CCR

I cannot believe this is all over! Thanks for following along on my journey.

Here is my CCR!

The end...

I cannot believe that this day has finally come. What a journey it has been! 

This project really has taught me to not give up and make the best out of the terrible situation we all are in. Dio and I really put in our best effort in order to make this project. I hope you enjoy! 


WEBSITE


POSTER:

DOCUMENTARY:

Project reflection

To be completely honest, this project was not easy for my partner and I. 

At first, we had everything planned out, with a schedule, our subjects, the equipment, everything. However, due to this global pandemic, we had to completely change everything. Having to abruptly shift gears was something my partner and I were not used to, especially when neither of us could not leave our houses to film anything. 

We could not use our same subjects, we wanted to film in spring break but that could not happen due to COVID-19, and we were not able to get equipment. At first we were panicking because the main things you need in a documentary are interviews and b-roll, and we could not leave our houses what-so-ever. My partner and I knew that we could not change our topic this last minute, so we overcame these struggles by using our at-home resources. Our documentary is about social media addictions, in which our ‘episode’ was about TikTok, so a lot of our footage is our friends either making TikToks or from their accounts. It was really hard to acquire b-roll for a 5 minute documentary, especially since no one in my household even knows what the application is. 

The website and our poster turned out great because for that we did not need any interviewees or b-roll, just our computers. I am happy with how those two components turned out. 

I am actually pleased with the outcome of our final project. I feel this way because it represents how we tried our hardest. Obviously if this pandemic did not occur, our project could have been way better, but we dealt with these challenges and put in our best effort. Due to completely re-planning and changing everything, my partner and I did not give up and towards the end, felt prepared to finish by the due date. 

Coming to the end

I am really proud of my partner and I as we work together to complete this whole process.

I just wanted to clear up what part of the documentary episode we are doing since I have not made a blog post about it yet. 

As you know the title is "Just 'For You'" which is surrounding the new social media application called TikTok. We wanted to start at the beginning of the episode, which is why we included the title and an introduction to what the app is. 

After the 5 minute documentary excerpt ends, the episode will continue on to speak about how companies are using TikTok to market their business, as well as artists who use the popular application to make their music known. 

We also wanted to distribute our documentary on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, as those are the most popular streaming service of young adults. Since Gen Z is our target audience, we agreed that these were the best services to be on to impact them. 

I can't wait for you to see the final product! 

Revisions and decisions

Previously I have mentioned our episode titles, but my partner and I decided to have yet ANOTHER change in this project. 

Here is the finalized list:

1. Obsession

2. Influencers

3. Trolls

4. Just "For You"

5.  #Teamnosleep

My partner and I thought that our titles should all be "slang" terms in relation to social media. If we were to make a whole doc-series, "Obsession" would be an introduction to our whole documentary, with a background of where social media came from, how it originated, etc. "Influencers" would be surrounding the users on social media who has established credibility in a specific industry. A troll is someone who deliberately brings down other people online to get a reaction, so "Trolls" would be about how cyberbullying leads to depression and anxiety. "Just "For You" is the one we are actually making and "#Teamnosleep" would be about how social media could negatively impact users sleep schedules. 

Anyways...

I have been looking for a unique background in order to display each of our episode titles, and I think I found the perfect one on YouTube.

It is a technology background, in which I am going to place the title on for part of our intro. I cannot wait to see everything put together!

Script

For our voice over, we need a script to read off of and be clear on what we are saying. This is the script we have come up with. 

It may seem a bit long, but we thought that having it like this is better than short so we can edit it to what is showing on screen. There is nothing wrong have more than what we need!  

We wanted to make sure we have statistics, background information, and the applications algorithm incorporated into our script in order to convey this info to our target audience, Gen Z. 

Our voice over will be heard at the beginning of our documentary, between our interviews if needed, and at the end.

A fail...

Happy Monday!

I finally got the last interview I needed and it had great responses to our questions, the perfect length, everything.. except it had NO SOUND! 

(This is what it looked like)

This is an essential interview so I am going to have to redo this ASAP!! I am so upset but, let's hope our subject remembers the sufficient answers he provided previously !!

We were only able to get 3 subjects in our documentary.
1. Hannah Lassner
2. Saul Rosa
3. Jeronimo Mezzadra

The only change we had was Jeronimo. We thought he would be a nice addition because he is on the older side of Generation Z, being that he is 23 and has a connection to Tik Tok, which is what our episode is about. 

I am lucky to have mine and Jeronimo's interviews, now I just need to redo Saul's!

Subject change

Previously we were set on our subjects, being that we thought we were going to go back to school. So, we collaborated and decided on changing most of the people we originally listed. 

Just to keep you updated, here they are: 

1. Saul Rosa - he was addicted to Tik Tok until the point to where he had to delete due to it taking away from work, school, home life, etc.

2.Dio's mom - an adult who actually has the app and uses it

3. Me - one of my videos got 13 million views and my followers got to 100k. My friends tell me to make videos more but I am scared to

4. Dio's friend - uses the app more than once a day as part like a routine

We wanted a dynamic group of subjects who all have a connection to the application, no matter their age (Dio's mom). This shows that addiction could be subtle or effect someone to the point where they have to delete it.

We are going to start screen recording our video conferences this week so stay tuned!

Face Time

Another major decision my partner and I made was that we are going to use Face Time for the interviewees that we cannot see face to face. 

In order to make this look good, we will face time on a laptop while we do the interview so the screen is wide and horizontal, so that our whole documentary screen is not vertical.

Since I am not sure how to do this, I went on this website to learn how. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-screen-record-on-a-mac-and-ios-2017-12?jwsource=cl 

However, we do not want our face box to be in it, so when editing, we will crop the video to our liking. 

We will ask the subject to be in-front of a blank wall and to be in a quiet room with no distractions, just like as if we were there.

This was the best idea my partner and I could come up with being that we cannot leave our houses. Plus, it will be much easier to put together!

Screen recording

Screen recording is sought by many users because it enables them to record a video of everything they do on their phones without requiring them to use third party applications to do so.

My partner and I like the idea of using screen recordings within our documentary. This will give the audience an idea of what Tik Tok looks like as a user scrolls through the "For You Page."

This will also be used as b-roll when we introduce what the app is and the features within it. If an audience member has never heard about this application before, screen recording  will aid us in visually explaining it. 

Through these hard times, Dio and I have been communicating almost every day in order to figure out how to do a documentary without seeing each other or interviewees. Luckily,  we have good technology like screen recording in order to make it happen. 

Documentary editing

To edit the final product of the documentary, we will be using the free software called "WeVideo."

I have used this website in the AS Level last year, as well as multiple projects in A Level. I have never had a major problem with this site. I believe it is easy to use and has every aspect that we will need to make the perfect documentary. 

It has a simple drag and drop method so all of our footage can easily overlap and could be placed perfectly. Also my partner and I could each work on the one project on the same day, just at separate times. 

Also, with our interviews, there are multiple text templates when we introduce our subjects so this software gives us many options to choose from.

Overall, I love WeVideo. With all of the other softwares, I am most comfortable with this one and I believe the editing process with be smoother when using this software.

OBSESSION

For our documentary, my partner and I decided on the title, "OBSESSION." We liked the one word title because it is more likely to stick to the audience and can describe what the overall documentary is about in just one word. 

The literal meaning of obsession is "an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind." This perfectly describes the social media addiction problem happening in today's society.

The unique font called "Allerta Stencil" we thought was cool for our documentary poster because it looks dark and concerning if that makes sense! It also looks like jail which could represent how Gen Z cannot escape the social media world. 

Dio and I also wanted to incorporate a short statement describing more of the documentary. "The social pandemic" has a deeper meaning to what social media addiction is. Instead of just saying it is an addiction, we wanted to have another work to make it darker to attract the audience.

Yes, we are going to remove the "Canva" watermark! I am happy we finished the poster and now we can put this on the website!

Website template

I feel like I am all over the place due to this unfortunate pandemic. My partner and I cannot leave our houses so the only communication we have is through the phone, which on somedays could be difficult. Our filming schedule has changed since we cannot interview people this week because of quarantine. 

However, since I already have the main idea for the poster, I wanted to start on the website to start finishing as much as the project as possible.

As I mentioned before, I am utilizing "WIX" for our documentary website. It is easy to use and has many templates to pick from.

This is the one we thought would be perfect for our documentary.

We thought the colors on the home screen goes perfectly with our poster since it is mainly dark blue and the pattern in the background was honestly pretty cool!

For our tabs, we are going to have the "Home" page, "Screenings," "About," and "Contact." We want the website to be easy to navigate and not confusing. So, by having only four tabs would be perfect. We are also going to include many images from the documentary throughout all of the pages. 

I tried!

Based on my last post, I wanted to try to create new ideas for our poster in order for us not to have to use real people. I have been playing around with Canva while I am quarantined, this is what I have come up with. 

I wanted to incorporate the real applications within our poster in order for viewers to automatically assume our documentary series is about social media. Also, the brain is associated with the addiction and obsession over these platforms.

We obviously still need to think of a title, but I like this start. I will start to work on more and converse with my partner so we can decide on which route we want to go. Hopefully he likes it!

Rethinking

Since the coronavirus is ruining a lot of our planning, we need to start rethinking our original poster ideas. 

Our previous poster ideas included real people as the main focus of the whole thing. However, since we cannot be near people at this point in time, I found another idea in which we can recreate our poster.

The Social Network is about the creation of Facebook. The synopsis states, "Harvard undergrad and computer genius Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, he is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but Zuckerberg finds that his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend (Andrew Garfield)." 

This film has to do with social media and does not include actual people for its cover. This will have to be the route that Dio and I have to take. 

Interview fail

So far the video interviewing has not been working out. 

Dio and I direct messaged a lot of popular Tik Toker's on Instagram, in order to get video answers for our documentary. Many of the influencers we reached out to were older in order to have a noticeable age difference between our interviewees. 

Since many of them live across the country and because of the coronavirus, we thought that this would be the only way to get in contact with them.

So far, the only popular "Tik Toker" who answered us did not understand our direction.

This is his profile. Dio and I believe that over 90,000 followers is adequate to be considered a "Tik Toker," so he was one of the individuals we reached out to.

Since he did not want to give out his phone number, we messaged him with the interview questions and asked if he can make a VIDEO answering each question we sent him.

Well, this is what we got.

We are going to reiterate our message of him making a video for us but now we need to dm even more people. This was a fail. I am stressed!

Interviews-ish

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, this project is becoming harder than ever. Because we need to interview individuals face to face, many cannot leave their houses due to quarantining and social distancing. My partner and I have been communicating the past couple of days, however, it is challenging to create a well-put-together documentary without being face to face with the people we need to interview. 

Before schools' closed, Dio and I brainstormed our interviewees and questions for the documentary. 

Dio and I wanted our questions to obviously relate to our social media addiction theme. We thought that these questions would generate sufficient answers from our subjects. Also, our interviewees all have a connection to the popular app.

We might need to FaceTime our subjects and screen record their answers if worst comes to worst and this global pandemic does not go away. I am praying it does!

Poster Inspo

My favorite part!

I do not know why this is my favorite part, probably because I love looking at movie and documentary posters. I think that the posters have a major impact on whether a viewer is to watch the piece or not. Because of the importance of it, I want to make sure my partner and I create an impactful poster.

I wanted to search up documentary posters related to our theme of social media addiction, so this is what I found.

The first one I found is from a documentary called "social_animals." This documentary is about a photographer, an aspiring swimsuit model, and a midwestern girl who are all looking for love, acceptance and, fame from their Instagram account. I love this poster. I think the social media theme is very clear being that the poster incorporates a white border, reflecting what the actual feed of Instagram looks like. Also, the title mimics what a username would look like on social media applications. Without even reading the summary of the documentary, viewers can immediately tell what the piece is about. I want our viewers to know what our documentary is about just by looking at the poster and our title, which is why I love this example.

The second example I found is from a documentary titled, "The Great Disconnect." This piece is centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today's technology world. A hard-working lawyer, attached to his cell phone, can't find the time to communicate with his family. A couple is drawn into a dangerous situation when their secrets are exposed online. I appreciate the aspect of the "like" buttons that are normally featured on the Instagram app. This feature in this poster made it clear what it will be about. The only negative thing about this poster is that it includes subjects that are much older than our target audience. 

I love that both of these posters include the "like" button. I definitely want to use this technique in our poster since this attracts our target audience who use social media applications. This will give our audience the theme of the documentary series with out the title literally saying "social media addiction." Our subjects featured in the poster will be teenagers or a single teenager. I cannot wait to start designing! 

Website Inspo

Before I start my documentary website, I wanted to get some professional examples in order to know what elements to add and how to format, etc. I will be focusing on the home page specifically because this is the first thing my viewers will see.

The first one I found is called "HONEYLAND." This documentary is about a woman who uses ancient beekeeping traditions to cultivate honey in the mountains of North Macedonia. Because the film is about bees, the website utilizes yellow, black, and white to go with the color scheme of the insect. The home page is simplistic with only three tabs to watch the trailer, about the film, and donate to the Honeyland community in which the film was about. I love the use of simple colors relating to the theme, however it may be hard to find the colors for social media. 

The second documentary website I found is called "The Biggest Little Farm." This documentary is about a couple who follows through their successes and failures as they work to develop a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles. In order to market the "animal aspect" of the film, the background of the homepage is a montage of animal videos. I thought that this aspect was distracting since it was hard to read the home page with a bunch of moving animals in the back. Also, the many tabs made the overall website confusing. However, it is very unique since I have never seen this technique done before; I will not be using it. 

The third documentary website I found is for "Bisbee '17." This documentary is partially based on a true story Western, it reflects on the events of the 1917 Bisbee Deportation, 100 years later; it is set in Bisbee, Arizona, both in 1917 and 2017. This dark color scheme of the text coincides with with dark color grading of the actual documentary. I believe that these colors are necessary to market the documentary since it is a deep topic to discuss. I also loved how they added an actual picture from the documentary as their background. I love the look of this home page since it looks like everything matches. I will definitely be using this aspect in our website with our own color scheme. 

Throughout all three documentary website examples, each incorporates tabs that have "contact," "about," "screenings," and "images." The parts of the website are necessary to use for our own in order to market the documentary effectively. My partner and I just have to make sure our website goes with the overall theme of social media in order to market effectively. 

Dates and Design

It is already March 8th with means that we need to start getting everything together very soon!! 

Dio and I are going to start to shoot on March 20th to the 28th. This fits both of our schedules to where we have no distractions or anything to do. Since it is our spring break, we will have more than enough time to shoot everything possible and reshoot if necessary, since we do not have school all week. 

For our website and poster, we want to start working on it and get as much done as we can before our shoot days. I know that our main priority is filming, but we have two weeks to work on our other tasks. 

In order to create our documentary poster, we will utilize the website "Canva." This is a graphic design platform in which it allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content. It is available on web and mobile, and includes millions of images, fonts, templates and illustrations.

It allows creative freedom which is why this is the perfect platform for our poster.

For our website we will use is similar to Canva. It is is a classic template website builder in which one can choose from over 500 industry-specific templates and make use of its incredible drag-and-drop editor. It is easy to use which is why we chose this site.

I cannot wait to start designing !! I will keep you guys updated of course.