Window to the Soul

 Here are all the links for my final product of my project! Hope you enjoy c: !

This is the Instagram account link:

Instagram link

In this folder the excerpt and the magazine component are there:

Google drive link

Critical Reflection

    When I was first starting the portfolio project I knew that I wanted to do a documentary. I wanted to create a raw product that stems from real life. I had my mind set but I was not completely sure on what it would be about. However, after a few days I kept thinking about the idea to document how people convey who they are through their physical attributes. I decided to finalize my topic on that idea. I did research on a variety of sources. I did some research on the docuseries, "Formula 1: Drive to Survive" which kind of gave me a good idea of what a docuseries should look like. I also researched some magazines, specifically fashion magazines since the topic of my docuseries is kind of in the same boat. I also took a look at the docuseries, "Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer". For the night stalker I primarily researched the movie poster, and took note of the color choices. This helped me bring out my desire to make my docuseries as colorful as possible with the help of Canva.

    I paid special attention to how they portrayed the evil inside Richard Ramirez through the color red. This inspired me to portray how every person has a different personality through different colors. I love how a gradient of colors looks like, so I made it my signature for the docuseries. I always tried to look for colorful gradients every time I was editing on Canva. The technique I used throughout my excerpt was inspired by the documentary, "Exit Through the Gift Shop". My classmates and I watched this in class, and it struck a chord with me. I loved how it looks, how raw it was. Nothing was staged. I knew instantly from that moment that I wanted to create something in the same style. It highly influenced for my project to look the way it does. I even sought a digital camera to capture that same feel that the documentary had.  

    The target audience for my product are teenagers and young adults. My Instagram page engages my audience because it's colorful, so it attracts the eye. I know that teenagers and young adults tend to still be very creative and focused on having a fun time in life. I feel that all the colors grabs their attention. I also post clothes that are relatively trendy to each aesthetic. I have posted clothing brands that are popular among my audience. I have posted jewelry as well. Jewelry is unisex, and more people today are wearing more jewelry. Especially rings. I posted earrings too, which is also unisex. It has become more popular to get face piercings which may attract teenagers or young adults who have those piercings.

    My magazine component engages my audience because I also included the colorful gradient as the background which may attract the eye. I also wrote about the main purpose of my docuseries and how it relates to different physical attributes that my target audience is very likely to have or be interested in. I had also mentioned that my docuseries would most likely be distributed by Netflix. Netflix is a streaming platform that is very popular with my target audience, so this would definitely engage them. My excerpt engages my audience because it includes clothing stores that my audience probably enjoys shopping at. So, they can relate to the content. It also includes a teenager as an interviewee which can allow certain age groups within the target audience to establish a connection.

    The brand that I want to exemplify is individuality. My Instagram demonstrates individuality through my posts of different outfits that other people relate to because of their similar aesthetics. In the captions for each post I did a poll and basically asked questions like, "Would you wear this?" People can respond yes or no. The variety of responses demonstrates individuality because different people have different taste in certain things. I utilized the same strategy on all of my posts, not just the clothing posts. The only ones where I did not use that was for bloopers or behind the scenes posts. As for my magazine it promotes individuality by highlighting the fact that the goal of my product is to bring that very ideal to light. Since it is something that we constantly witness but never bring it to understanding or actually point it out.

    My excerpt conveys individuality through my interviewee, Valeria. In her interview my questions prompted her to talk about where she got her individuality and how she acquired it. She talked about how she enjoys being herself and what person she sees herself as. In the excerpt, I used this part of the interview with a visual representation of what she was talking about. I had some b-roll of her being herself which gave a great representation of individuality in my excerpt. Valeria is the embodiment of individuality in my product. Therefore, developing the brand. What could have been improved is that I could have included another individual as another interviewee to provide another version of individuality. So that there could be two perspectives at individuality through different people.

    My project represents social groups by targeting almost the general topic of groups. Each person has their own unique sense of style, way of thinking, and way of life. Every person is different. This can be demonstrated through my excerpt, where Valeria is shown talking about how she dislikes a certain type of jean but how she likes the others. This highlights her personal preference. A trait common in every individual. Every social group has something in common that makes them a social group. However, that does not exactly render them to be the same. My product represents the fact that although social groups are formed through common interest or common characteristics, it does not signify that they are all the same person. Social groups carry a handful of individuality within them. My Instagram has different types of clothing for each outfit post because every person is different and some might have a stronger liking to one outfit than the other. This demonstrates the variety in personality.

    I feel that my project is successful at developing my representation of individuality throughout all three of my components. However, there could have been some improvements. I could have included another subject to star in my excerpt to provide a better look at the variety in personalities. I feel like I could have also included more about individuality in my magazine component. I feel like it did not have enough. I also feel like my excerpt could have included a bit more b-roll or more action. I feel like the first half did not really convey the representation of individuality I really wanted. However, it was definitely there on the second half. Overall, I do think it was quite successful in my eyes. I am satisfied with my final product and I think that it does a good job at representing what I originally wanted it to represent.

Editing

 Ok I have successfully started my editing on CapCut. It's great, it downloaded perfectly without any problems on my other computer. I figured out how I wanted to structure my doc almost immediately. My excerpt will start off from the previous sub-topic. Which would be "Tops". It would start off on the part that is wrapping up the "Tops" section, leading into the beginning of the "Bottoms" section. I think this structure is a great way to show that it is an excerpt! So I think it'll fit really well. I also forgot to include kind of an opening shot for Valeria to introduce her as the subject for the sub-topic of  "Bottoms". So, I'm going to do that with her really quick and import it to the project. 

This what the editing is looking like right now!

I have officially finished the editing, and it's really great. I love the vibe of it, and I feel like I did a good job at editing it all together! CapCut is really easy to use. I made sure to include subtitles when it was too hard to understand or hear what was being said. I also included music and my narration. 

Editing process

 Ok so I started transferred all the files I need to edit to my USB. I renamed all the files so I wouldn't get confused when I'm editing. After I took about 30 minutes to look for non-copyright music that fit the vibes of my doc. I eventually found one that will probably be playing quietly in the background. Since the computer that I usually use for editing can support Adobe Premiere Pro anymore, I started to use PremiereRush. I was trying to boot up PremiereRush last night but no matter how long I waited for it to load, it never opened. So I'm going to try downloading CapCut on another computer because I really don't wanna deal with the lag or it crashing on me while I'm editing. I really can't afford that right now. I have a good idea of how I'm going to structure the doc. However I also need to include my narration in the excerpt, but I'm not really sure how to word it without physically seeing the final structure of my excerpt. So what I'm going to do is that I'm gonna edit and organize all the videos and edit them together and then when I'm about to finish I'm going to add in my narration. That will be my final step to the editing!

Magazine

 I have finally completed my magazine component! I think it looks really nice and that it gives a really good impression of my docuseries. Since we have to describe the goal of the docuseries I made sure to write about how I wanted to get an insight into how people demonstrate their personalities through their physical attributes. I explained how there are five episodes, and I gave the first episode a name. I named it "The Fabrics" because just naming it "Clothing" would be way too lame. I think "The Fabrics" sounds a lot cooler. I talked about how Instagram users can access the Instagram page for Window to the Soul to interact and experience some elements of the docuseries. I also included  a director's quote. Where I included a picture of myself and a short quote of mine. On the second page I included two behind the scenes photos of Valeria. I included the one where she's applying make up to get ready to be on camera and the one after the interview. This is the final look:

Instagram

 I have uploaded a bunch of Instagram posts, and it's a variety which is good. I posted a new behind the scenes post of Valeria after the interview. During the interview in the beginning when we first started filming, Valeria messed up on her words so it created a blooper for that take. I posted that blooper as an Instagram reel. 

This the blooper above! When I was posting it, I decided to add some silly background music on Instagram so that it could fit the mood of the blooper better. 

Then I started taking random combinations of clothes from my closet and set them up on my bed to create different outfits. I used my bed because my comforter is white, so I thought it would be a suitable background so that the main focus could be the clothes in the pictures. I created about five outfits and I posted two outfits. I realized that they are only considered female worn outfits so I took some clothes from my brother's room to create a masculine outfit. I posted one outfit for guys. 

This is the outfit I made from my brother's clothes!

Next I took some photos of jewelry. I gathered all my necklaces, and all my rings and I took separate photos of each of them. I organized them to look nice and pretty for the photos. However, since I don't own any earrings I borrowed Valeria's display of earrings and took a nice photo of it. I posted three Instagram posts, one for each type of jewelry. To interact with my audience I always put a question in the caption and I create a poll so that a user can interact and answer the question. 

This is a photo I took of Valeria's earring display!

This photo below is how my Instagram looks right now:

More filming

 Today we filmed the interview! Unfortunately I could not film with a tripod so I just tried to be as steady as possible. We filmed the interview in her bedroom on her bed. I had her sit near her bed frame since the background was nice and minimal. I made sure she was on the right thirds and I did a direct interview for all five questions. I used the interview questions I previously came up with earlier in the project. She gave me really good answers for each question! At the beginning she messed up her words and it turned into a blooper haha! So I posted it as a blooper on the Instagram. I put some cute silly music in the background to give it a wholesome feel. Before the interview started I took some pictures of her to post more "behind the scenes" on the Instagram. 

This is one of the photos that I took behind the scenes! It's really cute photo. 

Filming

 Today I filmed some b-roll of my sister, Valeria, for my project. I filmed b-roll of her looking through her clothes. 

I took this picture as she was getting ready for filming, I'm probably going to post this on my Instagram as a "behind the scenes post". I'll most likely do this tonight. We had a good filming session. I also got more b-roll of her room which I'm going to use to demonstrate how it adds to her personality. Since usually a person's personality can be somewhat represented through their bedroom. So, it can be a small part in conveying that for Valeria. I also had her pick out her favorite clothing items, a shirt, jeans, and shoes. She showed the camera each item in her own way. I had originally planned to conduct the interview too, however it turns out that the only tripod in my house was taken by my parents to Winterhaven. Which is where they are currently at right now. They're out of town so, I'm just going to do the interview tomorrow with Valeria and I'm going to try my absolute best at keeping the camera as still as possible. Maybe I'll prop it up somewhere instead of just holding it.
 

canva development

 Ok so I've been using Canva a lot recently to develop all the other aspects of my project. I created a title screen that displays the word "bottoms" since my excerpt is focusing on jeans. It looks really pretty, I love how it looks!

 

It's so perfect, I'm gonna use it as the opening shot for my excerpt. The rest of the other title screens that would have been in the full doc would be other colors, like blue and green. To simulate the variety of personalities. I also used Canva to get started on my print! 

This is my print so far! I love the background gradient! It's perfect. The font is a variation of Playfair Display. I decided to use the variation because it seemed more elegant and fitting for a magazine page. I also labeled it as page 2 because the first page would most likely be something else. I feel like it would be more natural for it to be page 2. I also included my byline. As for what I'm going to include on there for photos, I'll probably include a photo from behind the scenes and from the end result. I'll start writing all the info probably starting tonight.