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.