Group Meeting Blogpost

Wednesday's group meeting was a lot of fun. I got to listen to many people's ideas and find out what they are going to do for their movie opening. The idea was to give feedback mostly on the blog post but because of the time and how many people we had to review, we just focused on the ideas for the movie opening. I don't like the words critique or constructive criticism because it sounds too harsh. All we did was just come together as a group and give each other ideas of what we could do to better our project. 

One of my group members, Chloe, is doing a piece about a teenage pregnancy, where the girl is hiding the fact that she is pregnant. For one of the scenes, she was going to say hi to everyone and pretend like everything was good, and after cut to her vomiting in the bathroom and her friend holding her hair. I suggested that she film the scene in a stall where when the girl is done vomiting and they close the door, she would add a loud door close sound effect and the title would appear on the wall which I've seen before in movies and I thought would look good in her piece.

JD was another one of my group members. His story was about a successful detective who is known for solving every crime. The idea is that the chief of police is mysteriously murdered and everyone believes the killer to be the detective since he can't figure out who killed him. JD wants to start off his film with a car chase which we all know is very hard to do and as a group, we all told him that but it seemed to be like he already knows hahaha so I'm interested to see how he pulls it off. We all liked his story and thought it was good so we didn't comment on it too much.

Zain and her project group wanted to make their movie opening about this girl who is a mathematical prodigy and she predicts the future through mathematical equations. She told us about this other idea they had where the boss of the girl would be a gay guy, but I don't remember her mentioning what the girl's work was? I told Zain that the gay boss should have to make sense with his occupation but other than that I also really liked their story idea.

Luis wanted to make a film simply about a guy that is emotionally dissociated. Now when he explained to us his idea he took a long time to get to the point,  therefore making the story for the short movie opening seem not so short. We told him this, and we said that he doesn't have to include so many details because he only has 2 minutes to develop a story. Yea, it's true that in 2 minutes we do have to make a lot of meticulous decisions however adding too much detail could make the audience lose track so that's basically the feedback we gave him.

For me, obviously, if you read my previous blog post you'll know the idea I came up with. I presented my idea to my group and they all really liked it a lot which I'm super happy about and I'm hoping this project can turn out really good. The only feedback I got is that I should try to show more and talk less (we learned that in class:)) My story is established mainly through dialogue in my piece and my group gave me the idea that I should include in the dinner scene, a shot of Felipe hiding his grades from his parents before sitting to eat dinner which I think I might do. Overall I thought the group meeting was very fun and insightful. Hopefully the next one goes just as well!

Script development research

Well blog, I know absolutely nothing about writing a script, or a least a good one. So it's time to research and find out how to do so. Although, I have yet to establish the character names for my film. Right now there are only 3 characters that are going to be in the film opening: My mom, dad, and I. I don't even know what I'm gonna call my main character. Whatever, I'm going to write the script and try to come up with the character names later.

 So right now I'm looking at this website called boords.com. I've been reading over it, and I like that they included a sample script and the exact formats for the script.

Now I have an idea of how to format my script. I searched for a free online script-writing tool on Google and I found one called youmescript.com I'm going to use it so my script can look as it does in the picture above. I decided to name the main character Felipe. His parents' names are going to be Eduardo and Marcela. 

I'm about 30 minutes into writing the script and I absolutely love this website. The script looks very professional and the website is very helpful in formatting everything. It even saves to my Google Drive which ensures that I won't lose my work :))

As you guys can see in the video above, I'm referencing a script from Creed I to get an idea of how to format and write my scenes while also looking at some examples from blog posts on Canvas of how previous students wrote their scripts.

The script took me forever to write but I finally finished it! LINK

 

FILM OPENING!

 Hi guys!!! It is time to develop my film opening. I already know exactly what I am going to do, all that's left is to write it down, plan, and execute. Of course, I can't do the film opening without dialogue, therefore, tomorrow I will develop a script for the film opening and post it on another blog. Also, I'm going to be creating a film studio logo to place at the beginning of the opening.

Below, is the outline for the whole film opening:

1) Opening Scene

1. Cretaceous Cinematic Films
2. Title fades to a tracking shot of boy running (full, facing the character's back)
3. Tracking shot of boy running (full, facing the character's front)
4. Extreme Long shot of boy running(watch alarm sounds)
5. Close-up of Watch 
6. Low-angle shot of the boy's sweaty face.
7. Another extreme long shot of the boy lying down on the grass exhausted.

2) Home Scene

1. Establishing shot of House
2. Full shot of foggy shower mirrors
3. High-angle shot of Mom yelling for the boy to come downstairs and eat
4. Another full shot of foggy mirrors (boy replying that he'll come down the right away and shower sounds cut) 

3) Dinner Scene

1. High Angle of the whole family having dinner
2. Medium shot of the boy eating 
3. Medium shot of parents eating
4. Back to back over the shoulder shots of conversation
5. Close-up shot of the boy's facial reaction (something exciting happens!)
6. Movie title: Gol (with added sound effects)
7. More over-the-shoulder shots of conversation

Some things in this might change so consider it sort of a rough draft but this is what you guys can expect to see in the film opening!

My Film Opening Approach

It's time to start developing my film opening. Now I want to start my opening scene with a tracking shot of my main character running. I want this scene to take place in the late afternoon around the time it's getting dark and I want the background to include traffic. I'm going to include loud traffic sounds because I want a contrast between those sounds and a noise cancelation of the character's headphones while he's running so the audience can get the sensation that he's locked in. What the viewers will hear after is an alarm noise indicating his run is over and it will cut to him lying on the ground in exhaustion.

Here's a running scene from the first Creed movie. If you guys would like to watch the whole clip here's the link!

So the idea is that I want the first shot to be a slow-motion hand-held tracking shot facing my character back while he's running and a cut to the same thing but instead facing the front of my character and at normal speed. Then it will cut to a close-up of the watch indicating his running session is done. After there will be a long shot of him lying on the ground exhausted. And that ladies and gentlemen, will be the first scene.

The idea is that I want the audience to understand in the first couple seconds of the film that this character is no joke. They won't understand what he's training for until after but I want them to know that whatever it is, he's very serious about it.

In the next scene, I was thinking of doing an establishing shot of the character's house. Nothing crazy just a basic nighttime establishing shot. Maybe something like this:

Coupled with this shot I want to add sounds of nature like cricket noises and owl sounds. Then a cut to the character showering(foggy glass and shower sounds) and then another cut to the character eating dinner with his family. I want the audience to get the sensation that this is sort of like the character's routine.

Now the dinner scene is going to be the most important in the whole film opening. And that is because it is going to be the longest and it is where the background and information about the character will be established through dialogue. Now I just watched a video on YouTube on how to film dinner scenes and what certain decisions mean. If you want to watch the whole video click the link. 

Now I don't really know what decisions I'm going to make in filming the dinner scene all I know is what information I want to mention in the dialogue in the scripts. And I also want something really interesting to happen towards the end of the opening so that the audience gets hooked. I was thinking maybe the character gets an offer to try out at a professional club. After this, I want to introduce the title of the movie. I want the movie to be called Gol which is goal in Spanish, I think this matches the story quite nicely. I'll probably add a net and crowd-cheering "goal" sound effects with the title. I know I'm not going to place the title at the very end since that will indicate closure but I don't know yet what I'm going to add after. 

My Portfolio Project Schedule

 The most important part to consider in a long-term project is how time will be managed and when I will fit filming into my schedule. I'm a busy guy so I need to make time for it. 

I will mostly try to film on weekends and Friday nights. During the week I have soccer practice so I would have to do it on those days I am free. My classes are also pretty tough, so I would have to get my homework done as I get it assigned so that I have time to work hard on the portfolio. Instead of doing as much as I can in a few days, I will split the work up by week so that I can dedicate as much time as I can. 

I also am planning on renting or borrowing a professional camera in order to make my film opening as cinematic as possible. I have been researching places in my area where I could possibly rent one from, for example, lensrentals.com or rentals.movingpicture.com. As an alternative to renting equipment, I have friends who could let me borrow their cameras. 

I am also considering buying a tripod or attempting to borrow from CBTV since I was in the class last year and I know the teacher. The tripod would make it easier to get still shots instead of it just being all hand held shots.

Coming up, I will be brainstorming places where I could film to capture that perfect shot. I will be creating a storyboard to help me visually see my idea and not forget any details. 

Film Opening Genre Research

 GUYS! OK Here's what I'm going to do. The main genre in my piece is going to be drama. Last post I mentioned I wanted to make a comedic piece. However, for the story I want to do, it would make more sense that the main genre would be a sports drama. I'm still going to include comedic components in some scenes but the piece will mostly be serious. In this blog post, I will go more in-depth about my genre research in drama. So the first thing I'm going to do is search for the main components of a drama film.

So right now I'm looking at a website called screencraft.org

My idea for this film opening is to create a sports drama piece about a young male teenager who aspires to become a professional soccer player. On the website listed above, it suggests various components that are important to include in my sports drama. 

There are two films that I personally enjoyed a lot that inspired me to want to create a sports drama film opening. The first film I would like to talk about is Apache: The Life of Carlos Tevez.

I watched this show a week after it came out and it caught my eye because of the struggles Tevez had to deal with growing up in the "hood" of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I also liked it a lot because I'm Argentinian :). I really loved the use of mise-en-scene in this piece. The clothes worn by the character and the building just really helped the audience better understand the setting and was indicative of the financial situation. Although the dialogue throughout the entire film helps us understand the story behind the character and his persona.

Now I don't want the protagonist in my film to have a low financial status. In fact, my goal isn't really to develop my character through mise-en-scene elements, but more so through dialogue. I want to incorporate scenes that help people understand the character's goal, struggle, background, etc. I couldn't find an opening scene for this film since it's an 8 episode series. 

Now another inspiration I had for my piece is from the Creed franchise. The Creed franchise is a spin-off of the popular Rocky franchise. It focuses on Adonis Johnson's (Micheal B. Jordan) journey in the boxing world. What I like about it though is that it talks a lot about the character's background and it doesn't heavily focus on training, boxing, repeat, so that's kind of what I'm going for. I wanted to watch the film opening to kind of get an idea as to how to do my own.

Now I sped up the video so it wouldn't be that long but basically, the opening scene is set in a juvenile detention facility and it shows a fight scene between Adonis and another kid. So what we can gather from this is that Adonis is a delinquent, he likes to get into fights, and it doesn't show in the clip but if you watch the whole video it reveals that Adonis thinks he does not have a father and that he doesn't want to keep transferring to different group homes. The lady whom we can assume is the mother of Adonis, comes to visit him and explains to Adonis that he did have a father but he died before he was born. So already in this opening scene of the film, we learned a lot about the character mostly through dialogue and that is what I want to achieve with my piece.

The Start of Something Great

The first thing I need to do to get started on this project is brainstorm. I wanna get an idea of what genre I want my film opening to be. Before anything, I wanted to let you guys know that I decided to work on this project by myself. I will obviously try to get help from some friends to be in my video, but working primarily by myself means I get to work on my own schedule and I don't have to postpone certain things. This happened last project and it was really frustrating.

Anyways, right now I have two genres that I'm definitely considering doing. One of them is comedy. Now, Ms. Stoklosa did NOT recommend this one as she says usually they don't turn out so well. However, I would consider my friends and I pretty funny and I bet that If I do enough research in developing a comedic screenplay, It could be the first, or one of the first, to truly come out good. Right now I was checking out this website called masterclass.com, that provides lots of tips on how to develop a good comedic story and even some videos where popular comedy directors also tell you what's important to have in your piece.

Link to the website: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-comedy-screenplay-a-guide-to-writing-a-comedic-screenplay-that-will-make-audiences-laugh

In this website, it suggest that in order to create a successful comedic piece, I have to develop the characters background, high stakes for the character, and a good thing is that they suggest to add elements of drama which is another genre I wanted to do. The comedy in my piece would mostly target people of my age since I know a little more about what teenagers find funny than adults. I want my piece to mostly be serious and based of a guy that is training to chase his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. I want to establish a struggle where the character has a hard time balancing training with things like school and helping out at home.

Portfolio Project Transition Post

Hey Blog! As you can see from the title, it's finally time to get started on our portfolio project. I will be positing much more on this blog, documenting all the little steps and processes I will be taking towards the development of this new project. Last project was very stressful, but now that I look back I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot of new things in music marketing and distribution. My goal for this project is to manage my time wisely and to create an Oscar worthy film opening :)..but an A or B is also good.

Two approaches I would like to explore coming into the project is the development of characters and the establishment of background, but lets talk about the fist one. I would approach approach development of characters through the use of mise-en-scene, dialogue, and interactions. To elaborate just a little more, if I wanted my characters to be life long bestfriends, they would obviously have a very open interaction and would talk to each other the way they would if they were brothers or sisters. If the characters were to be teenage high school students, I would make their dialogue to be a little more "slangish" than that of a more educated and older character.

My other approach would be establishing a background. I could also use mise-en-scene through clothes and the setting of the area in which the film would take place. Richer or wealthier places would typically have nicer houses, buildings, and a cleaner enviornment whereas poorer places would posses the opposite. Clothes would also say a lot about the financial status of the character and their personality. I wouldn't really try to do anything with radios or tv stations in the scene because it would be hard to add in during the editing process.

Just so you guys know, these are just some options I'm interested in exploring but they aren't definitive choices I will incorporate in my project!

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

The Music Marketing project was very stressful. My group and I faced many challenges throughout this assignment that slowed us down. Let me walk all of you through the full process. Mariano, Luis, and I first received the genre's Pop Funk/ Hip-Hop and we were all happy because it is a very good and well-known genre of music. We also were emailed 4 songs that pertained to these genres and we ended up choosing Colors by Black Puma. The decision-making was an easy one since we all agreed we liked the song and because it led us to envision a good idea for the music video. We knew the next step was to research marketing and distribution techniques based on 4 artists from our genre. We divided the work so that each person would research one artist, however, since we are an odd amount of people, one of us had to research two artists. The research charts are shown in the first Music Marketing post I made recently. 

The research took us no time and we also learned a lot about the artists we did case studies on. Then it was time to move on to part two of the assignment. This is where the process started to become more lengthy. We were to create a make-believe musical artist and develop a marketing campaign for said artist. We came up with the name Renzo Apollo and we envisioned him to be a humble guy who wears simple clothes. We borrowed some social media marketing and distribution techniques from our research and incorporated them into our campaign. We wanted to make sure we had a wide variety of publicity, therefore, we created accounts for our artist on many platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, and we even created an online website that would include inspirational videos and a Renzo Apollo-themed shop to sell merchandise. We all had amazing ideas and it was really easy for my group to decide what we would or wouldn't include in our marketing campaign presentation. We eventually completed our PowerPoint presentation and it was finally time to film the music video.

 Finding time to film the video with my partners was very challenging as we are all taking hard classes and have busy schedules. My partner Mariano and I ended up shooting the music video on Monday, the 29th of January. We chose to film it in the back part of Regional Park here in Weston, FL since it has a beautiful landscape and it was very sunny. It took about 2-3 to film all the shots. A couple days later I began to transfer the videos onto my computer to begin the editing process. I encountered a huge issue during the process. Something happened to my computer and an error popped up on my screen. I unplugged my phone to restart the process only to find out that all the videos we filmed including hundreds of pictures from my camera roll were gone. I was super confused and I freaked out! This had never happened before and I was super confused. I thought that it was over and that my team and I were going to get a bad grade for the assignment. I walked into school the next day and during 8th hour, I advised my teacher, Ms. Stocklosa, of what went wrong. I later logged into my school computer and clicked on the files app to download something for our presentation. Wouldn't you know it? THE MUSIC VIDEO FOOTAGE WAS BACKED UP! I remember I was transferring some videos the other day to play around with some ideas for when we would edit the footage, I don't however remember downloading all the videos. It was a miracle, to say the least. I immediately saved all the videos to my phone and airdropped them to my teammates to make sure they would never be lost again. Today we finished the project, including the music video.

I'm very thankful for the effort my teammates put into this project and how supportive they were when it came time for me to propose some ideas. Not only did I learn a lot of marketing and distribution techniques, but also more about the genre of pop-funk and the different music video styles. I believe that the planning and time management aspect will be very helpful for our next project which is the Cambridge Portfolio.