I am finally done with my project! All aspects of it! You can view them all with the links below ~
Docuseries excerpt
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1--hYDfN0g9Mag8bZoATj0flEibZGf3gg
Magazine
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mKjsJyx0XoOlg3Ye-xOSwbTJfM8FQL81
Social media
https://instagram.com/theshowmustgoon.doc?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
The docuseries, The Show Must Go On, focuses on teaching its viewers about how much effort goes into creating a theater process, in all its different aspects. For this portfolio project, I focused on the second episode, which focuses on the technical aspect of putting up a production. I communicated this message by including a variety of interviewees with various thoughts of the tech process, and including b-roll shots of them doing this process.
My project represents a variety of social groups and issues. For my interviewees, there are a variety of different genders, ages, and backgrounds. For instance, there are three girls, the two Andreas and Nicole.
There are also two boys, Johne and Santi.
There is also a variety of ages because Andrea Chiquito and Johne are both grown adults, while the other three interviewees are teenagers in high school. Andrea Chiquito is in her 20s and Johne is in her 60s. This also adds to the different backgrounds and experiences that my interviewees have. Johne is the one with the most experience, since he has been constructing sets ever since he dropped out of high school in 1979. He is also very passionate about his craft, and is even motivated enough to work completely by himself. Even though Andrea Chiquito is older than the teenagers, she just started teaching shows a few years ago. However her background is different because she is much more mature than the teenagers, and has a lot of experience in the theater business in general. Nicole and Andrea Hernandez have about the same amount of experience in teching shows since they have both been doing it for about two years. However the difference between them is that Nicole absolutely loves doing it and does it because it is her passion, but Andrea Hernandez mainly does it for the service hours. Santi is completely different than all four of these people because he was dragged into teaching since he is friends with Nicole. When asked if he would tech a show again, he said no because he does not enjoy doing it. I think interviewing people with such different social groups really adds perspective to my documentary, because it shows teh different sides of how a show goes on. For instance, even though Santi absolutely hated teching, he still stayed and tried his best to help, since he knew that the show needed to happen some way or another. It also focuses on the main issue of whether or not the tech crew gets enough appreciation from the audience, and why they continue even though there are so many struggles. The general issue discussed is why people continue to pursue things even though people don’t usually understand how much effort goes into doing something. The issue here is mainly that people usually don’t understand what it’s like to do things that require so much hard work, since they’ve never done something like that before. However this docuseries aims to solve this issue by showing people the struggles and why they should’ve be more appreciative.
The elements of my production works together to create a sense of branding by using the social media, magazine, and docuseries in cohesion with each other. Especially in the social media aspect, I really wanted to sell my docuseries as something that would be a fun enjoyable watch, that would also be seen as a learning experience to learn about appreciating the art of theater. Through the branding, I did certain things in order to share this message. For instance, in both the magazine and social media, I tried to use bright colors (specifically red and blue to match the theme) in order to be more fun.
Also for the social media, I tried to make it fun and engaging by doing interactive and funny story posts. I even included a bloopers reel to make it even more funny and real. For the actual docuseries extract, I included serious moments when the interviewees genuinely talked about their struggles. But I also decided to include some funny aspects to the extract, so that it would fit with the fun and entertaining branding of a Netflix show.
My product engages with the audience, specifically with the social media element. This is because it has many stories that directly engage with the audience. For instance there are many question box stories, that ask the viewers questions that they have about specific things. This means that they are directly interacting with me, the creator of the docuseries.
There are also less direct ways of interacting with the audience, by just making interesting graphics to look at. All of my posts on the instagram are not bare, and they actually have an artistic element in them to make them more visually engaging. For instance, I could have done a plain picture for the interviewee post introductions. However, I made the choice to draw on these posts to showcase them in a more creative way. I made the full except engaging indirectly by making them laugh at certain points.
My research really taught me a lot about the conventions of social media, magazines, and the docuseries. One of the tips that I researched was using hashtags. I decided to test this in two of my videos that I had. I posted both of them at around the same time, and one had hashtags while the other didn’t. Within an hour, the one with hastags had about 300 more views than the one without. This really shows the impact of hashtags. Of course, after this hour of experimenting for myself, I put hastags on the second video! Another tip was to make the thumbnails engaging, which is exactly why I used creative and artistic ways of actually displaying all the feed, by using hand drawn elements and also bright colors to catch the eyes of viewers. Another tip was to incorporate the behind the scenes, which I did with many of my posts! One of the main tips was to engage with the audience by doing things like creating interactive stories, such as having polls and quizzes, which is what I included. I also tried to create some meme like stories, because based on research, shareable memes are a very good thing to include in social media. For the magazine portion, there was a lot of things that I learned from my research in how to create a magazine page. For instance, I learned about the basic components in a magazine, such as adding the author, page number, magazine title, a big quote, and more! When creating my magazine I made sure to include all of these elements so that it would look like a real magazine spread! Now lastly, the actual extract from the docuseries!
I gained a lot of tips from actual documentary makers such as Ken Burns and Micheal Moore! One tip was to light the interviews properly, which I made sure to do by using a nice ring light! He said said not to use archival footage, which I made sure not to do since I filmed all the footage recently! One really interesting tip that Micheal Moore gave was to interview people that disagree with you. This is why I decided to film Santi’s interview, since he does not enjoy teching at all, which gives a new perspective to it. Another really good tip from Moore that I found out while researching was to not tell people “shit they already know.” This is why I tried to include the really personal aspects of their interviews to make a really insightful documentary!
I think the title of this blog post is VERY fitting. It’s a quote from the movie Mulan when she is singing her song reflection! It’s fitting because she is a princess, and I am too :)) It also describes what I’ll be doing in this blog post! Reflecting! Lastly, it’s the perfect quote because of the last part… “who I am inside”
This project has really been a process and has taught me a lot on not only media, but also about myself! Throughout this project, I think I have really figured myself out. Doing this project has made me realize how much a love media and engaging with the audience. At first I thought I wanted to major in environmental science. However, after coming into terms with myself and realizing that I don’t really like environmental science, I thought that I wanted to do media management. However, with the help of getting connections from my media teacher, I learned that advertising was actually the perfect major for me! This project has also made me realize how much I love theatre, and how big of a part it plays in my life. I love it so much, and I’m sad that making this doc will be one of the last times I will be doing something with my theater company :( I’m grateful for this project and the documentary project from the beginning of the year since it has allowed me to become even closer with my theater company! It’s a good way of saying good bye to them :))
Okay, now I'm sad :( Today is officially my last blog post before I start posting my actual project. It has been a great few months, and I am really glad about how much I have accomplished.
Usually, I am the messiest person ever. Exhibit A: my mess of a room
I think this project really displays artistically how organized I have become. Even looking back at all of these blog posts, I can really see how much effort I have put into this project, and I am really proud of myself :)
The end of the year is almost approaching, and it makes me sad that it's my last year experiencing high school :( I have officially passed down my role as social media manager for the ceramics club to the next generation of students. It makes me sad that I won't have this job anymore, but it also makes me really happy that I can teach my skills to other students! I think it's funny that I was thrown into the social media manager position at the beginning of the year since there weren't enough people in the ceramics club, and now I will be pursuing social media in the future!. Last year, no one used the social media account, and we had barely any members. This year, however, I was able to put some life into the social media account and get new members to join!!
I am still excited about summer and what's to come in the future! One of the most exciting things is that I will officially be going to the Summer Media Institute at UF!! I have mentioned it before in my blogs, but now I officially know that I will be going since my dad paid for it! I am so glad I signed up today since it said that there were only 2 more open spaces left for the social media specialization! I'm really excited about it!! It's a week-long program, and I will be actually living at UF for it! I think that it will be a really good experience before actually going to UF in august!
Today I made the highlights cover! Since I am finally done with all the interactive stories for my project (for now unless I think of any more along the week!) I decided to actually sort them into categories and make highlight covers to make it cohesive with the entire social media page. I decided to do four different colors" dark blue, light blue, light red, and red. This is so that it could match the entire feed. Also, I decided to use the same stars as I had been using before, and also some extra confetti, in order to make it cohesive
I also sorted them into four categories. One of the highlights is for the tech crew spotlights. Another one is dedicated to the frequently asked questions. Another one is for memes and other random pictures that say "How excited are you!" The last one has question boxes that the audience can fill out, which is very interactive
I also finally found accounts to follow on my Instagram account. It was kind of hard to find these accounts, but I found a few good ones! I also went through some of the feeds to get more inspiration for things that I can change in my social media!
I also made the bio, which I took inspiration from some of the accounts that I was following. It is pretty short and simple.
Okay, I talked about this a pretty long time ago (wow time flies!) but during filming week, I used two of my friend's cameras to film some shots. Their cameras are very nice (and expensive!) so I thought it would be really nice to include the footage in my doc! However, a little bit ago I asked them if they could send me the footage. But they both told me that they had lost the footage because their SDs cards had broken :(
I'm really sad that I won't be able to use this amazing footage, but I am glad that I have the footage that I filmed on my phone! I'm glad I thought ahead at the time and had a backup to if this camera footage was lost. Since that footage wasn't on me, I'm glad that I didn't fully trust getting it back to me! I was checking how much B-roll I have and I have hundreds of videos! Even though it's not as nice, I'm still very glad that I have it!
Okay, so I already have the interviewee footage organized, which actually took SUCH a long time. But now it's time to organize all my B-roll!! I have even more videos of the B-roll AAAAAAAA. The good thing is that it's much easier to organize this footage in my opinion. I organized it into a bunch of different folders, to organize who is featured in the B-roll
One of the critiques from my last documentary was that the B-roll was not organized with each interviewee. The people in my class were telling me that it would have looked nicer if the actual interviewee was actually shown in the B-roll while they were talking! Which is why I decided to make different folders for each person.
The bad thing is that I have absolutely no B-roll of Santi since he did not tech the last show. This is why I made a "random" folder so that when he talks, I can just use this footage. I'm sad that he won't be included in the B-roll footage, but as I always say... work with what you've got!! I also don't have much footage of Nicole, since she only came to one of the tech days since she was sick on most of them :(( However, I think I will just feature her face more from the actual interviewees since that footage of the interview actually turned out very nice! I wish I didn't focus so much on Johne in getting the B-roll footage, since now I have WAYYY too much footage of him, especially since his interview isn't that long. However, IM JUST GOING TO WORK WITH WHAT I GOT!!
to tell the truth... I am DREADING the actual editing part oh my god. I have so much footage to edit into only 5 minutes! Honestly, I think it would be easier to do a full 30-minute episode! (which I honestly might do later, since I love this project so much!) I'm praying I don't have a mental breakdown trying to edit all of this! Wish me luck!
I have been "researching" so much about advertising!! My version of researching is actually just watching a bunch of TikToks HAHAHA but honestly, they are very helpful! I think that they give a lot of information in such a short amount of time. Also, more of the TikTok I have been watching have actually been from people who have experience in the major, which is really helpful!
One thing that I learned is that marketing and advertising are NOT the same things. I'm glad that I chose to advertise since it's more of the art side of marketing. Marketing is more math, which I am so glad that I don't have to do since I literally failed out of math and dropped it a few weeks ago!!
My dream ever since I have been a kid is to do something with art in the future. When I was little, I wanted to be an animator, but my parents said they would never let me do something like that since it's way too artsy for them. However, I think that advertising is the perfect balance of art and psychology, which are my main too love. I also think advertising is a main part of media studies too, and this class has been the best thing I have every experienced, so I am so excited to be pursuing that in my future! I told a person in my class, john brown, about the fact that I was going to major in advertising. He said that he was excited to see my future in it, and that made me realize THAT I AM TOO!!
An exciting day of Sunday rehearsal yesterday! As always, I used my time wisely and was starting this blog during rehearsal!
My friend Jack, who used to do shows with me, came to today's rehearsal! He was actually there to take social media content for In the Heights since the show is almost here! While on my breaks, I talked to him about how he approaches social media. He is amazing at it since he is the social media manager for his school. He has also won prizes for it!
After I got home from rehearsal, I researched more about how he does his social media. I mainly focused on looking at all the stories that he has made for all the shows that he has done social media for. he mainly does fun little posts to make the audience engaged. I have decided to take inspiration from this by creating memes like social media posts and using the hashtag "#techcrewlife."
I have also made a list of other types of story posts to do! As you can see from the list, I have made all of them except the final edits pic, which I will be making later this week!
Here are some of my other stories!!
[super fun and interesting stories!]
Here are specifically some frequently asked questions stories!
Just like I said before, I also made the captions for the Instagram posts, since that is something that I forgot to do before!
for all of these types of posts, I did the same type of caption. For all the interview posts, I did a quick overview of each of the interviewees.
I also included the same exact hashtags in each other posts, in order to gain more interaction with my posts. I did hashtags that had to do with my docuseries.
Now time for the most tedious part...Going through my hundreds of interviews!
I have found a really specific method to getting through all of my interview videos! There si a method to my madness! I do this method to all four of my interviewees
1. First I put all of my interview clips into one album
2. Then I go through all of the videos and delete full videos that would not fit going into the video
3. Then I go through the videos again and cut out specific beginnings or endings of the videos that do not matter (such as me asking the question, or laughing at the end)
4. Then I write down a short description for what each video is about
5. Then I make an order for these videos
6. Upload these videos in order to iMovie
7. Split the videos into even smaller videos, so that each clip will be its own cohesive idea that I can move around
8. Cut out parts that are unnecessary, such as pauses
Just as promised, I finally finalized all the social media posts and posted them onto Instagram! This all included the interviewee intros, quotes, behind-the-scenes, and where it can be found! I actually spent so long on getting all the colors right. And I even spent so long getting the side on which each interviewee should be placed right since I wanted everything to look super cohesive. I am officially done with the main social media feed, and I am so so happy with the way it turned out!
[the color scheme makes me so happy!]
I have started editing the actual excerpt of the docuseries, and it is taking a LOT longer than I expected. Okay, so I kinda told a lie… I haven’t actually edited it yet… BUT I have been reviewing all of my footage, and picking out specific parts that stand out to me. So far I have found a lot of really good quotes from all my interviewees. Soon I’ll be piecing everything together and cutting it down in order to fit the 5-minute mark!
I didn't edit the actual docuseries yet BUT I did edit the bloopers reel and added it to Instagram! Check it out on my Instagram @2023theshowmustgoon. It’s about a minute long, which I think is the perfect time for my audience since it is mainly teenagers and young adults. At first, it was 5 minutes long, which is when I made it for just me and my friends. I made it much shorter by deleting all the scenes that were inside jokes that only we would understand. Now, this 1-minute length is perfect since young people tend to have short attention spans. I also took it off of the profile, since I didn’t want it to mess with my perfectly laid-out feed! This way, it can be found in the reels without interfering with the feed.
I also finally made a profile picture for my Instagram account! I decided to use two different fonts so that “go on” would stand out since that is the main part of the title. To keep on going even if something goes wrong! I made it red since it matches my color scheme. I also decided to add star confetti so that it would be more interesting! I decided to do star confetti since my director always says that there is a star inside of all of us :)
Before I posted all of my content for the interviewees, I also added a barrier between the first episode and second episode in order to separate the two. I used the same colors as the coming soon post in order to be cohesive. Then I also added the star confetti that I used for the profile picture, so that would also be cohesive!
We also had our... (bet you can't guess it!) GROUP MEETINGS. I always really look forward to group meetings. Not only because I get to ask for advice from my peers, but because I also have a chance to talk about my project! I am so passionate about this project, and I am glad that we get a short amount of time to talk about it and ask for feedback.
For today's group meeting, I asked for feedback on how I could make my social media even better.
My group members said that I should post more interactive posts. I have really been pushing to make the social media feed look very nice, which I think I have accomplished nicely. Because of my group's advice, I will probably be making more interactive and fun stories to post tomorrow! They also gave me the advice to add a better bio, since the one that I have up now is pretty flaky. Lastly, they pointed out something that I completely forgot to add to all my posts! CAPTIONS!! I need to add little captions in order for the posts to be more interactive so that more people will have context in order to comment more things on them. I also really need to include some hashtags so that my posts are more likely to be seen by a larger audience. Something else that I realized that I need to do, without my group's help, was to actually start following some other docuseries accounts! This can also give me more inspiration, especially in making interactive stories!
I am finally done with my project! All aspects of it! You can view them all with the links below ~ Docuseries excerpt https://drive.goo...
