Media Final Diaries

November 17, 2009

It is already November 17th and I don’t feel as if I have a topic good enough to use for my media final. I have not yet decided what I would really love to convey in media related material. When my professor, Dr. Lucca, mentioned that some of his former students have made documentaries for their media final, I found it to be an intriguing idea. I needed some sort of objective though if I were going to do a documentary. Coming up with an idea that would actually work for my objective seemed a bit difficult to find. It took me a while to decide because I knew I wanted it to be based on something I would feel excited to work on, something interesting!
Since I could not come up with a strong topic for a documentary, I decided to use a video that I had already put up on YouTube three years ago. My cousin, James, who went to film and photography school, had a project back in 2006 to direct and record a PSA (Public Service Announcement) commercial on any topic and put it on YouTube. He decided to base his topic on the idea that people tend to believe that words can’t hurt, but they actually do! He asked me to star in the video and I agreed. The entire process in developing the video took a total of seven hours but the video itself had to be cut to thirty seconds after editing. It took place in an abandoned police prescient which I thought would have been pretty cool to talk about, especially if I had the extra footage to show.
I hoped that the fact that it was done so long ago, would not make it count as cheating. So I asked Dr. Lucca if it was okay and he said it was fine and that I can add onto it for the presentation. I thought about creating some type of power point to go with how the video was made, but still I don’t think my final project will be good enough! I think it’s missing something and that’s what I need to think about.
Today I will be visiting my cousin to find out if he would happen to have the extra footage of the PSA. If not, then I guess I will have to think of something else =/
Let’s see what happens…

November 18, 2009

So I was at my cousins house yesterday and it turns out that he actually does not have the extra footage we took from the PSA because it was on the computer's software from the school! I was a bit dissapointed that I wouldn't be able to use some of the extra footage to show my classmates because I feel that would have made it way more interesting than a powerpoint! However, I figured discussing what I needed for my project with my cousin James, his boyfriend Miguel, and my sister Zuleika, we can all come up with something unique that I can direct with them in it.
We began discussing typical documentary topics, one of them being: Inside the Life of a Pothead. It sounded like a good idea at first but then we came across another idea that we thought would work out quite nicely. Briefly, the synopsis would be about the life of a Drag Queen!
Soon enough after I brought it up to them, they agreed and we started planning the steps to how exactly were we going to put this documentary together. We decided not to base it on the "The Life of a Drag Queen" but The Art of Female Impersonation! So we called it Transformation: The Art of Female Impersonation. Since this documentary could only be about five to seven minutes we agreed on getting part of the footage from them casually speaking in front of the camera to show the naturality of those who do dress up as the opposite sex and that when they do dress up in drag that it's just a new character they are impersonating. We thought if we'd also get some footage of them shopping for things they need to be a Drag Queen it would be a nice addition for the documentary. Then the main part of it would be footage of James transforming from male to female and we could just display that in a fast forward mode so it doesn't take very long. After that, we decided we'd go watch a Drag Show at a gay club in the city to record some of the show to express the extravagance of Drag Queens.
Yesterday Miguel and James also informed my sister and I about a campaign called "NoH8." It is a national campaign towards diversity. You can Google it or go on the website http://www.noh8campaign.com/. The photos of the campaign are of people from all over, including celebrities, in white t-shirts, duct tape over their mouths and NoH8 written on the side of their face. The title of the campaign "NoH8" (No Hate) is pretty self explanitory. It is intended for viewers to see that there should not be any kind of hate towards diversity. I felt that the NoH8 campaign would be a nice touch to the documentary because needless to say, there is a great amount of hatred towards female impersonation in this world! James already has a NoH8 photograph so somewhere along the days where we will be working on the project, I will have one done since he is also a photographer!
I am really excited on getting started with this project. We will get together on my next day off which will be on Sunday the 22nd!

November 22, 2009

Ok so today is Sunday, my day off from work. I just got back home from James' house. Today we began taking notes on what the objective of the documentary will be and what exactly we will be pin pointing in five to seven minutes.
We also decided to walk over to Cosco because Miguel and James said that they carry this great set of make-up brushes they would like to get and it would be could to get some footage of us going over there and them actually purchasing brushes to show and speak of the steps in which they take to become females. We did get footage of us walking over there but when we got there we realized it was Sunday and they had closed early. So we turned around and decided to try it again the next time around.
So we ended up not getting all that much done today but we did start preparing. To make up for loss of time a little, I told them i'd go over their house on Tuesday night after work for just an hour to get my picture taken for the campaign. This way he can start editing it before I go over on my following day off.
Things are slowly going to start to pick up now. Our date to go out to the gay club to watch and get footage of the Drag Show will be exactly one week from tonight on Sunday the 29th. That day I will definately have to go over early that day to get all of the transformation on camera and then go out! I can't wait!



November 24, 2009



Today is Tuesday... well by now it's already wednesday since it's already past midnight. Today I went to work after school, got out at 8:30pm and made it to my cousins house by 9pm. Knowing that I had limited time plus I having to make up for loss of time, I got to work right away.

As soon as I settled in, I took out all the make-up and the brushes and began, what we like to call, "beating my face," (a phrase for doing my make up... well)! As I was almost finishing, James began setting up his studio lighting and his camera for the shoot.

After setting everything up, James touched up my make-up as he knew what I would need to be seen in a flattering lens under the camera. Finally ready for pictures, I stood right there in front of his bedroom door posing away.

The idea I went with for my NoH8 photograph was me pulling the duct tape off of my mouth with part of it still stuck on the end, symbolizing "speaking out" against discrimination, but of course I had to squint my eyes a little and try to "love the camera" as photographers always say. I had the "N-O-H" part written on the lower side of my face with black eyeliner and the "8" written with red lip liner.

We took about 20-25 shots just to be sure we would get a perfect one, or at least close to perfect. Luckily it didn't take too long. By the time were finished it was around 10pm just as planned and I left home with my sister at just about 10:30pm. The trip home is about a long hour and a half train ride followed by a 30 minute bus ride so thats why I had to make it snappy!

When I was arriving home I was satisfied at the fact that one more part of the documentary has been done and now I can go to sleep, well of course after I finish this blog that is. Im so happy that tomorrow I don't have to wake up as early to go to class, plus, I won't even be going to meet my class at school. The class is meeting at the Museum of the Moving Image at 10:50am. I'm excited to see it and happy that we're getting a little break from the typical class work! Then Thursday will be Thanksgiving and I have a day off to myself! God is good! No, no, He's GREAT!



November 28, 2009



So today is Saturday night, more like Sunday morning. I just got in. It's been a pretty crazy day. I went to work and then to my best friends birthday dinner in which she was proposed to by her boyfriend! It's been a great mix of emotions this evening but one thing that I am also very excited about tonight is that James has sent me the finished product of my edited photograph for the NoH8 campaign!!!

That's really the only reason why I decided to Blog tonight because it's not like we did anything with the documentary today. The picture however is going to give the documentary a nice touch in the end... I will attach it below.






And there it is <3


November 29, 2009

We are finally here on the big day of getting all the main footage. It is 5pm and I am sitting on James bed blogging on his laptop (thought it'd be pretty cool to say that since it's a blog and not a formal paper lol)
We are just about ready to begin taking footage of the long and drawn out process of James transforming himself from male to female. In a few minutes i'm even going to get a clip of him shaving.
A little earlier today, might I add, James took a large piece of cushion and began cutting it into a "P" shape. He did this purposely to fill it into his jeans to create the illusion of curvy hips! This is yet another trick in the process of female impersonation.

2 hours later...

It is now 7:13pm. In the last two hours I was able to record James shaving (as I was speaking to him of course), and then beginning his make up routine. One thing I learned was that before he even put any foundation onto his face, he began dabbing on little dots of red lipstick onto his jaw line. I wasn't sure what this was for at first until he claimed that although he had shaven, you would still be able to see that greenish shadow from the stubs of facial hair. He said the red would be able to cancel out the green. That was a pretty interesting fact to learn!
Right now James is putting on his outfit in which we put together. He's also going to attach a hair piece for the final touch.
After he comes out, the rest of us will finish up getting ready, doing our make-up and get ready to go see the drag show. Of course we will be taking a cab over there and back. Why? Because you shouldn't really take "Drag" onto the train... another reason why we are associating this documentary with the NoH8 Campaign.


November 30, 2009

Wow, Last night was awesome! As we left the building I took some footage of our group walking the street and hopping into the cab. In the cab I interviewed them with a few simple questions on how they feel walking in female couture.
Inside the club, the show started and the drags began coming out, imitating extravagant performances of different stars. One was imitating Erykah Badu, one did Rihanna's song Russian Roulette, one did Britney Spears and there were many more. It's a wide variety of music that is performed.
Overall it was a great night and I was highly satisfied with the footage I got for the documentary. I wanted to show that there in fact can be an artistic angle to female impersonation and that is entertainment!
Now all thats left to do is to edit all the footage into one movie, adding background music and wording on the screen. My next day off is Thursday so I will be going over after school to create the final product!

December 3, 2009

It's late, im tired, it's been a long day, but I feel a need to blog about how today went. My sister and I went to James house after school. I figured it wouldn't take more than three hours to edit, but when we got started, it seemed like it would take longer.
I began uploading all the videos onto moviemaker in the order I wanted them to play. Then I layed out the plan for the entire documentary and I started to feel that the finished product was going to come out as good as I expected. However, it just so happens that today was Miguel and James' anniversary so they were planning on going out later in the night. So after we layed everything out and discussed how every part should go, we decided that i'd leave them with my camera so he can finish editing the documentary and e-mail it to me by sunday night. I can't wait to see the final product!

December 4, 2009

James text me today saying that I should send him another question that he can discuss in front of his web cam because he didn't see too much cohesiveness between the footage and the topic about the campaign at the end. So I gave him a few options on what he can discuss to make it work. So far he hasn't wrote me back.

December 5, 2009

It's Saturday now. For some reason I still have not heard from my cousin. Im hoping he's planning on surprising me tomorrow with the final product having used his own finishing touches...

December 6, 2009

... It's Sunday night, I just finished working a 13 hour shift at work today and still, James has not responded to any of my texts. I was wondering if maybe he felt like I was making him do it for me or if he got lazy or discouraged and doesn't want to tell me that he's not into it anymore...
So this morning I texted him; "Hey James, I hope the documenary is coming along nicely. I feel bad that you're pretty much having to do it for me since im not there but remember... Santa Clause is coming soon!!! Let me know of anything you want because you are really doing me a big favor."
He never responded. In the middle of the day, I was getting a little nervous about it so I told my sister and she recommended I try to reach Miguel. Then I text Miguel; "Hey you it's Lili, tell your man I hit him up! Im getting a little nervous about the project. If he's getting lazy tell him i'm going to reward him!!! Santa Clause style!!!"
I figured if I can sound a little goofy and offer an incentive, I wouldn't come off as too demanding or as if i'm using him. After all my plan was to edit it with him. The only reason why I left it for him to finish it was because it was their anniversary and they were going out.
Even so, still no response from either of them.
I must admit, im pretty upset and angered about this but at the same time i'm taking it pretty well. I think i'm still a little bit in denial that he would actually do such a thing. I'm shocked that my own cousin would disappear on me a few days before my project/final is due knowing that it can affect my grade! I haven't done anything for him to act this way either.
At this point i'm at a loss for words. I don't know what to say!

December 8, 2009

Today is Tuesday. I am scheduled to present tomorrow. It looks as if i'm going to have to go with plan B which was my original idea of using the PSA with a powerpoint to go with it. Can you say BORING?! But hey, it's better than nothing right?! I am going to make it to school an hour early tomorrow to put together a quick last minute powerpoint presentation. Let's see how that goes.

December 9, 2009

I presented first this morning. Before I began I felt the need to explain my "what-had-happened" story with the documentary I had been working on all along. It hit me even more today that my cousin left me hanging like that. Would have never expected that in a million years... nor deserve that!
The PPT was not so bad and the PSA wasn't horrible either. I just know that the documentary I had spent three weeks worth of days off working on would have been 10x cooler!!! UGH
At this point nothing I can say or feel is going to get the final product of the documentary in my hands soooo on that note.... this is the end.
Below is the link to my PSA on YouTube.com... here it goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWP-PztE8OY