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.