What's up, Doc? (Planning post!!)

 After we finished watching all of the documentaries in class, it was finally time to start working on our docs! We got to pick our own groups, so I got to work with Mariana, David, and Samara. When we were discussing possible ideas of what our documentary would be about, me and Mariana brought up a show we were just in, Fiddler on the Roof. Of course, we can't make a documentary about a show that already happened, but we were more focused on an aspect of the production that occurs at the company we go to often.

Fiddler was what Inside Out Theatre Company calls one of their "Intergenerational Shows," since
anybody over the age of 13 is able to audition and be a part of these shows. The reason we wanted to focus on this specifically is because we figured it would be a great opportunity to hear from different cast members their opinions on how it differs from activities with specified age groups. 

Since me and Mariana personally know these people, we had to make the decisions of who we would be interviewing. Fiddler specifically was special, since this had the widest age range out of any intergenerational show done at Inside Out, so we knew we had to pick good representations of these people. A large concern that was raised was interviewing people under the age of 18, obviously it would be amazing to have these interviews, especially given our topic, but we would have had to get each interviewee's legal guardians permission too, to ensure no issues would come up when we are already in the post-production process. Since we knew we wouldn't have much time to make this documentary, we didn't want to risk having to wait even longer to begin filming, especially since it is hard enough already to get a date that works for the adult interviewees. Luckily, we had many cast members in mind that were on the younger side of legally being an adult (they were 18, to be exact). 

Me and Mariana immediately had two people in mind to be our main interviewees: Brandon and Lito. You might actually recognize Brandon from my project last year! He was one of the background characters and helped me a lot with the technical aspects of the film opening. Brandon is 18, so I knew he would be a better representative for the 'younger' ages. He also played Avram and the Constable in Fiddler, so there were moments when he worked closely with our other subject, Lito. Lito played Tevye, and he has been working with Inside Out for many years. We knew his work ethic and sense of professionalism would make him the perfect choice as one of our interviewee's.

After we had decided we were for sure going with these two, I had started planning interview questions. Samara had helped me finalize a few of those. Then I reached out to Robin Braun, the director of Fiddler to see if there was a date the production team and the interviewees could come in to film our interviews. Luckily, she said yes and we could come in on that next Monday! I reached out to the interviewees to confirm the date with them, and then my group prepared for production.

WE'RE SOO BACK (+ New projects in A level)!!

Hello Cambridge!! I'm so incredibly excited to come be back on my blog for another year of AICE Media!!! In class, we had done lots of research for our first big project, creating a documentary. We discussed the many different types of documentaries and the conventions they use - this is when I realized not all documentaries are boring - and then we started watching some documentaries to actually see these conventions in place.

The very first documentary we watched was an episodic documentary called Abstract. In Abstract, each episode highlights a different art form and a popular creator that specializes in it. In class, we watched the costume design episode with Ruth E. Carter. This was super interesting to me since, without knowing, I always complimented her costuming in any movie I watched that she worked on. 

After watching this we were told to go home and watch another episode of the documentary of our choice. Since this episode definitely would've been the one I picked it honestly took a while to figure out what I would want to watch, but I finally decided on Tinker Hatfield's shoe design episode.

These two episodes of Abstract gave me amazing examples of b-roll, which I definitely needed to know a lot about before planning my documentary. This also did a great job at establishing a branding and style for the documentary, which was consistent between the two episodes. It became one of my goals to be able to do the same thing.

Then the class watched American Promise. This was genuinely such a great documentary (so great that I went home and made my mom watch it). Watching this documentary has specifically helped me recognize how much time, money, work, and effort goes into some documentaries. Specifically, I had recognized just how much planning I would need to do for my documentary. It helped me set another goal for my documentary, find a way to make the film continuously entertaining and engaging. Something I noticed about this film was that I never got bored throughout all classes we spent watching it.

After this we watched Exit Through The Gift Shop, this one was a bit more confusing, but I still liked it a lot (maybe that is because I love street artists and was genuinely interested in the topic). Anyways, this film used a whole lot of archived footage. Knowing this, I loved being able to see how the archived footage could be used in documentaries as b-roll, or just regular footage, as long as it genuinely applies to the topic. This was super helpful for me, so I knew not everything needed to be staged to have fitting footage for my documentary.

Finally, we were asked to watch op-docs from the New York Times website. For this, everyone in the class got to pick any 2 op-docs that interested them. Knowing that our documentaries were most likely expected to be a bit more like these, I had decided to watch two completely different ones to get an understanding of different techniques and styles used by different creators.

After each documentary, the class was required to complete a set of discussion questions to help us recognize the different conventions and techniques used in each documentary. Immediately when I began to write my first one, I had recognized I would likely need to reference back at them so I could properly plan my own documentary, so once I had finally finished up the last questions for the op-docs, I was ready to start planning!

The End.

 Film Opening Link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4IHGJOrJHg

CCR Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu05mnzLBTY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxSck6uGt3c

Resources:

Alvira Martasoebrata. “21 BEST PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER-HORROR-DRAMA MOVIES THAT WILL HAVE YOU on the EDGE of YOUR SEAT!” Medium, 11 Dec. 2023, medium.com/@alvira_martasoebrata/15-best-psychological-thriller-horror-drama-movies-that-will-have-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-13b3a05729b0. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

CData Software. “CData JDBC Driver for Instagram.” CData Software, 2024, www.cdata.com/drivers/instagram/jdbc/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.

Co., Amazon. “WKBYTUXR Sunset Lamp, Projector Rainbow Light 360 Degree Rotation Sunset Projector Lamps, Projection Night Light for Selfie/Photography/Home/Bedroom Decor/Living Room, USB Night Light (6 Colors) 1 - Amazon.com.” Amazon.com, 2025, www.amazon.com/Projector-Rainbow-Rotation-Projection-Photography/dp/B09BD4VYQ9. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

Co., Apple. “‎Voice Memos.” App Store, 2024, apps.apple.com/us/app/voice-memos/id1069512134.

Giardina, Carolyn. ““Whiplash”: Editing Miles Teller’s Drumming, “French Connection” Inspiration.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Nov. 2014, www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/whiplash-editing-miles-tellers-drumming-751403/.

Logowik. “Logowik.” Logowik.com, 26 June 2021, logowik.com/adobe-premiere-2020-vector-logo-7470.html. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

Nickolai, Nate. ““Joker” Reviews: What the Critics Are Saying.” Variety, 31 Aug. 2019, variety.com/2019/film/news/joker-reviews-1203320295/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

Warner Bros. “A Minecraft Movie | Final Trailer.” YouTube, 27 Feb. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B1EtVPBSMw.

Winfrey, Graham. “How IPic Wants to Change the Future of Moviegoing.” IndieWire, 24 Oct. 2016, www.indiewire.com/features/general/ipic-future-of-moviegoing-nitehawk-alamo-drafthouse-1201738885/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.

That's A Wrap!

     And with that, it's over! I can't believe I actually did it! Overall, I think this project was a huge success for me. Not only did I largely improve over the past seven weeks, but I am happy with my final results and I am proud to say that I completed this project.

    For this final reflection, I'll go step by step to specifically talk about each thing I had done for this project. 

    First thing the class did to prepare was a TON of research. I put a lot of extra time and ca

re into my research to make my project the best it could possibly be. Although I came into the class with little to no experience with anything to do with film, I knew that me being in theatre would give me some sort of advantage when it came to research and script writing. I did research on genre, film openings, credits, and conventions; techniques, lighting, sound, mise-en-scene; and topics that I knew would be important for my film. The number one thing I knew I had to research was genre conventions, though. The genre I picked is generally uncommon, so I had to have a few commonly used conventions for Psychological Dramas to make it clear that's what it was within the opening. While doing this research, I also noticed there were plenty of conventions I wanted to avoid so I could get my point across within the two minute time limit.

    Next, It was production time. This is when I realized just how fast time started to move. I was set back during this time since my entire cast wasn't able to film on the original film date so we had to move the date back multiple times until we found a good day. This had also pushed back my editing, which I was worried about but that wouldn't even be the worst post-production issue I ran into. Anyways, during production I realized how much effort needs to be put into lighting elements for my film. Luckily, I had a hunch this would happen so beforehand I purchased two lights on tri-pods and a sunset lamp to help me get the exact lighting looks I wanted. This filming process went super smoothly since my actors are used to performing and needed little direction on how to play their parts, so any mistakes made were easy fixes and were usually just people forgetting lines.

   

    Then, I had to edit. Here is where all my trouble came in. I was doing perfectly fine for about a week, then all of my editing got completely deleted. I don't know how his happened or anything but there was nothing I could do about it, I had to start over. This time, I was more careful and saved my project every time I was done editing for any amount of time. This was definitely the most stressful time of the project but I was happy with the results, and even more happy that this part was over.

    CCR's were next! This honestly had to be my least favorite part of the project. I'd say I'm a creative person, but I had literally NO ideas for this portion of the project. After a while of brainstorming with my friends, they helped me come up with the ideas of two things I am super interested in, DC and Theatre. The first CCR I did was a mock-audition where I pretended I was auditioning for a role in a play or musical and the director was asking me questions about myself (or rather the film). I really liked editing this CCR over the other one since this was more like editing a film which I was used to. The second CCR was a street interview style video, but I incorporated some DC elements into it to make it different and more person to me. This one, though, was such a pain to edit since there was a LOT more work to be done.

    Looking back, I'm pretty upset that it's over. Yet I'm definitely also very relieved. I guess it's bittersweet for me, since this is one of the most challenging yet helpful projects I've ever taken on, and it has genuinely pushed me to look into some careers in film.

Post-Production : CCRS

     ALMOST DONE! Now that I've finished recording my CCRs it's time to edit!

    For the first video, I edited it in a very basic manner to keep it true to an audition style video, while still being able to incorporate photos or videos from the film that relate to the question. Starting the editing here, I had tried to just do it on iMovie so I could easily access the editing software during my busy week. After weeks and weeks of getting used to Premiere, this application had become difficult for me to use. I had send everything to my laptop and opened premiere and got to editing. This film only incorporated some basic cuts and adding in some "graphics" as an overlay to the videos to not only keep it interesting, but also give better visuals to what I talk about in the CCRs. The way I recorded the videos made editing super easy, though. 

    Next I edited the second video. This one required a bit more technique. I really enjoyed editing this one, though, since it had a lot more fun components to it. I had edited in some graphics that are often used in superhero comics to transition from clip to clip, along with having a sound effect for these transitions. This video was also a bit longer so it required more incorporation of pictures and videos from outside the CCR, but luckily I verbally stated the questions in these so it didn't require any extra graphics.

CCR Production time!!

     Now it's finally time to start producing my CCRS! With a lot of bumps in the road, I literally cycled through a million ideas for how I would actually do it. 

    In the end, I decided to stay with my superhero theme of the blog for my first video. This makes it super easy to transition from topic to topic and incorporate multi-media into the video. Using my script that I already posted, I added in a few things to make it more related to the superhero themes. From what is seen in the film opening, you can see the big Batman poster in my room (and even all the bats surrounding it). I used this poster as inspiration for how I setup my look in the CCR. I kept a blank background and wore all dark colors. 

    For my second CCR, I wanted to recreate something a little more personal to me. While the first one is my interest, this one is something I actually do often. For this CCR I recreated an audition. I had my sister sit and ask me questions while I answered and slated as if I was auditioning for something. For this I even printed out my headshot and created a makeshift binder and put a bunch of sheet music in it as if it were for a real role.

    After filming I realized I stressed way too much about this. Filming was honestly a super fun experience since this genuinely got to be what I wanted without any restrictions. Now its time to edit!

CCR Q#4

     Finally, the last CCR question! You know the drill, since I already explained my filming ideas I'll just get right into the question.
    How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
    I'll split this post up into three parts to make it easy to navigate (mostly for myself)
- Software
- Hardware
- Online

Software:

    In this project, The software I utilized the most was Adobe Premiere Pro. This was to edit my ENTIRE film opening! I feel as through it's pretty obvious as to how that one was integrated. Another form of software I used was Voice memos and Pixabay. Both of these were used for sound purposes, but one was for recording while the other was for looking for copyright free sound effects. Voice memos was used specifically while I was recording the opening music, and Pixabay was only really needed for the fluorescent buzzing sound. Pixabay specifically was used since it provides copyright free audios that are downloadable without any form of account creation needed.

Hardware:

    Hardware was a big one for me! First of all, the hardware used to film was literally just my iPhone 13. I was a bit worried going into the filming knowing I would only have my iPhone for the recording, so i asked my friend if he could bring in his camera, but sadly it was having issues and couldn't be used. For my lighting I had bought two lights with color filter sheets, and a sunset lamp. The sunset lamp was most important to the film since it had settings with natural sunlight replicating light, and accurate lighting used in dorm rooms, so my setting was more accurate with it. On top of this, I also had to use my HP laptop to edit everything. Also my keyboard to play the opening music I made, which, by the way, wasn't specifically composed. I just sat down and played whatever felt right for the film after picking a chord.

Online:

    Now for online. First of all, I use blogger to post about my project! This not only helped me stay organized but also helped me document every time something important was going on with the film. I also used WhatsApp to communicate with my actors, and also send myself everything recorded on my phone to transport it to my laptop. I also used google drive to save my project in between edits. Most importantly, YouTube had helped me a LOT since it gave me a platform to upload my project, and also gave me a ton of tutorials for how to do some specific techniques on Adobe Premiere.