Video Done!

Okay, maybe the title is a little misleading. Technically, my video component is completely done; however, I still plan on receiving feedback and going back to change some things. Overall though, I basically finished editing today, and I'm dedicating this blog to my process of this final post-production stage.

Similarly to my last blog posting, I'm going to be making sections and placing what I did in order, so it makes more sense for you guys.

Organize:

        The first thing I did today, was organize my piece. In my last blog, I talked about how organizing the order of the interview clips and intertwining the two interviews was the next task on my plate. So, I began organizing. I didn't have a lot of time to edit yesterday, so while I began to edit yesterday, I simply organized the first minute or so and added the matching B-roll right away. Typically, I would have waited until after organizing everything to add a B-roll, but I wanted to have at least one section completed before going to bed.

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        Something else I did yesterday that would help me today is make bins. I had done this in several past projects, but since I had such a grand variety of visual and auditory footage, I decided to implement it into this project as well. If you're not familiar with Adobe Premiere Pro or bins in general, they are basically little folders you can create within the imported content that can help you organize more specifically your content. Below, you can see all of the folders I created to help me organize and be able to locate my content quicker and more efficiently.

        One thing you might find strange from the list of bins above is one called 'USED.' This was surprisingly my most important bin, in my opinion. One big problem I had while editing my in-class documentary project, was that I would accidentally use the same clip of B-roll twice, and not even realize it until way later. In order to solve this problem, I made this bin. Every time I used a new clip, whatever it may be, I took it out of its corresponding bin and put it into the 'USED' bin so I made sure to not re-use it.

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        Anyway, today in the morning, I started editing again, and I simply spent some time organizing the interviewee clips in an order that I thought was good. This was a little complicated because although they both had the same questions being asked, both interviewees typically responded to the questions in unique ways. This obviously provided me with a greater variety of content, but at the same time, it made it hard for me to match up the content with one another and make the whole piece flow smoothly. So, after some time of deleting clips and rearranging them around, I finished the organizing stage of this post-production process and decided to move along.

Music:

        Surprisingly, I decided the next step I wanted to take was music. Music has always been hard to choose from due to the vast amount of options available through the infinite platforms online. The only problem was that the only idea I had for what I wanted the music to sound like was light-hearted and calm. Obviously, this very vague description didn't help me, especially with my very picky eye. I ended up scrolling through YouTube for about 45 minutes before giving up and taking a break. A while later, I told myself that no matter how much I delay it, I'm going to have to find a good music backtrack at some point, so I might as well get it over with. Around 30 minutes after fooling around some more on YouTube, I found one sound that I thought was decent. It didn't wow me at first, but I was so exhausted from scrolling through the search results on YouTube that I decided to save the sound just in case.

I'll get back to when I placed it into my project in a bit.

B-roll:

        This section title is probably pretty self-explanatory. This is the long process of re-watching my piece and my interviewees over and over again until I find a good enough B-roll piece that fits the vibe and feeling that certain sections of the interview match. There isn't much to say about this process since it's mainly trial and error, so I'll just add some pictures of the B-roll I added and I'll move on.

 

Back To Music:

        At this point, I had added the music to my piece (the long magenta soundtrack at the bottom of my editing clips above). When I first heard it matched up with my wholesome piece, I thought it was so cute and that it matched pretty well. That was until I heard the song fade out in one certain part where coincidentally, the interviewee also stopped talking for a second. After this, the song faded back in and started playing a new tune at the same time that the interviewee started talking again. This was when I realized that this sound could not have been more perfect. It almost felt like it was meant for my piece.

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Anyway, after that, I added my finishing touches and labeled my video component as done without counting any last-minute changes I may have to make after critiques from my friends, family, or maybe even my teacher.

-Dana

Starting to Edit

Today I started editing my piece. Like I said in my prior blog, I had much less time to edit due to the delay in my second interview and a trip I was out on for part of this week; however, I did end up beginning to edit today, so I will be talking about it in this blog posting. 

        Before starting on what I did today, I want to say that I did some pre-editing late last week. Basically, what this is is preparing yourself for editing so once you actually begin to edit the process goes much smoother. This can range from learning from scratch or refreshing your editing software to adding clips and placing them into the editing slot. If you want to learn more about what it is, I actually made a blog about this for my last year's portfolio project here, so you can understand more about the concept if you didn't understand it. Similarly to what I explained in that blog, I imported my videos from my 2 different instances where I filmed (each of my interviews) only a day or two after I filmed them so I made sure I at least had them safe on my computer. After this, I placed both clips in the editing strip (I don't know what to call it exactly, but basically where you can edit things together), and I mentally prepared myself for editing.

        Something I'm not sure if I mentioned in a previous blog, but after receiving some feedback from my previous in-class documentary project, I learned using a phone or another device to record the interviewee's voice at the same time as the video recording could help make the noise and speaking be clearer and have less background noise. So, I did that for both interviews, and part of my pre-editing, was lining up the two (the video and the voice recording) and then deleting the audio from the filmed video. I honestly didn't believe that there was going to be a huge difference, but there was a very noticeable difference in the crispness of the interviewee's voices.

        Anyway, moving on to the real editing I did today, I didn't actually do much. Although I technically haven't gotten very far into the editing process yet, I do believe that the sections I've completed so far are super necessary and basic and it is good that I have gotten them out of the way. Before diving into exactly what, I've come to realize that I have a specific order and process within editing that I have stuck to for these past 2 years, so this order is what I will be telling my process in.

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Cut and Color:

        The first thing, apart from placing the film sections into the editing strip, I always do with my projects, including this one, is make sure I only have what I want. This process can take a long while, especially with a longer project. Today, it took me around one and a half hours to do this since I had a total of almost 10 minutes' worth of interview footage. What I mean by cut in this section title is selective editing. I know I talked about this in a previous blog where I mentioned that although it is almost impossible to make a piece without selective editing, I wanted to try my best to keep the information conveying the same message. I think I did this process well since most of the sections I cut out were either entire questions I didn't necessarily like, sections where the interviewees were repeating themselves, or sections I thought were going on for a little too long. Below, you can see that although I did often cut my clips, I still tried my best to maintain the clips as long as possible. Some of the cuts might have even been due to a pause, a stutter, a breath, or an 'um' from the interviewee.

        Although after this stage I have technically finished the cutting section of my process, I always end up having to cut out more sections once I organize my piece, due to repetition or misfitting information. However, after finishing cutting my footage up for now, I move onto the coloring stage. I made this a very important topic in almost all projects where I have to document my process.

        Coloring my piece clips not only soothes my aesthetic mind, but it also helps me be way more organized with my piece. In the picture below, you can see how much I use distinct colors to help me immediately recognize what section or aspect of the piece I am looking at.

Color Coding:

Purple: Deputy Danielle Quinones Interview (Visual)

Teal: Deputy Danielle Quinones Interview (Auditory)

Orange: Deputy Tony Sun Interview (Visual)

Hot Pink/Red: Deputy Tony Sun Interview (Auditory)

Yellow: Question Asking

Green: B-roll

Lighter Pink: Labeling/ Intros

        I know this color coding may seem excessive, but the more I edit this piece, the more it grows on me and helps me save time.

        Another thing that kind of fits into this topic is the vertical organization. Basically, this means assigning a role to each row of the editing software. Obviously, it can be seen that the top row consists of the B-roll (or what I have added so far) and the next one down is the visual interview footage; however, what I wanted to point out was the yellow audio sections. These sections relate to my interview questions audio. You can see that all of those audio pieces are on a separate row. This is also a technique I use every time I edit and use sound while recording that I don't actually need for my final product. What I do is keep the audio file, in case I need to listen to it and understand what the question I was asking was, but mute the row, so when I'm listening to the product, I can't hear the sections. Also keep in mind, that I will be deleting the yellow sections once I'm fully done, but before organizing I like to keep them there that way I remember what questions go with what answers.

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        Typically, the next step would be organizing the clips and intertwining the two interviews; however, since at this point in the day it was already pretty late at night, I decided to do one more thing that would take up less of my time instead.

Titles:

        I don't know what to call this, but it is basically the little text that pops up, introducing the interviewees. Using text is one of my weakest simple areas in editing, at least with Adobe Premiere, so I decided to just do a very similar technique to what I did with my in-class documentary project.

Apart from what you see in the picture, I also made the title slide in and out, so it would look more realistic and like a real documentary.

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        To finish this blog off, I want to say my future plans. Basically, the next time I edit, which will probably be tomorrow, I plan to find some fitting music and finish organizing my clips including the intertwining of the two interviews.

-Dana

My Second Interview

I finally have completed my second interview for my documentary, so in this blog post, I will talk about my troubles and accomplishments surrounding this interview.

        Before starting on anything specific in the interview, I want to focus on the major troubles and annoyances I had while trying to schedule this interview. The actual interview itself went perfectly fine; however, it took me so long to actually set up the interview date, that now, my whole planned schedule is much more compact and rushed. Anyway, the next 2 paragraphs will be about all of the setting up issues.

        When I first started being in contact with Deputy Danielle Quinones, I asked her if she had any contact information for any of the bloodhound dog handlers. Before this message, she mentioned them, so I thought those dogs could be perfect for my second interview. She accidentally gave me a misspelled email address to the main bloodhound dog handler in my county, so I didn't reach out to her until around a week later when I realized the email she gave me had one letter off. Still, before receiving a response from her, I asked Deputy Danielle if she had any other bloodhound handlers contacts so I could get in contact with another one in case the first option didn't come around. She gave me 2 other bloodhound handlers I could contact.

        After finally receiving replies from all 3 of them, they all told me that that week (last week now) was very busy for them, so the interview would have to be this week. I was fine with that apart from the fact that I would have to be editing much faster and get it done before the end of this week (or try at least). My editing time was reduced from around 9 days to 4. Anyway, I ended up settling for one of the bloodhound handlers, Deputy Tony Sun, as he was the only handler that fit into my schedule and replied fast enough so I could make an appointment for my interview. Now, moving on to the actual interview content.

Similarly to Deputy Danielle Quinones, I ended up using the same exact question bank, but I'll still include a picture of it below to refresh your minds on the questions I was asking.

        Like my interview with Deputy Danielle Quinones, Deputy Tony Sun asked me how and where I would like to conduct my interview, so I simply told him I needed a quiet and well-lit room for it. I also made sure to allow him to look over the questions before conducting the interview, so he could have a clearer idea of what to expect and what to answer during the actual filming. I'm not sure if Deputy Tony has ever been interviewed before, but if he hasn't, he was very well prepared and knew exactly how to answer questions. For example, on many occasions, he answered several other questions within one question. He also often explained himself and elaborated a lot with his responses. Unfortunately, there were a couple of moments where there was background noise, and on certain occasions, I did ask him to restate what he was just saying, but in other instances, he was in the middle of talking, so I couldn't necessarily ask him to repeat everything he was just saying.

        After our successful interview, he told me that if I waited out front, he would drive up around the building with Bluey so I could meet her and film some B-roll. He didn't have a lot of time sadly, so I got mainly some plain clips of him walking with Bluey or just Bluey herself. 

        I also filmed Deputy Tony Sun's car a couple of times since it included text that said K9 police car which I could also use as B-roll. After this, I decided to go to the local dog park to see if I could film some more B-roll including dogs in general. This was very successful as I got an extra B-roll I could use if I needed to use some filler clips. 

Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my explanation of my second interview filming!

-Dana

My Insta Page

I will be dedicating this blog to my social media page and my progress so far on the digital component of this project. The reason I'm making this blog is because since I recently recorded my first interview plus its B-roll, I have more content to post. 

        One thing I want to mention is that I decided to make some of the posts part of my highlights, which are story postings that you can save to your account page. This allowed me to include focused content in my highlights that wouldn't typically be seen as posts. For example, in my "animal of the week" postings, I am putting in a specific highlight, so I can keep all of that related content in the same spot and not scattered throughout my other postings. 

        To start off, I am trying to maintain the natural look on my page by making most of my postings look mature and original instead of adding too many filters or add-ons. This also contributes to my brand of being laid-back about my content and mainly focusing on the importance of the animals. You can also see, through the picture below, that my content started very varied and non-specific. This is due to my idea not being fully thought out yet and it could also be seen as an introduction to my topic of animals and the role of animals in the lives of humans.

        On the other hand, you can see that the last 2 postings relate more to my topic by including pictures of Olivia and Deputy Danielle in them. They both look very similar; however, the first picture, featuring both subjects, is more of like a teaser to not only the documentary episode but also the next posting which is a full-length post about Olivia and her importance in humanity.

        You can also see my evolution through these postings. For example, you can see my beginning idea of the weekly animal/pet quotes at the bottom as my first posting. This ended up sounding like not the best idea for me, so I didn't continue it; however, I decided to keep it as a way to guide my audience into understanding more of my brand and my overall documentary's main focus.

        Another thing I wanted to mention, is my profile picture. As of now, I don't yet have my account actually public, since I'm still working on the aesthetics of it, like the profile picture. Profile pictures are one of the most important features of any social media account. Most of the time, that is the first or one of the first things audiences see when they search for or come across an account. 

        For example, when you search for an account on the search bar, all you can see is the profile picture and the name of the account. Choosing an expressive and appropriate picture is super important due to the impact it can have on your target audience. This is a big reason why I don't have a profile picture yet. Although I don't have a specific plan yet, I do hope that I end up going with something classy, yet focused on my brand and message.

        The last thing I wanted to mention is the importance of my following. This is basically the idea that I should follow other accounts that are similar to what I post and what I try to portray through my own. I learned the importance of this in my lesson on the social media page (which I made a blog post about). In my personal account, I follow mainly pet-related accounts as well as a couple of accounts I did research on, that fall under the documentary category.

Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed and learned more about my process on my own social media page so far.

-Dana

B-roll Time

 Today I filmed my first real chunks of B-roll! I mentioned in an earlier blog about starting to film my B-roll earlier, but after I concreted my idea to the therapy and helper dogs, that B-roll I filmed of my cats was pretty useless. Anyway, I will be talking about how I filmed my B-roll for this interview today.

        Thankfully, when I made arrangements with Deputy Danielle, she told me she would be coming to the school with Olivia (her labrador therapy dog) today, Thursday, during the morning. This matched perfectly with my AICE Media class period time, so I told her I would be there. The only bad thing was that since it was an early release day, being the last day of school before our spring break, class periods were shorter, making my time with her, more cut down. Also, Deputy Danielle had told me that she would be arriving at my school around 30 minutes after my class actually started, making me only end up having another 25 to 30 minutes with her. 

        At 9, when she arrived at my school, she texted me and told me her location at the school since we had promised to keep in touch with each other that day. She told me that the kids she was going to go over to with Olivia were in the gym, so I should head over there. This already was very good news since a change of scenery and something more diverse compared to a classroom would make a much more distinct and varied B-roll. This was also nice, since most of the kids there were up and about playing and interacting with the dog compared to maybe sitting and working on something if they were in a classroom.

        Before filming anything, though, I made sure that all of the kids were safe to film as I know that sometimes certain kids don't have permission or aren't allowed to be filmed. Overall, I think the gym-filmed B-roll came out great! I think all of the colors and the amount of space I had for distinct angles, made it such a great opportunity that I think it came out wonderful. Apart from interacting with Olivia, you could also see a lot of the kids doing their own thing which made this whole collection of shorts feel like a comforting family.

        After around 15 minutes of gym B-roll, Deputy Danielle told me that she was going to head out from there because she had another classroom to get to. This got me super excited because I was going to be able to get a change of scenery that I so badly needed. After saying our goodbyes and starting to walk over to the next classroom, I made sure to film some B-roll of Deputy Danielle walking with Olivia so I could have some personal shots of the two of them as well.

        Once we arrived at the portable where the next classroom was, I once again checked that everyone could be filmed and then began filming the student's interactions with Olivia. These interactions were very wholesome and much more personalized since the classroom made for a more secluded and controlled environment. This allowed for more interactions with Olivia like the picture shown below where you can see one of the students holding onto the end of the dog's leash.

        Although this room made it a little harder to move around to get distinct angles and shot locations, I did the best I could and caught some very cute interactions such as the picture below where you can see the same student as above getting asked if he wanted to hold Olvia's leash. This sequence also showed how comfortable Olivia and Deputy Danielle are with the students showing the frequency of visits and the impact they have on the students. I even caught a short video of one of the students feeding Olivia some cheese since they were making some sandwiches before our visit.

Anyway, this is how my journey went today with the B-roll I had to shoot, and I think it's safe to say that this was a very successful first day of filming B-roll and a conclusion to my process with Deputy Danielle and Olivia. Thank you for reading!

-Dana

First Interview!!

I finally got to filming! Today, I filmed my first interview who works with a black Labrador who is a service dog. Anyway, this blog will be dedicated to this interview and how it went.

I was honestly very scared since I'd never talked formally to a police officer or been in a police station, but my fears were soon calmed down. The Deputy I was meeting with was Deputy Danielle Quinones. She was super nice and welcoming and made my fears immediately vanish. We went to meet the dog, Olivia, who was patiently laying on her bed in the deputy's office. She introduced me to Olivia and began asking a couple of questions about the topic of my project, why I chose this topic, and why I am making this project. 

After those simple questions, I told her my requirements and what I wanted in terms of noise levels, backgrounds, and whether I wanted Olivia in the shot. To those questions, I said that the quietest space with a background that indicates a police station would be ideal, and we headed over to the training room where she said it would be the least interrupted. She suggested, due to the noise, that Olivia could sit out the interview if I was fine with it, and I agreed since I would be showing her anyway in the B-roll overlaying the actual interview.

Once we got into the training room, I gave her the paper with all of my questions on it (which I changed a couple, so I added the newly changed questions below), so she could review them and come up with what she wanted to say ahead of time. 

After that, I asked her to go anywhere in the room standing or sitting, basically asking her to go wherever she felt the most comfortable. She ended up deciding to help me out a bit and said she wouldn't mind standing in the middle of the room with a wall in the background saying the sheriff's office behind her.

        The next step was to conduct the actual interview. It went very well in my opinion. It lasted around 8 minutes with me asking questions and her pausing to think for a second about certain ones. Sadly, I forgot to ask her to restate the question on some specific questions that kind of needed restating. So, since I noticed that I already left, I decided I would ask my second interviewee to restate the questions and use her restating and also apply it to Deputy Danielles'.

        She answered most of the questions perfectly; however, the only thing I would say is that on a specific question on how Olivia affects her life outside of her job, she kind of kept talking about her job and what Olivia does in her work line. Maybe, she isn't allowed to talk about her home life, but she didn't mention anything, so I'm not exactly sure.

        After our successful interview, she offered to give me a small tour of the building since the whole interview process ended up short. She first showed us the jail/holding cell room which was very interesting to see. She told us that most of the time, this wasn't part of any tours but since there were no inmates there at that time, she showed us in one of the cells and it was super cool to look at. She next showed us the evidence room that held a bunch of lockers, safes, vaults, and machines. It also contained where they held all of the illegal substances and anything they found on crime scenes, they put in the lockers. Lastly, she showed us the room where all the police officers check in in the morning and get their cameras and walkie-talkies since they're all mandated to wear and use both.

        Before leaving and saying our goodbyes, I made sure to get some pictures of Deputy Danielle alone and with Olivia so I could use some for my Instagram and my blog posting (this is when I took the first picture on this blog posting). Lastly, I made sure we were still good for meeting on Thursday at school while she helped some of the kids there. This was so I was able to film B-roll at a perfect time during my AICE Media class period and also get footage of Olivia working with the students.

        Thank you for reading and keep an eye out for one of my next postings which will cover my process on Thursday of getting all of the B-roll for this interview. Also, bonus picture on the right <3

-Dana

Editing Background- Adobe Premiere Pro

I will be dedicating this blog to the introduction to my editing software and how I plan to use it to further develop my brand and identity through my documentary. If you couldn't tell by the title, my preferred editing software is Adobe Premiere Pro.

I have learned how to use Adobe Premiere Pro in my 7th-grade film class. Although I only used the very basics back then, I at least had a little introduction to it. Up until last year at the beginning of AICE Media AS Level, I had not touched the software since my last Film 2 project in 8th grade. I was very rusty with the software but got used to it very quickly. I almost felt like Adobe Premiere Pro was a part of me in the way it came back into my life. Even though it has been an off-and-on process, I've overall been using Adobe Premiere for 5 years now.

        As I've become more comfortable with not only Adobe Premiere Pro but also the task of actually editing something, I have come to an even greater realization of the importance of editing. This especially occurred while I was editing my documentary project late last year. Editing this project made me realize how important it is to be able to alter words, phrases, coloration, text, or so many more things that all share the common goal of creating a story or theme of a film. It has also made me realize how big of a role editing plays in maintaining a continuous story and narrative throughout any sort of film.

        I've never had this happen to me specifically, but one of my friends one time flipped her whole project backward and completely rearranged the order of the storyline so it would flow better and make more sense to the viewer. Something like this would never be achievable without editing or any post-production process.

        Not only does it work to create a greater storyline and cohesion within a piece, but it can also help establish tone. Can you imagine watching a horror movie that had no special effects, music, or dark coloring? I couldn't. Anyway, as I mentioned in the last sentence and in my color scheme blog post, different colorations can greatly influence the emotion a piece holds. For example, by changing a rainy photo from blue-green tones to orange-yellow tones, the emotional impact of the shot changes from sadness to happiness and coziness. 

My Documentary:

        Obviously, there is no doubt that I will be using Adobe Premiere Pro to mash together all of my interviews, B-roll, voice-overs (if I do one), and other clips to create my final project; however, I will also be using the platform to connect to my brand and my identity (to learn more about my brand click here) and create an overall mood I want to be portraying to my audience. 

        For example, on Adobe Premiere Pro, I will most likely use coloration effects to make my piece seem more lighthearted and wholesome. Meaning, that I will make my film very orange, yellow, and red-themed. I can also use editing to make something sound a specific way or be phrased a specific way to get the information and style the way I want. This is a very common process in documentaries: cutting out certain words or phrases to change the meaning of the sentence or make it flow better. As of right now, I'm going to tell myself to try my hardest not to change the meaning of anything too drastically. I'm not saying I won't use editing to alter sentences or phrases to fit better with my message. I'm saying I don't want to take something out of context and completely change the entire meaning and reasoning behind why the interviewee said that unedited sequence.

        Lastly, editing can help me final decisions. I know that sounds very obvious, but in my brain, I think it's a very important process. Especially once everything is now put together with music, editing techniques already embedded, and just as a final copy, you start to see everything differently and switch mindsets into critiquing my own project. This helps me see my project from a different perspective where everything is already basically the final copy and where I can alter any last-minute things. 

-Dana

Sources:

https://www.nimcj.org/blog-detail/why-is-editing-an-important-part-of-filmmaking.html#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20primary%20reasons,logical%20sequence%20that%20flows%20smoothly.

Titles

Today was finally the day I came up with my title. This has been an ongoing process since I came up with my idea and I'm glad I finally got the title I like and I think fits the piece perfectly. Although, I probably will not be showing the title in the actual documentary (since the 5 minutes can come from any part of the episode); however, it was still a very necessary process for my 2 minor components. Anyways, I will be showing and explaining my process through the different mindsets and ideas I had.

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        Starting off, I looked at other pet documentaries or shows to get ideas on how they used special pet related words. After a little bit of research, I saw a clear pattern: most piece tended to take the easy title and simply use their animal name. This includes examples such as "The Elephant Queen" and "My Octopus Teacher".

 

        There was one specific show, though, that caught my eye:  All that Breathes. I don't specifically know why this show caught my eye, but what I did know is that it broke the constant pattern. It was a little unique. This was my first clue that I wanted something special. So, I began on my long brainstorming journey.

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My Title Journey:

        At first, I was thinking of using an alliteration. I normally like how alliterations sound and I like saying them. This could also be used as a small marketing technique to lure in a larger audience into the interesting and fun-to-say title. Out of this idea came 'Power Pets'. This was kind of a conjoined idea between my mom and I, but even though it was an alliteration, I didn't like it. It felt and sounded too much like a kids show. 

My next ideas came from using a pet related word. I tried a couple different options, but the word 'paws' always stuck. I know that's a very basic answer, and some of my animals I would be showing don't even have paws, but most people typically know that paws are associated with pets or animals.

        Sprouting from that idea, I got to rhymes. I love rhyming so much. I love writing poems and I love making comments that accidentally rhyme. So, I starting researching words that rhyme with paws or paw. The main word that stuck out to me was 'cause'. 

        I came up with a couple different examples. First, I came up with 'pause paws' or 'paws pause'. This was because I was thnking that the title could indicate that the viewers should pause to understand more about the importance of these animals in human lives; however, that idea quickly diminished after I just decided I didn't like it and it would be too confusing for the audience. After that I thought of an idea I was in love with 'pause for a cause'. I absolutely loved it, everything about it, but after just a second of searching up the title, I saw too many articles, companies, and websites using that same company name or tagline. So, sadly, I had to let that idea go. 

        A couple of days later, today, I was asking my friend for some ideas and she told me that I should try to go back to the alliteration idea since I seemed to have liked it so much. I agreed and tried to brainstorm a little more since I was out of options in my mind. I was still set on the idea to use the word paw or paws, so I started thinking of other words that start with the letter p. The list was long. Surprisingly, the first idea I came up with was actually the one I'm deciding to stick with: "A piece of a paw". I really love how this title sounds and I think it has the same approach and meaning as 'paws for a cause". The whole idea is that the documentary is showing just a tiny bit of how important these animals are in our lives and how much of an impact they have on the whole world. Also, I couldn't find any other companies that used that phrase!

Anyways, thank you for reading my month long process of the creation of my title!

-Dana

Print Component - Magazine

This blog will be dedicated to the print component of my piece. For my documentary, I have to do a 2-page magazine spread. We had a lesson today in class and overall learned some important components/necessities and topics we should attempt to focus on in our article.

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Before diving into any specific examples, I'm going to vaguely go over the notes we took in class, so you have an idea of what we learned and what I'm looking to do with my print component.

Recommended Topics:

-Behind the Scenes (Production)

-Interview with Director (Cast/People)

-Content Focus (Topic)

Important to Remember:

-Page Numbers

-Photographs directly relating to the content (staged)

-2 to 3 columns on each page

-Left Aligned

-Engaging Images

-Byline (who wrote it)

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Example 1: Spider-Man 2

        This magazine page is very focused on the movie itself and how the writer perceives it. The article took the topic focus direction by offering critiques and positive comments about how they felt about the movie. I really like this approach since I can simply critique my own project and use content that I would be able to use for my critical reflection; however, I also think this might be a lazier approach, so I might not rely on the topic focus idea.

        Apart from the actual content of the magazine, I absolutely love the layout. Normally, using a whole page and a quarter for a picture would be excessive, but I actually really like how it looks and there is still plenty of text on the other side of the magazine. From what I can see, the magazine spread holds almost all of the needed characteristics, which makes it a very good example to rely on and base my own on. I really like that they used the same blue color in different sections of the 2 pages to connect the same color scheme.

        This Spiderman magazine spread uses several characteristics typically seen in this type of medium. This includes the page numbers, title, byline, and the columns. The biggest and one of the most important aspects (in my opinion) of the magazine is the picture. The size of the picture already shows the importance of it and the role that it is supposed to play in the audience. Additionally, the way it is framed and shown enforces that message even more.  Typically, pictures are used as a stylistic choice and to lure in te audience to want to know more about the piece.

        This picture, however,  uses the very well-known character, Spider-Man, to convey an idea of the overlying topic of the article to the target audience immediately. The only thing is that since Spider-Man is such a well-known and popular character, this technique works just how it was meant to work. On the other hand, using it on a character, show, or movie that doesn't have a large franchise would not work the same way. So, even though I won't be able to use the same technique, I still plan to add engaging images to attract a larger audience. One more thing I wouldn't follow is how small the text is. I almost feel like I can't see it, and the fact that the picture is over the half-life and division of the 2 pages further limits the amount of information and the ability to easily read all of the text.

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Example 2: Wreck-It Ralph

        Similarly to the other magazine's 2-page spread, this one is also a review. It talks about different techniques and aspects the writer liked about the movie and also certain things that stood out to them compared to other movies. Reading more into the text, you can see that the main focus of the article is to show the differing and special aspects of this film, making it a clear advertising technique. It also appears that this was made before the movie came out, making this more probable a marketing idea. Additionally, it also includes text of the cast and the release date which is a necessary factor to inform the reader enough to get information on the upcoming film.

        The 2 large pictures placed in the middle of the 2-page spread also attract attention from a larger audience due to the bright colors, size, and the well-known Disney animation art style. Apart from that the coloration of the rest of the page fits in by making the outside seem dull but making the pictures eye-catching. Again, this magazine article follows typical magazine characteristics such as page numbers, engaging pictures, columns, and other aspects that help bring the whole article together. Overall, every aspect of this magazine's spread helps focus on the advertising of the movie.

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Last Fact

While researching for good magazine examples, I came across a couple that had quotes built in like in the picture on the right. I also saw this technique in one of the examples my teacher showed in class. I don't know why but this technique really caught my attention. Something about the different text sizes and the break in the columns helps the whole piece look so much more soothing. Anyway, I really like how it looks and I will try my best to include one in my own magazine spread.

Thank you for reading!

-Dana

Interviews - Part 2

In this blog, I want to talk about my progress with my interview scheduling and how it has been going so far. Although I haven't filmed any yet, I have planned a couple and have another one that I have yet to plan.

        Before anything, I want to talk about the emails I sent to 2 companies. I know I made a blog or lightly talked about this topic in a prior posting; however, I'll do a short recap. Basically, I sent an email to 2 companies that handle dog therapy training. These companies connect to hospitals, schools, and other associations. I thought contacting the companies themselves instead of the places that use those animals would be easier. Anyway, I don't believe I mentioned it before, but one of those companies replied back to me recently. Sadly, after some back-and-forth emails, we came to the agreement that working together was not going to work out. This was only because of schedules and how our timing didn't really match with each other. Unfortunately, the other company did not email me back at all, so I decided to not rely on the possibility that they might email me back.

This whole situation got me a little worried as I only had one other idea/place that I could get an interview for that I hadn't received an answer yet: the sheriff/police office.

Sheriff's Office (My last resort):

Technically if I didn't get any interviews with them, I could've contacted another company, but who knows how long that would've taken.

Anyway, my experience with the sheriff's office has been great ever since I called them. As I mentioned in a past blog, I did call their office and got rerouted a couple of times before talking to someone appropriate. She then took some of my information down and told me to await a call, text, or email back from one of the lead officers. You knew all of that already; however, I got a response back, and I will be talking about that in the next section.

        A couple of days after the call, I received a text from a deputy from the sheriff county office I had called. She was very nice and after introducing herself she told me to call her at my convenience. A very helpful and accommodating thing was that the phone number was her personal mobile number, so I could call whenever I wanted to. I think this also helped me get more comfortable with her as I was a little bit nervous talking/texting a real police officer. A day later, I called her back and we began talking.

        Once again, I could tell that she was very nice and looking forward to working with me. At the beginning of the call, she asked me some clarifying questions to make sure she knew exactly what I wanted. Not only did she ask questions about the topic and reason for my project, but also what exactly I was looking to do with her help. After that, she asked me what kind of dog I was looking for. This question kind of stumped me because I didn't really know much. I told her a K9 dog was what I was originally looking for, and thankfully, she told me she had plenty of those at her facility. She told me that she personally worked with a therapy K9 dog and that would work perfectly with her. She also surprisingly told me that she actually comes to my school every once in a while to work with the ASD students (Autism Spectrum Disorder). I was so thrilled with the possibilities to come, and she told me that we could plan a day I would be able to go and visit her working with the dog and the students. 

        Without even asking me though, she started telling me all about the different types of dogs she had available and it shocked me. Each dog had so many different purposes and she asked me if I was looking for anything else. Shocked, I asked her if I could also interview for another breed or job with a dog so I could have more variety. Obviously, I knew that having 2 dogs from the same company or office wasn't the best, but having the accessibility she gave me, I couldn't resist.

        She suggested the bloodhound dog since she knew I was a little overwhelmed. This dog specialized in finding people. She told me that she could send me the information about the dog trainer on Monday (tomorrow), and I was so excited. Just from one phone call, I had gotten 2 different dogs that had such important distinct jobs.

        The last thing I had to do, was ask her if I could interview her before the filming of the k9 dog which I have yet to do, so tomorrow once I get the information for the bloodhound dog, I plan on asking her if I can interview her at some point in the next week.

Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my stressful but successful (crossing my fingers) planning for my interviews.

-Dana