Final Video

 This is the final video and thumbnail. We made throughout this term.

 This is my final video for the documentary

Video:

Thumbnail:

CR

 Here is my self-critical reflection essay for my team's documentary project.

CR 1 - How do your products represent social groups or issues?

CR 2 - How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

CR 3 - How do your products engage with the audience?

CR 4 - How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

Thumbnail (Research And development)

 This blog shows the progress of our thumbnail crime documentary. This post is primarily written by Kenzo, with suggestions provided by the other group members regarding the designs.

RESEARCH

This is how the overall crime documentary cult genre thumbnail looks:

Even though the thumbnails below are not from a crime documentary, these designs most likely fit with our documentary theme:

The purpose of a thumbnail is to capture the audience's attention at first glance and convey what the media text is about. It's some kind of a guide that helps the audience decide whether they want to click/watch, especially in big, crowded platforms like Netflix or YouTube. Matching the genre convention of the thumbnail makes the content look more legitimate and professional. Having a colourful, playful thumbnail for a crime documentary would defeat the purpose of having a crime documentary, as it misleads the audience from the intended content. In conclusion, a thumbnail is a visual hook that contains information regarding the media text, and the design must match the genre to avoid audience confusion.

Here are the three chosen thumbnails that will most likely going to be a combination in our final thumbnail:

Here are the two documentary thumbnails that caught our eyes at first glance. The Blair Witch documentary follows a horror convention of dark colour scheme, which emphasises fear through the use of colour red (symbolising blood and danger) and black, representing death or mystery, creating a powerful combination that evokes dread and anticipation in the audience who views the thumbnail. The font used in the Blair Witch is slightly worn out and has an uneven serif typeface, which gives a sense of seriousness. The genre convention this thumbnail gives unsettles the audience, suggesting something hidden happens behind the picture. I think the colour scheme and the font could be applied to our final thumbnail perfectly.  

                                                        

For the "In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal" documentary, the thumbnail uses a typewriter-style font, which makes it journalistic and instantly gives an impression of a real-life investigation. The title highlighted the word "God" in red, which shows the danger and corruption. The colour red might also connotate blood, which may imply there might be murder or a bloodbath in the documentary. The pinned photograph connected by a red string on a detective investigation board is a common way for most crime documentaries to make the audience feel that they are piecing the evidence together as they view the thumbnail. Unlike Blair's Witch silhouette, in this thumbnail, we see the real faces of the cult leaders, which suggests that this event actually occurred in reality. We are probably going to add this to give our thumbnail a sense of realism.

                                            

For the final chosen one, we decided to take from a documentary called "Escaping Evil: My Life In A Cult" because this perfectly fits with our documentary theme. The font choice for "ESCAPING EVIL" uses a handwritten, brush-styled serif font that creates an emotional, first-person connection, unlike the other cold investigative documentaries. The font choice of "MY LIFE IN A CULT" uses a factual, clear and serious font beneath the "ESCAPING EVIL" storytelling type font. The genre convention of a group of women dressed in long robes walking to an isolated landscape connotes a secrecy with the fact that we couldn't see their faces, also showing the anonymity within the cult life. The thumbnail was taken in a wide-open, desolate environment tells the audience that it is difficult to break free from the cult. 

From these three chosen thumbnails, "Blair Witch" gives a greater sense of horror and less documentary from the use of the cult symbols and the disturbing colour scheme. "In the Name of God" gives off a more investigative crime evidence and documents. Highlighting the word "God" in red draws attention to the audience that there might be religion being twisted, which could probably be a good feature for our documentary thumbnail. "Escaping Evil" gives off a documentary of the survivor's story of personal trauma.

Here are the six ideas that I have sketched:

I decided to develop idea 4 because the corkboard instantly makes the audience feel that they are part of the crime investigation. The red strings connected to pictures of people show that there may be a hidden relationship or bigger scheme behind the scenes. The censored faces or the documents imply there is some hidden information within the investigation that the audience may want to solve.

Below is the research on our typefaces:

Typeface Research by Kenzo Susanto

Here is my first attempt at creating the thumbnail:

This will be the starting baseline of the thumbnail. Further improvements will be added. For now, I will use idea#4 as my reference for the thumbnail.

Here is the second attempt at creating the thumbnail:

I added more writing in red to give clearer information about what the board is about to the audience. However, some of the writings were off-placed and the colour grading was not enough, so I think I might fix that in the next attempt.

Here is the third attempt at creating the thumbnail:

I removed the off-placed writing and added some new elements into the thumbnail, such as sticky notes, black highlighter, red circled marker and a few dead plants covered in blood to give a more realistic vibe to the audience. I will plan to add darker lighting on my next attempt and do the final touches on my final attempt.

Here is the final attempt at creating the thumbnail:

This is Lamiya's attempt at the thumbnail: 

The final choice:
We decided to go with Lamiya's thumbnail as the majority of the group agrees. 

Below is the reason why we changed the thumbnail idea. This is taken from Lamiya's Post

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The first thumbnail, which was designed by my teammate Kenzo, used a detective board style with notes, photographs, red string and sketches. This is a clear reference to how investigations are often shown in crime media, and it does link to the crime genre. However, when I looked at it in the context of our documentary, I felt that the colours and busy layout made it come across in a lighter and almost playful way. The handwritten notes and doodle like sketches gave it a slightly casual look, which didn’t fully match the dark and disturbing subject matter of our documentary about a cult that does shady things and also kidnaps people. It also looked quite packed with different details, which can sometimes be harder for audiences to read quickly, especially when thumbnails need to be clear even at a smaller size.

first draft

Because of that, I decided to redesign the thumbnail myself. For the final version, I kept the design much darker and simpler, drawing inspiration from Netflix crime documentaries, which often use bold and minimal images that immediately grab attention. I placed the cult leader as the main figure in the centre of the thumbnail, with shadows covering her face. This makes her identity mysterious and creates suspense, as the audience is encouraged to ask “who is she?” and “what is she hiding?” I also added eerie hand drawn sketches that my teammate Kenzo drew layered faintly over the background. This detail connects to the idea of madness and obsession, but in a way that feels unsettling rather than playful. The darker tones and high contrast give the whole image a more professional and cinematic feel.

Final draft

When the two thumbnails are compared side by side, their differences show how the project developed. The first one communicates the theme of crime through investigation imagery, but it gives off a lighter tone. The new one focuses on mystery and fear, using simplicity and darkness to create suspense. Both designs have clear links to crime conventions, but the second matches more closely with the style and atmosphere of our documentary. This shows how our thumbnail design developed from being genre linked where it's just being creative with it to becoming genre accurate and emotionally effective towards the audience. 

ClassWork

 This a mind map of  things I've learnt throught out media studies primarily technical elements. Made By Gusde

This helped us find the right technical elements to encode our intented meaning and make our documentary better.

Editting

 This blogpost shows the editting process. The blog was made by Maha

To edit this documentary, Im using capcut and I bought the pro version. To help me editing in more advanced way and access all effect and tools.

1)

This is our first version of editing, using all of the footage we got.

The feedback I got from the teacher is to add more effect like the glitch, and resolution on the body cam to make it a little bit blur and low resolution to add the realism. Also adding few sound effect that could help to add suspense into the scene, also by removing things that are not important, like too long question from the interviewer, and also the time when the interviewee think and waste a few second. And by adding more footage while the interviewee are still talking, so its not boring for the audience to watch.

I got inspired by seeing some documentaries which about crime, thriller, they're showing lot of sound effect to add suspense and other stuff that conform to a crime, thriller documentary, and one of them is 

Far War Cry opening scene, which also about a cult.

  

This in a new version with more improvements, as I got the feedback already. It is better because I try to put more of the footage and photos showing the cult to make it more interesting, rather than showing lots of the interview scene. Also I gave the effect on the body cam scene which is lowering the resolution and giving static glitch effect, as we want the audience to understand and know that its in the jungle, and its hard to get signals. I also removed the scene where the interviewee were asked a long question and just go straight into the point, because if I leave it like that, audience might get bored of just hearing that long question. Also I put Zoom in some photos and videos, to add suspense and make the audience focus only on that photo.

2)

This video shows where the subtitles are not consistent ,where it all have different size, our feedback to is to change the size and make it all the same, additionally change how the text popped out, where first one we use the typing effect, but Mr. Nick suggest to just put all the sentence without giving the effect of typing, to make audience easier to read and not making the audience in hurry to watch it.

I was inspired by looking at the Netflix documentary where the subtitles are clear and don't use any excessive effect, and just keep it simple for the audience to easily read it.

This how it looks, all of the text are already in same size, I also use a simple type face similar to Netflix, and eras the typing effect which now its much easier to ready and doesn't need to be hurry when reading it. This will help the audience to understand the meaning of the documentary better and doesn't miss information because its hard to read the subtitles.

3)

So this is the scene where the drone scene suddenly be shown out of nowhere after Zalfas Interview which is not match to Zalfas Interview or the plot of the documentary, Mr. Nick also said that it doesn't make sense and the context about the drone.In the drone shot, it shows that the drone suddenly crash because it hit the tree,but audience wouldn't know why did the drone hit the tree what is the problem actually until the drone was hit by a tree ans then fell down and stay still on the ground.

I was inspired by the other interviewee from Ambamovic and Fred,where every time they speak there is their own footage that is the eveidence of what they are saying and talking about,for example Ambamovic talking about the cult and the insider,then we showed the insider camera footage.

This is after we add 1 more interviewee which is the Hacker/Drone operator that worked together to investigate the cult with Ambamovic.In this interview the hacker explain in detailed about why do they flew a drone into the cult head quarters,and why do they crash into a tree is clearly explain in the interview,which now audience could understand about the drone scene.We also add hermeneutic code,which is from how we show the hacker with effected sound and we doesnt show the face, and only dark.In this new interview too,we add several camera angles which is from the side and infront of the interviewee,to make more variation and show to show important information when we shoot it straight infront of the drone operator.

Behind The scenes

 Heres the behind the scenes from the filming process. This Blog post was made by Kenzo with pictures taken by Gusde

Media Studies BTS by Kenzo Susanto

Statement of Intent

 Statement of intent for the documentary project about cults. This is made by gusde with input from everyone.

Filming Schedule

 Filming schedule for the documentary project

Filming Schedule Scene Time and Date Location Cast and crew Props Equiptment Other 1 Cult Infiltration Friday 29 August 2025, 7:00 PM Naga Eight and surrouding areas All Member + 10 actors Cult outfits (robes + masks) + candles Body Cam + microphone Cancelled: Members unavalible 2 Interviews  Wednesday 27 August, 3:00 PM Gusde's house All member business casual attire, tables chairs, decorations MicroPhone Wireless + camera Went well but footage is a bit grainy 3 Drone Shot Friday 29 August 3:00 PM Lamiya's House Gusde Drone Cancelled: Members unavalible 1 Cult infiltration Friday 5 September 2025 Zalfas House (field) 10 actors + Gusde and maha Cult outfits (robes + masks) + candles Body Cam + microphone Cancelled: Props unavalible + group member sick 1 Cult infiltration Thursday 11 September 2025 Zalfas House 10 actors + Gusde and maha Cult Outfits ( normal everyday outfits/ missionary outfits with cloth over eyes or other such face coverings)  Body Cam + microphone Used as practice Members didnt have proper costumes and aswell werent really accustomed to the shooting yet 3 Drone Shot Thursday 11 September Zalfas House Gusde + cult leader drone Cancelled as we got to location to late and it started getting dark which made the drone not be able to fly 1 Cult infiltration Friday 12 September 2025 Zalfas House 3 actors+ Gusde and maha Cult Leader : black long skirt, Black Blind fold, black shirt. Cult Member: Black Body Cam + microphone 3 Drone Shot Friday 12 September Zalfas House Gusde + cult leader Cult Leader : black long skirt, Black Blind fold, black shirt. drone

Screenplay/Script

 This is the Screenplay I will be using for the documentary. This was made by Gusde.

Storyboard

 This is the storyboard and plan for my documentary

This is our first version of the storyboard.

Revision for the final documentary video:
After multiple trial and error with shooting, we decided to start with the 1st interview with the operator at the beginning of the scene. The reason we did this is that we want to immediately hook the audience with the dialogue that raises questions in them, rather than an immediate answer, while also making the viewer connect faster to the information and feel more real and personal, rather than another crime story. There were not many changes for the cult scene, as it went perfectly well from shots 1 to 3, aside from just adding the interview dialogue and scenes in between them.

Everything went according to plan until shots 5 and 6, where there were slight changes to the character's outfit and the lighting of the drone operator interview scene. After shot 7B, we added a new interview scene of a local citizen who witnessed the cult's actions. This gives the audience more information and a deeper storyline regarding the cult than leaving simple questions unanswered. In between the interview, we also combined some shots of the cult HQ and flyers to match the dialogue and give a more realistic sense. In the end, we added a medium shot of the journalist from his camera getting dragged by the cult members and extra footage of the drone getting jammed with pictures that may answer the viewer's question before ending it with an outro.

Location Scout & Risk assesment

 This is the location scout and Risk assesment for the documentary. This Blogpost was made by Maha.

Documentary Research

 This the research I did for the documentary project. I did 4 in class and 1 at home.

Research 1:

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 this documentary will be about a person who rents out and lives in a housing unit with another individual and the other individuals turns out to be a murderer or a criminal The image shows what seems to be a mugshot of a distressed woman. The way they color her face with a lot of veins and reds make her look creepy and scary. I expect to see interviews from people related to the case i.e. police officers, detectives, friends/ family of the victim/ the doer and they describe to us the details of what happened and yet give us more questions unanswered.
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:	Women or moms as it featured single mothers and women friendships and how it when wrong Hand held which made the scenes feel more realistic and suspenseful. The scenes were very dark and gloomy which added to the aerie atmosphere and made it scenes feel more scary and mysterious  There was a lot of jump cuts and quick cuts and made the pace of the documentary feel fast and gave it a lot of energy There was a lot of suspenseful dramatic sound effects usually when there was a cut this again as well added to the suspense and made the documentary feel more intense
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	No, as the documentary target is not me and I am not particularly interested in the subject matter as I will not be able to relate to it and doesn't reference anything I find interesting although it does have many hooks and it is intentionally vague and leaves a lot of questions unanswered making viewers want to watch more.

Research 2:

 

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 this documentary to be about the dark side of an everyday person as shown in the title where a woman’s picture is split with one half being her smiling and another what seems to be a mugshot The color red is used which connotes danger and eerie as well the picture quality is grainy which connotes a sense of mystery as it uses real film. According to conventions of  a crime documentary, I expect to see crime scene photos of mysterious violent crimes such as murder or assault and interviews of victims or police officers or other people involved.
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 as they are depicted in the show and as well may also find this interesting as they can see themselves in Jennifer's shoes. They used real cctv footage which showed jennifer in a high angle which means that she is shown as weak and vulnerable this is again supported as she is crying They used real cctv footage from the interview between jennifer and the detective this makes the documentary seem more real and makes the audience more focused Flashbacks to the 911 call which intersects with the detective taking a statement this helps with the story telling of the documentary as it shows the 911 call and as well shows us what she is like currently in the detectives office. Risers and Dramatic SFX which complement the documentary making it more intense and suspenseful.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	No, as the subject matter does not interest me and I don't find the messages and meaning relevant.

Research 3:

 

Documentary Opening 3:(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?	I think the documentary will be about domestic abuse and possibly a murder. The thumbnail shows a wedding picture of a seemingly happy couple which contrasts the title which shows us the dark side of their marriage.
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:	Adults as it has graphic scenes of blood and features a sensitive topic which is of domestic abuse. Real High angle of a CCTV footage of a police interview makes the documentary look and feel more real as of course it's using real footage and also helps immerse the audience into the situation as if they were there which helps them want to keep watching. Blood this connotes that there was violence of some kind and in this case a murder this also has the effect of grounding the situation and making us be able to better understand the weight of the situation at hand as real photos of blood can be triggering for some individuals. The documentary cuts from real footage to the detective this helps the watcher get more exposition and a first person account of the drama which helps give the viewer information and additional context in an interesting way. They used the real 911 call footage in the documentary this makes the documentary more realistic and thus immerses the audience even more into the documentary.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	No because the subject matter doesn't interest me and as well I am not the target audience of this documentary.

Research 4:

 

Documentary Opening 4:(The Puppet Master)
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 think this documentary will be about a master manipulator and what they have done to trick, hurt or manipulate  their victims. The thumbnail shows a red line detective board with connotes a mystery or a search which hints of what the documentary is about hunting a con man. I expect maybe for there to be an interview of the victims to get an idea on who he is and what he did exactly.
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 expect it to be fans of true crime which range from adult to late teens. In the interview a medium close shot is used that pulls the audience into the documentary and makes them feel as if they were in the room with them this mixed with the shots of the crew and behind the scenes which also add to the realism. As for mise en scene a lot of the scenes had low key lighting this has the connotation of mystery and adds to the theme of hunting for a conman and as well the darker tones and conventions of this genre The documentary tends to cut to seemingly random B Roll shots in a dark tone that adds a mysterious element to the documentary and helps build the pacing and the tone. Which as well I may apply to my documentary as it is a cheap easy way to add more footage but still add to the theme and tone. The dialogue “who else could have done this too” connotes that their may have been other victims this acts as an unanswered question or a hook to attract and make the audience attached.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	Yes as the before mentioned hook is very appealing and as well as the topic is something i find interesting and to be honest I do feel at the edge of my seat as a lot of questions remain unanswered.

Research 5:

Documentary Opening 5:(Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief )
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?	The thumbnail shows the scientology building with palm trees on the top so i expect this documentary about the goings and the exploits and the crimes of the church of scientology. The building is shown in a low angle which makes it seem tall and powerful connoting the influence and power scientology has on its followers. I expect to see interviews of ex or current scientology members who can give inner insight of the inner workings of scientology.
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 the target audience is those who are interested in the workings of scientology and want to learn more about it and maybe for adults as there might be a lot of sensitive topics such as manipulation, murders, kidnapping and other such things. Close ups are used to show the details of the electronic devices such as crocodile clips connected to metal and a meter of some sort that puts the viewers attention on the electronics and makes them wonder what it is used for. The scene shows a bunch of thingamabob electronics that connotes that they may have been experimenting on the followers or using it to somehow mind control them to join. Or could be one big placebo telling them that it's used for something but it isn't to deceive the followers. This as well makes the viewer wonder about the use of the electronics As for editing they used quick cuts to transition between the b-roll of the electronic devices which connotes a sense of tension and urgency which makes the viewer feel alert and makes the pace faster. They overlay various dialogues of various individuals that have been affected by scientology and this connotes that scientology has affected a large number of people as compared to if only one individual had dialogue in the scene. This as well makes the viewer realise the impact scientology has on many people and makes them wonder the extent of scientologies reach.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	Yes I  would continue watching as the subject matter is something I find interesting and as well my media project is on a particular subject matter so I will be using this for reference/inspiration for my documentary. I also find the artsy style unique, indie and interesting.

    

                    

Research into other media and Representations of cults

The main media type I consume so when making this I took some inspiration from games I've played that involve cults.

Far cry 5 (video game) 2018

Far cry 5 opening follows the style of a documentary and quite frankly is the inspiration behind our documentary as it features cults, a man infiltrating and getting captured, interviews and others so this game was actually a big inspiration for us making the documentary. Although we made alot of changes as this is a game so it is not live action and backgrounds and movements can all be digitally produced and as well they had a large budget so we had to adapt it to make it simpler and easier to produce.

Assassin's Creed Oddeysey (Video Game) - 2018

 This was the inspiration for the cult we liked their mysticism and their mystery but as it is in ancient Greece we decided to adapt them to a more modern context.

Tree and connections of cultist

 This is the inspiration behind "The Shepherd" this is Deimos or Cassandra she is strong assertive intimidating and respected or feared.