I also forgot to mention, but choosing the name was a task we needed to complete. It took my group forever to think of one until we asked our interviewees. Florence actually said counter conformity and we went with it. Other than that, we spent hours and hours editing making everything perfect to us. In the end, I was extremely proud of the end product.

    Not quite the end of this story though. After we finishing editing and wrapping it all up together, we actually published it on our social media platforms and submitted to film festivals. We have not gotten anything on the film festivals yet since those are later in the year, but the response we got for publishing the documentary was insane. We posted it on 1/2/2022 on Isa's Instagram platform and throughout the days before it, we were promoting it like crazy. We had friends and people we did not know signing up to be reminded of when the documentary would post. As I check now, we have almost 1,500 views and 200 comments. When we first posted it, we were receiving several comments hourly about how much they appreciated the documentary and how it brought to light a serious topic. One of my favorite comments though had to be people from older generations agreeing on how important the topic is despite the stigmas they grew up with. I was also followed by several film festivals from around the globe asking my group to submit our piece. Maybe they were a scam, maybe they weren't, but it made my group and I feel extremely proud of our work.

 

  Here is a link to Isa's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isachiappini/?hl=en