Critical reflection

     REFLECTION 

        This part is strangely enough, bitter sweet. I think this was one of my favorite projects I have done in AICE Media Studies. I was able to experience what it's like to create an informational piece form start to finish. I loved working in a pair, because our work was fairly evenly split. Larger groups typically separate the credits in order to increase efficiency. However, Bailey and I would consult each other constantly. In the end, the main critiques we received were regarding the difference in audio between the first couple interviews without a mic, compared to the rest which did have a mic. If I am being honest, we could have easily merged the audio form the first interviews, syncing it with the video, however I didn't have access to the audio clips since they were filmed using Bailey's microphone. Over all, I am very happy with how this piece came out.

    My target audience was people in high school, ages 14 to 18. There is no specific gender that my documentary would necessarily attract because the content has nothing to do with their sex. However, it is likely to attract a number of female musicians up to the age of 25, since Visions of Venus is composed of four girls. I believe that we wrote the documentary in a way which is interesting or at least appealing to many people in our target audience. We stayed central on the the theme of life as a high school musician and the struggles they may face because of it.

        The main reason I had so much fun with this was because it was a topic that is very interest to me. We were always steering towards a topic which is centered around music, so the production came naturally to us. After Bailey suggested featuring Visions of Venus, I thought of this topic because I had personally never seen it realistically represented before. I wanted to capture not only the exciting element to being a teenage musician, but the emotional aspect which is never seen at gigs or on social media. So the balance between school and passion was a great topic for this. I believe that our piece is a good representation of the group of interest, being High Schoolers in bands. Similar to myself, multiple VOV members come from parents who believe "school is put first" above all else. Seeing how this translates to the lives of the members who want to pursue a future in music, compared to those who will pursue alternate careers was very interesting. We chose to represent this by having the members discuss the problems they have with finding a harmony between school and VOV, and discussing plans for the future.

    My target audience was people in high school, ages 14 to 18. There is no specific gender that my documentary would necessarily attract because the content has nothing to do with their sex. However, it is likely to attract a number of female musicians up to the age of 25, since Visions of Venus is composed of four girls. I believe that we wrote the documentary in a way which is interesting or at least appealing to many people in our target audience. We stayed central on the the theme of life as a high school musician and 

    On element which I believe was very important to include in post production was to add some sort of music video-esque montage. I felt as if this stylistic choice was necessary for a documentary that revolves around the lives of musicians. Bailey and I agreed that this would help in creating a brand which comes off as the stereotypical alternative teenage rebellion, but then opens up into a deep dive into the reality of these peoples lives. I included two of these montages, and while I like them and enjoyed trying out audio editing, I am not completely in love with the outcome. I feel as if the shots I used would be significantly improved if the lighting in the area was better. I think the montages are also far too short, and more clips of the band playing all together would have improved the beginning montage. The second however, I enjoy that one more because I utilized picture rather than just videos. I also think this added a sort of aesthetic appeal to the documentary. Another thing I will change, I will try to disperse more b-roll throughout the interviews, and include more videos of the band's actual performances. I think the stylistic choice of including montages, and using questions which required the band members to be honest in their experience's worked well together to establish the sense of closeness with the members, to be shown the true lives of teenage musicians, where their public appearance is secondary to the ordinary adolescent struggles they face. I do regret not getting friendlier with the band members all together before filming, as that would open them up far more and they would have felt even more comfortable in exposing the more raw and emotional struggles of their lifestyle.