Documentary Reflection

I made a small documentary about nostalgia. It was a slightly stressful experience, as I had a shortened timeline due to my own inability to properly adhere to the schedule we were given. Not to mention at the start of the project, I'd already had a few other large projects for other classes or for personal matters that I needed to deal with. But I got it done and I'm satisfied with the result. Or about as satisfied as I could be. After reviewing the documentaries made by two of my classmates, I was inspired to use more motion in my own, rather than static images. A lot of the images I found for my documentary had to be resized so they would fit properly, but otherwise, there weren't too many major challenges that presented themselves in the production of my documentary. If I hd to do it again, I would definitely try to stick to a proper timeline better to give myself more time to get the project done the way I wanted. I would also spend more time proofreading my script because I feel I kind of rushed the end and it doesn't really make sense, but I didn't have the time to go back and change it. I was satisfied with it at the time of recording, but i really should have strived to make it better, more coherent. I also would have liked to give myself time to look into sound-editing techniques, as I am very insecure of my own voice. But otherwise, I made a product that I'm satisfied with, and that's all that mattered.

Documentary Script

(Voice-over) Nostalgia. Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy associations. It comes from the Greek roots "nóstos," meaning "homecoming" and "álgos," meaning "pain" or "ache." When it was first discovered, it was initially described as a medical condition, like a form of melancholy, but over the course of history, its definition has changed from a melancholy medical condition to an independent, even positive feeling. Nostalgia is often subconsciously triggered through negative emotions as a way for the mind to comfort itself. When you're feeling down, nostalgia can bring you back to a time where you didn't feel those things. Nostalgia has become a big part of modern media, from small screen to big screen, cartoons and television to popular movies. This is because many of today's creators were a product of the colorful decades of the late 20th Century. Children's cartoons, especially, are heavily inspired by the colorful decades their creators grew up in. Shows like Steven Universe, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Gravity Falls, and many others are all inspired by their creators' childhoods or life experiences. Steven Universe and Star vs. the Forces of Evil both have influences based in 90s anime. Steven Universe even includes a sword-fighting scene almost identical to a fighting scene in Revolutionary Girl: Utena. Star vs. the Forces of Evil is very heavily based on the "magical girl" trope that was present in a lot of 90s anime, specifically Sailor Moon. She originally designed Star to be a normal girl that was just obsessed with Sailor Moon and her friend Marco to be a kid obsessed with Dragon Ball Z. Other cartoons, like Gravity Falls and again, Steven Universe, are based off of their creators’ experiences growing up. Gravity Falls is based on the summers that Alex Hirsch and his sister Ariel would spend at their aunt’s house. Steven Universe is based on Rebecca Sugar’s brother Steven’s experiences growing up as a younger brother: “where you're so comfortable in your life because you get all the attention, but you also want to rise up and not be the little brother.” The main setting of Steven Universe, Beach City, is based off of the beach vacations her family to beach locations such as Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, and Dewey Beach. Modern movies, as well, play on the experience of nostalgia. Live-action remakes are becoming more and more popular, especially with the release of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Jungle Book remakes, as well as the other planned remakes, such as a second live-action Alice in wonderland movie, a remake of Pete’s Dragon, and planned sequels to Maleficent and Jungle Book. Actually, Disney has been making live action remakes since 1996 with the release of the live-action 101 Dalmatians. The release of the newest Star Wars trilogy, starting with The Force Awakens, is also evidence of everyone’s nostalgia making its way into modern media. Although the newest installments of the franchise were a long time coming, they were released when all the young fans of the first trilogy had kids of their own. What better way to introduce your children to a major part of your childhood than by making it a part of theirs? Even animated films are capitalizing on this sensation. Wreck-It Ralph, while not necessarily about the experience of nostalgia, included a lot of classic video game characters that were major parts of people’s childhoods. Toy Story 3 was not only a movie about nostalgia, but it was perfectly released at a time where fans of the first 2 movies were feeling nostalgic, themselves. This is also seen with the release of Finding Dory, which is set to come out later this year. Finding Dory is a sequel to Finding Nemo, where Dory, a main character from the first movie, sets off to try and find her family and go home. It’s another movie about nostalgia, released at a time where fans of the first movie want to return to those experiences of childhood. This trend is also seen in modern tv shows. ABC’s Once Upon a Time takes the Disney and fairy tale characters we knew as children and puts them into a modern context. It’s like the ultimate imagining of modern Disney characters. As everyone starts to feel nostalgia for the old Disney movies and characters we know and love, Once Upon a Time allows us to imagine that they walk among us as part of our world once again. Disney has another show with some nostalgic roots that shows on Disney Channel, called Girl Meets World, a sequel series to the classic show Boy Meets World. The show centers around the children of the original show’s characters. Much of the original cast have already reprised their original roles, appearing in in a wide range of roles, from main roles, like Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel reprising their roles as Cory and Topanga, to cameos. Another show has recently come out on Netflix that was the product of nostalgia itself. Fuller House is a Netflix original series that was produced as a sequel to 90’s series Full House. The series creators were originally considering a reboot of the 90’s classic series, and the sequel series was confirmed in April of 2015. Nostalgia affects everyone. But sometimes, it affects the creators of modern media, and

Digital Weekly Work Log - 3/14-3/18

3/14 - Worked on LM Program

3/15 - Worked on LM Program

3/16 - Made final edits to LM Program

3/17 - Tried to figure out what to do with my life

3/18 - Began gathering inspiration for a digital image series

Documentary Investigation: Outline

I. Introduction

II. Nostalgia

     A. What is it?

     B. Why do we feel it?

III. Nostalgia in Modern Media

     A. Cartoons

     B. TV Shows

     C. Movies

IV. Why is it Here?

V. Conclusion

Documentary Investigation: Nostalgia Investigation

So my choice for an emerging trend in Media Arts was Nostalgia. I had chosen this as a theme for my portfolio projects at the beginning of the year, along with the theme of fantasy. I've already done theme investigations on Nostalgia, and I'm really interested in continuing my research and how modern shows and movies.

A few main points of my project are going to relate to modern cartoons, shows, and movies.

Examples: Many modern cartoons, like Steven Universe, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Adventure Time, and the recently finished Gravity Falls take inspiration from 90s animes, and specifically, Steven Universe is about the creator Rebecca Sugar's younger brother and the experiences of growing up. Gravity Falls, too, is based on the childhood summers of its creator Alex Hirsch and his sister Ariel. Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Steven Universe take inspiration from the classic "magical girl" trope commonly found in many animes.

Further, recently, Netflix has released a semi-original series called "Fuller House," a present-day sequel series of sorts to the 90s classic sitcom "Full House," released at a time when most people that watched the show as a kid or teenager are grown up, and possibly wishing for a return to that childhood. The ABC show "Once Upon a Time" also capitalizes on that audience as a show about classic Disney and fairy tale characters, beloved in childhood, have been thrust into the modern world.

Toy Story 3 is the prime example of the emerging trend of nostalgia. The movie itself is about nostalgia, with both Andy and the toys reflecting back on their time together. Plus it was released when the majority of fans of the first two were grown up and wishing for that return to childhood. It was a movie about nostalgia released at a time when everyone was nostalgic for the series.

Production Checkpoint 3

Basically, my entire 3rd Marking Period was spent working on stuff for the musical.

Poster designs:

The second one was turned into the cover design for the program

And then doing the program:

I found a screen desktop version of the poster and cropped the wave design to use as an accent piece for the text pages.

I had the idea to do behind the scenes pictures, so I took a bunch of pictures and arranged them very neatly.

I made them with transparent backgrounds so when I put them on the program, the teal background of the page would show through. The rest was copying and pasting text and information and ads and pictures. The program was finally finished and submitted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2016.

Nostalgia in Media Arts

I will be investigating a theme of nostalgia in media arts, specifically in film and television.