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

Epiphany

So an epiphany... let's have a little chat about what this means to me and how it is exactly what I am having right now. An epiphany, defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event); or an illuminating discovery, realization or disclosure. So this is exactly what is going on in my head right now. I have had a brilliant (I think) idea. 

During my road trip I will be visiting all the places I mentioned in my previous blog and spending at least a whole 12 hours there. I began to research cool facts about the places I am visiting and the one that caught my attention the most was the blooming of the Japanese Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C. This is a major event over there which attracts many tourists and is considered to be one of the most beautiful moments of the year at Washington. These cherry blossoms have very rich history and there are even museums about it in the area. This could be the main focus of my documentary. Thinking from above the poster would be a picture of a cherry blossom and the website would be just very pink (the color of the flowers) etc. 

My other idea is that I will be visiting St. Augustine, FL and Savannah, GA these are two cities with very rich Spanish history (especially St. Augustine due to the fact that it was the first city established in the United States by the Spanish). I could do my documentary on the architecture there or just the history of it and why people visit it, my interviewees would be tourists in the area and I could visit a tourist information center and get someone with some expertise to talk about it. 

I have a couple of other ideas rolling around in my head but I truly think I can pull this together.

Hold on tight!

Mariette xx

What comes next?

Hello again!

Sunday before show week has finally gotten here and the show, FAME, is finally coming together so that's a weight off of my shoulders. Spring break is coming along in the next week so that is something I am very much so looking forward to.  My family and I have "last minutely" planned a road trip from Weston, Florida which is where we live, all the way up to Washington, D.C. I am so beyond excited because we're not just going straight there; we're going to be stopping in St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Savannah, Ashville, Blue Ridge Parkway, Williamsburg, and finally Washington, D.C. This will be prime time to be working on my complete documentary package due to the fact that our project is due April 16th! Ahhh!

I will have plenty of hours, 31 to be more exact, to work on all that I have to do. I am planning on making the most out of these hours and really utilize the time to the best of my abilities. My family and I will not be driving overnight therefore I shouldn't fall asleep in the car (like I would usually cause I got lots to do!). I kinda had a little epiphany during the weekend and it was to change the idea of my documentary... and just film something completely different... This might sound ballistic right now but I am truly feeling hopeless with what I have for now. I am embarking on this amazing road trip with my family and the ideas for my documentary project are endless. I have countless hours to work on it in the car and I truly do believe I could pull it together!

All you have to do is believe! I have been researching different movies and films who seem to magically get their stuff together last minute and these include but are not limited to the production of Moonlight where the character who plays the mother, Naomie Harris, only went onto set for one day and filmed everything that she did in the movie in one day. I know there are many more people especially people who film documentaries who have last minute epiphanies and manage to get their stuff together. I am truly looking forward to not having to do this and maybe figuring something out with what I already have but I am truly just not happy with my work at all and I will not submit something I am not happy with.

Don't freak out... just hold on tight.

Mariette xx