Weekly plan

This post describes our weekly progress regarding the making of our documentary

Week 2

This week we started an intro into our documentary topic. We started analysing the first 5 minutes of a few documentaries. I am quite excited to dive into our project. We analysed three pieces of small research and assigned to watch a documentary at home to do for our bigger/main research.

Week 3

This week, we started on two big analysis. I’ve formed a group and made a plan regarding what topic we want our documentary to be about. We’re hoping to make a plan next week in terms of the timeline of the project. I am hoping to finish my research before next week. 

Week 4

This week, we started developing our concept on the documentary. We honed in on the health and lifestyle subgenre in particular to the topic of ED otherwise known as eating disorder. We have started narrowing our target audience. Hence, really diving deeper into our topic and researching facts and cases we want to input into our blog. 

Problems: Coming up with a storyboard and a way to implement our vision

Solutions: We’re going to brainstorm more and find common ground on the way we will carry out the documentary. We’ve made a group where we are discussing which clips from other famous documentaries we want to implement and from there decide a play by play/timeline of what we want to achieve. 

To do:

• Storyboard 
• Concept Board 
• Collecting clips
• Script 

Week 5

This week, my group started discussing the title of the documentary, the scenes that we want to incorporate into the doc, finished with our statement of intent. We have started the documentary however, we lack the research for the statistics we want to implement. 

Problems: Finalizing on a documentary title and finishing the storyboard

Solutions: We’ve set the date to finish the storyboard by Friday next week, the script will be finished by Sunday and we start filming by week 7. 

To do:

• Finalise storyboard
• Screenplay 
• Concept board
• Doc title 
• Doc logo 

Week 6 

This week, my group finished the storyboard and is halfway through the script, we’re adding more into our research every day. We still haven’t collected the statistics we want to include so we’re going to finish that before voice recording day. We’ve decided the duration of clips for our storyboard. 

Problem: Collecting statistics, commens and online videos, filming schedule, thumbnail finalization.

Solutions: Finishing thumbnail drafts, finalizing filming schedule, we decided our title and included our draft for interview questions. We are in the process of asking our models to be interviewed by next week

To Do: 

• Finalise filming schedule
• Screenplay 
• Thumbnail 

Filming schedule: 

• Monday, 28 August: Interview (Mutiara, Mr.Bram) 
• Tuesday 29 August: Interview (Alden/Hanly, Ms. Anita)
• Wednesday, 30 August: Voiceover/narration
• Thursday, 31 August: Start editing

Week 7 

This week, we finished 90% of filming and have just started editing. The script has a few changes to be revised and everyone’s creating their own version for the thumbnails which we will finalize next week. We are proud of the progress that we made and we just need to weave our research and development to finish the final piece however at the rate we are going it would not be as much of a problem. 

Problem: One of our members, Theo had his phone confiscated while we were trying to sync the video clips and the voice recording which set us back for a bit. We sorted out the problem however and resumed back into our plan. I ran into problems as well during thumbnail development as I had forgotten to bring my laptop a couple times which didn’t allow me to screenshot the thumbnails I planned to include in my research. 

Solution: We made sure to avoid the phone confiscation problem and made sure to share any videos, photos or voice recording we might need right away. I also made sure to add reminders to bring my laptop to avoid the problem and just in case it happens, I plan to draw anything I want to screenshot. 

To Do:

• Finish 25-50% of the editing 
• Get the recorded voiceover sync into clips 
• Arranging social media research
• Finalize the thumbnail draft 
• Start thumbnail design

Week 8 

This week, we finished filming entirely! (Woohoo!!). Script has been approved and revised which leaves us to recording the voiceover which will be recorded today. The thumbnail has been finalized, alongside the thumbnail drafts I went around and did some research in my school. A portion of our target audience are teenagers and hence I went around asking which of the drafts are the best choice and they would gravitate towards the most. Through this however, we not only gained research but gained an alternate title for our documentary. Although WTF does sound appealing, “Diet or Die” has a more attractive ring. All thst’s left to do is to start editing, create the finishing thumbnail and record the voiceover. 

Problem: We felt conflicted around keeping the old title however, the new title has creeped its way in and we are changing it to Diet or Die. Our plan was to as well include Alden, a classmate who is a gym rat however due to busy schedules and clashes, we have decided to go to plan B. 

Solution: Employing Hanly another fitness enthusiast to fill in Alden’s role would be detrimental as we won’t be losing time waiting and with that we’ve finished filming! 

To Do 

• Start editing 
• Finish voiceover
• Creating thumbnail 
• Organizing blog
• Thumbnail photoshoot 

Week 9

This week, we focussed on editing and finalizing the thumbnail. We are around 30% into the editing and 50% through with the thumbnail. 

Problem: As much of the documentary templates we saw did not fit into our vision, we scrapped using canva or any pre-made templates. 

Solution: we decided to draw it digitally using a tablet and an online software

To Do: 

• Final thumbnail 
• Final Product
• Refine Blog 
• Work on Self-reflection

Week 10 

This week is our deadline date for our project. We focussed on refining the blog as well as doing a quality check for our final product. There were some pieces of the doc that had to be celared up but overall we are looking at 90% done before going to my media teacher to double check the work. 

Problem: The doc had to go through adjustments as the intro was surpassing the five mintue mark, we are trying to cut down certain clips and enhanc certain elements. The thumbnail had a lot of adjustments to be done, there was issue with the title not being readable and unclear focal point of our thumbnail. 

Solution: To decrease the timing in the documentary we decided to incorporate quick cuts and cut down on some of the clips this includes the interview clips and montage. For the thumbnail adjustments, I created a few more drafts and cleared up any of our problems withthe new layout. 

To Do:

• Submit the project 
• Revise self reflection 
• Last check for the doc + thumbnail 
• Review blog