Critically Reflecting! (CCR)

Here is the link to my Critical Reflection.

Finally completed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TCHWnhYVJk

Much love xx

Here it is!

After so many bumps on the road... coming at you live (drum roll please) BLOOMING IN D.C.!

I had many many many issues but my biggest issue was the fact that my IMovie stopped working completely after I finished my task. It would not allow me to export my file and the only way to do it was to restart everything but that would have required me to have uploaded the files again from the SD Card that I no longer have because I gave it to my mom to take in her camera to her trip to Puerto Rico this week. I tried very hard to export it in any way to be able to make it work but I couldn't. Therefore, I went ahead and did a screencast of the documentary itself, and although it lowered the quality and has some really ugly boarders around it, it worked.

Thank you for having set on this journey with me...

To infinity and beyond!

Mariette xx



Here is the link to my major task:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So-qYyRtxks&t=1s

Here is the link to my minor task (website):

https://mariettesanchez.wixsite.com/bloomingindcfilm

And here is a picture of my poster:

Ohhhh snap!

The series of Uh Oh's is now old... I'm going to change things up and call them "oh snaps" even though I'm praying this is my only one (which I know it won't be but I'm gonna let myself believe that).

So, for my music... I need to get that out of the way ASAP. I could always compose a song or play it on the piano or guitar and have it be my own due to the fact that I do play the piano and the guitar but I'm not quite sure if that's the way I want to go with it. And if it is I'd probably mash up multiple songs and make them my own.

I've started going through websites such as Bensound, Purple Planet, etc. All of these copyright free music websites but I don't know how I feel about it. Ugh! Why do I do this to myself!?!

I'm going to wait until I film to blog about the songs I have selected from those websites. I'm a special one for sure.

Out comes the music producer, film maker, graphic designer and I don't even know what else in me!

Also, I've been working on researching more about the flowers because I need to know more more more... here is the article I found that I liked the most: http://washington.cbslocal.com/top-lists/best-places-to-see-spring-flowers-in-washington-dc/

And this is the one we will be visiting:

Mariette xx

Road trip to Washington, DC

Hey!

So I've been very much stressed out during this road trip because if you've ever taken one you know that it's a pain in the buttox! To add to my stress because why not, I have decided that I am making a montage of my road trip and if I finish that on time I'll post it on here but right now it clearly isn't my priority I'm just recording for the heck of it. I have brought along my camera and will create natural tripods for it. Reasons why I'm filming with my camera you ask? Oh! Well it has way better quality than my iPhone 6s, it is way less shaky, and it makes people think I'm more professional LOL!

So I've been planning out my questions during the drive and discussing these with my parents... I am planning on interviewing just a couple of tourists who are down to get interviewed (which I am praying that I can get multiple). This is all on luck now but if there's a will there's a way! These are the questions I have prepared:

1. Have you visited D.C before? Was it during the spring?
2. What made you want to come to D.C's botanic garden? (This is only if the tourist is in the botanic garden, there are flowers everywhere and people stop to take pictures at all times)
3. How do you feel about the flowers you've seen so far?
4. Were you aware of the fact that the flowers at D.C have become such a big tourist attraction?

I am also planning on interviewing someone who I can find with an expertise in the flowers. I'm hoping I can find a tour guide or someone who is willing to help, with the right words and the right appeal I can get people to work with me. For these people with an expertise, I have made the question more open ended. Here is the basic question in which I am planning on branching out from: 

1. Can you tell me your name and a little bit of what you do here? (Based on this response I am planning on branching out and continue to ask multiple questions if the person has seemed to stop responding)

I am not quite sure if I want my voice to be in this yet because I don't like my voice on videos and stuff but if that's what it takes then so be it as well! That's the thing with documentaries ugh whatever happens, happens and whatever doesn't, doesn't; which kinda sucks but there's nothing we can do about that for we (I don't really know who I am including in here with me but I guess other people who create documentaries) are documenting not staging :)

So this is all I've got for now as soon as I start recording I will start updating... This is a lot and I know it is but I've told myself that I can handle it therefore I can, along with the support of my parents of course!

Thanks for tuning in!

Mariette xx

Alright, here we go

Ok,

I know the fact that I am currently in the pre-production part of my project right now has be so bothered too. I have cried a lot about this and just haven't been able to wrap my mind around the fact that I've done this to myself but I can handle it, I can take it. "If there's a will, there's a way" as my mother would say.

My dad came back home today from North Carolina where he went to watch a tennis tournament in which his favorite player, Monica Puig, was playing and he will do anything to watch her play so he drove up alone to go watch her. The determination runs in the family I guess.

I have been up to changing up my poster ideas too. I have cleaned it up a lot... I am currently letting it be very sans serif fonts and filling in the background (and changing it up) with just images that my friend, who is currently in D.C, has been taking of the flowers.

I truly do love this topic. I've learned to appreciate flowers my whole life because my mother is flower obsessed. There are around maybe 8 orchids in my household, because these are her favorite. My father used to work for a huge pharmaceutical company called Merck and he worked on the veterinarian side of it, anything and everything having to do with large animals these including cows, horses etc. So he would spend a lot of time on farms and sometimes he'd take me with him just because of the fact that he loved for me to see the fauna and flora around the area.

It's just been something that, although I may shove it off to the side at times, and think that I don't focus on, I do. I would love to have this documentary on the beautiful flora in D.C during this time of the year not only because it brings attention to D.C and of course promotes it, but it will also trigger the sense of appreciation for all of what we have on Earth and how it's so naturally beautiful and we should really just protect it and embrace it as much as it happens in D.C.

Thanks for tuning in this week... Next week is about to be bumpy as heck!

Mariette xx

So what am I doing now?

Alright, this is not as easy as it looks....

I had this idea in my head that everything I was going to do was going to perfectly lead me to where I wanted to go but obviously this isn't how life works.

My mother came back from her trip to Puerto Rico this week with back pains, which she has always suffered from, and now can't go on the road trip. Oy vey! What do I do!? I have turned to my father for lots of advice and he has told me that he does not mind the drive to D.C with just me which honestly is something that we really need to bond about so this will be great.

In the meantime I have gone thinking about exactly what I'm doing when I get to D.C. I know this was supposed to be how we did it from the beginning with everything planned exactly how it's supposed to be and stuff but it has been very very tough to do so during the school year and stuff so you know, since one doesn't always follow perfect instructions 'cause that's just how humans are well I need to do so now. So here I am trying to plan everything out perfectly so when I get there all I have to do is shoot. I will be doing it about spring in D.C.. I will not have my focus fully on the Japanese Cherry Blossoms because I feel like it's too much of a crunch to do so.

Please take into regard the fact that I do have my other documentary filmed, and edited completely so if all else fails I will submit that. I just really am in total disappointment of what I produced. I didn't put all of my effort into it and now it's biting my butt back but I'm not going to sit here and let it do that so if being stressed for this whole week is what it takes then I'll do it.

I tend to not give up on things I care about and I feel like I just have shoved this off to the side because of the fact that the topic angers me so much and I distanced myself from it.

Jesus take the wheel! LOL

Mariette xx

Website? Poster?

Hey guys!

So today I have been giving a lot of thought at what I can do to make my process a little quicker, things to research so that I can work more efficiently, and finally what do I want to do next? I am so in shock at the fact that I have so little time but so much of it too? Being in the pre-production part of my project right now when I already went through the whole ordeal before is really stressing. (Why do I do these things to myself? I don't know but everything happens for a reason right!! *insert nervous laughter*) 

For my previous documentary idea I had started formatting my website and thinking about what I wanted the theme of the website to be, simple or complex, colored or not, etc. etc. So I had chosen that I wanted to do something simple, with sans serif fonts and with a black, white, grey color scheme. For this I chose to get inspiration from Meru's website, which was a documentary we watched in class. The website is overall very simple and very graphic. I love this a lot because it serves as a promotional tool for the documentary because the images persuade people to want to watch it. 

 

Here are some pictures of the website. This is pretty much what I would be using for the aesthetic of my site. I want to keep it clean no matter what I end up doing because I know I will need to just for time purposes and also because of the fact that I really have to make sure any target audience can appeal to it.

That's all for today!

Wish me luck!

Mariette