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! 

Q&A

 Okay now time for the backbone of this entire project! The interview questions! Since I already have most of the backstage footage filmed, I just need to focus on mainly the interviews now, so I can actually start editing my project! In order to do that though, I need to make an overview of the doc, and how I want to structure everything. I also need to come up with questions that I’m going to ask the interviewees! 

So I’ve already figured out that I want my entire docuseries to focus on how people overcome the struggles of theater. This episode however will focus on the backstage crew, and other technical aspects of the eater, which are overlooked most of the time. These are some of the questions that I’ve come up with!

Emilia

- What do you think the stage managers do?

- What do you think Andrea does?

- What do you think Johnny does?

- How much effort do you think goes into making a show? 

Stage Managers

- What is your favorite part about teching shows? 

- What are some struggles about teching shows? 

- Tell a story of your best time teching a show

- Tell a story of your worst time teching a show

- How do you overcome mistakes that have happened?

- How do you quickly think of ways to make mistakes?

- how do you feel after working on a show for so long?

- Do you also have “post show depression” or are you glad when it’s over 

- (Since most techies are high schoolers) How do you balance school and tech week?

- What makes you want to continue teching shows?

- How do you feel about the long hours of tech week?

- Do you feel appreciated after a show is over?

- Why do you continue to tech shows even if you don’t get much credit for it?

- Do you think the tech crew gets enough credit for what they do? 

- What made you get into teching shows?

Andrea 

(main tech person, I will also be asking her the questions above, but here are some extra ones specifically for her)

- How long have you been working with inside out?

- How do you feel about working with kids as the stage managers?

- How many hours a week do you spend on planning shows out?

- What is your process for figuring out props?

- What is your process for figuring out costumes for everyone?

- How do you keep everything organized?

- Was there ever a time when you felt like quitting?

- How overwhelmed do you feel months before a show? How overwhelmed do you feel during tech week?

Johnny 

(Set maker. I might not be able to interview him if he is still in the hospital for his infected injury surgery :O) 

- What is your process for making sets?

- How many hours a week do you spend marking sets?

- How did you start making sets?

- What are some set horror stories? (Could talk about his recent injury, I could also get some shots of his injury if I do end up interviewing him) 

- How long have you been making sets for?

- Why have you continued to do this even with how hard it is?

- Do you feel like you get enough credit?

Structure

I have some idea of the overall structure so far, but a lot of elements are still missing. I also still need to get the information from the interviews in order to figure out the structure better. So far my idea is to mix in all the interviews, but first start with Emilia explaining what she knows about tech. This is to show how overlooked the tech crew. 

- Emilia saying what she knows about the stage managers

- The stage managers explaining what they do

- Emilia saying what she knows about what Andrea does for the shows 

- Andrea going into detail with what she does 

- Emilia saying what she thinks Johnny does

- Johnny going into detail to what he does

- A mix of them taking about how overlooked they feel and if they feel appreciated enough or not

PRINCESSING

Okay now time to talk about my own life! Today I was a princess!! YES A REAL LIFE PRINCESS!!! It’s actually the best job ever, and it’s the most perfect job for me, because I’m a theater kid that absolutely loves working with kids! Just like world fest last week, todays experience as Moana really related to my whole docuseries theme of the struggles of performing. Being a party princess is a lot like theater in a lot of different ways, but it is way more up close and personal, more interactive, and includes a lot of improve. 

[real life princess!]

Weeks before the party today, I have been practicing the songs of Moana and her mannerisms in order to be prepared for the party. However when I got there, since the kids were all smaller than 3 years old, they all had really small attention spans. This also meant that they didn’t even care how good I was at singing or acting like Moana. Even though I love my job, it really made me feel under appreciated because they don’t know rhe behind the scenes of preparing for the role of Moana. Yet I still do it because I absolutely love making kids and parents happy as princess, even if they’re only paying attention for 1/10th of the time. 

[The little kids as they barely pay attention, but as still having fun]

 

 

the unluckiest.

 I think I am actually the most unluckiest person ever. Last week my iPad broke, which cost a lot of money to fix. I was worried that I would loose all the videos that I took for the documentary, but THANK GOD that it was able to be backed up before it broke. My phone however was not that lucky. For the past week my phone has not been working, because the storage was too full. Now this has happened many times to me in the past, where it keeps restarting whenever the storage is too full. In those situations I usually hard reset it, and then it lets my delete a few things in order free storage space. However this week, I deleted about half of my photos, but the storage would not go down. I thought that I would be able to fix it by doing the hard reset thing, but it would just shut down every single time I would try. Finally, my dad took my phone to Apple, and they said that they would not be able to retrieve any of those photos, because it was not updated into iCloud. THIS SHOULD WARN EVERYONE to always backup their photos! Because it’s is always in risk of deleting! I was so sad when I found out that all my photos for 7 years were gone, so make sure that it never happens to you! 

[all my storage gone, because all my photos from 7 years is gone :(( ]

The only lucky thing about this entire thing was that all my documentary videos were saved! Since they were on my iPad, they weren’t all deleted. I’m so grateful about this, because it would have been so bad if I lost all my videos for this. The only bad thing was that I did take a few pictures for the social media, but it’s okay because I can always retake them. 

Social Media

Okay now specifically about the social media! I will be doing weekly posts starting in a few days, once I get the pictures! I want to first make a few posts with pictures of the interviewees to introduce them! I will be taking pictures of Andrea #1, Andrea #2, Nicole, and Emilia. I want to do a separate post for each of these people. In the caption I will be doing a short description of them and also explain their role in the docuseries.

I will also be doing small posts with short quotes from the docuseries, once I film the interviews, which I will probably be doing sometimes over spring break! I just need to figure out a day and time that is good for everyone. 

I will also be posting still shots of the videos that I have filmed so far. For some of these I can put a quote on top of them, to make it look more interesting, but that can only be done once I interview. 

Later on I can also make a short trailer and teaser to post, and in the description I can also put where to find the docuseries, which will most likely be Netflix and other streaming platforms. Since it is a series, I don’t think a theatrical preview would make sense. 

I also have some pictures of me filming, which can be some of the posts in order to show the behind the scene of the docuseries filming.

So far for posting, I can also post some pictures of my old documentary, since that will be episode one of the docuseries. I will be doing all the things above for this old documentary 

PRINT !!

 Okay so today we learned about the print component of the project!! I don't usually like writing, but I'm sure that I will actually like writing about this one!! 

[My notes for the print component!]

There were a lot of examples given, and most of the magazines shown focused on the director, which I will also probably do. I will probably do an interview with the director, and ask the director (myself) questions about the process of filming and the overall concept of the documentary. I plan to make the magazine seem like it takes place while the docuseries is streaming, because my streaming distribution will most likely be on Netflix, with weekly episodes. This means that the interview will take place when only the first and see one episode has aired. These are some ideas that I have for the questions that I will ask:

- What inspired you to create a docuseries about theater?

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

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

- What was your favorite part of creating it? 

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

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

This entire thing is kinda funny! Because this article will be about the behind the scenes of the behind the scenes! Because my entire documentary is actually about the behind the scenes of theater! It’s all very ironic :D

Head over heels!

  Okay time for my little overview of my day. Today I went to my friend's performance of head over heels! It was a really impressive production and also SO FUNNY. The set was also very impressive, and they even had a turntable! It was SO COOL! Also on yesterday, I went to see legally blonde by our own school, Cypress Bay! When I was watching both of these shows I really focused on the tech aspects of both shows, because making this doc has really made me realize how much effort they put into the shows.

There was one technical difficulty that I saw with legally blonde. For one of the scenes, Elle came in with only one shoe. This was a problem with the quick change crew backstage, and I can just imagine how stressed they must have been with it especially because they messed up. However they were able to put the shoe back on her in the next scene and everything was fixed! Another example of THE SHOW MUST GO ON! (Get it! That’s the name of the doc!)

[My amazing friend as Elle Woods!]

 Specifically for Head over Heels, there was a technical difficulty in the beginning. The sound crew was actually in the middle of the audience, meaning that we could see what they were doing. I feel like this really makes people appreciate them more! In the beginning the music wasn’t playing, and we could see the sound people freaking out. There was one girl in specific that kept on saying the same thing over and over again, “Nothing is working!” Then finally the director came and calmed everyone down and fixed the problem. Seeing this issue really made me realize how often the tech crew needs to deal with incidents that sunrise them, and then have to work through them in order to MAKE THE SHOW GO ON!

[You can somewhat see the sound crew in the middle of the audience in this screenshot from a video I took!]

At the end of Head over Heels, the entire student board came on! Usually at the end of a show, the tech crew takes a little bow, and they usually point over to the sound crew in order to pay credit to them. They did this, but there was also a separate speech given by the student board, which consisted of 15 people that were also part of the show. I didn’t even realize how much effort these students put in until after they did all their speeches. For instance, there were two people that made the all the projections for the show. I think that doing this at the end of the show really made the entire audience appreciate them more! If they hadn’t come on to explain what they had done for the show, then they would be so under appreciated for putting in such an amazing production! 

THE PREMISE!!!

     Okay, I think that I finally figure out what I want to focus my docuseries on!

    As you can tell by my blog post, I want to name my docuseries the same name as my old documentary project. This isn't a coincidence however, I want them to be part of the same documentary series! The first documentary I made was called the show that goes on because it focused on the stereotypes of theater, and how both actors and directors look past this in order to put on a great show. I want my new project to still focus on theater, but on a completely different aspect of it: theater tech, or the actual backstage elements of a show.     

    The project is supposed to be a small extract of an episode, that is supposed to be a part of a full docuseries. I have decided that I want to focus my series on putting on a show, even through its struggles of it. Each episode will focus on a different aspect of theater that makes it hard to put on, but will then explain how people push through these aspects in order to put on a show. Hence the name, "The Show Must Go On!" I also chose this name because it is a popular saying in the theater. Even if something bad happens in a show, the actors, directors, and tech people must learn to put up with it and push past it. 

    The audience never really knows when minor mistakes happen, which is why people who put up a production know how important it is to act normally and push through mistakes and hardships. The audience also usually does not really know the months of effort that go into putting up a show, which is what I want my full docuseries to focus on. In the episode that I will be creating an event for, I will be focusing on the technical aspects of theater. This is one of the hardest parts of the theater, yet it is also the most overlooked too. The audience, and even most actors, don't really know the effort that goes into the set, lighting, sound, and more in a show. They are usually more focused on the show and acting and dancing and singing, rather than what goes into actually putting up a show. With this excerpt, I especially want to focus on how the tech crew feels when they are overlooked, especially when they are barely given credit for all the hard work that they give.

    I still need to figure out specific questions to ask my interviewees, but I think I have a pretty solid idea so far! I am excited for the weeks to come, especially asking my interview questions to my friends in order to figure out exactly how they feel about the whole process of teching a show! 

World Fest

    All of this reminds me of what I did today actually! Today was an event called Weston World Fest, which is an event hosted by the arts council, that focuses on teaching children and adults about 20 different countries from around the world! It is such a fun event and I love doing it each year! Our booth is for Sri Lanka, because that is where I am from!

[My outfit for today! Traditional Sri Lankan clothing!]

    My and friends and family spent months preparing for this event, just like a show for theater. This is because we had to do so many things in order to put up a great "show!" We had to make up fun and engaging games for the kids to play, figure out how we wanted to decorate our tent, buy items to display, find costumes, make posters, and much more! 

    Even though we put so much effort into this country booth, the people that visited our booth did not notice this, because they do not know how much effort it takes to make something look so effortlessly beautiful, again exactly because they like putting up a production. Most of the people even only looked at our tent and activities for a few minutes, even though it took us hours of work. They don't even realize the fact that we spent 3 hours setting up the tent and 1 hour taking everything down. This event was a one-day thing that lasted 5 hours. This meant that I spent 9 hours today working on this event!! 

[Me after working hard for 9 hours, sitting on the ground because my feet BURNED]

    This is so similar to what tech people go through since they put so much effort into a show, yet they still do it! And this is exactly what happened to me with World fest. I knew how much effort it took, and how little people appreciated it from last year. Yet this year I still continued it! Like as you can see from the phot above, even though I was EXASHTED after a full day of work, I still had a smile on my face because I loved what I was doing for the community to teach them about sri lanka! Because I know that even that one minute per person of someone smiling at our booth was so so worth it in the end. <3

#TheShowMustGoOn

    Okay, so I don't know much about promoting things on Instagram, especially documentaries, but I've done some research! I used the articles "How to Promote a Documentary Storytelling Series on Social Media," "10 easy ways to use Instagram for filmmakers," and "How to increase Instagram Engagement in 2023" [you can click on the titles to view the articles for more information!]As you can tell from the titles, THEYRE PERFECT!

Release Strategy

    Okay, so one of the big things is finding out a release schedule. The two options are to release all at once or to publish based on a weekly schedule. I will definitely be doing a weekly schedule, in order to attract more viewers in a more extended period of time, and gain more followers and people that are interested in the weeks leading up to the release. 

Graphics

    I should also focus on the thumbnails on all the posts on Instagram, to make sure that it looks nice when the viewers first view the Instagram account. I should create "compelling imagery and thumbnails to promote [my] docuseries and individual episodes." I will probably use canvas to create these, because it is easy to use and also looks very professional. 

Hashtags

    In order to be more likely to be found when people are using the internet, hashtags should be used. I will probably use hashtags like #docuseries #theater #technicaltheater #backstage #behindthescenes. This way, people who are interested in these keywords are more likely to find the account and documentary. Another good thing to include in the hashtags is the title! I have decided to name it "The show must go on," which was the same name as my project in the past. 

Behind the Scenes

    Not only should I post about promoting the film, but also the behind-the-scenes content as well! This is to try and make people get more engaged in the making of the film. This way, the viewers don't get annoyed with the "constant self-promotional posts." I can post behind-the-scenes content, just like the pictures I post on my blogs: me actually filming my documentary and having fun with it!

Engage with Followers

    Okay according to the last article, there are a lot of different creative ways of getting involved with the audience. 

1. engage through stories stickers

    This can be done through polls, questions, quizzes, and more to engage the audience more! The question sticker is especially helpful because you can directly talk with the audience through this.

2. create relatable memes

    This can be good for marketing in a creative way since it's fun and engaging. Also, people are more likely to repost these posts because they are funny and relatable. I might be using the option, but in a more professional way to promote my documentary!

3. create shareable graphics

    This can include putting quotes into a tweet-like format. This can be very engaging since it is also more likely to get reposted on the viewer's stories, gaining more attention from other people. 

4. share information in carousel posts

    I have always wanted to do this since it is so cool to look at posts like this. It can allow me to add more than 10 pictures since they are placed in such a creative way. Today when I was casually scrolling through Instagram I actually saw an ad more of a carousel maker! I might look more into this app so that I can make some carousel posts!

5. include a call to action

    By adding direct questions, it can cause more audience engagement, especially in the comments! Questions like "asking for advice, recommendations, or what type of content they want to see" are some of the many questions that I can ask

6. let your personality shine on stories

7. host a giveaway

    people love free things, so they are more likely to be more engaged if they see a giveaway! It can be a product, service, or even experience. 

8. use the add yours sticker

    by using this sticker, I might be able to make a viral challenge with my audience

9. post when your audience is engaged

    This strategy can especially boost engagement

[The official Instagram of my docuseries!]

BIG NEWS!!

 Okay a LOT has happened in the past few days!

Group Meetings

    First off, we had our group meetings two days ago! I still remember the ones that we had in AS level, and how helpful they were. For this meeting, it was so interesting to listen to everyone's story, and all the creative ideas that they had. Also, the group meetings made me realize how much I loved talking about my project. But it also made me realize how many things I want to talk about in my documentary. My group made me realize that I should start to focus on only one thing, since I can only talk about so much in 5 minutes. I'm not sure what that something should be, but I should figure it out soon so that I can start forming questions to focus on the interviews!

[my group!]

iPad updates...

    Okay so I was kind of freaking out a few days ago, since my iPad broke suddenly. But guess what... ITS FIXED!! I was so worried that nothing would be saved, since nothing is backed up. BUT the tech people were able to figure out how to save everything!! Meaning I have all my videos back!! Now I need to upload everything else onto my iPhone, since it is taking up so much storage. I really really hope that nothing else bad happens to it, meaning that I need to be EXTRA careful. 

Social Media!

    I completely forgot that this was a part of the final project, since I have been so focused on filming aspect. But two days ago, Stoklosa reminded us that we needed to start make a social media account for our productions. I was thinking about it, and I think that I should make an Instagram account for my documentary. This is because my main audience is teens and young adults, and they use Instagram often. I also think its much easier to display a documentary through Instagram than TikTok. This was not every single post I make needs to be a short video. I need to do much more research on it though, to figure out what my uploading schedule should be and what types of posts I should be posting

Changing my life path

    Okay so this does not really have to do with the documentary project at all, but it does have to do with media studies in general! This class has been one of the best classes I have ever taken, and I have never taken a class that I have been so engaged in. In most of my classes I don't really like what's happening, but in this one, I love paying attention and learning something new everyday. I never really thought that I would really continue this in the future though, since I never thought my parents would let me! 

    For my entire high school career, I have wanted to pursue environmental science in college. But I was having a conversation with my dad yesterday. He asked me if I actually wanted to study environmental science. After thinking about it for a long time, I realized that it was actually something that I did not want to pursue in the future. It was rather an easy class in high school, that I thought would be easy to pursue in the future. I realized that it wasn't something that I actually wanted to do that would make me happy. I realized that I didn't just want to take the easy route. 

    After looking through all the majors, one caught my eye. "Media management production and technology." I still need to research about it more, but i think that it would be really interesting to study!! I think I want to do specifically the media and society track. I'm still finalizing things, but I am really excited!!