The big reveal! (It's finally over!)

 Alright it's time! Here are the links to everything from the project!

Instagram (Social Media):

https://www.instagram.com/sessiononeshortfilm

Short Film:

https://youtu.be/pgJe_8TbVNA?si=h9z21BMpHHEJmm7W

Backup files for film and social media & Postcard (Print Component):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PiTy_W1ICFeU-1XIC7WrvPhf1-jvGVTX?usp=sharing

Critical Reflection

The short film Session One works to tell how actions have consequences, but it can always get better with help. Utilizing both the present tense and flashbacks, Session One shows how your own behavior will not only affect yourself but those around you, and it is never too late to seek help or guidance.

While planning for Session One, the original focus was on branding. In this, much inspiration was taken from the heavy brand identity of Two Distant Strangers. A big part of this brand was shown through their social media pages, specifically Instagram, with a very consistent color scheme and overall look. This was taken into account while creating the social media page for Session One. Considering how engaging the Instagram of Two Distant Strangers was, the goal would be the same for Session One. Now considering how to aim this at a specific target audience, it had to be decided what the exact target audience for this film would be. To do this, the genre also had to be more established than previously.

Session One was decided to be a Drama short film, so to help further the use of genre conventions inspiration was taken from Dead Poets Society. While the film could be considered both coming of age and drama, the research had to be focused specifically on the drama side of it. Session One has a few plot points that should be approached in a similar way to the major ones in Dead Poets Society, so it while analyzing the filming techniques, the script and acting also had to be considered. This is where some of the inspiration for Session One took place, the script called for a therapist character, but the way it was written was in a much more friendly mentor-like way than just a regular therapist. While researching the film Whiplash was also considered to help further the plot, and the contrast of these two films helped provide Session One with different routes to take to get the same result.

So, considering all of this, the target audience for Session One is definitely teenagers who enjoy drama films. The whole film surrounds a highschooler, so it would obviously lean towards the younger crowd, but they would still need to be mature enough to handle the topics. That being said, the digital component for Session One was purposely on Instagram since it is a popular app used by teenagers, and younger individuals are less likely to run into the film than if the social media of choice were to be TikTok, for example.

For the print component, the post card was made to be easy to look at but still provide the important information for the "film festival" that Session One would be screening at. While there was the option to put even more text than we had, multiple studies have found that Generation Z has shorter attention spans than previous generations, and it would be a better idea to only include crucial information to view the film and major credits of the film to not bombard the target audience with more information than necessary.

Now back to brand identity, the goal for Session One's branding was to be very defined, yet welcoming and recognizable. All three components of Session One kept a consistent color scheme and 'aura' graphics to establish a consistent theme that would be communicated no matter where an individual would first hear of the film. The space where this was most prominent was the social media, as there was the most opportunity to showcase this branding through a multitude of different posts.

One this that was notably different in the film component, though, was a different text was used for the credits and the title. This was out of the control of the editor, as the font used previously on the social media posts and post card was not available on the editing software used. This could have been avoided, though, by cross checking before any definitive branding was done, but unfortunately that had not been considered until after the fact.

The color scheme was also a bit messy towards the beginning of production, the reasoning for this was because for each 'meet the cast and crew' post, it was decided there would be a different color. Each character has an assigned color, but because the first two were crew posts, those colors never came back up prominently in the branding at all.

The film itself did a good job at showing the how people as young as teenagers can struggle. A common misconception is that because teens are young, they haven't had enough experience to actually struggle with any mental health issues yet. This simply isn't the case, and one of the goals of Session One was to show that it can really happen. The main character, Cameron Martinez, struggles with depression after her sister ran away from home, since she blames herself. Obviously, that is a very specific situation with a heavy weight for an individual to carry, but depression can come from anything, and the goal of the film isn't to say it needs to be from something so terrible, but to show how it's ok to get help.

While it isn't outright said in the production that if you struggle with any sort of mental health issue you can always seek help, there is a prominent quote that led to the title of the film "This is only session one." That quote means a multitude of things, but the number one is that healing takes time. The film isn't only to say that if you struggle, going to therapy will help you, but it is also saying that there is no immediate fix and sometimes you need to just live through it, because it slowly gets better. That's why the film does a good job at representing this issue, it doesn't pretend that there is an easy solution, it acknowledges that it is difficult, but no matter what it is still possible.

We did it!

 WOW! I can't believe we really did it! Even though me and Mariana had some moments where we were pretty doubtful, in the end, we got it all done! I'm very proud of the both of us, but I also want to take a moment to consider things that I wish went differently, or things I think we did particularly well!

First of all, I think with the time we had to pull the film itself together after all of the issues we ran into, it went pretty well! That being said, we had less time to properly plan each filming day with our actors, so some of the scenes, depending on when they were filmed, was very rushed. Mariana was in charge of editing this, though, and I think she did a relatively good job of covering up the fact that some of it was rushed.

This did mess me up for social media, though, since I intended on having dedicated time for taking promotion photos and all of this time had to be spent on the actual film instead. I don't think that we should've rushed the filming process even more by making more time for me to make social media posts, since the film is what I'm promoting in the first place, so obviously we need a good film to promote! I just wish that we had more time to take these photos. That being said, I actually think I did a good job with the photos I had. For some of them, I had to take screenshots of the footage to get our promo photos. I think these turned out pretty good though! Especially considering what I had to work with.

But what I didn't like about my social media, and I wish I did differently...is also kind of a result of this. I felt like a lot of my posting has been rushed, and there is still some more to go, which will probably have the same issue. I am a busy person, but I still had a scheduling app that would notify me when to post, and I made a good amount of the posts more than a night before each day I would be posting them, unless I had some last-minute good ideas to add to that day's schedule. I would end up posting multiple times a day, when I had more than 25 days to post, so if everything were to be filmed on time, I definitely would have only had to stick to one post at a time.

Now moving a bit more backwards to the project planning period, there was nothing I really regret from this. Me and Mariana got the ball rolling pretty quickly and I think our issues only really started when we were having problems with our actors. Obviously, we couldn't have predicted that these issues would show up but it still would have been nice if we planned some backups or ways to work around them, but they got to a point where they truthfully would have just been unavoidable.

Well, FINALLY!

 WE DID IT!!! Well- not actually did everything, but the hardest part is over. We have officially filmed EVERYTHING! I feel as though we are very behind with this which worries me, but luckily all of my CCR research and planning had been done during our limbo week where we couldn't get anything done due to our casting issues. So now, let's recap everything we did this week since my last blog post!

On Thursday, we invited over a few extras to do our party scene, and we got a lot of footage done then. The most filming we did was on Saturday, though, since we re-filmed and finished all of the therapist office footage, which is sort of the 'meat' of the film. During all of this, I again was making a ton of social media posts. I'm most excited about the character poster one I had made on Thursday, I feel like it does a great job at promoting the film.

I also worked a lot on finishing the meet the cast posts, and scheduling all of the future posts, so you will be seeing a lot of that in the future! I'm so excited to share more of my work, and all of the troubles me and Mariana had with our casting and filming schedule paid off. Although this wasn't the ideal situation we are still getting it done!

Mariana also did the post card, and I added a bit of extra touches, like a QR code to our social media in the empty spaces that looked a bit awkward on its own.

Again, the bulk of what I did is social media related, but it has been a crazy amount of simultaneous work when it came to filming days. On Saturday it was the hardest, because we filmed one scene where Mariana couldn't film so I had to do that instead of making any social media posts of BTS content, which was slightly annoying since there were some great opportunities there. Then, since all of the filming was done at my house, I also had to help adjust the lighting and set as we went on filming to help portray different locations. Since I had just moved, it was very difficult to locate everything we would need for this film and I was glad to see we could get it done.

Even though everything felt last minute, we got it all done! Now Mariana is handling editing while I continue the long process of making even more social media posts until the project is finished. But for now, that's a wrap!

Ready, and FILM! FILM! FILM!

 Hello! Today was....LONG. Starting off my morning with the SAT was not on my bucket list for a day that I knew was also full of filming, but we do what we have to do! This begins the marathon of me and Mariana's filming, since we are definitely behind. Since my main job is maintaining the social media, I have to make sure to record as much BTS content as possible these next few days!

So today we filmed the scene where Cameron comes home from the party and gets confronted by her mother. Also, maybe I forgot to mention but the gender of Cameron had to be swapped due to our issues with our lead actors dropping, so we had to swap a bit of the casting around. This honestly wasn't a huge deal since the name Cameron isn't heavily associated with any gender, so we didn't have to change much of the script.

Now Mariana is playing Sarah, which sort of helps us out because she had to be present for any of the filming either way, so we don't need to work around even more people's schedules.

While we filmed these parts, I also simultaneously made Instagram posts for every single thing we had done. Today, I made more of the meet the cast posters, and behind the scenes posts, both reels and images. Something I did was take a ton of pictures of the filming process as we went because I noticed a lot of other groups just made some behind the scenes 'dumps' where they got to show a bunch of random photos from the filming process. Again, a big thing for me is keeping our digital presence sort of 'real' and welcoming, so I thought this would be a great addition to our Instagram page! That's all for now, update when we finish filming everything!

Group Meeting 2!

 Today we did our second group meeting! This honestly both freaked me out and calmed me down, but it was overall very productive and I'm happy we did it. We went around and just said the basic plot of our films and what we had done, and this is where I was like "Oh shit, I'm in trouble..." Luckily, the group did a great job at helping each other out, and they definitely helped give me a reality check and put me back on track.

The first person who presented was Aneesa. Compared to the rest of us, her group was definitely ahead of the game. She was telling us about the social media aspects of the project more, since that was what she was in charge of. She had a ton of great ideas on how they were posting everything on track and showed us how they tackled this part of the project. The biggest takeaway I had from her was the ability to schedule posts through an app, which I was actually looking for (I mentioned it in a previous post!) This will be super helpful to me since I desperately need to make a strict posting schedule that I don't want to worry about on days where I get super busy and forget about posting. 

Then Emi went! She was also in charge of the social media of her groups project, so a lot of the information was similar to Aneesa's. I also follow their account on our film's social media page, so I have been seeing what they are up to. Something I took away from her was her very specific brand identity when it came to the social media page. I definitely want a stricter brand, so this was a great example of what I could be doing.

Adriana was next! I remember her film since she is working with one of my friends who was also a part of my old group from the previous group meeting. They seemed to be very on top of their filming schedule, regardless of the similar issues we had run into, so I definitely want to get to the same point as her, and she really helped open my eyes as to how behind me and Mariana are filming-wise. 

Vicky was similar, I also had one of her group members in a past meeting, so I remember the film, and she seemed to be in a similar spot as Adriana with their filming. She told us about a photoshoot she did for the postcard they made, and I have been thinking of doing something similar for the social media aspects of the film, so that was super helpful.

Then I went, I told everyone about the many issues me and Mariana ran into and what we had done, and surprisingly I was pretty ahead of the group when it came to social media. Obviously, some people, like Aneesa, had most posts done already and they hadn't been posted, but some groups hadn't even started on their social media accounts yet, which, as bad as it sounds, felt like a huge weight off my shoulders.

After me was Samara. It was a bit hard to find anything from her project that I could take away and incorporate into mine, since she did a documentary, but it was also great to hear about a different type of project and how she was handling that. She gave a lot of great insight when it came to editing, too, which I will definitely share with Mariana, since she is editing it.

That was everything from today! I can't believe we will be done next week!

Back to social media!

 Alright! So today I got about 3 social media posts done. Since I made myself a template it was super easy to get them done and when I get more headshots from my actors I can just speed through these types of posts, but for now I have three of them! Right now, I have Me, Mariana, and Brandon. I am going try to post every day from now on, which seems a bit unrealistic, but I think there might be a way to schedule Instagram posts, so I can get a lot done at once, and then I can upload daily without needing to worry about the posts until I make new ones.

So obviously I started the posting with me and Mariana's posts, since we are the crew and I feel as though it makes more sense for an audience to see the cast first, and then the crew (like a film's post-credits). For the aura colors of the cast, we are making them relate to the character's personality traits and stories. I am a bit worried about how cohesive the posting looks, but because of the color scheme progression it will probably work, since the post after mine will be for Cameron Martinez, and then Sarah, and finally Dr. Black's post will go after that. 

I know it seems weird that I don't have Cameron and Sarah's done while I have Dr. Black's done, but I just don't have the headshots for those two actors yet, and getting those posts done will be super quick. So now I need to think about the next posts, we are planning on filming on Friday, so I hope I can get character posters made and behind the scenes images. That will definitely make up a lot of the posting until we decide how to advertise "future events"

That's it for now! We'll see how the future posting unfold!

Set ideas!!

 Alright, so now that we’re planning our actual filming process, I need to think more about set! For one of the scenes (the party) we are planning on using my house. I have multiple areas where I think the party scene could take place, but I think the living room will be best for this scene.

Right now, my living room is decorated pretty cozy, and for the party scene we are definitely going to need to cover that up. The problem is that the bookshelf definitely can’t move anywhere. By filming at night, the sunlight won’t be an issue and then maybe that darkness can help cover up the bookshelf, since with the sunlight it’s already very in the dark. 

That being said, a lot of props will have to be used to help bring the party look to life. Pizza boxes, solo cups, bottles of soda, etc. will be perfect for making this look like an average highschool party. Next, I need to worry about lighting. From last year’s projects, I already have a ton of different items I can use to help with the lighting. I need one that can change colors quickly, instead of one solid color, so it looks like a high energy party, even though we’re inviting 14 highschools over to be extras after SAT day. I think having a light that pulses through different colors would look perfect for making it look like a highschool party, but sometimes instead they have the lights off. I want to play around with that look too, but I’m not sure how to make that translate properly on camera. I’ll update as I figure things out!

Posting....Posting....and more posting!

 Today I am going to be making some of our Instagram posts! The first ones I want to make are a sort of 'meet the team' type of post, where I can introduce me, Mariana, and the actors! Something we are going to need for this post is headshots, so obviously that is the first step! I reached out to the actors for headshots, and since not everyone had them, I am going to hold off on these types of posts for a bit. The thing about this is, it's hard to make a page look good if it's constantly one graphic after another.

My solution to this will be to begin with my own. This is the template I will be using for my own personal description, and I will switch the formatting around a bit to give at least some contrast when it comes to the others (The image of the person came with the template I found, so it's gonna stay for now until I find a good headshot and send it to my laptop). Me and Mariana are figuring out whether we want the description to be a direct quote from the person or more like a bio on each person.

The pros of doing a direct quote would be making the posts feel more personal and connected with our audiences, but it wouldn't do as good of a job of giving an actual explanation of each person's role in the film as a bio would.

I think that we should do personal quotes, since the bios seem more resume-like, and they obviously don't need to showcase that since we are all already involved in the film. Using a quote helps add some personality to the film, and we can use the quotes to maybe add some hype to the film itself, since we are giving the audience direct feedback from the cast and crew. I need to ask Mariana what her opinion is, though. I'll update as we get to more posting! 

Filming day one!

 Hello! Today we filmed our first few scenes with the Dr. Black (Therapist) and Cameron Martinez. We decided we want to revise the flashback scenes, so we are still in the process of writing those. For now, let's talk about what we did today!

Filming these scenes was a bit of a struggle, because we had to first figure out our location, as I was mentioning last post. We weren't able to go to an actual therapist's office, and neither of our parents work in a place that would work as this type of office visually, so we had to use one of our homes. Organizing this to look good enough for the scene was hard, but luckily, we got it done!

We honestly just begun from the beginning and stopped at the point where we wanted to revise the script, just because we feel super behind and want to get as much done as possible. We also took a bunch of promo photos and behind the scenes photos so we could post more on Instagram. Luckily, since our actors do theatre, it was easy to get good takes where they were genuine, so we got to play with the characters a bit and let them take their own liberties. 

This film is going to rely mostly on editing, so it's not going to look that great until we are done with editing entirely. Honestly for where we are in the project schedule, I don't feel great about our progress, and we need to play a ton of catch up for me to actually feel confident.

Me and Mariana are going to Florida State Thespians Festival the 18th-21st, so a lot of the work we do this week will be for the other two components rather than the actual film portion, because we won't be able to film any more while we are out in Tampa. 

I really hope the two of us get more done during the rest of the week, but for now, that's everything and we need to relax and enjoy our spring break and Thespians competition. 

Posting on Insta!

So today we made our first post on Instagram! I'm super excited because this means our film idea is finally coming together. I'm gonna put all of the ideas below and then why I chose the one we posted.

So out of all of these options, I chose the third image. I found that the purple was way too distinct for the film since we dont really know what direction we are going in with color schemes and such, so for now it's good to keep it neutral. I wanted the post to still be sort of 'timeless' so I didn't want to make a coming soon post yet, because depending on how our next posts go, we may want to pin this post as a welcome image.

I like that we went with a clean look, though, because it can go more with the therapist office look of the film. I want to have our distinct posts for different target audiences to have a similar overall look, but we can go with the party look or the therapist office look. I will definitely make some more defined posts in the future as we develop our brand identity further, so I will definitely update on that!

We've got a name!!

 I'm back with great news! After a LOT of back and forth, we finally came up with a name. We decided on the title 'Session One' I know, it's simple and it could mean a million different things, but that's honestly kind of perfect for a film title! We don't want a super specific one that gives away the basic plot, because that would be what a description is for, but we also don't want one that is so vague that it has nothing to do with the plot.

This is why Session One is perfect, it's Cameron's first session in therapy since losing Sarah. Also, the name helps establish that this film is focusing on the story of Cameron specifically. Now the hard part will be finding out how to make our set look like a therapist's office. After some research I found that these offices seem to be very cozy and comforting. This can easily be done in a house if it can achieve this look, but I will also probably be reaching out to some local therapy offices and seeing if they have an empty room we can film in for a day or two.

Anyways, now that we have the name, a billion Instagram posts are going to start coming out at once. Obviously, we need to update the account, though. That's definitely what the next post will be about.

[Interior of a therapist’s office]. (n.d.). Growing Our Practice. https://growingourpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Optimized-IMG_0228.jpg

Update: I got the cookie

 Hello!! So, me and Mariana had a super productive day at Panera (and as I said before I got the cookie), but basically, we wrote our script! Well actually, we did a bit more than that, but that is definitely the most important part of what we did today!

Panera truly is a magical place because I feel like the two of us locked in so hard for the scripts and more in-depth descriptions of the characters, which was definitely needed to send to the cast (and I also was so incredibly hungry, so this was the perfect lunch)

The first thing we did was establish our final decisions on the character's names, because for some reason we got stuck on those for forever. The brother is Cameron Martinez, the sister is Sarah Martinez, and the therapist is Dr. Black. I know that the names aren't something we should have been too hung up on, but it was important to us that they were realistic and didn't sound super random, which was very hard to get to for some reason.

Then we started with script writing, we still don't know what we want to call the film, but we knew exactly what the plot should be, so we just started writing and edited each other's parts of the script until we were happy.

The hardest part of script writing was finding a way to establish when the flashbacks would take place, and how to give enough context of the scene before the flashbacks begin, because obviously it wouldn't make sense to just drop into someone's therapy session and hear an entire sob story. After we kicked off the script, we kept joking about how we entered the flow state, because we just could not stop writing.

We definitely need to get more work done, but for today I feel like we did a good amount! I'm super excited to see where this project goes.

Planning for the film!

 Alright! So, this week has been super hectic for both me and Mariana, so to be very blunt not a lot of actual work got done. We both just closed Mamma Mia at school, which was a blast, and then yesterday I had to attend and review a Cappies show, so I had very little downtime to actually plan and talk with Mariana about what we want to do.

does this not look scrumptious...?

Mariana reached out to me and asked if we could go to Panera to lock in on writing the script and planning other important aspects of the film, which is exactly what I think we need (and I really need a kitchen sink cookie 😋). 

So basically, I think that we have a good rough outline of what we want the film to be about. What I will be doing now is figuring out what I need to get before we start the filming process itself. Here is a list of what we know so far:

• Party supplies
• Lights (Fun ones, fs colorful)
• Cups (Red Solo)
• Other props that can generally be seen in parties.
• Clothing
• Sister: Light colors, pastels, colorful, should dress more reserved and put together
• Brother (MC): Darker colors, black, messy, the type of clothing that is "I pick up what I first see"
• Therapist: Professional clothing (obviously), neutrals, button up, khaki pants maybe

So, at Panera I want us to get a list of links for all of these items, finalize our entire script, and then finalize all filming dates with our cast and crew members. I know this is a pretty short post, but this week was hectic so I'm hoping we can get a lot done next week! 

Kitchen Sink Cookie – Panera Bread. (2021). [JPEG image]. https://www.panerabread.com/content/dam/panerabread/menu-omni/integrated-web/grid/rect/kitchen-sink-cookie.jpg.transform/grid-image/image.20210510.jpeg

First group meeting!

Hi Cambridge! We had our first group meeting in class, and it finally feels like this project is real to me. Getting to talk to my classmates about my project really helped me think of new things to incorporate into the film, and also what to avoid so everything will be cohesive.

I did write down all of my critiques and notes from the other group member's projects, but I think I want to save your minds from trying to figure out what I'm even trying to communicate. Overall, I mostly helped people figure out how to portray certain concepts, like time passing, or how to represent serious events that can't be portrayed on a school project.

My group went around one by one and we explained our projects, and as a person explained we would ask questions and give critiques. This made me a bit nervous since I had thought that me and Mariana hadn't developed our plot enough to properly explain it to the group, but they actually seemed to really like it! One of the suggestions one of the group members made was to include vastly different color schemes and lighting to show the drastic change between the therapist office and the flashbacks to the past. I'm glad they brought this up, since it is very important to include when it comes to distinguishing when each thing is happening in the plot.

The next thing they told me was to decide the different color schemes and vibes of the characters. Here are the notes I wrote down for that specifically: 

• Very diff color palette for Sister, Brother, and Therapist

• Sister in light colors, neutrals, pastels vibes? Very put together

• Brother not put together at all, more throws on whatever he first sees in the closet vibe. Dark colors, graphic tee and black jeans moment

• Therapist all neutrals very white

Then they tried to help me come up with more specific aspects of the characters. We want to clearly make the brother and sister's personalities super different, and they helped me come up with some ideas to define them a bit more.

Overall, I think this meeting went very well and I'm excited to continue this project! I lowkey think that they didn't want to critique me too much because we were all kind of in the same spot, though, because after the meeting I shared what critiques I got with Mariana, and she told me that she got a lot more than me, so I hope that the two of us can figure out how to work around the ones she got.

Social Media Planning!

 Alright! So now that I've researched social medias for other successful short films, it's time to plan my own! I had created the page using a google account made specifically for this project and sent the login to Mariana, so now we both have full access to the account and can begin posting as soon as possible. I had briefly spoken to Mariana about the types of posts we plan on doing, but here's a breakdown of exactly what I want.

First of all, the look for the page. We decided on using an Instagram page, since most short films we researched social media presence was strictly on Instagram, and very occasionally a Facebook. I remembered it being brought to our attention that not every viewer of our page will be through a mobile phone, so we need to make sure the layout and look of the Instagram profile should still look good on a web browser. This would mean any time we want to have a 1x3 banner across our page using multiple posts, we would need to post it at a point on the Instagram where it would still appear this way on both viewing forms. As unexpected as this is, that means there will be a good amount of math involved when it comes to posting.

As for the actual posts, I definitely want a combination of reels and images, along with stories and highlight reels to accompany this. I also want us to be super specific about what gets posted in what form. For example, if I am making a post that will not always be relevant when it comes to our film, we would include it on the stories and possibly include it on our highlights, but it is it something that will always be relevant or an important date then it should be an actual post. A good example of this would be if the film goes to a film festival that only lasts a few days, then that would be a story post, whereas the film's release date announcement would be an actual post onto the profile.

I also really want a good amount of behind-the-scenes content. While researching the social media of Two Distant Strangers, I noticed a lot of content featuring the camera crew, the set, or even the actors outside of recording. I liked how it presents the film as a large-scale passion project rather than just a piece of slop entertainment that people are so used to viewing nowadays. Behind the scenes content would let the viewer in on all aspects of work put into the film and can even help a viewer grow an attachment or more personal connection to the film and its production process, as they feel they are in on the special content that is usually only seen by people directly involved.

Another good thing to include onto our social media would be quotes. Including quotes of influential figures is great for grabbing the attention of desired audiences. For example, I noticed that Two Distant Strangers' Instagram included quotes from highly influential African Americans. The purpose of the film was to spread awareness of police brutality towards African American individual, so including quotes from those people helped get the target audience to the short film.

Instagram Logo PNG White. (2022). [PNG image]. https://freelogopng.com/image/697

Square profile‑style photo of a woman. (n.d.). [Image]. https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.eKoeQ1pnvVYiN6WZ2XXiyAHaHa?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain&o=7&rm=3

Social Media Research!

I would like to apologize for lying in my last post, because the research is never over, so I will now clarify that I meant genre research was done. Today, I am researching the different social medias of short films to see what me and Mariana could do for the digital aspect of our project, and what to avoid while creating our social media presence.

In order to get a wider understanding of what we will be doing, we are each researching three different social medias. We both think that having an Instagram best fits our film idea, so we made sure all six of the short films we would be looking at had Instagram pages, or at least a form of official promotion through Instagram. The short films I will be researching are Two Distant Strangers, The Resemblance, and An Irish Goodbye

Media text: Two Distant Strangers

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Combination of Reels, Images, and Text. No highlights were used to allow viewing of past story posts. Posting was consistent from production process to Oscar Award (2021). Many pictures of production process, both the actors on set and camera crew working. After film's release, they continued posting until the one-year anniversary of winning an Oscar.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Color scheme and overall graphics used is VERY consistent throughout entire page. Profile picture is the short film's poster. Short film's credits and website is linked in bio, along with where to find the film. Included quotes from well-known figures in the industry that praise the film for its production or relatability such as Harry Belafonte, Jesse Williams, Dean Parisot, etc. Also included praise from established film critics and magazines (Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter; Tim Molloy, MovieMaker Magazine; Matt Grobar, Deadline).

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: One important thing I took from this social media page was the consistent theme throughout the entire page, regardless of what was being posted. They kept a consistent color scheme that correlated directly to their poster (Black, Yellow, and Navy). Another thing that I plan on including is how they made it very easy to find where you can access this film (Netflix).

Media text: The Resemblance

Social media tool: Instagram (Only posted through the Director's account)

Description of types of posts: Very few actual posts of/from the film, but many highlights on the profile of the director. Posts were mostly single images promoting the film and major people involved. Highlights included where to find the film, festivals and theatres you can watch it, and reposts from cast members involved. After release the highlights transitioned to celebrating awards it had won and more festival viewings that could be attended.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): The overall branding developed was not that good, as it was not the main focus of the social media page. Along with this, it was also hard to find where the film could be accessed, as it mostly brought up festivals and not permanent sites that it could be found on. The page was a bit all over the place since it was the Instagram of the director, rather than just the film, so it wasn't clear when the branding was being developed or if it was a personal post.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: This actually helps me know what to not do in my social media page. I want a clear development of branding through our social media, whether we only post about the film itself or other aspects of the process, I believe it should be clear when even taking a quick glance at the page. That being said, I did actually really like how the one-time events were posted on the stories rather than getting an actual post, so viewers don't get confused while viewing posts, as it would only appear when it is relevant to the poster.

Media text: An Irish Goodbye

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: MOSTLY images to promote film, in the form of banners (3 posts across the page to appear as one when only viewing profile). Some reels, but very few, mostly are trailers or teasers of the film. Highlight story reel of positive reviews and critiques.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Cohesive color scheme, all posts seem to be images from production or awards the production has one. No behind the scenes content, only finished products. Film name and references to it are included throughout posts (Irish Premiere, etc.) Bio includes all awards won by short film. Profile lists that it is a movie. Website included in bio.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: Again, I really liked that where to find the film was clearly displayed on the profile (the top middle post). I also think that their large inclusion of images that matched the film's overall aesthetic and images from the film was great, especially since it avoided spoiling major plot points, but still gave an overall vibe to what the film would be.

(n.d.). Two Distant Strangers poster [Image]. https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.249639c2e2fdd08a6508c685bb341622?rik=AHNv41mjAyRruw&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.impawards.com%2fshorts%2f2020%2fposters%2ftwo_distant_strangers.jpg&ehk=VgniuakSxxZ%2bK%2b%2b%2b6IBsIFT7NYLglu3KH0uLOZMlizQ%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

(n.d.). An Irish Goodbye poster [Image]. https://epicchq.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/MV5BZjRkMDEwNWMtNjA2OS00Njk1LWIzMWItZDk3ODc0MTcwYTQ5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTI0OTgwMTUw.V1.jpg

(n.d.). The Resemblance poster [Image]. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzY3YzRiYWQtYmY2YS00MDA3LThhMTAtZjg0NDY2OGMyNGMxXkEyXkFqcGc

Still researching...but now I'm finished!

 I know, you're definitely sick of all of this genre research too, but it is genuinely very helpful in getting me to figure out what to include and exclude in the plot of the film. The final two films I will be researching on my blog are Whiplash and 500 Days of Summer.

Let's start off with Whiplash. In short, Whiplash is the story of a drummer who is put through extreme psychological pressure by his instructor.

Looking at what me and Mariana could include from Whiplash, I think an important part is that 'psychological pressure.' Our main character falls into an unhealthy lifestyle due to issues at home, but I think we can further develop those issues with the idea of the psychological pressure.

Obviously, we won't have J.K. Simmons to play an abusive music instructor, and I really don't think we will have any part of our film go to the extremes they had him portray in his character. I think the important thing to take away from this film is how Andrew (the drummer) succumbs to this pressure and how it affected him as a person. While describing genuine issues such as this, it is important to properly showcase how it affects that person, and I think we can get inspiration from Whiplash while developing our character a little more.

Now finally my last one, 500 Days of Summer. An important part of this film is Tom's self-reflection and his thought process throughout all of this. This is very important to focus on if we are having our film be told through therapy sessions with our main character. 

Therapy is full of self-reflection, so we could definitely take notes on how this could be portrayed and what struggle our main character can go through while confronting his own emotions.

I think this story is told in a way that me and Mariana can honestly take loads of inspiration from, and I think while finalizing our script we should definitely rewatch this film to further investigate what the film does to showcase Tom's emotional journey throughout his self-reflection process, just like we will have our main character do in our own film.

(n.d.). Whiplash poster [Image]. https://wallpapercave.com/wp/wp1952004.jpg

(n.d.). 500 Days of Summer poster [Image]. https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.RdXQBvPOevHMB7UWfH4PDgHaKj?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain&o=7&rm=3

More drama!

 Using the help of Letterboxd, I had to find quite a few more drama films. In this post I will be focusing on the following: La La Land & Fight Club.

Now obviously I couldn't choose two more different films for one post, but I believe the idea still stands that regardless of the plot, I'm researching the conventions of drama in these films and tying them back to what I can include in me & Mariana's film.

Starting off with La La Land, another one of my favorite films. This film is exactly what I want in regard to keeping a consistent theme throughout the entire film. La La Land does a great job of showcasing the two main character's individual issues, and how they come together to ultimately form a relationship that doesn't end up working for them.

What I like about this film is that they don't work out, even though they could and they both want to. I think that this is displayed very well in this film and I could take notes on keeping a consistent theme throughout the film. I also really liked how they story told in this film, especially since it is hard to take musicals seriously in some senses, but the way that this film is written nails it. 

Overall, La La Land is a great example of how I want to represent characters in our short film and how we can keep consistent theme and tone throughout the entire film.

Now moving on to Fight Club, this film also explores individuality and how that can affect oneself, and others around them.

The aspect of this film that I want to take inspiration from is the self-confrontational bits. In our film, we have a character who is going to therapy for an event that he blames himself for, but we didn't really establish why exactly he blames himself for this event. I think if we use these self-confrontational bits, then we can establish how and why this character finds himself to blame in this situation.

Although Fight Club isn't totally centered around this idea, it's still important to use it as an example of how to portray the concept and make it work, and obviously is won't be what our entire film is centered around, but this example from Fight Club is helping us fill in some plot holes that would have otherwise confused the film.

(n.d.). La La Land poster [Image]. https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/6ibTJwSpzFT43rqtoy51PF54A9r.jpg

IMDb. (n.d.). La La Land (2016) [Film page]. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/

(n.d.). Fight Club image [Image]. https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.5fc197c149c913301c9468373ad027ac?rik=fM%2bqgS70Kkk24g&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

Now to get more specific....

Now in order to even further grasp the drama genre, I need to research films that exhibit that genre. The first two films I will be discussing are the ones I previously mentioned, Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society (look at that, common theme of Robin Williams!). I know, it's kind of cheating because I researched Dead Poets Society for genre last year, but looking back at that previous blog post I think I did a terrible job actually researching it, since I knew it wasn't really the direction I wanted to go in.

Starting off with Good Will Hunting, even though this film isn't completely similar to what we plan to do, it is still very useful to research general films in the genre we will be doing, since we might notice some conventions that we want to include, or completely avoid.

Good Will Hunting follows the story of Will Hunting (Matt Damon) who is a genius but works as a janitor at MIT. He struggles with the trauma of abuse from his childhood. 

This actually somewhat coincides with what my film would be aiming to produce. We want a character to have some sort of trauma and be able to properly display that through the script and acting for this character. This film does a good job of displaying what you can do to showcase that trauma through characters without being offensive or downplaying the trauma these characters have experiences.

Now to look at Dead Poets Society. As I had mentioned last year, this truly is one of my favorite films. I think one of the things I will need to take from this film is how trauma affects others around the person experiencing it.

Dead Poets Society is about an English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams), who teaches his students at a strict all boys school to embrace their individuality and "seize the day." He tells the boys about his time at their school, and hints towards the Dead Poets Society, a group of boys that would defy the standard school rules and meet regularly off campus to just embrace themselves. This ultimately leads to some tragic events that effect the boys at the school.

What I want to use from this is a lot of aspects from the ending, how the boys deal with their trauma, and also what they do to try to overcome it. I also believe this film does a great job of showing how others can influence the behavior of an individual, and I want to showcase that in our film as well.

IMDb. (n.d.). Good Will Hunting (1997) [Film profile]. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/

(n.d.). Good Will Hunting promotional still [Photograph]. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDdjZGQ5YzEtNTc2My00Mjc0LWFlMTctYzkwMzZlNzdiZWYzXkEyXkFqcGc

IMDb. (n.d.). Dead Poets Society (1989): Full cast & crew [Webpage]. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/fullcredits/

(n.d.). Dead Poets Society poster [Image]. https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/uGa3NexFBtk12KT9vAoweVmN4k6.jpg