Looking Back

Looking back, this has been a great experience, like I knew it would be. I truly enjoy bringing my ideas to life in the form of film and even print media. I remained excited throughout the entirety of this project because I constantly got to try new things. In the past, I've had the opportunity to interview children, but I've never had a serious interview with an adult. I've already shared how nerve-wracking this experience was, but nevertheless I learned so much and found excitement in being able to do this for my documentary. An obstacle I encountered during the interview process was definitely the lighting and a small error in the way the interviewee looked. Since I didn't have a ring light, I had to make do with a lamp and simply point it in the direction of the interviewee, but this caused a shadow behind the interviewee that I didn't realize was so visible in the footage. Although this isn't a major problem, I think a change in setting or better planning would have resolved this issue. Another problem I ran into that I didn't notice until I began viewing the footage form my laptop was that the direction Josh was looking at in the interviews was to the right rather than to the left. Since I placed him in the right third of the screen I believe it would've been better for him to look to the left of me. I did ask him beforehand to look in a certain direction because I didn't want him staring at the camera, but this was an error on my end. I've thought about this frequently, but I think the only way to resolve an issue like this would've been to view the footage before continuing the interviews. Even though we did one test, it wasn't long enough for me to realize the little problem. This may be something only I notice, but I did learn from it. 

Another new major thing I got to try was creating the magazine article. I've mentioned before, I had no idea what I would do for this but after I meeting with my teacher, I began thinking of a bunch of different concepts I could use in the article. It was also a much shorter process than what I thought. I believe I spent the most time figuring out the layout of the article rather than writing it. It was an aspect of this project that I definitely didn't think I'd enjoy, but to my surprise, I did.

Lastly, there's the social media page, the final component of this project that I worked on. I ran into one of the biggest obstacles here. After mentioning the idea of using sports highlights to my Media Studies teacher, she informed me that I wouldn't be able to publish this content because it wasn't mine. Although my goal was to engage the target audience, and this would be a great way to do so, I simply couldn't. Instead I'd have to focus on promoting my content, the doc through different means. I began thinking of what other content I could publish, and this is where the backups came in. I started to put everything together and figure out a good order in which to post it. I learned from a marketing class that I when advertising and trying to build interest I should always use tactics that catch the attention of the viewer and maintains it. This my main objective that I hoped to achieve. I still have some posts left to make. 

Other than this, everything went smoothly and although I learned plenty of things, I wanted to share a few of the major problems I encountered and how I went about solving them or how I would resolve these issues in future projects. 

I do have a few minor components to complete, however everything will be done by tomorrow and posted! I can't wait! Stay tuned for the CCR as well in which I further reflect on and analyze the creation of this project and what went into it, including my research, the branding, and representation. 

Creating the Account

Last blog post I shared the list of ideas I had and I'm back to tell you which topics I've chosen to focus on in the Insta posts:

To start, I wanted to include sports facts as an informational aspect of the page that would give world records or facts on the specific athletes I focus in a "Did you know?" format. This will bring interest to the series and each episode as well. For example, I could share that Josh has a trading card made for him because many believed he would be very successful and this card could've been worth a lot if it weren't for the injury that ended his career. Then say "If you want to know more about this athlete go watch the docuseries 'Becoming', he's featured in the first episode!"

Secondly, there's promotional post that simply garner excitement. Such as, "Can you guess which athlete's will be featured in this series, it could be one of your favorite! Stay tuned for more." Then day by day I'd reveal a new athlete. 

Lastly, I would create posts that consist of those short 10-30 second sports highlight videos. These always end up on what is called the "Explore Page" on Instagram that will be customized towards your likings. It's an easy way to reach your target audience without doing much but posting something they'd be interested in watching. The videos would be a great way to hook them and then bring them onto the documentary's account. 

All three methods are great ways to reach the target audience through this platform to not only promote the film, but to get them to watch it. 

I know I've only explained them, but the visuals should come soon as I build upon the account I've created. I need a cover for the profile picture and then I can begin posting! 

Discussing Social Media

To create the Instagram page, I had to consider the type of content I wanted to post that would fit the target audience. During a group meeting, a classmate shared that the way he went about this was to create a couple different types of posts that ultimately went with the purpose of the documentary. Although our documentaries had very different focuses, we could still relate in this aspect that we both had the same goal, to promote our doc in an engaging manner fully grasping the attention of the target audience. 

In fact, my classmate fit exactly into my target as he is a male within the age range with an interest in sports. When I brought up my uncertainty on the social media platform I'd use, he immediately responded with "Instagram!" I mentioned I'd been stuck between Facebook and Instagram because my target audience also consists of older men, but it was true; Instagram was the better option, especially if I was trying to attract the younger audience as well.

Within the group meeting, some ideas were proposed that I typed up: 

Although they are all good ideas, I must choose what I consider to best fit for the target audience. I will soon be creating the Instagram page and will share then what I've decided upon. 

A Title for the Docuseries

Hi blog! Let me share that honestly, I was having trouble coming up with a title for the series. As I've mentioned in a recent blog post, I wanted to create a solid list of ideas and then present them to classmates as a poll for them to vote on their favorites. This would be a great way to get feedback form my peers, but I felt as if all the ideas I had come up with were not good enough. I started talking with my mom who always helps me out when I get stuck on problems like this. She started giving me some ideas and although some were cheesy she did mention one that stood out, but before I announce it I'd like to tell about what I what wanted for the title. 

Since the start I wanted a name that could be used for all the episodes. I don't know if there is a term for this but to exemplify the concept I'll use the example of a nature docuseries which could be titled Exploring Nature and each episode is about a different animal. So, episode 1 could be Exploring Nature: The Hummingbird while episode 2 would be Exploring Nature: The Ladybug. I wanted to apply this same idea to the docuseries, coming up with a title for the entire series followed by the name of the athlete the episode focuses on. 

Some ideas I had were: 

- An Athlete's Dream 

- Playing Ball

- A Ball Player's Pursuit

However none of these seemed like the right fit, but the idea my mom brought up was perfect. Here we go, the big announcement. The title of the episode for the extract I'm creating is:

Becoming: Josh Chester

Not only does this title "Becoming:" work for the one episode, but it would work for all of them as it tells the story of the athlete's career and how they created an identity for themselves through a sport. Not only would it share about their careers, but what led them to follow through on playing a sport and ultimately becoming who they are today. I'm so content with this idea, and now I'm ready to get started on the other parts of the projects I've held off on because I didn't have the title ready. 

An Editing Update

I'm about halfway done editing now. Not exactly where I thought I'd be but everything is coming together nicely. To be honest, I had a bit of trouble deciding upon how I wanted to structure the extract so I began by looking at all my footage. I imported the best footage I had and all the interview questions. From here I began adding clips into the timeline, following my typical editing process. I began to piece the beginning together, starting with an entrance in Josh's childhood room, full of baseball memories. 

Here's a look at the clip. I liked how this point of view entrance started the doc extract, almost setting the stage for the piece. It was different from what I originally imagined, but it worked very well. The primary concern I have about this is that the footage is a bit shaky, but it may be an easy fix if I stabilize it in the editing process. 

I plan to continue editing this week finishing it as soon as possible. My next task is the creation of the social media page, but I've held off on this because I can't come up with a good title for the documentary. Of course I've had a couple ideas, but they've been centered around the baseball aspect rather than the series as a whole. For the series I was thinking of something like "An Athlete's Pursuit", something along those lines in which I highlight on athlete and chasing a dream. I may hold a survey or maybe a poll to gather votes on what my peers believe would be a better title out of the options I have so far. 

Meeting with My Teacher

Yesterday I had an early video conference call with my Media Studies teacher to ask a couple questions I had about a specific component of this project, the magazine article. She had shared with us a few examples of students who created great articles and I was surprised at how different they were from each other. At first, I had only viewed one which served as a review or reflection of the process of creating their documentary, but what shocked me a bit was that it was published on the NY Times website. I knew I'd be creating a high quality article, but ending up on the NY Times was extremely impressive to me, and honestly it made me nervous. 

During the meeting, my teacher recommended that I check out the other articles as well. One was a director interview while the other was a behind the scenes. I really had no idea what was expected of my magazine article, only that it should be used for promotional purposes, but after the meeting I realized I was basically given creative freedom to whatever aspect I wanted to about the doc extract as long as I was marketing it to others, mainly my target audience. 

I've been thinking a lot about what my article would entail, but I'm stuck between two options, the first being a behind the scenes look at the creation of the extract or a director interview. Something I really like about the director interview is that it's more personal and the questions can be designed to market the piece, however I also like the behind the scenes articles because it's exciting to get this inside look at how films are made. I think what I must consider is what would appeal more to the target audience, and I'm leaning towards the behind the scenes. I'll research this before coming to a decision. 

(Different templates available on Canva)

One last thing I wanted to share is that I will be using Canva, a graphic design platform to create the article as it was a bunch of presets to inspire you or that you can even directly type into. Often, seeing different options gets me thinking about what I could create so I'll most likely end up customizing my own spread. More on this soon! Time to get to work. 

The Chosen Editing Software

A couple posts ago I had mentioned that I finally figured out what video editing program I would use but never gave much detail so I'm here to share which one I selected and why. 

Throughout the AS Level of Media studies I would use an online video editing software named WeVideo, but after the free trial expired I was left with no software to edit my videos. I knew I had to find an inexpensive option that would be easy to figure out, but everything I tried didn't work. Most free trials would leave me with low quality exports or even a huge watermark when I wanted to export the final version. I started looking about a month or so ago knowing I'd be necessary for this project. 

Then I remembered my friend had recommended one last year called Final Cut Pro. I got in contact with her and she shared that they even offer a free trial if you own a Mac laptop or desktop computer. 

After doing some research, I was able to download the software and I started playing around with it. Although the free trial doesn't have all the features of the full version, it does have the tools that I would normally need to edit. I learned this after I began using the editing program on another project I've mine. I began editing a wedding video not too long ago just to get some practice with the basics of inserting clips, cutting them, moving them around and adding audio. I actually found that the layout of it is very similar to WeVideo and I think this is going to be my new video editing software. 

As for the progress on the doc extract, I am currently editing and plan to finish within the next few days. This would leave me with enough time to create the other components of the project including the magazine article and the social media page which I've been thinking about recently. More updates soon!