This blog post contains my preliminary research for my music video project
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Monday, September 15, 2025
Final Documentary and Thumbnail
This is the final documentary and thumbnail
this is our final documentary:
this is the link to the video incase if there are any problems to open it: Media DOC
this is our final thumbnail for our documentary:
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Critical Reflection (CR)
this blog post contains my critical reflection for my documentary opening 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?
Our brief was to create a documentary package. We made a crime documentary focusing on academic rivalry, aimed at teenagers and young adults who enjoy mystery, tension, and crime stories.
Branding in media is a way a media product or company creates a memorable identity where audiences can easily recognize. Branding is important because it helps media products or companies stand out from competitive markets, since audiences know what qualities or values to expect. In our project, the video and thumbnail work together to create a consistent theme of contrast between the two characters. The thumbnail (fig. 1) shows a half and half photo of the two characters, Rain is shown smiling confidently while Hazel has a flat expression, the documentary shows Rain being socially admired through vlog scenes, while Hazel is represented as reserved and serious from scenes of him studying. By repeating the contrasts, this creates a memorable brand identity. The purpose of the product was to introduce the characters and highlight their differences using conventions such as CCTV footage and interviews. Audiences decode the meaning through consistent contrasts enhanced through facial expressions, behaviours and settings. Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory suggests that some audiences may accept these stereotypes, while others may challenge them.
(fig. 1)
Research played a significant role developing our documentary as it made me understand and apply genre conventions. From my research, I learned that medium shots are often used in interviews to highlight the interviewees emotions. We used this to make interviews more engaging while also enhancing the characters' appearance and body language. CCTV footage (fig. 2) was another convention I identified, which we also added in our documentary to be used as found footage while also creating realism. Mise-en-Scene also played a big role in our documentary, it enhanced the characters’ social class. We applied this by dressing the rich students with jewelry and accessories (fig. 3) while the nerd we placed books, pens and calculators to emphasize his academic efforts. This contrast reflects the themes of rivalry and inequality. I also noticed sound is an important technical element in crime documentaries as it sets the mood of different scenes. We applied discordant music when interviewees are describing the nerd, which adds a dramatic effect. Lastly, crime documentaries also often use flashbacks with found footage or photographs, we decided to conform to this by using CCTV footage and student vlogs.
(fig. 2)
(fig. 3)
For our target audience, we target teenagers to young adults aged 17-30 years old, as they are mature enough to engage with crime related topics. Our product also aimed at high school or college students, particularly those who relate to academic pressures and competition, which allows the audience to connect with the school setting and rivalry storyline. Our documentary appeals to our target audience as the academic rivalry narrative reflects students' experiences, while conforming to typical crime documentary genre conventions like interviews and found footage, which draws the attention of viewers who enjoy true crime. The suspenseful narrative and discordant music enhances the sense of tension and creates immersion which fulfils the Uses and Gratification Theory of Diversion. The thumbnail engages the audience through hermeneutic codes. The half and half image of the two contrasting characters immediately raises questions like “What conflict might happen between them?” or “How does this rivalry connect to the murder?”. These hermeneutic codes ensure that it captures the audience's attention and encourages them to watch.
In our documentary, we chose to represent the contrasting social groups of high social class students and low social class students to enhance the themes of academic rivalry and social inequality. The high class group was shown as wealthy and socially powerful, this is enhanced through their appearance like excessive accessories and confident body language. In contrast, the low class student was represented as hardworking and under academic pressure, this is shown through repeated shots of him studying alone. These representations were strengthened through technical elements like medium shots to highlight their appearances as well as discordant sounds in interviews when describing him. We also used stereotypes to enhance the differences so it is recognisable for the audience. The issue of academic rivalry emphasizes how privileged and disadvantaged groups shape opportunities and pressures in the school environment. High social class students have financial support for their academics which creates unfair advantages in education, while the lower social class students have to sacrifice their free time to study. By contrasting the two groups, our documentary raised wider issues of social inequality while engaging audiences through familiar stereotypes and visual contrasts.
Thumbnail (Research & Development)
this blog post contains the research and development for our documentary opening thumbnail, it is made by Bams 12A
The software that I used would be paint.net as it includes simple features such as removing the background easily from images, being able to have a wide variety of fonts that can be used for our thumbnail and etc.
RESEARCH THUMBNAIL
Overall overview of most crime documentary within Netflix
The crime documentary thumbnails mostly stick to the conventions that crime genre has such as mugshot looking type and dark colors especially the red colors as it represents danger, crime, and violence. This would help us attract our target audience and what would be expected inside of the documentary. Based from the overall view on the image on Netflix's crime documentary search most of the thumbnails show the prepetrator's face or vintage and polaroid type pictures, this gives off a sense of tension and seriousness, so thus the audience would expect real and possible disturbing crimes.
Here are two examples of the thumbnails that interests us:
This is our start to our thumbnail...
More information is that when I started to use paint.net again and due to because that paint.net didn't have enough of the effects I had so the downside was that each time I had an idea to make the actors have more meaning towards them I had to switch back and forth to my editing software (Vegas Pro 18) to edit the photo and input back into paint.net. So this was technically the rough buildup of making the thumbnail.
Step 1
I masked out the paper overlay to match hazel's picture
Step 2
I delete the left part of hazel to fit rain into the other side of the picture to let it look like it is connected and it would fit our thumbnail like "Making a Murderer"
Step 3
I resized rain's image to fit into the thumbnail as previously it was too large and it wouldn't fit the thumbnail and make the thumbnail look stretched and compressed, which is not wanted in a thumbnail.
Step 4
Step 4
I added vignette to the image to show that there is some sort of dark side on Hazel and give it that eerie feeling towards Hazel.
Step 5
I added the black and white filter on Hazel and gives off a gloomy mood towards him.
Step 6
I added the left side of Hazel again to be able to mask Rain onto the thumbnail and this is the result I got from doing so...
Result
Result
I asked feedback from my team members and the teacher and due to the bad "ripped paper" overlay, I had to change the paper aswell as conform to other thumbnails such as the "What Jennifer Did" thumbnail from Netflix. The feedback that was given was that :
- The paper layer was too thick
- It doesn't show the emotions of the two characters easily
- The images were disproportionate
- The mouth and the clothing should match with each other so it looks like its connected
I took the feedback for the thumbnail and this is the final result...
THUMBNAIL :
The “ripped paper” effect down the middle suggests the different sides of people that could relate to the documentary as the audience would expect that the crime was caused by those two people. It also connotates that the left side which is Rain, the rich kid shows trophies and awards which is academic achievement, he is also seen using a light brown jacket this gives off that elegant vibe to him and the gold trophies behind implies that rich friend more. The right side which shows Hazel is in a deep red and shadowy filter this connotates violence, anger or possibly even obsession as Hazel was considered in the documentary to be fairly obsessed with getting valedictorian and studying. This contrasts heavily with the left side showing that it was bright and celebratory to imply that there was a cost or dark truth behind the success of becoming a valedictorian. We also decided to put the “N” (Netflix) logo to suggest this is a presented like a documentary so the audience would expect a serious and intense, story rather than something lighthearted. Thus, the viewers that would see the thumbnail would be led to feel curiosity, tension. Which hints that behind that polished image of a high achiever has a side of him that is evil.
TYPOGRAPHY :
For the typography, I used “British Green” font for the word VALEDICTORIAN on the thumbnail as it is often associated with formality and prestige which for the looks of Rain shows he comes from a wealthy family. This choice for the typeface reinforces the connotations for academic exellence and seriousness which fits the title of valedictorian. The title is also written in all caps, giving it that bold, commanding and powerful tone to the audience which could lead them to thinking like “ why is valedictorian that important to them both?”, “what conflicts did it cause? “.
The typography is also large which immediately draws the audience’s eye to the title before the details of the image, also the placement being a bit to the bottom left visually reinforces the conflict between the two people shown.
This is our crime documentary's thumbnail but inputted into the Netflix library to see how it would match with the other documentaries.
Edit
this blog post contains the editing process of our documentary opening project, this blog was made by Alex
Teacher Feedback
1. Integrate an establishing shot
2. make the actors sit faster
Then Mr. showed me a Spoof Documentary American Vandal and it showed me about better ways of making people sit and how to do and establishing shot with a J cut included, the audio but the clips I was provided by my group was too soft for a J cut to be substantial.
American Vandal
This was after the feedback was implemented:
This was after the feedback was implemented:
Thoughts: I think this was a great idea the establishing shot really sets the scene and lets the audience knows that we're in a school, and making the actors sit faster helps with pacing
A problem I have found persistently during editing is the over exposure within the footage that my teammates sent, I have no idea if it's my editing software or their phones but it was a persistent problem I had to fix with all the tools I have.
Example of the video being normal in the video player (lots of others also had this):
Example of the problem inside premiere pro:
Solution I devised was using the effect Brightness & Contrast:
Thoughts: I have no idea why this happens, luckily I had options to fix it to maintain continuity within the video and between scenes.
After we send it back to Mr. for more feedback it was clear to him that it was heavily needed because he gave us a lot of feedback that was invaluable with improving our product
The numerous feedback he gave us:
Before the improvements:
Thoughts: If we didn't have that feedback I think this whole project would have been really difficult to work with as me as an editor personally, I NEED directions if I am to edit a video for someone. So the feedback was incredible is providing clear directions for improvement
Behind-the-Scenes
This blog post contains the filming process for our documentary opening project. this was made by kim
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Classwork
This blog post contains all the things i learn in my media studies class.
here are technical elements that helped me in my documentary project
Media Classwork by kimora
these are theories and key concepts i learned in class:
Media Regulation - media regulation aims to balance freedom of speech, protect consumers, ensure accurate information, and address ethical
concerns.
Media Regulation Theory (Livingstone & Lunt)
Livingstone and Lunt carried our research during the late 1990s and early 2000s regarding media regulation and audiences to determine:
Media regulation is extremely difficult
A regulator’s role is to protect the audience
Audiences believe that adults should be free to choose whatever media they want
Media regulators must balance choice with protection
Technology has made regulation very difficult (downloading, streaming, piracy, social media etc.)
Audiences can now bypass restrictions without parental consent
Powerful media companies can avoid regulation
Power & the Media - Power in the media is about who controls content, how they use it, and who is affected.
Power can come from:
Companies (buying others, dominating markets)
Governments (laws, regulations)
Individuals (creators, social media)
Power is used to shape representations, influence opinion, and control attention
‘Power and the Media’ is a topic which asks learners to interrogate the nature of power, how it is wielded, by whom and in what ways. This
could be the power to represent, to speak for a particular group, or the power to acquire independent companies in order to benefit from their
brand and market share. It could also be the growing power, to create their own brands and to make an impact on political discourse via social
media.
Filming Schedule
This is the filming schedule for our documentary opening. This was made by Kim and Eileen.
This is the filming schedule for our documentary opening. This was made by Kim and Eileen.
=> The scheduled filming for the interviews on the 20th and 22nd were cancelled because most of the cast weren't
able to film and is rescheduled to monday 25th august.
=> The person that was supposed to play the role of the ‘rich student’ wasn't able to attend the filming for monday.
So instead we just filmed the vlog with his friends only. We are planning to reschedule the shoot somewhere this week.
=> on monday 25th august, we were supposedly only filming the vlog, but we tried to film one of the interviews which
surprisingly was a good result so we would consider using that as one of the used scenes.
=> on Wednesday 27th of August, we filmed Cavin outside at the school parking lot. We didn't have a microphone, so
the audio quality turned out really bad since it was very windy that day.
So on the 11th of September we filmed it again with Bams, because Cavin didn’t want to re-film. We placed his phone in
his pocket while it was voice recording, then we put the voice recording to the video so the audio is clear.
=> on the 27th of August we also took photos for the thumbnail. Both the characters we taking picture behind a blue
background while using the same uniform, we then got feedback from Mr. Nick and he suggested having a different
background and outfit for Rain.
So on the 15th of September, we reshot the photo of Rain. We did it in the school lobby in front of the trophies. Since this
was a day before the deadline and it was a Monday, Rain was wearing the checkered uniform which was the same as the
previous picture, to fix this we borrowed someone's jacket to cover his uniform.
=> on the 28th of August, we shot Ms.Nina’s interview in the counselor's office, however it was very loud because it was
during dismissal time and we also forgot to shoot a video of Ms.Nina sitting down. So on the 8th of September, we reshooted
her again inside a classroom in the teachers table. It was shot in the preschool building after dismissal time so there was less
crowds.
This is the actor filming schedule made by Eileen
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