Brief

Here is the brief for my music video project.

Reflection: Component projects are my favourite to work on because I genuinely enjoy using my creativity and exploring the world of visual media, and it's something I would like to pursue in the future. When I first found our the project was a music video, I felt unsure because Im not very confidence with music and don't know music about genres or how to choose the best songs, so I hope to work with teammates who have a strong taste in music. However, I plan to make the video cinematic, as I think those elements work really well together, and Im excited to choose a song that can bring my ideas and imagination to life. Over the next few weeks, I hope to collaborate effectively with my team and share my ideas to create the best possible media project, and since this is my final project I can wait to give it my all.

Final Documentary and Thumbnail

 Here is my final product and thumbnail of my Documentary Project.

Thumbnail

Documentary

Critical Reflection (CR)

 Here is my blog post for my critical reflection.

My team and I decided to make a documentary about a school bombing entitled The Final Bell: Thirteen Seconds. This crime documentary explores what really happened behind the "gas" bombing attack, which was unexpectedly caused by a minor suspect.

Our documentary represents teenagers, teachers, and detectives through technical elements that build empathy, trust, and suspense. Teenagers are divided into suspect, victims, and a minor character. The suspect is shown with a blurry editing (seen in fig 1) and happy moments to create mystery. Victims are highlighted through close-ups and zooms to emphasise trauma. The minor character is placed in an isolated setting (seen in fig 2) to reflect loneliness and spark curiosity. Teachers are portrayed with discord music and emotional interviews that evoke sympathy. While detectives are filmed in medium shots to establish seriousness and trust which guides audiences through the case. The documentary also explores issues between the suspect and the school showing the suspect in a way that creates mixed feelings of blame and empathy while the schools reputation evoke trauma and sympathy. By using stereotypes such as CCTV footage, detectives and discord in music, the documentary ads, realism and tangent which encourages audiences to connect emotionally with the event.

Branding means the identity of a product shown through style colour and presentation. This is important because it makes the work recognisable which can build trust and attracts audiences. Our production element works together to build a strong sense of branding through consistent visuals and themes across both the thumbnail and the documentary. In our case, both of the video and thumbnail share a dark theme with handheld evidence style visuals, creating a serious tone and evoking emotions of mystery danger and realism. The use of a striking yellow font (seen in fig 3) in both products, symbolises hazard and toxic warning signs immediately connecting to the bomb theme and grabbing audience's attention. The thumbnail featuring a CCTV footage directly reinforces the documentaries realism while also emphasising it investigate nature making it authentic and eye-catching. Together these elements established a consistent identity that audiences can decode as serious danger and true to life. By combining dark visuals realism and hazard symbolism the branding helps the documentaries stand out while creating a mood of tension and importance which encourages audiences to trust the story and engage with the content.

Our products engaged with the audience by targeting teenagers to young adults (15-25) who are familiar with the school setting and interested in true crimes, plot twist, and analysis. The thumbnail place a major role in attracting this audience as it directly connects to the theme of mystery, shock, and realism. It features a CCTV classroom footage which makes the situation feel raw chaotic and authentic which sparks curiosity about what really happened to the students. The dark colours reinforce the true crime atmosphere while the yellow font (seen in fig 3) pops out to symbolise hazard and danger making the title eye catching. The use of automatic code is also important as the thumbnail hints at "thirteen seconds" leaving audiences with unanswered questions that can only be solved by watching the documentary. This encourage viewers to decode the mystery and stay engaged overall the thumbnail combines realism, tension, and symbolic colour to appeal to a young audience seeking shock value, suspense, and deeper analyses within the true crime genre.

our research strongly informed how our documentary uses and challenges conventions of the crime genre. Typical crime documentaries often include close-up shots, CCTV footage, real life evidence, and dark lowkey lighting interview settings that create us tense and eerie atmosphere. They also rely on discordant background music to build up emotion and suspense while editing usually switches between fast pace flashes glitches and flashbacks to keep audiences engaged. We conform to many of these conventions by using CCTV footage, close-up of evidence, quick edits that link interview content with real footage, making the information clear and more engaging for viewers. However, we also subverted convention in several ways. Instead of focusing on the stereotypical older male psychopath, we entered the story around a young female student making the narrative more shocking and unique. We also avoided bloody or violent imagery, since the crime involved a chemical gas bombing which gave the film a more distinct and unexpected tone. Finally, we broke away from plain white titles by using a yellow font (seen in fig 3) which symbolise hazard and danger which makes the branding more eye catching. Overall research on existing documentary shape our choices while allow allowing us to add originality.

Thumbnail (Research & Development)

This blog post contains the thumbnail research and development for our documentary project. My teammate Tisha did the research and I (Kristine) did the development.

Editing

This blog contains editing process for our documentary project. This was made by my teammate Tisha.

Behind the Scenes

This is the behind the scene of our documentary project. This blog was made by my teammate Tisha and Panji.

Filming Schedule

Here is our filming schedule that has been created by our team member Tisha.

The Final Bell : Thirteen Seconds

A Level Media Studies Documentary

---

Date: Tuesday, 26 August 2025 

Location: School Field + School Hallway 

Scene / Scene Number: 

• 1 - 4 → Students in their usual day at school without the bomb
• 6 → 911 voice over phone calls
• Drone Shot of the school 

People / Actor: 

• Other students as background character

Things needed: 

• Camera
• Drone
• School bags
• Paper Plane 

---

Date: Thursday, 28 August 2025

Location: Classroom

Scene / Scene Number: 

• Interviews of the student & teacher 
• Drone shot of the school 

People: 

• Main student 
• Teacher
• Students 

Things needed: ( + Prop) 

• Camera
• Phone
• Drone
• Books
• Computer
• Pen & book / Stationary → represents student 

---

Date: Monday, 1 September 2025 

Location: Classroom

Scene / Scene Number: 

• Interviews of the student and detective

People: 

• Main student
• Detective 

Things needed: 

• Camera
• Phone

---

(Only if the needed extra scene) 

Date: Tuesday, 2 September 2025 

Location: Classroom 

Scene / Scene Number: 

• Additional scenes (students everyday life, empty footage) 
• Interview (Retake if needed) 
• Drone shot 

People: 

• Students

Things needed: 

• Camera
• Drone
• School bags 
• Phone

Location Scout

Heres a list of possible locations that we will be filming in for our documentary project. This was done by my teammate Tisha and Kenneth.

Script

Here is our groups script that I (Kristine) created and with the help from Tisha and Panji to insert it in the template.

Storyboard

Here is our groups storyboard that was created by Tisha. 

Before the storyboard we gather everyone’s ideas and match them together to create the documentary. 

After those ideas were settled, we created a draft of the plotline which acts as a guide in creating the storyboard. 

Using this guide, we were then able to create a detail storyboard. 

This style of storyboard was good as it has details of each shot, but it was very time consuming. So we decided to do a much simpler version for the rest of our storyboard. 

Additional notes: From the storyboard, shot 17 shows real footage of a photograph that was taken before the documentary timeline. Where shot 23 and 24 are stage footage, including shot 8 and 9. 

Reflection: For me, when creating the storyboard, plotting the scenes on paper can feel a bit useless. I think this is because our first ideas could often be improved by later ones, and since it is harder to change the storyboard once it is drawn, it can be difficult to work with. However, it still plays an important role because I helps us capture our vision so that during filming, we do not forget it. Overall, since I tend to get indecisive, I decided to let my teammate who was in charge create the storyboard instead. In the end, we all needed to agree on something before adding more ideas, as it can be very hard to cooperate otherwise. Luckily, my teammate made great decisions, and I was satisfied with the choices and the storyboard she created for our documentary.

Statement of Intent

This is our initial idea for our project.

Statement of Intent 

Sub-genre (crime)
Mass Murder	Mass murder means it may affect a lot of people / a majority which makes it interesting to talk about as we can talk about the correlation between the people who died in the crime scene and the bomber itself.
Topic
School bombing
Primary Target Audience
Demographic Teenagers to young adult (15-25), can be in high school or even a university student	Reason Because not only the documentary will be majorly focused on bombing, but also talks about the school environment itself that creates these types of events from happening which will make them most likely to be interested as well these people are familiar with school setting which can stand out more.
Psychographic Interest in plot twist / shock factor  True Crime Analysis	Reason The plot of the documentary story contains a plot twist of who the bomber is which will be good for people who enjoy plot twists as these people would want to be more engaged emotionally. The documentary itself will contain real footage and a complex story line of the situation which with a true crime audience who enjoys analysis would suit this as this will make them curious and wanting to know what happened and who did it.
Message (Dominant Reading)
Do not trust anyone around you.	This message talks about how the most unexpected people who may be someone you know have another side of them that you don't know at all. This explains it is better to be cautious because we don't know what will happen.
Characters
Students / Teachers Detectives Police
Representations (groups, places, events)
Groups: Student, Detectives (authority), School counselor (Teacher)  Places: School environment Events: School bombing	Reason The documentary represents students as the groups because the students will be the main focus of this documentary as the plot twist of the main story is the student who made this school bombing happen.  A school counselor is the closest to an adult that is close to students, as they are the ones who would ask and try to understand students. By having the school counselor to be represented in this documentary it shows the awareness of teachers with students actions and attitude but sometimes a teacher doesn’t know a full story or what has made them change. The detectives or an authority gives an outside perspective that does not only talk about the victims but also the suspects from this documentary. This shows how even if it happens at school it becomes a more serious matter that the impact has affected a wider community.  The school environment helps in making the story to be more believable as it happens at a school. The school as well symbolises a place where it is safe and full of life because there are a lot of children but with this context it will be a very big contrast. This also allows our audience group may feel a sense of relatability as they know the feeling of being in a classroom which can make them feel more emotional about it.  This documentary represents the event of school attacks which specifically talks about school bombing, where it shows how the event has escalated to something that was up until it was too much.
What will be the hook? (The mystery that keeps audiences watching)
The person wasn’t someone that the audience would expect, no signs that the person would actually be the one bombing as the person was the complete opposite of what a bomber would do.

Research

This is the research for my Documentary Project.

1. Worst Roommate Ever, 2024

Documentary Opening 1: Worst Roommate Ever
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	I expect that the person that's on the thumbnail is the villain in this documentary. I expect a lot of questions to help guide me through not just general questions like “who did it?” or “what happened”. Extreme Close Up shot of an old lady who looks very much sick and pale, this could tell us that she's in a bad condition. The word WORST & EVER stands out the most because it wants us to focus on the two negative words to help us get those negative thoughts. I expect to see a quick overview or like a short summary of the reason why “this roommate” is the worst. I expect to see the victims.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	People who are interested in relationship type of crimes, mostly women adults that could be living alone - without a roommate. Camera: Close up shots of the faces, This creates suspense which allows us to focus on the characters, so we know who’s the villain and the main attention. MES: The pills, Pills are often used to showcase sickness and illness. This can tell us that the situation involves sickening behaviors and very unstable activities. Editing: Flashbacks, The flashback pictures of her in the hospital tells us that these things happen in the past. This also helps the audience develop sympathy for the character. Sound: Unsettling music, The music brings attention to audiences so they can feel more intense. The build up allows audiences to want to stay longer to continue watching.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	I would want to continue watching, because I wanna actually know who this person is and what really happened. Since theres alot of missing information, it brings the attention for audience wanting them to keep on watching.

2. What Jennifer Did, 2024

Documentary Opening 2: What Jennifer Did
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	I expect that the person on the thumbnail will do intense violence to the point a whole documentary had to be made. I expect unexpected points that would create a shocking hook. The first thing I noticed is the red filter. The colour red always connotes as murder, death or danger. This could imply that she has done a murderous activity. We also see that it's a portrait of her but one half is happy and the other looks pissed. Which could tell us that this Jennifer girl has two personalities that no one knew she had. ( people know her as an innocent girl but there's also a bad side of her that people don't know ).  I expect to see a few shots and hints of the things that she did because that helps audiences hook up and find out more about the documentary. I expect scary images immediately.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Teenagers, because this Jennifer character who apparently is the villain appears to look like a teenager, which could be interesting to watch someone their age do crime activities. Overall its towards audiences who enjoy suspenseful, true events films. Camera: High angle, The interview scene was shot through the CCTV lens that was at a high angle. This meaning could imply that the person in this room is weak and helpless. This connotes because the girl is seen crying (weak) but she is also helpless because she isn't telling the truth (acting innocent when she isn't). MES: The house, The purpose of the house was to show where the location was and what was really inside the place. It also helped show the audience that Jennifer had to suffer in - a very small cramped, dull, “broken” house. This could then show audiences that she is living very poorly and could potentially be struggling, making the audience feel sympathetic. Editing: Jump cuts, The quick cuts allow the audience to get hooked up and become intense with the images that quickly change. This allows the audience to become more excited and makes them want to watch longer for more scenes. Sound: The 911 call, The conversation between the police officer and Jennifer makes it even more suspenseful as it allows the audience to hear full detailed information. This allows them to feel like they aren't missing any important features of the crime. In general it helps create suspense to the audience to feel like they are a part of the investigation, witnessing the crime.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	I would like to continue watching because this documentary’s opening scene has a huge twist. Since we expect Jennifer to do something bad, the first part of the documentary shows Jennifer in a position that she's innocent to the crime investigation. I think this is really interesting because I wanna know how she was caught from acting all innocent to being the killer.

3. A Deadly American Marriage, 2025

Documentary Opening 3: A Deadly American Marriage
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	Based on the thumbnail, I expect to know who the two couples are and which one is the villain. Based on the picture, because the girl looks less happy this hints us that she may be the villain and the boy who looks more innocent is the victim. Overall, I would be more excited to see plot twists within the story. The first connotations are the two facial expressions that we can see. The first one is the man with a bigger smile, this can connote that the man is a very cheerful, happy person. The outfit being a white dress and a tuxedo is a common stereotypical outfit used to show a married couple which is why we can predict the two being the main character as the title “marriage” and their outfits match. I expect to learn about the family fast and to get a quick summary of what really happened. This allows me to focus on the main questions and to get into the documentary to get a detailed understanding about their situations. I expect that at least one of them is dead or it could be a twist where they are both dead.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	I think this could potentially target couples because it allows them to watch couples fights and get them hooked up. It should also help them become more relatable and to learn from these big mistakes. Overall these target people who want to get involved with serious drama and need entertainment.  Camera: High angle shot of the interview, there were clips of interviews that were recorded using a high angle from a CCTV. The high angle is used to show the whole situation to let viewers see the surroundings inside the interview. Making them feel like they are a part of the situation. MES: The bat, this is a very important detail of the documentary because it's a critical moment of the crime. Showcasing this allows the audience to visualise the weapon and to make it seem more immersive. Without the detail, the audience would have to guess the image of the bat which can change the imagination. Editing: Flashback, flashback edits are used to help show the past from the present. Showing an old footage of a little girl after a teenage girl tells us that they are connected, which means that the little girl is the teenager we see first. It allows us to show the past trauma an innocent little girl had to face which gives the audience empathy to the family.  Sound: 911 call, the audio that was being played was used to build up tension for the audience as it allows them to listen to the real full conversation of the report, allowing the audience to feel like they are the police officer receiving the call. Overall it helps the audience feel the tension which drives them to want to know more.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	I would like to continue watching this because the opening scene gave us a quick summary of what happened and who died. But it also gave us a huge question which allows us to think twice. It shows us that even though they were in a fight, only the person who died got injured and the others were clean. This gives a huge plot twist that drives us to get into the documentary deeper.

4. The Astroworld Tragedy, 2025

Documentary Opening 4: The Astroworld Tragedy
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	From the thumbnail, based on the different objects that can be seen can be a representation of the people who are a part of the documentary. The broken phone just basically shows that the situation was a broken scenario and it was just chaotic. The word “Wreck” in TrainWreck that is slightly tilted implies that the problem is very broken and shows that it isn't a perfect situation. The missing shoe is also a huge connotation as it shows abandoned or even the death of someone who once wore them.  I expect to know what really happened and how Travis Scott became the most hated person after the show that had happened. I also expect to see victims and how they really die in a concert.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	I think it's towards teenagers specifically, because this did happen at a concert where the audience and the people who died were basically teenagers. It also targets Travis Scott’s fans since he’s also very well known in the teenager’s generation.  Camera: Handheld, This technique was used to show different people’s recordings during the concert. This allows the audience to feel like they are a part of the fun experience viewing what they could've been into. MES: Siren lights, The siren lights were used to showcase the ambulance. This tells us that there is an emergency happening and it's very alerting. Knowing that they're worth a lot of siren lights means that there was a big emergency. Editing: Jump cuts, These cuts were mainly used to show different aspects of the same situation and same timeline. Allowing viewers to view every single point of detail at a certain time. Sound: Loud Crowd, These were used to emphasise the amount of people that were in that concert. This tells us that there were a lot of people chanting and it brings the mood very loud.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	I’m a Travis Scott fan myself so of course I want to know what really happened at a concert that I would've died to go to. Overall, even if it's a simple / boring documentary, I’m gonna watch it because of the hype it got on TikTok and because it's a very memorable moment for one of my favorite artist.

5. The Boston Marathon Bombing, 2023

Documentary Opening 5: The Boston Marathon Bombing
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	Based on the thumbnail I can tell that there will be a bombing and it will affect a lot of people because a marathon would mean a huge wave of people running.  The smoke helps connote us that there will be something burning happening and because it's about a bombing we can assume that that would be the bombing situation.  I expect to see the whole situation of what really happened during, who actually did it, and how they actually found out since it was a sea of people and it would be difficult to look out for those suspects.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Because it's a very historical event, it could also be potentially targeted towards teachers and even history students. It may also just benefit people who enjoy watching historical documentaries or mass murder.  Camera: Handheld, Were a lot of handheld shots of people recording the situation. This allows viewers to feel like they're a part of the marathon and to feel like they are witnessing everything. MES: The police car, This place plays a huge role in identifying the person that we see in front of the police car. This tells audiences that the police were definitely involved and the car could've been a very important part of the situation. Editing: Jump cuts, There were a lot of jump cuts that showed different people and different places. This allows viewers to view the different witnesses of the crime and their position. For example, the kid with a high school basketball background shows that he could've been a student witness that may be related to the suspect.  Sound: Tense music, The background music is used to build up suspense and tension so that audiences are more interested to watch and to learn more. It just builds up the tension to keep on watching.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	Because of how historical this moment was I obviously would love to watch it and to rewind what really happened during that special event. Because this was related to mass murder and my topic for my project is related to that I decided to watch it and to understand the technical elements and the technique used.