blooper oops

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!]

Editing starts today!

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 really like how I was able to make something funny for the social media!]

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 :)

[The confetti stars mean a lot to me because of my directors words]

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!

[more stars! but BIGGER!!]

Group meetings!    

    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!

[Thanks group!]

Today in class we also talked about what we should do for the final. It’s so sad how everything is almost coming to the end ;( this amazing project, media studies (the best class I’ve ever taken) and just senior year as a whole. On April fools day, it will be exactly 11 years since I started my education career in Weston. It’s insane how fast time can pass, I just want it to stop. Guys… I think I’m having  my senior shit movement. Shit my childhood is endjng fast and there is so much time left until I’m living on my own AHHHH

anyways, in class today, stoklosa said that we could chose what we wanted to do for our finale. It was such a big choice, but she made us realize that we are going to have to make big choices like that for ourselves soon. I really liked the idea of going back to our band identity projects. Ever since that project, I have thought of ways to make it even better, since I have grown so much as a person and have so much to add to it. I also really liked the group video idea, since I think it would be such a good way to bond with each other and make a nice keepsake for when we leave high school. I think it would be so so cool to see the finished product.

She also talked about ways to display our project. I really like the idea of actually being able to present it to everyone on the big screen in the front of the class. I love being the center of attention (theater kid alert!), especially in this case when I’ll be presenting something that I’m really proud of. I’m glad that they won’t be two separate groups like we usually do, since I want everyone in the class to see how much effort I put into my project!!

Post, post, and more posting

 I have to catch up on social media! I finished posting all the set one posts for the first episode, and it turned out exactly how I planned. I really liked how it has such a cohesive color scheme. I also liked how I paid attention to little details such as keeping the same font so that everything would be cohesive.

Just like I did for the last set, I drew out a plan for the second set of pictures. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what colors to use and what direction everything would face so that nothing would be clashing. I have a lot more interviewees and behind-the-scenes pictures, so I decided to put it to good use! 

I made the behind-the-scenes posts the same as the old posts, except with square-shaped pictures instead, since that is how they were taken. I did this for almost all the interviewees except Andrea Hernandez, whom I unfortunately forgot to get behind-the-scenes pictures of. 

For all the intro posts, I decided not to color in any of the backgrounds, like how I did for some of the posts last time since I really liked all the backgrounds of all the pictures I took. In order to put these nice backgrounds to use, I decided to do a name tag for all the posts. Since I was able to take good pictures, with a blurred background, I like these intro posts much better than the first set. I think the fact that the background is blurred really pulls focus to the interviewee. Just like before, I alternated the colors between blue and red with all of the intro posts. I repeated this same process with the name tag for all of my interviewees. 

I also did the quote posts, just like the last set! This time however, the pictures were taken from the behind the scenes process, since this is what this episode focuses on. The first set used pictures from the actual show, but I thought it would make sense to use pictures from the behind the scenes! As always I did the same font so that it would match :)

For one of the posts I also decided to showcase where it would be streaming and when, since that is an important part of the social media process. It would make no sense to promote the docuseries if the audience can't figure out where to find it! I decided to make it stream on Netflix since that is a very popular streaming service for young people. Since my audience is mainly young people, I thought that this would be perfect. Netflix already has a lot of arts-related docuseries, so I thought this would be perfect. For streaming I want the episodes to come out weekly so that the audience will be more engaged and excited for a new episode each week, instead of binging it in a short period of time. This allows the audience to think about my docuseries for an extended period of time! 

    In order to make this post I used the same layout as some of the quote posts in order for it to match the screen. I also found pictures of transparent Netflix logos to put in the middle, since I didn't just want to type "Netflix" out. Except it took a while to find since all transparent PNGs seem to be tricking me into thinking they're transparent when they really just have a checkered background! 

    Since I have made all the main layouts for all the social media posts, I will be creating the rest soon and uploading it all! Stay tuned for the finalized social media feed! 

MORE INFO

I also got a new number from Kim in order to learn more about advertising! It is from a girl that actually does advertising at UF, since Kim doesn’t. For far she has given me a really good overview of what it actually is. She has also taught me about the differences between the two tracks. Its so nice to hear all of this information coming from a real student, since it can be kind on confusing to figure out by myself on the website. I learned so much from both of them, which has made me really excited to actually start!

ALSO

REALLY EXCITING NEWS

I have officially committed to UF and picked advertising as my major! I really do think that it’s the perfect major and school for me!! I specifically chose the "Advertising Agency Track" and I'm so excited to get started!

world theater day!

Today is world theater day! 

The perfect day for this documentary! It is a day that honors theater, and it is one of the most meaningful days for me since it allows me to look back at everything I have done for theater throughout 10 years of doing it. Usually, it makes me really happy since it makes me realize how much I have grown. But this year it made me sad because I realized that the show that I am doing right now, In the heights, is the last show that I will ever do. I’m so sad that I won’t be doing a show over the summer :( The fact that I will never be able to experience this again makes me so so upset because it means that a new part of my life will be starting, which is both so exciting and scary. The theater has always been my safe space, and in two weeks once I do this last show, I will definitely cry. It has been such a big part of my life, and I have done every single show since second grade with the same theater company. Not only that, but I have helped out with all the shows for years. This is why this documentary is so important to me since it perfectly sums up and ends my perfect theater career. I really want to showcase my director and all the amazing friends that I have made. I put so much effort into the project because I think that it is the perfect way to end my theater career, and the perfect way to honor it. 

World theater day fell on the most perfect day, since yesterday I had rehearsal for in the heights. We actually had a really fun rehearsal, and we even choreographed a fight scene, which I have never experienced before! 

Today I also had a rehearsal for the little kids! I love working with them so much. I don’t know if this will be possible, but I really hope I’ll be able to work with kids in the future. Today I taught the kids a dance by myself which I have also never done before! a lot of first-time experience in theater for world theater day!  

    Today in rehearsal I also realized that since I will be taking online classes at UF, I can come down here anytime I want! This means that whenever there is a show, I can come down and help for the tech week! I will definitely miss going to my rehearsals on Sunday and helping out at Monday rehearsals, but coming down for tech week would definitely make me super happy. This way I can still hold onto some of my love for theater, even in college! 

InterACT!

    Okay first I want to talk about this funny pun and play on words! Okay so I realized that I still need to do interactive posts. But for the subtitle I called it interACT cause this docuseries focuses on... ACTING! Isn't that just the best play of words you have ever heard! It actually reminds me of when I was in sixth grade, me and my sister designed an app to bring theater people together. And we called this app interACT! This just shows how much theater has influenced me throughout my entire life:))

Okay back to the main point...

    Since it is world theater day, I had the idea of making a post based on this! I realized that I need to start posting more interactive stories on my social media, and not only actual posts for the feed. In order to make it more interactive, I put a question box so that the audience will be able to be a part of the social media. For the pictures used in the post, I put pictures from the show that is a part of the first episode 

[this is how it came out!]

    I also made a little teaser for the story and included the caption “who’s excited” for the docuseries so that the people viewing the story will be excited for it to come out. For the video, I used one that I took during the tech week for the play goes wrong. I really like this video because it was their first time trying out the floating platform, so it really shows their raw expressions to being dropped on the platform! 

    I also made tech crew spotlights for all the people that were interviewed for the second episode. All of the stories look like the one above, except with different photos and the names associated with them. I will be creating a story highlight so that all of these spotlights can be easily found even after the story expires! 

    I also did another interactive story that asked the audience how excited they were for release day. In order for the audience to interact, I included a sliding poll for them to answer. For the picture, I did one of the cast members for The Play That Goes Wrong in a funny position with a thumbs up, so that the viewers will laugh at the story in order to make it more engaging!

THE BEST DAY!!!

 FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!!

    The moment that I have been waiting for for weeks!!!! I finally got to interview my AMAZING friends yesterday! I am so glad that I chose Nicole and both Andreas because it was actually the most fun experience ever!

    And I am actually so happy since the videos turned out so pretty! Especially Nicole! I could literally stare at her interview for days, she looks absolutely STUNNING in it.

[I still cannot believe that I was able to film such high-quality videos on an iPhone!]

My sister also came to help me film! Just like everyone says, we come in pairs! I'm so grateful for her, and we do absolutely everything together. I'm so glad she was able to help me because she was able to get another angle from all the interviewees! I feel like this makes my documentary even more professional looking! I did this with my old doc, but only on one interviewee, so it felt a bit off. Thankfully I was able to keep this different angle consistent on all my interviewees this time! I was able to put my criticism from last time to good use :)

[Thankful for my sister for getting the side angle!!]

   First of all... it took WAYY longer than expected. I was expecting it to take no more than an hour and a half, but I was oh so wrong about that. We started at 10:30 am, and ended up finishing at 2:30 pm! That meant it took four hours (of fun!) 

    I asked all of them the questions that I had planned out beforehand. Everyone had a lot to say! I'm so glad that I chose these three people since they had such a variety of answers. It took so long because everyone had a lot to say about teching. We also got on some side tangents on a bunch of things, since we are all very good friends that joke around a lot. But that's all part of the process! I was also able to get good pictures of all of them to use for social media! This is something that I was unfortunately not able to do with the first episode of my documentary, but it's okay! We work with what we have :))

    Also, I literally completely forgot about texting Santi beforehand about coming over and getting interviewed. Thank god though because Andrea came to the rescue again! She was the one that brought up telling Santi to come over since she also thought that it would be a good idea to have more diversity in my interviewees! So far I only had women being interviewed. Since representation is a big part of the media industry, having Santi be interviewed too was a really good idea, so thank god she reminded me! Also, thank god that he was at home just sitting around, so he was easily able to come over! Also, this is a bit of a creative choice, but I let Santi eat during his interview, so in the shots, you can see the hummus and chips. I think it added personality and character and really showed how opposite he was to everyone else since he is way more laid back. This shows how teching is not really for him. 

[The last minute interviewee: Santi!]

[Andrea Chiquito being helped to get ready for her closeup!]

[My beautiful Nicole in action <3]

    I have a really big issue though... I think I have a little bit TOO much footage. Since it took an overall of around 4 hours to film, I have soooo much footage to go through. At first, I was thinking of cutting someone out, but I absolutely loved the variety of answers that I got from all four interviewees. I'm almost certain that I will include all four of them, especially since this is supposed to be an excerpt of a full episode. And usually, full episodes of docuseries have a variety of interviewees. 

BLOOPERS put into use!

    A lot of the footage however is unusable. This is either because we would be talking about random things OR we would just be laughing since we were having such a good time! While we were interviewing, Andrea said that we should make a blooper reel of the interviews, since there were so many good funny moments. And guess what, that's exactly what I did!

    Once I got home, I had a massive headache for some reason :( This caused me to take a nap from 4:30pm to 10:30pm!!! I hope that I'm not getting sick since that would be HORRIBLE. Since I slept for so many hours during the day, I couldn't fall asleep at night. This is when I decided to actually create the blooper reel! It took about three hours, and I was done a 3:33am (angel numbers!) After watching it so many times because it was so funny, I finally fell asleep.

    Now it is the next day and I am writing my blog post! But today I also realized something! At first, I only made the blooper reel for my friends and me, since it was such a fun experience that I wanted to remember. However, I realized that this reel could actually be posted on social media as somewhat of a behind-the-scenes excerpt! I will be shortening the blooper reel even more so that it will be social media friendly and I will be posting it soon!

    Also making the blooper reel last night really made me remember how long it takes to edit AAAAA. I think editing is probably my least favorite part about this entire process since it can be so so tedious. It took so many hours just to create the blooper reel because I had to watch ALL the footage and pick out the funniest moments. Also while stitching everything together into one video, it took a long time to figure out the order that I wanted it to be in, since I kind of wanted to bloopers to tell their own story. The overall reel ended up being 5 minutes long, which is just as long as the documentary should be. This made me realize how glad I was that I was mainly done with all the other elements since I know that it will take a LONG time to actually edit my entire excerpt. I'm glad that I planned out a lot of time for me to do this! 

SUPER DUPER COOL INTERVIEW DAY

    Today was actually the coolest day of my life! I went to interview Johne!! His warehouse was all the way in Oakland Park, which meant that it took almost an hour to get there. Of course, I took my dad with me, just to be safe, since Johne was a man that I had just met. 

    It took a bit to find out where hi shop was since it was kind of hidden. But once we did find it, Johne started talking about himself right away. I maybe want to use some of the audio in the B-roll, since he talks so much in it! It was so so cool to look around his shop. I even recognized a lot of the things that he had in it, such as the sign that we used for Chicago the musical! It was so cool to see how everything was made! He was talking a lot about the different types of wood and rubber and how he makes each of the set pieces. At some points, it was somewhat hard to follow along with him since he kept saying terms that I didn't understand. But I tried my best to give my full attention to him! From the parts that I did understand, I learned so much about the behind-the-scenes of making sets! I'm actually so glad that I was able to understand and get the opportunity to go to his warehouse! 

    Not only was I able to get a lot of B-rolls of the warehouse and his shop, but I was also able to interview him! We ran into a couple of issues, such as with lighting and finding an outlet. And also with the loud noises outside such as the birds and cars vrooming. But with a few adjustments, I was able to get a really good interview from him! He gave so much valuable information! It really shows how much dedication is put into keeping a show running! It was also a bonding experience for me and my dad since we spent the whole day together! He even asked Johne some of his own questions, it was a really nice experience.

[The coolest interview I have ever done!]

    Also! He even said "the show must go on" without me even telling him to do so! I might get this clip and use it, to name-drop the title in the episode! After I went home, he texted me how to spell his name. Which I am so glad about since I had been saying "Johnny" this entire time. Today I learned that its actually spelled "Johne!" He also sent me a bunch of pictures of sets that he has made! I will probably be using these in the social media aspect since it really shows his talent!

[amazing set done by the one and only Johne!]

My Inspiration

    Even though she probably does not remember me, Kim Blum is one of my inspirations. I remember sometimes talking to her at this tutoring service called Mathnasium, but I doubt she remembers that. I remember last year, I saw the Instagram account for her documentary project, and from that moment is when I knew that I also wanted to create a documentary of my own.

    When talking to Stoklosa about what my major should be in college, she gave me Kim Blum's number, since she was at UF doing the media studies program. When I first texted her about a week and a half ago, I asked about the media studies major and the summer media institute. However, during spring break I began to realize I didn't really want to make my major media. She verified that media was not the major for me!

[Kim being very very helpful!]

    I have yet to answer all the audios she sent, but based on all the links and audios she sent, I should be more in the advertising major, just like what I was thinking before! Her clarifying this really made me relieved that I was going to pick the right major for me: advertising! I've really enjoyed creating the advertising and marketing for my documentary so far, and I really hope I will be able to do something similar to this in the future!!

Super Socials

Exciting news!! I have finally started my actual postings for Instagram! I like it so much better than the first time of doing it. This really shows how much planning can help!

[All my Insta posts in one folder in my camera roll!]

    I finally got around to making all the quotes and behind-the-scenes posts, as can be seen in the picture above! I alternated colors between the 2 plain color quotes. For the photograph background quotes, i tried to choose a variety of images that would alternate the negative space, so that each quote could be in a different area. When I was making the behind-the-scenes posts, I also alternated between colors. I also alternated which side it would be facing, so both of them would not be the exact same. 

    I have already posted some of the beginning posts, including the coming soon post, as seen below. In order to make this three-post spread, I had to get a special app that separates your post into three separate posts. This was a new thing for me, but it was actually really easy to use!

[social so far!]

    The reason why I didn't do all of them at once was that when promoting a docuseries, you don't want to release all your marketing at once since that can be too overwhelming to the viewers. I also did not want to get banned from Instagram from posting too many things at once (yes that has happened before!)for

    Other than actually posting the rest of the posts that I have made for the first episode, I still have a lot more things to do related to social media. I have kind of set it aside until now, but this coming week I will definitely be more focused on social media!

[I even made a list of things I still need to do using my handy iPad in order to keep organized!]

ERROR ERROR

    So I ran into a big problem... 

    Tomorrow I was supposed to interview Nicole and both Andreas in the morning, then Johnny in the afternoon. I checked with Johnny to make sure he was still okay with it and he said yes! HOWEVER, there was a major problem with my other interviewees. A week before, I asked Nicole if we could use her house to film since I knew that she had a nice background and that her house is so nicely decorated. However tonight, the night before interview day, she told me that her brother and sister had COVID!!! Thankfully she was staying at her dad's house, which means that she is not infected. But that also meant that we couldn't go to her house for filming anymore. And since her dad lived so far away, it would have been a hassle for all of us to go there to film. I also couldn't film at my house, since family friends would be over, so it would be too loud to film. Then I asked both of the Andreas if they would lend over their house... Andrea Chiquito said that she didn't because she lives with roommates. And Andrea Hernandez said that she couldn't either since her cleaning lady was coming at the exact time that we were supposed to film </3

[the unfortunate text message...]

    Thankfully I was able to work out a solution! I asked Andrea Hernandez if we could all go to her house to film on Friday morning instead, and she said that that was perfect! Thank god we were able to go to her house since it also has nice decorations in the background.

[thank god!!]

 It also had an added bonus! I knew that Santi, another tech crew member, was her neighbor. I had this thought in the back of my head to ask him to also be interviewed, in order to add variety. Not only is he a guy, but he also is someone that does NOT like teching, which adds variety to the different types of people that tech shows. Since he is Andrea's neighbor, I can easily ask him to come over too while we are filming, if it isn't a hassle for him!  

tedious planning

I usually hate planning, but major planning needed to be done in order to have a nice social media page!  This is exactly what I do for my own Instagram! Since I want it to look nice and cohesive, I plan everything out before posting so that my entire feed looks nice. This has gone a long way since SO many people have complimented my Instagram! And when meeting new people, presenting yourself on social media plays a big part in it. 

[here are some of my perfectly planned posts (alliteration!)]

I am also the social media manager of the ceramics club at school! I do the same sort of thing to layout all the posts on Instagram. I especially do this to make sure nothing of the same type of post is touching each other, in order to make the feed look more interesting!

[perfectly laid out ceramics club!]

Some of my inspiration for this Instagram styled posting system comes from the AMT and Inside Out Theater Instagram pages. Both of these are theater-related Instagram pages though, and not docuseriees. However, I am taking some ideas from them and making them my own!

[inside out theater company (my theater company) instagram]

[CBHS AMT Instagram (our school's theater program!)]

From both of these Instagram accounts, I have taken inspiration from multiple things. Both of them have very cohesive themes, especially for each show that they do. They have similar layouts for each show. I will try to accomplish this by trying to separate each episode from the other. Especially with inside out theater's Instagram, they frequently create three post layouts in order to be more interesting to look at, which I will be doing occasionally! Both of these accounts are very interactive with their audience, such as doing takeovers. I might put my own spin on these interactive stories later on in the week!

I used an app on my iPad in order to draw out exactly how I wanted to lay out my social media feed to promote this docuseries. I used this same organizational method that I use for myself to plan out my docuseries posts. I even color-coordinated everything, since I do not want two similar posts touching each other, and I want a good variety of them. I also added stars to special quotes that will not feature a photograph in the background. I evenly spaced this out too! I will also make a three-post long "coming soon" post to start out with the posting so that the feed will look nice once people click on the profile!

[using my Instagram planning skills to use!]

 Ask a Gator

    You know what time it is.... time for tuminumi's life! Ask a Gator was the name of the information session that was held by the College of Journalism and Communication! It was way more hands-on than any of the other online information sessions that I had gone to since there were only 5 other people in the meeting. This meant that I was actually able to ask the head of journalism some of my personal questions! First I asked what type of jobs could be achieved with the media production, management, and technology major. The answer to this question mainly had to do with filming and script writing. Then I asked another question about media psychology. I knew that it wasn't an actual major at UF, but I was wondering if there was something similar to it. Then she said an answer that caught me off guard... the advertising major. This is a major that I had completely overlooked before since I was so focused on the media majors, and the three different tracks for this. 

    After this information session, I did a little bit more research, and realized that maybe advertising was the major for me! The first thing that comes up when you search about advertising is that it "blends creative fields like art and design with more quantitative subject areas like psychology." With just this description, this seemed like the perfect major for me since it combined both of my main interests! At first, I was thinking of doing a media major with a minor in psychology. However, I realized that psych was not a PACE major option. However, if I pick advertising, I won't have to worry about minoring in psych since it is already integrated into the course!!

Some BIG changes!

I am coming back to social media! There are definitely some big changes from my first draft of the social media. I realize now that I really should not have posted all of the pictures before, because I still did not have a clear idea at the time of how I wanted my feed to look. However, now I do! So far I have edited all of the interviewee greeting posts for only the first episode, by using a drawing app on my iPad. I am actually so so thankful for my iPad, it has made my life much easier! Unfortunately, I was not able to retake the pictures of all the interviewees, so I had to resort to taking screenshots from my old documentary. I am planning to take actual pictures of all my new interviewees for the second episode though! (Hopefully I don't forget!!)

[all of my first set of interviewee posts for the first episode!]

    I decided to go with my past idea, and color in the background of the interviewee introduction posts, in order for all the posts to tie together and create a cohesive, artistic feed. I kept the colors blue and red since that is what I want to do for my color scheme! However, I made one major change. At first, I wanted to color in all the interviewees backgrounds. But then I realized that I didn't want the color to be too overwhelming. Instead, I decided to alternate between a full background coloring and pops of color for the name tag.

[alternate version: pop of color!]

[original version, but this time I added shading on the edges to make it more interesting!]

    I like things to be cohesive, so I alternated between the colors for each person. I also alternated between which side they were on. The first screenshot shows the exact order in which they will be posted, but with quotes and behind-the-scenes footage in between each interviewee's post. For each of these interviewee posts, I will be writing a short description of them in the caption, along with hashtags that relate to them. 

    Instead of posting these pictures now, I am going to wait until I am done with my other filler posts so that my feed will turn out the way I want it to!

UF VISIT!!!!!!!

    Okay, to be honest, I was dreading this trip to Gainesville since I thought that it would waste too much of my spring break. At first, I wanted to spend my entire spring break to the fullest and hang out with friends every day like I did last year. However, after this trip, I do not regret going at all, since it was honestly so fun! I was also dreading it since it made the college experience actually REAL. I still cannot believe that I am almost a last-quarter senior, and in a few short months, I will actually be living ALONE and going to COLLEGE. College always seemed so far away, but now it's approaching WAYY too rapidly.

[me in my future home!]

    Before this trip, I was dreading going to college. But now, I am honestly really excited! We mainly went on a trip to Gainesville in order to find housing for me for the fall semester. All the apartments we visited were so nice, which was one of the things that actually made me excited for next year. I was honestly just really excited to decorate my room how I wanted to. Also, at first was scared to be put with random roommates, since I didn't find anyone to room with me. But after talking with the college students, they said that it was pretty easy to get close to their roommates! I really hope that I will get cool and interesting roommates since I am going to have three of them! 

    What also got me excited was the fact that I will actually be studying something that I want to pursue. Even though I haven't really figured out what that something is, I hope I will soon! I still don't know if I want to go into the media production, management, and technology major yet...

    However, the main thing I am excited about is the freedom! I will finally be able to be independent of my parents and be able to make my own choices! Also, most of the college students I talked to said that they barely have any classes a week, which means... more free time to focus on my interests!! I hope that I'll have a lot of free time so that I can explore the campus, its clubs, and all the interesting college students!

     I hope that it won't be too hard to make friends just cause I'm in the PACE program, which is an online program. That is my main concern :( However, after talking to some of the students, they said that PACE is super similar to the regular college experience. They even said that if I wanted to, I could email the professors and ask to sit in their class, so that I don't have to do everything online! The students even said that most people do take their classes online for convenience, even if they're not in PACE! Overall, I am more excited than scared about college! I'm really glad I went to visit UF :))

The hardest component??

    Okay so at first I was DREADING the written component of the project, but now that I have it done, it was actually so fun! Since I already had all of my Q&A's answered from before, it was just a matter of laying it out correctly. At first, this was so overwhelming since there was so much freedom. The main thing that I wanted to include was to make sure that the theme color of the magazine was red so that it would match the rest of my marketing for the docuseries. 

     To make it less overwhelming, I did some research. I looked at some old projects because I asked my teacher to guide me through old docuseries projects. This helped me get an overall understanding of what the layout should look like overall. Then I also did a bunch of research online, to see how real magazine articles were laid out. I also had all my notes from before, which listed all the elements that were necessary for a magazine. 

    At first I had a huge creative block a few days ago, and all I did was edit my responses and questions to make them shorter, in order for them to fit into a two-page spread. After I revised this though, I gave up since I had no idea how I wanted to do the spread. Then today, I had a jolt of creativity and was finally able to make something I am really proud of.

[the first page of the spread!!!]

[the second page of the spread!!! I am honestly so proud of myself :D]

    I really liked how I did the blocks of color, but still made them all the same color scheme. At first, I was going to make the first page a red theme and the second page a blue theme, but I am glad that I changed it to both red to make it more consistent. I also added a few pictures, so that I could make it more visually appealing. These pictures include me in the action of filming since the article was the director's focus. It also included pictures of the show that was talked about in the first episode of the docuseries. I wanted this magazine to come out before the first episode aired, which is why I only included pictures of this first show that was talked about in the first episodes, so no spoilers would be given to the other episodes. 

   The entire magazine took me about 4 hours to make, including writing out the answers. Who knew that a two-page magazine spread would talk that long to make! It is mainly because I kept messing around with the pictures, colors, and sizing of everything to make it as visually pleasing as possible! Even though I really like how it is right now, I might go back to it in about a week, to change anything else that needs to be fixed. I'm waiting a week so that my head will be clear to think of new ideas to make it even better!

Check List!

    In order to make sure that I have all magazine elements, I'm going to be making somewhat of a checklist for it!

- The writer is "Ayami Wedige." I didn't use my own name, because a director would never write an article about themself to put into a magazine! This is why I decided to use my sister's first name. Then I also decided to use my mom's last name instead of her own, since it would have been the same as mine!

- The page numbers are at the bottom corners, and they are in the 30s to show that this specific article would be found in the middle of the magazine, and not the middle

- The name of the magazine can also be found on the bottom corners, is "American Cinematographer." This is the name of a real magazine, which I found out through a bit of research on the internet. I also decided that my article was going to be part of a running article for all the magazines, called "featured cinematographer." I wanted to make it seem like this was a type of article that could be found in each issue of the magazine, but this time it was focused on me as the cinematographer.

- There is also a banner on the top of the second page to show the name of the type of article it is: featured cinematographer. It also shows the website, because it is also an online magazine. 

- I also included a big quote on the first page, in order to emphasize an important quote said by me later on in the article.

- I also put the date that it was written, which I randomly decided to put as March 23, 2023 since I liked the ring of it. 

Summer programs!

    Now time for the iconic part of my blogs! Time for tuminumi's life! Ok so today I went to the library since my brother had to get tutored, and I decided to tag along so that I could pick up some new manga to read. If you are interested... I decided to start reading fruits basket! Which I think is right up my alley. After I picked out my manga, I decided to research some summer programs at colleges. My mom wanted me to do this leadership one at UCLA, which I think could be really cool. However, I also wanted to do another program that focused more on what I want to do in college.

    With a little bit of research, I found out about the summer media institute at UF! It's hosted by the CJC, which is what college I want to go into at UF! However, after looking more into the specialties in this program, I realized that it was mainly filming or broadcast-based. This is when I realized that I do not want to go into film in the future, just because it is such a competitive thing to get into. However, one of these specializations caught my eye: social media!

    Later on in the day, my sister and I went to Starbucks and I researched more about what jobs I could have in the future that related to social media. One of the jobs was social media manager, which seemed like a really interesting job.

[researching at Starbucks! my sister's friends even said I looked like a perfect productive pinterest model, which was such a compliment because it is what I inspire to be!]

After a bit more research, I also found out about this thing called "media psychology," which focused on how different types of media effects how we think. One of the things that were talked about in the article was subliminal messages in shows and movies, which is something that I have always been really interested in! However, I saw that this was not a major that I could choose at UF :(( But still!! The idea of doing social media and marketing as a job to promote businesses and movies seemed like a really cool job! 

socials!

    Okay so I am always on social media, especially Instagram. My target age for my docuseries is around 15-25, and this age group mainly uses Instagram, just like me. A lot of people use social media to escape reality, but I like to use it to connect more with my friends and new people. Ever since I got Instagram last year, I have become so much more social. I have a finsta, that I regularly post to, and it is how I stay connected with my friends that I am most closest too. I also regularly interact with them through my stories, which I also want to do with this docuseries social media page.  

Little Kid Rehearsal

    As like every Monday, I had rehearsals for the little kids, which I help out at. I was going to retake my picture of Emilia, but I completely forgot. And I just realized that I wont be able to get a picture of her at the theater, since I am not going to their rehearsal next week during spring break. And that's because I will be going to Gainesville to tour apartments! I am so excited for next year, so I can start learning more about media studies in more detail. Anyways... since I wont be able to get a picture of her until I do my interviews, I cant post a picture of her for the episode two documentary promotion on Instagram

NEW PLANS

    However, I realized that I don't need these new pictures yet. I just remembered that I am going to post some pictures and videos of my old documentary, which will be acting as the first episode in my docuseries. Throughout the next couple of weeks I will be introducing the interviewees in episode one, as well as making some quotes from episode one. I will then start posting about episode 2 once I get the interviews done with, which will most likely take place sometime during spring break. 

[my social media (practice) page so far!]

    I posted a few posts already, but they are not a definite part of the Instagram, I mainly did it to get an overall idea of how the layout would look like. In a couple of days, once I get better pictures I will definitely go back to it and achieve all of these posts and redo all the posts. 

    I like the overall idea of the page, and I like the red and blue theme and the fact that I am using the same fonts. I also like the order in which I am posting them, such as first starting out with the opening post of their being a new docuseries. I also lie how I'm switching between the interviewee posts and quote posts. I need to remember to also put some behind the scenes posts though, in-between some new interviewee posts. However, I think that I want to redo these posts later, since I'm not completely happy with it. 

Changes/ To Do

- I want to try and change the username, since I feel like it is way too long, and I feel like the 2023 is unnecessary. The only reason why I put it was because al the other usernames I tried were already taken. 

- I need to add a profile picture, but I still don't know what to put as it. I might try to take a picture of the audience seats, and then add text on top of it to show the title of the docuseries. 

- I want to redo my first post, since I just quickly used canva pictures in order to add the curtains and lights behind it. I feel like it looks too cartoonish, and does not fit the overall style of the docuseries. However I think the information I put in the caption is good so far.

- For both of the interviewee posts that I have, I don't really like. First of all, both of them are caught in the middle of speaking, so both of their poses are a bit awkward. Also, it isn't a high quality picture because I had to take screenshots of them through YouTube. This is because I didn't have the actual videos of it anymore since I had to delete them for storage reasons. I am going to try my best to try and take some new pictures of them, since they don't look good for Instagram so far. One problem that I might run into for this is that all the people are going to have different backgrounds, which I don't really like. What I might do is color my own background so that each of them would look the same. I have an example of the general idea put down below. I would add more elements to it though, to make it look a little more interesting. Also for each interviewee I would alternate between the colors red and blue, and also alternate the side that they are on the third of. 

[example of interviewee post]

- I really like the quote picture that I did so far, and I want to make more posts like this, but with quotes with different people. I like using the white font, so I will also continue doing this. 

- I also like the layout of the other quote post that I made n canva. I will definitely be making more of those, but with alternating colors since I want the theme to be red, blue, and hints of purple. I however definitely need to redo the post since I spelled one of the words wrong </3

- I need to go research on Instagram to find other documentary productions to start following. I can also look more into them to get more ideas for my own social media

- I need to think of more interactive posts, rather than just quotes and behind the scenes. I also need to think of creative stories to post. I will definitely be using the highlights in order for these stories to stay on the Instagram page. 

- Lastly, I need to re edit my bio, since I did not put much thought into it so far. 

magazine model

 Okay, I’m not actually modeling and taking pictures for a magazine as the title shows. I’m actually just making a model, or structure for the magazine! This just means that I will be answering all the questions that I planned out so far! I will then compile all of this information later once I take pictures for the magazine! 

What inspired you to create a docuseries about theater? I’ve heard that you also do theater, what has made you realize that you wanted to continue it for so long and also make a docuseries about it? 

I wanted to make a docuseries about theater because it is something that I have been passionate about for more than 10 years. The entire docuseries focuses on the struggles of theater, and why people continue to be a part of even with all the hardships. The first episode focuses on the stereotypes of theater, and how theater actors and directors look over this and still do theater. I wanted to focus on this because as I have done theater for so long, I have heard so many people talk about how much they hate theater kids. Also, none of my friends have ever come to my shows because they don’t like watching theater productions. Even though this makes me sad, I have still continued to do theater because of my passion for it, so it doesn't really matter to me who's watching. The second episode focuses on the backstage element of theater. For the past couple of years, I have also been working backstage for my theater company, so I also know how it feels to feel underappreciated for our work. I wanted to showcase this in a docuseries to show people all the aspects of putting up a production, so more people will appreciate it.  

What were the struggles that you had with creating the docuseries? What were some of the obstacles you faced? And how did you overcome those obstacles? 

One of the struggles was actually technical difficulties. First I had a scare with my iPad, which had all the footage on it for the second episode of the docuseries. Thankfully this was able to get restored so that I would get back all of these videos. Another scare happened a few days later with my phone that also had a few videos and some promotional pictures on it. All of these photos are now gone, meaning that I have had to rerecord some videos and retake some pictures. I was able to overcome these aspects by staying calm and working through the problems calmly. Even though I lost a few things, I was able to receive most of them for the episode! Another struggle was actually figuring out what I wanted to focus on in each episode, since there is so much that goes into theater, and so many elements to talk about in such a short period of time. I was able to overcome this by mainly focusing on the things that are MOST important to the theater production. 

What was your favorite part of creating it? 

I think my most favorite part of creating each episode is learning more about the craft of theater. Even though I have been doing it for so long made me realize how much more I have to learn about putting up a production. For the first episode, I learned more, especially about my director. She gave such good advice on what to do to overcome stereotypes, and I felt so much wiser after interviewing her. For the second episode, really following the backstage crew made me realize how much work it is because I was able to see everyone doing their jobs. Usually, when I tech a show, I just focus on only my job, because that is what I am responsible for. However filming let me see the full process of everyone working together, and how much effort it takes all together to keep a show running smoothly. 

How do you plan to continue the docuseries? What are your ideas for some other episodes? 

I want my full documentary to focus on theater as a whole, which includes all the little elements of it. Some other topics for future episodes include costumes, makeup, set design, more specifics about lighting and sound, gaining rights to shows, dance, vocal training, writing musicals, and much more! Stay tuned to find out what next week's episode will be! 

What do you want the audience to take out of the documentary? 

I want people to be more appreciative of the arts, specifically theater. I want the first episode to make people realize all the hate theater kids get for doing theater, and how they are able to overcome all these negative thoughts and put on amazing shows for the entertainment of others. I want the second episode to make people realize that they should give a lot of credit to the backstage crew since they also do a lot to make a show run smoothly. 

SUNDAY REHEARSAL

    Of course, just like the past few blogs... Time for my theater-related day overview! Today I had rehearsal from 10-6, which meant spending EIGHT HOURS rehearsing. I actually had to do this blog during rehearsal, since I knew that I would NOT have enough energy to do it at home, since I would be so tired after rehearsal. 

[optimizing my time to the max!]

    I was able to retake my picture of Andrea for the social media page! I took a picture of her next to her computer in order to show her working. Then after taking the picture she told me some good news... Johnny was out of the hospital! I will text him soon in order to find out if there could be any day that I could come to his workshop to record him and interview him!