Postcard Research

 Hi blog! 

Today I will be researching different promo postcards for our short film! I'm going to be dead serious, i searched up "promotional postcards for short films" and almost every single result was from an AICE media A level project LOL. I quickly looked at a couple but Its best to use a real example so I set out on a quest to find real promotional postcards. Here is an analysis of two I really like:

#1 ALL AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL FILM INVITATIONAL POSTCARD

Ok I picked this one because it was actually handed to me at the STN convention as a way to promote this film festival.
WHAT I LIKE 
- The integration of NYC icons 

- Creation of brand 

- Established color scheme 

- Niche, individual, and concise aesthetic 

- QR code 

- Instagram handle

- Website URL

- Use of both images and graphics 
- Text and font is legible and clear

- Catchy phrase that helps define the purpose of the event immediately


WHAT I DISLIKE

- A little cluttered, I have no idea where to look first. But at the same time its really cool and pretty soooo that makes it acceptable-ish to my standards!

#2 1917 FILM CINEMARK PROMO POSTCARD

WHAT I LIKE 

- Simple and iconic film cover, it kind of makes it feel like a collectible
- Its actually a real postcard! 

- It looks very clean

- Established color palette 
- Fonts are concise 
- The contrast of black on the front and white for the back 

- Gives a synopsis of the film
 

WHAT I DISLIKE
-Very little room for "selling" the event
- Too much like a postcard 
- Could have done more with the front, it kind of just feels like a poster 
- The back is clean but bland

 

I really want to try and apply a lot of the stuff I like, and avoid what I don't when we create the card! Renn, Kenna, and I will exchange research and definitely come up with a mock over the break. Also quick sidenote: I found this super useful Youtube channel that delves a lot into design rules and such. I will be watching more of his videos soon and try to apply that into our work. 

@GarethDavidStudio

Sources:

Minuteman Press. (n.d.). Quick postcard printing. Retrieved March 16, 2026, from https://minutemanpressaustin.com/product/quick-postcard-printing-copy/

All American High School Film Festival. (n.d.). Classroom posters. Retrieved March 16, 2026, from https://www.hsfilmfest.com/classroom-posters

Stoklosa Script Critiques

 Before I get into our filming sites, we sat down with Mrs. Stoklosa to discuss our script. She read the full thing and gave us important feedback, I made a checklist with what we have to fix according to that: 

- Make clear that Tom is the plant (maybe we can have a “hi my name is” sticker on the pot? I think that would be cute!)

- FIND MEANING TO PLANT! Throughout this writing process the plant took on a lot of different meanings and symbolisms, so we should all agree on one before moving on. Obviously the plant can be interpreted by the viewer however they want, but it’s good that we as the directors can come to a consensus. 

- Cut some montage for time 

- The argument doesn’t have depth!! Confrontation does not equal a conflict. So basically: 

CHANGE CONFLICT 

- We could chance the argument to be over Dahlia being overly intense with school, Melia should be worried about Dahlia stressing and she wants her to find joy, which leads to the confrontation/conflict. Our current conflict over the boy is kind of stupid and I appreciate Stoklosas honest feedback. 

We will set up a call to review all of this again and make changes to our script! I watched these two very helpful videos that will hopefully help us in fixing the script. 

Filming Sites

 Hi blog! 
In this post I will be discussing filming locations!

- DAHLIAS ROOM

📍Renn’s brothers empty room 

Never have I felt so thankful for someone’s brother to be off in college! Having access to an empty room allows us to design our set and not have to worry about it being scooted around. Renn’s brothers room is perfect because it has a nice window and has a bunch of shelves and a cool whiteboard. I walked in there for the first time and was SO HAPPY. I personally don’t have any empty rooms in my house so that kind of blew my mind. We can take the room and transform it to be truly Dahlia's. That being said, money doesn’t grow on trees so Kenna is planning the mise en scene with props we already own! 

- LIVING ROOM 

📍Renn’s living room 

Honestly his living room works perfectly, and it’s much larger than Kenna and mines. Plus he has double doors in his entrance so it’s fancy. 

-EXTERIOR OF PARTY

📍My community clubhouse 

Since she isn’t hosting the party we are assuming it’s like a clubhouse situation ?? It’s mostly because there’s benches right outside and we really wanted them to sit on benches instead of a street curb. This one is still a maybe so I’ll keep you updated. 

NOT A FILMING LOCATION BUT PLANTS
Renn comes in clutch for the millionth time with his moms collection of plants: 

This photo doesn’t do it justice. His mom has SO MANY PLANTS they take up that entire corner in his home!! We want to place them in Dahlia’s room and then buy a separate plant for Tom. We need to show growth so we are planning to film out of order so we can snip Tom shorter and shorter (we can’t really grow a plant and sit around and wait for it to grow) 

˚‧⁺Progress Updates·.༄࿔

Hi blog!! Lots to unpack in todays post. 

First of all there are updates with the script!! Kenna, Renn, and I hopped on a two hour call today to review the first draft of our script! We changed nothing story wise, just a couple dialogue changes. Kenna and I read the first draft of the script on our own first and left comments that we then touched on during the call. View our updated script here!

Oh also our characters finally have names!! Dahlia (protagonist) and Melia (friend). These names are plant related hahah. We didn't want to be overtly obvious so we chose more not very obvious flower names.

Dahlia

Melia

Sooooo pretty right?! 

After that, we had an in depth conversation about what we have to get done over the next week and over the break. 

Here's the breakdown 

Vicky:
- Create shotlist
- Draw storyboards
- Review everything with Renn

Renn:
- Create postcard using our decided color scheme

Kenna:
- Create a chronological list of social media posts with Vicky's help
- Start social media postings
- Plan out all of the films mise en scene with Renn and Vicky's help

Sources⋆˚࿔

• Stewart, M. (2022, September 27). More beautiful dahlia blooms in my garden. The Martha Blog. https://www.themarthablog.com/2022/09/more-beautiful-dahlia-blooms-in-my-garden.html

• Wikipedia. (n.d.). Melia azedarach. Retrieved March 8, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melia_azedarach

Script⋆.˚

The (1st draft) of the script is done!!!!!

Renn is a beast and has already finished the script! Yay! One important thing to mention though: we are shuffling some of the scheduling around. We were supposed to shoot next week, but if we follow through with that it will be rushed. We have barely started our shot list and mise en scene elements. This partly has to do because Renn and I were out for a week at STN. So, to fix this, the next week will be dedicated to finishing shot list, mise en scene, and any tweaks to the script. Then the following week (spring break) will be dedicated to creating the postcard promo and get the social media started. That way we can get straight to filming as soon as the break is over! We had a safety week anyway so this is good and that we we dont rush anything. 

Ok anyways here is the first draft of the script: VER 1 script

Sources⋆˚࿔

Kindle, J. (2024, December 18). What is the "Paul Revere / The British Are Coming" meme? Jokes about making announcements using the lamp-wielding folk hero's painting explained. Know Your Meme. https://trending.knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/what-is-the-paul-revere-the-british-are-coming-meme-jokes-about-making-announcements-using-the-lamp-wielding-folk-heros-painting-explained

Group Meeting ˖᯽ ݁˖

Hello blog!!

We had a group meeting today in class! We haven't done one of these since AS level... that was long ago. Anyway here is a photo of all of us: 

The group consisted of Emi, Adriana, Aneesa, Mariana, Fabiana, Daniela, and myself. Emi started us off and then we went in a clockwise motion. Here are the notes I jotted down for each person.
 

Emi Valdivia: Working with Joaquin and Andrew

• Wants to create a dark comedy short film where they critique power struggle, while also making a statement about joining religions for power

• They want to include gore 

• PLOT: Main character Otto completes tasks for devil, loses humanity at the end of the story

• Their script was finished last night!

Group Concerns: 

• Filming locations

Group Suggestions: 

• Film most of the story at a park near our city (the trees there make it look very woodsy as we live in Florida and palm trees throw off the vibe).

• They wanted to include 3 deaths, but for 5 minutes that's a lot so we suggested 1 death maximum instead.

• They wanted to have a scene with a pentagram, but they weren't sure if that was too much, we suggested they create their own symbol for the devil .
  
  

Adriana Vega: Working with David 

• They want to create a comedy short film 

• PLOT: A guy can teleport by flipping a penny, every time he teleports somewhere new he tries to do a kind act but it keeps backfiring on him.

• For the editing they really wanted to use fast cuts

Group Concerns:

• Scheduling (they are both busy people)

Group Suggestions: 

• Adriana was not sure what the ending should be, so we suggested that David finally completes a kind act (without it backfiring) but when he tries to teleport again he drops the penny down a drain.

Aneesa Bajaj: Working with Quinn, Nico, and Zach

• They want to make a meta dark comedy short film that's heavy on breaking the fourth wall

•  Their idea is a camera starting on an initial subject but then it falls in love with another subject, so subject 1 tries to win back the cameras attention

Group Concerns: 

• Developing a storyline that makes sense, especially since they are personifying the camera

Group Suggestions: 

• A light spotlight turning off and on the main subject to represent attention

• Having a mic cut out on the main subject

• Have a the story take place in a studio setting to give context to the cameras

• Both characters should be competing for a casting call (they are both desperate for the role)

 

Me: Working with Kenna and Renn

Group Suggestions: 

• Start and end with voice over to really tie everything together and make the plant symbolism make sense

• Purchase 3 different plants to show the growth of the plant

• Use a focus pull to go from main character to plant 

• Use the main character crossing off dates on her calendar to show time passing (or weeks since plants don't grow that quick)

• Camera is calendar- writing on glass over the camera lense. 

Mariana Aldana: Working with Audrey

• They want to make a drama short film 

• PLOT: A boy has older sister whose excited to go to college, the boy is very laid back while the sister is super prepared and ready to go to college, when she suddenly dies

• Boy starts with a therapy sessions a year later to unpack trauma

Suggestions: 

• The sister should have a Quick death that doesn't have to be shown, like a car crash

• Ideally have an adult play therapist 

• Put date on the bottom of the screen

Fabiana Castillo: Working alone

• She wants to create a psychological thriller short film 

• A guy is getting eaten alive by guilt after killing girl. He starts getting weird mail a year later which makes his fears worse. He’s slowly going crazy.

• He goes to police to confess

Suggestions: 

• Give more context at the beginning of the story on the death of the girl. For example a crash and show the year of crash

• "Time doesn’t pass" by having him confess on the 1 year anniversary of the crash

• Maybe have the character be crazy/ bipolar so he writes the notes himself and just through the movie show the different personalities 

• Have limited dialogue 

Daniela Gonzalez: working with Gaby

• They want to create a music promo 

• Their artist: Annie Lemasters. Gaby met her a couple years ago, she recently moved to Nashville to persue her career as a music artist but they still keep in touch

• She has a very pop vibe like Taylor swift and Olivia Rodrigo

• They want to cover a very dramatic energy as the lyrics are dramatic

• They want to make a story based promo

No suggestions Can you tell i love organizing my blog posts through bullet points? Anyway that was it for the group meeting! I'm glad we had it because it definitely benefited all of us positively, and it personally gave me ideas.

⤷ Social Media Research ˎˊ˗

1st place - Film Excellence Comedy

Hello blog! 

3rd place - Short Film Division 1

I am back from my competition at the STN convention!! It was SOOO amazing. I placed 3rd in both the categories I competed in (nationally!). And 1st place in a comedy short film I acted in!! Yay! The trip was overall enjoyable and I'm grateful to have shared that time with my peers. I'm still off that high so its all I've been able to think about. Here are some photos: 

3rd place - Crazy 8s News Magazine

Buttttt now that I'm back home, its media studies film lock in time. The competition sucked a week away so I seriously need to sit down with my team and continue following our schedule. 1st thing on our list is to research social media pages made for short films that are of a similar genre as ours (coming of age). I ended up looking at 3 different pages, here are my notes: 

SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE 1:

Media text: "Code Red" -  Short film
Social media tool: Instagram (@codered_film)

Description of types of posts:

• BTS: A handful of posts are dedicated to the behind the scenes of the film. A lot of content like camera setups, crew, and actors in between takes. These posts show the making of the production and the filmmaking process rather than just the final product.
• ADVOCATING: Some posts focus on the issue being addressed by the film, which is period poverty. They include statistics, what you can do to help, and short quotes. This shows the main inspiration for the film apart from its entertainment factor.
• FILM FESTIVAL SELECTIONS: Other posts share screening announcements, and festival nomination graphics, usually over a still or on the poster of the short film. These posts are meant to impress and show prestige.
• ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: There's a couple of posts about the director, including her inspiration and creative vision behind this short film. This emphasizes the issue at hand again while also giving the viewers a chance to connect to the director on a more personal level. 
• SHARE YOUR STORY: Posts sometimes are interactive and include captions that encourage audience engagement (comments) by inviting followers to comment or DM their own period poverty experiences. 
• CAST: Cast and character introductions, photos of upcoming panels, group photos with the whole crew, and zoom Q&A's which spotlight individuals and allows followers to know more about the cast.

Description of how branding is developed (or not):
The branding isn't really that clear. You really see them try in their first 7 posts though. There's a color palette and the fonts are the same. After that the branding gets messier, as the color palette is kind of thrown out the window, and the only cohesive color is red. The posts have variety but are posted in an odd order, and the main photo preview is very repetitive for most posts. The festival posts and advocacy posts feel more cohesive, but visually the feed lacks a signature look. 

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

I will take inspiration from:

• Advocacy messaging if necessary 

• Audience engagement posts 

• BTS

• Professional festival announcement graphics.

• About the cast 

I would improve their branding by:

• Establishing a consistent color palette with fonts and graphics.

• Introduce layout templates 
  

• Improve image quality 

• Create diversity between post covers

SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE 2:

Media text: "Reply" - Short film

Social media tool: Instagram (@elle.mills)

Description of types of posts: 

• ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: This is the directors personal social media page. They are focused on the director’s background and creative intentions. They include a lot of personality and style compared to "Code Red".
• INFLUENCER TYPE POSTS: Her page is mostly video driven. The videos are often shot with an aesthetic backdrop and has a signature color grading and lighting to it. Trendy captions, a tiny mic in her hand, and chunky subtitles on the bottom of the screen.
• "IMAGINE THIS/QUESTION": A lot of the feed is the director making a statement like "imagine if" and proceeds to recount the plot of the short film. There's also a lot of videos that are questions. For example "Do you ever wonder how ___ song would be like if it were a film". These are definitely very influencer style as well. They get people hooked and encourage audience engagement. All of the videos are shot and edited very professionally. Here is an example of one: 
• ARTICLE POSTS: Screenshots of interviews, reviews, and articles. Gives it a more "pro" look.
• HIGHLIGHT: The highlights are organized by short film, which is really nice since this is a personal Instagram. Is highlight has its own brand which is kept consistent throughout the stories.
  
• OFFICIAL SELECTION: Festival graphics are all branded and consistent
• BTS: Fewer posts are BTS, but they have variety and fit the theme.

Description of how branding is developed (or not):
Branding is present but at the same time it isn't. All of these posts would look so amazing if the director created a separate Instagram instead of promoting on her personal account. But taking into account only the posts focused on the film, the branding is super on point. From color palette to fonts, it is cohesive. Its visually nice to look at and it really represents what the film is about while also being conscious about algorithm and engagement.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:
I will take inspiration from:

• Organized Instagram highlights.
  
  
• Consistent color grading.
  
  
• Create engaging video form content like “Imagine if…”
  
  
• Share press and festival nominations 
  
  

I would improve their branding by:

• Creating a page only for the short film 

SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE 3:

Media text: "Tape of  '25" - Short film

Social media tool: Instagram (@tapeof25)

Description of types of posts:

• FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: Posts promote festival screenings and nominations
• PROJECT UPDATES: The account shares production and post production updates like “After a successful NYC festival run, it’s out now for you to watch,” and "filming is wrapped" showing its journey.
• COLLABORATIONS: Announces co screenings with other projects like "Dream Addicts Anonymous", another short film.
• STILLS: Very aesthetic photos and videos that include stills from the film. 

Description of how branding is developed (or not):
Branding is developed but there are still things that could be done better, for example having more posts. A part from that the branding is consistent with an aesthetic set by the first couple of posts. The posts are more on informational content (festival screens, showtimes), establishing more of a professional promotional page rather than adding personal pizzaz or creative an interactive space.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

I will take inspiration from:

• Consistent color grading.
  
  
• Aesthetic branding 
  
  
• Share festival nominations and screenings 
  
  

I would improve their branding by:

• Having different highlights instead of having a bunch of highlights that say BTS
  
  
• Have more posts 
  
  
• Create more user engaging content