Final Documentary and Thumbnail

 This is our Final Documentary and Thumbnail

Thumbnail

Final Documentary Opening

Thumbnail Research and Development

 This is our thumbnail research and development for our documentary. The research was done by Arnold, as for the development, I did the work.

RESEARCH (Arnold)

The thumbnail above is half an image of a child in black and white and half an image of a grown man with the title, "Making a murderer" in bold. I think the title and the image works together to imply how a seemingly innocent child, could turn into a ruthless maniacal murderer. I think my team could take the mirroring contrasting image idea and input it into one of our sketches. 

The thumbnail above shows a feminine silhouette with a masculine figure overlaying her head alongside the thumbnail “Worst EX Ever”. I think this implies how the male figure presumably her ex boyfriend, invaded her life in a bad way and made it hard for her to escape him since he is always in her head. I think the gothic, gritty, disturbing tone of this thumbnail could be implemented in our thumbnail since  it is similar to our ideas. 

The thumbnail above shows a mirrored image contrasting between two person whom I believe is the same person, the other half of the image is a woman overlayed with red tint which connotates evil, paired with the ominous title “what Jennifer did” it leaves the audience wondering if she aka “Jennifer” did something bad. I think we could take inspiration from the title and how the image is set up.

Media Studies Thumbnail Research & Development by ss VIEW PRESENTATION

Critical Reflection (CR)

 This is my CR for this term's documentary project.

CR 1 - How do your products represent social groups or issues?

CR 2 - How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

CR 3 - How do your products engage with the audience?

CR 4 - How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

We were asked to make a documentary opening. We chose crime documentary as the genre and targeted teenagers to young adults, Indonesian/Asian demographic, and others who live in South Asia, especially Bali, Indonesia. Me and my team researched, developed and created a crime documentary surrounding teenage toxic relationships through obsession, coercion and control. It is named, "Sweet Poison: A Love that Kills."

To keep our documentary distinctive whilst still maintaining consistency, we focused on developing a clear style that audiences would recognize. For example, the title, "Sweet Poison: A Love that Kills" is written in the font Giveny serif, which connotes elegance or luxury masking hidden danger. The burnt transition effect also plays a role in suggesting the unmasking of decay and poison underneath a seemingly normal surface. (fig. 1) Meanwhile, the thumbnail centers around a coffee mug, with dramatic dark lighting to signify hidden alluring threat, and highlight the sinister themes of obsession and control. By maintaining dark, muter tones with grain accents, our documentary branding mirrors typical Netflix documentaries and makes its genre clear to viewers. Moreover, based on David gauntlet's theory of identity, audience can think about their own relationship and their views on trust. 

fig. 1

My research into documentaries such as, "Lover Stalker Killer" and "American Murder: The Family Next Door" helped me revise and familiar myself with technical elements such as detective narration, old visuals, and eerie non-diegetic sounds. Conforming to these conventions help audiences recognize the genre. However, I also subverted some conventions in order to create originality. For example, while many crime documentaries focus on older or married couples, my product centers around a young couple, making the same dangers relatable to teens. Using a cup of coffee as the weapon is also a way to challenge the conventions. Turning an everyday harmless object into a deadly symbol. Furthermore, instead of following the flat, professional detective narration, I decided to layer the dialogue when highlighting ava's obsession in order to add layers to her personality and be more enticing. This reflects Gauntlet's theory of representation as my character has depth and her own complexities that audiences can decode in different ways. 

My product engages with the audience by combining traditional features with more modern digital culture. According to Gerbner's cultivation theory, repeated exposure to conventions such as slow-paced editing, detective narration, and dark setting encourages audiences to believe a story belongs to the genre. We also added Gen-Z specific elements in order to attract younger audiences such as by creating a fake Instagram page-showing her party lifestyle, extroverted and rebellious personality as well as details from her user and bio (fig. 2)-, using teen actresses and using slang. This allows for balance in Blumler and Katz's uses and gratification theory: appealing to audience who watch for surveillance (to gain information regarding the case or the dangers it represents), diversion (entertainment purposes), personal identity (reflecting on their own relationships), and social interaction (encouraging discussion around possessiveness, obsession, and trust). The thumbnail also helps hook the audience's curiosity, prompting them to question, 'what's this about?' and 'how will this end?' (Hermeneutic code).

fig. 2

My product explores the issue of toxic relationships and the dangers of control and obsession through the character, Ava. She is portrayed as a "possessive, controlling girlfriend" representing the toxicity in an unhealthy relationship in Stuart Hall's representation theory. We showed this by giving tiny details that hints at who she truly is; her Instagram bio that hints at her need for control represents a darker side of gen z relationship culture, her username which highlights her ego to self-serve, and seemingly perfect appearance (suggested by her posts and the Giveny font that implies luxury) shows how controlling behaviors can blend in and be normalized, even romanticized in the media but in reality can cause a harmful impact. I also replaced one of the 'A' in her user as a 4, which symbolizes death, correlating to her case. Additionally, the concept of drugging someone using a mundane object such as a coffee mug highlights women's vulnerability in everyday situations. We linked this issue of gendered violence, and subverted it the other way around, in order to point to issues of manipulation, coercion, and trust instead of gender. Based on Stuart hall's audience reception theory, I also acknowledge that different types of audience would perceive this message differently. For dominant reading, audience would perceive this as a warning for toxic love, while oppositional reading would perceive it as over exaggerated and negotiated reading would agree with its message to a point whilst still sympathetic with ava's rebellion

Classwork

This is the classwork we do for this term compiled in a presentation slide.

VIEW PRESENTATION

Reflection: this is my classwork that I've combined and continued from our documentary project, to the music project. This has helped me revise, understand better and easily implement theories or studies to my answers or assignment.

Editing

 This project's editing is mostly done by me.

VIEW PRESENTATION

Behind the Scenes

 This is the behind the scenes for our documentary filming project. This assignment was done by me.

VIEW PRESENTATION

Filming Schedule.

 This is our team's filming schedule for this documentary project. This is made by me, using the app "Notion".

This app helped me schedule events or tasks based on their date, status, priority, etc. It also allows me to to add notes or details such as:

this is a useful feature that could remind me of the things to do, add, say, etc.

Location Scout + Risk Assessment

 This is my group's location scout and risk assessment. This was done by Arnold.

(Max’s House)
Location Link:	Google Link
Events in scene:	Interviewing
Pros of location:	Versatile, easy to set up lighting, nice quiet place to record and focus
Cons of location:	There are dogs which might ruin the audio background
Alternatives:	Kellie’s House
Risk Assessment
Potential hazards:	dogs
Evaluate risks:	Dogs could bite
Control measures:	Put the dogs in a cage
Responsibility:	Maxine
Time frame:	When we reach max’s house
Other notes:

(School)
Location Link:	Google Link
Events in scene:	What will happen?
Pros of location:	Its large, multiple options where we could record
Cons of location:	Noisy, Crowded, limited time, may interrupted
Alternatives:	No alternatives
Risk Assessment
Potential hazards:	Could get hit by a ball or crash into something
Evaluate risks:	Might interrupt student
Control measures:	Be aware of surrounding
Responsibility:	Arnold
Time frame:	By the time we reach school
Other notes:

Screenplay/Script

 This is my team's script for this documentary project. It was a group discussion, however it is mostly done by Kellie and me.

I made the script for 2 psychologists, however we did not end up using the scenes due to poor audio quality. Also, due to the rush and last minute decision to interview an extra person, I rushed and replaced the same script with a new one instead of making a new table, which is why there's only one script for the psychologist instead of 2

Storyboard

 This is the storyboard for my team's documentary project. This part was drawn by me but was a team effort.

Originally, our plan involved using stock images in order to conform to typical documentaries that often use stock images for their content. However since we discovered that we aren't allowed to use stock images, we had to improvise. I went around my house to recreate my own stock images to be used in our documentaries. I seek inspiration from researching in many different crime documentaries to find an idea that I like.

This is our Thumbnail Storyboard

There was lack of explanation because I was brainstorming independently and rushed to develop my ideas before it got away. However, after completing my development I did fill in all the information in the presentation for the thumbnail research and development

Statement of Intent

This is our statement of intent. This was done as a group effort when discussing our documentary case plot.

Research: Genre

 This is my Documentary Research on the introduction of documentaries

Weekly progress + Plan

 This is the weekly progress for this documentary project

Stage	Week	Blogpost No.	Blogpost Name	Description of Blogpost
Pre-Production	W1	1	Brief	Description of the brief, embed powerpoint
	W2	2	Plan & Weekly Progress	A weekly journal that is updated at the end pf each week. Contains a list of what you do, problems, solutions, and a to-do list
		3	Team	Your team + Links ot their blogs
		4	Research	Research into relevant documentary openings of the same genre (crime)
	W3	5	Statement of Intent	Proposal for the details of your project. Final product, target audience etc
		6	Storyboard & Script/Screenplay	Scene by scene storyboard
	W4	7	Location Scout & Risk Assessment	Possible shooting locations, risk assessment table
		8	Filming Schedule	Schedule of when you will film, what locations, and what you need to prepare
Production	W5	9	Behind the Scenes	Images of the shoot. What problems did you face in the shooting day, how did you overcome them? What was everyones role on the day?
Post-Production	W6	10	Thumbnail (Research & Development)	Research into similar thumbnails. Development of own ideas.
	W7	11	Editing Process	How did you edit? Challenges, solutions
		12	Critical Reflection	Self Reflection Essay
	W8
		13	Final (Submission)	Final doc, thumbnail

Weekly Progress

Week 1

This week we had our introduction

Week 2

This week we had our brief and research, as well as looking at examples of what we're going to do for this semesters project- documentary project, specifically crime documentary.

Week 3

This week we did some research, we were assigned to our own groups, we thought of what we're going to do for our project and started on our statement of intent. We decided to create a plot twist murder documentary, however our plan isn't quite solid yet, we may make some changes in order to make the story more interesting yet affordable. This week we also watched a few intros for crime documentaries to understand its conventions, traits and its subversions. This way we can tell apart what makes a documentary good and what makes it bad. 

Week 4

This week we did research on theories such as the Livingstone + Lunt theories, as well as learning some real life case studies and applying the theories we've learnt on it, this can help us answer case study questions better, and we can also apply our knowledge of the media in real life situations. This week we also did our storyboard as a plan on what we're going to do, basically the hard sketch on our scene plans. We also did location scout and risk assessment, discussing where our scenes should take place as well as plans and risks so that we come prepared. Lastly, we also started on our script to get a more detailed idea on how our story is going to happen so that during the rest of our planning, we won't have to keep making changes as we already know the base of our story.

Week 5

This week we did more research and did more planning for our shooting scenes. We created a schedule of the days that we're going to film and discussed the outline of our documentary. We finished our script and finished discussing the whole narration of our story. We also continued our storyboard. By the end of this week we expected to have finished with gathering documentary stock images, taking images of the scenes, and filming one of the interviews. We hope that we can do all that on schedule. This week we also learned theories and analyzed real life case studies such as tiktok, X, and real life murder cases, specifically the Jessica Wongso case. The topic is media regulation and power and the media. Additionally, we also learned how to critically use AI such as chat gpt, using it in a way that compliments our thinking and educates us instead of a tool to do our task for us. These AI lessons can come in handy especially for filming ideas in order to refine it and make our study more effective and efficient, increasing the quality of our production. We hope to start the other interview filming next week, hopefully we have time to make plans and can follow through.

Week 6

This week we did more of our projects for our documentary. Kellie was sick and was mostly absent however she did do the interview scene in her house with her dad. There was some video and audio quality issues, also some elements that would be better with some changes, all which I've pointed out and made a list for if she were to redo. This saturday we plan to shoot some scenes, if alex is able to, we'll create the CCTV real evidence scene, if not, we'll just film the reenactment of kellie putting drugs into his drink. We also started on our CR, reading the smaller detailed questions, understanding the rubric, etc. I hope that I can do well when starting on my actual CR. Additionally, I also added more tasks on my to-do list as well as provide more detailed descriptions such as camera angles, lighting, movements, mise-en-scene and acting details that we plan to put in the scenes.

Week 7

This week, we started on our editing and finished up our filming, however our group is a bit behind on the filming schedule because of the demo thats happening right now, our plan was to move it back to this thursday where we'll finish up all our necessary filming at my house, but I forgot that i have a church thing to attend to and wont be able to make it to school from 4th of september till the next week. This week we're choosing the bg sounds, and im going to schedule to film the psychiatrist interview with the school nurse. Im also going to film a few extra stock scenes and my interview. its quite scary because we have to rush our project.

Week 8

Because of our lack of availability, we had to rush all of our filming in 2 days. however it went surprisingly well. On sunday, we gathered at my house to film the cctv footage, recreation scene, and our own stock footage. Now we only need another interview for the detective, and kellie needs to do her part of the 911 call. So far, ive edited less than half of the project but i think i'll have no problem continuing it when I have the footage of the detective interview. My teacher have given me advice and feedback on how to improve my edit such as slowing down the zoom in of the images, adding footage or images in between interviews and to reduce harsh cuts. Hopefully we can finish the editing and our blogposts in time. Our teacher also provided us this table to ensure that we have everything done. its very useful. 

Week 9

This week is our final submission. I already finished all the edits, made all the blogs necessary, and finished the thumbnail. I did my CR, and helped my group by giving them pointers as well. Personally, I think we did good on the edit and thumbnail. I did spend quite a concerning amount of time on the editing as I keep having to readjust everything. However it ended up quite worth the while-I liked the results.