My First Group Meeting

 Today in my media studies class, we had our first group meeting! These are essentially meetings with other students in our classroom, where we each discussed our blogging methods and intended story for our film opening, and received criticism. Here are some of the points that I took away from this discussion!

The length of the opening

Immediately, something that I noticed among my peers is that almost everybody (including me) was trying to fit way too many points in the opening. We only have two minutes to get across our point, yet many people are trying to fit in 2-3 conflicts or additional story details. In previous posts, I went very in depth in terms of  characters and story, and although I still want to use as many ideas as possible in my opening, this discussion made me realize that I need to be liberal with time usage. I intend to make a modified script by the end of this week, so I'll sure to incorporate this guideline into the new version.

Blog Structure

I'm pretty proud of my previous posts, but this discussion helped me realize that I can make them so much better! I want to begin to incorporating more forms of media into my pictures, like more pictures or videos to make them more appealing to look at. In addition to this, I also want to use more organizational features (such as bullet points or aligning text to other directions other than the left), which is something I've begun to do in this very post!

Show, Don't Tell

I plan to go much further in dept with this concept in another post, but the most important thing I noticed during my group meeting was a focus on dialogue. Dialogue is never a bad thing, but one of the key components of story-telling is to show, not tell. Instead of outright saying the story detail/conflict, it's best to suggest the idea through other elements, like tone, setting, or mise en scène elements. I have always tried my hardest to utilize this framework in my brainstorming, but this meeting helped me realize just how important it is to follow these rules. 

 (Although the video is very basic, I believe it covers the writing technique very well, and is an interesting watch if you're interested!)

With this, I feel prepared to tackle script writing! I'll see you all then!

Additional Film Research

 

Hey everyone! After my previous post about character development, I’ve decided to begin making a second version of my film opening script. The original plan was to make the new script today, but I wanted to do additional film opening research beforehand. I have some film techniques I want to use, but I thought that looking at a selection of three drama movie openings would help give me some additional ideas!

 

1.    Whiplash (2014)

Whiplash is an award-winning psychological drama that tells the story of an abusive music teacher named Fletcher, and an aspiring drum player who attempts to win Fletcher over named Andrew Neiman. In just three minutes, this opening already sets up the overarching conflict of Neiman attempting to get into Fletcher’s band despite his abuse, and the two named characters. The main things that I want to call attention to in this opening are the lighting and sound design. I already partially discussed the lighting idea in my last post, but the “antagonist” or Fletcher is off to the shadows, while Neiman, the “hero” is bathed in light. This immediately sets up the dynamic between these characters without having much dialogue. I will be using this trope (in particular, hiding a character in darkness) to show that they have a “negative” tone, or in my film’s case, a depressed tone.

 

2.    Twelve Angry Men (1957)

Twelve Angry Men is a rather unique drama film, as nearly all of its runtime takes place in a singular courtroom. The plot is that twelve jurors are summoned to make a unanimous vote regarding the case of one teenage boy, who is accused of stabbing his abusive father. One of the twelve jurors refuses to vote guilty, and he then proceeds to argue his point, and the movie continues from there. The main thing I want to call attention to in this opening is the way setting is developed in the opening. The very first shot is an upward tilt of the courthouse, immediately cementing how important the area is. The film then uses various tracking shots as each juror walks through the room. This tracking shot makes it feel as though the viewer is right in the courtroom with the jurors, adding to the realistic feel of this film. It is because of this opening that I want to use a tracking shot in my film opening to establish the main setting (the main character’s house) as well!                           

 

3.    Children of Men (2006)

Children of Men is a dystopian piece about a modern society that has led to a hopeless world where every human is infertile, and war is frequent. I believe that this is the best film opening of the three I have shown, as this opening covers every single piece of information that is needed for the opening. Judging by the cold colors the civilians are wearing and the dreary sky, the audience knows that this society is unwell. The conflict is set up through the TV broadcast, and the main character is identified as he is seemingly unphased by the death of the youngest child. This opening quality is something that I aspire to reach with my opening, and I’ve already begun looking into costume design as a result of watching this film.

 

The viewing of these openings has given me plenty of ideas for my new script! With this, I can now work on storyboards and further filming plans!

Creating Characters

 

·      Theodore Mead (The protagonist)

Things about his character!

1.      He has a bit of a stockier build, wears round glasses, and typically wears dark, black clothing.

2.      He lives alone and has a very messy residence.

3.      In case you forgot, he has depression and is disassociated from many of his friends and family members. He also has an overreliance on taking pills/medicine as opposed to actually attending something such as therapy.

Why the name?

I thought it would be a very smart way of subtly hinting at the main character’s relationship with his family if his friends called him something different than what his family calls him. If his friends refer to him with a nickname (like Theo) while his parents still call him by his full name, Theodore, it could imply that he isn’t as comfortable with his family than with his friends, as they still call him by his full name, which he obviously doesn’t prefer over Theo. I think this will be a nice way of quickly suggesting a difference in how Theodore’s relationships differ without taking a lot of time of my allotted two minutes to outright say it.

I could’ve given Theo a regular last name, but I felt as though that would be pretty boring, and I wanted to reference an external piece of media that tied in with Theo’s character. It was at this time that I looked to one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury. In one of his short stories, The Pedestrian, a story about a world where television is the dominant form of media, and no one ever takes walks or leaves their residence at night. The only person to oppose this is the main character, Mr. Leonard Mead. In the story, Leonard feels as though he’s the only normal person on Earth left as he actually dislikes television, and doesn’t have a toxic relationship with technology. It is implied that Mr. Mead feels distant from everyone else, as he is different and doesn’t comply with the norm. Although I don’t want to write in a plotline of Theo despising technology, both characters share the same name as they are both incredibly distanced from everyone else. Theo feels detached from everyone around him, just like how Mr. Mead feels as though separated from his community. It is for this reason that I decided to name my character Theodore Mead.

In case you wanted to read the story, it's only two pages and a great read! Click here to check it out.

·      Bakari Durden

Things about his character!

4.      He is Theo’s best friend, and as far as the film opening, Theo’s only remaining friend in general.

5.      He is relatively tall, and has long, wavy hair.

6.      He has a very outgoing personality and is always encouraging Theo to get out of the house.

Although I did put in some thought into Bakari Durden’s name, it was nowhere near close to the amount I placed into Theodore’s name. The first name, Bakari, was selected due to its meaning. It has African roots, and roughly translates to “hope”, or “hopeful” in Swahili. I thought this was poetic, as in the original script seen in the last post, Bakari is the hope in Theo’s life. He doesn’t have much left, but he does have Bakari, who is a beacon of light for Theo. The last name, Durden, is an homage to a film that I love, Fight Club. Although they have very different plots, the main character of the film is very detached from society, like how Theo is. A character named Tyler Durden is always pushing the main character from that film, and constantly encourages him to go out in the world. In the film, Tyler is a bad influence on the narrator, yet he still encourages the protagonist, so Bakari’s last name is also Durden as he also pushes Theo to be better. 

(A picture of Tyler Durden from Fight Club. Adrian Durden will most definitely not be as disheveled as Tyler is.)

I really love these character ideas, but you might notice that this is barely reflected in the script seen in my last post. I’ll be revising it soon to add in these details! Before that however, I’ll be doing some more film research, as I want to have the most ideas possible before I write a second version of my script. I’ll be seeing you all then!

 

Developing a Script

 Hi everyone! Today, I looked into a lot of the components that I want to incorporate into my film opening by developing my script. In particular, there were two main film techniques/tropes that I really wanted to utilize in my opening.

   (I got my information from tvtropes.com)

    -Light Equals Hope: In many forms of media, darkness correlates to evil or nefarious things, while light is "good" or heavenly. This is mainly seen in plots as light in darkness, or hope in the darkest of times. For example, take a look at this shot from Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019).

In this movie, the hero character, Godzilla, was seemingly killed by the villain, King Ghidora. All of the characters are at their lowest point, and the character seen in the shot is caught in a dangerous storm. It is at this moment that another hero character, Mothra, comes down to part the storm and to aid in the fight against King Ghidora. This shot specifically shows light emanating from Mothra, juxtaposing the dark storm. This adds to the idea that Mothra is a savior and will bring hope to the main cast. Although my story won't be using grand kaiju's, I wanted to use this film technique because it can create some very beautiful and poignant scenes. If you're curious, it's at the top of page two of my script draft, which is located at the bottom of this post.

-Making Characters Seem Weak: My film's protagonist will have a poor mental state, and I want to portray him as a weak, dreary man. Although there are many ways to achieve this, a simple way that I can produce is a high angle. 

In The Avengers (2012), there is a large alien invasion threatening New York, and it's up to a small team of superheroes to defend against it. Although these characters are all powerful in their own way, this specific shot has them being looked down upon by the camera, as if the audience is in the POV of the above aliens. This shot makes the characters look small, and adds to the idea that it'll be difficult for them to defend the invasion. My film won't have any fighting, but I do want to incorporate this into the opening. It isn't specifically listed in the script currently, but later on, there will be a shot from an overhead view of the character as he walks around his house, adding to the idea that he's weak.

With those two techniques mentioned, here is my current draft for a script. Untitled Movie Opening Script (1).docx.

Although this is surely not the completed version of the script, I now have the general direction for where I want to go with my story. With this, I can begin development of storyboards, and even begin film planning!

Creating a Personal Schedule

 As the week comes to a close, I was looking at what I had left to do, and realized that I likely wouldn't be able to use my time effectively. I've had issues with procrastinating in the past, and although that's in part to poor planning, I still want to ensure that isn't the case for this project. In any case, I have developed a full schedule from now until this project's due date to make sure I finish the components of the project on time. Take a look!

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ladv2008%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York

There are some things here that may seem a bit questionable. For example, I put that I should start looking into having access to an answering machine next week. Although it may seem weird, I want to utilize it as one of the major props in my film opening, yet answering machines aren't exactly a common item. This is why I want to begin looking for one as soon as possible. I'll share more details in the post about my script, which will be up next week! Moving into March, I gave myself almost the entirety of the week of March 4th to the 10th for securing actors. Some of my peers told me that I allotted myself too much time, but I want to ensure that I will have actors during my filming days by having strong plans. I feel as though giving myself less time for an actor search will make plans more flimsy and liable to fall through.

    It isn't set in stone, but I am around 90% sure that I won't like the natural sound of my film opening, meaning that I'll want to utilize some sound effects. Although there are many free sound libraries, I think that some sounds will sound best if they are homemade, which is why I gave myself quite a bit of time halfway during March to make some foley sounds. During the last weeks of March, I made sure to include that I'd show the film to my peers to get their opinion on the project. I have done this in the past and they've given me good feedback, so I want to make sure I can do so again! Lastly, I gave myself some time for developing a title of the film. I don't just want to put up some text in a boring font, I want my film title and credits to stand out! I don't have the specifics yet, but I know I want to get creative with them, which is why I gave myself a couple days to work them out.

This schedule will help me immensely. It'll allow me to hold myself to a deadline so that work gets done on time. With my future planning done, I can now create a script and storyboard next week!

Inspiration from a Film Opening

 While looking at genre characteristics for drama films, I came across the film Garden State. Garden State is a film about a depressed man on medication who is despondent to most people. In this opening, the man (whose name is Andrew) has a scary dream that leaves him un-phased, and then receives a call from his father tearfully talking about how they never communicate, and that Andrew needs to come home because his mother died.

I feel as though my film and Garden State have similar characters. In my film, I want the main conflict revolve around the character's depression leaving him incapable of feeling love and affection, and it's gotten to the point that it is destroying the few relationships he has left. This opening expertly demonstrates how unresponsive and crestfallen Andrew is by showing his flat face during a nightmare that's supposed to be terrifying. Although I don't want to include a dream sequence in my film, I want to demonstrate how difficult it is for my character to feel emotions in general, just like Andrew from Garden State.

Like Garden State, I want to incorporate an answering machine in my opening. An idea that I thought of, is what if the film opening took place on the main character's birthday? In this specific scene of the opening, the main character would be listening to an assortment of birthday messages from his friends and girlfriend from his answering machine (I was thinking of something like the above image). These messages would be very sweet, yet the main character would remain blank and melancholy throughout. This would expertly demonstrate how despondent my character is, and it would also help develop the year that this film takes place in.

Garden State's opening gave me plenty of ideas for my film. Now, that I have all of these potential details, I can begin to create a timeline, storyboard, or even a script to help me bring my ideas to life!

A Brief Conversation about Genre

 After deciding on a broad idea of what this film would be about, the next logical step is deciding what the genre of my film would be. Although I don't have the finer details ironed out, I know I want this film to depict the internal struggle of a depressed man as he attempts to manage his deteriorating mental state and the few personal relationships he has left. I know that I want this film to be serious, but it's more difficult to narrow down what exactly will be the genre of this film.

             (I used this cohesive list of genres at Studiobinder to see all the available options for a genre)

Without doing any research, I thought that my film would be a psychological thriller, since I had thought that all movies where the main conflict deals with mental illness are psychological thrillers. After looking into my options, I realized that a psychological thrillers lean towards the horror genre, as they create fear and suspense by utilizing a psychological conflict. I don't want to create a horror film, so I continued my search and finally settled upon the Drama genre. The drama genre is typically serious in tone and revolves around realistic problems, where other genres tell stories that are unlikely to occur in real life.

When looking for examples of a drama film, I came across Titanic. Although a drama film, Titanic actually falls into the category of a melodrama, which is a subclass of the drama genre. Melodramas are still serious in tone, but the conflict and details of the story are exaggerated. Unlike the vision for my film, Titanic uses exaggerated aspects to move along the story. For example, the scene where the ship sinks is exaggerated by having the ship get tilted so that the ship is completely vertical, yet realistically according to historic accounts, the ship only slightly turned around 40 degrees.

Notice how when thinking realistically, this scene would have played out extremely differently. I want my film to be relatively realistic and natural in nature, so I would portray my film as simply a drama movie.

Now that I've narrowed down what is the genre of my film, I can now start looking at typical characteristics of drama. This will aid me in creating storyboards and ideas for certain scenes for my film opening!

A Quick Update

 Hey guys! I just wanted to update you all on what I'll be creating and posting on this blog for the following weeks. Since I am in Aice Media Studies AS, I'll be needing to create a 2 minute film opening that incorporates the film technique I have learned in the class. In addition to this, I'll be uploading my progress to this blog! Everything from brainstorming, to genre research, to even random ideas that I come up with regarding this project will be added to this website. 

    Posts will become much more frequent on this blog. Expect three posts every week, starting next week! I am so excited about this project, as editing and filming is one of my biggest passions. I'll be doing this project alone, so I'll have complete creative control. I already have many ideas on the story of this potential film, music ideas, and potential storyboard slides. I hope you'll all enjoy the progress updates and cheer me on!

    I don't have the specifics yet, but I have begun to think about how setting and characters will be developed in this production. I believe I want the main character to have an internal struggle with himself and his mental issues, so I'd like to use a conflict of character vs self in the film. Something else I want to do is develop character by creating a detailed setting. If my main character does end up having mental issues, I think creating a setting of a very messy and dark house would help get the idea that he is unwell across, and it would create a nice sense of contrast with the clean, bright outdoors.

That's all for now. See you all next week!

Music Marketing and Brand Development #2

 After the completion of our Music marketing and brand development project, I can safely say that my group had far too much anxiety about creating a suitable project. At first, the planning process was unbelievably difficult. The music genre for our musician and music video was hip hop funk, which was a genre that no one in the group was familiar with. In addition to this, the task of coming up with a detailed marketing plan was so intimidating that our group had no idea where to start!

    (Funnily enough, the very first thing our group settled on was the look of our artist. What we came up with looks very distinguished as seen in the image!)

After we settled on the idea of our musician, which was a simple man who promotes mental health with an influencer background, the rest of the project progressed much quicker! Our group settled on a target audience of young males, which makes an influencer who originated on YouTube much more convenient, as younger people tend to use YouTube. Before our group could continue the marketing plan, we had to research our genre of hip hop funk in order to best know how to reach our target audience. This researching period was rather difficult, as finding clear information about a niche music type is a daunting task. Nevertheless, our group got the information that we required and incorporated it into our project by making the persona of our hypothetical musician "self-made", to match the genre of funk as it is also a very improvised type of music. 

The next parts of our project relied on our creativity, as we had to get detailed on how our musician (dubbed Renzo Apollo) would structure his brand. We first designed a logo, and the rest of the aspects came naturally. Eventually, a YouTube channel, Instagram page with posts, and a hypothetical merchandise page were all developed to further elaborate on our artists marketing plan. Although the specifics seemed difficult at first, they came rather quickly and were fun to create!

 

 The merchandise page can be viewed at   https://lunamoon1507.github.io/RenzoApolloShop/

(Feel free to explore the site, and links to both YouTube and Instagram page!)

These details allowed us to create the PowerPoint presentation easily. The only task left, and arguably the most difficult, was a music video. This task was entrusted to my other two group members, as I was busy with moving houses throughout the week. Before meeting, they had agreed to film at the Everglades, as the sunset and natural setting would be perfect for the "artistic" video we wanted to create. With a storyboard in hand, my group members recorded clips for around an hour and a half to create our music video. After receiving the clips, a short editing session was all that was needed in order for the video to be finished. After all that's happened, I feel rather content with the finished product!

This project has genuinely taught me many new skills and encouraged my creativity. I have learned that if I do my very best, I and others can overcome daunting tasks such as this one. Most importantly, this project has vastly improved my time management. We only had around two weeks to create this project, and if I didn't focus during class and use my time wisely, my group would have never made the deadline. This project was a great time, and I can't wait to see what's next for me in Aice Media Studies!