Some social media research...

Given that our short film is going to be a dark comedy centered around a single, fourth-wall breaking protagonist I thought it would be useful to take a look into the social medias of some similar stories!

Media text: Fleabag

Social media tool: Fleabag instagram (@bbcfleabag)

Description of types of posts: The posts begin from promo of the second season. While It starts with a 9 post mural teasing the themes of the 2nd season, the rest of the posts are a sort of "meme-ification" of the show. They take short but attention grabbing clips and stills, and post them in a meme format. The most common theme between the posts being specifically moments featuring a direct address, framing it as a relatable moment.Later on, posts begin featuring reposts of tweets about the show, photography from the set of the show, and occasionally a relevant meme, reformatted to reference the show. In the end the grand majority of content seems to be 5-8 second clips from the show made to grab attention, and leave the audience with intrigue.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fleabag (@bbcfleabag)

    

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Towards the beginning all posts on the instagram feature the BBC-3 channel logo, however around awards season, the posts lose the logo, it comes back later in the year as a pink frame around every post. From that point forward nearly every "meme" follows a BBC-3 specific branding and format, up until the last post which drops it.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence
I think the most important take-away is the type of content, by sharing short clips and stills, we can grab peoples attention, and build interest in the show. The decision to only post 5-8 second clips keeps a certain mystery around the content of the show, that viewers are only able to satisfy by actually watching the show in its entirety. I also think we should take note to make sure some kind of watermark or logo is on every post, because clips could easily be reshared out of context, and without a watermark or call to action, viewers wont know where to find the source of the clip.

Media text: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Social media tool: Crazy Ex Girlfriend instagram (@cw_crazyxgf)

Description of types of posts: The instagram seems to have had a rough start, the first few posts seem to be from a time where the show's branding was still a bit up in the air. The first few posts feature a different logo, but they also started the account a whole 3 months before the shows release. Around the 2 month mark seems to have been when they finalized the style. From here posts include character introductions, premiere countdowns, and stills from the show with captions teasing the plotlines in the show. The instagram also heavily features the primary key art, using it whenever possible. They also make sure to heavily feature the lead played by Rachel Bloom, who had reached online virality at the time for her comedy music videos. There was also a brief partnership with a greeting card company, featuring quotes in the same humor and themes of the show.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (@cw_crazyxgf)

 

Description of how branding is developed (or not): This is one of the better branded instagram pages I've seen. Each posts features brand specific fonts and colors, as well as following a format. The posts sometimes include editorial promo photography, and most promotional posts are either a still from the show, or some kind of "white void" style photo with the lead actress as the main focus of the photo.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: I like how this page consistently uses the key art and logo for the show, and beyond that develops its own personality in the wording of their posts. All the posts feature the same graphic style and almost never stray away from it. I also like how they did a countdown for the premiere of the show, and I think we could do something similar with our short film's instagram.

Media text: Deadpool Movies

Social media tool: Deadpool X account (@deadpoolmovie)

Description of types of posts: All posts are written in character, as if the account is being run by the character himself. They also all feature some kind of media outside of the text post, whether its a photo, video, or an embed of another post from a related account. Videos include teasers and highlight reels from any upcoming movies, while photos are mainly posters or stills from the movie. The account also frequently reposts tweets from Marvel Studios and Ryan Reynolds that discuss the movie.

Peggy. Dogpool. Mary Puppins. She goes by many names. She’s obviously a very special cast member. What many don’t know, is that she was also the Intimacy Coordinator on #DeadpoolAndWolverine. Which was a complete disaster, start to finish.

What kind of Intimacy Coordinator says… pic.twitter.com/8PYEH5dqz2

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 12, 2024

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Branding is mainly developed through the tone of writing. Every post is written from the character's perspective, and in his own voice, By building this personality around the account it makes the posts easily repostable and recognizable to audiences. Beyond this nearly all the photos or videos are specifically of either posters or teasers which include brand elements like the key art or logos.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: This profile is the most developed of the 3, I think its important to take from this one that its not just the content of the post that matters but the personality and tone of how its posted that really contribute to the accounts overall branding. Creating a visual style for the brand in the end may be an easier task than creating a brand voice to write from.

errr Scheduling?

 Today my group got on a video call to discuss how we plan on splitting up the time we are going to dedicate to each section of the project.

One major issue is that we all have a huge competition coming up called STN, which basically is taking a whole week of time from us. Luckily (or not) its next week! Meaning that because its early on, we'll be fully in the preproduction stage, so it wont be interrupting the production itself. 

So ultimately, our plan is to break up the work in 2s. Were givinf ourselves 2 weeks to finalize scripting, storyboarding, casting, and scheduling, 2 weeks to film, and 2 more weeks to edit. This is simple but I think it will be the most effective approach, especially since the timeline neatly converges to allow for the 2nd week of filming to hit square on spring break!

I think this schedule will definently give us a good shot at making something were proud of, but well just have to see...

OFFICIAL SCHEDULE

Week 1 - 2/17-2/21

    - Decide Project Type

    - General Planning and Scheduling

    - Brainstorming Story

Week 2 - 2/22-2/28

    - Case studies

    - Genre Research

    - Develop key plot details

Week 3 - 3/1-3/7

    - Half of week consumed by STN

    - Pin down plot points

    - Begin scripting when we return (3/4)

    - Decide on brand identity for social

Week 4 - 3/8-3/14

    - Finalize Script

    - Plan shooting locations

    - Shot list

    - Plan shooting times

    - Create social media posts

Week 5 - 3/15-3/21

    - Begin shooting

    - Start title graphics

    - Begin posting on social media

Week 6 - 3/22-3/27

    - Wrap shooting

    - Sort footage

    - Postcard Design

 Week 7 - 3/29-4/4

    - Finalize edit

    - Announce distribution plan on social media

Week 8 - 4/5-4/10

    - Write critical reflection

Portfolio Project Part 2 Electric Boogaloo

 Ignoring the extremely cliche titling of this post, can we tell im excited?

For our portfolio project my team has decided to create the short film package. Im running it back with my documentary group, so expect a perfectly adequate amount of effort squeezed into a regrettably short time-span. Im excited to finally make what i would consider to be my first short film that I play a larger role in writing. Ive always been more of a camera guy but its going to be nice to excercise that writers muscle.

When we got together to discuss ideas, we bounced around between many different concepts. Naturally we came up with nearly a million different ideas involving vampires. One with witches, and one involving my dog turning human which sparked the concersation of which of our friends was most like my dog Bono (We decided luke)

The last and most promising idea weve gotten so far, was something revolving the main character consistently talking to the camera, treating it sort of like a character within the story. This one is for sure the most exciting to me and im excited ro refine it and see where it goes!

Reflecting Critically...

“Faith” explores the role that religion can play in someone's life. While systems of belief may differ, its important to show that they are connected by a central theme: Community. How can faith bring people together? What purpose does it serve for its followers?

We made the choice to let religious leaders and followers speak for themselves. By interviewing the Rabbi at the temple and the Priests at the church, we gave them the pulpit to express how their faith brings their community together. Directly interviewing these leaders allowed us to represent their respective religions from an inside perspective, emphasizing the strongest of human connections to faith.

In retrospect, this angle may have had an unintentional effect on the message of the documentary. If we had more subjects, and more perspectives, we could've had a much more nuanced story bridging throughout the documentary. One that showed both the beauty and hardships of religion, especially in relation to religious trauma and anti-semitism, which are topics that go unaddressed in the documentary

To engage our audiences, we decided to feature an animated opening sequence. The original inspiration from this came from the professor of theology we interviewed. When we originally heard the hindu story of the 3 blind men and the elephant, I was fascinated by how much it connected to the story we wanted to tell. Animating this story felt like a perfect way to set the tone and describe the purpose of our documentary, while also setting a specific visual style for it.

As a main topic for the documentary, we focused on a story that is present in both the bible and torah. The story of Abraham provided a scripture representation of the complex relationship between man and god that we felt was able to perfectly compare the two religions featured. However, when we received feedback from our classmates, we realized where the implementation of this story fell flat. Many of our classmates who weren’t previously familiar with the story felt that it was hard to understand, and didn't connect to the rest of the documentary. In future versions of this documentary, we will need to be more clear and purposeful with the implementation of this story, in a way that everyone, regardless of knowledge on the topic, will be able to understand.

Our research helped us to understand what our documentary needed to show to evoke the feeling we wanted. Two large influences on our documentary were Netflix's “Abstract”, with its use of vibrant graphics, and “why nobody knows what curry is” from the YouTube Channel Answer in Progress. While Abstract informed what a larger scale production looked like, the YouTube documentary showed us how to make a personal connection to an audience, and were able take inspiration from its graphic and narrative style. It also helped us to select music that set the tone, switching between inspirational pieces, to more heavenly and ascendant pieces, which created the perfect blend for our documentary.

These animated sequences at the beginning and end broke from traditional documentary style By taking some inspiration from YouTube documentaries rather than more professional pieces we were able to combine the format of professional documentation, with that of a more personal and introspective piece.

We also made some conscious choices to stray from the typical conventions of documentaries. Watching documentaries like “American Promise,” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop” emphasized a more shaky, verite style of documentary. We decided to specifically diverge from this approach. Instead using more locked-down shots, or smoother motion in B-roll which emphasized the symbolism present in a lot of religious spaces. This created a more “broadcast-style” of documentary, as well as lifting it to a more ascendant, or airy tone, rather than a grounded one.

We also used a strong presence with our narration. While most of the documentaries we studied didn’t include much narration, we decided that it was necessary for creating the tone, and establishing a clear direction for the documentary. This narration helped bridge together connections between a lot of our subjects that would not be as apparent without.

Looking back, I would've explained the story of Abraham more clearly since viewers unfamiliar with it felt left out. I would've explored the real challenges these faith communities face today to add more nuance, and I would’ve included more, and higher quality animations that could draw in the viewers attention more, since it did feel slow at times.

In the end, I think our final product exceeded my original expectations. The experience of creating it opened my mind to how to create purpose through techniques in a way that engaged audiences and represented the topics and people we were exploring.

Making a cute little elephant :)

 Okay so setting the scene back up, Our group met back up at Panera to finalize an edit.

My glorious partners Zach and Aneesa were on the grind, working on a first draft of an edit the day before.

When we arrived, Zach and Nico got to work on laying out the new B-roll we had just captured, while I, the bumbling idiot, had to drive back home to pick up the laptop i forgot.

Once I finally got back, I was able to finally do what makes me happy, animating!!

Was it a smart use of my time to spend 3 hours rotating an elephant?? maybe not, but it brought me joy so I think that counts for something. After this, I animated the actual sequence, which would be the beginning of our documentary. In it, we explain the Hindu description of faith, where 3 blind men all feel an elephant, yet none of them will ever be able to truely understand what it is they are feeling. I thought this would be a good opener for the documentary because it is something that grabbed my attention during the research, and I thought it would do a good job of establishing a tone for the doc.

After doing that I'm not sure if there was something in the air or if I was genuinely just burnt out, but I proceeded to work on the graphics package, including lower thirds, a title, and end credits, but they all just ended up turning kind of bad!

However, life goes on, and my AP gov teacher gave us a free period the next morning, so it was back to the grind for me! I think coming back at it with a fresh mind and body actually helped me, because within that hour I was able to animate a completely new graphics package, from scratch, that I liked A LOTT better than the previous one! Once those were done I sent them over to master editor Zach, where I would patiently wait for the final product.

This came later that night, and It was low-key a BANGER!! and you can watch it here!

Filming, Filming, and more Filming.

 I feel as if im coming off one of the most stressful weeks of my life. 
To recap for everyone, Last weekend we filmed friday and saturday at the temple, interviewin the Rabbi and other followers of Judaism. 

Still from what we shot at the Temple

Due to scheduling conflicts, the interview we had with the original church we planned on filming at, we had to come up with a new location and interview subject. I reached out over email to another local church, and they didn't get back to us, so me and Nico showed up to their recpetion office on monday to ask about it in person, but they couldn't really help us.

Tuesday morning, we were saved. Our group decided as one last desperate effort to call the Priest directly through the number listed on the website, and to our surprise he actually answered, and was going to be coming to our school to speak with a club.

It felt like just when we were absolutely cooked, things started taking a turn for the better finally. We got our stuff together, and Zach and I called in late to working a football livestream in order to interview the Priest, and it turned out really well!!

Still from the church

From then we interviewed the other priest on thursday in the church, where we were also able to get some pretty nice shots of the church while empty. This is where the scheduling got a little cluttered. This past weekend we had a week long competition called STN Challenges, the general idea was that all of us would be busy creating a video for the competition. This situation ruled out our Friday evening, and all of Saturday. So sunday morning, after wrapping up filming for the competition, Nico and I went to the morning Mass to record some B-roll, and it ended up turning out pretty well. After this we regrouped with Zach and Aneesa at Panera for the next steps...

I was honestly surprised I was able to make this schedule work, and I feel like this weekend, despite the stress, I was able to create 2 full bodies of work that Im actually really proud of!!

Starting our doc...

It is officially time to start out documentaries!! Im glad to be working with a good group, however the 2 week deadline does stress me out slightly!! Especially since were gearing back up into competition practices for my TV Production class. 

For the documentary I'm working with my friends Zach, Aneesa and Nico, and we've already established our idea. Zach and Aneesa have been wanting to create a documentary about faith for a very long time, more specifically about the connections between the two for a long time.

We started by planning out or structure, and deciding on potential subjects and locations. We ended up deciding on two nearby locations, a temple and a church, hopefully being able to interview the rabbi and the priest.

When thinking about the stylization of the documentary, I really loved the style that came out of this short documentary that was uploaded to youtube by the channel Answer In Progress. I really liked the style of narration where she almost felt like a part of the story.

I also really loved how they incorporated motion graphics into the opening sequence, and I would love to do something similar in the documentary!

Overall im excited to see where this project goes! we have a clear vision, and we plan to begin filming over this next free weekend! We already have an interview with the rabbi on friday so I hope that goes well!!