Research for Critical Reflection Essay

When I was a freshman, I kinda knew a few seniors who took AICE Media since we were all part of our school’s TV club. One of these seniors was Virginia, who was known for being an exceptional writer within the club. I even vaguely remember hearing her and her partners talking about their portfolio project that year. So, when it came to sifting through old AICE Media blogs for inspiration, it made perfect sense to read her critical reflection. You can check it out here.  

As I read her blog, I noticed that the CR's goal is just to explain the motivations behind the project and how those factors influence decisions throughout the creative process. Virginia’s insights focused heavily on pre-production planning and conceptualization and how that shapes the final product.

However, something I noticed was the absence of a discussion about shortcomings or “failures” in her reflection. While she did an excellent job articulating her successes and behind-the-scenes inspirations, I found myself thinking about the importance of acknowledging our missteps as well. This is something I plan to include in my own critical reflection.

Reflecting back on our documentary project's critical reflection, I realized that one of the areas where I fell short was in the integration of multimedia elements—specifically, embedding more videos and photos to elevate the overall quality of the essay. I had some great footage and images, but I didn’t fully utilize them to enhance the narrative. This time around, I'll keep that in mind as I develop my essay.

Additionally, I’ve come to recognize that I often struggle to write AICE Media essays in a more personal tone. My other class experiences have conditioned me to adhere to a strict, formal writing style that feels a bit stiff at times in this course's context. While I understand the importance of maintaining a degree of professionalism, I think there’s value in adding a more relatable and lighter touch to my critical reflection. I want to share not just my successes but also my obstacles and mistakes in a way that feels accessible and genuine.

By doing this, I hope to shed light on my true experience throughout this project. After all, many people have faced similar challenges, and it can be comforting to see that we’re not alone in our struggles as young filmmakers. Discussions about our pitfalls can humanize the creative process and make our journeys more relatable. As I work on my CR, I plan to weave in some anecdotes about my experiences, the unexpected hurdles I encountered, and the lessons I learned along the way.

In the end, I believe that embracing both my triumphs and my failures will lead to a more cohesive and authentic reflection. I’m excited to take these insights from Virginia’s blog and my own experiences into account as I kickoff this final reflection of my time in AICE Media. 

Research for Print Component

 (This is a post I am behind on, but better late than never, right?) 

One of the components for the A-level portfolio project is the print component. For my selected option, short film, this is a postcard meant to market the film's screening at a film festival. I haven't been too stressed about this component since I was thinking of it as a thumbnail/sneak peek of my short film, just with information on where to catch the screening. I knew all this would come after filming, and now that I have the bulk of it done, I can start this aspect of the project! 

In class we went over some important features that MUST be included on the postcard. They seemed pretty self-explanatory to me, but I'll list them here anyway:

- title

- key art

- director's name (ONLY CREDIT ON THE CARD! This is meant to be minimal & not overcrowded)

- date & time of screening

- locatoion

- social media information

After some serious digging on Google and through old blogs, here's a sample project I viewed:

Cutting Room Floor was one I just looked up because it was a past project that I've seen before and enjoyed, but mostly just cause I remembered it by name. On the left is the back of the postcard. I included it because I want to highlight the simplicity. It is just a snippet from the short film with the necessary text over it. My main takeaway for this component is to keep it simple. While I don't think choosing a snippet of the main character's back profile was the best choice, the general conventions hold true: show just what you need to get the screening information across to the audience.

With that all said, I'm not too worried about this component. I plan to decide on snippets for the front and back as I sort through the clips and continue to edit. The front will likely be a two-shot of Mia and Rebecca and the back might be a picture of Liam looking like a douchebag. 

Filming + Changes

 Another great day of filming! As planned, Gio, Mateo, and I met up on Monday to tackle all of the bedroom dialogue scenes. This included the first scene between Mia and Rebecca, the 2 mini transition clips, and the scene where Mia pretends to be Liam for the final rehearsal. 

We started at around 9:30am and finished around 11:30, it actually took much longer than I expected but hey, that's perfectly okay. Afterwards, we got to celebrate with some pancakes that Gio's mom made! They were delicious. 

It was much easier to get into character for these parts of the script compared to how the other ones went, so I'm thankful for that! Gio REALLY threw herself into playing a "boy," it was hilarious. I can't wait to show off how the scene turns out!

I do have some readjustments to the project to report however....

There are 2 remaining scenes: the boxing scene & the "founding fathers" scene. I've decided to rewrite the boxing scene into more of a running style of training, somewhat like a Rocky parody, because I couldn't secure a location that I liked for it. I have 2 tracks to choose from for this scene however, so I feel good. And then I was always reluctant about doing this, but, for the founding father scene I am going all out and buying costumes. I've seen people (girls) online dress up as foundign fathers and it is the vibe I want Mia & Rebecca to emulate. Below is an example of people doing this online:

With that said, I had to reschudle the filming date to be when i get back from Virginia... so sometime after school this week. I know, that is cutting it close to the deadline, but I won't wait for those scenes to start editing. I am trying to balance my national tournament and making adjustments to this project at the same time, so we're working with what we got! 

Social Media Theme

 As I mentioned in my last post, I've started to work more on my social media now that I have a better idea of my approach. I'm going for a mix of composition notebooks, fun colors, stickers, scrapbooking, and chalkboard vibes. Now hear me out, I get how that sounds like a lot going on, but I honestly believe they all complement each other and express that quirky, teenage girl vibe I want my comedy short to emulate.

On the left is an example of a post I've uploaded. Additionally, I've worked on a profile picture and some other posts coming soon. I had a specific vision for the profile photo so I watched the Youtube Video linked here to learn how to fill text in a 'groovy' shape in a circle using Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately, it had no audio instruction and wasn't very helpful to me... so that idea was a flop.. BUT! After lots of trial and error I realized a simple yet fun logo would work perfectly. Here's what I landed on for the profile picture:

I intentionally went for a circle shape cause I thought it woild be the most visuallt appealing for a profile picture format. I chose a dark background cause it reminded me of a chalkboard and I liked how it contrasted with the fun colors.

Additionally, I added a short bio: 

 I'm starting to feel more comfortable with this portion of the project now that I'm solidifying a style. So many ideas of future posts are rushing through my mind I can't wait.My tag is still back on my social media research post, so don't forget to check it out! 

Finally! A successful day of filming

fter last weekend's fiasco, I was really hoping this time around everything would work out smoothly—and luckily, it did! This Thursday, Mateo, Alex, and I met up at my place to dive back into filming. Mateo and I decided to skip school for the day (don’t worry, we didn’t miss anything essential!), making the perfect opportunity to focus on our project.

It was Alex’s first time acting, and wow, he COMMITED to the bit. I was genuinely impressed by his ability to step into his role and bring so much energy to the scenes. I have to mention one particular moment that turned out to be quite memorable...watching my boyfriend pick his nose for a role (that I subjected him to) on camera over several takes was a unique experience! 

Anyways... as always, Mateo was an incredible support. His suggestions and expertise helped elevate the scenes, and it just goes to show how important teamwork is in any creative endeavor. Unfortunately, Gio was unavailable this time, so we focused on the two scenes featuring Alex. But no worries—I’ll be meeting up with Gio on Sunday or Monday to wrap things up and ensure everything flows smoothly.

While I feel overall positive about the shoot, I do have one concern lingering at the back of my mind: the last scene might be a bit overexposed. It's tricky to gauge how it will look in post-production, but I'm hopeful I can touch it up and address any issues before the final edit. Fingers crossed...

Here's pictures of us hard at work:

Group Meeting

Today in class we were put into different 'teams' to talk about and critique one another portfolio projects. I unfortunately missed out on the last meeting, so I'm glad I was able to participate today. My group mates were Corina, Emma, Alec, and Romina, on the right is our super cute picture. I haven't spoken much with most of them, apart from Emma, so it was also a nice experience to get to know my classmates better. 

We went around sharing where we're at with the project, asking questions, and giving helpful critiques. Most of us agreed that the social media component has been the biggest struggle, so that's what my main takeaways relate to. Corina especially helped me spark a great approach for my social media

strategy. Essentially, she commented on how the cover of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (seen on the left), which I researched in my genre blog post, gave her a similar vibe to the plot of my short film. It is very scrap-booky, teenage "vibe," which fits right with my short! I can't believe that this whole time, the path around my roadblock was hiding in my blog all along. 

Before I had this epiphany, the reason I've been struggling with my social media is because I couldn't visualize a social media page that gave away specific parts of the plot of the short film. Other projects, like Romina's documentary for instance, can get by with marketing the "vibe" of the series, or focusing on a specific graphic or item, but my project doesn't exactly have something like that. My initial plan was to wait until I was in the production phase and make the social media more like "behind the scenes" thing, but now that I have a visual theme in mind my options open up a lot. The group recommended a couple posts in fact; 

- Questionarre on "How would you dump your significant other?"

- Emoji/Drawing posts alluding to the bits (ex. boxing gloves for that scene)

- And then the other typical posts (meet the director, cast, etc..)

I'm very happy with how the meeting went, I found it very beneficial. I'll be organizing my upcoming posts this week, and I have set the re-scheduled film dates for this weekend. 

I spoke too soon...

Wow. So remember on Friday when I said filming went well and the rest should also be a breeze? Well, I seem to have spoken too soon. Yesterday ended up falling through, which wasn't a huge deal, but today was supposed to be my day to catch up and stay on track. Unfortunately, I woke up with a stomach virus or some kind of illness that knocked me completely off my feet. I spent the whole day in bed with a massive migraine, and I ended up puking about four times. The only thing I could manage to keep down was a few saltines, which is definitely not what I had in mind for the day.

This setback is definitely pushing me back a bit in terms of my filming schedule, but thankfully, I didn’t procrastinate too much in the first place. I’ve already spoken with Mateo and Gio, and they’re both available to film next weekend, so there’s a silver lining. Today was just a yucky day, but on the bright side, Alex arrived from New York! I’m looking forward to hanging out with him, long distance kinda sucks sometimes.

Despite feeling crummy right now, I’m determined to use the upcoming week productively. I plan to spend class time getting myself reorganized, diving into research for my print component, working on social media posts, and preparing for our next filming dates. Right now, though, all I can think about is how much I just want to wake up tomorrow and feel normal again. Here’s hoping for a better day ahead!