Update on poster!!

Happy Tuesday!!!

So, I stared at the poster I made for a while and then I decided that I didn't like it anymore. It was too symmetrical and I just wasn't happy with how it came out. I was looking back at some of the examples I had researched earlier and then decided that I wanted more pictures included. Just for easy reference, here is my first rough draft. 

I decided that I really don't like anything about how this looks and I needed to play around with another design. I really liked the look of the cover for the Free Meek docuseries.

I like the smaller pictures with the bigger text. So, I kind of took some inspiration from this and then created another poster design that I like much better. 

I am a lot happier with the look of this poster. I like the big and visible text. I also like that there are more images, yet they don't cover the whole poster. I think it help displays the idea of collective young talent that I am trying to portray. I also included the Netflix logo in the bottom right hand corner. As I was researching other examples, I noticed that this is a consistent thing that Netflix does with its original pieces. This is something that is important for me to include, as my docuseries is going to be distributed strictly through Netflix. However, I think it is official that my poster is complete!

So, until next time!!

xoxo, Sophie

Poster idea!!

Happy Sunday!!

I have been a little stressed out today because I start doing school online tomorrow and I am just all over the place. I think that this is a hard transition for both the teachers and students, and it is causing a lot of confusion.

However, on a little bit of a brighter note, I started playing around with a design for my poster!! Here is a design that I came up with!! I decided to stick with the whole collage idea that I saw expressed in some of the posters I was researching.

Here is the example in both color and black and white. I'm not sure which one I like better yet. Also, this is not a final product, I just wanted to play around with ideas. I used Canva to create these, which is the same program I used for my project last year. I love Canva so much and I even bought the premium version earlier in the year. One great thing about Canva is that everything I make is automatically saved, so it makes it really easy to go back and make changes or edits to old designs.

I am going to probably play around with some more designs and I will update you on that!

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

Poster research!

Happy Thursday!!

I have been doing some research on posters from other documentaries and docuseries. I have been trying to focus on looking at posters that come from pieces that are someone similar to mine, but there really isn't much out there.

However, as I was doing research, I kept seeing these posters that were these collages of different photos and I really like this idea for my poster. Here of some samples of posters that I saw.

Since my docuseries is going to have multiple episodes and each will be focusing on a different subject, I feel that a collage type poster could look cool and is appropriate for my type of docuseries. Instead of just having one subject be the focus of the poster, I like the idea of including separate pictures of multiple people. I think this will help express my point that there are so many talented young people in this world and they each express themselves in a different and unique way.

Since I can't really leave my house to take any pictures of people right now, I am going to try to look for past pictures that I have taken of people. I have also asked some of my talented friends to send me pictures of themselves for me to use in my collage. 

I am going to play around with some different designs and I will update you soon!! 

So, until next time!!

xoxo, Sophie

Adjusting! First online meeting!

Happy Tuesday!

With all of the things going on because of the Coronavirus, school will be continuing online until further notice. Because of this, most teachers are continuing to teach and communicate with students through online video calls.

Today I had my first media call. At the beginning of the call my teacher was explaining how everything was going to work in terms of online school and answering any questions that we had. This was definitely helpful, as I know myself and many of my other classmates had a ton of questions and concerns.

However, after my teacher was done updating us on all of the changes and offering us some advice on how to complete out projects while under quarantine, she opened up the floor to the students and gave us a chance to talk about our projects with everyone. This was very helpful, especially since a lot of us needed help on how to adjust our ideas to fit to these changes.

Specifically for me, it was very helpful and reassuring. When deciding to change my project idea, I was a little nervous and I didn't know if I was making a good choice or not. Although, when I shared my ideas with my class, they all really seemed to like it and it gave me a lot more confidence moving forward. Because, at the end of the day, even though I am not really able to do much, I still am going to try to make this project as good as I can.

The rest of this week I am going to spend focusing on the poster for my docuseries. I have started picturing some ideas in my head, but I am going to do some research before I get to designing anything.

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

Who is Tomas Quilaqueo?

Happy Saturday!!

Before I go any further into this project, I just wanted to make a post discussing who my subject is and why I think he will be a great subject for my documentary.

Tomas Quilaqueo is a senior in high school and happens to also be in my Aice media class. However, outside of school, Tomas keeps himself very busy with other things. Tomas has a natural talent for videography, photography, and editing both videos and photos.

While some people just keep their talents to themselves, Tomas has chosen to turn his talents into a lifestyle. He has figured out a way to get paid just by doing something he loves!

Tomas created short video recaps of evens put on by one of the top fraternities at Florida State University. He also creates videos for clubs at school, and photographs at the basketball games and other school events. To many people, he has literally become known as the camera man. His Instagram feed is filled with many examples of his work as well!

Tomas has also chosen to take his talent and passion to the next level as he will be attending the Savannah College of Art and Design to study film starting in the fall.

I think Tomas will be a great subject to interview. Because he knows so much about the topic and about his passion, I feel that he will be able to give great answers to all of the questions that I ask. He is also constantly working on new projects, which gives me many opportunities to get good b-roll.

I am really looking forward to interviewing him and creating this excerpt!!!

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

Coronavirus / BIG Project Update

Happy Thursday!!

So, it has officially been announced that we will not be back in physical school for a while. After spring break, we will start doing school online.

In addition, I never heard back from administration and I really don't think that I am going to be able to interview them.

With almost everyone in self quarantine, I have decided that I am going to change my topic to one where I know I will have available subjects. I was sitting in my bed yesterday trying to think of a topic that was interesting to me and one that I knew I would be excited and motivated to work on.

Then... as I was receiving a call from my very talented friend, Tomas Quilaqueo, it hit me! I was going to create a docuseries on young talent. It is going to be a series where each episode focuses on a young person who has a natural talent and passion for something. Tomas also already agreed to be my subject!

The specific five minute excerpt that I will be creating is going to focus on Tomas and how he likes to express his talent. For example, I am going to get shots of him in action. Whether it's him filming, or taking pictures, or editing, that will be my b-roll.

My next thing that I need to work on is compiling a list of questions that focuses directly on things about Tomas and his many talents. I will go into more detail on that in my next blog.

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

STRESS! STRESS! STRESS!

Happy... or not so happy Tuesday.


Due to issues with the Coronavirus, school for this week has been cancelled. Also, in addition to having no school, I am also quarantined in my house. This is definitely going to have some setbacks on my project because all of my subjects were supposed to be filmed during school, as they are all administrators.

Yesterday I emailed one of the administrators to see if there was any way I could still come into school at some point to film this week. I have not yet heard an answer, but I will keep you updated.

If there is no way for me to film my subjects, I will have to find new subjects to focus on. I don't really know how long I am going to be kept in my house for, but hopefully it's not too long.

Depending on the availability of other subjects for this topic, I may also consider scratching my whole idea and starting over:(.

I am still going to try to reach out and hopefully hear back from administration at my school, but I have a feeling it's not going to work out.

So, I guess for now, all I can focus on is washing my hands, keeping my distance from others, and making sure to keep myself healthy.

Hopefully I will have more information about school and other things soon!

Until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

Subject Update!!

Happy Friday!!!

Today I got called down to guidance during my second period. At first I was freaking out because I didn't know what I was being called down for. However, when I got down to the office, they informed me that they heard I was doing a documentary on vaping and were willing to be interviewed. I was really happy to hear this and we made plans for me to come in next week.

I still need to get in touch with the administration at the middle school and then I will have reached out to all of my subjects!

Now that I know exactly who I am interviewing from my school, I am going to try to create questions that are more tailored to the specific roles that each administrator plays within my school. I feel that this will help to diversify my answers between each subject and therefore give me more content to work with.

I need to try to think of questions that will make my documentary have a nice flow to it. Also, I am still trying to decide if I am going to do it like a compare and contrast style between the high school and middle school administrators.

Anyways, I will have more updates for you soon!

xoxo, Sophie

Website software!!

Happy Sunday!!

So, in the past, I have used Wix to create my websites. However, I kind of want to challenge myself and learn how to use a new software. I have the full version of Creative Cloud and one of the applications offered is called Dreamweaver.

I am going to try to play around with this application and see if I could learn how to use it well enough to create my website. If not, I am very experienced with Wix and would be happy to use it, but I just love trying to learn new software.

I have watched a couple Youtube videos that just go over the basics of Dreamweaver and teach its basic functions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKbvaPOvI84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORV1HOSgv2Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxiySWwkk7k

These are some of these videos I watched. It looks like this software includes a lot of coding in order to create the website. I don't have much experience with coding but I am going to continue to play around with it to see if it is simple coding that I can teach myself. If not, I am fine just working with Wix.

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

Website Brainstorming!!!

Happy Friday!

In addition to the actual excerpt, I also have to create a website. I have experience with creating websites in the past, so I'm not too nervous about this part of the project. However, I do want to do research on other documentary websites before I start creating my own.

Earlier in the year I watched a really good documentary called "Meru". I looked at this website to see what was included and how it was set up.

Right when you click on the website this is what you see. The background is the actual mountain, Meru. This documentary also won an award at the Sundace film festival, which you can also see right when you click onto the website.

What I really wanted to focus on was the tabs at the top. I was a little confused about what actual content to include within my website. However, after looking at these tabs, I have a better idea of what I am going to include.

About:

• overall description of series

Episodes:

• specific description of each episode

Distribution:

• places to find the series

Vaping awareness:

• vaping statistics
• how to help

Merch:

• merchandise for the series

As of now I think these are going to be my tabs. I am going to continue to look at some more website examples and I will keep you updated!

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

Questions!!

Happy Wednesday!!

So now that I have decided who I want to interview, before I can actually go interview them, I need a list of questions that I am going to ask each subject.

I want to try to emulate some of the same styles from the "Explained" series, and in order to do that I am going to ask each person the same questions.

Here are some questions I think I am going to ask.

1. Name/Position within school
2. How long has vaping been an issue within schools?
3. What are some things the school does to help prevent vaping from happening within schools?
4. What are some things the school does to help prevent vaping from happening at home?
5. What is the consequence of bringing a vaping device to school?
6. Do you think vaping within schools is increasing or decreasing?

I may or may not ask some other questions based off of the answers of each subject, but these are the main questions i’m going to ask. 

I am only creating a 5 minute excerpt, so I don’t need to create an extensive list of questions. Also, in addition to the answers from the subjects, I also want to try to include statistics and little animations within the excerpt which also takes time. 

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie 

Subject Search!!

Happy Tuesday!

I need to start figuring out exactly who I am going to interview for my excerpt that is focusing on school administration!! I want to try to interview at least three people.

For my first subject I am going to try to see if I can interview my school principal Mrs. Fried. I know that she will have a lot of important and valid information to share and she is very well spoken. I am going to email her to see if we can set up a time for me to come in and ask her some questions.

I also want to interview someone from the security department. They deal with the vaping problem everyday at school and so I feel that they would have a lot of good answers to my questions.

Lastly, I would like to interview someone from the middle school that is right next to my high school. I think it is important to stress that the vaping problem is not only occurring in high schools, but is also a problem that is prevalent in middle schools as well.

When I was doing some research I noticed that although the percentage of middle school vaping is lower than high school, there still is a percentage, and that percentage is rising. So, I feel that it is important to get the point of view of middle school administration as well. The principal at Falcon Cove Middle School is Mr. Carruth. I am going to reach out to him and see if him or another administrator would be willing to be interviewed.

I will keep you updated on everyone's responses!!

So, until next time!

xoxo, Sophie

"Explained"

Happy Sunday!

A couple of days ago I talked about how I was told to watch the "Explained" docuseries on Netflix. In addition to this series, there is also Sex, Explained and "The Mind, Explained".

This evening I watched a couple episodes from "Sex, Explained", as well as the "Explained" docuseries. The episodes were a lot shorter than I expected them to be, but in this case it was a good thing. It was very clear that these episodes are tailored to a much younger audience. The episodes moved at a very fast pace. The episodes still delivered a lot of valuable information without going into long and extensive detail. Each subject answer to each question was shown in about five seconds or less.

The episodes also included a lot of bright colors and animation of charts, graphs, and statistics.

Including these animations and colors is just one of the many other ways that these episodes appeal to younger audiences. 

After watching about four episodes, I have a lot of inspiration for ways that I can take my excerpt to the next level and make it much more appealing to a younger audience. As I was watching, I made a list of just a couple things I would like to try to emulate within my excerpt.

In the next week I am going to focus on compiling subject questions and possibly even start doing some animation research!

So, until next time! 

xoxo, Sophie