Portafolio Project everyone...

Portafolio Project 2026

This is it...

Critical Reflection

W*tch a short film thats seeks to represent highschool life and the problems present on the experience of a teenage girl. Follows Claire in a a narrative with first person interrumptions, this shortfilm focuses on the desire to belong. 

This shortfilm took big inspiration from Mark Waters' mean girls. Analyzing this film's structure and its characters was a vital for the writting of the script. Mean girls uses stereotypes as a base to build its commentary. A particular scene were all the clique's are identified in the cafeteria exemplifies this point. But its characters don't just stay at the stereotype level, as their evolution is either tied to breaking free from their stereotype which would become a flaw, or it is independent to it.  Witch uses stereotypes in different ways. For the antagonistic figure witch takes a very similar approach as Mean Girls on how it introduces Regina George. The Queen Bee stereotype. But this shortfilm also uses this conventions almost as a cover, just like how people may have a facade that isn't their true self. This can be seen in the basic concept of the plot, the popular girls hide the fact that what tags the group together is witchcraft. And it can also be seen on the characters as their for example Sarina, one of the popular girls in the inside is conflicted with selfth worth and insecurity. This inspired in a big way by Mean Girls, as the final resolution to this film is the splitting of the group, ending the steryotype, and moving on.

Waters, M. (Director). (2004). Mean Girls [Film]. Paramount Pictures.

Mean Girls also makes use of very particular storytelling. A very subjective narrative is present in different shapes and forms throughout the whole film. The comparision to teenagers to animals and highschool to a zoo are only tied to Cady's character due to her context. A similar but more direct comparation is seen in W*tch as the word Witch gains a second meaning, not only due to the practice of witchcraft, but also due to the superficial and mean behaviour of the popular girls. The main convention that meangirls helped break is the third person narrative, which is almost default to cinema. Mean girls uses a first person narrator in Cady and as mentioned other elements attached to her perspective. Among them some of the other characters break the fourth wall and for moments it feels like an interview. For W*tch the fourth wall is broken and combined with a first person narrator. And also a physical space  "The void" that represents the characters mind were she is described to be trapped, and she would be forced to fall deeper into due to the spell at the climax of the piece. This unconventional elements brings audiences closer to the characters, and allow to present a clear thesis on how 

Waters, M. (Director). (2004). Mean Girls [Film]. Paramount Pictures.

(Claire breaking the fourth wall while in the void)

This narrative was neccesary in order to achieve the main goal of representing highschool teenage girls. Allowing the character to adress the camera, when the other characters couldn't hear her gives a space for all those thoughts that remain trapped due to the environment and struggles that come with it.  Women have been alwaays subject to very high expectations of many kinds. A patriarcal society has made them play by standards that are not their own, when they should seek to be their own person. This enhaces the already inherent search of belonging present in highschool, developing other problems such as social hierarchies based on superficial matters, insecurity and performativity. The combination of all of this problems has enough strenght to carry the whole conflict of  the film. Through characters like Claire and Sarina, the film highlights the thin line that sepparates the ego, from insecurities. Enhacing this through the use of witchcraft as a metaphor for what people hide, portraying how some teenagers hide their true selves in order to fit into social expectations. Being a feeling that the target audience, all the way from teenage girls to young and even older adults, could relate too, as it represents a stage of their life that they went trough or are currently on. 

(Claire is nervous before she enters her classroom)

Worrying more about looks, seeking approval, among others are behaviours that are developed for some on highschool. A common and universal expierence has to be portrayed in order for the ending of the film were the characters break free from this cycle, can have more impact and resonate as an aswer for its audience. In order to reinforce the representation real life research was neccesary. A man doesn't have much to say about the life of a teenager girl in highschool. And he must not write other people stories for them, but with them. Here some credits to his girlfriend and sister who helped in the process of writting. By telling their experiences. Special importance to the ones about separating ways with friends from middleschool when highschool came. 

This personal experience driven story leads to a very intimate tone. The film engages its audience primarily through its use of direct address and subjective storytelling, but this also oppened the door to engage audiencestrough a balance of comedic and dramatic elements. During research, coming from the previous abandoned idea, tragicomedy was the chosen genre. As it was the most common genre in which the fourth wall was broken. As this approach would also allow a deeper connection with the main character, as different facets of her person could be expressed to the audience, making them care more. It could get saturating if the only thing the main caracter did when she directly adressed the audience was complain. Thus the importance of tiny moments were she can just joke with the audience, and show herselfvulnerable in different ways. This without abandoning the dramatic components, since as mentioned it is an intimate story were the drama moves the story, while the comedy decorates it. 

(Claire adressing the audience directly)

With the importance of both comedy and drama explained. It is important to state the challenge that it is to make them coexist. A bad change between this two can really ruin the engagement of the audience. So the change can't be so abrupt. Thus W*tch's answer for this was carrying this changes thorugh music. It plays a fundamental role to really changing the mood of the scenes, while still mantaining a similar tone on its dialogues. For instance,  Andreina's first appearance is accompanied by a playful jazz song, that helps exagerate her characterization as the Queen Bee.

Understanding who the film intends to represent, the branding orbitates around its target audience, and the witchcraft which comes to be the differential element of the piece. From an aesthetic the witchcraft is dominant, as the use of the tarot cards represents a main design element. This resembling a very common practice of modern witchcraft and an important scene on the film. Other aspects like the recurring stars in the background comes from the connection between tarot and astrology as many of the cards are directly linked to astrological signs or planets. The phonts also recall the ones one could find on magic books, or fairy tales mantaining a cohesive aesthetic. 

An important way in which W*tch resonates with its target audience is by parallels with other movies. Aligning aspects of other movies branding to its own. With a target audience focused on woman, the film relies on relatable experiences that a big portion of them could connect to. With a widder age range, the brand is developed on instagram through posts of different movies from three different decades. Enhacing how it seeks to portray a sort of universal female experience. 

Lehmann, M. (Director). (1988). Heathers [Film]. New World Pictures.

Fleming, A. (Director). (1996). The Craft [Film]. Columbia Pictures.

Waters, M. (Director). (2004). Mean Girls [Film]. Paramount Pictures.

This shortfilm illustartes how by understanding your audience and the purpouse of a story guides all your decisions. From what you research, to how you advertice on social media. A sense of branding comes with the interaction with an audience, it is crucial to make sure your audiences can tell who is being represented on the story. As a writter this was a big challeged, but by collaborating with my team and the use of different elements such as first person narrative, sound design, conventions of comedy and drama, I was able to push trough a challenging story. 

The end....

 Well... this is it. Our A level project has come to an end and it was an experience. Every step of the journey had its ups and downs, but im proud of the final result. 

Pre-production was the hardest part for me as the writter. Several drafts of the script were made, and they were really different between each other. We even had to scratch completely our main idea. But with time and collaboration everything fell into place. Is kinda crazy to look back and see how much this story has transformed with the passing of the days. 

Actual production was also hard, coordinating several filmming sessions among not only four crew members but four actresses always represented a challenge. 

And editing wasn't an easy ride either. We had to film extra scenes since some transitions between scenes were not perfect. And finding we went back and forward during choosing our songs for the sound design. 

Butwe made it, and even though there will always be a feeling that things could've done better, it was a nice job. 

Final steps...

The final stages of the editing process are comming. Line edit was done by my two of my teammates. And I was assigned to help them a little bit with the sound design, specially with choosing songs. It was easy sinse ofcourse I was familiarized with the script and I could find a songs that matched the particular moments. I would use epidemic sound that gives us acces to royalty free music, and I would send the link to my teammate so he could download the song and put it into premiere.  

Mr Director said that the chosen songs added a lot to the moments, and improved the film a lot. There was this particular scene in the classroom that he didn't liked at all, but the song I sent him improved it a lot. 

Through the week me and one of my teammates focused on finishing the social media posts. Once you are done with the basic ideas of meet the crew and some production it can get a little difficult to come up with good ideas. More when we are so far in the project, and we have shown many of our stills or headshots for other posts. 

For this we thought of different ways to connect to our audience. We thought that they may like some of the movies that we also like. So we used some of the films that inspired or film to promote it. Using a very common formating on the internet of "If you liked" "Then watch". This was good way to give a little insight on what our film is about.  

As the majority of our social media posts they were created on Canva. We also just do everything on the same document so we can copy and past the same phonts that we use to mantain consistency on our brand. 

Another type of posts that we designed were, regarding reviews and film festivals. 

First a critic rotten tomatoes review. This usually come before the official review of films so we lso thought it'd be nice to have one inviting the audience to review it once it comes out, since rotten tomatoes divides its rating this way. And once this was done we also made one about letterboxd once again inviting people to review the film on the social media for movies. 

CCR....again....

 My CCR's last year were BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD 

The visuals were whatever closer to bad, and they were just kinda boring because the content wasn't well planned. AAnd while this year I don't have to worry about visuals since its written, I shall prepare to make them have better content. Sooo here is a little bit of research so that my CR's come better this year. So Im going to be looking at two blogs from last year, to see their critical reflection. 

#1

https://superdupermediablog.blogspot.com/ 

I started with my friend Mateo's blog. He gives some insight on the whole production process by talking about researching comedy conventions and studying other short films. Plus he describes how in specific moments he used X researched convention. This ofcourse connects pre production with his actual production which is very positive. 

He also uses media to reinforce comparation and illustarte his inspo, and his job. He also explains how this inspirations were not choseen randomly, but aimed towards his target audience. 

Overall a big portion of the CR moves around explainning the decisions made for the production itself, but he also talks in less detail of choices in the print component. 

#2

https://mhmediastudies103.blogspot.com/

And I looked at this one because I remember seeing this shortfilm and remember it is strong on representation of groups, and its main character is a tennage girl, with teenager problems soooo its perfect for us. 

They give a clear insight into the purpose behind their production, especially by focusing on representing young queer teens and the internal struggle of self-acceptance. They talk a lot about all of the decissions made, that is somenthing that when you see the shortfilm you can just telll how many choices were made. The mise en scene is very important and the CR highlights it. 

They also show how their research influenced their work, particularly by referencing other coming-of-age films and short films. Once again just like the last ne showing how it is crucial for the development of the film.  

Group meeting numero dos

On Monday we also had our group meeting but I wrote about filming yesterday, so lets talk about it. 

I'll start talking about the other projects first. 

David

I was very surprised to see that he actually filmed during his trip to Europe. I'm very excited to see how that turns out because it is such a cool thing to see on a school project. Like as a student you are always a little limited, but he just went fully out with it. He took a risk and he did mention that the clips arent like awesome, but I think it still feels very rewarding to take a challenge like that and push trough it. 

Mariana 

I feel your pain. She described a lot of problems with organizing all of her actors and also a lot of rewritting. Thats just sooo similar to our experience. 

Ryan 

WOW, Im really excited to see this finished. The fact that he is scoring his own shortfilm is so cool. I also really like small concepts like his were a character is just facing a situation and is pushed to the limits. His fotage looks great and I really want to see more of the music he has made for it since he only showed us one song. 

Lauren

She told us she has all of her footage, and its working on the social media and key arts. That talking about this ones, the ones she showed us I can just see the inspiration from Priscilla which was one of the movies she had on her research. Its always good to see were people's inspiration comes from. 

Andrew

He mainly showed us the postcard since it was what he had on his computer, I do really like it btw. 

Now going to the feedback we got from our project. They like the social media aspect of it. We improved the posts and added a little texture to them, and changed the font and they loved it. 

They said it all does give witchy vibes, and kinda still remainsgirly with the stars in the background. 

Regarding the story they were a little sad that we abandonded the other idea, which I can undertand since it was kinda fresh and maybe a exciting to see how it came out. But they liked the new idea, and they liked the plot points I described. I mainly focused on explaining the characters inner conflict and her desire of belonging, plus I described how the dynnamic of the girls would carry out. 

I showed them the footage from our first filmmingday and they liked it, even though I only had the log version on me. 

Its great to see that people are liking this project. 

Final filming day.

 Today Monday after school we went to film to Town Center. We had to film a little montage to use on a flashback with only two of our actresses. This was perfectly scheduled as this gave time for one of our actresses to come since she was busy right after school, but at the same time we stayed productive. 

For this little montage we decided to use a canon powershot (reference pic of the camera in 3,2,1)

I had a conversation with Zach and we agreed that the flashbacks would be nice if they were shot handheld. It'd give a warm, cozy and most important distant vibe. This became an important addition to our short film so we really focused on making it look important and have impact. Shots with movement that highlighted the girls friendship, inserts to enhance it, and give more dynamic editing. The digicam tplus handheld would help achieve a nostalgic vibe. Which is important to give some importance to the character we were introducing with it (Sarina). 

After this as we were in town center we bought trash bags to cover thhe windows so that we could start filminbg inside we needed it to be dark to control the light better and to fake that it was nighttime for a scene. This was important cuz, rn the sun is setting soooo late and we wouldn't have filmed anything if we waited until so late. 

(window half blocked)

After this we filmed for a long time, we went until 11pm I believe. Despite being tyring it came out good. Since Zach was directing and Quinn was DP, I worked alongside Quinn to set the lights for the different scenes. We would have our four characters sitting making a sqaure (I made a little drawing but its kinda chopped so I shall explain it) A red and purple light in two corners, and we would have a light at 5600k at the characters faces from the middle, this to even out the strong shadows that the two RGB created.  We needed the two RGB lights for the scene of the ritual to set a mood of danger and emotional climax. I was very happy with how the shots ended up looking. 

(SET UP)

(SHOT)

Filming again

 

And we film again. 

it is always a little scary to handle so many actors, their dates, when they are busy or free, it is always so hard to make things work but today was a productive day. 

It was also my sister's birthday, reason for why I had to leave a little early duringthe shooting, because I had to go have dinner with my family. And look at the cute gift i got for her. 

(the figure on the left)

Going back to filming, we made sure that we got as much done. We filmed all the cutaways to the now named as the void but it is the cutaways in first person on the black backgrounf that I mentioned before. We also took advantage of the set up to take pictures of the cast for the social media. And to be super productive we also started editing them as some of the scenes were filmed. 

My role was mainly help set up lights, and help moving stuff around . The space we were filmiong was also a little small so having to many people behind the camera wasnt fully useful, so after helping set up, I went to edit some of the pics, and periodically go change some things on set. 

Chill but productive day. 

 Aneesa and I thought of making posts of the cast- but they are tarot cards. 

Tarot cards are the main element of witchcraft on our film, so I'td nice if we use them. So we made front with the pic, and the back of the card has a description/presentation of the cast. We made a little layout and waited for the pics. 

(layout)

I did this on a mac cuz I was using Quinn's computer to save time and I gotta say that I really dislike macs. Like why is their touchpad so weird. 

But anyways, this is the final look with the actual pictures on it. 

ANNND we used a different color for the actors. We used red sinse its kind of an important color in the movie, and just also to have a distinction. 

For them we will write a description of the characters rather than the actors, though. Sinse it works as an opportunity to introduce audiences to aspects of the story. 

We are back at our dear Cypress bay

 

I really didn't miss this place. Comming back from break makes me think of my old school in Colombia and how I felt a little excited to go back to school after breaks. It was such a nice place back there, like it had a playground, and I had recess. Like I had a school break that gave me enough time to do somenthing more than just having lunch.

Bring recess to highschool. 

But yeah after this little nostalgia attack lets review somenthing that I wasn't very excited to see again, this script. 

It has been a true pain in the you know. There is always a new part of it that it isn't fully convisning, now it was the ending. I felkt the build up wasn't good enough, and adding an external element like the crush, really didn't add as much as I was thinking, so this is the summary of my week: a third attempt on this script. 

Changed the figure of an ecternal character driving the conflict to an non so external one, being one of the other witches. And she kind of switching sides. I like this, and I really like the new middle. 

Somenthing that I also thought of was on a quote I once read "write with them, not for them." A dear friend of mine quoted it, while we had a conversation on how much we both dislike James Cameron's Avatar movies. And I was like duh, Im writting a movie about girls, and Im not a girl. 

So I talked a little with my sister, and she mentioned how she liked the detail of her getting ready foe school being a big deal. Sinse beauty standars are somenthing that do exert a lot of pressure in many and almost every girl. Also by talking with her, I gave kind of a new role to our main mean girl and at the same time giving more importance to the fact that they are witches (which I believe is important sinse its our little unique thing) 

The main mean girl (Andreina) will have control over how the other ones look, contolling how they feel about their looks and overall working as a source of relief for their problems. They follow her blindly cause she gives answers. Sarina (one of the girls) will try to tell claire not to fall into Andreina sinse it also has its dangerous side (if loosing your individuallity and following everything that someone says isn't enough) but she (Sarina) wants to stay. Claire would push her to scape as well, at the end defeating the mean witch and geining a true friend. Im missing to propperly write the ending and but I have the idea and I like it. I like how Andreinas new role can connect to current and enhaced tendencies that are strengthen due to the internet.  

Oh funny fact one of our actresses got bangs so we had to change the script and add a scene were she gets bangs. 

(this pic is from another A level I helped film (moment I realized she has bangs))

Writting with like an hour of sleep

Ernest Hemingway I have not read a single book you've written, but I do know you once said: "write drunk edit sober." .So Ididn't drink a bottle of vodka or anything. But I sleept close to nothing last night and somehow made it without taking a nap to late hours of the night and my brain was tired, like really tired. I was talking to my mom over the phome and genuinly was saying the biggest nonsense that ever came out of my mouth, but I was also in flow state, my brain was constantly comming up with new stuff. It was kinda fun.

And I had to write somenthing sooooooo yeah duty called. 

(first time googling a picture of Hemingway he lowkey looks like Pedro Pascal)

As I said my brain was tired so I didn't really stopped to think of small details, and rather just put placeholders when I felt a little stucked (thing that happened a lot with this script.) My main goal was just finding plot points that would match our new aim, and that felt with more strenght. 

The script was missing more emotion so I added the figure of a crush. I don't love this but it kinda draw a line of how far is she willing to go to fit in with the other girls. This aligns with the balance of either fitting in or doing whats right. 

I also started playing a lot more with our first person narrative elements. Our DP has a black huge piece of fabric that we can use to make everything in the bbackground look dark, so I tought we could use this for a new space for our character to share her mind. Being almost if not a literal represantation of her mind. It shows us her expectations, fears, and her loneliness. 

Oh and it also oppened a path for more jokes. Which is somenthing we were missing. We all like jokes.