Movie Poster Brainstorm!

Mood: Contemplative 
(with a hint of indecisiveness)

Okay, so, Kass and I have gone through SO many ideas for our documentary poster. We thought about using a bajilion people to create a Z -- OH WAIT, UPDATE! After some long, deep reflection, we have decided to change our title to Z. Okay, hear me out: We liked We Are Not Who You Think We Are, but we felt that it was too long of a title and looked off when we added it in our doc as a title slide. Also, it was hard to maintain cohesion with our production and social campaign because it was too long (like I said previously, there's no way our website would be called wearenotwhoyouthinkweare.weebly.com because yikes, what a mouthful). Additionally, we felt that Z was simple, yet it could be extremely powerful if we went about it in the right way. The simplicity of the title will add an element of mystery when people hear it - "What the heck is that new doc Z about? I'd better check it out hmmm." <---- You see! It's great.

Okay, back to the poster ideas, I got a bit sidetracked!! Basically, Kass and I did some heavy brainstorming to try and come up with ideas for it. We thought about using different people's arms to construct a "Z" which we thought would show togetherness, diversity, and the title (whoo). Another idea was to use several people and lie them down to create a "Z". As for backgrounds, we like the sky for the first idea because it represents openness and that's why birds fly in freedom. I love symbolism :'). Another idea was to go the computer-designed way. We would create a "Z" with a bold outline and use the inside to fill it with words that describe Gen Zers. 

We also tried this (see left) with a photo editing app and, honestly, it didn't come out too cute. We had to scrap it so quickly because we were slightly terrified of what we had produced... lol. What a great concept, but we didn't like our version. The idea we did use? Hehe, well that's to be revealed soon. 

Also, some editing issues parte dos:
I loathe the "but they're wrong" audio clips. Yes, I know, I was just praising them a few posts ago because they are great in theory; in practice however, they completely disrupt the flow of the doc and instead of creating a shift in tone, they just make me uncomfortable because they sound SO wrong. Sigh. I'm currently trying to figure out how to remedy this and bridge the two sections of the intro together. They are both complete, and I changed the colors of the first part ("they call us...") to be colder and more blue, while the second set of shots are warmer and more yellow, so this is the only part that needs fixing. 

Stay tuned,
Chey :)

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Mood: Definitely Working Hard

Hey there! It's been an extremely productive day, and Kass and I met up (finally!) so that we could discuss our website and poster ideas that we had come up with previously. Now we just have to agree on some things and then finish creating the products. 

Like I said a few posts ago, I did begin the website on weebly.com and chose a URL and template. When Kass and I met up, she said she liked the layout, and we went to work. We checked out a few websites for inspiration and found Lana Del Rey, Melanie Martinez, and Miss Representation to have the best sites.

The Miss Representation site was super cool and helpful, especially because it's a documentary that also concerns representation, only with women in the media. Here are some images of the home page on the website:

They include their logo, as well as social media links and various tabs to explain their cause and promote their doc. 

Here, they provide a short explanation of the issue on the home page, which is a great way to promote people to explore it in more depth after being exposed to the information.

These two sections of the home page also encourage people to more deeply explore the website and get involved by viewing the documentary and then participating in the social movement to speak out against negative representations of women in the media.

We decided to have several sections of our website such as (obviously) the home page, as well as a few others:
1) Why Gen Z? - An explanation for how wechose what to explore and portray in our documentary as well as information about the Generation as a whole. We will discuss problems with our representation, as well as what we believe to be accurate.
2) Merch - Money from this store will go to support our future filmmaking costs)
3) #WeAreGenZ - Our social media campaign that will involve and inspire members of Gen Z to be great and interact with our content and productions
4) The Creators - All about Kass and I whoooo
5) See The Film - This tab was on the Miss Representation website, and it's extremely important because we need to offer our audience ways to view the documentary and places it will be shown

For #WeAreGenZ, Kass and I decided that by creating a hashtag to associate with our productions, we would generate more buzz for the documentary, as well as engage and build a foundation for potential viewers, both currently and in the future. Members of Generation Z are digital natives, so it's best to gain their attention with this hashtag through social networking platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. To further engage with them, part of our social campaign will include targeting them on Snapchat. According to one Forbes article, members of Gen Z enjoy posting for their friends rather than publicly, which is why Snapchat is a great platform; they can share information with their friends by holding down the screen for a few seconds and pressing send, a quick and easy process that will make info about our doc spread more easily. 

As for our Merch tab, Kass had some fun designing shirts, hats, and tanks to preview in our store. The items are available to males and females in varying sizes and colors, and word-of-mouth is another great way to publicize our documentary. There are arrows on the side to switch between products, as well as a button to easily access the store for purchase. Here is an image of our cool store:

Alright, I'm going to get back to work and will update soon about the poster and editing, too!
Chey :)

Can't Stop, Won't Stop (Editing)

Mood: Persevering

Hey! Just a little update on my editing last night, which went on for quite a while. I used Quicktime to make a screen recording of my editing process (a cool feature I discovered doing my project last year, but I recently started using it). Here's a little video (thanks to a 15000% speed increase) of my editing:

Again, I worked on cropping shots, fixing headroom, matching the background color of various shots, organizing the order of shots for maximum flow, etc. I also delved into the sound portion of editing, which I also used iMovie for. Basically, for the sound, Kass recorded each of our subjects saying the following 3 things:

#1: They call us lazy. They call us ignorant. They call us dependent. They call us superficial. They call us irresponsible. They call us spoiled. They call us self-absorbed. They call us apathetic.
#2: But they're wrong.
#3: We are innovators. We are caring. We are special. We are valuable. We are respectable. We are intelligent. We are involved. We are the future. We are Generation Z, and we are not who you think we are.

For ease, each number is its own recording so that in editing, they are easy to separate and use. The plan was to use all of our subjects voices throughout the intro, and to use the best recorded words/phrases for each person. For #2, we decided that the best voice would be used because the line is extremely important in shifting the tone of our piece. The talented winner is -- drumroll please -- Pedro! I felt that his recording was the strongest and he said it at a nice speed, one that can be easily worked with. Here it is:

Glorious, isn't is? :D Anyhow, I will be back in no time to give some further updates on my individual progress and how the doc overall is coming together. It's an exciting time, so I'll keep ya posted!

Chey :)

Fix It, Change It, Rearrange It

Mood: Nitpicky

Hey there! I've been editing up a storm for the past few days, as well as finalizing the script and working on the website. It's been SUPER busy for me, as I know there's a lot to get done. Kass and I will go over everything we have when she gets back from her trip, and all we'll need to do is finish up some last-minute scenes (which won't be bad - we know what we want now). 

So, editing. Here are a few things I've noticed:
1. The projector decided to be funny and change the color of our slide throughout our filming day, so I've been editing each video on iMovie to fix this problem. I'm very proud to say that I learned how to match the color of the videos to one another all by myself, no tutorial needed! I've come a long way :')
DO YOU SEE THIS MAGIC!!!!

2. The head room for each subject is a little different each time, as we filmed our subjects at different times and moved the camera around for different angles. Therefore, the compositions are not the same for them all, and the head room is a little much for some of the shorter subjects. I realized this problem during filming, as the words were projected differently on each subject due to height differences, and I tried to remedy that by adjusting the projector's height (stacking yearbook on top of yearbook, I knew they were good for something)! Alas, the differences prevail, so I'm just cropping the videos to lessen the visual disconnect between shots and amount of head room.

Now, about the website:
I have no idea what to make the URL because, and I don't know if it's just me, but wearenotwhoyouthinkweare.weebly.com seems like a bit much... plus, I don't think anyone would remember the URL WANWYTWA.weebly.com either, so I think the winner is WeAreGenZ.weebly.com. Short and sweet.

Anyhow, I'll update you soon on how the design/layout is going, but I'm definitely putting the most important content on the home page for easy access!

And by the way, I'm totally loving the music with all of our shots!! That's a great sign because music is such an integral part of creating a tone for our piece, so I'm happy. :)

Finallllly Filming!

Mood: AHHHAHBFESHJFKEJ

Progress:
Hiiii!!! I'm so hyper and excited right now! Kass and I just finished an AWESOME filming day. It was super cool to use the projector for filming, and we got some pretty nice shots. Sigh, filming is always such an interesting and fun time with all of my friends. Basically, this is how it went down:

First, we dragged our subjects (at their previously organized appointment time.. we're amazing) into our secret, dark filming lair.
Then, we never let them leave. You can never have too much footage... Just kidding!! We kept everyone for about 30ish minutes and filmed their dejected and empowered scenes, and then recorded their voices for the narration portion of the doc. Instead of pre-dividing who would say what lines, Kass and I decided to just record everyone saying all of the lines ("They call us... but they're wrong... we are..."). We decided to do it this way so that we could pick out the best voice for each segment so that those lines would sound powerful.

Let me introduce our subjects (a special thanks to them, please):

#1: Laurel Vernon

#2: Marina Maldonado

#3: Pedro Salom

#4: Mason Eiss

#5: Dani Altamiranda

Up next:
I still have to go through a TON of the footage to see what we can use, as we JUST filmed, and I can't wait to see what we've got.

We ended up having a ton of cancellations, as some last-minute issues came up with some of our friends; however, we planned for this problem by asking like 13 people to help us out, so we got the 5 that we did need! Worst case scenario, we can film an extra person or two on another day if we're missing any shots.

By the way, here is a picture of the slide Kass made to use for these projector scenes:

See ya next time!
Chey :)