Group Discussion

I finally, finally settled down on an idea. Today was group discussion day! Sadly, I didn't get a picture with everyone but people helped me decide. I decided to just mix and match my ideas and do my documentary on how being queer and part of the LGBTQ+ community as a teenager effects what art means to you. I want to choose subjects that practice diverse forms of art and that are different sexualities and genders so I can get different viewpoints and make my documentary interesting. 

When I asked for advice on how many interviews to conduct, I was told to do as much as I think would be interesting, because I can always cut out the ones that don't fit that well. I was also given the advice to think of each interview like its the only one, because you can never truly predict how an interview will flow.

I think that for my b-roll, I am going to film my subjects practicing their art. More next time!

"Casting" List!

Regardless of the possible options that I pursue, I have multiple subjects in mind that would be willing to cooperate in any of the paths I choose for my documentary. These are all people around my age that plan on going to college, do art, or are queer youth.

My first possible subject is Emma R. She is a senior in high school that indulges in art, and self-identifies as a lesbian. She is very talented when it comes to stage make-up and costume design. She also draws digitally on the side. She plans on going out of state for college and majoring in psychology.

My other possible subject is Natalie M. She is a high school senior that loves to dance and self-identifies as queer. She is a very talented self-taught dancer, and is heavily involved in the dance world at her school. She plans on studying computer science at a college mostly likely in Florida.

Another possible subject is Natalia I. She is a writer, singer, and dancer, and self-identifies as genderqueer and bisexual. Natalia has enjoyed dance all her life as well as writing, and I think that her varied experiences in many forms of art makes her a very versatile candidate. She is also a high school senior, and she plans to go out of state for college and major in journalism.

Gian Franco is another possible subject of mine. He is a senior in high school that self-identities as a gay man. Gian is very talented when it comes to all things theatre, and is currently involved in numerous different programs and performances, both inside and outside of school. He plans on pursuing performing arts as his major.

Santi M. is a subject of mine that would only work for two of my documentary ideas, but is also a subject I would feel comfortable interviewing. Santi is the only subject that deals with digital animation, which is something I find to be really interesting. He has been a self-taught artist for around five years, and is a senior in high school that plans to pursue a degree at a college in-state.

Lastly, I have Mica D. She is a high school senior that not only draws, but also is talented at photography. She self-identifies as aro-ace. Mica has been involved in art every since she was a child, and has lots of experiences dealing with drawing as well as photography. She plans to pursue a a degree at a college in-state. 

I have other ideas for possible interviewees, but these are the only ones that have confirmed they would be comfortable and available if I called upon them for help. Until next time! 

Research of Titles - Fonts

Okay, I'm going to be honest. I wasn't expecting to not see my teacher and classmates the entire week, and I decided to put off settling down on a specific topic and focusing more on research because I need feedback from my peers regarding which path to pursue. That being said, let's delve into research of fonts used for titles and subtitles!

Font choice is very important for documentaries, as it is always necessary to introduce subjects' names and their occupations. Sometimes, it is also important to further ideas that are necessary to the documentary. 

Typography is the official word for what is more commonly referred to as "font type." Typography is the collective features that make up the style of printed material. This includes:

- Font style

- Font size

- Letter spacing

- Letter thickness

There are other features that matter too, such as the background color, negative space, density of content, average size of words, etc. Typography sets the tone and the mood for the content, and actually can involve quite a bit of psychology. 

As someone who thoroughly enjoyed AP Psychology and plans to pursue the subject as a major, I know first hand that it is involved directly with most things in life, especially when those "things" are media. Consider the internet, for instance. Unique typographies may be found on several websites. Owners of websites consider what their audiences will find appealing. They will take into account if the typeface serves the website's content, whether it be straightforward information, commercial sales, or conspiracies. By these ideas, common norms and beliefs may be seen: Calibri is playing it safe, Times New Roman resembles newspaper writing, cursive is reminds people of antique parchment scrolls, etc. These affect the readers' opinions, assumptions, and feelings initially about what they are seeing. Usually, I have found that you can tell off of "vibes" alone whether a font matches its intended purpose, but there are also many other specific factors that make it easier to pick your fonts in a more sure way.

https://cognitiontoday.com/font-psychology-research-and-application/

https://mindthegraph.com/blog/scientific-fonts/

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1105535.pdf

Target Audience Research!

Since I was unable to speak to my teacher today, I decided that I will just do research on my target audience, seeing that all of my ideas for my documentary would pretty much all have the same target audience, which would be teenagers and young adults. 

Specifically, I am going to be focusing my research on the niche of young queers, since there is not a lot of media specifically catered for this target audience. My two documentary ideas regarding queer youth as well as different forms of art would benefit from me having a deeper understanding of what these people are looking for.  

There is not a lot of research specifically for documentaries catered towards this specific group, so I went with a more broad route and decided to find sources about every type of media.

In terms of queer young adult fiction, I learned that the genre has moved through periods of limiting focus on only men, of concentrating only on issues surrounding homophobia, and of eventually moving into telling a wide variety of more diverse stories from different cultural backgrounds and beliefs. 

I personally find this to be very true, and I can understand that queer stories have evolved a tremendous amount in recent years, which is often why LGBTQ+ youth have higher standards for representation and media compared to older individuals. Representation is more often criticized when it is through a queer lens, because problematic characters are necessary for every form of representation, but oftentimes they can push harmful stereotypes. It's difficult to please everyone, but for the most part people just want to see real and genuine experiences, which is something that is very easy to do when you're working with real people in a documentary.

In America alone, there are nearly two million 13-17 year-olds who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. These individuals are more likely to attend a liberal arts school and engage in creative hobbies and activities. 

https://archive.urop.uci.edu/journal/journal18/05-Seville.pdf

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/lgbt-youth-pop-us/

Possible Ideas for Documentary

I need to meet still with my teacher and other peers, but some of the possible ideas I have for my documentary include:

- inside the lives of queer teenagers (different gender identities and sexualities, and how certain people are affected by that)

- how seniors in high school feel about going to college soon and their lives changing (feels very basic, but very easy to find subjects to interview)

- delving into different types of specific art and the people behind them (feels basic, but once again, very easy to get subjects)

Most of my ideas feel very basic and underwhelming, but the topics are at least things that I am passionate about. I am not really sure which one I am leaning towards more right now, as all of them are pretty easy to flesh out and execute, but I do know I want to get advice on how to make my ideas more in-depth.

My goals for this week are to talk with my teacher and settle down on a specific idea, as well as complete more research and begin planning for my actual filming process.

Developing Lighting Schemes/Improve Lighting

I think that lighting is really important when working with cinema of any kind, especially documentaries. Documentaries are supposed to have a specific feel depending on the content that is being portrayed through the subject matter.   

There are good practices and elements that contribute to reaching a specific atmosphere, such as:

The presence of hard vs. soft shadows

A high key-to-fill ratio, which creates contrast and drama

A low key-to-fill ratio, which is indicated for a more natural and relaxing lighting

The light direction and position—for instance, a character lit from the bottom may appear spooky and worrying, while light from the top gives an entirely different appearance.

A 1 point lighting setup is the simplest lighting scheme and only requires a Key Light—the main and most important light source—which is responsible for revealing one side of your character. Consequently, the opposite side is dark. This light is usually placed 45 degrees from the side of the camera and 45 degrees up from the subject. There is a lot you can do with a high-key lighting setup and its very common in the filmmaking world.

The surrounding area must be illuminated with useful lights since it is as vital to the main subject (like lamps and candles). To build intriguing environments, you may additionally enhance your lighting with extra off-screen light sources.

It is important to establish a setup with realistic lighting. Due to this, there aren't as many artificial lights present as, say, skylights and sunlight.

The composition's principal theme has to be well-developed. It follows that you are allowed to employ several rim lights—possibly two or three from various angles and with various intensities and colors.

You may desire more authority over the overall lighting. As a result, you may apply custom bounce lights in place of having the renderer determine all the indirect bounces. Although it may take a while, this method allows for creativity.

When working with realistic settings, these are helpful tools regarding lighting techniques. 

A Directional Light represents the sun.

A Sky Light is good for filling the areas in shadow.

Very soft and Distant Low Fog, which is definitely the icing on the cake for big environments with visible elements on the horizon.

https://www.adorama.com/alc/basic-cinematography-lighting-techniques/

Research on Editing for Premiere-Pro

Last year, I had a very difficult time editing on premiere-pro for my final project, as I had never used it in before in my life. I asked for the help of my friend who had worked with the program previously to help explain how it worked, but I was still stuck in a very small box of just barely understanding the basics. To prevent that from happening again this year, I will be researching and explaining different parts of premiere pro. 

The first thing to do when starting your new video editing project is to import your media. To do this you can either press Ctrl + I (Cmd + I on a mac) and select the clips you wish to import, or you can drag and drop video, audio and image files directly from a folder.

This Editing workspace features the previous three windows (imported media - bottom-left; editing preview – top-right; and the timeline – bottom-right) plus an additional window, Effect Controls, in the top left.

The timeline is where you'll do the majority of your video editing. Drag and drop a clip from your imported media into the timeline to create a new sequence, and we'll go through the basic controls.

The Razor tool (C) – Used to cut your clips.

The Mouse tool (V) – general purpose tool used for navigating your workspace and rearranging clips.

Play / Pause (Space Bar) – used to play or pause your clip.

The Ripple tool (B) – used to shift the selected track left and right on the timeline to fine-tune your edits.

The Hand Tool (H) – a way of moving around the timeline. Generally the hand tool is only useful for complicated, large scale productions.

The Zoom Tool (Z) – used to scale your timeline to view precise points, allowing you to fine tune edits. Pressing the Alt key with the zoom tool active will allow you to zoom out on the timeline.

Render (Return/ Enter key) – Renders the sequence in the timeline.

Stop (K) – used to stop the playhead whilst fast forwarding or rewinding

Undo (Ctrl / Cmd Z) – as with most programmes, this undoes the last action you performed

Copy (Ctrl / Cmd C) – copies the selected clip

Paste (Ctrl / Cmd V) – pastes the selected clip

For video editors working with news or documentary type films that contain a lot of interview footage, cutaways are quite helpful. Usually, a cutaway shot is used to add visual information that is pertinent to the topic being addressed over a clip of someone speaking about it.

https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/premiere-intermediate/

https://guides.lib.fsu.edu/c.php?g=961630&p=6944615

Documentary Interview Questions Research

The narrative is frequently presented through interviews in documentary movies. Even if you can ask a ton of generic questions, it takes an astute documentary filmmaker (or producer) to go deep and convince interviewees to be honest and share their experience.

The secret is to figure out how to pose open-ended, leading questions that encourage respondents to provide intelligent, narrative-style responses that can aid in story development.

Avoiding yes-or-no responses to inquiries is the first guideline for filming a documentary film. Asking for yes or no replies does not provide any information, much as following polite conversational conventions. It may also force you into a tight spot very rapidly.

In order to encourage the telling of a narrative, you should not only steer clear of yes-or-no questions but also actively push for open-ended inquiries with a "tell us more" or "tell us in your own words" style approach.

A fundamental piece of advice for people who might be more interested in documentary content like to that seen on television or online news sources is to have your subjects repeat the question in their answer. Frequently, the documentary maker or the person posing the questions won't be visible in the photograph or on camera. As a result, the audience won't always be aware of what the question is. So, you will need to mention this up front and remind your interviewee to repeat the question in their responses.

There will always be a demand for interview quotes that put things in the simplest possible words and discard any lingo and insider terminology. Starting an interview with a few straightforward, uncomplicated questions might be useful for achieving this. Following that, you may ask more in-depth questions, but try to constantly remind the interviewee to communicate as if they were speaking to someone who is no more knowledgeable than the average person on the street.

An overanxious attitude to asking question after question in an effort to hurry a production is another error that many aspiring documentary filmmakers may make early in their careers. A skilled documentary interviewer understands to give questions room to grow and expand. Some people speak and think at various rates. The issue will frequently proceed in a different direction and with a bit more direction if you wait for a response to hang there and allow them time to consider what they have said. The last piece of advice I found is to explain very clearly to your subjects why you're asking the questions you're asking, and the desired type of response you hope to receive.  

See you guys next time!

Research on the Elements of a Documentary

From my research, through class and online, I have found that documentaries are supposed to give insight into relevant topics or people that can have meaningful discussions surrounding those topics. While they are typically shorter than feature films, there is a broad range of lengths. Everything relies on the topic you are discussing and the narrative you want to tell. 

It's critical to keep in mind that stories are at the heart of all documentaries. The duration of your documentary will depend on your subject. You will need extra time to investigate all of the facets of a complex or contentious topic. You might be able to get away with a shorter video if your topic is lighter.

The next important thing is to define a clear purpose. You must be very clear about the goal of your documentary before you begin shooting. Do you intend to inform your audience about a certain subject? Or are you attempting to bring attention to a problem? Are you attempting to motivate others to take action? Understanding your goal will make it easier for you to choose the subject of your documentary and the narrative you want to convey.

Your documentary should be simple to construct and to follow. Consider the tale you wish to convey. Do you want to use a more experimental approach or do you wish to employ a linear narrative? Which fashion do you wish to employ? Are you going to employ animation, archive video, or interviews?

You’ll need to decide on techniques to capture your footage in your production phase. You must choose the questions you want to pose and the method you want to employ if you intend to use interviews. You must locate the appropriate resources and decide how to use them in your film if you intend to use archival footage. Also, you must choose the sort of animation you wish to utilize if you intend to use it.

You must think about how you want your audience to view your movie as you plan how you want to present your narrative. You'll need to choose the ideal running time, pace, and tone for your movie. Also, you must choose the best format for your movie. A title sequence and credits sequence must also be made.

I hope you guys learned something, because I certainly did! More to come.

https://imaffawards.com/what-are-the-5-essential-elements-of-a-documentary/

https://www.buzzmasters.ca/elements-impactful-documentary/

https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/what-makes-a-good-documentary.html

Comparing My Timeline With the Sample

I think that for the most part, my timeline is pretty similar to the sample one. I am unable to create specific dates for shooting and such because it is so far away. Something that I forgot, though, is to post to social media. I need to add that to my schedule and consider that when planning everything out. 

Update: I just added social media into my planning!

Portfolio Project Schedule

Week One (2/7-2/13)

- two postings

- introduce the new project for A level

- project schedule

Week Two (2/14-2/19)

- four postings

- research on elements of a documentary

- color scheme research

- research how to edit on premiere pro

- research on how to develop lighting schemes/improve lighting

Week Three (2/20-2/26)

- five postings

- create an outline

- post a storyboard

- develop shooting schedules

- discuss class meetings

- "casting" list (who I will have in my documentary)

Week Four (2/27-3/5)

- five postings

- post discussing class meetings

- pictures of/location scouting

- shot list

- development of script (questions to ask participants) 

- consider social media postings

Week Five (3/6-3/12)

- five postings

- hopefully pictures of filming during this week

- most likely obstacles that I will run into

- exploration of background music

- exploration of magazine articles text/design (for documentary)

- exploration/creation of social media page

Week Six (3/13-3/19)

- four postings

- probably more filming

- most likely more obstacles

- beginning the editing process

- exploration of sound effects

- post on social media

Week Seven (3/20-3/26) (spring break)

- four postings

- more posting about editing

- more posting about possible issues

- probably needing to shoot more b-roll

- post on social media

Week Eight (3/27-4/2)

- three postings

- more posting about editing

- more posting about possible issues

- post about social media

Week Nine (4/3-4/9)

-three postings

- final moments of editing

- class meetings

- final posts on social media

Week Ten (4/10-4/13)

- one post on reflective comments

- my embedded A level project (all components) with my short textual reflection/introduction

- one post on the Critical Reflection for my A level project

New Portfolio Project!

Hi guys! It's been a while since I've done a full fledged production by myself, so please be patient with me, but I wanted to share it with you guys! I am going to be creating a documentary for my A Level portfolio project. Come along for the journey!