Week 3 post 4

    My group and I looked into the narrating aspect of our film. In order to portray the mental battle have talked about several ideas but haven't decided on the best one. After some feedback from classmates, we looked deeper into the narrating aspect of our film. our classmate's feedback helped us tremendously and gave us two great ideas for our film. The first idea we could look at is just the plain and simple narration from the point of the mental battle of view. This could help us in several ways. the first is that he could naturally introduce not only the main character but the villain. In this case, the villain is the anxiety and shyness that our character suffers from. The narration could also dive deeper into what our main characters thinking. This could help us create both humor and horror. The narration, good shot, and editing could help us create a sinister feel to the film, this feeling could quickly translate to humor due to the narrations flexibility. Narrating is a strong option that could help us express the genre to its fullest.

    The second way to show the villain could through a camera technique such ad a pan into the villain. By this, we mean that the villain would visually be in the opening. Giving the villain a phase in our film opening could help us for two main reasons. One recent that this could help us is that he gives the audience an easier way to keep track of the villain's thoughts. Giving the villain a face can help create horror and help the audience understand the film better. The second way this helps us is that it helps us show our editing and shot-creating technique. Our group has a goal of making this film opening a professional as possible. This could be a great way to prove our group's professionality.

    My group and I still have a lot to go over when it comes to the narration and villain side of our film. So far even though the second option is great, I believe that the first option could help benefit the film opening the most. In my opinion, if we use the first method he could help the audience understand the premise of our film from the beginning. I also feel that the transitions between horror and comedy could be a lot smoother with the first option. instead of having to keep cutting back and forth between shots, we can just have more in the least amount of time possible. With that being said, we could get enough information for our audience that would keep them interested in our film. We can also reach our goals of professionalism with our first choice because of the shots and dialogue we can create from the narration. 

Week 3 post 3

    My group and I dove deeper into the settings and environment aspect of our film. The film would be ideal to do it in a school because it is about teens and a big part of their lives in school. Unfortunately, due to safety and health precautions, we have to find a new environment to film the scenes. Since we don't have coronavirus in our film opening we have to make it seem like it doesn't exist therefore we need an environment in which we can film without any health risks. We looked at a couple of places and one that caught our eye was the beach. We can make the film opening as a highschool beach gathering. This will work well due to the structure that we have laid out for our film opening. We can use the environment to our advantage in order to represent the problem of character versus South better through the conscious mental battles that our main character goes through. Since we want to incorporate part of the ending into the beginning of our opening in order to promote audience engagement weekend show a different setting at the beginning and then transfer to the beach setting later in the film opening.

    The layout would be as follows first we would be opening with the character having a breakdown in a random room at a high school after party. After that, we can represent the mentals health side through the narrator and we can transition over to the main character's house where he gets a call from a friend asking him if he's going to the beach party. With some hesitation, the main character gets ready and goes to the beach. When he gets to the beach several things happen first is the mental side of the film. This is where we see the character battling some mental problems that have to do with social anxiety and being shy. This is where we can use our editing and shot-taking techniques in order to portray a horror or scary side of our film. The audience can relate to this since it is something that may happen to teens and that it has happened worldwide. The second side we can look at is the external impact that this mental battle has the mental battle leads to unfortunate situations that could cause humor in our film. The humor can come from the dialogue or awkward situations that the characters placed in which would lead to a back and forth with his mental side. throughout the beach party, the kids are invited to an after-party which is what would lead us back to the beginning clip. This beach environment would be a great help in our film and would serve as a great way to portray our genre.

Week 3 post 2

    After looking deeper into the idea of character versus self we dove deeper into another idea that interested us. My group wants to start the film with one of the classic quotes "You are probably wondering how I got here" while showing a clip from further into the movie. This Strategy will promise the audience that the movie is going somewhere different and unique and it is making the audience look for an answer throughout the film. This idea also fits in very well with the character versus self problem because he is still battling with his thoughts and asking how he got there. We also want to use the situation to create humor and sort of a what?! moment. The "how did I get here moment" might be the teen battling himself with a very sinister vibe to the shots and techniques. We can try to show anxiety and heavy breathing and showing an internal freakout. This can be done through different editing techniques and camera shots.

    We want to make sure that there is an important twist of uniqueness to our scene by providing a voice-over and narration from the same person that is acting as the main character. The narrating is something we have looked into. We feel like the narrating can give a different feel to our opening and can help us with some of the different comedic aspects of the film. The narrating could be very useful because it may get hard to understand both the internal and external aspects of the film. We can manage to guide our listeners better with a narration.

    Another important aspect of narration is that it can fit very well with the scary aspect of our film. The voice we use can be edited to provide a certain feeling. Paired up with the right music, the narration can provide a scary look into the film opening. This voice-over idea is new but it is definitely something we are interested in trying to see if it could work out. Since that voice-over is a pretty new idea we still have some downsides that we need to clear up. The first would be finding the right Character that could act and do the narrations, the next problem is if we should keep the narrations just at the beginning or throughout the whole film opening and one last problem is if the narration would truly fit in well. These topics are something that I am looking to further discuss with my group in order to see how we can make the most professional film opening.

Week 3 post 1

    My group and I started looking deeper into the ideas we had mentioned earlier in our discussions. We specifically talked more about Character versus self and how we want to start the film. We feel like character versus self would work best because we can match it up with the struggles of a highschooler. As a high schooler, there are a lot of mental battles that we have to deal with and this can be shown through our film. We can incorporate events and problems that have happened to us. These events could be shown in two views, first is our character's thoughts and how they might create anxiety or doubt in our character's mind. We can do this through voice-overs or through another character who represents our main character's thoughts. The character that represents our main character's thoughts can be played similar to the "Hormone Monsters" in the popular Netflix show "Big Mouth". In this show, we can see how different monsters affect the action that the character takes. For instance, there is a character called "Tito" the anxiety mosquito that is the cause for the characters' anxiety attacks. We can do something similar to this but instead of it being a mosquito we can make it a different character.

    With this representation of personal problems through character, we can create the horror aspect of the film. We let the audience panic at what the character might do. This panic leads to comedic relief when instead of something terrible happening, something funny happened. The character can go through embarrassing situations that lead to humor but the problems inside his mind lead to horror and fear. these two-sided experiences leave the audience engaged in the film. We believe this idea can lead to a great film opening. The techniques used such as camera work can create suspense, this suspense can be further exploited through editing. The scenery can also be used to our advantage by making the main character fear things that he makes up. The sounds that we can use can develop both suspense or comedic relief. By using upbeat sounds to create irony and then using sinister and dark-themed sounds which create suspense will help us show technique and prove how elaborated our film is. 

Week 2 post 4

    After finding a genre that we were contempt with and looking over our assets my group and I discussed more the ideas we had and where we wanted to take inspiration from. We went over some movies that gave us ideas but we aren't set on anything. My group and I also want to diversify our movie and not make it exactly like the movies we got our inspiration from. To start thinking about the movie we have to create a problem. We have several options but two that stand out are Character versus Self and Character versus Character.  

    We figured Character versus Character was a good idea because it is one that is most commonly used in horror films, this gives allows us to get ideas and develop our plot. Character versus Character in a horror film is meant to be scary and frightening. We want to try to make it hilarious but still scary. This sounds very challenging since the two emotions are different and pretty subjective. My group wants to try and prove that we can accomplish this goal efficiently and with a great film opening. We are looking to start brainstorming the types of characters we want to use but before that, we have to decide whether we want Character versus self or Character versus Character. 

    Character versus Self is a very tempting option. I feel that as teenagers we have a lot of mental battles with ourselves pretty often. These fights seem very scary whether it's anxiety, self-confidence, or other problems. We can make a psychological battle within the person for the film opening. My group can make the battle outcomes funny with embarrassing situations or random unfortunate situations. This is a battle that as a teen we can relate to which may make it easier to find ideas and inspiration for scenes. 

    Overall, my group wants to create a complete film opening. To do this we are challenging the idea that making a comedy/horror film usually doesn't go as well due to its subjective challenges. We want to display our technique by creating humor through the media we produce. My group will engage the audience with either an interesting story or a relatable one that will look professional with the help of tools such as the editing software "Adobe Premiere".

Week 2 post 3

    After evaluating different types of ideas for our genre. My group and I decided to take a look at the assets we have and how we can use them strategically to our advantage. We evaluated our settings first, since the genre we are looking at is horror with comedy we want our set to be sinister and have a scary aspect. We looked for abandoned places that were legal to enter and film and we found some, since safety comes first we want to make sure these areas are actually open for the public to look at. We found some buildings that look like hospitals which match very well with the feel we want for our horror film. We also discussed having some seance at the beach that correlated with the seemingly abandoned building we found but we want to make sure that there is a clear link between the two before we do anything. 

    The second type of assets we looked at where filming equipment, we need to make sure we have cameras and editing software that will help us make the film as professional as possible. We discussed the idea of using a camera with a 55mm lens so it makes the film look as professional as possible. Using this lens will allow us to take the best shot necessary to engage the audience. We are also going to use a directional rode microphone to record all the audio for our film opening. This microphone is able to capture the right audio we need without the sound getting muffled, it also helps to make the film more understandable. For editing, we will use "Adobe Premiere" due to the wide range of tools that it offers. Abobe Premiere is also an editing software that we are all familiar with. This way we can work together to turn our ideas into reality all the while showcasing great technique and a professional opening.  

    As we further develop our ideas our assets will have to diversify. We want to make sure our assets adapt to the film we want to make. This will allow the film to look better and will also help the filmmaking process. We want to challenge the idea that you need lots of money and high tech to make a high-tier film opening. The best way to do this is to become creative with what we already have and use it in the best, most efficient way possible. We want to develop our creative, fast-thinking skills with this project to give the audience a different perspective of the norm that the best technology is needed to make a good opening.

Week 2 post 2

     My group and I left off on the idea of making a comedy/horror movie but, There are several obstacles that we have to overcome if we want to represent these genres correctly. The first problem is that we want our film to be unique, and the second is that comedy is very subjective. In order to overcome these obstacles we reviewed and broke down some movie scenes. We looked at "The Purge", "Scary Movie", "Zombie Land" and "Midsommer". These movies gave us some great ideas as well as some inspiration for our film. The more we discussed the more in-depth we thought about our film and what we would like to add to it. 

    We discussed several ideas that came from the film openings we watched. The first was to start the opening as of things to not do as a teenager in a scary movie. The list would go on as such, "1. Don't pick up the phone when someone random calls you.", "2. Don't entertain the idea of the creep that calls you" and so on. The problem we have with this idea is that the visuals that go with it have to be funny and we aren't sure what we can do in order to go out of the box. This idea came from the beginning of the movie "Zombie Land" this movie starts off with a list of things that you should do when living in a Zombie apocalypse. The movie's comedy comes from the fact that while they are explaining the list the visuals show what would happen if you didn't follow the list, which creates humor in the unfortunate situation. This is an idea that attracts us but we have to further discover. 

    A second idea that we thought about was to have a really random and funny clip and then say "you are probably wondering how we got here" and then the clip that comes after is a completely different situation that creates audience engagement and asks a question the gets the audience wondering for the answer. This is an idea we really want to further explore because we see it as a great way to hook the audience into our movie. We figured that the first scene the audience sees has to have some humor so my group was thinking of showing a really unfortunate situation with the background music being very upbeat to try to give the opening an ironic feeling. My group and I have juggled around with different ideas but I think we definitely have made some good progress.

Week 2 day 1

    The group has finally been decided. I am working with two of my classmates who have shown me their passion for the project. Today was the first talk we had about our ideas as a group. We went over the different types of genres we had in mind and the different strategies that we could use in order to portray the genres. In class, we watched an informative Ted Talk where we went over how to hook an audience and how it worked in movies such as Nemo and Toy Story. Two key lessons attracted me, the first being the idea that the audience wants to work for the answer to the problem of the movie, but they don't want to know they are working for it. The second lesson I was interested in was that you have to make a promise to the audience that the story will lead somewhere that's worth your time. I used these ideas in order to think of the different genres that I felt would follow these rules best.

    Personally, I looked into the idea of an action movie first. I thought of a teen-age Super Hero movie with a twist of comedy. I felt like this idea could demonstrate both rules. The problem is that the group needs a strong foundation that would work for all of us snd this idea didn't fit the foundation. I really enjoyed the aspect of having a comedic side to the film but the Super Hero side just seemed too basic and cliche. Usually, when someone thinks of "fiction" they think of some type of Super Hero movie and I want to be different. Another problem with the idea is that in order to make a Super Hero film we would want very well done elaborated special effects, and they seem too costly. Although it has some downsides I'm not one to back down from a challenge, but I thought to myself, if I focus too much on the special effects it would affect the focus and elaboration of the film I want to create. With those ideas in mind, I kept researching different topics. I was really hooked on the comedic aspect because I feel like i8t would work out very well. 

    After some research, my group and I discussed the genres, and one that stood out well was horror. Horror seemed like a great option but there were some doubts in my mind. the idea we had for the film opening was to make it a horror film with a comedy twist. One of the doubts with that idea is that we don't want it to end up completely replicating "Scary Movie" which is a film that uses some of the aspects that we were thinking of. The group was brainstorming to take a different approach to the film. Now that we have a genre that interests us we can start thinking of ways to best represent the genre. 

Week 1 post 2 (film opening)

    The search for the group is coming to a close as time is running out, I feel confident that I have paired up with people I can trust will work hard and give great ideas as well as showing great skills and knowledge. I have gotten better equipment to take the shots that we need and have also studied some of the strategies used on other film openings. Currently, we are looking for better ways to engage with the audience and see what film opening ideas we have. Our biggest concern so far is the creative aspect. We have to make a fictional movie opening and we need to make it unique in order to impress. We also have to find a story that can match with the scenery that we are able to use. So far a lot of time and thinking has gone into the start because we want a strong base and foundation to build upon. With that being said, very excited about what's to come. 

A new project week 1

     "David's Blogs" are taking a turn for the better with an all-new exciting project. We have taken on the task of creating a new fiction film movie opening. This film opening will have titles that will show institutional conventions of commercial cinema and it will be done as a group. With original self-produced content such as text, film, and scripts that project will be unique and exciting. The group hasn't quite clarified how many people will take on this project but that information is soon to come. This is a common problem because we want to make sure to be as most efficient as possible in order to make an elaborated film opening. We want to make sure that we have good equipment so the project can look as good as possible. We want to use skills such as different shots, lighting, and acting to help the context of our film opening. 

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

     From the moment we figured out our groups and logged into our breakout room we started working, first, it was the choosing of the song and brainstorming of ideas(more in-depth in the first blog post) a quick rundown of that goes as follows. After a quick switch of songs in our pop genre, our brainstorming had a snowball effect. We had a lot of ideas that we wanted to implement but towards the end, we agreed to focus on one aspect, which was jealousy. We wanted to have two perspectives of the same person, the first would be a real perspective of a young adult who is struggling with some drinking problems due to the way it makes her feel. The way it makes her feel is the second perspective of "Royalty". We knew we wanted some subtle drops of symbolism in our music video, which later on we agreed on using colors in order to make that happen.

    After the quick brainstorm of the topic, we had to develop our ideas with a few case studies, these case studies were extremely helpful and allowed us to understand the business side, more specifically the marketing and distribution strategies which are used by big labels in order to promote a new song or album. I was in charge of researching the background on Columbia and Harry Styles, but I still made sure to go over my partners' studies. Through my research done on google, I was able to find the background of the successful record company and how it became dominant in the music industry. I was also able to find a really helpful PDF that broke down Harry Styles and Columbia's marketing strategy. This included the "housekeeping" (updating social media profile), the email marketing (using "Mailchimp" in order to send bulk messages to email lists made previously), Website (providing a landing page for potential consumers), "audience engagement" (Radio interviews and podcasts) and the sales plan (where the song will be distributed and found). The case studies allowed me to explain and develop my ideas for our Record label. With that being said during my explanation of the potential strategies for our band my group discussed several important factors such as what our target audience should be, what we could sell, our major selling point, and where and when we could produce our video idea. The answer to the target audience came quickly because we figured out we wanted to focus on our followers and English speakers ages 15-21 and mostly female, with that being said we are confident that our song can stretch out of this specific audience due to the adaptations in our production. As to what we could sell and our major selling points we knew we could count on our audience and the hype we can create to prove how big this song release will be. We can also trust that the merchandise created will help others express the interest in our projects and help grow hype even more. Then came the production.

     After the making of the storyboard, we had a clear idea of where we wanted to start of our shots. We agreed on meeting up at a Walgreens in order to take the first couple of shots. Since we were at a Wallgrens we bought a brown bag and water in order to make it look like it was an alcoholic beverage. We took several shots including a low close up shot of the feet coming out of the Walgreens store and a long shot showing the girl walking to her car in order to demonstrate the environment. We took close up shots of the drinking and a tracking shot of the transition hallucination. Now it was time to take them back and forth shots of the hallucinations and what is actually happening. As explained before we wanted to show symbolism so we went to one of our group mate's houses that had LED lights. These lights let us take different versions of the same shots to show the transition between the main character's dream lifestyle and her actual lifestyle all while developing symbolism. We made sure that when she was in her dream lifestyle the lights were purple to symbolize royalty and when she wasn't in her ideal state it was a brownish yellow to symbolize dullness and poor. The character also kept a nice outfit on when she was in her royalty state and when she wasn't she wore a more worn-down outfit. Finally, all the shots were taken, and it was time to edit. The editing went smoothly due to Geraldo offering a big help and making clean transitions and choosing the right clips, as well as the input from all the other members giving feedback and ideas for the video to look at its best. When everything was done we made sure to focus on the PowerPoint and presentations.

    When it came to the PowerPoint everything went smoothly due to great teamwork and the case studies. We also discussed and sealed our ideas to make sure that they were clear and could be understood well. We made sure to show nice graphics and cite the sources that helped us develop our project. After that, it was time to present in class, when it was our turn our group was a little nervous and I found it weird because I usually feel confident in these situations. I came to the conclusion later on that it was because it was online and I couldn't see the judgment or expressions on what I was saying from others so it just felt like I was talking to myself. Besides that our group started building on each other's ideas from things like the synergy we used to promote our label to the merchandise drops. When it came to the end of our presentation I felt like we did well and it seemed like all the hard work paid off.

    I took away many things from this project. I felt like the teamwork aspect gave me confidence because it showed all the networking skills I had and how ideas came to me which I felt was very valuable. The research aspect of the project really developed m range in the understanding of not only the music industry but also the strategies that are used to develop, promote and sell a song or album. I learned a lot of small details like what plugins were for website creation or how hashtags boost the Instagram profiles created. Overall I feel like in developing my Cambridge portfolio it comes down to the details so I am very proud that I was able to get the most out of this experience. This project taught me many things that I can continue to use moving forward and overall I am happy with how it turned out.