Final Group Meeting

 Hey! 

So today we had our final group meeting. I can’t believe it was our last one! We all talked about where we are at in our projects and we are all pretty much on the same page. Onto the editing portion. I gave some advice to one of the girls in my group for her film. Also we got some good music choices. I love group meetings because it gives us the knowledge of what other groups are doing and where they are at with their projects so you can kind of pace yourself. Not only that, but since we are in a pandemic and all virtual it is kind of nice to just talk to your classmates! We had some from time so besides from our project, we talked about our college decisions, prom, and the COVID vaccine. 

We also found out tonight that we have a week extension for our project. That helps a lot so we can really make our project perfect and not rushed. And I still need to write my critical reflection. I’ll talk later! 

Xoxo, janey

Post filming

 Hiii 

Now that we are done filming, it’s time to go through all of the footage and prepare for the editing process. Which is my favorite! So Jen shared everything with me on a shared album through iCloud. This makes everything really easy considering that we are splitting the editing. I am doing the same. She also sent me all of the voice memos she took on her phone because of the background noises. This really helped a lot and I’m so happy we decided to do that. If not our project really would’ve went downhill. I’m going to start editing this week once we are back from break and get back on my grind. Cannot wait! I’m so happy this project is finally coming together. See you guys when school starts again. 

Xoxo, Janey

Filming!

Hey guys! 

We finally filmed our project!! Ok let me just say, The University of Miami is absolutely stunning. Like I was in awe of the campus. It honestly made me so excited to go to college! We arrived around 6:15 due to the heavy traffic. It literally took me an hour and a half to get there. Once we got there we walked around campus and took some b-roll footage of the beautiful scenery and statues that are popular at the university. 

So Jen and I filmed from two separate angles. She did a side angle where I was in front of the interviewee. There was a lot of background noise from the students and the lake so we decided to play it safe and record everything on voice memos as well. Just to be safe because that would really suck. Due to COVID, we were unable to film and interview the coaches but it’s okay because our interviewees gave us really good and strong lengthy answers. The girls were extremely prepared and represented their dance teams really well. 

Here are some clips from Jens view! The lighting doesn’t look too great but it’s raw footage. Gonna need some editing. The footage from my camera is really bright so it shouldn’t be too hard. I’m so thankful for Lea and Kailynn doing this for us as they are both extremely busy!

Freshman Kailynn Fleches

Junior Lea Cohen 

Raw footage

Cannot wait to edit!! 

Xoxo, Janey

Editing software

 Hi! 

So to edit our final documentary, we will be using iMovie. I know that iMovie isn’t one of the greatest editing softwares, but I have been using it for years. I know all of the ins and outs of the software and it will just make everything easier. 

Since there is three of us in a group and only one person can edit at a time, we have decided that Jennifer and I are going to split the editing and Autumn will do the magazine cover and social media portion of the project. For our last documentary project, Jen and I worked on some of the editing together and then later on did half and half. This was super easy for both of us. We work really well together and have similar ideas. We want to edit our documentary different this time. Last time we focused on one interviewee and then to the next. For this specific documentary we want to kind of mix it up and play with our editing skills to take on a challenge and show what we have learned. 

To be honest, I love editing. It can be frustrating at times but also at the same time it’s relaxing and I love it! So I am so excited to start working on this part of the project! 

Xoxo, Janey

Filming days

 Heyy guyyss! 

So it's the day before spring break and my group and I wanted to film during the break since the project is due shortly after we come back. We reached out to our friends Lea and Kailynn who are current members on the team and who we will be interviewing and we gave them the dates of March 23rd and 25th. We had to see what was best for everyones schedule and we decided on Wednesday the 23rd around 5 o’clock since it worked best with everyones crazy busy schedules. Going to down to Miami isn't too easy so we wanted to make sure everyone was really available. 

So the 23rd it is! I cannot wait to see the beautiful campus. We were thinking of doing the interviews in front of the iconic Lake Osceola. We thought it would add great scenery to our film and also has a lot of background defining the campus. 

Talk soon!

Xoxo, Janey 

Equipment

 So for our documentary, we will be using two cameras. Both Jen and I have our own cameras so it is really beneficial in terms of making the documentary look professional. 

The camera I own is the Canon PowerShot G7 X Digital Camera. The PowerShot G7 X captures stunning HD video (1080p in 60p). It is small and really easy to carry around. I have this camera for vlogging, but it will work out perfectly for our documentary. To keep the camera steady, I also own the JOBY GorillaPod 325. It is a Compact, Flexible Tripod for Compact Cameras and Devices up to 325 Grams. It is so flexible and light.

Jen has the Nikon D3500 which we used for our first documentary. The first time we had to use an Iphone and Jens camera since I did not have my camera yet. it bothered me because I can tell the difference between the quality of an Iphone and a professional camera. Now that we have both I cannot wait to see the outcome! 

Xoxo, Janey 

Titles

 SO I like realized today that we are in need of a title of our docuseries!! 

Obviously we have all of our teams and concept, but no title. I love coming up with titles because they can be really unique and have a lot of meaning behind them. I wanted to do some research to help me out with a good title. And I found this from "How To Choose A TitleFor Your Documentary", "I highly recommend choosing a short title (1-3 words).  A shorter title makes it easier to promote and easier for people to remember." "When choosing your title, choose words that are memorable, unique and catchy, not generic and vague." 

After reading this, I was thinking of dance terms and puns, but couldn't really think of any. Finally, I was thinking about how right now I am a senior in high school getting ready to take on the next chapter in my dance life in college. And this is where I came up with the title "The Next Step" I loved this title because it can have two meanings. The next step obviously meaning in a dance routine, but also the next step in these dance team dancers college career and how much it has influenced them. 

I told my team members and they loved the idea. We aren't completely set on this title but it is definitely an option. 

Below is the article I read about titles:

How To Choose A Title For Your Documentary

Xoxo, Janey 

Interview Questions

Hey! 

So my group and I have been on a shared Google Docs writing down possible interview questions. We have separated it into three sections: questions for Lea who is a junior on the Sunsations, Kailynn who is a freshman, and the current coach on the team. 

Before conducting our questions we wanted to do our research and refresh our memories about good tips for interview questions. I found this: 

1. Prepare your questions

2. Avoid “yes” or “no” answers

3.Prepare, but be spontaneous

4.Get the interviewee comfortable

5. Don’t give out specific questions in advance

6. Have them repeat your question

7. Proper positioning of interviewee

8.Keep your mouth shut

9.Ask for final comment

10. Don’t stop filming when the interview is “over”

I found these 10 tips on this website below. 

https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/interviewing-tips.html

We started with the basic questions like "Why the University of Miami?" and then we got into more in depth questions that relate to the interviewee. To be specific, since Kailynn is a rookie on the team, we asked questions like, "How is college dance different from competitive studio dance?" And for Lea who is a third year team member, we asked questions like, "What was your experience at UDA last year?" Since we know two of the girls that we are interviewing, it should be a breeze as they will feel comfortable on camera. We are planning to go to UM next week to film!

Xoxo, Janey 

Second Group Meeting

 Hii! 

So today was our second group meeting. I would definitely say that this time our the meeting was much smoother and lasted way longer than last time. My group was very wise and had a lot to say. We all went around and spoke about our individual projects and any concerns we had. Knowing that we are all in the same spot in our projects gave a little bit of relief knowing that next week is spring break and the full project is due really soon. I thought my group members ideas for projects were really unique and cool. I honestly cannot wait to see what they produce. I was telling them about our idea and then genuinely so excited to see the final outcome. Most of them did not even know that college dance teams existed so they were all saying how cool it is that we are able to do this and get permission for the dance team coaches at the University of Miami. Honestly, I am so excited too! This group meeting was so interesting and made me more excited to get a start on filming. 

Xoxo, Janey 

Why those teams?

 Hiii 

So as stated before we decided to go with these 6 dance teams for our documentary series. 

1. University of Miami Sunsations 

2. University of Florida Dazzlers 

3. Florida State Golden Girls

4. Arizona State Sundevils Dance Team

5. University of Minnesota Dance Team

6. Penn State Lionettes 

It was kind of tricky to chose dance teams not only because there are so many of them, but there are so many good ones. Here is how we picked our six. Well to start off, obviously we live in the state of Florida, so we wanted to incorporate the biggest dance teams in the state of Florida besides University of Miami. Those are the Florida State Golden Girls and University of Florida Dazzlers. While researching, we found an article published by DanceSpirit Magazine "The Best College Dance Teams in the Country—and What It Takes to Be on Them" written by Alison Feller. This article was truly amazing, it included so much about dance teams that helped us out with our final decision. To be specific, the website included Where they perform, What they've won, What makes them the best,  and What to know before you go. This really gives a good idea about each dance team and what they are really are about. So after reading, we decided to go with the Arizona State Sundevils, University of Minnesota, and the Penn State Lionettes. We know we aren't filming about these teams but we thought it was a good idea to still do some research so we can get a larger audience. Use it as a way of clickbait. The better and more well known the dance team, the more viewers our documentary series gets. Also, this will help us know more about the college dance team life and in the future for more questions. 

https://www.dancespirit.com/the-best-college-dance-teams-in-the-country-and-what-it-takes-to-be-on-them-2548483416.html

Dance Team Logos 

Outline of our docuseries

 Hey guys! 

So today I met back with my group, and we were SO excited that we can finally move forward with out plan. We were speaking about the different routes we could go with the outline of our docuseries, but we thought it would be the best if we did each episode on a different college dance team. So with that being said, we decided to research different college dance teams and how many episodes are typically in a docuseries so we had an idea of how many to choose from. 

 While researching, we found that On Pointe featured on Disney+ had a total of 6 episodes. While We Speak Dance on Netflix had 5 episodes. Although these documentary series are dance related, they aren't typically college/ athletic dance team series. But, when we were learning about documentaries, I remember watching Ugly Delicious and Abstract featured on Netflix both of those documentaries ranged from 5 to 8 episodes. So we decided to chose a median of the numbers and choose 6 episodes, which means 6 dance teams. The dance teams we have chosen are: 

1. University of Miami Sunsations 

2. University of Florida Dazzlers 

3. Florida State Golden Girls

4. Arizona State Sundevils Dance Team

5. University of Minnesota Dance Team

6. Penn State Lionettes 

I am going to be researching more about those schools this week and explain why we chose them. Until next time! 

Xoxo, Janey 💗

We got a plan!

 Hey guys! 

Soooo, we have our final plan... We are going to do our docuseries on the University of Miami Sunsations! We finally got the green light from our friends Lea and Kailynn who are on the team. I am so happy that my group and I can FINALLY move forward with our project now that everything is finalized. Today is an A day so I have media studies tomorrow. I wan't to talk with Jennifer and Autumn about what we want our other episodes to be about because this can go a variety of ways. To be specific, we can have the series about just the University of Miami Dance Team specifically or incorporate other dance teams for other episodes. Something else I want to get started on is to start jotting down some questions for the interview. The more prepared the better. I plan on doing some research about the history of the UM Sunsations and how they came along to get better and in depth questions for when it is time to interview. Ill inform you guys about what me and my group come up with tomorrow! 

Xoxo, Janey 

Lessons learned...

 Hey guys. 

So back in November one of our projects for class was a documentary. I worked with Jennifer and we decided to do it on my dance studio Performance Edge Dance Complex and how it is managing a studio during a pandemic. I LOOOVVVED this project, but if there were things I could go back and fix, I definitely would. Not only that but throughout the process I learned so much about myself and let alone creating a short documentary. This process has taught me what I need to work on for my final project! 

Something in the filming process I realized and now know is that when interviewing, I need to make a full solid question list and give it to my interviewee before hand. Since our project had to be changed due to covid, we were kind of in a rush. Therefore, my interviewee was not prepared for questions. Although we did get good footage, we could have gotten better footage if we had pre planned. This is something I will for sure do for my next film. 

I also want to get better with my editing, making it tighter. That is something else I learned last time. Overall, doing this it makes your film look better as a whole. Something else, is the music choice. Music to me is the hardest part. But, it is something I need to find prior to editing because it sparks my ideas and makes everything come together. 

Overall, I learned so much filming my last short documentary and I cannot wait for this one to show everything I have learned! 

Talk soon! 

xoxo, Janey 💗

Target Audience

 Hey! 

So as we do not have something still completely set in stone. But we do have a good of enough idea to explain our target audience. 

Since we are focusing on competitive dancers either in high school or college. We think that it would be best to have the audience range from pre-teens to mid twenties. We felt like this is the best age to gain most viewers for our genre and what our documentary series is about. I did some research about finding how to really attract a larger audience and this is what I found. 

1. Define Your Ideal Customer: What is the sort of persona that your business is targeting? Who are the people your product was built for?

2. Play the Role of Problem-Solver: Your brand should fill some sort of void in the lives of your ideal customers.  Basing your marketing around solving your audience’s problems and empathizing their pain points is the ultimate way to grow your business.

3. Take Advantage of Social Media: If you want to know what your target audience is buzzing about in real-time, there’s no better place to find out than social media. 

4. Ask the Right Questions:  Picking the brains of your target audience can lead to insights that could influence your marketing strategy or the direction of your business at large.

5. Understand Your Audience Analytics: Keeping an eye on your analytics prevents you from making assumptions about your products, content and overall marketing strategy.

6. Conduct Competitive Analysis: Figuring out how you can stand out among your competitors means conducting competitive analysis. 

7. Don’t Make Assumptions: remember that appealing to your target audience means understanding them both personally and by the numbers. Simply put, a combination of meaningful conversations and analytics leads to well-informed marketing decisions.

This is just a summary to give us some tips to gain a larger audience and it is something my group and I are definitely going to take into consideration. 

Below is the link to the resource used: 

7 Ways to Tap Into Your True Target Audience

Talk soon! 

xoxo, Janey 💗

Group meeting

 Hiii, 

SO today is Friday and my group and I finally had a meeting with Jennifer and Autumn. We were discussing that we were in need of a plan b if our original plan doesn't workout. I told them about the film "I Dream of Dance" and they loved the idea that if our Miami Dance Team idea fails we can maybe just do regular competitive dancers. We were talking about how dance competitions are very difficult to understand, it isn't just like the show Dance Moms and you don't just get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, place. It's way more than that. Theres different categories such as ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, ALLL the way to even singing! You get adjudications ranging from an honorable mention to a diamond. Theres plenty of judges awards and scholarships and so much more! I can talk about dance competitions for hours on end. Thats why I think it would be a great backup plan for our documentary series because there is so much to cover! Jennifer is going to text the girls on the Miami dance team to see if she can get a solid answer. Talk soon! 

xoxo, Janey💓

STILLLLL WAITING

Hi guys, 

Today we have a substitute in class. 

I am kind of frustrated with my project. Today is Monday, and I still haven't received an answer from my friends on the dance team at the University of Miami. The time is ticking and if we don't get the answer we are looking for we need to start thinking of a backup plan. When Mrs. Stocklosa is here next class on Friday, my group members and I have been communicating and want to have a break our room so we can start brainstorming other ideas to get the ball rolling. We don't have much time. ITS ALREADY MARCH! In our meeting we hope to not only discuss new ideas but we want to plan out other cool things we can use and do to stand out. 

I have been watching more documentaries to get more inspiration, and I came across one called "I Dream of Dance" This documentary is an inspirational  documentary following the dance company led by the legendary Denise Wall and her son, Emmy award-winning Travis Wall. Being considered one of the best dance teachers of all time. The documentary follows Denise and her road to one of the biggest nationals in the country, The Dance Awards. The Dance Awards are a National Competition presented annually in Las Vegas and Orlando, and are awarded to recognize excellence in dance for young dancers between the age of five and eighteen. I watch the dance awards every year and it is my favorite time of the year. It's like the olympics for dance. I Dream of Dance was an amazing documentary and it showed the real side of dance. The long rehearsals, sweat, tears, and blood. It is a must watch. It sparked a few ideas that my group can do if the Miami dance team documentary idea fails. I am going to talk to my group on Friday and let you know what they think! Talk soon! 

xoxo, Janey 💗