Group meeting

     Hello blog! In today's class, I had a meeting with a group of my classmates about our progress in our projects so far. This was definitely helpful in order to move in the successful path on our next objective. 

    I was impressed by the work and dedication Victoria and her partner have put into the project so far. I learned a lot from her project and will for sure consider some of the approaches that she is using to establish context and show the credits. She is interested in inserting a montage of clips to establish content which may fit into me and Anabelle's idea of establishing context throughout out opening scene. We also began to consider the idea of starting a part of the movie after the credits and the title is shown in order to not show the title of the movie as the last shot of the production.

    In addition, I felt extremely comfortable explaining my project to my group while I received some of the best feedback and guidance that I have been waiting to hear. As I pitched my idea of a runaway couple fleeing the police, my classmates were hooked on to my Idea but they noticed that it lacked depth. I told them about my ideas of what I was thinking to add to make the opening scene more interesting and they helped me shape it into a better form. My aim was to show a contrast in tones through out the chase scene to show a sense of a regretful tone while they are being chased by the cops. The idea that I ended up going with was showing a comforting memory of the couple in a place where they would rather be while they are being chased by the cops. Lastly, another good tip i received from another one of my classmates was to use a police siren as a sound bridge as I switch between real time and the memory of the robbers.

    As I come to end with this post, I just wanted to say that this group meeting was something I needed for my project and I also had some fun giving advice to some of my classmates. Anyways, I will see you soon blog. Until next time!

How will I develop my script?

    Good evening blog! Today's post I will talk about how my script will be written and what we have came up with so far.

    I have never scripted a movie scene in my life and creative writing has never been one of my academic strengths in my school career. I was extremely confused on how and where to start so I obviously hit up YouTube for some advice. This video did an immense amount of help in teaching me the beginner tips on scripting. It also helped me think of what scenes and what type of dialogue will be used during my opening scene.

     This video helped me brainstorm ideas for the production while also adding a conflict to my story. A possibility for the storyline may be a police chase which will use majority off camera (O.C.) and off screen (O.S.) dialogue. This technique of dialogue will turn the focus of the film to be the runaway thief who is on camera. I am hoping that the use of this technique will enhance the emotions and the visual sensations of the character who is being shown on camera. The scene that I have developed in my head so far involves an outside setting and a lot of camera tracking since it is a chase scene.

    Well blog that will be it for today. Thank you for your attention and I will see you later this week!

    

 

Developing our storyline

    Hellooooo! I am excited to be starting one of the most important stages of my project which is the planning stage. During this post I will discussing the storyline that me and Anabelle are most likely going to use.

    Due to our action genre, we have to create an attention grabbing story that will guarantee that the audience will be interested in our production. I found an article that helped us enrich the most out of our genre and have a large connection with our character and context approaches. We ran into many dead ends throughout our brainstorming process but we the article helped us think through and get our final decision. Our final decision will be based on a romantic runaway thieves who are currently being chased by the police. 

https://raindance.org/how-to-write-a-story-for-film/

    I did some research on movies that I was recommended on and decided to take a deeper look into these productions. One of the productions was Ghosted (2023) starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas. This film involves the same mashup that we were looking for and it also gave us great ideas to use on our film. Some of the scenes will be extremely hard for us to attempt them but we will avoid any scenes with massive special effects that we can not add to our shots. I was entertained by the intensity of the gunfight scenes and I will definitely try to get some techniques from the chasing scenes.

    The other movie I think is easier to base of off because it has less editing difficulties and is based more on camera movement. The second movie is Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)  starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The chase scenes in this movie seemed a lot simpler and were fully done using camera movement techniques. The movie used a series of fast pans and also many tracking shots that follow the overall motion of the scene. However, the gunfight action looks simpler in this movie and I don't think I will be using much of it through out my opening scene.

    That was it for today's post. Thank you for your attention blog. Until next time!

Introducing context

    Hello blog! I have great news to begin this post with and I am stunned to announce that me and my partner Anabelle are advancing with the action movie approach.

    We are aware that this will be a rough path but we are willing to do the extra work to make this project the highlight of my Junior year. We will pair the action movie genre with a technique using context and character development. Previously on my blog, I was planning on developing tone instead of establishing the context, but after a lengthy talk with my partner, we agreed to move on with building up the context from the beginning. After reviewing the videos and articles that we included on previous posts, we reflected that developing the tone will not draw our audience to the production. Context is what sets up the film and is what the audience wants at the start of the movie, to be entertained from start to finish. 

    We have been having some trouble on applying these techniques to a storyline that will fit in well with the two approaches. we have developed one idea but we are not sure if this will be our final decision for the production. Me and my partner where brainstorming a film including two lovers who are runaway thieves searching to be out of the police's sight. By showing an intense situation at the start of the movie, the audience will have enough information to know the base of the film and start filling up the puzzle of how the characters will be all throughout the movie. 

    Moreover, we are extremely excited to be making progress and to be reflecting on our previous ideas to take advantage of every opportunity that is given to us. However, we have a ton of planning ahead of us these next few days and we will use it to keep advancing through this journey. That was it for today blog, catch you guys later!

Project Schedule

     Good evening blog. I am back today to explain me and my partner's strict schedule for the next upcoming weeks.

    To start, most of our research phase is done and now we will move on to the pre-production phase next week. Me and Anabelle will be focusing on our story board and shot list this coming week taking one task at a time. We will be sure to take our time with this project and dedicate time and effort to make this project one of the best that this program will ever see. After we are done planning our production, we will scan all our options of where we will be filming our project. After that is done we will be in the last, but long straight of our goal. 

    Week 5: We will initiate our filming while we follow our planned schedule and use all of our planned mise-en-scene elements that we will have planned before hand.

    Week 6 and 7: These two weeks we will focus on making the perfect project to submit and we will make sure to put in an immense amount of time in the post-production.

    Week 8 and 9: The final two weeks will be dedicated to our last blog posts and the creative critical reflection task.

    Evidently, the upcoming weeks will be a handful for us but we will make sure to make this project special. That will be it for today blog. Until next time!

Where do I even start?

     Hello blog, it is good to see you again! Today I will be discussing how I will start the biggest project of the school year. Some of the most iconic movie opening scenes are in the action genre which sets the standards extremely high. I have been lost for the last couple of days on where I will film and also what will I do with my production. Lucky for me, I came across this YouTube video about opening scenes that gave me the starting push that I needed.

    This video was amazing and went deep into everything that I need to know for my production. It interested me how some movies choose which character to introduce in the beginning and the impact that it has in the film. One example of this technique is included in the opening scene of  "The Dark Knight (2008)" which chooses to introduce the main villain of the movie before the protagonist is shown. Although this would not development the character that will represent the movie, it gives the audience enough context early in the movie to understand who this character is.

    I am still not 100% sure if this is a step in the right direction but I will surely consider introducing someone besides the main character in my production. It will definitely set the suspenseful tone that I need in my production which will check off a big box in my check list. Still wondering if it is possible to create a fictional villain better than The Joker in this film but I still that is near impossible.

    Hope today's post filled you guys in through my research process. I will be back soon to tell you guys more about my research. Catch you guys on my next post. Until next time!

      

Choosing the genre

    As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am interested in using character and tone development in production. I think an action movie contemplates with both of these techniques very well. As I started researching, I found a movie that does an incredible job developing both the tone, and the character during the film's opening scene.

    Baby Driver (2017) was a movie that was recommended to me in class and I decided to check it out. The way that the director sets a chaotic tone during a bank robbery informs the consumer plenty about the plot while also using music and camera movement to describe the driver's key role in the film. 

    Another film that will hugely inspire my production is Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). The opening scene is marvelous job in establishing the setting and most importantly the tone. the combination of the sound effects and the shots made by Steven Spielberg make this opening scene one of the most iconic action movie opening scenes of ALL TIME. Yes all time is right. 

    Moving on with my project, I love the idea of setting the tone with some chaotic and entertaining content as it never fails to deliver in action genre movies. My goal is to give whoever watches my project the excitement and blood pumping sensation that these two opening scenes give me. It is important that I show uprising suspense during the scene as it is done by these to films. The momentum will add more interest to the audience making my piece more enjoyable to watch. Action movie audiences are there to have a fun viewing experience and I will be sure to deliver.

    That is it for today blog! I will see you tomorrow on more film research. Till next time!

A Step Up to the Next Path

     Hello blog! From this moment on, my blog post will take a slight turn. I will be starting my portfolio project which has developed many big expectations on my part. This post will contain my brainstorming process and my initiative approach to the start of this journey.

    My initial idea is to have a character development approach. This idea is heavily inspired from the opening scene of the film "Stranger than Fiction" starring Will Ferrell. I was amazed how much an opening scene can impact a character's development before any major events happen in the film. The voice over technique used also covered most of the explaining which has the viewer free of any confusion or doubts about the foundation of the character's personality.

    Another one of my options will surely be developing the tone of the film early on. The tone of the film is one of the most important aspects to a production since it influences the feeling of the film to the consumer. Tone development in horror movies are always a great example of this since the conflict is almost always brought in during the first opening scene.

    I am extremely excited to start this new project and give the best of me for the next coming months. I hope that you guys stay along to witness my experience along this journey of thrill and academic greatness. See you all soon!

Link to opening scene "Stranger than Fiction": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwTQ57YyzI

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

     The beginning of this project was tough starting with the brainstorming system since it was difficult to plan our music video. We decided to choose "Me and Your Mama" by Childish Gambino since we were all familiar with this song. We were able to break down the lyrics very well and make a connection from the lyrics to our artist. Since we all listen to hip hop music, creating our overall brand was not that challenging for us. Our music research was mainly based on some of our favorite artists like Kanye West and Drake. We later researched marketing strategies for some of the most famous artists in the hip hop genre to understand how artists work in this genre. I found making the presentation an interesting project and I enjoyed doing it with my group. We decided to divide the different parts of the presentation before we started and it worked in our favor. The most challenging part was the music video. We had to make some changes since we were not seeing similarities with the music video and our campaign. I think we could have planned the music video a lot better and came up with a more interesting music video.

    This project taught me a lot on how to manage my time. The addition of time that was given with this project made me realize to cherish the original time given to me. What I most enjoyed was learning about how the marketing works around the hip hop and funk genre because listening to their music does not show all of the hard work that is put in before releasing songs. The best aspect of this project is the research. The new research strategies that I learned through out this project will help me immensely during the upcoming portfolio project.