Vicky's Media Studies Blog☆

Friday, December 12, 2025

⋆·˚ ༘Critical Reflectionੈ✩‧₊˚

The purpose of our documentary "Winterguard: The Floor is Our Home" is to explain what winter guard is, how it works, and creates community. I this purpose was met successfully, but there are still a lot of areas where we can improve in, especially technically.

✴How does your product represent social groups/issues?

Our documentary represents high school students involved in Winter Guard, specifically our schools program. We especially just wanted to shed light on a truly underrated sport that individuals pour a lot of their free time and hard work into. Its not the simplest to explain, so creating this piece felt like giving winterguard a spot on the stage to shine and be appreciated. A part from being informative , it addresses personal growth and the feeling of belonging and connecting. We chose to also focus more on how community is the core of the sport by showing how it brings people together, and implying it in the title. The documentary definitely showcases a safe space where anyone can feel included. We made sure to include a wide variety of members for this reason.

✴How does your product engage with audiences?

We used a handful of different techniques in our documentary to keep it as engaging as possible. We establish and try to pique the viewers curiosity straight away with the intro. The upbeat music and quick cuts are an attempt to draw the person in. It also gives them somewhat of a visual of what the documentary is about so they aren't utterly lost. From the start we wanted it to be very interview heavy. Since winterguard has many little aspects to it, it felt wrong to narrow it down to one person, or just the leadership team. We wanted to get everyone's perspectives in. The constant switching, back and forths, and transitions between the different interviewees helped us achieve a very engaging pace (especially for those with shorter attention spans). Every interviewee also had their own designated background, which is not only visually appealing, it adds diversity.

Matching b roll

A part from interviews we also had b roll, which we matched as much as possible to what the interviewee was speaking on. For example, when they talk about competing the b roll is footage of trophies, or archived footage of a past competition performance. The mix filmed and archived b roll just overall gave a viewer a visual pointer to what was being spoken on.

Archived footage

✴How did research inform your product and the way it uses or challenges conventions?

For this piece, research was not necessary as both Kenna and are in/have been in winterguard, and we fully understand what it is and how it works. The challenging part was making the documentary easy to comprehend. And also just creating a documentary in general. Neither of us have ever created a project like this before. Guard is unique and is a very specific "niche" so it was a struggle at first to make it make sense. Because of this we spent a lot of time in pre production going back and forth on the structure, and finding the best methods to get the responses we wanted. This is the kind of documentary topic where everything had to be structured before hand, since its a very black and white topic (its not a theoretical concept or opinionated). We also quickly realized the importance of the questions we asked and how we asked them.

I would say we were inspired by all of the documentaries we studied in class. I really cant pin point one specifically. For example "Abstract" had a lot of staged b-roll, and we used that same technique for a lot of b roll. For example, in our intro, when the person puts their gloves on.

We also took inspiration from "Exit Through the Gift Shop" when it came to the interview shots. In the piece viewed in class, the street artists were often interviewed in their studios, or a place that really represented them. We tried to do the same in ours by placing equipment in the background, and interviewing in the spaces they rehearse in (band room, cafeteria). Another technique we used was keeping the original sound of the b roll playing at a lower volume. I thought the op-doc "Weekend- Visits" used natural sound to their advantage, and it just elevated the piece so much more by making it feel more "realistic", which is the whole point of a documentary.

Bits and pieces were pulled from everything we learned while we produced this documentary. But there were still a lot of other elements where we could have done better, and it would've elevated our piece so much more. A lot of our b roll and interview shots were dark/grainy, which is something we can attempt to better with, or it could've easily been resolved if we had used a light. We also should've has some sort of track playing in the back. At some points it felt too quiet, and we could have included music under the interviews to fix that.

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Documentary Post Production

Lets just start off by saying editing is not my strong suit... I can do it well its just not anything extraordinary.
Kenna and I sorted all of our b-roll footage during class by creating a folder for each interviewee and separating what we had filmed on day 1 of shooting in order to make day 2 easier on ourselves. I also sent Kenna all of the interviews so she could start looking for the important clips we know we want.

I began reviewing the little clips that Kenna had sent me, just mainly watching over the footage so that I knew the order to put it in for when I started the edit. We already had aa predetermined outline, but when I actually sat down and started, I realized it would flow better if I switched things around. Little did I know this "switching around" would take me literally forever. I spent wayyy too long trying to find the right structure for this (with caused us to overlook other important parts of the doc later on).
After dedicating two whole days to just the line edit, I finished piecing the interviews together. I left space in between "parts" to allow the story to breathe as well as making sure that the clips flowed together. Since this was the largest chunk of the editing process, I had lots of time to think over what B-roll I wanted and where.

Then, I began by balancing all the audio levels and color grading the interviews so that it all looked and sounded consistent and appealing. I then added the B-roll over top of the interviews and also added in some archived footage Kenna found, such as old performances, pictures of costumes, etc. I also added in lower third graphics. I also edited a mini intro together, so we could introduce the doc and put up all of our credits (that Kenna also created!). I found royalty free music and edited a small montage together.

This is what the edit looked like when I finished

Also our title graphic that Kenna designed!

And after almost 3 weeks of planning, filming and editing, we were done!! You can view our documentary here (we will for sure be re-editing some of it based on the feedback our class/teacher gave us).

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Documentary Production

Hey blog!

Filming was really fun! It was so fun being part of the winter guard environment during this process.

Monday: The winter guard rehearses on Mondays and Wednesdays in the school cafeteria. We filmed Yadrien’s (winter guard vet) interview in 2nd period, which is guard class, as well as Maria (Sergeant), Vivi (newbie) and Julia (vet) interviews after school from 3-4pm before their rehearsal started. I was behind the camera while Kenna interviewed them. We tried to make our interview shots for each person as unique as possible, since we find its more engaging that way. So we shot a couple interviews in the school courtyard, and some inside the band room. For the shots in the courtyard we added guard equipment in the background to try and tie it back in.

Interviewing Vivi!

Maria's interview shot

Later that day I filmed some of their rehearsal for b-roll from about 6-7:30pm. Since Kenna is in guard she has to practice, so I filmed by my self. I stuck the shot list and even got a couple of extra shots I thought looked good. Once everyone left, we took advantage of the empty cafeteria and interviewed Erick (coach) to wrap up shooting for the day! The only downside to this is that the sun was down and the cafe looked super dark, a light could have benefited us if we had brought one.

Filming B-roll of the rehearsal in our school cafeteria

Wednesday: I went into the rehearsal later in the day (Kenna was able to film for the first half of practice) to get the last of the b-roll and shots that we had planned. Anddd thats a wrap!!

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Documentary Pre-Production

Hi blog!

So after viewing different documentaries and studying them, we were given given the task of creating our own!! I was nervous because I feel like creating a documentary is more challenging than creating a film. But I was excited nonetheless because we get to work in groups, so I worked with my friend Kenna :)

We got to brainstorming straight away. And I cannot brainstorm without creating a shared document, so we made one and created a list of possible ideas:

We came up with four possible documentary ideas! Yay! Now the hard part was deciding which one to do. We ultimately decided on creating a documentary on the winter guard sport, and I can assure you are thinking "wait what is that?", and that is the whole reason why we picked it!! Winter guard is the winter season for the color guard sport (colorguard is the people with flags that perform alongside the band at a football game halftime). It is a competitive indoor activity combining dance, equipment (flags, sabers, rifles), and artistic expression (basically dance), performed to a music track on a gym floor with a themed floor tarp.

Kenna has done guard for four years, and is actually our schools guard captain. I participated in 3 seasons until I decided to retire last year (we originally became friends through winter guard because we performed together).

Click here if you would like to see our schools 2024 winter guard show!

Now back to the documentary, basically no one knows what winter guard is, and it is a sport where you have to be very dedicated. It takes a lot of disciple and after school hour rehearsals put a show together. It is often frustrating to put so much time into something you like just for people to be extremely confused on what exactly you do. So we went with that idea!! We didn't really need to research as we both know and understand what guard is. The task at hand was explaining what it was to others.

We were superrr excited. We created an outline (structure), and in our shared doc we created a list of possible interviewees and questions. We then discussed our outline with our teacher. She gave us useful critiques, and we started tweaking our outline. We ended up splitting the questions up depending on the person we are interviewing. After, we started scheduling the shoot. We decided to film the following Monday in school, Monday afterschool, and Wednesday after school. Finally, we chose what equipment we were going to use and how we were going to split it. If you would like to view our full outline click here!

Monday, December 8, 2025

┌── ⋆⋅Hello A Level!⋅⋆ ──┐

Hiiii blog!!!

Long time no see. I'm in A level now hooray! I am really excited for what this year has in store, and so far I have been enjoying my time in Media Studies.

In October we started studying and watching and different documentaries in class. Through the next four blog posts I will be detailing the process of both analyzing and producing our own documentaries :)

In Class Viewings:

Abstract: The Art of Design (2017):

The firs doc we viewed! We viewed one episode in class (Ruth Carter - costume design) and one episode of our choice at home (Ian Spaltar - Digital Production Design).

Abstract is an episodic doc that documents how different creative processes (such as illustration, graphic design, photography etc.) and their leading designers and artists from across different creative fields shape the world around us. To develop this, the documentary uses impressive visual and auditory techniques:
• Animation/ graphics: When the interviewee is talking/explaining something relevant and important to the episode, but it's something they have no B roll of, a lot of the times they include little animations or animated graphics. They helped me to visually understand what was being spoken about.

• Music/sound: Music was very prominent in the two episodes I watched. It matched the vibe of what was happening/being spoken about. Which helped evoke the emotional impact of their creations.

I was really overall really drawn into both episodes because it was visually engaging and an it interested me overall!!

American Promise (2014):

Wowww the idea of this documentary is so crazy (in a good way). It's a piece that took 13 years to put together! It follows Idris Brewster and Seun Summers, two middle-class African American boys, as they navigate life in New York at a predominantly white private school (Dalton School). The piece explores themes of race, class, and identity.

“American Promise” achieves a verité look. For example, there's a scene where Idris was opening up to his parents about how he felt about his race, and his struggle to fit in socially at Dalton. The camera holds on to the conversation, capturing the raw moment. The decision to hold the shot in silence and not cut away immediately to an interview really forces you to sit with what Idris is saying and feel discomfort at the question. Which is typically what one does when in a conversation with another person. The camera also zooms into Idris' face, which really allows the viewer to see what he is feeling. To me, it felt like I was in his room with him, watching him.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010):

This is a Banksy-directed documentary about a French immigrant, Thierry Guetta. He follows and films different street art/artists, where he met famous street artist Banksy. In a fast turn of events Thierry transforms into street art sensation "Mr. Brainwash", where the lines begin to blur between true creative authenticity, and the commercialization of "art". Banksy uses editing, narration, and camera style to shift how viewers see Thierry. In the beginning of the documentary, Thierry is shown through amateur shaky, handheld shots with fast cuts that make him seem like an energetic, curious, and passionate person simply documenting street art. As he evolves into “Mr. Brainwash,” though, the tone changes. The editing slows down; the music, Banksy's interview, and narration become ironic. These changes showcase Thierry as someone who has lost the “purpose” of street art and is instead caught up in fame and the business aspect. By the end when his gallery is shown, the documentary makes it feel ironic, showing Thierry’s change from an appreciative admirer to a shallow self-promoter.

Op-Docs:
The New York Times Op-Docs are a series of short opinionated documentaries.

Weekend Visits:
The op-doc "Weekend Visits", records an incarcerated mother's extended visit with her child at a reunification house in Virginia. This offers an inside glimpse into the difficulties of an incarcerated mother with a son. The documentary quietly observes their interactions, hope and tensions, and gives us a look into the difficulties of parenting and being parented when incarceration comes in between. Visually, the op-doc uses a very quiet observational style. This includes steady framing, natural lighting, no commentary/voiceover, no interview, allowing the viewer to focus on the small details in a way that feels natural. Instead of making the viewer feel like an obvious outsider, it creates more of a sense of intimacy. Additionally, the sound in this piece makes a big difference. The documentary does not include any non-diegetic sounds. The natural sound combined with the dialogue of the mom and her son chatting creates intimacy as well. There is also no interview, which allows the day to progress and breathe on its own, especially the quieter moments that let the audience sense without having to state. The techniques used in this op-doc caused me to feel from comfort to discomfort in a subtle way: comfortable in their bond, uncomfortable in the conditions they were in.

"Where Am I From?"
This short documentary follows a media artis, Nouf Aljowaysir, as she discusses the question of her identity with A.I., specifically the question of where she is “from.” We see her revisit childhood locations, examine memories, and how they all answer the question “Where am I from?” The piece highlights moments of connection and disconnection, also emphasized through the A.I.s responses to what Aljowaysir says. Visually, the documentary uses a mix of close-ups (faces, hands, objects) and medium/long shots of a landscape or city, with different graphics. For example, the graphics represent the A.I. trying to make sense of the visuals. With boxes detailing what it thinks is “inside”. The A.I. could represent us as the viewers, not really understanding what Aljowaysir is describing. My reaction to the op-doc was a bit emotional as it hit close to home. I can relate on a personal basis to what Aljowaysir’s felt (I've moved four times). The gentle pacing and natural sounds made the story feel personal, like a heart to heart.

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

The end...

Wow.

After like 3 whole months its over. 3 whole months of brainstorming, writing countless blogs, editing. Its over. I am kind of happy because now I can relax but at the same time I'm going to miss working on this silly little film opening. It was so fun to brainstorm with my project partners, edit, and filming it was the best part. But I will not miss CCR's at all. I don't know why but I genuinely struggled with both of my videos and I was honestly procrastinating most of it. But its all over. This project was genuinely super fun and I learned so many new things that i can now use in my TV production class. I loved researching genres, titles, fonts, all that jazz. I've been reading some older blogs from when i first started the film opening and It was so nice to look back on where I started with this project and where I am now. I used to not know a lot about pre-production strategies, but this project has helped me become more efficient during pre production in order to make post production faster. I also learned valuable filmmaking experience, from the technical aspect like framing, lighting, and mise-en-scene to improving my ability to collaborate with my group members effectively. I learned the importance of how every little element from camera to sound all comes together to bring an atmosphere to life.