My documentary Cultura, highlights appreciating Latin American Culture within society. This is demonstrated through the unification of multiple cultures through dance and music.
Here are the links below:
Video
https://drive.google.com/file/
Magazine article
https://drive.google.com/file/
Social Media
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
How do your products engage with the audience?
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
The documentary, Cultura, focuses on developing the concept of appreciating Latin American culture within society. This is demonstrated through different Latin cultures and traditions such as dance and music. Cultura remains as a symbol of how unified society is through shared memories, traditions and cultures.
Cultura is a social documentary that embodies Bad Bunny’s Superbowl halftime performance as well as general Latin traditions. Due to this, the majority of my research heavily focused on watching the Superbowl performance. Analyzing it and most importantly critiquing it. My research also consisted of understanding different Latin cultures outside of the most comprehended cultures. This helps me create a stronger foundation for the portfolio project due to heavy research and a critical understanding of the intended themes.
In addition, more research had been concluded prior to starting this project. Documentaries such as Abstract, which addresses multiple different art forms in an episodic format. It heavily appreciates well-known masters of their craft and shares their thought process, production process and snippets of their life story and inspiration. Another documentary that was analyzed is American Promise, which follows the life of 2 young men over the span of 13 years. Immense inspiration was gained when analyzing these pieces. I enjoyed and appreciated certain aspects of both pieces and was educated on each topic diligently. This is something Cultura that strives for, understanding. These documentaries improved the planning and research process significantly by creating the pave way of what a documentary could look like. Watching these documentaries also improved my understanding of proper documentary conventions.
Following, Cultura is a diverse production, signifying its target audience to be broad. Cultura’s demographic is about 16 to 29 years old. Viewers of this production will have the ability to value common themes and symbols. However, it is viewable for younger audiences since the topics being discussed are family friendly and appropriate, which is what Cultura strives to achieve within the overall representation of this production. The target audience of Cultura is extremely important because it signifies one of Cultura’s main themes, to bring people together. This is done by catering to younger and older audiences. This diversity is also shown through the selection of the subjects. The subjects were purposefully chosen to have a diverse age range. The main purpose of this is to show diverse opinions and experiences. For example, one of my subjects, Aida Matos, 72 years old. She experienced the evolution of how Latin music changed over the decades and her experience of this. She expressed deep interest in the evolution of music and enjoys the popularity of Latin genres.
The overall branding of Cultura shows eager enhancement to learn about Latin culture. It's celebrating Latin pride and shows the evolution of Latin American culture today. The overall brand is developed in various ways. Ways in which it could properly demonstrate the final goal of Cultura. The social media component of this project illustrates this flawlessly. The Instagram page for Cultura demonstrates multiple different aspects of this production. Including, behind the scenes footage, sneak peeks and audience engagement. Audience engagement is highly important within Cultura’s brand because it unifies people. For example, Cultura’s Instagram page varies from daily quotes, quizzes and community events. The color palette was also taken into consideration. The brightly themed colors represent the radiance that Latin flags produce. The social component covers the majority of the branding for this piece since it shows the production process.
At the beginning of this project, social media research for documentaries was also done to increase the likelihood of being successful with social media as well as having an overall understanding of what social pages should demonstrate. I checked out pages such as Cartel Land, For the Culture with Amanda Paris and The Social Dilemma. All these pages created a sense of togetherness and remained consistent with the media texts and overall brand. Which was considered during the development of the Cultura social media page.
The brand for Cultura is mostly developed through the social media component. However, the digital component, which was to create a magazine based on the production also signified importance. I decided to take the ‘interview’ approach by creating questions about the production process and responding adequately. I wanted to delve deep into this approach because I think it will reveal a sense of inspiration and interacting with my audience. This approach will engage within my audience because it discloses a personal connection. For instance, 2 questions that were responded to were “How did this documentary improve your production skills?” and “How did this documentary improve your knowledge of Latin American culture?”. These questions were well thought out and really reflected final thoughts about the piece.
To further emphasize, the target audience is clear and defined. It appeals to creating a sense of community and unity. Within the controversy of Bad Bunny Superbowl halftime performance and the socio economic state of the world currently, it felt justified to create a documentary that highlights the globalization of Latin music. For example, subject Lenny Hernandez, often discusses Bad Bunny’s global impact and how he made a positive change to a society. Understanding culture and valuing where people come from as well as sharing traditions and history is incredibly important today. Striving for togetherness is the goal.
Within my production, I wanted to touch on these important issues as it raises popularity and controversy. Each subject addresses common topics intently. I also wanted to incorporate more b-roll footage of Latin dances. However, due to time constraints, I was not able to do so. Despite this, I worked my hardest to accomplish my final goal.
After working tirelessly, it is equally important to take a moment to reflect on the process. This production pushed me to work hard and exceed expectations I had for myself. With that being said, I could’ve spent the time we had for this process to develop my original idea. I did have to confine my vision for many reasons, and I would have liked at least one more subject. While my brand is developed through social media and the digital magazine, there could be improvement within my production as well.
Hi blog, welcome to the last week of blog posts! It's a bittersweet ending since this will be the last time I'll be a blogger, But I'm glad it's over.
I think my skills have grown as a creator and I’m very appreciative of this process and the opportunity that I’ve been given to demonstrate my skills. During last school year's project, I didn't feel as proud and accomplished as this year. This year I exceeded my expectations and gave this production 1000%. Mrs. Stoklosa said before we began this project “Create something you're proud of.” Which I think really helped me and motivated me through this project.
For my A- level critical reflection I really wanted to do things a little differently. I want to fully analyze and assess each question properly. I feel like due to time constraints within my media production last year I couldn’t fully address the questions as they should be so for this year's production, I hope to fully analyze all four questions that are being asked in a timely and professional manner. My goal for this reflection is to not only earn points towards my Cambridge exam but really reflect and see how well of a job I did with building my documentary production.
The four questions that we are being asked this year are a little different and I will share them below:
1. How did your research inform your products in the way you use or challenge conventions?
2. How do your products engage within the audience?
3. How did elements of production work together to create a sense of branding?
4. How do your products represent social groups or issues?
Here are some tips that we were given to be successful in our production:
- Evaluate your own work in a professional manner
- Support your argument through specifics
- Offer criticism
Each question focuses on different aspects of your production. For example, Question 1 mainly focuses stylistic choices as a director while question 2 focuses on addressing your target audience and engagement. As question 3 heavily focuses on branding development throughout production and how you chose production choices to strengthen your brand. Lastly, Question 4 specifically focuses on representation within your production by giving examples of how it is done.
Hello blog! Welcome to the 2nd to last week of filming for my documentary project. Today, we shared amongst each other what we have accomplished and what still needs to be improved or still done. We had a total of 6 groups members. In this post, I'll be describing my group members progression within their projects.
But first, here's a quick selfie of today group meeting:
First was Aneesa Bajaj. She's the producer and art director for her film which is called” Witch!”. Her group is wanting to do more planning and pre-production on the second day of filming. They're set consists of a black background. They have filmed their headshots for social media already and they're doing an introduction on social media through tarot cards which I thought was creative. They plan on filming more montage scenes and staying consistent with the dark color scheme.
Emi Valdivia was next. She is the art director and producer for her film. They only need to shoot three more scenes out of seven. They started filming last week Tuesday and they focused on Andrew scenes on Saturday. She is also the social media manager. The film is called “The Scourge”. They are in the process of making their post cards. One is inspired by the tarot card that is given to a character in the film which i thought was a cool aspect of their film.
Adriana Vega and her partner are finishing filming today. They are relatively behind on social media and their posts. They decided to film in the everglades, and they took photos for their Instagram page but haven't posted it. Their film is called “One Flip Away”. The postcard is in progress, which their planning to finish today as well editing as soon as possible. They plan to film interviews with cast/crew for Instagram reels.
Victoria Duque and her group Finalized filming yesterday the short film is mostly shot in the main character's room, and it shows the difference between daytime and nighttime she expressed was how she did it and I thought it was very creative. They have not stood it on the postcard, yet which will be done soon, but they did film 3 reels for social media as well as a photo shoot for the post cards, film is called “Sprouting”.
Audrey and her group have been working on social media. They recently had to adjust the cast/crew because of certain difficulties. For their social media, they wanted to do different personalities for meet cast & crew on social media. They are taking character photos very soon. Their film is called “Session One” and majority of the filming is happening at her house. They start filming this Wednesday!
Lastly, I expressed my progression within my documentary. I filmed before spring break and during spring break I initially had four interviews but ended up doing 3 due to conflicts and i have 5 posts up so far on social media bright color scheme to represent the different Latin American flags.
Hi blog! Welcome to the second to last week of blog posting for my A-level production. I feel like this school year and my portfolio project went extremely fast and I can't believe it's going to be over next week! Without further ado, let jump into today's blog post which I’ll be talking about some roadblocks and changes that I had to make within my production.
When I initially had my meeting about my documentary, I wanted to include the interviews of my studio director and my Choreographer. I thought this would be a good idea to get their insight within the dance community and considering that they come from Latin culture and base their studio off appreciating culture. Another reason that I thought they would be perfect to interview is that they're great in front of the camera and they have a way of words that make sense and is inspiring.
So, we planned the specific date that I was going to shoot both interviews. The interviews would only consist of one to two questions and I would be asking their input within the dance community and how it relates to Latin American culture. Ultimately, I was not able to film the day that we had planned because of upcoming dance events and projects that my studio had been planning for a while. I was conflicted when this happened because I really wanted their response.
So, I came up with a solution. I had them type up their response over messages and I’m going to use that as a voice over for some of the B roll footage. I thought this was a creative approach to include their responses as well as create narration to make my documentary more interested and engaging for my audience.
Here a screenshot of the response:
You might be wondering, what are you going to do with the additional subjects that you have to film? Great question, here's my solution! I decided to film one of my close friends, a dancer at my dance studio. I thought tackling this response would give the audience a varied perspective and add some diversity in age and the type of people I was interviewing.
Hello blog! Welcome back to my final post of the week, which is beginning the critical reflection process for my portfolio project. This week has been busy. With my dance studio preparing to compete, getting back into my last quarter of junior year, the year does not get any easier. Especially since testing season is coming around the corner.
If I'm being completely honest, I haven’t really planned out what I wanted to do for my critical for reflection. The reason why I have not dedicated time for my critical reflection earlier is for one main reason. I’ve been really been focusing on nailing the actual production process of the documentary and social media, that I haven't gotten the opportunity to really take a look at that portion of my exam. Which is why this post is dedicated to doing so.
First, I’m going to lay out the questions that we were given in the CCR lesson. Then, I'll discuss how I'm going to approach it.
Before I get into the questions, here are some standardized things to know about the critical reflection for media studies A-level:
- It’s worth 20 points out of the 60 points
- We're creating an essay about 1000 words
- We're focusing on all elements of our project and we're citing details precisely
Questions/ Format
Intro/ thesis
Focusing on major themes or ideas conveyed throughout my project which is Latin American culture and symbolism. Keep this short and concise.
1. How did your research inform your products in the way you use or challenge conventions?
This mainly focuses on your choices as a director. This includes the development of research and genres. Which specifically focuses on the bad bunny super bowl halftime performance. This includes observation within my dance studio and overall society. This section of the essay needs to fill out research and evidence to back up your documentary.
2. How do your products engage within the audience?
This question focuses on addressing your target audience and engagement. I consider this a very important question to address because it really creates the format for the overall branding of your production. Which will be discussed more in the next question. My overall target audience is about ages 18-27 But all ages are welcome to watch.
3. How did elements of production work together to create a sense of branding?
In this question, it heavily focuses on your branding development throughout your production and how I choose niche production choices to strengthen the brand. My brand for my documentary is very distinct and very clear. My overall brand is very bright and very colorful, and it really targets unity and togetherness.
4. How do your products represent social groups or issues?
For this last question, it homes in on representation within your production by giving examples, and you can decide as a director if it was successful and accomplished through documentary and if it was not, explain why.
