Weekly progress & plan

Here is my weekly progress & plan for this project 

Week	Start Date		Task		Blogpost Title	Content	Deadline
W1	30 September	Pre Production	Research	1	Brief
				2	Team
				3	Weekly Progress
				4	Preliminary Research	Broad genre research	W3
W2	7 October		Research	5	Research: Industry	Who makes music videos?	W3
W3	14 October		Research	6	Research: Genre	Codes and Conventions of your genre	W4
W4	21 October		Plan	7	Statement of Intent	Your initial proposal	W5
				8	Theory of Stardom: Richard Dyer	A summary of the class, plus your example	W7
W5	28 October		Plan	9	Moodboard	Your visual style	W7
				10	Lyric Sheet	Breakdown your song into scenes	W7
				11	Storyboard	Shot by shot plan	W7
W6	4 November		Plan	12	Song Research	Background of your song	W7
				13	Screen Test	star auditions	W7
				14	Classwork	How to: Camera, MeS, Sound, Edit	W7
W7	11 November		Plan	15	Location scout & Risk Assessment		W7
				16	Filming Schedule	Film over the break?	W7
							W7

FIRST PHASE - RESEARCH AND PLANNING 

Week 1

We were introduced to our new brief for our component 3 music video project. As we haven't made a final group we started our preliminary research for different genres (conventions, audience, etc) in order to get a brief overview of what music videos we would like to do. So in the mean time I continued researching on different music video's that fit the genre I choose (pop/indie) such as the conventions, industry, audience, and others. 

To-do list: Finalise my group in order to get a fixed genre to research on 

Week 2

Had our finalised grouping which Im very pleased about, we continued with our research about our genre which is pop. However I gotten confused on genre and hybrid genre as the music vidoes we picked has multiple genres in them. Thus why we picked different music video's to research in order to get an overall overview of what we should do and avoid in our music video. We picked and found out the distribution and production company our main genre (pop) focuses on. 

Problem : Gotten confused on genre and hybrid genre as typical MV's have multiple genres 

Solution : Asked our teacher about the difference of the genres and sub genres in this case I learned that our team would use pop as our main genre but could have the sub genre indie-pop

To-Do list : Continuing my research on typical genre conventions 

Week 3

This week was pretty boring as we simply continued our research however, our teacher gave us a warning that we will be starting our planning by next week so it is a must to complete my reasearch by this week. So we focused on researching; preliminary industry, and in dept research of our chosen genre convention. 

Problem : Many upcoming tasks to plan and finish 

Solution : Created a note on my laptop and google calendar so that I can keep up with deadlines that are going to come

To-Do list : Finish my research on typical genre conventions and industry research 

Week 4 

This week we started on our statement of intent. As we already have a overall overview of our initial plan and idea this task was finished easily. Furthermore, we were introduced with a new theory which is the Theory of Stardom by Richard Dyer as it helps us determine our artists persona. As this helps me gain insight of how celebrities are initially constructed in order to relate to audiences and sell products such as films or music. 

Problem : As a team we had many ideas on how we want our artists to be so we had a hard time to figure out our statement of intent. 

Solution : Spent more time as a group discussing how we want our artists to percieve and how we will target our main audience to be intrigued with our artist

To-Do list : Finalise our statement of intent

Week 5

We had our final song choice which is "the weekend" by BIBI & 88Rising, then we started to create our moodboard for our music video and lyric sheet. Creating our moodboard was quite fun because it was as if were making collages however it seemed quite messy which we will fix later on, this just gives us an overall visual aspect of how we want our music videos aesthetic to be so that it stays constant. As for our lyric sheet we started brainstorming ideas on what scenes to use at first we used a piece of paper but Chelsea & Audrey decided to change it to a digital version so that we can all annotate easier in our own time.

Problem : Had a hard time starting off with our lyric sheet as we all had no idea how to start it off, as at first we wanted to keep the narrative straight forward but we wanted to subvert it by having a little twist in the middle

Solution : Spent even more time with our lyric sheet so that we at least have a general idea on how our narrative will play out in our MV

To-Do list : Continue team discussions as we still don't have a fixed narrative to follow 

Week 6

This week was fully project lesson so we tried to use our time effectively as our group wasn't done with our lyric sheet. Since our deadline was next week I tried to use this time to try and finish my other blog posts as I had some that were still empty so that I had less work to avoid cramming last minute. Furthermore, as a class we held a screen test to determine a suitable star for our music video although we didn't find anyone that fit the role, we did find our supporting actors from this screen test as some fit our narrative. This allowed me to have a tiny break so that I wasn't overwhelmed with all the tasks due. 

Problem : Many deadlines and our team had a creative stuck as we still had missing parts in our lyric sheet but then again we didn't know what to put as our narrative was quite complex

Solution : Tried to finish blog posts that were east to accomplish while watching more music videos to find inspiration of what scenes we can add to our lyric sheet 

To-Do list : Finish lyric sheet and new blog posts (classwork, screen test, location scout & risk assessment)

Week 7 

DEADLINE WEEK!! We had one final project lesson as we needed to focus on our exam revision. This is when we had to finish our pre-production stage which in my case for my group was very hectic. We finished our lyric sheet this week which took longer than expected, but our teacher was able to give us many new ideas on what to add since we had a hard time picking out some scenes. Our team was able to finish our location scout & risk assessment this week with our storyboard still on-going which had to be done quickly. We also finalised on who we want our artist and side characters to be and thankfully most of them agreed to do the role. 

Problem : Had many other deadlines this week so I had to manage my time effectively which was harder than expected. Hadn't finish some blog posts and storyboard 

Solution : Finish everything quickly by delegating tasks and letting everyone do their own work as most of our group tasks were accomplished. Even though this was done by rushing everything within the last 5 days

To-Do list : Finish storyboard, every unfinished blogposts, reflection

Pre-production reflection: Having this weekly progress & plan was really beneficial for me to track my project throughout the first half of this project and remind me of what I needed to finish for each week. This leaves me with goals I need to accomplish by the end of each week, which holds me accountable for each task that hasn't been done on time. Additionally, the checklist provided by Mr. Nick really helped me to track what blog posts were missing or weren't finished, allowing me to be a bit more organized. However, I believe I and the team could have worked more effectively, as we left 3 tasks to be done by deadline week, which left all of us panicked due to everyone having their own busy schedule from other lessons. In the future we should have a clear goal set from the start and have a specific deadline in mind because the one task that took us the longest was our lyric sheet, but I'm happy that ours was very detailed, which will probably give us more time to shoot each scene as we have the inspiration in our document as well. Nevertheless, I'm happy we got everything done on time, as now term break is getting nearer. 

SECOND PHASE - POST PRODUCTION AND FINALISING

Week	Start Date		Task		Blogpost Title	Content	Deadline
W8	6 January	Production	Shoot		Mini-project: Lip Sync and Editing	How to edit	W10
					Behind-the-scenes	Images from your filming (all members)	W11
W9	13 January		Shoot		Social Media: Research & Development	The creative process for your stars	W15
						social media page
W10	20 January		Shoot		Digipak: Research & Development	The creative process for your Digipak	W15
W11	27 January	Production	Edit		Editing	Your editing process, including	W16
						screenshots
W12	3 February		Edit
W13	10 February		Self Reflection		Self Reflection	(1000-1500 words)	W16
W14	17 February		Self Reflection		Audience Feedback	Feedback from your target audience	W15
						which you will use to make improvements
W15	24 February		Self Reflection
W16	2 March		Finalise
W17	8 March		Finalise		Final Promotional Package
					Final Self Reflection

Week 1

This week was the our first week back to media classes after winter break. We started off by making a mini project where we made a scene from one verse of a song called "here comes the sun". From this we learnt how to edit, act, and practice our camerawork in order for us to minimise any casualties during our final shooting scenes. We were also tasked to create a filming schedule so that we knew when to finish shooting all our scenes, since my teams was able to finish some scenes before the holiday we didn't have as many shoots to film. However it was hard for me to make time as I had many events this month which made me not attend school a lot. 

Problem : I wasnt present for 2 media classes so I was quite left behind in other classworks and mini projects 

Solution : Tried to finish blog posts that were east to accomplish while watching more music videos to find inspiration of what scenes we can add to our lyric sheet 

To-Do list : Mini project blogpost, Filming schedule blogpost 

Week 2

We had multi editing classwork where we learned a technique used to simplify the editing process when working with clips from multiple cameras. This particular lesson was helpful in preparing my group for our editing stage of our final project. However I was also not in school during this lesson due to being sick. So I spent extra time with my friends to understand how we can use different editing techniques to make our result to be more engaging. 

Problem : Many deadlines and our team had a creative stuck as we still had missing parts in our lyric sheet but then again we didn't know what to put as our narrative was quite complex

Solution : Tried to finish blog posts that were east to accomplish while watching more music videos to find inspiration of what scenes we can add to our lyric sheet 

To-Do list : Multi editing blogpost 

Week 3

This week we learned how to create our artists persona, We explored how branding influences the audience’s perception of a product and how music artists develop a brand image that reflects their personality and music style. We also started to make research for our social media and digipak development in order for us to have all our rough drafts written and digitalised so that our final result can be visualised better and we can discuss as a team what elements we want to be cohesive in our social media and digipak. 

Problem : Having to finish all the research because I think its boring and making sure everything is done on time 

Solution : Tried to finish most of my work at school so that I feel more motivated

To-Do list : 3 research blogposts and persona blogpost 

Week 4

This week, we had a break for Isra Miraj and Chinese New Year, so we had no project lesson. But I continued drafting my digipak ideas while deciding with my teammates what kinds of photos we'll add in our artists social media. Although we didn't start posting we had a rough visualisation of what we want to add

Problem : Limited time, so we had no time to do extended research on digipak

Solution : Focused on having rough design drafts ready first so we can just add in the picture that fits best

To-Do list : R+D Digipak, R+D social media

Week 5

This week, We had 1 more scene to shoot hence why my team already decided on the location and time as it would be in a karaoke place. Since most of our scenes have been compiled together we knew which parts we wanted to cover meaning we would maximise our time during the filming stage. Although the day we decided on some of my teammates had to leave early we still finished all the scenes we needed to film. 

Problem : Having to finish all the research because I think its boring and making sure everything is done on time and starting on rough sketches of our digipak

Solution : Tried to finish most of my work at school so that I feel more motivated

To-Do list : 3 research blogposts and persona blogpost 

Week 6

This week we had online lessons due to windy and bad weather making our project lesson not being too efficient. Which is why our teacher just made us make rough bullet points on our Critical Self Reflection. In order for us to have a plan and having ur essay being well organised. I believe my team and I will do pretty well since we had already incorporated our main points of our artist into our statement of intent, which proved to be a valuable reference.

Problem : Online school which made my unmotivated and lazy 

Solution : Still tried to finish my research this week by having a goal in mind during class 

To-Do list : R + D digipak/social media, Production, Post-production and screen test: audience feedback

Week 7

We mostly continued our missing blogposts as some were only half way finished, as I wanted to finish most of them before we had our 2 days off school next week due to camping.  We haven't started our detailed digital design for our digipak which is why I decided to do it this week to get it out of the way, just so that we know where we want our album name to be placed and what colour theme our artists will follow as it should match the whole branding of our star. 

Problem : So much mock exams for the next few weeks 

Solution : Tried to have a schedule on what day to do what such as friday dedicated for me to do some type of media task

To-Do list : Every blogpost finished and reworked 

Week 8

This week we barely did anything as every media lesson was taken up with our mock/review and our school camping trip. So I didn't finish most of my work that I intended to do, meaning that I had to spend more time on the weekend fixing it up. But I did have many rough mock ups of our digipak but we still havent tested different typefaces which we will try to do. I also tried to look more into our artist that inspired us (Sabrina Carpenter) so that we can take branding inspiration from it and have in depth knowledge of why she specifically intrigues her audience. 

Problem : Mock exams everyday and a school camping trip 

Solution : Tried to have most digipak rough drafts finalised so that I could start detailed mock ups 

To-Do list : Branding blogpost and finalised rough drafts of my digipak 

Week 9

We only had one project lesson this week where I still continued my digipak and moved on to the development. As me and my team created a deadline where I needed to finish it by Sunday as NEXT WEEK is already the due date. We had finished all our designs and will need too ask mr for more feedback on it 

Problem : More mock exams everyday so we spend little time on our project

Solution : Create a timeline of finishing different tasks 

To-Do list : Finalised Digipak, BTS, Final MV 

Week 10 

DEADLINE WEEK! The most packed media week as we only had 1 day to be given feedback from our teacher which I used to ask for input that he previously gave that me and my teammate (Audrey) reworked. We had multiple designs and ideas which is why our teacher previously helped us narrow down and now we just needed help on the finishing touched such as the text spacing, logo and if it connects well with our final MV. We actually spent more time finishing our unfinished blogposts and CSR as we didn't have enough free time to do so these past 2 months due to constant mocks every single day. But we managed to pull through and here we are DONE!

Problem : Little time til deadline and still have mocks 

Solution : Prioritise finishing my media project 

To-Do list : CSR, FINAL Digipak, FINAL MV

Self Reflection: This weekly progress & plan turned to be so tedious to fill within this stage. As we didn't have much time to even get project lessons meaning it has to be done during our free time which isn't even that much at this point. It did help me however track what tasks needed to be done and during what day as I see what blogs I haven't done or only did half off. It allowed me to not forget these missing blogposts allowing me to set a tracker with goals already set in place of what task needed to be done in a certain day if I wanted to have free time, even though it only helped me to be a bit more organised. Although, if we sticked to our plan we would be done early, most of us had mocks that we had the day before the deadline. So we could only rush and have everything finalised the day before the due date. In the future I would use more of my free time to finish my different blogposts as I struggled to manage my time during this stage which I couldv'e done better at if I sticked to my initial plan with my team. But Im glad that the media products we produced suit well with a cohesive theme, with me finishing all my blogposts. At the end of the day I think its a win-win. 

Team

 Here is my team for our music video

Here are the links for my teammates blog 

audrey - awdrii

chelsea  - chelstirta

kalista - kalistaa

Self Reflection: During this time, forming a team proved to be challenging, as Audrey and I had no intention of taking the A-level exam, whereas my other two teammates, Kalista and Chelsea, were scheduled to do so. They were scared that even though our school project deadline was over, me and Audrey still had to help finish up everything in our blogs, and it would take up most of our extra free time. But me and Audrey decided that we were already comfortable as a group and that we only wanted to do this project together, as our last project result was more than great, which is why we knew we could make something even better since our ideas always worked out. Thus, I'm very grateful to have them as a team and can't wait for this project lesson to fully start. 

Brief

 Here is the brief for our music video project 

 

Self Reflection: When my teacher first introduced this project I thought I would be all excited but I got hit with a sense of 'wow its a lot'. I never expected that making a music video would be this tedious, needing so many elements to be incorporated into one but once I heard about our timeline I think it'll be enough. Im just scared that for this project many or my and my teammates ideas will clash because so far our ideas arent connecting with one another, however its still too early to decide so we started focusing on researching MV's to figure out what we all liked. 

Final documentary + thumbnail

Here is my teams final documentary and thumbnail 

Here is the link of our documentary in google drive: Me, Her, & Him

And here is our final thumbnail on Netflix

Link of our thumbnail on google drive: final thumbnail by Rara & Audrey

Critical Self Reflection

Here is my critical self reflection 

I will be answering these questions for my critical reflection (not by sequence):

1. How do your products represent social groups or issues? (CR 1)

2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’? (CR 2)

3. How do your products engage with the audience? (CR 3)

4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions? (CR 4)

As indicated in the brief set by our teacher, Mr. Nick, we were assigned to produce an opening for a crime documentary that would run from 3 to 5 minutes. My team, which consisted of Chelsea, Kalista, Audrey, and me, actually created a true-crime documentary that would focus on murder. It is the story of a teenage girl who, at that age, is supposed to be venturing into university life with her best friend. Unfortunately, she gets involved in an online dating site, marking the beginning of her sad demise. In this critical reflection, I will explore the production process of our documentary to show how we incorporated technical elements to both conform or subvert documentary conventions within the crime genre and to show how these appeal to our target audience.

Branding is one of the most important ways in which the audience perceives and understands media. It reinforces the intended message and creates an identity with which one can identify. According to Stuart Hall's Reception Theory, meaning in a media text is not passively received by the audience; instead, they actively interpret and respond to decode messages. Our preferred reading, or what was intended as a message, was a cautionary tale on the toxicity of friendship and how one time or another it could lead to consequences that may hurt someone.

In order to communicate this, a number of technical elements have been employed to develop both realism and authenticity. For example, we included real footage through the vlogs of the two leads, with hand-held camera movements, creating the sense of closeness and attachment between the two main characters. Not only does this technique ensure the narrative is bound within realism, but it also allows the audience to become further engaged with the bond of the two friends, allowing the audience to speculate if the two leads are that close and what happens next. The handheld style indicates the immediacy of phone videos and further emphasizes the emotional veracity of the documentary.

The overall theme for our documentary had to do with nostalgia. We achieved this by incorporating more vintage color grading and videotape effects that gave a feel from film and photography of the 2000’s. This was a stylistic choice made to give a sense of the past and make the audience reflect over the transience in relationships and life. Yet at the same time, we digitized it into modern elements, such as ones involving online platforms and dating apps. The juxtaposition of the nostalgic against the digital speaks volumes to the aesthetic, which makes our documentary slightly very different from the conventional approaches to the genre. This especially plays up the risks of modern technology, especially for our target audience. The juxtaposition of the nostalgic against the digital speaks volumes to the aesthetic, which makes our documentary slightly very different from the conventional approaches to the genre, which is young adults 17+.

We've purposefully chosen these elements, since these elements remind our target audience—mostly the young generation—of their childhood combined with the themes of modern technology and social platforms. Truly, the documentary is relevant and more engaging because it speaks to their own lived experiences. A sense of being careful in friendships and online interactions is an important message for today's times, where boundaries between real and virtual relationships are blurred.

This was also captured on the documentary's thumbnail. Our thumbnail includes a digital picture of the two leads, further fusing personal memory with the dangers of modern platforms. Giving the two characters a personal, almost candid moment, we created an emotional core to the story, to be disrupted by the darkness of the elements of the narrative. Having the thumbnail be more digitized aligns with the documentary's main theme, which is going for a more modern media application (usage of laptops and iPhones). This allows the audience to know how we want to brand our documentary, which is by showcasing online dating. However, that is not the main plot as audiences are able to decode a message, which is why we emphasize the mystery Clara (perpetrator) has due to us wanting the audience to know why something online can affect friendships and how careful we as young adults need to be when picking a friend no matter how long the friendship lasted.

Before working on our documentary, we did a lot of research to identify the conventions of crime documentaries and how these are conventionally established. We tried to follow those conventions, like establishing shots of the crime scenes and classic establishing shots, but also added more modern elements, like video calls, text messages, and video clips. These digitalized features subvert the traditional crime genre and appeal to our target audience of young adults who would enjoy a more contemporary narrative style that also evokes nostalgia.

Our documentary focuses on leads from Southeast Asia (Chinese-Indonesian), thus challenging the dominance of Hollywood/Western media traditions that normally have a prioritization for Western narratives and representation. By centering South-East Asians, we subvert the stereotype of underrepresentation, bringing in a minority group that is seldom seen at the top. This does not only introduce Western audiences to South-East Asian perspectives but also offers representation for South-East Asians in a genre highly dominated by Western culture. Giving attention to the portrayal of characters like Clara and Sasha helps avoid the invisibility of these groups in media.

The character portrayal happens through Clara and Sasha's social media profiles, which were Mise en Scène. Clara is meant to be possessive and obsessive, always stuck onto Sasha. She is filmed in much darker tones than Sasha, who wears, at times, white, representing kindness, care, and naivety. Kyler is more of an introverted character; his character is cold and distant 'nonchalant'. The Uses and Gratifications Theory created by Bulmer & Katz explains that audiences engage with media for diversion, personal identity, social relationships, and surveillance. With the dynamic of Clara and Sasha as our main leads, viewers can either relate to or pity their circumstances, building personal connections to the characters or going back and reflecting on their own relationships, especially with the storyline about online dating and how it can affect our target audience.

We also used the Hermeneutic Code: audio cues, black screen cuts, and zoom-ins that would keep the audience in suspense about what was to happen. Those are some of the usual features for the genre in creating a tense and engaging atmosphere for viewers.

Camera work, MES, sound, and editing in our production were all according to the usual conventions found in documentaries. Documentaries would employ close-ups and medium shots to emphasize the actors through their facial expressions, CCTV footage, and long shots of the location of crime scenes, but also close-ups of some evidence that show possible weapons of murder. Also, the MES used natural lighting and non-formal attire—common everyday—which added to a sense of realism. The interviews were done in much darker tones to infuse tension. We used non diegetic sound because it's usually used in the building of suspense, and so we incorporated that in to really bring tension around a certain moment or piece of evidence. Quick cuts, along with match cuts, were used to move through interviews and evidence; this really reinforced the documentary's narrative flow. 

On the other hand, we also challenged conventional conventions and modernized them to a certain extent, which mainly occurred in post-production as we used a lot of screen recordings as if someone is actually using the social media behind the screen. Through this convention and modern combination in the digital realm, we created a documentary that would converse with young adults yet stand upon the conventional themes of the genre. As we did tons of research, what helped us the most was our general opening documentary research and thumbnail research, as first off we get a general glance of what conventions we should follow and what to subvert; this also allows us to spark the idea we’ll have for this project. As for the thumbnail, I learned that doing lots of research actually cuts back on the development time as we know what general theme we want to follow. However, if I were to do this over again, I would give more time to post-production. While the production phase is not quite complicated, post-production requires detailed work and creativity that can't be rushed. I would have done better in this area with improved time management, which would have enhanced the final result. Fortunately, our weekly progress plan kept us right on track and helped streamline the process. 

Documentary title research & development

Here is my research and development for our documentary title 

Genre: crime documentary 

Sub genre: murder 

Documentary name: 

1. "Digital Deceit: Betrayal in the Click"

2. "Web of Lies: A Friend's Fatal Secret"

3. "The Perfect Match: A Deadly Friendship"

4. "Swipe Right, Murder Left"

5. "Fatal Connections: Trust Turned Deadly"

6. "Best Friend, Worst Nightmare"

7. "Online Obsession: The Dark Side of Love and Loyalty"

8. "Virtual Vows, Real Revenge"

9. "The Double Life: Love, Lies, and Murder"

10. "The Friend Trap: Murder Behind the Screen"

11, Fallacy 

12. Deception

13. Obscura 

14. "Me, Her, & Him" 

I highlighted the words that I believe will be the most catchy for our documentary and we all finally decided on "me, her and him". As we want it to still appeal to our target audience however add a twist as they wouldn't know who's the killer. CONNOTATIONS: MYSTERY, DECEPTION, CONFLICT, LOVE, DRAMA 

Self Reflection: This task actually didn't actually take as long as I thought because Im usually a very indecisive person but with the help of my teammates we worked together in giving our insights on which title fit best which is why it became a lot more effective when we needed to pick our final title. Even though we had many options we knew that we wanted our title to be short and simple in order for it to leave a bigger mystery which is why Im very happy with our final decision because now we don't have to worry on coming up with a title on spot. Thus why I learned that having many inputs on ideas actually make it easier to form one good idea as each insight gets taken in, I also learned what direction were trying to go for more wether it is to subvert or follow the typical convention which my team both follow. 

Thumbnail research & development

Here is my research and development for our thumbnail made by me & Audrey

Starting off with an overall overview of what crime documentary thumbnails look like on Netflix 

Crime documentary thumbnails stick to several conventions. As it helps show what kind of audiences it's trying to target and are the key to pulling in viewers and letting them know what to expect from the documentary's theme and style. First of all we can see that most thumbnails follow the same convention which is by showcasing the face of the main character most likely the perpetrator or victim in a very close up camera angle (direct mode of address) which helps to imply how their emotions give off a sense of secrecy or intimidation. Most of these thumbnails also have a bold/dramatic typography in bright colours (white, yellow, red) in front of dark backgrounds this ensures that the viewers can easily read the text and help convey the message that the word that is emphasized is the main subject of the documentary. Most thumbnails also use a very dark colour palette with shades of grey, black, red, deep blue in order to convey mystery, danger and seriousness. 

Here are two examples that mostly peaked our interest

Here are 2 documentaries in which the thumbnail really intrigued us which is "ice cold" and "what jennifer did". These 2 follow the typical convention of a crime documentary thumbnail, however "ice cold" uses a different approach which is by making it look like it came out of a newspaper and how it uses separate pieces to convey that this persons story has become well known in different news outlets and that this documentary will shine light on each persons perspective within her story allowing the viewers to not be deceived by other media outlets as they shine her on a different limelight. We liked how both documentaries have a ver stylistic choice in the picture and layout which is what stood out the most for us. However we believe that creating a thumbnail similar to "ice cold" would be quite difficult and time consuming as for "what jennifer did" it wouldn't be possible for us to do as the main story of our documentary is about 2 bestfriend's meaning we want to put 2 people as the main focus not just one. 

But here is the thumbnail that we will most likely follow

 

Typography: The title "ICE COLD" is in big, bold, all-capitals font, a clean sans-serif typeface. White text on a dark background helps significantly in readability and gives that stark, cold feeling that agrees with the theme of the documentary. The subtitle "Murder, Coffee, and Jessica Wongso" follows in smaller font, indicating its the subheading from the main title. Typography that feels razor-sharp and stark brings out how dead serious this subject matter is.

Colour palette: Its palette is mainly shades of black, white, and gray to give that cold and sombre atmosphere. The grayscale brings in the documentary and archival feeling; it is as if we are looking at memories of the past. The blood splatters in red create a striking contrast and forthwith direct one's attention to the aspect of violence or crime. The red will add a sense of urgency and danger to the whole composition, which goes in tune with the murder theme.

Lighting and Mood: The general lighting is subduing, moody, and grainy, adding to the dark forbidding tones of the documentary. In addition to the muted lighting, the use of black-and-white photography may suggest a nostalgic, reflective feel; however, blood splatters thrown into this otherwise subdued palette introduce an element of disturbance, an indication that something truly nefarious lies beneath. Choices in lighting and mood create tension on the events that are about to unravel .

Imagery: The most prominent part of the thumbnail would be the two girls with layered photographs of them. The usage of photography would depict personal memories of  when the two best friends were happy together, which would add emotional contrast to the darker elements in the thumbnail. Casual and carefree expressions in the photos, contrast with the violent connotation of blood splatter, which may indicate a tragic twist in their story. It is this conjunction of violence and innocence that stirs any viewer's mind to want to know the background information for the documentary.

This is another version of the "ice cold" documentary thumbnail. We as a team will mostly try to

make this kind of thumbnail because it aligns with the main plot we're going for which is 2 best friends and an online boyfriend. So by showcasing pictures of the 2 best friends together it gives off the impression that they're very close but the audience will question if they're that close what could possibly go wrong. 

This thumbnail however gave us the idea of making a more digitised documentary as there aren't many that do this convention. So we mostly took ideas such as the typography and the effects from this movie.

Development

Self Reflection: This was another tedious task that took me forever, but I actually had a good time. Finding research was relatively easy because most crime documentary follow the same convention so I just added what I liked and disliked for each thumbnail. But the development was a long process, not only did I have to research on typography but other small details like experimenting with effect and different colours, so this actually took the longest in my opinion. I had a ton of drafts to choose from cause we experimented with this right away in canva with no initial sketches which is why making drafts took forever, so next time I should just draw sketches first as it gives me a rough idea and not make me waste time on creating so many different variations. Another part which I struggled with was making sure that people actually liked the thumbnail so I asked feedback from many different which is why this also took up a chunk of time. But nonetheless Im happy with the results because I had feedback from the people around me and as well as my team mates. 

Editing

 Here is our teams editing process made by Chelsea 

EDITING by chelsea tirta 

Self Reflection: As this editing was done by Chelsea we as a group decided to give more feedback on what to add or remove from each clip. We as a team decided to use more of a digitised documentary so we included lots of clips where we screen recorded each part in order for the audience to feel what its like during the specific scenario. When Chelsea was editing I was either there with her when we met up or not we made zoom calls so that we can always check Chelsea's progress and help her whenever she needed it. In this case I helped in finding some of the audio used to build suspense, I also was the camera man with Audrey so we mostly made sure all the clips were in a right angle. However our initial plan was to work on this together but just on Chelsea's laptop but we found out it was hard to manage our schedules to find the right time to do it hence why we met up and try to give the feedback on spot, then once Chelsea finished added all the clips the next day we zoomed together. When we had zoom Chelsea was able to screen share her work and thats when I gave more insights in what was missing such as making one clip shorter in order for it to be more impactful, adding different diegetic sounds to build suspense and as well as adding more zoom ins of some clips so that the audience can understand how we want them to focus on that part. Next time we should spare more time in editing since we finished our the night before the deadline so I learned that its a very long and tedious process especially when we need the agreement of all members. 

Behind the scenes

Here is our behind the scenes for our documentary made by Chelsea & me

INTERROGATION by chelsea tirta BEACH

BEACH by chelsea tirta ONLINE

ONLINE by chelsea tirta

CRIME SCENE by raraa 

Self Reflection: As this blog post was mostly made by Chelsea. I helped in adding some extra behind the scenes that footage that we did during another shoot day where we filmed another cctv footage as well as the crime scene and establishing shot. This task even though it seems easy since we just added pictures and all that. writing for this task was quite hard because even though we know what we did sometimes we just forget as I made this posts days after our shoot. But I realised that it was much quicker to make a full recap of our shoot day in bullet points then expanding it on my own time, so even though it was quick and simple it could take longer depending on how many shots we needed to film during the specific day. I learned that by having notes on hand it makes it easier to compile when we need to do it so next time I'll prepare notes on my phone.