Movie opening group meeting

 

                                                        Group Meetings

           Hey guys! So I finally got som valid feedback from my other classmates. Basically Mrs. Stoklosa split everyone into groups to discuss their pitch and outline and overall where everyone is at right now in their projects. I like how instead of hearing each others opinions, Hannah and I got honest opinions from others. 

                                               Feedback 

I loved this activity as I enjoy helping others in their journey and hearing what kind of ideas they had in mind. I learned that criticism can sometimes be a good thing. I was the first person to share my project. I scrolled from bottom up, beginning with my first post on the project and the process changed over time to present day. People in my group were very transparent which is what I wanted. Many didn't really understand the concept at  first but once I explain thoroughly what it was, they understood it better. They enjoy my mood boards and meaning behind costume design. They thought that my idea was very different and I reassured them that although it sound a little confusing, once it all comes together, the concept can be better understood. I then gave my honest opinions on other people's work and it felt nice to help them. For example, Kiran had this idea of someone getting knocked out and waking up but didn't know how to demonstrate the character falling and blacking out.  So, I told him that sound makes a big difference. I told him that it should be a pov of the character falling from the bicycle and the screen goes black and we hear a whole bunch of loud noises or ambulance in the background while he's passed out. He agreed and was glad to get feedback on that part of his project.

Overall, I feel that this group meeting was very much needed. Hannah and I both shared what our groups had said and feel very reassured of confusion we were dealing with before!

             

Movie opening costume options

     

                                       Costuming Options

Hey everyone! I hope you guys are having an awesome day, but better reading this awesome blog.  So today I will be discussing costuming options or the characters.  Costuming takes time as it is a major part in demonstrating what the character is like.  For example....

If a character is wearing a suit, it could mean that he/she is a professional who works in the office, or is a secret FBI agent and carries high authority. Let's take the series "Criminal Minds" as an example of how they are all detectives and solving crime everyday so they practically live in blazers since they are professional and carry higher authority than most. 

In our film we want everyone to be differentiated in a way.  So for the brother and father, we want them to kind of give off a similar look in style. So maybe like dark navy blue t shirts with jeans. Very simple casual and sleek looks. The brother is around the age of 19-20 so he is a little bit more mature and older now so the sleek look is kind of fitting for him. 

For Stella, we wanted her to be bold, as I have said before in previous blogs. She wears fun, pastel colors that ultimately make her the "center of attention." In the movies, she is seating between her father and brother so we wanted her outfit to outshine their's and make it seem like she "shines brighter than any other star" like she literally IS the moment! So we were thinking like a pink top with a cute light colored skirt, with colorful pins and bold, funky jewelry to make her stand out. 

                     

Movie opening props

                                 

                                                      Props

    Hey everyone! So I've been thinking a lot about the film opening and wanted to give some insight from my readers out there about what they think about some prop ideas! 

    So props are used in movies or shows super often used as an important part for storytelling. They can have hug significance to a storyline and plot. They also help in establishing where the setting takes place like what time period a story is being played in. For example, if a sword is used in a scene that could signify that the setting is being taken place in medieval times. 

    For our project, we brainstormed a few ways that props can be incorporated into our project that would represent something significant. Since the whole point of the movie scene is to introduce our character, we wanted to show something that has a big impact on her life and how it prevents her to follow her dreams. 

Her wheelchair is what ultimately sets her apart from most people in her life so that

use of prop is important  since we see everyone else have the ability to do what

they want like pursue their acting careers but she is unable to due to her disability. So 

by using the wheel chair as a main prop, this tells us that she struggles with following 

her dreams because of it. Right now we have only thought of this as our main prop 

since no other part really requires more prop. We plan on getting a wheelchair by 

asking the school nurse to use one for a couple hours.  Overall, props are very limited  

as this is something that says a lot about what our character is about and what her 

greatest weaknesses are.  

Another "prop" that we wanted to use was a star pendant for Stella to wear throughout the scene. I'm not sure if this would count as a prop but we were thinking that we could order one on amazon or something for the opening.  We wanted to show the pendant as a significant symbol of her being born a star. So basically there is a back story to what signifies and that is that during her birth, her mother passed away but she always wore this necklace. Her mother wanted her to have it and cherish is for the rest of her life. Little does Stella know that her mom was a famous actress during her day. So her mom basically birthed out a born star. Kind of like the rebirth of the mother. This is her destiny and he necklace means everything to her as it's the only thing she has of her mother since she's never met her before. 

Outline/storyboard

                                          Outline/storyboard

        Hey ya'll!  So now that we are making some progress in our project, Hannah and I finally created our storyboard that we thought you guys might wanna check out. Here is a sneak peak at what is to come our film opening! 

The storyboard works to capture all of our ideas, visually, so we can gain a clear understanding of what shots/angles we want to capture each scene with. Using the green arrows, this signifies camera movements or zoom ins and outs. Also, with each scene there is a description of what is happening to clarify the drawings a bit more. 

Above is our outline. This outline is just a paper of our essential ideas laid out on paper. Hannah and I met up and worked on this together, so that whatever initial thoughts we said out loud would not go forgotten. 

Movie opening schedule

                

                                                                          SCHEDULE 

        Yolo queens! Your girl is back:)) So after some talking with Hannah, we decided on the perfect schedule that would not only keep us organized but would ensure us that work would get done at certain times.  This required us to make sure that we were on the same page in regards to making decisions about what days would work best for both of us to work together on the most important parts of our project. 

          Now I know most ya'll probably don't even know what scheduling means (you know who you are), but I am here to inform and educate my fellow bloggers on why it is so important to create a schedule....

    First off, schedules keep you and your group organized so that nothing is out of place and there is no chaos.  Disorganization is a huge downfall that limits the chances of a successful project. This is because it causes stress since it confuses group members on the essential task. The advantage of having a schedule is that it keeps you on track and makes sure you're doing what your supposed to, makes everything run smoothly. 

Our solidified schedule: 

 

Movie opening main lead

                                                                 

                                                Drum roll, please.....OUR STAR!

HELLO EVERYONEEE! Welcome back! Woooo so excited to be here! I know you're all probably wondering, "why is this talented, amazing, phenomenal blogger so siked about?" Well I got some awesome news to tell you.....After me and Hannah's insanely excellent storyline idea, we thought it was time to welcome our main character into the midst.  It took some time to think about what exactly our character would be like but we finally came to a conclusion.  

Everybody give a warm welcome to the ONE...the ONLY.... STELLA! 

                                                           Introduction to the character

As me and Hannah were brainstorming, we wanted our character to have a name that spoke out and proudly represented herself and who she wanted to become or who she was born to be.  I told Hannah that her name had to be something that corresponded with her one desire, which was to become a star.  I did some research on what names mean "star" and the number one name was "Stella." Hannah was fascinated with the idea and was fully on board! 

                                                                       What is she like?

For our character, we both agreed that she needed to be portrayed as a more introverted character. This is because we wanted her to develop into a more confident, bold girl who finds her spark throughout the film.  She was born to be a star, so we wanted her to discover that she shines like one too!  I was so excited about this character because although she comes off as a bit more introverted, her style and bright clothes say otherwise and hint at her desire to want to be more outgoing but feels that she is unable to do that with dialogue. Basicallu, her clothes speak for herself. Stella struggles with self-doubt and wants to obtain confidence in herself but her disability does not allow her to think positively but instead consumes her thoughts with negative affirmations about herself.  Much like myself, I struggle to believe in what I am capable of because I am afraid of rejection so I wanted this character to connect with others in the world who face this issue as well.  I think that this would speak towards those who suffocate with thoughts over words. I wanted our character to take not be afraid of rejection but instead take it as redirection toward her dream. 

                                                                       Apperance and vibe 

As I mentioned, Stella's fits speak for herself while her personality can't.  I wanted her to have a kind of "soft girl" aesthetic. Stella is a brunette, youthful-looking character who mainly uses Baby Pinks and Blues to demonstrate innocence and pre-development.  She loves to wear hair accessories like colorful clips and wears them really often.  She is really into funky, popping earrings (but just silver, she HATES gold jewelry).  Below I have shown the characters' whole "aesthetic" through images.

                 

Movie opening target audience

                                          Target Audience

Holla! Another day, another blog! Today, I will be talking about the target audience and who the main target audience of our film is.  For those who don't quite understand what a target audience means, let me explain...

Take you guys, for example; you guys are my target audience because you guys read blogs and maybe enjoy reading about media content. A target audience is a specific group of individuals that are being aimed at with content. In this case, the target audience for the film opening would be females in the age range of 16-30. 

                                                                    Why?

Well, drama is a very raw genre that favors not many since many don't enjoy the emotional topics that may not appeal to most. Of course, there are several sub-genres, such as Romantic drama, Historical genre, or Crime/legal genre. It depends on the interest of the person.  For example, based on statistics made in the U.S., as of December 2018, Drama was popular with 80% of men and 89% of women.  This demonstrates that every genre differs. 

Although any genre can be popular with almost anyone, our opening focuses more on the youth, ages 13-18.  This is because we are striving to influence the youth to follow their heart and teach them that it is ok to have dreams and make them a reality. Like me, many other young people today have trouble facing true destiny and are afraid to seek their destiny. Dreams are easy to think about but difficult to commit to when there are so many opinions surrounding you that don't enable you to reach your goals or aspirations in life.  I wanted this to speak out to young people who have desires of their own and may not have the motivation to continue them any further. 

Resources: 

http://maddiemedia.weebly.com/audience-expectations-and-target-audience.html

https://www.statista.com/statistics/254115/favorite-movie-genres-in-the-us/

Movie opening storyline/plan

 

                                           Movie opening storyline/plan

    Hey again guys! Research takes sooo long omg.  Throughout my journey, I want to be as honest as possible with my fellow readers and just admit that this is a very time-consuming project.  The main task that took me a while to brainstorm has to be the idea/concept of what I want to do.  From the very moment that my teacher told us that thinking about an original concept would be necessary, my mind when straight to the idea of desire or chasing a dream.  

    The idea itself came solely from self-reflection.  Throughout my life, I've carried such a love for media, such as film, music, and poetry.  Without question, it has saved my life and helped me cope with the challenges and mental obstacles that I have ever dealt with.  I would not be who I am without anything media. I connect with it.  My mind lit up and went straight to this idea because of myself. I've always been asked in life what I want to be when I grow up, and it's usually answered with "doctor" or "businesswoman" because not only am I indecisive, but I am also afraid of admitting that I want to be an actress or work in marketing and advertising or a journalist.  Since I was just a little girl, it has been my one desire, and that is what I wanted to be portrayed through the storyline. 

    The story begins with the inside of a theater and our main character with her friends. We see all characters sit in seats, ready to watch the film.  The black and white film then begins to play.  The character (Stella) drops something from her seat and then leans downwards to pick it up. Struggling to reach it, she starts coming back up once she hears a woman in the film speaking. The woman stands out to Stella as she is in total incantation by her acting as she aspires to be an actress herself. We see several intimate, close-up shots, capturing the desire and admiration she has for the actress and her role.  Then, the lights in the theater go on, and the film is finished, representing the realization of Stella knowing that her dreams will never come true as she is stuck in a wheelchair; this is not known until the end of the opening when she is captured entire body in a wheelchair while others are sitting or walking out of the movies. 

    The goal is to capture the complex reality of people with disabilities having dreams but feeling self-doubt due to their condition. It is hard for people with disabilities to not only fit into this industry but
others as well. We wanted to portray the beauty and raw truth of what it means to have a desire and what it takes to keep it alive. 

Here are some films that inspired us...

                                      

                                                              Film: La La Land

                                                            Year of release: 2016

 

La La Land, being one of my favorite films of all time, is one of the first films that came to mind that ultimately inspired our opening idea.  This storyline is about two main characters but mainly on Mia (Emma Stone) who is a working actress, struggling to make her dream a reality. With many obstacles she is being faced with, she struggles to maintain her journey to accomplish her goal which is to be a movie star! 

                                        

                                                            Film: Hidden Figures

                                                            Year of release: 2016

The inspiring untold true story of three empowering black females is what also came to mind. When taking this film into consideration, it was clear that the film was so empowering towards chasing dreams and never giving up. It portrays how hard it was for women to have just as much privilege as men do. There is desire and want that is not given because they are women and back then, this mattered. 

Credits/resources: 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/

Drama genre research

 Hey everyone! Guess who's back with more of the latest scoop on what I have been working on? Like any project, it is difficult knowing where you wanna start. I knew that some important research was necessary during this process. I began with my research on genre, specifically, Drama. Personally, this genre is definitely in my top 5 favs because it is one I think most can relate to and is portrayed heavily on serious issues in the real world which may include topics such as Poverty, drugs, mental illness, racism, and sexism. 

What to find within the Drama

Through the many ups and downs that occur within a Drama genre, we see many faces of a character and signs of struggle with the inner self or surroundings.  A character might find themselves trying to find ways to cope with grief or struggling to find who they truly are.  Emotional aspects are incorporated in order to display obstacles that the main subject might encounter along their emotional rollercoaster.  

Examples of Drama movies/shows include...

       

     FILM: Everyday                               FILM: 13 Reasons Why                         FILM: Babylon

      YEAR OF RELEASE: 2018           YEAR OF RELEASE: 2017                  YEAR OF RELEASE: 2022

     Technical elements

      From medieval times all the way to the present day, Drama can be incorporated into almost any time period.  The genre can match any era as long as there is a clear understanding of the development of the character throughout the story. Along with these aspects, technical elements are a major part of the development of any Drama production. 

- Color: Regardless of the time and place, coloring can play a significant role in the development of a character or sets a mood for the audience.  For example, in a film like "13 Reasons Why," there is an obvious mute of color throughout most of the show which represents grief and sadness after the death of Hannah (main character).   Colors are utilized in order to correspond with the feelings of the character(s) struggles. 

-Sound: Under the sound element, sounds can vary. Whether it be slow melodies playing in the background or an escalation of violin music, music can create a sense of dramatic tone to dialogue or interaction between characters. Sound can also demonstrate rising and falling action in a particular scene. 

Resources: 

https://medium.com/@english_grammar/characteristics-of-drama-2d42c83e9a08

https://nofilmschool.com/drama-genre-film-and-television

https://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I5zp0xLNC0

 

    

Porfolio project week one

    Hey, ya'll! It's ya girl! Little inside scoop on what's been going on in the world of media. Long story short, I am being asked to make a 2-minute film opening. 

    A lot of you might be thinking..." film opening?! but you are not a director, you don't even know the first steps to succeed at this task." Well for all you haters out there I have some news for you. Thanks to my clever teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa, my classmates and I got a full introduction to how to be the best in business in the film industry. 

    We got to visually see examples and elements of what makes a good film opening. I was amazed and a bit intimidated by the insane work done by prior students.   After viewing the content, I began to brainstorm ideas of what genre my video should fall under. Some genres that spoke to me from the very start were Drama and Horror. I thought of these two genres solely based on the fact that I comprehend these genres the most and understand most of the elements used within those genres. 

    I feel as though there is a lot to take in during this process. I am extremely excited but also nervous and am feeling unsure about how to approach this project. My number one goal so far is to know what my genre and idea are by tomorrow or the day after. I really want to get a head start on my journey. Well, I have to go link up with my group to continue sharing my ideas, please pray for me guys. Talk to you later fam! XOXO:)

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Music Marketing blog post #2

Hello everybody! Today, I will be thoroughly discussing the step-by-step procedure of the process of my group's Music Vido Project.  In my group, I collaborated with three other girls. Within our group, we were randomly assigned a genre, which ended up being Pop.  At first, we assumed this would be an easy genre to use but was did not turn out very easy for us to make up our minds. Within our genre, we were asked to choose a song that falls under the world of Pop. We listened to each one and ultimately landed on "We Are Young" by "Fun." Using this song, we had to not only a music video but also our own new band, marketing plan, etc. This was a lot to unpack as we had to start from scratch. Here is how it went...

Research charts/Schedule

From the very beginning of the commencement of the project, my group and I knew that the planning part was essential. In order to get organized, we conducted a schedule that fits. We took time to make sure that time and dates made sense and we all agreed that this would 100% work for everyone. Using the chart, we conducted research based on a specific music entertainment company chosen which is Sony Music Entertainment and Capitol Records. Within the following company, we studied the history of the corporation, and some artists/groups that produce content under this label, and chose two artists/groups to investigate, Black Eyed Peas, Harry Styles, Halsey, and Katy Perry. Utilizing this handout enabled grasping a better understanding of the music industry and its tactics considering how little most of us in the groups completely understood. Overall helped my group partners and me to consider every aspect of marketing strategies and industry partnership methods. This chart helped us to take responsibility for our work since the chart was split between all four of us. After completing our charts, the final result is shown below. 

Going back to the schedule portion part, this required lots of our own personal time on the weekends filming outdoors and collaborating together. Schedule is shown below. 

Marketing campaign development/PowerPoint

Moving on to the more time-consuming portion, this part took a significant amount of time as many of us had many ideas that required things written down on paper. Once we started and shared the PowerPoint presentation with each other, we split each portion of the slides between each other, the whole presentation contained 13 slides (one of them being the awesome music video:). We also agreed that each slide would not contain too many words but more visuals instead. While we worked on our slides, we practiced presenting in front of each other in order to kill any sign of fright when presenting in front of our peers. we wanted to be as professional as possible when pitching our brand. The whole thought process towards our brand revolved around the youth and how we can develop a bold title that speaks out to all ages, sending a powerful message that anyone can follow the beat of their own drum. This refers to anyone.  This part required thorough research on what other companies we can partner up with, and what social media platforms are used most today that way we can gain as many followers as possible, and where most people would go to visit a live performance. When designing the presentation, using bold and bright colors was a must. We did this as a tactic to not only match the Pop genre "aesthetic" but to make it fun and not dull to viewers. Also, we had to create a fake Instagram and Tiktok account to make the artist's journey through social media seem realistic. We cut images and made cool-looking templates for our Instagram stories, informing our fake fans about what is to come. This part was actually FUN since we got to explore our creative side and customize the artist how we want others to see this person as.  Below is an example of one of the slides that capture the "youthful" tone of the genre.

Storyboard/ music video 

For the storyboard process, this was rather lengthy as well since we could not quite decide on whether to do a storytelling, artistic or promo video. Listening to the lyrics of the song, we thought that a storytelling one would be fitting. I had an idea of a storyline and was in charge of  creating the storyboard. Once on paper, we attempted to make it. Our first issue that arose was that in order to make this story come to life, we needed a "lover." We went on a hunt for any male we can find bring this project to life but everybody we asked refused to be apart of our music video. We tried making the video with the lover but nothing seemed to work out and it did not makes sense without one. So, we basically ended up ditching the storyboard and eventually found oursleves making a promo video. Our star needed to be the center of attention and needed to look emphasized. We told her to put on a bold, red skirt to pop out and used a karaoke microphone to make it look like she is singing in front of huge crowd. We chose  Town Center as our setting because we knew there was a "stage" area where our star could sing and walk around. We came up with several shots that included close-ups, tracking, high angle, low angle, medium shot, etc in order to make this seem as realistic as possible. This filming process was suprisingly difficult  for numerous reasons, some including annoying children, angry parents waiting to attack us, birds being insanely loud, and a hungry and tired main character.  Overall, this also took up a good amount of our time. 

Post-production

Once all video clips were filmed, it was time to edit. We first tried using adobe and thought it would be reliable but instead went rouge and decided to give us all viruses on our devices, causing us to  have to delete it. It also started lagging and just gave us too many difficulties. We knew that with the amount of time at hand, we needed to rely on other editing tools. We then downloaded several apps like Capcut, Splice, iMovie, etc. We ultimately landed on Capcut just because it seemed the easiest to work with. This was great decision as there were zero issues with using this while also giving us creative tools within the app to make the video look more appealing. 

Presentation time!

Finally, after much time prepping for this moment... it happened. Most of my group was very scared to come up to the front of everyone and present. Me, on the otherhand, felt that  it wouldn't just be as scary since Mrs. Stoklosa makes the environment in the classroom feel as comfortable as possible for her students so it was easy for me to present at least in my safe space.  The only thing I was mainly scared for was stuttering or stumbling on my words. I tend to talk at a faster pace when nervous so I did not want that to get in th way of my confidence. My group I ended up presenting just fine and I think we did very well sharing our project with our peers. Overall, great outcome!

Reflection

This project was definitely an experience for me. I feel that this overall tested our skills in every area such as presenting in front of others, editing skills, filmmaking skills, brainstorming skills, and having a clear vision. I think that I definitely discovered my strengths and weaknesses with creating such a big project like this one. I think that this was a great way for not just myself but for my peers to open our minds and think out of the box. I learned that communication is key in big productions like this. I think that there was so much taught to me from learning time management to engaging with your audience. These lessons will definitely be beneficial to me and my Cambridge Portfolio project journey.