CCR

Hey Guys

Here is my CCR, enjoy!


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EaXcWKR4mu_tyO9h_byZyy2gAt4X3Mgg/view?usp=sharing




I Will See You Later ;)

FINALE

Hey Guys,

     MY PROJECT IS FINALLY DONE, here it is:

                    WEBSITE

                     DOC
     
                      POSTER:

Reflection is Key

Hey Everyone,
My portfolio project reflection:

This project has been an interesting ride. When this project first began, I was very excited to begin, I was ambitious in terms of what I am doing. I had this vision of creation that I wanted to do. The topic I chose is something that I am passionate about, so I obviously didn't want this opportunity to fail, But life happened, and we got quarantined.

In terms of my idea, it remained the same. But when it came to filming my idea had to get manipulated. I was no longer in charge of my interviewees, and I feared that they would film wrong. Sadly, I was right, but I worked with what I got. I couldn’t really ask them to change, they both have a workload to deal with, and I didn't want to add onto their plate.

When I was looking at ideas on how to film this now, I stumbled upon this one doc in the sundance film website, and I saw that he incorporated screen recording in his doc, and i think it was a neat idea. So, I established something similar in my documentary. 

My biggest struggle still remains that I am an indecisive person, and I always change my mind while editing. I went from animation, to john oliver, to screen recording, to somehow fitting all of those ideas into one. I would like to work on this issue i have, but it has been beneficial in terms of coming up with creative ideas on what to work with.
I thought my time management would be my biggest problem, but luckily it wasn't. I’ll be forever thankful I began working on my poster in the first week. It literally saved my life. I finished it off just in time to work on my excerpt in peace. As for my website, it has been quite the hassle. I kept changing the layouts for that as well, but with the help of my sister, I was able to figure out where my mind was at. 

In conclusion, this portfolio project has made me realize quite a few things. Animation takes time, but i am not too bad at it. Working alone is fun, until you have edit everything yourself. Time management and concrete ideas are key.

Hello Everyone,

           This is the last week to work on our blogs, and since I've changed a few things, let me tell you about my excerpt.
           My DocSeries consists of 6-45 minutes episodes. Each episode is led by a different person, around my age, discussing issues they've seen in terms of their races representation. So for the middle eastern episode, I hosted ended becoming the host. The excerpt was pulled out half through the episode while transitioning from the news to the film segment. Due to the fact that it's in the middle, non of the interviewees where properly introduced, because in the beginning of each segment, subjects introduce themselves.
            towards the end I realized I have something missing, so I decided to do an animated bit. It turned out alright, not my proudest accomplishment. What i struggled with the most was the watermark at the end. I couldn't find any free applications that didn't do that, so I had no other option but to keep it.

        I Will See You Later ;)

Editing Finale

Hellllooo Guys,
       This is it, I have all my footage done, and I am currently editing. It is taking me longer than expected because I am working with double screens that are changing, so obtaining those graphics haven't been that easy. Also, my sister filmed herself with using a portrait shot, but I didn't think she needed the reminder since she was a film major, but it wasn't too hard to fix since she gave herself quite some headroom.
      So I turned this:

     Into this:

       

     This works out for me because its just around the same parameters as my second screen. The rest of the editing is just good old boring stuff, so I don't want to bore you out. I am just glad that I am seeing the final edits to my project, but for now

     

      I Will See You Later ;)

Excerpt Insight

Good Morning People,
       I've realized as I was going over my blogs, that I didn't really discuss much about the actual making of the excerpt, like I never shared any story boards or anything like that. But quite frankly, I am a more spontaneous person, I don't like fully laying out a concept because I feel as if that is top restrictive, instead I just have a general plot idea, and I flourish from there. Because of the quarantine situation, my film options aren't that crazy either, I mentioned I am going to arrange in it in a talk host concept.

          This is what the shot set up I wanted to do (Sorry for the lighting, I just took this picture to show you guys) I was going to just simply edit the mini screen next to me and call it a day. But I was on a zoom call the other day, and I found out you could insert a green screen from behind, so I got an idea:

         This may look cheesy, but with the proper background picture, I think I can pull it off. I think this truly shows my spontaneous side of filming, I couldn't even write a proper script because I just couldn't put my mind to it unless I began filming. So I jotted down some key points, and I began speaking about my topics.  Anyway, I hope this has been helpful, 

         I Will See You Later ;)

Titles and Details

Welcome Back Everyone,
          As we are approaching the end of this project, it is time I start focusing on the details. The part with the most details is the website, so here I am. The structure of the website is the set, the information is there, but I still need to figure out the details, such as the Episode titles, the thumbnails and all that good stuff.
         I feel like I am going back to step one, research, because I could be generic about the titles, but it doesn't suit the marketing I am going for. So I read few articles:

Article #1
Article #2

         I came up with this:


(insert pictures here)

     

       I have yet to decide the name of my series, I don't know why I am struggling with it as much. I have a few options, but I have a feeling the title is going to be my absolute last piece. The final touch.

Facebook Watch

Good Morning Everyone, 

          A few blogs ago, I discussed how my sister and I were talking about where I should distribute this doc series just based on my target audience and status. For those who don’t know, Facebook watch is a new feature that facebook released not too long ago. It is free for anyone who has a Facebook account, so the access to the content would be relatively easy. My sisters main argument to have the series on here is that my target audience are minorities and not all of them are going to be living in the states, so instead of having it on Netflix, Facebook is the best way to reach everyone, and it is affordable for all too.

             When it comes to the advertisement and marketing portion of things, having the content on Facebook makes it automatically easier to spread the word for the doc series because Facebook would want more people to visit the Facebook watch site. And since Facebook also owns Instagram a  greater push there is also expected. So in those terms, this would also be quite helpful. I will be going into further detail about this in my CCR, this is just an overview of the points we discussed, so for now; 

        I Will See You Later ;) 

POSTER Stuffs

Hello Everyone and Welcome Back,
           Today’s blog post is just a little update on how the poster is going. I haven’t spoken about it an a while, so here I am. The background is relatively done, the only thing I need to work on are the people. This has been difficult because I am showing how the media represents them, so I’m going to appear stereotypical but that’s the point.  It’s going to take me some time, but I plan on finishing it by the end of the week.
             I’m not sure if i showed you guys how I imagined the characters to look like, so here you go:

        As you can see up top, both these pictures have faces with no features, mine are going to appear more like the picture in the bottom. The woman’s face has an impression of features, which is exactly what I am going for. I chose to do that mainly because I don’t have to actually draw people’s faces (and I can’t photograph anyone) and it just looks neater because it resembles many people instead of just one.

        I Will See You Later ;)

Interviews Pt1

Good Day Mates,
          Welcome back to my blog. Today's posting is about my first interview with my lovely older sister. Not only did we discuss media representation, we also discussed marketing and distribution for the doc series, because my sister majored in that field, so she is aware of realistic approaches on how one would market and distribute new content. I will be going into detail in my next blogpost. I am glad that I had this conversations, because it has led me to begin working on the CCR. Which time wise, fits about right.
           Unfortunately we couldn't talk to my brother in law at the same time, because he has turned himself into a night owl, so his interview is just going to be a clip of him answering a list of questions I have sent him. Although, I wanted a conversation, this is the best I could get.
          Overall it has been productive, I have completely figure out things, and I am almost done with the poster, just working on details. The website is in the works, I have to change a few things because of my shift in how I am doing the docs. My goal is to finish the poster by the end of the week. I am just glad that with this situation going on, I am still able to work with my original idea, because it is something that I am passionate about.
      I Will See You Later ;)

Putting the Word Out

Hello Everyone and Welcome Back,
          Today I decided it would be a good day to talk about the social media essence of the company. Even though it is not a required section, it is needed for the marketing strategy I am approaching for this project. In my website, there is going to be the company's instagram linked below, mainly so people could check out the information posted through there. But, a while back when we had out marketing presentations, one of my peers explained that a constantly updating website brings it higher up in the searches for google. When linking an active Instagram account that is constantly being updated, that will help the website do generally better.
     

         In terms of what the set up would look like, here is an example of what I am picturing. I would include it the home page right at the bottom, where the rest of the social media would be linked. I am going to add a Twitter, Facebook and gmail links as well. These are the only social media presences I am planning on including. I apologize for the simplistic blogs, it has been a hectic week and I am finally starting to get everything together,  with that being said,

         I Will See You Later ;)

Interviews... Yay

Good Day,
          In my last blog, I revealed where my brain is at, as of right now. In this blog, I am going to be talking about the steps I am taking following my decision. As I said, I am going to be interviewing some of my family members, the catch is only my mother lives with me. I have yet to interview my mother, because I am still debating on having her be my narration, but with my updated idea, I chose to be my own narrator. As for my sister and her fiancé they both are very busy keeping up with their jobs, but I have managed to schedule FaceTime interviews with the both of them.
          My only concern about myself is, I chose not to write concrete questions, because I want to have more of a conversation than an interview. I have some simplistic questions in mind, but I would like to see where the conversation leads, and go from there. This way, I believe I can prevent myself from appearing biased through my questions. With a flowing conversation, opinions are more subject to individual more so than myself forcing out specified answers.
         They both agreed to talk with me this weekend, so Im a little excited. I look forward to see where this topic leads us, and I am sure I am going to be getting some insight or different perspectives by consulting others. But for today,
        I Will See You Later ;)

Making things clear for myself

Good Morning ladies and gents,
          This post serves to set everything clear in terms of what my doc series is going to look like now. After short discussion and ridiculous circumstances, I have come to slightly change what my documentary is going to look like.  Originally my doc was supposed be a simple expository doc, just simply talking about media representation. But sadly, due to out current circumstances, I am unable to film just exactly the way I wanted to. But fear not, I have found a solution. Basically, my documentary is going to look something like an episode of either Patriot act, or skit from John Oliver.
          Just to clarify, no I don't intend on following the same biased approach, I am looking more at the stylistic approach of the series. The excerpt is going to be a small bit of me talking about media representation, while including samples and interviews throughout. I explained in a previous post who my interviews are, its going to be my brother-in-law, my mother, and my sister. I chose them, Frankly because they are all very well spoken people, and can put across the right point. I would like to add some comedic sense to the topic, but thats my brother-in-law's job.

           I have an idea for what my set up is going to look like, but I'm not sure. Both examples, always have the updated screens of what they are talking about in the background, that might be my greatest challenge to create. I am going to ask my sister how to do that, because right now I am unsure. But here is just a little update on where my mind is, thank you,
          I Will See You Later ;)

Distribution Works

Hi Everyone,

             Today I shall be talking about the distribution processes of my documentary series. As of recent, I noticed that the more popular documentary series are starting to become streamed. Usually doc series are either found on TV or on streaming services, but when I take a look at my target audience, I am more likely to appeal to them through streaming services rather than anything.
             The Explained series, is a doc series on Netflix, based on what I have seen it is doing rather well. On Netflix in specific I have seen quite a few good ones like, Abstract series, Ted Bundy tapes, Making a Murderer and much more. So, in my best interest I would like to put my doc series on either Netflix or Amazon Prime. 

      I Will See You Later ;)

      

Good News about News?

Good Morning!
         As my latest blog explained our pandemic situation, this one, I would like to say, has some lighter news. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I began researching into the copy rights and fair uses of news, and here is what I found out:

Under the "fair use" defense, another author may make limited use of the original author's work without asking permission. Pursuant to 17 U.S. Code § 107, certain uses of copyrighted material "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."


The entire article talks about how it is allowed to use outside sources if it is for use of commentary or criticism. I would like to say, my doc series is going to be a commentary on media representation, therefore I should be fine in order of using these clips, but I have to consult my teacher to make sure I can use these clips. As of right now, that is good news, because I would be able to create a montage of them. But yea, that is it for today,
I Will See You Later ;)

Pandemic Ruined My Plans

Good Day Mates,
         As you guys already know, we're are currently in a middle of a pandemic, and were all obviously quarantined. So, my plans to shooting this week have all been you know destroyed, but I have to work my way around it. As you guys already know, my mother is going to be my main subject, but I was planning on filing with her somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure I can film my mom somewhere in my house. My actual problem is that I was going to film my mom's best friend, who wears a hijab, but I can't see her anymore. I chose her because her outskirts  automatically give away her ethnicity, and I wanted to portray how that can lead to automatic first impressions from strangers.
          My mother doesn't wear the hijab, and she looks relatively European according to some, so with my mom I wanted to illustrate how people shift attitudes after they find out my mom is Arab. The solution to my problem is I am going to send my moms friend the questions, and maybe get her son to film her for me. The framing might not coming great, but some things are just beyond are control. I'll try my best to help them with the set up, but whatever works best for their connivence is what matters.
         With my two subjects, who are relatively the same age, I need a wider range of audience, someone younger, to appeal to my target audience a little more. So, I'm going to ask my brother in law to film himself for me. I believe in him for setting up the shot well, but I'm not going to get ahead of myself. My brother in law is a good subject, but he is very well spoken, and he somewhat reminds me of Hasan Minhaj, who was the inspiration for the styling of this doc series. I still think I need someone a little younger, but I can't think of anyone at the moment. My cousin might be able to help, but I don't know.
         If I find anyone I will keep you guys updated. But for now,
        I Will See You Later ;)

Excerpt pt2: News Media

Good Evening,
      The news media is going to be the first half of my production. This is the part in which I am going to be interviewing my mother, and asking her questions in regards to how the news has affected  our people the way we are looked at. The answer in a sense is obvious, but the wise words of my mother might make someone look at it differently. She is my first subject for the interview, and I might just make her the star of the episode. I wanted to interview others but with this while pandemic situation, I don’t know if I’ll be able to meet with these people.
      Other than my interview subject, the way I’ll be approaching this topic will be using some news articles, I was looking into copyrights in regards to film, and you’re allowed up to like 10 seconds maximum, but I couldn’t find anything in terms of news. I’m not sure how the news copyright works, and based on the restrictions I will follow along. It would really be in my benefit if I was all lower of use short clips from interviews, because that will lead me into creating a fast paced montage with a clips about the Arab/ Muslims community. Worst case, well let’s hope there isn’t, because I don’t think a good way to approach it. I also want to incorporate podcasts, interviews anything I can without  being copyrighted. My goal for the next few days is to find enough clips and footage to put my point across. Here’s my thought process about this, and well yeah,

     I Will See You Later ;)

Website Setup and Features

Good Morning,
     This blog's sole purpose is to show you the set up for my website. The research component for this has been hard, and I haven't been able to find many websites, but after I looked at a few student examples I think I have gotten an idea for what the proper set up of the website is going to look like.

        Up here is my front page, which is going to have a big picture of my "logo" on it or an advertisement for the latest production, the doc series. This ad, is going to replace the grey background of the productions. Right under I am going to be putting the thumbnails for all the episodes of the news production. When you scroll further, you'll be able to see a few pictures from the instagram page that is meant to promote the doc series.

        This page is meant to show who the cast is, and underneath I am going to place a quote or a statement  made by each of them. 

        This last page is going to be the episode breakdown page, each box is about a different culture and it's going to have every persons face on it. Right under I'm going to insert a small blurb explaining what each of the episodes is about. This is basically the skeletal look of the website, I have already started to work on it, I am on schedule with it, my only issue would be going out and filming, with this entire pandemic thing going around. But other than that, the progress is going pretty well, and with that being said,

I Will See You Later ;)

Animation Progress

Hello lovely People,

       As I have mentioned earlier, I am going to be animating the transitions between my different representation topics. I believe I mentioned an app that has made the idea of an animation just a little easier for me, because it offers just enough for me to work with in this project. So just today I was playing around with the features that it offers, and just see what I can do in a short period of time. 

       I played around with two clips that were a second each, and the first one took a little under ten minutes, so in terms of time it's going to be lengthy, but it should be fine after I get the hang of it. I just need a little more practice. Today I just wanted to show you guys the samples, I have pulled off and also give you a little insight of what I'm going to be doing for my project.

         

     This video above was my first ever animation piece. Even though its a little childish, it was my trial piece, and quite frankly it took some time for something so simple. The only problem with the end result, there’s watermark at the bottom left corner. I was thinking I could maybe work smaller and then crop the clip enough to get rid of it. If not, I might need to pay or something to get rid the watermark that it’s going to produce. This blog is meant to be more fun, and just a little progress update, and with that,

     I Will See You Later ;)

        

Poster Progress

Good Morning Followers,
      I am glad to say that my poster has been going relatively great. I am slowly working on it, because I just want to make sure everything goes right the first time. As of right now I only have the bottom part of it done, and it's going to take some time to finish, but now that school is out, I have much more time to work on it. I would like to finish it off by the end of this week, but I'm not sure how that is going to happen, since I was planning on using reference photos of random people, and I haven't been able to see tup with just random people yet. So, I am thinking I am just going to end up just pulling off an impressionistic look to the figures without even using any references photos, that is going to be a little harder but if I want to keep up with my schedule, I am just going to work with what I got.

Here is a picture of my poster looks right now, in the bottom where it's black I am going to be putting the title, and the streaming services that I want to realise my production on. Sorry this blog is short, this has been a hectic week for me in terms of exams and mocks. I am almost done though, and should be back on track soon. And for now,

   I Will See You Later ;)

Poster In the MAKING

Hello Everyone,
       Today is the day I started to work on my poster. With a little help from my mom, I was able to come up with an idea of what my poster is going to look like. If you remember, a few blogs ago I mentioned something about my color palette and aesthetic for this project, but my poster is not particularly going to follow along the same color scheme, but I will try my best.
        The idea for my poster is going to be a sort of point of view shot have the second row in a movie theater, looking into a big screen. In the front row, is going to be a few seats with people on them. These people are going to be the minority groups I am representing looking at a reflection of a stereotypical version of their ethnicity.
         When it comes to the faces of these people, I am not going to make them detailed, because that will not be easy to execute at all, so I'd rather stay with the impressionistic feel of faces. My idea wasn't particularly inspired by anything, it was just simply my mom and I discussing how we constantly how to watch out people get wrongly represented and we can't do anything about it,  and that remind me of a movie theater. Here is my sketch/ possible final piece of my poster:

 So yeah, this is what it roughly looks like, I promise its gonna look nothing like this, this is just the skeleton to my masterpiece. Also, ignore the title name, it was just the first thing that came to my head when I saw my drawing, but I don't think im going to use it. But that is it for today my fellow followers, and things are going to get juicy starting next week, so be on the lookout. For now,

    I Will See You Later ;)

I Changed My Mind Again

Good Morning Everyone,
      For today's blog I decided to let you guys know that I am going to change things up a bit. Not too long ago, I said that I was going to be filming my Hispanic friends and how they were represented when they didn't live here. I was excited to be attempting to see their perspectives on this, but when I was writing out my questions, and I was thinking about the possible answers, I realized that I might not be getting the answers I wanted. To be honest, I want something raw, I want a story that is so insignificant but impactful, and I didn't think I would get that from my friends.
       So, I decided to go against  my original thought, and just work with Middle Eastern community instead. My biggest worry was that I would be biased, but this is where my challenge is going to be. I am going to use the same questions I was originally planning on asking my friends, and I will use those on my new subjects. With that I was hoping to appear as unbiased as I could get.
       In terms of interviewees and stories, I am going to have a much easier time planning those, mainly because I know quite a few Arabs with stories that I can talk about, which will help me get the message I want across. Also, in terms of time management, I have my parents, and my siblings whom I can interview at any given moment, in case I need to reshoot something. With that being said, here is my excerpt layout:

       Episode 3: the Arab Community
       Length: 45 minutes, 15 minutes per media group
       Excerpt: 12:00 to 17:00min, the transition from news representation to social media.

      My only worry now is, how am I going to manage to get all these stock images of news article without getting copy righted. That is something that I am going to be discussing in a future blog, dedicated specifically for the news section of my film comment. I am excited to finally begin filming the interviews and editing the film.
        I Will See You Later ;)

Excerpt pt1: Transitions

Good Morning lovely followers,
     Today is officially the day I started my film, and in this doc, I shall be talking about the transition during my excerpt. Just to give you a quick rundown, here is what my excerpt is going to look like:

 0-2.5 minutes: the end of the news representation segment
2.5-3 minutes: the transition between scenes
3-5: the begging of social media representation

     These 30 seconds are crucial in terms of what to do, because i was thinking of working with animation, but I have never animated anything in my life. But with the advice of a friend and some research, I think I found a simplistic app that I could use to help, and if that doesn't work I could always use stop motion.
      The reason as to why I am working with animation is because the past few documentary I have watched for research had some sort of animation embedded in them, for example:

The doc series, The Mind Explained, uses simplistic animations such as the one above to explain some of the concepts they can't physically show. This is an example how what I might do if I need to talk about something I can't show. 

This is from the show, 13th, which is known to be one of my inspirations. This picture above is an example of what they do in order to also show things they cant. The animations here are quite nice, simple but not too simple. There are a few other docs in which I looked at that had animations in them, and I am probably going to stick to the common theme they have above, the simple silhouette of people or things, and I might even use that idea in my poster. On that note, 

I Will See You Later ;)

Possible Interviewees

Good Evening Ladies and Gents,
         Today I shall be discussing the possible interview subjects I have. I have been struggling to pick a minority group that I wanted to talk about, and I think I have made up my mind. I live in Florida, which exposes me to quite a few people who are a part of the Hispanic population. So, I decided to document the episode about Hispanic representation.
        As of right now I have two possible interviewees: Veronica and Yelna. Veronica is my best friend, she is from Colombia, and she has moved quite a bit. Just last year, she moved to Connecticut in place in which there isn't many Hispanics. I assumed something might have happened in term or representation, but I will find out this weekend when I interview her.

       My second interviewee, Yelna, just recently moved down from North Carolina. She has lived there for a while, she's told me that she was one of the only hispanics in her school, and she's has spoken about her undergoing some form of discrimination. Although, both of them have gone through minor experiences, it's all about going through that experience.

       The reason as to why I chose to do them, was particularly because I want to avoid working with the middle eastern community, because I am afraid my piece is going to come out biased, because it is something I am passionate about.
       I apologize for the short post, this happened only because I have been having a hard time figuring out what I want to do, but now that I do, I think I can begin working on filming the project. with that being said,
         I Will See You Later ;)

Group Discussions and More Research

Good Evening,
       This past week in class we had the opportunity to get into a a g=big group and talk about our portfolio projects in class. When my turn came around I was a little nervous to present my topic but I am glad to say I got some beneficial feedback and recommendations as to what I should do. While I received feedback I noticed that everyone was telling me to focus on the Asian community for my project, and just talk about their stereotypical representation about how they're all Chinese and what not. Quite frankly I like this idea, but I do not know many Asians, so I might have to go hunting for subjects this week. Another subject that was offered was Hispanics, which is easier for me because I am surrounded by them, and I could easily interview them. But I always like to challenge myself so we'll see where that takes me.
        But while we were discussing I was told to watch The 13th, on Netflix, because like I mentioned in an earlier blog I haven't seen many documentaries to be inspired from. But I finally had time to watch an episode, and I am honestly speechless. I don't want to get into the content, because I genuinely am disappointed in humans, but as a piece, the technical aspects are crazy. I loved their transitions, but the hardest part would be imitating a similar idea terms of the animation. I have no idea how to animate anything, so I might either have to learn, or figure out a way in which I could do something similar. Another big issue I have would be the copyright. If I were to use any news articles I wouldn't be able use more than a few seconds of any excerpt which would be hard to do, but not impossible.

       Overall, I have realized I have quite some work to do, my plan is to have the planning done by the end of the week, and hopefully begin shooting as soon as possible. I apologize that this blog is quite short, but I will only get better.  On that note,

I Will See You Later ;)

Episodic Breakdown

Good Morning Ladies and Gents,
         In today's blog I shall be talking about how every episode in my doc series is going to be broken down.  Since representation in the Media is such a broad topic, I have decided to breakdown the episodes into three sections:
               1.  Representation in the News
               2. Representation in Film
               3.Representation in the Social Media

        I believe as each of these topics has a different impact as to how it effects individuals day to day life, because in our modern day time, the News and Film content tends to effect the representation of the race/ ethnicity in general, in contrast to social media which impacts the younger generations the most.  Therefore, the separation is needed in order to disclose these ideas in a way in which it would be easy to follow, and make sure no to cram all the information.

         As for the actual episodes, I am thinking around 45 minutes each, with commercials in-between making them around an hour each. Each sections would get around 15 minutes of screen time, so my excerpt is going to be taken from 1 section and talking about a 1/3 of it. Or I was thinking about doing a excerpt transiting between different topics, because in an earlier blog I mentioned how I liked the transition techniques  that the Ted Bundy series used. Anyways, here is the list of episodes I have as of right now:

1. Middle Easterns
2. Hispanics/ Lationos
3. Asians
4. Indians
5. African Americans 
6. Native Americans 

I am not entirely sure if this is the final list, but as of right now it appears to be it for me. I am still having a hard time deciding on the excerpt, because I can easily do middle east, but I am going to appear biased, not intentionally just subconsciously. So based on who I know, I might end up working with either Hispanics or Asians. In terms of which sections, I have cool ideas for each of them, but since my subjects are going to be of my age, I would rather just focus on the Social Media section of the episode. Anyways, I have a a lot to figure out, but as per usual,

       I Will See You Later ;)

Website Design and Aesthetic

Good Afternoon my fellow followers,
          Today is the day in which I will be talking about my website. It has been a little slow in terms of my project progression, mainly because my topic is quite broad and I am having some trouble trying to digest everything I want to do, and what to primarily focus on.
          So, I decided to create a base for everything. In my recent blog I talked about my postcard component and I shall now talk about the website. In terms of the website I don't really have much of an inspiration for it, I am going to follow along a similar color palatte for it that I will be using in my postcard, and as of right now I am thinking of using light beiges, browns, and greens. Because the topic I am focusing on is heavy, I want the website and postcard to be more light so the production isn't turned away.
          As of right now, my site is going to be primarily spilt into two pages: Home, and Episodes.
 The home page is going to consist of the summary, the pictures that links the instagram, and all the promotional packages.The home page is also going to have a link to excerpt that I am producing. The episodes one, is going to be set up in a blog type format, in which every blurb is about a different episode I'm going to focus on,
         As you can see below, this is what the website is going to look like when you first click the link. My production company is under the name of HBL Productions, which is clearly shown as the header. The episode page is yet to be set up, but I am going to be working on that later this week, when I figure out my episodic makeup.

                The colors below belong to the color palette I would like to follow for the website mainly, but also the rest of the production. To be honest, I think I am looking at more of an aesthetic more than anything else, but nonetheless here is my atheistic for the production. As per usual, 

     I Will See You Later ;)

Documentary Inspirations

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gents,
         In this blog, I will be sharing my inspirations to how I would like to my excerpt to look like. I have seen quite a few documentaries, it just they all haven't been TV serialized. But the ones that I have seen I have taken to like quite a bit. But they have all been serial killer documentaries, because those happen to be one of my guilty pleasures. Excluding the fact that they're serial killer docs, I'm going to focus on the genre characteristics that I like.
         The first one I'd like to mention is the Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. Although I watched it quite some time ago, I still remember my favorite parts about it. One of the few things I liked the most were the transitions between the scenes. I liked how they used timeline to smoothly transition between the scenes, I would defiantly like to incorporate something like that into my excerpt. I just think it such a neat idea. Another thing I liked was, how the tape was played and the reenactment scene was shown after, or as the scene was going on. It gave off a narrator or live action feel to the episodes. It carries a suspenseful atmosphere throughout the episode, which is not what exactly what I want, but I want to also do something in relation to that. Overall, I think this series, as of right now, is my main inspiration in terms of the technical aspects of the series.
       My biggest concern as of right now is that I haven't seen many documentaries, so in the upcoming week I will be watching some experts from non-serial killer documentaries and focus on a subgenre that is more similar to mine, so that will be my homework for the week.  Definitely except a blog from me within the next few days, in which I will be talking about the shows I have watched, and what I liked from them.
I have an honorable mention documentary series, Law and Order True Crimes, such a great one, anyways,
I Will See You Later ;)

Poster ideas

Good Morning Guys,
          As I mentioned in my previous blog, I based my Ap Art Portfolio on cultural representation and its impact on the individual last year.  And since I need to make a postcard for my documentary package, I decided to paint my poster. Now, this is going to take me quite some time to do, but I am probably going to follow along what I did last year. Take a portrait of someone, and incorporate their ethnicity in the background. I worked with countries for my portfolio, but I am going to be working with minority groups so I am going to have a different approach to the topic.

       Before I drew any of my pieces, I went through an interview and photoshoot process. I met up with my subjects, and I asked them a series of questions that gave me an idea of their culture and its influence on their personalities. After I interviewed them,  I sat them down and photographed them.
       This is Larissa, she is from Venezuela. When I interviewed her, I remember her telling me that about how after she moved she felt closer to her country. She also told me that one of her favorite things about Venezuela is this tree, I forgot the name, but its the one I drew in the background. She was one of my first pieces, and I forgot to keep record of what she said, and also I was still experimenting with how I wanted to approach the pieces.  In her portrait, I put her in typical Venezuelan attire, to make her appear more close to her home.                                

         This is Isly, she is from Morocco. Isly is one of my closest friends, and culture has always been a subject we've spoken about so I didn't really need to interview her. Isly always felt as if her culture has defined her, but she is trying to shine through it. So for her piece, I put Moroccan textile in the background and I gradually incorporated it into her face, but not so much, just to empathize that idea of shining through.
        So now that I've shown you some examples, I plan on doing the same thing with my postcard. I am going to interview all my subjects, and photograph them. Which will give a variety of options to work with. As of right now I might either draw only one subject, or somehow incorporate all of them into my piece, but I will be mentioning that later on. Here is an example of my thought process to approaching this:
This is what I did when I interviewed my friend, Gian Luca whose from Argentina, for his piece:

                                     

         

               The first picture, is my interview questions and his answers to them. This is where I found out that he isn't really involved much with his culture, but he is proud of it. Since he  didn't grow up there, he isn't as involved, But he does like his matte and steak. The second picture was the one I ended up drawing, I took several, but this one was my favorite because it was an off guard picture, and I thought it suited my overall piece idea. The third picture is the rough sketch I drew before the piece. The portrait of him was stood in-front off a graffiti wall with all his favorite things from Argentina, a soccer ball,  matte, and Messi's soccer jersey. I won't show the piece since Im not really proud of how it turned out, but I might later on.
          Anyways, here is what my process looks like, and I will be posting a blog soon in which I will be doing the same thing for my postcard. With that being said,




                                                                 I Will See You Later ;)
     

       

Intro to New Beginnings

Hey Guys,
         Today is officially the first day, in which I will be starting my A level Portfolio project. Just to refresh your memories a little bit, I am going to be working along with the Documentary package, in which I will be producing a 5 minute except of a TV serialized documentary series, a poster, and a website.
          I have had quite a hard time trying to figure out what I wanted to discuss, but yesterday I had quite a breakthrough with my idea. I've come to realization that there are very few topics in which I am passionate about, and one of them being Cultural Representation in the Media. Now that I am thinking about it, I didn't really realize it is a topic that I am so heavily imbedded in. For example, last  year I made my entire Ap Art portfolio about cultural influences of the individual. It's a topic that I have already been invested in.
           Just a few days ago, I finished my research about Arab Representation in U.S Media, and I've accepted the fact that it is a topic that I care about deeply. I noticed, that in modern media, it is very rare to see proper representation of minority groups, and coming from experience, it can impact how you are valued or percieved as a person.
          I grew up in country in which the world thinks of its people as terrorists, and this has impacted some of the views that people have had of me. Due to that, I strived to become the best person I could be, because this was my way of starting to spread awareness about this topic. Not everyone knows a Syrian or even an Arab person, so I wanted to be the person that represents my country to these peoples eye. I want them to think of me when they think of the Middle East, and think "oh Reem is from there" and just know that I grew up in that environment and that is why I am the person I am, not a terrorist but quite the opposite.
         Now that I have elaborated a little bit about why this topic is something I am passionate about,  I have decided that my documentary series is going to be about minority representation in U.S media and its impact on the individual. With that being said,

        I Will See You Later ;)

Census 2020

Hello lovely people,
     I am back again with another post, but before you get excited no, this isn't about my final project. This past week, I successfully finished a marketing campaign promoting The City of Weston Census 2020 campaign. I actually enjoyed working on this project, I learned quite a bit about my marketing abilities, and what I need to improve for the future.
     We started off the project by researching to cities with the a similar racial makeup to Weston, the first was the City of Boca Raton, which has 86% White and 13% Hispanic makeup, and The City of Irvine which has 50% White and 39.2% Asian makeup. The reason we chose these cities, is because they each are heavily influenced by a minority population, which is very similar to Weston's 82% White and 50% Hispanic makeup. Through these cities campaigns we realized that we needed a strong presence on the Internet, for example, The City's website and social medias. it has become a given that this is the best way to reach people.
      Our target audience consists of the minority populations, specifically the Muslim and Indian community.We chose this target audience, because my group members and I are practically minorities and we want to be represented through in The Census.
     In a quick summary of what our marketing campaign consisted of, we focused on targeting these minorities groups mainly through a tactic called "Influencer Marketing" which is a type of marketing that uses key leaders to drive the brand's message. Through these influencers we wanted to reach these people, because in all honesty we tend to trust people that are similar to us than total strangers. The way we would get these influencers would be through the events that we would have, such as the YMCA and Weston Place events. These events are meant to target the specific audience based on their residences and activities within the community,
     The part I truly want to talk about the most is, my experience working on this project. In this project I worked with two new people, Nick and Rhea. The two of them have worked with each other numerous times, and they know how to work with each other, and I was the odd one out. From the beginning, I felt as if we already had our roles decided for us: I worked on the marketing campaign, Rhea did all the print components, and Nick did the video spots. I was satisfied with the outcome of our campaign, and I thought I got the easy way out. But as the project progressed I realized that my part, was not as easy I expected. It was actually quite difficult, starting an entire campaign from scratch, research where to have the events, flyers, and etc. It is safe to say I under estimated the power of marketing. Not also did I realize it wasn't easy, I realized that this is something I truly enjoy doing. Although it was tedious and lengthy, I didn't mind working on it with the whole marketing strategies and campaign.
      This project will help me with my portfolio project because I have realized that I would definitely prefer working on my own with something this big, because one of the most frustrating parts of working on the project was having to wait for my partners to finish up something, and the same goes for every group project. I have realized to not underestimate the effort required for something, every aspect of the project is equally as important. The usual procrastination is not the way to go, it always goes wrong. I also realized that I need to make sure I have every detailed covered, because that was one of my mistakes during the campaign, I forgot to mention things that I have instantly thought about, but for some reason didn't put them into my presentation. And research is very important, especially in the genre I chose. Overall, this campaign has been a learning experience, and I can't wait to take this knowledge with me to my portfolio project. As Per Usual,

I Will See You Later ;)

I.AM.BACK.

Good Evening my fellow followers,
        I am assuming you guys are wondering where I have been this past year.... Let's just say it has been quite hectic. But I am back again, to tackle the Media A level project!! Wooo!!
        For this year's project I went on a completely different route, I am going to be working on this project by myself (scary I know) but I am ready for another challenge. Last year I worked with two partners, and each of us had our own strengths and weaknesses, and to be honest we worked quite well, but this year, being by myself I have complete freedom over what my topic is going to be, my scheduling time, and everything, which seems nice because I won't have settle down to please other group members, but I am assuming it is going to be harder to pull that off, so let's see what happens.
         Just to give you a refresher of what I did last year, I along with my partners worked on a film opening. Our film, How the Stars Aligned, was about a Utopian society that was run based on zodiac compatibility. The two main characters, who are not compatible, undergo a glitch in the system, and they fall in love. We chose to go with the Sci-Fi approach because we thought the idea was cool, and we had so much to work with. For this year, I chose to work with the documentary project. The documentary pack includes a poster, a website, and a five minute extract from a TV documentary.  
        Naturally, this year I am thinking about making this project about something more serious. Many things have happened in the past year, and as A level progressed, I realized I would much rather work with something more serious, more "based on true events" than creating a whole new society. So I figured that a documentary would be the best fit for me. I have been lightly thinking about what I want to do, and as of right now I only have one idea, and I think I am going to stick with it.
       As you guys already know, around 5 years ago I moved to the States, from Syria. My biggest struggle in the move was accustoming to the new culture I was thrown in. Going from a middle eastern culture to Floridian culture was quite difficult. And this past year, I have met people that went through a relatively similar situation, in which they had to move out of their home country and get accustomed to a new way of life. Because this topic is something I am an expert in, I am considering making my entire documentary series about different people that went through the same thing I did.
       With all that being said, I am glad to be back. I hope you guys enjoy the journey along with me, for the second time... and

      I Will See You Later ;)