Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Critical Reflection

It's critical reflection time! Below is my extremely long CR essay discussing my overall experience creating this portfolio along with the accomplishments I believe my project achieved and the facets in which it could have improved.

          The episodic documentary Create: Breathing Life into Every Medium strives to represent one primary theme: The brilliance and variety of media-creation in all its different mediums. Through the depiction of 5 subjects, Constanza, Josh, Sai, Riley, and Abby, the piece encompasses the dedication and the specified techniques that surround media creation in all its separate forms, thus exemplifying to audiences the beauty and importance of every media mode ranging from print to audio.

          Structured in a distinct manner, Create resembles a multitude of the conventions indicated in the existing documentary Abstract: The Art of Design, a piece my partner Lauren and I took vast inspiration from. Amidst brainstorming ideas, Lauren suggested what she titled “a documentary about a documentary,” a thought we eventually developed into a “documentary about media production as a whole.” Following our idea construction, Lauren and I were required to discover the structure of our episodic piece, a process which marked itself as an ultimate gateway for research and which led Lauren and I to Abstract. As a documentary about careers in the arts field, Abstract follows a separate subject, all with a distinct job, in each episode of its seasons, a structural model Lauren and I concluded would be optimal for Create as well, thus resulting in our documentary representing a different medium in each episode. Furthermore, considering the necessity for all of the contect used to be specifically created by Lauren and I, archived footage, a common documentary convention, was not an option for Create. Inspiringly, Abstract does a wonderful job of including staged b-roll within their episodes, depicting subjects pretending to do their tasks in replacement of incorporating photos from the past employments they discuss. Once more modeling our plans after the wonderful Netflix documentary, Lauren and I, in a way, both challenged and abided by documentary conventions with the disregard for archived footage and the simultaneous inclusion of staged b-roll depicting subjects in their duties. 

          In additional research, Lauren and I viewed separate pieces in order to widen our knowledge database for documentaries. Personally, I watched another Netflix piece, American Nightmare, to gain greater familiarity with staged b-roll while also noting a new technique: handheld cameras. While I am aware of what a handheld shot is, I felt that the manners in which I was accustomed to employing the technique merely appeared unprofessional. Understanding that handhelds are a major convention for documentaries, I concluded I needed to view examples. American Nightmare did a wonderful job of illustrating how a handheld shot may be incorporated in a documentary while maintaining the poise and elegance of the extract, despite the piece being the exact opposite of elegant; the mixture between steady and shaky included in a single shot, modeled by my partner and I through a handheld tripod instead, perfectly combined the humane aspects crucial to a documentary and the coherent, non-messy look necessary to translate a meaningful story effectively. Moreover, American Nightmare’s employment of staged b-roll, although the same technique, varied greatly from Abstract’s examples. While in Abstract the primary subjects were almost always included in the staged b-roll, American Nightmare did a wonderful job of recreating moments which were described in the interview that they, even the subject, had no access to, such as the conversations in a detective room, a strategy Lauren and I utilized for the 5 minute extract representing Sai and Josh. In the beginning of their interviews, Sai and Josh discuss the “Jason Taylor Foundation,” the official sponsor for their podcast, all discussions which did not include their presence and facts we did not have access to, such as the foundation’s creation of a podcast sector. Drawing from American Nightmare, Lauren and I got creative in the absence of the subjects and employed shots such as a printed Jason Taylor logo in a picture frame to represent Sai and Josh’s introduction of the sponsor. 

          Interestingly, the research pieces we viewed not only assisted Lauren and I in the visual creation of our portfolio project but also in the brand-developing aspect. Hoping to represent the true essence and nature of our documentary, Lauren and I concluded that the aesthetic we aimed for would need to translate a theme of creativity and art, an idea Abstract further assisted in developing. Abstract’s logo, specifically the title letters, are colored in a rainbow ombre shade that Lauren and I modeled Create’s tagline, ‘breathing life into every medium.’ Although the idea to color the tagline in a rainbow-like sequence originated from my classmate Yoav, who believed the colorful look would perfectly encompass the wide-range of media we hoped to represent as well as the creative mood we strived to translate, Abstract’s actual employment of the facet facilitated Lauren and I’s designing of the tagline, suggesting an ombre intra-letter appearance rather than an inter-letter, separate colors each look. 

          Extending the brand from the documentary piece, marked by the episode introductory logo, Lauren and I shaped both our social media and magazine article around the idea of a creative message as well. The Instagram page we formulated, which includes both images and videos, engulfs a variety of different templates that allowed us to translate the open-minded, imaginative message of the Create brand. For instance, on our “meet the subjects” posts, as opposed to merely posting images of the subjects with an introductory caption, Lauren and I strategically created layouts for the three posts, each including elements for the specified medium, such as audio waves for Josh and Sai, along with an ombre, colorful background to further extend the rainbow idea to all components. Concerning the magazine article, Lauren and I concluded our brand should be translated in increasingly covert manners, considering the article is supposed to be written by a third party interviewer. Consequently, the layout of the magazine primarily surrounds the color blue instead of the rainbow appearance as blue is a shade commonly associated with creativity and imagination. 




          Yet, in reflection, I thoroughly believe Lauren and I have room for improvement in our brand development, specifically regarding our social media page. While some posts are highly creative, such as the previously mentioned “meet the subjects” templates along with videos such as our blooper reel sequence, some other publications lacked much thought or imagination behind them. For instance, the behind the scenes post, which includes pictures from filming, merely encompasses a slideshow of images in a basic and unoriginal manner. Instead, I believe we could have employed another upbeat and imaginative template to illustrate the ‘BTS’ moments we hoped to share, thus further fortifying and extending the creativity aura important to Create’s branding. 

          Despite brand development flaws, Create’s Instagram page persevered and succeeded in engaging with the documentary’s target audience: High school students of both genders aged 14-19. Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most popular social media platforms attractive to a younger audience, such as the one intended for Create. Although Lauren and I considered other applications, specifically TikTok due to its high number of young adult viewers, we ultimately concluded that Instagram would be optimal considering there is more opportunity for audience engagement with content on the platform. For example, on Instagram, Lauren and I had the ability to post question stickers for followers to inquire about the documentary, a crucial relationship-building facet that TikTok does not offer. In addition to its higher interaction opportunities, Instagram, unlike TikTok, allows for a combination of picture and video posts, thus increasing mine and Lauren’s variety of posts. Although videos such as our publicized blooper reel or mini-episode trailers are crucial to holding audience attention, pictures are a perfect manner of ensuring followers do not grow fatigued of the video content and consequently lose interest in the social media page. Lastly, unlike TikTok, Instagram allows account holders to permanently save stories on what is called Instagram “highlights,” a feature TikTok does not allow for their stories that increases audience engagement with pages as highlights are the easiest facets to click on at the top of an account and as they are short-timed and thus attention-holding. Furthermore, the magazine article, written as a directorial interview, engages with audiences in a specific manner. While the print component does not distinctly address viewers, the colloquial language often included, especially through the quotes incorporated, covertly intrigues the target audience as it facilitates the content and its messages. 


          Regarding the documentary component’s engagement with audiences, Lauren and I believe Create largely connects with viewers due to its representation. Although in a wider sense Create encompasses the social issue of media creation and the plethora of mediums included in a creative spectrum, the documentary also largely represents the student social group considering all the subjects are in high school and merely leading hobbies, an entertaining side of life common to all young adults. The separate episodes’ depiction of regular teenagers discussing their passions and jobs outside of school is not only a mode of representation that Create employs but also a manner of audience engagement; the documentary component of the project connects with the target audience by merely illustrating the social group in an accurate and refreshing light, diverging away from the overdone stressed teenager storylines. However, retrospectively, I feel that Lauren and I could have enhanced other components, specifically the magazine article, to achieve the same representation accomplishments as the documentary. While the magazine template does a wonderful job of translating the brand, with the exception of one mere paragraph discussing the documentary’s theme, the article does not touch on any representation facets that may have further extended mine and Lauren’s goals in depicting the social group in this niche manner. 

          Whilst a challenging and testing experience, my participation in the production process of the documentary Create: Breathing Life into Every Medium was a deeply formative and insightful journey which strengthened mine and my partner’s skills as media students and aspiring communications workers. The brand development, visual creation, marketing, and representational tactics I have learned throughout this journey will be carried into my professional and personal life to enhance the work and value I output into society.


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Critical Reflection

It's critical reflection time! Below is my extremely long CR essay discussing my overall experience creating this portfolio along with t...