Episode #3: Cheyenne Desrosiers

Welcome back!

So, we've decided that my partner, Chey, will be the subject for the episode we are taking our 5 minute excerpt out of. Chey or I as the main subject is more convenient than finding an actor and it's one less person to schedule around.

I've been exploring more of the why behind our project. It's important to have a purpose; the driving force behind our project is that these negative misrepresentations result in muddling teen's self-image and lowering their self-esteems. SFGate did a poll at two honors English classes in Santa Rosa and asked teens if the media representation was accurate. Many teens responded negatively:

"It makes me sick that I can't turn on the TV without being insulted by the "ideal" image the media tries to send out to teens. All it does is lower people's self-esteem and self-worth." -Marisa Foppoli

"The media does not accurately portray teens. The media portrays what sells." -Hannah Van Sickle

This is why our project is so relevant. Teenagers are tired of being misrepresented and they seek to consume media that they can relate to. For each episode we want to focus on the collective stereotypes used and contradict them with each subject's specific story. Some of the stereotypes we are fighting are teens being called: lazy, ignorant, irresponsible, overemotional, and sheltered.

Sesame Street often focuses the content of some of their episode to a specific group in their target audience. Recently, they've decided to come out with an episode that will help their audience (you children) learn how to deal with having an incarcerated parent.

Within each episode we want to use a subject that will connect with each part of our target audience. As you may have noticed, Chey is Episode #3, we want the first two episodes to be people that can bring in a broader part of our audience. One of Chey's focuses in her episode is her upbringing in a single-parent household. Not all of our target audience will be able to relate so we made it Episode #3.

Tata for now!

Faces

Hey guys!

So, my partner was away for the weekend and I was left to continue the planning. So we planned out our intro but we have yet to pick out the subjects. It's going to be hard to pick out people because we want to find a solid 6 people to film on one day. We aren't sure about some of the choices we made for the documentary because we are unsure about how that's going to turn out in editing, sigh. However, it would be extremely inconvenient to gather this many people on one day TWICE, especially in the short period of time we have.  Our hope was to get it all done in one day; film in the morning, take a lunch break, and then continue filming in the afternoon.

Another aspect of picking out our subjects is diversity. Gen Zers want people who like them, people they can relate to. I've found many articles that confirm that Gen Z is extremely multicultural. According to MediaPost, it's "the largest ethnically diverse generational cohort the U.S. has ever seen." One of the reasons the hit TV series, Glee did so well was because of its diversity. The show featured all kinds of races, shapes and sizes, and sexualities. I want to make sure the group of subjects we use is a diverse cast in order to make this representation as genuine as possible.

Wish us luck in scheduling!

Planet Earth Inspo

Hello there!

Okay, so the first thing I decided to look into was other popular documentaries in the form of a mini-series. My eye caught on Planet Earth since I'm familiar with it. This is where my partner and I got our inspiration for our intro. Planet Earth uses the same intro and theme for each episode despite the different focus in content.We're doing a bunch of different episodes featuring a different individual per episode. Our plan for our intro is to use the same on in every episode as a way of creating cohesion. This will also help our target audience recognize us and better establish our show as a brand. It should be around 30-55 seconds long and it will feature all the individuals we plan on using in our miniseries for that season. Although we haven't decided if our documentary was going to be one season or more than one yet.

We were also inspired by this idea that we had seen in the TV series One Tree Hill. In this scene the character Brooke Davis stands strong against all the negativities and insecurities she's faced. We want to introduce our subjects with quick midshots of them covered in words typically used to characterize teenagers, or Gen Z. Words such as: lazy, overemotional, irresponsible, ignorant, etc. We would use the same words for every subject to establish this collective, inaccurate generalization (that we're determined to change). This would be followed by a cut to a black background and then the voices of the different subjects saying, "They call us ___" followed by a collective "They're wrong." Our initial idea was to use a narrator but then we decided on using the voices of our individual subjects to personalize it and make the content connect with our viewers more. After this we have each subject say multiple "We are___"  statements and  at the end of the series of shots they would say collectively "... and we are not who they think we are."
So that's the current plan for the intro, we have the details pretty much down and the rest will come through in the shooting and editing process.

I'm looking forward to the next post!

ClassWORK

Hey everyone!

So my partner and I managed to make some pretty good progress in class the other day! Woot, Woot!
So, first thing is first, the purpose of our documentary is still to redefine the modern teen. (Yay, for consistency!) Now, we have decided to change our "full-length" documentary idea into a marginalized mini-series called We Are Not Who You Think We Are. A mini-series would provide us more flexibility and then we can focus an episode per individual. I really like this idea because it gives us breadth and depth on our topic.

We haven't decided how we are going to distribute it  yet, but since our target audience is "Gen Z" I figure it would be a good idea to stream it instead  of play it on TV. I've found quite a few articles that talk about Gen Z and their tendency to stream. Apparently, 70% of Gen Z prefer streaming over watching cable and 50% have never even had cable.

I'll be back after some more research!

A Slice of Teen Life

Alright guys let's do this!

Hello everyone!

So I've been delving further into the research I was talking about with the poetic and performative documentaries. This means I've been spending some quality time on YouTube, not that that's anything new. I've also been giving some thought into the documentary idea and the mode in which I  hope to portray it.

This documentary is called Fear. The narrative is pretty weak in my opinion, however, I really like the visuals. One thing I've learned with poetic documentaries is that they can be pretty unconnected (visually). I honestly can't say how much this irritates my control freak/perfectionist self. I know if I do a poetic mode, my documentary will definitely connect visually. Now before you say anything, I'm not technically straying from conventions, I'm just adding a little Kassidy to my piece.




I've decided that I really want to do a poetic mode to showcase teenagers challenging their stereotypes in the media. My idea so far is that it would have different people doing a number of different things. (Yes, I know, it sounds pretty ambiguous. Stay with me here!) For example, I could have some footage of a friend who loves soccer and hopes to play D1 in college. Or maybe some shots of kids from debate talking about the current political sphere. It can truly be a number of things and my partner and I essentially have Cypress Bay to use as a resource. I know plenty of inspiring kids in my media class alone!

 I did a marketing campaign earlier this year where I had to market a deck of cards. In my campaign I focused on characterizing the playing cards and making them represent passionate people. I ended up getting some footage of people pursuing their passions and essentially being a "Queen" or a "King" in their life. My point is, I have an idea of the kind of content I want to capture with this. I guess it's time to talk to my partner and brainstorm some more on the details (shots, storyboarding, etc.)


Send me some good karma!

Man in the Mirror

Back again!

So while I'm focusing on the technical aspects of my project, I'm also looking more into our audience, our genre, and all the gory, but significant, details. We've actually learned quite a bit about Gen-Z this past year and I have found plenty of information in my notes. Also, my partner surprised me with a cool idea that really focuses on our generation, more specifically teenagers! Hence, making our target audience mainly teenagers. So when I mentioned looking into our audience it may or mar not have involved socializing ;). Anyways, I'm really liking the new idea and I hope this one is the one!

So, our focus is on representation in the media, specifically on teenagers. As teenagers and Gen-Zs, we've seen plenty of misrepresentation of teenagers in the media. We want to change it. Well, at the very least we're trying to be the change we want to see in the world.

Essentially, the problem is that the representation for teenagers is negative. It often portrays us as over-emotional, irresponsible, ignorant, self-centered,  and a number of negative things. Sure, sometimes we can be any one of those adjectives above, however, that applies to every age group. Most teenagers aren't like this, and we want to prove it. I am and I know plenty of, hardworking, active, responsible, empathetic, and dedicated teenagers. So many of my friends are inspired and motivated that it truly hurts me to see us portrayed in this way.

So, now that you're all caught up please wish me more of that beautiful luck!

It's All About Style

Hey Everyone!

So after our march play failed I decided it's time to go back to the drawing board and start on square one. I know, it's incredibly intimidating! My metaphorical idea board was coming up blank because all the ideas I had didn't seem to fit and I wasn't going anywhere. SO, I decided to really start fresh by doing some good old research again. Instead of focusing on conventions, I looked more into different documentary types and styles. I found a pretty good website that gave me a good explanation on the 6 types of documentaries. My two favorites were:

Poetic Documentaries
First seen in the 1920s. Poetic Documentaries are very much what they sound like. They focus on experiences, images and showing the audience the world through a very different set of eyes. Abstract and loose with narrative, the poetic sub-genre can be very unconventional and experimental in form and content. The ultimate goal is to create a feeling rather than a truth.

Performative DocumentariesPerformative Documentaries are an experimental combination of styles used to stress subject experience and share an emotional response to the world. They often connect personal accounts or experience juxtaposed with larger political or historical issues. This has sometimes been called the "Michael Moore" style, as he often uses his own personal stories as a way to construct social truths (without having to argue the validity of their experiences).

I'm hoping to work backwards and while my creativity and good ideas hide from me, look at the more technical elements of my project. I know with poetic mode it would be a lot of focus on planning but I believe in myself and my partner. The performative route seems interesting and something I better connect to. I've got to admit it's a bit exposing seeing as we're probably using a personal account!

Wish me some more luck please!

Group Meeting

Alright! So, we had our first group meeting with other members from our class. I really enjoyed the experience and got some good feedback for the project. I gave feedback to my group mates that I hope really helps them develop their project even further.


One of the pieces of advice I was given concerns the structure of our project. Cheyenne and I had decided that our project would be an entire documentary about social activism and then we would make an excerpt on the feminism section. However, my group mates  gave me the idea to make our entire project a documentary series; some examples are Making a Murderer and Abstract.          
I really like this idea and I think it makes more sense for the idea my partner and I have in mind. It would be harder for the documentary to flow if we show different social movements and this way we can go for more depth and achieve the breadth we originally wanted. By doing a series we can focus on each movement in depth and make multiple episodes.

Another important piece of advice was on how we need to have a stronger purpose. Our idea was to showcase social activism essentially in a more positive light. However, we hadn't yet figured out the why. One of my group mates told me I need to explain how it changes people and why people should be active. They were right, we had yet to consider what our purpose really was and how we were going to show it. Basically, Cheyenne and I have a lot of work to do because we need to re-plan and re-think our project.

Ta ta for now!

The First Attempt

Surprise, surprise our first attempt didn't exactly go as planned. Our initial idea was to go to the women's protest on March 8, which we did, and film. We had hoped to film the protest as well as interview the people there. We wrote out what questions to ask  beforehand:

PROTESTORS: 

⁃What is your name?

⁃How old are you?

⁃Do you identify as a feminist?

⁃How were you made aware of this event?

⁃What does A Day Without A Woman mean to you?

⁃Why did you come here today?

⁃Did you go to work today? What reasons led you to that decision?

⁃Is this your first time participating in social activism?

⁃ Did you go to the Women’s March in D.C., or locally, or not at all? Why?

⁃How did you originally become interested in advocating for women’s rights?

⁃What do you hope to see as a result of this protest and strike?

⁃Are there specific women’s rights issues you are passion about?

⁃What steps, if any, will you be taking after today to continue promoting this message of female equality?

MEN:

⁃What is your name?

⁃How old are you?

⁃Do you identify as a feminist?

⁃Have you faced any challenges as a result of this identification?

⁃How were you made aware of this event?

⁃What does A Day Without A Woman mean to you?

⁃Why did you come here today?

⁃Is this your first time participating in social activism?

⁃ Did you go to the Women’s March in D.C., or locally, or not at all? Why?

⁃How did you originally become interested in advocating for women’s rights?

⁃What do you hope to see as a result of this protest and strike?

⁃Are there specific women’s rights issues you are passion about?

⁃What steps, if any, will you be taking after today to continue promoting this message of female equality?

⁃How do you feel about your role in today’s protest?

⁃What would you say to other men who are not feminists?

BYSTANDERS:

⁃What is your name?

⁃How old are you?

⁃Do you identify as a feminist?

⁃Do you know what is happening at Bayfront today?

⁃Do you know what A Day Without A Woman is? 

⁃If no, explain, and ask:

⁃If you had known, would you be striking and/or protesting today? Why?

⁃What is your opinion on the protests occurring at Bayfront today?

⁃Are you supporter of women’s rights?

⁃How come you aren’t marching?

⁃Do you feel as if marching is effective for this issue?

⁃Are you an activist for any other issues?

However, we didn't get the chance to interview anyone due to unfortunate circumstances. The women's protest was honestly a great experience, the whole time felt so energetic and powerful. It inspired me to attend future marches and to be more active in my life. We haven't gone through all the footage we got but some of it pretty good. Our hope is that we can use some of the footage in the excerpt instead of focusing it on the event itself. Now, we have to outline a new game plan for our excerpt. I think we'll try to get interviews from people at school in the feminist club and from professionals, such as the women who organized the January march.

Goodbye for now.

Update: Progress has been made!

Hi guys!

Alright, so we have an idea. Are you ready? Well, you better be.

So, we originally were trying to find something within the feminism lense. We were having a tough time finding something that we could focus on and document well. We couldn't quite settle on doing an issue such as catcalling or gender pay for our main story. SO, because we are geniuses who are interested in social activism we thought to ourselves, "Why not make our overall documentary focused on social activism?" Even better, we decided to focus our perspective on teenagers being socially active and asking the big question of why they fight. Since, we're probably doing a direct narrative then we can tie in our thoughts about this generation being transformative and active.

NOW, I know what you're saying "but what about the 5-minute excerpt?" Yes, well for that we decided that the excerpt would be a piece from the middle of the documentary about one of the social movements. First, we need to do some more research about the upcoming events for social movements that we could do. We plan on picking the movement that will be easiest for us to get a lot of footage and information on. Here's a short list of some of the topics we came up with so far:

1. LGBTQ Rights
2. Racial Equality
    -Within this section would be the Black Lives Matter Movement or the rise of Islamophobia and the activist response to it.
3. Feminism/Women's Rights
-Within this section could be abortion rights or other feminist-related topics such as, equal pay.
4. Ending Violence Against Women

We've done some research so far and we found out about the International Women's Day strike happening on March 8. The strike is called 'A Day Without a Women' and it will be happening on a global scale. There will be an event happening locally in Miami, however, there have been basic guidelines proved for anyone who wants to participate by the planners of the January Women's March. We don't know for sure if we will go to the event but we will decide whether or not to cover the event, we most likely will though.

Alright, see you in the next post!

Back and Better Than Ever!

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to my blog. Due to this year's portfolio project I am once again back on my blog! I've got a surprise in store for all my readers because my project this year is so different from last year's. This year I will be doing an excerpt of a documentary with my partner Cheyenne.

Now, a documentary is all about capturing a slice of life and I am very excited for this year's project. Chey and I have been friends for a long time now so I'm certain we'll do great. We both have an interest in social activism, particularly, feminism and we've been looking forward to focusing our project on something in that area. We spent the better part of the week brainstorming an idea on how to capture what we wanted in a documentary.

Here are some conventions of a documentary that we are interested in implementing:
-shorter than full-length films
-hand held camera movement (to add realism)
-narrative format
-interviews to progress story
-crosscutting/parallel editing
-non-diegetic sound (voiceover)
-selective editing
-music
-infographics

Wish us luck!