Final Chapter

            Entry 46: 4/10/22

     My dear friends, it is time. My last blog post I shall ever make for AICE Media in this lifetime. Let me just say, this was one hell of a story that I was able to be a part of. 

Documentary:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-NpnZVm_qGhKyNh6VtqrlC5sqaHWcPRE?usp=sharing

Magazine:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hSYI5eBLLkQiecUahk-fKhjabqCHXy-M/view?usp=sharing

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ttheoverlookedd/

-@ttheoverlookedd 

     Change is good, it is unfortunate yet an exciting, necessary part of life. So until.. who knows when, it's been "bananas" blogging to you guys.

Critical Reflection

             Entry 45: 4/10/22

     Here is my critical reflection! 

The episodic docu-series The Overlooked focuses on bringing awareness to topics that are normally pushed aside. Through its second episode Butterflies in a Glass Cage, the docu-series follows the genre of a expository mode documentary to put the audience in the position of the subjects and to create a personal connection with its viewers while raising awareness of the representation of women.

When Butterflies in a Glass Cage was first being developed, the inspiration came behind the awareness of the male gaze's impact on women. Fundamentally, the research from the beginning of the production was analyzed from Jill Soloway's Masterclass, Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze Theory, & Portrait of a Lady of Fire as they dived into the wide topic on Youtube. Their introduction to the topic allowed the documentary research to have a base with its knowledge, especially since the subject is very unknown and had few resources to begin on. With an expository documentary following such an intricate subject, Butterflies in a Glass Cage had to challenge the ordinary documentary style. In contrast to The Future is Fluid and These Days the b-roll on top of the interviews was staged to create specific emotions for the audiences and constructs a more personal connection to the interviewee's. We also challenged the standard trope of the omniscient voiceover with just the interviewee’s talking. Having the interviewee’s tell their perspective allows viewers to live in the story with them and define their own experiences to the topic.

Due to the target audience the docu-series works with, there was an absolute need to make everything personal and intriguing. Teenagers, being especially young women (teens), who believe they are being influenced by the media and mostly consume media on mobile devices have to be captured by first glance. With the excessive amount of social media usage such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, young teenagers' attention is hard to capture. Knowing so, our product, the documentary made sure to have the use of eye catching b-roll was a necessity and searching for the televisions was a hard task. Our research for social media heavily followed Abstract: The Art of Design’s page as they promoted their docu-series. Although, we had to challenge the short attention spans of our viewers by making sure all of our products would have them take a second glance. For even easier accessibility for our viewers, we created a Linktree on the social media page for easy entry to EP 1 and crew blogs. The inclusion of the blogs adds an extra ring to the aura as viewers can read the director and producer involvement throughout the 10-week project. We also thought this availability of the crew thought processes would follow with how expository documentaries normally “don’t leave much to subjectivity” and show viewers how we wanted them to feel a certain way about the topic. With the interviewee experiences, rhetorical questions, and b-roll to support our purpose, the intent of spreading awareness and making viewers more conscious of the issue is clear.

Following the target audience and one of our products, an expository documentary genre fits perfectly since it "gives the narrator a role to explain or argue the film's rhetorical content." In terms of our product the magazine, the expository documentary genre combats the normal rules as viewers are put into the shoes of the director, Isabella Chiappini. She talks about how working documentaries influenced her lifestyle and how that awareness wanted her to reach others. With a cover page explaining the docu-series and its content and a page all about one of the crew members, Chiappini’s page challenges viewers to research on their own and see how the male gaze can affect them differently. This product also is able to represent women and female leaders. The representation of a woman director flows seamlessly for the brand we are creating.

Along the same lines, another product, the social media has teasers, BTS, and content that creates room for awareness in different areas while also representing the male gaze and different minorities. The highlights and posts showcase a variety of camcorder pictures of the members of the video doing various tasks. The simple click of the story allows viewers to quickly view content without getting bored or distracted. And, with a diverse selection of interviewee’s and crew, the social media demonstrates a manifold of different ideals and beliefs brought together to create one piece. Even if the decisions are completely unconscious, the variety of values that unanimously created Butterflies in a Glass Cage. This not only combats the issue of the male gaze but also follows our genre as the images on screen support the piece’s claim. Especially with Instagram, the docu-series lessons throughout the page uses audio to explain the specific story.

Jointly, all three products work together to create an aura of spreading awareness and feeling included. The brand we developed overall has the purpose of starting the conversation of awareness, representing women, and making the viewers feel as if they were a process of the project throughout all three components. The choices we made in the end, whether it was to challenge the standard voiceover, post behind the scenes content, or even have a two page magazine highlight on both the docu-series and one of the members of the project, etc. we made sure to intertwine all three products together and elaborately create our final branding. It was a challenge to make sure all three products were able to fall back on one another but looking back, I think we successfully got the job done.

Now that working with The Overlooked docu-series and Butterflies in a Glass Cage documentary has finished, having the time to reflect on the ten week project has made me realize how documentaries need time to be fabricated. You cannot create a whole docu-series, branding, and more just based on one project at the same time as studying in high school. I wish we had time, facilities, and resources to create an actual full length docu-series but it is not possible on the time limit. Even though I do believe with the time given to us, we were able to create a brand and follow through with it, I regret not being able to go further with it. 

     Now that that is all done, it was really refreshing to be able to tie everything back and reflect on how well Isa and I worked together! 

Last Minute Editing Help

           Entry 44: 4/10/22

     TODAY IS THE DAY! April 10th, the dreaded and final day. Alright so yesterday was an eye opener because we got sh*t to do. On my part, I need to acquire the lovely music and start collecting the scenes that we are going to use in the documentary. For the music, I headed over straight to Audio Youtube Library because I have always relied on it but Isa told me to go to Epidemic Sound. I have never used this before but it was a lot like Audio Youtube Library. The difference is you do have to pay or use the free trial. We just used the free trial but ended up screen recording the different songs just because it was easier. We got lots of peaceful, dreamy like music to put in the background. There was a LARGE selection of it so it took a bit but it was frankly easy to find what we liked. While Isa was putting b-roll on the timeline, at the same time she was listening to the music I was to see if it was good or bad.

     After the music, we needed to move onto the scenes for the b-roll. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, the tv's show up in the b-roll like a little less than 100 times so we need a lot of scenes. I am gonna be honest, I love movies but I simply can not list 100 movies off the top of my head so I called for reinforcements. My friends Wade and Ren sent me different options for me to work with. Wade sent links to an app called Letterboxd and all people do is rate movies and share their opinions on them. This was really helpful because some accounts are solely on watching every movie possible so that was useful. Thank you Wade! 

https://letterboxd.com/samuelchristian/list/all-the-movies-1/by/popular/ 

https://letterboxd.com/wadeisokay/

     Ren also send me their list of movies and recommended me to Letterboxd. Now, I must admit again, yes I watch movies but I had no idea what half of these movies were and the problem with that was that I could not find the right scene or an iconic scene without wasting too much time. I can not even complain though because they helped me find a lot of movie scenes to upload to the Drive for Isa.

Ren's list of movies

Our Google Drive

     I cut it all to be a super easy download and transfer for Isa so hopefully that goes well. AH I can't wait for you guys to see the excerpt and hopefully the final full piece in the future.

EP #2 More Like...

          Entry 42: 4/9/22

     Guess what!! We finally came to a conclusion of the name. It was such a like late night pondering session. Isa and I were both like we need the name like now so we sat down and just search for stuff. Just like for the docu-series name, I just tried to find symbols or anything that symbolized the documentary. First thing that popped up was circles. The symbol of the circle has been seen as a symbol of female strength and power for years but we can't just name the documentary circle so that was a dead end. I got excited for a bit can't even lie. 

     But then I was just searching up random things waiting to see what came to mind and I stumbled across a short piece about iron cage and industrialization (I don't even know don't ask). But I actually ended up reading it and around the end they said this, "glass cage of consumption are an emphasis on display, an invisibility of constraints, a powerful illusion of choice, a glamorization of image and an ironic question mark over whether freedom lies inside or outside the glass. Above all, there is an ambiguity about whether the glass is a medium of entrapment or a beautifying frame." Is that not the most beautiful sentence you have ever seen. It fits PERFECTLY with what our documentary is about. Now yes. glass cage of consumption sounds weird and is about industrialization but what if we make it about women. Something like roses, doves, or.. butterflies. Let's combine those two together and make "Butterflies in a Glass Cage." 

     What are these two teenagers thinking of when they name their documentary "Butterflies in a Glass Cage," well maybe we are not thinking who knows. I personally love the name. The glass cage shows how the male gaze is unconsciously capturing women (their representation in the media) and only showing what they think is their beauty. When you consciously choose to storage something in a glass cage, you know you are imprisoning them yet showing them off, constraining them yet letting the world create their own ideals of it. I love love LOVE the title so much. And the butterflies are known symbols of femininity. UGH it is like finally waiting after a long, slow burn getting this name. Now that we have the name, I can add that to the magazine and show you guys. The magazine was, because of Canva, so much fun to make again and interviewing Isa was super duper cool. 

Saturday Meet Up, Sunday To Do

           Entry 41: 4/9/22

     I went prom dressing shopping today and let me say, that was a lot. People are crazy over dressing like absolutely feral. Anyways, after that lovely adventure,  went over to Isa's house to see how everything was going, also to help with anything that was needed. I fully in my mind was like okay I leave my house and 9:30 and I will be back around 10:30 for sure. I was obviously wrong. First thing we do is finalize the line edit, Isa had already gone through and put it all together but she wanted my opinion on it. As I was first watching it, the beginning felt extremely repetitive. All the interviewee answers were good but they were the same thing in different experiences. Before I mention the next part, the documentary is a little less than 30 minutes right now and the phrase male gaze was only first said around the 17min-19min mark. I told Isa that just because we know of the topic does not mean others know and right now if I did not know what the male gaze was I would be extremely confused. Continuing along, everything else was perfect except the ending. It was so abrupt I was like oh. So now we had to fix all of this, it was not much but it took forever.

     Isa and I went through each section, listening over and over again, cutting out what was not necessary, what had been said before, or just switching things around to make it sound all clean. This helped the beginning section a lot because it was not as repetitive now. Then, we could not figure out what to do about the male gaze insert. Obviously, we did not want them to say it over and over again, but we also needed it to be said early on at one point without it being forced. We could not figure out what to do so we came to the conclusion of just making our own definition and putting it right at the beginning of the documentary. This would just give viewers the first glimpse into the topic before getting poured all the details onto them. It is like preparing them. Then for the ending issue, we just did the same as the intro, cut around clips, add new things, etc. This process took a while I can not even lie. I only left around 2:30 from Isa's house.

     Yet, there is still more to do. Since we can not submit the 30 minute excerpt to Cambridge, we are doing the first 5 minutes and 30ish seconds. Which means we are missing the b-roll, music, lower thirds, masking, and videos for the televisions. Tomorrow I will come over again to Isa's house to choose music and videos for the televisions. In just those 5 minutes and 30 seconds of the documentary, there are a little over 100 movie scenes, public videos, etc. that we need. pain. It is okay though I am hoping that process goes smoothly. Music is also never too much of an issue so we should be good. One day left we got this.

Final Social Media Update

          Entry 40: 4/9/22

     What is up! So I just realized that I have been posting a lot on our Instagram for the docu-series but I have not been updating you guys. I said last week that I wanted to improve on just this so here I am. Let's just jump into it.

     First thing first is the stories. I have been uploading a lot on the highlights including production, film festivals, crew, and our interviewees. In terms of production highlights, I did not want to spoil too much but I also wanted to give viewers an inside look on the filming and editing process. I used the Instagram feature boomerangs to just have a quick video to intrigue and show the scene to viewers. I had lots of people swipe up and be like "I can not wait to see this" or "This looks awesome!" Even people or companies who I have no idea who they are were liking the story and following the page. It made it all feel very professional. I kept the same theme as in keeping it all very neutral and simple. I think that made it very easy for teenagers to take a quick look and be left with questions as to what is coming next. Many of those who were left questioning have been asking over and over again when the documentary does come out. Glad to see the methods are working. Another highlight I have recently added is the festivals highlight, this was more to show that this project, even though it is a school project, is more than that to us. We really are trying to bring awareness to topics and creating lengthy pieces. Since we are not finalized with the second documentary, there are obviously no festivals to add for it but, Counter Conformity has gotten into 2 big ones now, NFFTY and CineYouth so I thought I might as well add it there. Last new category for the highlights is the crew highlight. I felt as if the page was not giving enough human aspect to it so I thought putting a few pictures of the crew would be a cool addition.

The Insta highlights

     Next up are the post themselves. The account is divided per episode. The beginning is EP 1 Counter Conformity and after is EP 2 - Untitled (Don't worry we got the name now but you will find it out in the next blog post). I did this to keep the different episodes separate for the episodic docu-series. For future episodes, it would be easy to add onto the account and make it clean. I also wanted to keep the neutral look going so for EP 2, I followed the same templates on Canva. LOVE CANVA. I genuinely can not express how lovely and wonderful Canva is. I uploaded several teasers (some in the form of "docu-series lessons), stills, interviewee content, and BTS. These are all just fun content to give inside view on the documentary. The real deal is in the captions. For each post, I made sure to add something different about the docu-series, EP 1, EP 2, or anything about the project. I did not make it too long to bore people but I also did not make it short to give nothing. Also, something really important was adding hashtags! Even though this is technically a school project, Isa and I put our alls into Counter Conformity and EP 2 so having people actually see our work is cool! I know that the tags are a big way of getting other people to see your work so I added these to every post: #documentary #documentaries #film #watchnow #fashion #cinematography #filmmaking #studentfilm #documentarynow #studentproduced #studentfilms #studentfilmmaker #documentaryfilm #indiefilmmaking #filmmaking. Anyways, I added examples of the social media page below incase you could not check out the page (@ttheoverlookedd).

     A special little featured that I added to the Instagram was a Linktree. Basically for our tv club CBTV I made a Linktree with all the clubs socials and anything else and honestly, it is so easy to use and people love it. Not sure if I explained this before but Linktree is a website that creates a website with any personal, work, etc. links you would want to include. It is extremely easy to use and it allows me to link the Counter Conformity website, both of our blogs, and anything else we would need in the future.

     As you might have seen in the previous sections of this blog, the logo is finally done! The logo was lots of fun to make because Canva already makes everything so easy that it just feels like an everyday task. The logo was simple. I wanted something bold yet not trying to rip your eyeballs out and something needed to standout that covered something else strange. Let me translate my thoughts to English. I wanted the logo to be bold in a way where you look at it and it is not just a small text, it stands out and sends a message. I also wanted something in the title to, at first glance, appear different, and overcast something else that is different. Yep, that is what I gave myself to work with. To accomplish this, I first found a big, chunky font. This would give the professional boldness look I wanted to achieve. Then Isa recommended I changed the o's into symbols but I really was not feeling it but then I realized it hit my other checkmark. The o's with x's colored in red would at first cover the upside down THE. I thought that the symbolism behind this would make a perfect pair for our docu-series. It shows how several conversations and topics are often left in the dark by things that seem bigger than them. For example, the representation of women has always been overlooked by society yet what about the effects on young girls while growing up? All in all, I love the logo and even though it is simple, it gives off the message that is needed.

     I have to bid farewell to the social media now. It was such a good learning experience using and finding out what works best for the page. I was able to learn a lot especially with creating a brand and I do not regret this experience so hopefully I can do something like this again in the future.  

Target Audience/Release Research

          Entry 39: 4/4/22

     Who does not love last minute research? Now it is not exactly last minute research because we have been keeping it in mind but we have not exactly wrote about it yet. Listen, it is better now than never right? I'll shut up, but think of this blog post as a final research recap.

     TARGET AUDIENCE

• Main: young women (teens) who believe they are being influenced by the media 

• Mostly consume media on mobile devices; cellphones, computer, etc

• Use an excessive amount of social media; Instagram, Twitter, TikTok

• Most teenagers have a job and are able to go to the movies, more specifically for the documentary, using social media is most successful

• Other: young males and older women that consume media

• Young males: to realize the damaging effects of sexualized portrayal

• Older women: realize effects that they might have been oblivious to their entire lives

     RELEASE

      The release is a rather simple decision since we would follow what we did for Counter Conformity. So for the docu-series, we went ahead and research where our target audience flocks. 76 percent of American teens age 13-17 use Instagram. This is huge. We can reach almost 80% of our target audience just through Instagram. Posting on Instagram and promoting it throughout Snapchat and Twitter deems to be extremely effective. 

      We also do have to keep in mind our level of maturity for the documentary. Not matter what we do currently, we are still amateurs so heading to the theaters is not wish for us. Social media is our best bet at reaching as many people as possible. The only issue is that twitter does that a time limit so we would not be able to post the full documentary there but we can link it.

      GENRE

      This is the hardest research topic. Isa and I struggled to find which genre fits. The one we found that most clicks is the expository mode. A expository mode documentary means "gives the narrator the role to explain or argue the film's rhetorical content. Stories and statements are given through voiceover with images to illustrate the tone of the film. Using this mode, the filmmaker collects footage that functions to strengthen the spoken narrative." This is exactly how we filmed, edited, and created our social media/magazine based off. To follow the genre with our filming, we had an interviewer (mostly myself) giving conversation starters (the interview questions) to the interviewee's. This allows the audience to feel like they are talking with the subject and are living the story with them. Not only this, but while we filmed the interview, there were two camera angles. This means that the viewers get a wider shot and a close up for more intimate conversations. While Isa was editing, she made sure to interview the was always speaking or she put b-roll on top of them. This gives the viewers a more personal connection to the interviewee's. Lastly, a expository documentary genre fits perfectly with our doc because "expository documentary films focus on the filmmakers' involvement with his or her subject, using his or her personal experience or relationship with the subject as a jumping-off point for exploring larger, subjective truths about politics, history, or groups of people." This is excellent for our social media and magazine since our social media has teasers, BTS, and content that allows for awareness in different areas. Also, the magazine is a feature on the director, Isabella Chiappini. This quite literally focuses on the directors involvement in the piece. Overall, the expository documentary mode is the genre for us.

     Now that I gave you guys all the inside scope, it is time to finish the rest of the project. It feels like the end of an era, not sure how to emotionally feel about it though, excitement, happiness..

DOCU-SERIES NAME!!

           Entry 38: 4/4/22

     OKAY SO I AM CURRENTLY IN PRIVILEGE (my 4th period hour of the school day where seniors are allowed to go home early) AND THIS IS GOING TO BE A SUPER SHORT BLOG BUT RIGHT AS WE WERE LEAVING CLASS ISA SAID SHE LIKED THE NAME (Overlooked)!!! I had to blog this immediately even though I want to go home. The only change Isa suggested was that we changed it to The Overlooked. Honestly, I am literally good with anything and the meaning behind the name is so wonderful and fits perfectly. 

Imagine this but me in the Cypress Bay hallways once Isa 
approved the docu-series name.

I just can not find another way to show you guys
how happy I was so here are more GIFs.

Last one I promise.

More Name Suggestions

           Entry 37: 4/4/22

     I hope you all are ready for this week because it is going to be a surplus of blog posts. Some will be quick updates and others will be long summaries of what went on. This is like the final week so everything that has not gotten done needs to be done like.. yesterday. I have been thinking more about the name for the docu-series because I really want to bang that out of the way and be able to post about it on social media and I have not had much success but I have two names that I honestly really like. 

-Overlooked

    The idea behind this one was that the topics we make documentaries on in the docu-series are ones that are normally not talked about. Also, I literally came up with this a few seconds ago so I am just going let you guys scope what goes on in that empty space I have in my head. Overlooked can be interpreted in many different ways more specifically for the two documentaries we have it is like oh that man is sexualizing me well boys will be boys and oh I really want to wear what makes me happy but I can't do that bc I'll be over looked at. I am not 100% sure if that makes sense but it is like a play on words for topics that are super impactful but we overlook it bc of how society has made it out to be. Wow that was like fresh out of my vacant mind I really hope that translated well. 

-Sights Unseen

    Another idea I had was Sights Unseen. The meaning for it is "research on a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness suggests that unless we pay close attention, we can miss even the most conspicuous events." Not the biggest fan of this one but at least we got options rolling on the table. 

     That's all I got. If Isa likes one of them maybe that will be the one but who knows. Isa is currently editing right next to me in class so when she looks less stressed, I will ask if she liked it. We still need out lovely documentary name which is currently kicking our butts. I will start looking more into that soon because we really need it.

Magazine Search

          Entry 36: 4/3/22

     The third component of our AICE Media project is the magazine and to be honest, I have no idea where to even begin. So, I explained to Mrs. Stoklosa my situation and asked her if she had any good previous documentary projects. Before I really jump into the research for the magazine, I want to see what other students created because I am completely lost.Here are some students that Mrs. Stoklosa recommended to me. They are from last years AICE A level class.

-CAMPOS

https://media-andmore.blogspot.com/

-DESANTI

https://autumn1023.blogspot.com/

-PEREZ

https://lucia-media.blogspot.com/

     

     It is such a relief to have these as an example because I can definitely see myself creating one like Perez's. It would relate the most to our documentary and also would be the one I could do the best. Since Isa would be easy to reach. I think next week I am going to try and find some professional documentary magazines to get inspiration from there. Also! Isa was finally able to send the stills earlier this week and I forgot to mention so next week will be loaded with social media posts!

Starting to Edit

         Entry 35: 4/1/22

     Hello everyone! Rehearsal for Lightning Oscars went spectacularly on Wednesday AND Lightning Oscars itself yesterday was so much fun. This was my first time being on stage in front of a crap ton of people (other than a speech I had to do for a position) and I was honestly nervous. In the end, we walked on stage and just had fun so that was super exciting. They also had a red carpet and red carpet interviews. But you guys are not here for that so, let's talk about the editing.

     During Isa's privilege and the little time we had at home after school, Isa began lining up interview clips, syncing audio, cutting out any parts of me asking questions, and getting ready for the Adobe transcriptions. Having done Counter Conformity before this documentary is such a help because we can learn from our mistakes. One thing Isa made sure to do was rename clips to avoid any issues. First of all, naming clips would make it easier to search for them. Secondly, an issue we had with Counter Conformity was the clips linking to the wrong clip. Since we did not rename them, many clips were named the same thing so that messed up with when we were exporting.

     Isa labeled them in an extremely easy way so when we get together to line edit and do b-roll, we can easily find anything. Here is the format Isa sent me of how she labeled the b-roll.

    - S, M, or T for Sabrina, Maya, or Tess

    - I for interview clip

    - A or B for A cam (main camera, wider shot) and B cam (second camera, tighter side shot)

     How that the footage was all organized, Isa was gong to start the transcripts but realized that Monster #2 was on Premiere 2021 which does not have transcriptions. So Isa had to export the cut up interviews and put them onto her computer to transcript. We thought this was going to take much longer because Isa's computer is much slower but it took about 25-30 minutes.

     After the transcription was done, there were a few errors because the process is not perfect but it is better than having to write word per word by hand. This took Isa about 45 minutes to make sure it was all correct. Once the transcription was all fixed up, Isa downloaded it as a .txt. The awesome thing about the transcriptions is that it includes time stamps and if we were editing on Isa's computer, we could just click on a word and the computer would bring us to that interview clip.

     Well, that was only Sabrina's interview so now we got Maya's and Tess's left. This should take about another day and we can start the line edit. Once it is all done in terms of the transcripts, we have few things we need to do before we can line edit. First, we need to put it all on a Google Doc and start highlighting the best answers and organizing it for the final line edit. Then, we need to start reordering the answers to flow in the actual documentary. This can only be 5 minutes for the AICE project, but we are doing a full 10 because we want to submit to film festivals and that is normally the max. Once we have this organization of the clips done, we can start putting it all into the timeline. This could most likely be done by Sunday so we will have to see where it all goes.

     Last thing, since Isa and I have different schedules and I cannot be there every time she edits later in the night or during her privilege, we decided that she will handle most of the editing and I will do the social media and magazine component. We will be helping each other along the way but this is the most effective process so Isa does not have to wait for me to start editing and neither do I for the rest. 

     Anyways, I really got to blast because I am using a school computer to type this since today is Grad Bash! We could not bring a backpack or anything today since we come back at 6AM. It is going to be so much fun I was update you guys soon!