Project Components

 Here it is... I cannot believe that I am done and this is over. I am so excited for you to see it, I hope you enjoy these products as much as I enjoyed getting to make this to educate and help those who are similar to what I have experienced. Now without further a do...

Video Component: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dEkKJkKA8jf1L4RioYxN4rJOFz8AEqTo/view?usp=drive_link

Print Component: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGjQKFxn54/QaGGz2Qkdy52S5r1YodLWg/view?utm_content=DAGjQKFxn54&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h6103a91c1a

Digital Component: https://www.instagram.com/therootsofaflowerdocumentary/

The moment we have all been waiting for...

 Writing this out on Blogger is a surreal feeling. This project has taken up so much of my life that it is hard to believe that this process is coming to end. In my first blog posts, I had always brought up that my main goal with what I was creating was to produce a product that I am proud of and I can enthusiastically say that I did just that. 

I remember feeling completely clueless towards the start of this process as I had no idea what I would make this product about. When originally doing my brainstorming, one of the first things that I suggest to myself was to do what I knew. Something that I know a lot about is insecurities and how they can affect ones self esteem and mental health. The more that I began to delve into this topic and ideas that I could implement, the more invested in this project I got.

Something that I took away from my last portfolio project was that I need an equal balance between all of the components within my project. Therefore, I am really proud of myself that I was able to take into account time management to be able to consider all aspects within this project. Before this project, if I were given a task with multiple completions that needed to be done, I would typically focus my energy towards one thing rather than equally dividing up my time. However, this project has allowed me to significantly improve my time management not just within this class but to how I live my everyday life. 

Another aspect that have also improved on a lot is editing. When first beginning this process, I honestly dreaded it since I was very inexperienced and the last time I had to edit I had struggled a lot. This time around, my opinions changed drastically. When layering my B-roll into my interview shots, something in me had felt so satisfied and healed watching my project that I have worked so hard on come together to create an art form that can possibly help other young adults who have struggled with the same things that I have endured. 

I am super grateful for this process since I not only have learned so much, I feel like this documentary has instilled a new found confidence within myself while also have the opportunity to educate as well as aid in the lives of young adults who are struggling with the normal feelings. After going through this portfolio project, although it took so much of my life up, I have no regrets. These feelings I have right now are irreplaceable and I am overcome with pride about my creation. I cannot wait to show you what I have been working on for these past few months. 

Creative Critical Reflection

 When I was originally going into my portfolio project, one lesson that always stuck with me was the first project where my class was learning about digital and brand identity. In this project, we were essentially assigned to create a brand for ourselves. This taught me so much about how to make a product recognizable and consistent to ensure that viewers within the media are familiar with what you’re producing. On this social media account I demonstrated this digital identity by using an intricate font, visually appealing flowers to adhere to the title of my series, as well as other engaging social media posts to adhere to my target audience consisting of young adults to bring awareness to the slightly unspoken topic of insecurities. In order to continue this sense of branding, I had also created a variety of taglines to adhere to my message within this project and to engage this audience into my product by not giving too much away about what would be discussed within a typical episode. Some taglines that I had included within my marketing, identity, and social media page for my series were “Don’t hide away”, “Don’t miss out”, and “What you can’t see won’t hurt you”, in order to remain with the message that I am attempting to spread that insecurities are something that will occur within a young adults life but you have the opportunity to deal with them in a healthy and positive manner. 

To engage with my intended target audience, my main focus was to bring awareness to the topic of insecurities in order to be an outlet for those young adults who are struggling and unsure how to deal with their harsh feelings towards themselves. Through the use of my social media page, my goal was to demonstrate that nobody should feel alone with what they’re going through since an immense amount of people across the globe are experiencing these same emotions towards something they cannot change about themselves such as their height, shoulders, face shape, etc. In order to match what I wanted my series to represent within my social media page, one feature that I included that I believed would be useful to my audience was “Pro Tips”. In these posts I would list enlightening messages or pieces of advice in order to motivate my audience to feel better about themselves. For instance, some inclusions were “Be gentle with yourself”, “Write down your positive qualities”, “Treat yourself the way you would treat a friend”, “Surround yourself with people who uplift and support you”, as well as multitude of other Pro Tips to showcase that there are ways to attempt to move past these feelings that may be consuming you. As for my print component, I wanted to infiltrate this same message by allowing readers to also understand my main message and goal with this series by asking informative questions such as “What inspired you to want to implement this documentary?” and “Who is this series targeted towards?” in order for readers, especially those who read magazines, to understand that the creation of this series is to be an outlet for those who do not have access to a support system that can help them overcome their damaging insecurities.  

Research played a huge role into this production process since I was not fully aware of the conventions that were typically included within an episodic documentary, therefore, I viewed many characteristics that other episodic documentaries had included within the media in order to grasp what my own portfolio project should include. One component that I especially focused on was staged B-roll since I was unfamiliar with the concept before taking AICE Media A Level and knew that it would have to be something that I must include within my excerpt. One episodic documentary series that I particularly looked at called “Worst Ex Ever” truly helped me understand why B-roll is used and how to essentially utilize it. By watching this series, it allowed me to understand that whatever B-roll you’re producing needs to “match up” with what is being spoken about in the subject’s discussion. Although this series did not demonstrate how I would be producing my B-roll since they primarily participate in animated B-roll, this series was a huge aid into how I should include B-roll within my own portfolio project. Another factor that I researched that I also familiarized myself with is indirect vs. direct interview questions. Within my documentary, I was unsure at first if I wanted to use indirect or direct interview questions since I did not know when to use which type of question. However, after watching an episodic documentary entitled “Abstract” in my class’ study about documentaries, I believed that I should use indirect questions to allow my excerpt to have a piece that flows but to also make the tone more personal to feel almost like the subject shown within an episode is having a conversation with the audience. 

To represent social groups and issues, within my excerpt of my episodic documentary, I included demonstrations of Sadie feeling unsure of herself due to her insecurities by showing clips such as struggling to find an outfit due not be confident in her weight and over analyzing herself in the mirror to show she is second guessing how she looks. By showing that Sadie is an insecure teenage girl that is struggling with her opinions about herself, it allows the audience to understand that she is just like any other teenage girl and that she can relate to how the audience is feeling to demonstrate the idea that young adults are not alone when experiencing these feelings of self doubt towards themself. Furthermore, to represent the issue itself, I brought up the idea in my Instagram page that 70 to 80 percent of young adults are enduring these emotions to represent that this idea of having insecurities about yourself is common and that they are not abnormal.

Approaching the finish line

 Hi Blogger! As mentioned in my previous blog post, I have not considered music within my documentary. Therefore, I feel it is only necessary to do this now while I figure out how I am going to edit this excerpt. I would like the music to briefly begin with music that has a solemn tone but then immediately switch to more uplifting music as Sadie discussing positive ways that she attempts to deal with her insecurities. I went straight to Bulletproof Bear to attempt to find what I needed and searched for music with an emotional tone. When looking, I found music that would match my intentions while also not trying to be too dramatic since I am not intending to make this documentary feel like the subjects and sulking or gloomy about their lives. 

Although I am only including a brief audio of the music with the more solemn tone since the mood shifts from discussing how the insecurity has put a dent on Sadie's mental health and well being, once Sadie begins to discuss what she does to make herself feel better, the music will then quickly shift to music that represents that Sadie feels at peace with her insecurity and that she has learned to be more optimistic despite these feelings that she may be having that are "Underlying". In order to find this more gloomy tone of music, I searched up "solemn music" to find what I am looking for. I ended up coming across this audio entitled "Attraction". I really admire it and believe that it will be a great fit as it is not too depressing for my purpose within this project but still fits the question that I would be asking at that point the documentary about how this insecurity has affected her overall well being. 

Even though it was pretty easy and quick for me to find an audio to match the more solemn tone that I was attempting to portray, especially since the audio will be fairly brief, I began to slightly struggle with finding an audio for the more uplifting and content music. Since the music audios are typically 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes and I was already planning on using a variety of different enthusiastic music to keep the audience engaged, I need to choose at least 2 positive pieces of music to ensure that the music matches with the motivating tone that is going to be demonstrated towards the end of the episode. Therefore, I went to Bulletproof Bear to find exactly what I would be looking for which I knew would take some time since I had a very intricate vision. 

I found these two audios towards the beginning of my search, however, they were not exactly what I was aiming for within the intentions of the end of the episodes since I wanted to find an audio that represents that Sadie is becoming at peace with her emotions rather than her being completely healed since the goal with what I am producing is to represent how young adults deal with their feelings in a healthy and realistic way. 

Continuing on my search, I looked "positive music" on Bulletproof Bear in attempt to find audios that match my vision. While listening to a variety of audios, I found a piece called "Motivate Me" which matched the idea of being optimistic and at peace while not being too dramatic for my liking. 

I was happy I found at least one audio for the interview segments but knew that I need to find another to not only take up time within the excerpt but to change the music to ensure that the audience is engaged. Therefore, I headed back onto Bulletproof Bear to look for another uplifting audio that will be similar to the first one that I had chosen listed above. Something new that I am looking is also an audio that will somewhat flow with the previous audio that I have chosen above. Since the goal is to end on a positive note, I need to ensure that this music is especially uplifting to ensure that my target audience understands that their insecurities are not something that they should sulk or be upset about. 

While searching, I found an audio that I am pleased with for the closing of this excerpt. I especially like that it is fairly repetitive that way if needed I can repeat this audio if I run out of time within the duration of excerpt. 

Now that I have all the audios that are needed in order to bring everything together within the editing portion for the excerpt, I have everything I need for editing which makes me feel much for confident since I do not believe my editing process will be super intricate or detailed besides making sure that the B-roll matches up well with what is being discussed and the audio flows nicely with the piece. Now time for editing which will hopefully go smoothly for the most part. Until next time!

Good Things Coming

 Hi Blogger! I have some exciting updates to the portfolio project's progress, I am officially done with my print component. I wanted the print component to allow not just my target audience but those interested in magazines to allow them to be informed about this new and upcoming series. I included interview style questions such as "What inspired you to want to implement this documentary?" and "What makes this documentary different from others that you see within the media?" in order for readers to understand the intentions behind this powerful series. Therefore, I took these questions that an interviewer may ask and went in depth to give readers background information and context to what I will be producing to grab attention and provide engagement to my series. 

                                                             Examples of Bold Images 

                                            Including flyer to demonstrate marketing campaign

After doing research on past portfolio projects that took on this print component, I knew that I needed to include conventions and characteristics that a typically magazine would include. Therefore, I included engaging taglines such "New episodes weekly of different people with different experiences!", bold images to attract viewers visually, organized taglines with informative interview questions, the magazine company's name, a title for the article itself, and a variety of other features that a magazine would include that I researched about. I had a lot of making this component since I love Canva and creating this component taught me so much about what making a magazine would actually be like especially since I am super passionate about journalism. 

I focused a lot on the print component recently, however, I need to expand my marketing campaign to ensure that I am not only balancing all the elements within this hefty project but to make sure that my target audience is being reached that way I can attract viewers who would appreciate what I am producing. In order to make an accurate, consistent, and successful marketing campaign, I have came up with a variety of ideas to bring great publicity to my series but also go along with the overall theme of my series with discussing that young adults are not alone in experiencing insecurities and that there are positive ways to deal with your feelings about them. In order to match my intentions, throughout this next week, I plan on creating posts such as Pro Tips where I would offer positive advice to viewers that would help boost their self esteem, Q&A to interact as well as get to know my audience, short teaser trailers to give a glimpse into my episode, images from the excerpt itself, and a variety of other interactive posts to engage with my target audience. 

In order to balance all of my components, I am also going to begin throughout this week on editing the excerpt itself. Although my strong suit is not editing, I am not super nervous since I do not believe my excerpt is super heavy on editing. The main aspect within editing the project is to ensure that the layering I am putting with the B-Roll and interview shots matches up with what Sadie is discussing. I find that when the B-Roll matches up with what a subject is talking about. Therefore, I want to ensure that my project includes this. My other main focus is something that I have not thought too much about yet which is music. I am unsure of exactly what music I want to choose but I had a vision where at the start of the excerpt since it is towards the end can start with a more solemn tone of music since the structure of the episode has Sadie discussing how her insecurity has effected her negatively but then the music can shift to be more upbeat that way the audience can understand that Sadie is content and has come to terms with how her insecurity has affected her. In order to get the music I am envisioning, I plan on researching on different sound websites (that are copyright free) in order to get the music that fits within this excerpt in my series. 

I am near the end so I know that I cannot give up now. I need to work especially hard this next week to make sure that this strong idea with a lot of potential does not crumble. I know there is still lots to do but I know I can do it. Until next time!