Critical Reflection

The main intentions of “A keynote of life” is to represent the impact music has on teenagers and to display the emotional impact and day-to-day impact that music has on teenagers. There are various ways in which the piece formulates this with the most prominent one being interviews.

The development of "A keynote of life" focused initially on representing individuals that consider music an important part of their life. The documentary mostly focused on being able to represent the teenage part of these individuals by focusing on a teenage subject. The way this social group is represented is by focusing on the perspective of younger individuals. Initially the piece was going to focus on interviewing various individuals of different ages but after critical thinking and reflecting on the planning process the decision on focusing on the certain age group made more sense. Representing the music fanatics of the teenage years seemed like the perfect choice and to properly execute this there were various steps necessary. One of the key steps to being able to do this properly was to focus on the perspective of these groups. Interviewing the subjects seen in the piece was a process that helped show this perspective by asking open ended questions to provide the piece with answers in which they would provide nonbiased targeted answers to provide a sense of reality to the viewer and successfully represent their social group. The interview process also represents these social groups by displaying the common answers seen throughout the piece. The product created included various interviews in the beginning that offered similar responses that tie up the ideas of the social group, this helped represent the social group by allowing the subjects to speak openly about their views on the topic without being limited allowing them to represent themselves and the social group of young music fanatics through mentioning how they truly feel. Overall, the main way in which "A keynote of life" helped represent this social group was by allowing them to represent themselves and give their personal view on the topic.

This also ties to how the product engages with audiences. By interviewing various subjects that relate to the targeted audience the product engages the audience. This was intentionally done as mentioned in the last part and was a key concept throughout the documentary production. Another way in which the product engaged with the audience was by using a simple piece with an assortment of colors and different shots. From the middle to the end of the product it was intended to use various shots that would bring color, vibrance, and lighting to the piece to better engage with the audience. The use of these different filming strategies allowed the piece to be built in a way in which the target audience would be entertained and be able to watch with ease. The last way the product engaged with the audience was by following the main subject's story. This was used to try and find someone that would be like the intended audience and would represent them by stating similar interests. The use of the main subject engages the audience by giving them a sense of relation and connection with the subject and provides a friendly aspect to the product. So, by using shot techniques and creating a sense of relation to the subjects the piece properly engages with the audience.

This target audience also required research that informed the product and challenged conventions. The main convention challenged was that teenagers use music as a form of rebellion and identity. Although music can be used as identity this convention was challenged by instead representing music for teenagers as something that helps them improve mental health and overall is a good thing instead of just a distraction. This was done by displaying the main subject’s feeling towards music as he speaks about how important music has been to his day-to-day and overall life. The product also challenges the convention that teenagers do not have a powerful sense of emotion towards things since they are not fully developed. The way this is challenged is by displaying various emotions in the piece. In the piece's beginning, the interviews with the teenagers reflected this idea that they can feel strongly about things by displaying how they truly feel. The way they spoke about music represents this idea and highlights that their emotions and feelings towards music are strong and allow them to improve in their life. To develop these ideas research had to be done. By studying common demographic spheres such as the emotional connections to music the product was more successful. This research was done by interviewing individuals not seen in the piece. These individuals all gave similar answers stating that music has a connection to their emotions since the several types of music reflect how they feel and play a key role in the management of their emotions. This was also then researched leading to a conclusion in which music truly does affect the brain; by stimulating the brain and the limbic system the brain feels different emotions from music and is opened to various feelings. To conclude this the research put into the piece allowed the piece to challenge stereotypical conventions when regarding to teenagers and music by demonstrating the importance that music has not only on the mental health and feelings of teenagers but also their emotional intellect.

Overall, the product is used to represent the audience through the use of a “simplistic” production style through which the target audience can relate to the main subject and reflect on the impact that music has to them all while challenging conventions and representing the target social group.

Documentary production part 2

 Hi guys were back. This is the last part of the documentary process and it was the shortest part but it came with various diificulty. 

Editing error

So during editing I was initially going to be editing with the app davinci resolve. But mid way through editing in the platform my computer ran into an error AGAIN and I lost the progress I had before and could not find nor had time for finding a solution. This then lead to me having to use a basic editing app and edit through my phone. I would have liked to edit through DaVinci Resolve but since this was not possible we worked with what he had and began editing. 

The editing process

So the first part of editing was putting all the clips together. This was interesting since like I mentioned on the last post (last post link) I filmed the parts seperatly without having a certain way of editing it all togther. I think this was a smart choice in the end since it allowed me to put all the pieces together in an interesting way and In the end I feel like it came out pretty well.

The second part of the editing process was to add the B-roll and white screens seen throughout the piece. This was also pretty easy since all it took was adding various screens in places where the cuts from shot to shot seemed too spontaneous and changed topics. Something I do think I did wrong was adding the sequence at the end since it made it feel more like a normal video than a documentary. I think I should have just added the title and credits and removed that part for a better outcome.

The next part of the editing was to add the various text seen throughout the documentary. This was also simple since all that was required was the addition of a text entry box and finding a fitting font with a color I though would match the white and the precentation nicely. Most of the text seen was done in red but I did end up making the change of using white colored font as well to better fit scenes in which the red was not prominent. Overall this was the easiest part of the documentary. 

                                                                                          

The last parts of the editing process were for me to fix audio and shot coloring. The way this was done for the audio was by changing volume in various scenes by either lowering or making it higher. I also used various applications to try and remove some of the background noise that was left behind. This was a bit lenghty to do and I  even had to shift some of the scenes to make the audio transition better. Now as for the visual aspect I did do some color correcting here and there to make the shots look nicer I even added filters to one or two of the shots previously to add some detail to the piece and mae it more vibrant.

Overall this part of the documentary was simple after the dfficulties I faced and it was super fun to do being able to edit the piece all together and form the documentary to how I wanted was something that in the end came out exactly how I wanted. There could have been some better choices made to imrpove the documentary which I reflected on after finishing the production I think better time management and planning would have built the documentary better and would have made me even more statisfied with the finished product. But yea this is now the end of this blog about the process of the documentary "A key note of life". I hope you guys enjoyed and understand clearly how the piece was produced. See you guuys next time!  

Documentary Production

Documentary Production part one - Filming

Basic information

Hey guys! Ok so last time we talked about the process of planning that I had to go trough for the documentary now today were talking about the actual production part or well the first part of it.

So this documentary came with a lot of issues. At the begining of filming everything was going well I was able to schedule my interviews with the main subject easily and I even began recording a small part of it but we ran into an audio error and due to this error I had to re film the whole process which actually ended up giving me an idea lets get into what happened.

Main subject

So the first part of filming was shots at a skate park and the interview at the end of the production with the main subject. The reason as to why I wanted this part of the documentary to be the first part filmed is since I tough it would make it more real. Let me explain, if I would have intereviewed the main subjects friends before he could have gotten an idea as to what they questions I would have asked might have been and overall he would have developed an unreal answer instead I interviewed him first so that his response as to how music has been a key part of his life was more real and came from the heart.

Picture from the interview

Skate park shots 

Now the second step I did when filming was recording broll shots for the skate park setting part of the documentary I was actually pretty exited for this since the weather was nice and I really enjoyed the vibe the place had. So we tried a couple different ideas and even come out with some pretty cool shots. Sadly I was not able to use all of the shots in the documentary but I enjoyed filming these shots and found it entertaining to do.

Here is one the shots we taken

School Interviews

The next part of the filming process was to record interviews that would be used as itroductions to the actul setting. Although I know it sounds confusing I filmed this section of the documentary second because the opportuinity came at hand the day after filming the main subject. In this part of the documentary it was a very simple process. I began the filming process of this section by asking various questions in a longer recording allowing me to select various clips from the interviews to make the recording process easier. Some of the questions asked in the interview were "has music had any impact on your emotions" "is music important to your life" and "what does music mean to you". The responses to these questions were not planned at all and luckily for me they came out percectly. Overall this process was pretty easy, entertaining, and fun to do I really enjoyed filming these interviews and just being able to film again. 

shots from school interview

Main subjects friend's interview

The last part of filming was recording interviews based on the main subject to his friends. This part was filmed in a plaza since it was easy for me to gather them all up since they were all hanging out together. The only issue we had with this filming location which I wish I would have though about was that in one of the unused interviews there was way too much back ground noise therefore I was not able to use the interview. Apart from that issue everything else was simple and fun the interviews were open ended therefor the viewers of the documentary were able to hear the questions. So in conclusion apart from the audio error it all came out good in the end and it was an overall fun part of the project

shots from interview 

So that was all of the filming production part of the documentary. It was a lenghty process with some complications but it was an enteretaining thing to do and I overall enjoyed it so much. Being able to produce the piece and talk and interview people was an amazing time and I enjoyed this so much. Next time I will be talking about the editing process of the documentary but until then see you guys next time!

Planning for Documentary

 Hi guys im back again and now im going to talk about the planning process of my documentary.

Basic information

I initially had no idea what I watned to do my documentary on and though about making it about my mom and her job as an artist but after talking to her about it sadly we were not going to have enough time to finish making the documentary so afterwards I decided I was going to do it on something based on music which I LOVE extremly. 

                                                     First part of planning

So to begin the process we started by doing a small assigment called pre-documentary planning in which we filled out some information about what our documentary was going to be about.

The first part of the documentary planning was listing some information such as possible subjects. Initially it was difficult to know what who would be the subect of the piece since I did not have a complete Idea of what I wanted to make my documentary on but after fully deciding on an idea I ended up choosing Friends of mine, Teachers, and students. The reason for this is because I wanted to try and interview different age groups which sadly did not end up happening in the end but insted I ened up focusing on what age group. 

Second part

The second part of the project planning involved some ideas on what the documentary would be about the list of ideas I had were:

• How music impacts people's emotions
• How music impacts day to day life
• How much music has changed lives

Now The cool thing about this list of ideas is that I ended up being able to implement all of these into one by forming the general topic of how muic impacts people. The broad broad topic was not too broad to the point where it would be unsuccesfull to produce and overall was possible.

Third part

 The last step of the screen shot shown of the chart sheet was to explain what my goal was with the production which as stated before was to show and intepret the impct music has on peoples life. The reason why I chose this as my goal was since I know music has had a big impact on my life therefore I wanted to show that in any possible way and I was sucessfull by using the subect of the film.

Fourth part

The next part of the planning sheet was a list of planned B-roll shots and normal shots that I thought would form the piece together. The choice for these shots was just simple by trying to think of some shots that would look cool or would overall form the piece better probably the easiest part of the whole project.

Fifth Part

The next part of the process was forming an outline as to how I wanted the documentary to be formed and overall produced. This outline was an interesting process since I had to think hard of how I wanted to form it since I had no idea how to actually create a sucessful documentary. 

 

Like I said this part of the project was very interesting and it was difficult since I was very confused on how to produce a documentary but after a lot of thinking I came to a general idea. I decided my main subject was gonna be a friend of mine and the story was gonna start from someone connected to him to then him to then his friends. The overall outline was simple and contained information on how I wanted to interview and the goals I had. There was also some mentioning of the shots I wanted to take and the Interview reactions I was hoping to achieve the overall product of the outline was an interesting result but I though the plan was goint to play out well.

 

                                                       Last part 

The last part of planning was just stating who was the director, editor, filming, sound, and title. Now of course this part was super easy since I worked alone on the documentary and so therefor it only required me to put my name on all the info. As for the name I wanted to make it something creative and so I decided to choose the title "A key note of life" since it involves the music aspect of it and of course the life aspect of it. 

Conclusion

Overall the Planning process was fun to do and it gave me a good overall idea as to how I wanted this documentary to come out. Next time I make a blog we are going into the production part of the documentary project which includes some issues and some good things. See you guys next time!

Documentary Project research

To give a small intro to what this blog is about an assignment was given to us asking us to make a documentary and although hearing this stressed me out because I tend to overthink I also knew it was gonna be a fun project which I was exited about.

The first step of the project was to research. The first research we did in class was viewing various productions selected by our teacher which sparked something in my head some of these productions we watched were incredibly artistic well done and overall showcased so much commitment. 

The first long piece we viewed was a piece from 2013 called "American Promise" Directed and produced by a married couple called Joe Brewster, and Michele Stephenson. The piece was an overall interesting watch since it took various years and hours and hours of footage to fully produce. The film takes a peek into the life of two kids which play the role of the main subjects of the documentary by following their life through their academic process being some of the only African American students at the school they attend. The piece was truly amazing and overall inspiring since the commitment the producers had since they were the parents of one of the subjects was exceptional since it took them various years to make the complete production. Overall this first piece shown helped me understand how much commitment should be put into documentaries and how they can even take large amount of time to fully produce.

The next piece we watched was an overall very artistic piece which opened up my mind to the creative aspect of creating a documentary. "exit through the gift shop" (Published by 2010 Produced by Banksy) Was an overall amazing piece the general idea it had and the process approached was very inspiring and interesting. Not only was the piece entertaining but I though it was genius the way it was intended to be marketed was extremely interesting not only did they use the name of a famous individual which has kept an anonymous identity living by a surname but it also brought a whole new community light by introducing the world to street artists. The piece had a humorous feel and overall was extremely engaging. The one thing that stuck out to me from this piece was the various styles used to produce it. It was very engaging and overall one of a kind the creative aspect of it made it such an incredible piece and it became my favorite out of all of them. This piece made me want to make my piece about something artistic and overall make my piece creative and interesting all while approaching a non natural documentary method. 

The last research I did was view op docs from New York Times during class. I selected two podcast the first one was called "not for money, not for love, not for nothing-By John Robert Lee" (Link for it). This piece was overall very impactfull and interesting I found it to be really touching since the overall topic was truly sad and made me worry for the individuals involved. As to what it was about the documentary focused on the story of multiple sex workers. The illustrations used in the piece and audio used made it even more impactuful and overall displayed the story well. This piece made me understand how emotional documentaries can be no matter their lenght and overall showed how information about difficult situations can be shared. 

Here is the trailer for the piece if interested. 

The second piece I viewed is called "A new wave" Made by Sandra Winther (Link for it). This piece focuses on Micheal February the first black surfer to compete in the World Surft League championship. Very different from the last I decided to view this documentary to watch not only something I take interesting but also to look at a more common approach to documentaries. The piece focused on the story of Micheal February and tracked his progress on becoming such a inspirational well known surfer. Ocverall the piece was very entertaining and it was fun to watch. I liked the shots used and the different techiniques all through out the piece for example the choice of using black and white shots instead of color. This piece helped me focus on how more common documentaries are made and their overall look I enjoyed it a lot!. 

Overall these pieces helped me learn about the different approached that documentaries can have and how creative and artistic they can be. They also proved me wrong on my old thinking that documentaries are boring and so thats good!. But overall these pieces were of influence to the creation of my documentary and helped me understand the approach I wanted to take on my own personal documentary. 

Transitioning to A level

 It is now a new school year and to make it more interesting it's actually my last one. But this year I am now transitioning to media studies A level. There was many things I learnt in As level but so far this year has been even more interesting and overall fun.

Last years project was stressful and the results did not come as to how I expected but this year I think I will be improving by managing my time better and overall being more committed to the final project. I'm just glad to be back in this classroom in which I am hoping I learn so much more.

Overall I hope this year is better than the last and that this final project comes out amazing. Lets hope it all goes well and that we make good progress!

The final project

 Its crazy to think that its finally over this project was a perfect mix of stressing yet exiting and im glad to have shared the process with all of you thank you for following along and without farther to do I present "Not Alone" please enjoy and again thank you!

Film opening "Not Alone"