Today in class, I had a meeting with other group members from other groups. We all presented our ideas to each other and gave each other feedback. I wanted to have feedback on what I could do better on the plot of my film. The people I talked to said that I had a pretty good plot, but I could make the ending better. One idea that my classmates gave me was that right after the main character crashes his bike and cuts to the title screen with the big crash sound effect playing, I could slowly introduce a muffled beeping sound and have a ringing sound effect that plays usually after someone gets hit by a flash grenade. This could then transition into the sound of the unmuffled beeping of the heart rate monitor and the character could open his eyes as his ears stop ringing. This could also be paired with a blurred effect right as he wakes up. I thought these were some good ideas that I could implement. I could have the heartrate monitor muffled as a sort of sound bridge to introduce the new location.
Another idea that my classmates had was that I could use a graphic match right after the title screen and before the hospital scene. Here's how it would go. Right after the crash and the title screen, the friend character could be shaking the main character in a POV shot from the main character. The friend would be covering the light of the sun making a nice lighting effect. Then, the friend could move out of the way of the sun, creating a big beam of overexposed light. This could then transition into the light of the hospital room. This would be a nice transition with a graphic match to get from the crash to the hospital room.
Next, my teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa, called me up to talk to me. She was concerned about my physical wellbeing, since I wanted to do a realistic looking bike crash. She asked me about how I was going to make the film so that I wouldn't kill myself in the process. I told her that I would use a rotoscoping shot of me in the air with my bike tilting forwards, then use a POV shot of me getting closer to the floor, and then a close up of my head almost colliding with the floor, and then cut to the title screen and just have a loud crash sound. My teacher told me that editing would be my best friend and this was good. However, she told me that one thing was incorrect. Rotoscoping is a method of animation, and not a method of putting an object in a film on a different background. This was a thing that I had mistaken when I was researching. When I was doing some research, I saw videos on animation rotoscoping and I also saw videos that were taking objects and putting them on different backgrounds. This was also titled as rotoscoping, so I got confused.
Rotoscoping (left) vs. Green Screening (right)
After she clarified my misinformed thoughts, she asked me how I would create this shot. I then told her that I could create a cool effect of the bike rotating in the air by using a green screen and just editing the rotation of the bike in Premiere. She said that this would work and would be better than rotoscoping, since if I used rotoscoping in this shot, one shot would be animated and the rest would be just regular film (not good). Thankfully, Mrs. Stoklosa helped me out with this misconception. I can now start researching on the right term, which is green screening. I already know how to green screen as I've used it in previous school projects, but it would be better if I could do some further research later when I am in the process of editing.
I thought this was a funny experience since my teacher was actually concerned for my wellbeing, and at first it looked like she wanted me to reconsider my idea. However, she let me go with this idea after I explained the editing that I would use to create this bike crash. I really want to go through with this idea as it would teach me a lot of editing, and I would get to implement a cool effect.
This day was important as it corrected my misconceptions, and it was a day to get important feedback from my peers. It really helped me understand how I would create my project and make it better. I think next time I blog, it will be about filming. Well, until next time. See ya!
My goal for today was to create my storyboard. I got my pencil and papers and started drawing out my ideas for each important shot. I wanted to show all of the story and important shots, so I only took some of the most significant shots from the shots list and the script. I tried to draw bicycles, but I don't really know how to. I tried my best though. Here's my storyboard:
The storyboard shows the basic plot of my film opening, starting off with the pan right medium and close up shots of medals. These shots would include some of the opening credits in a subtle white text. Then it shows the main character in a close up talking on the phone to his friend, who is reminding him about the mountain biking trip they had planned. Kiran then will leave in a medium shot to his garage. We will see the close up of Kiran pressing the button to the garage door, and then a long shot from outside his house showing the garage door open. Then there will be various shots showing him go to Markham Park: POV, tracking, long shot, extreme long shot. Afterwards, we will see the close up of a danger sign. Then, Kiran will meet his friend in an OTS shot. Then, they will start biking in medium and long shots. We will see another close up of a double red diamond sign. Then, the crash will happen in a long shot of him falling, a POV shot of him getting closer to the floor, and a close up of him colliding with the floor. Finally we will see the title screen (Big white text on black background "Back On Track") followed by a close up of Kiran in the hospital.
In the storyboard, there were multiple things that I wanted to emphasize to make sure that the audience understood the certain plotlines of the film opening right off the bat. First of all, I wanted to make sure the audience understood that the main character (me), was a high school track star. Using inspiration from the film opening from The Wrestler where the camera moved right over a bunch of the main characters accomplishments, I did a similar thing with the camera panning right over lots of medals and trophies. While one might think this is too ambitious to accomplish, I actually have lots of medals from personal races, some trophies from various different races, and my dad has a ton of medals and plaques that I could use to get these shots from. I also have a certificate that I drew in the 4th shot of the storyboard. This certificate will be used to introduce the character's name as well as show that he had a good track season in the previous year.
Another thing that I wanted to emphasize with the specific type of shot was that I wanted to foreshadow the crash that would happen in the end of the film opening. I did this by showing close up shots of the DANGER sign and the double red diamond sign. I think I will make these two shots zoom in shots as well to further signify the importance of these signs to show that beginner bikers should not be doing dangerous things like Kiran in the film opening would do. This also shows an important theme that the rules are there to be followed, not to be disregarded.
One other type of shot that I utilized to show something was the long shots. All of the long shots used were there to introduce the area that the character lived in. I also used these long shots so that I could put some of the credits into these shots as it won't take too much focus off of the character, and it would be a good time to input the credits. There won't be too much action in these long shots and the camera would most likely be still, so putting the credits here will be beneficial, as putting the credits in the scenes where there is actions going on will distract the viewers.
The storyboard will be helpful as it shows the kind of shots that I want, and it visualizes each shot, so that when I go to film, the shots will already be planned out, and I will only need to shoot the shots in accordance to the storyboard. It will also make the filming process faster as the ideas are already drawn out, I will just have to film.
I think that's enough writing for today, though. I now need to film the project. Well, until next time. See ya!
Today, I wanted to complete my script. To accomplish this, I opened up Celtx, which is a scriptwriting and pre-production tool to help create scripts.
The first thing that I was faced with when tackling my script was the title of the film. This topic still lingered on my mind since my last blog, since it is a big part of the film, as it will capture the essence of the entire movie. The movie will be about the now disabled character trying to find his way to back to where he was. Some of the movie titles that I was thinking about were Broken, Track Star, or Back on Track. I think I will most likely go with Back on Track, but I will continue to ponder upon some titles.
I based off my script on my shots list that I created a few days ago. There were some things that I needed to change. I had to change the name of "Character" and "character's friend" to make sense in the script. I changed these to "KIRAN" and "FRIEND," respectively. I didn't know who to cast as the friend in my film yet, so I had to just put friend in there.
A section of my shots list.
A section of my newly made script
As you can see, there's lots of difference as I've added new dialogue and changed the names of the characters.
Why would I show you guys a section of the script when you could see the entire script. Here's the actual document that I uploaded onto Google Docs (LINK HERE). If you don't want to open that up, its fine. I'll show you here.
So this is my script. Making a script will be extremely helpful in the production part of this film as it will help me visualize the different sections of the filming process. I now have all the locations set and all the actions planned out. Even if I need to add or remove things, it will be easy to do so. Using a script during the production and filming process will rapidly speed things up as it will help me to set up each action quickly, and it will make the filming process faster in general by giving me the basic overlook on the shots. Even if I don't know what shots to use, I can go look back on my shots list. The script will help my actors understand what they need to do as their roles are capitalized and can be seen easily. Even if they have no prior knowledge of the film, I can just show them the script and they will know their roles.
I still need to get a fixed title as well as find two actors who will be willing to help. The pedestrian won't have a big role and will take probably 10 minutes maximum to film. But the friend will have a significant role, so I will need to plan with someone ahead of time. Well, until next time. See you!
Now that I had all my research done, I can finally create my shots list. I opened up Google Docs and started writing down my thoughts from the previous days into my shots list. I wanted to include what type of shot, what action is being done, and what kind of audio is playing in each shot. I also talked about how some shots foreshadowed upcoming events in the film. Well, here's my shots list:
While creating my shots list, there were some problems that I have not thought about that I need to tackle soon. I have not thought about what people I will cast as the role of the main character, the friend, and the pedestrian. However, I have some ideas of what I will do. I think that I will probably be the main character, and I will ask one of my friends named Sean to cast as the role of the friend. He is good at mountain biking so he won't get hurt in the making of the film.
However, one of the main concerns I have about the film is that I will get hurt. Not by making a mistake in mountain biking, but by having to fall off my bike in the film. To make a realistic crashing scene, I will inevitably have to jump off my bike or do something that will make the film look believable. I'm thinking that I could just make it with some close ups of the bike falling and then just using a POV shot of the camera falling towards the floor. But that would be lame. I want to create the effect of the bike rotating in the air and then the guy hitting his head on the floor. I could probably do this with rotoscoping. All I need is a green screen or a single colored wall.
I also need to finalize the title of the film and the font that I will use for the film credits and the title. I also need to create a film production company and to create the logo for that company. This might be a problem as I will need to look into examples of production cards.
Creating the shots list will help the overall process of making the film because it will give me the shots I need when I'm filming. It will give me an outline of the plot as well as giving me a structure and plan during the production of the film. If I did not create a shots list, I would just be going improv when I am filming the project. This would not turn out good. Therefore, a shots list is necessary. It has also provided me with extra thought of the problems addressed above. Without creating the shots list, I would not have thought about these problems that I will now try to fix. The shots list also provides me with a sort of schedule. Since I have to film in different locations, I will have to plan out for different days of filming. For example, I would need to film one day for all the shots in my house and another day for all the shots in the bike park. Therefore, this shots list is essential to the structure, planning, and schedule of my filming process. Now that I have a shots list, I will be able to create a storyboard with the most important shots in it. I will also be able to choose the most important shots because I know what all the shots will be in my film. Finally, creating the shots list this early will provide as a guideline, and not a plan that's fixed in stone. I will be able to change it if I need to make the film longer or shorter.
Anyways, I will now need to create a storyboard, which is what I'll probably do in my next blog post. Until next time. See ya!
Since I created the plot of my project yesterday and it included a disabled person, I thought that today I would do some research on disabled people and their representation in media.
Representation of Disabled People
There are different stereotypes of disabled people in medias. These stereotypes can be positive or demeaning, but in either scenario, they are usually never accurate to reality. Nowadays, more realistic characters with disabilities are being represented in the media; however, stereotypes are very much still present. Most actors who play the role of a disabled person are not actually disabled. This can create a false association with people who are healthy and disabled people. This can also create a false representation of a disabled person as the actor isn't actually disabled. One film and book that had represented a disabled character was called Wonder. The story is about a boy named Auggie who has a craniofacial disorder. The book was written before the movie and was beautifully written and beloved by many. Lots of people with similar disabilities found that this was a book that they could really relate to, so they loved it. However, when the movie came out, people were not as happy with the representation of Auggie in the film. The boy who played as Auggie was not actually disfigured. The actor only appeared as a disfigured person, instead of casting a person who actually is disfigured.
On the left is the actor for Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) and on the right is how he was given prosthetic makeup to make him seem disabled.
Also some people thought that Auggie's face was made not as disfigured to make it visually softer on the audience to make them think that this disfiguration of the face isn't as bad as it seems.
Now back to talking about stereotypes. There are certain stereotypes that involved disabled people. The main three stereotypes include the hero, the villain, and the victim.
The Hero
The hero stereotype is all about how the character with a disability tries to overcome the mental or physical disability. One example of this could just be about how the can change their behavior and characteristics to defeat their disability or learn to work with it to fit in more with society. An extreme example of the "hero" stereotype is literally being a superhero. One of the most notable hero with a disability is Daredevil, who is blind.
The poster for Daredevil clearly showing that something is wrong with his eyes.
But his blindness only enhances his other senses. Although this stereotype is in a positive light about disabled people, there are a few problems that could occur while using this point of view of a disability. Films that use this stereotype are about how the character learns to deal with the disability and not how their everyday life goes. This can discourage many people as the details about the struggles the characters portrayed in this stereotype are often mitigated or not shown. It also portrays disabilities as just a "problem" or a "hurdle" that a person should overcome to fit into society. If one cannot overcome a disability, this can make people upset or discouraged. Furthermore, the hero stereotype is almost usually acted by people who aren't disabled, showing a false image of disabled people.
The Villain
Physical disabilities have often been attributed to evil or sinister characteristics. In recent years, characters with disability have been shown to be driven to evil, vengeance, or violence due to their hate of their disability. Not only physical disability, but also mental disability can contribute to the violence of a character. Mental illness has been correlated to crime and violence in many films, even though many people with mental illness tend to be the kindest and most innocent people in reality. Furthermore, most times people with disabilities actually are the victim of violence, not the other way around. This shows that this stereotype is usually false and tends to show disabled people in a negative light. One of the examples of a villain with a mental disability is The Joker from the movie The Dark Knight.
The character shown above is The Joker from The Dark Knight
In the film, The Joker is shown as a schizophrenic, and not only is his mental disability contributing to his series of crime and violence, but it also makes him cruel. Another example of a villain with a disability is in Captain America: The First Avenger. The villain of the film, Red Skull, is represented with having a disfigured and red face.
Red Skull is shown in the image above.
Red Skull was a character who had gotten his face disfigured, showing disabled people in a negative light. Although making him have a physical disability is a way to make the villain more scary and creepy, which gives him a better role as a villain, this does give a bad example to people with actual disabilities. The actor, Hugo Weaving, is also not an actually disabled person, which gives another false representation of a disabled character. A problem that casting a disabled person as a villain can create the negative outlook for disabled people by giving them a bad example and showing them that if they cannot live a normal life, they should not let anyone else do so either.
The Victim
This stereotype of the victim is the most common type of disabled character, who is depicted as a helpless and miserable creature that people should pity. In other times, the disability can be used to gain sympathy from a viewer. This can be seen in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
This is Quasimodo, the main character of the film
Quasimodo, is born with kyphosis, has a large wart on his eye, and slowly becomes deaf as he works in a clock tower. Although he has all these disabilities and can be seen as miserable, he also gains the support and sympathy from the audience watching this film.
The victim stereotype can also be used to give comedy to a film by using the disabilities of characters to create funny scenarios. One example of using an intellectually challenged character is in Forrest Gump, since the main character is often slow in situations, it can create humorous situations.
Forrest Gump is a character with a intellectual problem as he tries to live his life.
Final Thoughts
This research will help me figure out how to create a good tone of the film as this research will serve as a basis of the disabled main character. This research has shown me the different stereotypes of disabled people in films and can help me decide what I want my character to be in my film after his accident. It also helped me see how the representation of disabled people in today's media is not very accurate or fitting of actual disabled people. Although I know I will most likely not be able to use a disabled actor, I will try my best to make sure I can properly represent this underrepresented group properly. Well, until next time! See you later.
Now that I've done my research about various genres and have chosen something to do with the sports drama genre, I can now decide what kind of plot I want to do. I wanted to do something that I could somewhat relate to. As a varsity cross country and track runner, I've always been scared of being injured, since if I get injured, I won't be able to run for a long time, and I would lose lots of progress. With this said, I wanted to create a film that exposed and made this fear come to life, not to scare me, but to embrace what could be in an alternate reality.
Plot
A plot that I've been thinking about is about a high school track star who's won many races for his team. He is widely accomplished. The basic plot of the film would be about him getting into an accident where he gets physically impaired and then trying to get back to where he previously was in his physical and mental state.
I'm thinking that the film would start with some shots of his medals and trophies to introduce a the character's accomplishments. These medals and trophies would give more background about the character. This would take inspiration from "The Wrestler" as I have researched in my previous blog post, where the camera scrolled past lots of magazines of a man's accomplishments.
A shot from the movie "The Wrestler" (shows the magazines across the entire shot)
This would be similar to my shot because instead of scrolling past magazines, it would be looking at medals. This would be cross-cutting between him on a phone call with his friend, who is convincing him to go mountain biking. The track star has never been mountain biking before, so he is hesitant. But he eventually goes with him. The credits would play in a subtle way like in "Ali" where it would be off in the side and in a subtle white text.
A shot from the movie "Ali" (showing the subtle yet noticeable credits)
Next, there would be more credits as the main character bikes over to the mountain biking park. This scene would have music play over it and have a series of long shots. This would establish his setting as in more of a wealthier neighborhood.
After a little bit of riding in the bike park, he would have a terrible crash with the music leading up to this point and stopping as he collides with the floor. I'm thinking of either using rotoscoping to make a cool effect with the crash or just cutting right before the character hits the floor so we won't actually have to hit the floor from a bike crash.
Right after the crash and the climax of the song, there would be either silence or the sound of the bike wheel continuing to spin. This would be accompanied by a black screen with a big font for the title. I'm still deciding what the title will be. It would be something similar to a synonym to broken. Or maybe it could be "Back on Track" as this can be seen in two ways: the main character getting back onto the running track or the main character getting back to where he was (getting back on track).
The film opening would end with the main character in the hospital. This is probably my biggest concern as I don't have access to any hospitals. However, I could probably get away with just a close up shot of the character's face and a heart rate monitor beeping in the background. I still need to decide how the character will be impaired. Will he hit his head and become mentally ill? Will he become blind? Will he break his legs? I'm thinking that he should still be able to run, but give him an impairment that will give his life a difficult time in doing everything. This will make the plot more interesting.
Thoughts
Knowing the plot of my film this early on in the process of creating the film will help me because it will give me enough time to make revisions to it or change anything I don't like.
Now that I know that I will have a disabled person in my film, I will need to research the representation of this group of people in media. I already know that disabled people are one of the least properly represented groups in media, but I will need to research how they are represented so I can properly understand how to make a film on this group of people. If I didn't do this research, I would not know how to properly represent this group and create a film that isn't great as it isn't even accurate to reality.
With the research done in my previous blog post, I can now choose between the 4 genres that have been thoroughly researched on. I've decided based on the research in my prior blog that I don't want to do something with the action or horror genres as these would relatively be more difficult than sports or drama genre films. I would like to focus more on either the drama or sports genre. There's also a separate "sports drama" genre, which would be a good genre, since I'm thinking of including sports in a drama film. So, today I'll be looking at some sample film openings.
Sample Film Openings
Looking at one sports drama movie called "The Wrestler" from 2008, the film starts with the name of the production companies, as any other movie would begin. The opening is just a long shot of the camera moving to the right in a tracking shot looking at many different magazines and papers that include information on wrestling. This type of introduction tells the people about what the movie will be about and establishes a background of the character that will be introduced later in the story without even showing the character's face. The introduction uses a green, bold, and italicized font to include the credits of the producer, director, writers, etc. The introduction also uses lots of asynchronous sound by using the sound of boxing match announcers and rock and roll music. This starts off the music on a lively note with loud upbeat music and lots of vibrant colors.
Another film I decided to look at was "Ali" from 2001. This film opening uses lots of cross cutting between a singer and a man who is training. The singer starts out as synchronous but turns into asynchronous when the singer is still heard in shots that are looking at the runner. This music gives a lively feel to the opening, but this is contrasted by the mise-en-scene of the piece. The film begins with using very dull colors with lots of greys and blacks. The man who is training is in some sort of montage. Unlike the previous film, this one uses a smaller and white font to include the credits. This is a more subtle way to add in the names of the people who worked on the film.
These two film openings have given me an example of how to start out the film. I could do something that introduces the character by showing his/her achievements or I could try to start out with a character training in the night. Both types of these film openings show that the genre of the film is obviously sports. They also both use some lively music to start out the film. Using these two as an example, instead of crosscutting from a singer and a training man, I could possibly cross cut between someone's awards and trophies and to them training. This is just an idea I got from the videos. But I will definitely use some type of upbeat music like used in both of these film openings in my project.
To add onto yesterday's ideas, I have decided that I would like to work by myself. Although this may be a hinderance to me, I think that I could ask some of my friends to help me film if I need to film myself or someone else.
Following my schedule that I also made yesterday, I think it would be best if I researched some genres that interested me or that I could possibly use to do the film opening on. I researched the different type of movie genres and there are a couple that caught my eye:
Horror
Drama
Action
Sports
I wanted to choose the genres that were actually in my capability of creating a film opening for. For example, I would've liked to do sci-fi, but my creativity would outdo my ability to edit, so that wouldn't be applicable for this project as I would probably wanted to do aliens and spaceships.
Although I didn't want to do anything regarding the animation movie genre, I wanted to use some animation in my film opening as I would like to learn about the animating process in Premiere Pro and After Effects.
Horror
Time to do some research! Starting with the horror genre, I have already done prior research for this genre (right here), but I wanted to dive further into the film openings that have been created in this genre. I think I'll do that tomorrow because today I want to look at the genre conventions. Since I'm already done with horror, I'll go onto do drama.
Drama
Content
Usually, films that reside within the drama genre revolve around the life or lives or the main character/s. The genre mainly focuses on struggles or complications that the protagonists goes against. Some examples of conflicts can include poverty, mental illness, or drug or alcohol addiction. Sometimes this struggle could just be everyday life. The setting for a drama movie could take place anywhere, including at a house, an office, or anywhere where characters can interact with each other. It can be set in any time period or region in the world as long as there is a conflict. Although the setting could technically be anything, it still has to be realistic as drama can be a more serious and realistic genre.
The genre of drama tends to be the cheapest type of film to produce since there is no extra equipment needed such as costumes, props, special sets, or any special locations. Everything can be shot as it is. Drama also tends to be the largest genre with over half (51.6%) of the 20 past years starting in 2017. This means that it is largely defined, since it is just a story about a character with conflict. There are many types of drama including crime films, courtroom dramas, epics, and melodramas.
Production Techniques
Dramas tend to want to bring out the emotion and focus on it to make it feel more real. So it will use some production techniques to accomplish this task. One of these techniques is to manipulate lighting and mise-en-scene to create a dark overtone in the shot. Concealing the backgrounds in the scene with dark lighting and making the character lit well will give a good contrast and really focus in on the emotion that the character is feeling.
Another way to create more emotion in the scene is to use more close-up shots. Obviously, the close up shots will be closer to the characters face, which will show the details of their facial expressions. This will focus in on the character's emotion.
One other production technique to draw out emotion is to edit the shots slowly and use slower transitions to draw out each scene. The prolonged time of each shot will give the audience more time to think about the emotions that are being felt by the characters.
Everyone loves a good action movie. Especially one with Tom Cruise in it. But what makes an action movie an action movie? Well, the answer is lots of action. Hmm, this definition seems too broad. Lets expand. The action genre is one where a protagonist is thrown into a series of obstacles that usually revolve around physical or violent conflicts. There is usually a very dangerous villain or antagonist, lots of life-or-death events, and a chase for the protagonist to defeat the antagonist. Action films traditionally use lots of fast and expensive cars, weaponry like guns and explosives, police, and fighting.
There are usually certain types of characters in action films. This can include the protagonist as the strong and handsome man, a comedic sidekick or partner, a nice and pretty girl (who may date the protagonist), the police, and an evil villain with his henchmen or team who carry out crimes and violence.
Production Techniques
Action films usually use lots of CGI and editing techniques to be able to carry out the extreme events that occur in these types of movies.
Various types of lighting are used to show different moods in these movies. Dark lighting can indicate a more mysterious or dangerous tone, while a more lit lighting could create a more happy tone.
Camera angles can be used to indicate power within different characters. High angle shots can be used to show belittlement or powerlessness in a character, while a low angle shot could be used to show that a character has the upper hand or is stronger.
There tends to be lots of contrast in sound levels within different parts of the movie. Times that are pleasant and relaxing are usually more quiet and have an equilibrium, while louder and more sudden sounds can create tension for the audience.
Action films usually use lots of quick and short shots and show many different angles and shots in a short amount of time to make it feel more fast-paced for the viewer.
Sports films revolve around a certain sport that a main character will play, which makes sports the central topic of the film. Although this may be the central focus of the film, sport is usually never the central concern or problem in the film as it is usually playing an allegorical role. Sports fans aren't really the target audience for sports films, but they happen to be a large amount of the followers of these types of movies.
Obviously sports films always have an athlete in it. There is usually a narrative of sporting heard throughout the film. There is always a big failure or obstacle in the film. The film usually works towards the resolution of this failure and focuses on relationships between other characters such as teammates or family. These films include a character development in the main character, and it has a realization near the end of the movie that the main character makes, which creates a good ending, There is a conflict with emotional and physical struggles.
Production Techniques
Costume design usually consists of stereotypical sports outfits with jerseys and helmets. This can also include typical props like a soccer ball, basketball, or hockey/lacrosse sticks.
Like drama films, the sports film genre can use both high and low angle shots to indicate an imbalance of power between two or more characters. High angle shots can show weakness, while low angle shots can show strength.
With all of this research done, I'm thinking that an action film may not be for me as it would require lots of equipment that I don't have. I think drama or sports would be the best option for me as it won't be too expensive to create as they are relatively cheap to produce. Also, I like sports since I'm a varsity cross country runner. Well, next time you check up on me, I'll be looking at some samples of film opening in these genres. Until next time! Bye.
Hey, today I wanted to get myself organized and make sure I'll be able to finish the project in the allotted time. Even though it's a lot of time, I still need to work hard.
Although my teacher has already given a suggested schedule for the project and how to use my time, I wanted to create a more details list of things to do for each week so I know what I need to do for each week regarding the portfolio project. Here it is:
The Schedule That I Created Today
I opened google docs and used my teachers schedule as a reference for how much time we had. I also looked at how many blog posts I should do. I combined all of this to put together my own schedule. I also added some goals that I wanted to accomplish for myself such as learning rotoscoping and other effects in After Effects, since I have no prior experience with it.
Tomorrow, I'll start the work on the project by researching on some genres that interest me and that I can relate to so that I can create the best possible film opening. I also need to talk to my classmates to see if they would like to work together, but I'm pretty sure that I'll be working by myself so I'll be able to see my own process work itself out. See you tomorrow!
After a full semester of learning about all of the different media techniques, I have finally been assigned the portfolio project, which I will be getting around 7-8 weeks to finish it. Although this seems like a lot of time, I know that there will be lots of work to do. I'll keep posting on what I'm doing with this blog so I can keep some documentation.
There is so much on my mind about this project right now. I don't know if I'm going to work by myself, what the genre of my video is going to be, what the plot will be, or what I'm going to do first. But everyone starts somewhere. So, I think what will happen is that I will create a schedule and deadlines for different components of this project to ensure that I will complete the project on time.
In class, my teacher showed me something that really caught my eye. When reviewing the different type of film openings, she showed an animated type of film. This made me really interested because I thought this style of video was really cool. I knew I wanted to incorporate some of this animation in my film and probably some rotoscoping. However, I didn't even know what rotoscoping was and after some research, I found out that it was a type of editing in post-production that could be animated or could be used to edit something out of a video clip. I thought this was very interesting. But, I will have to find a genre that could fit this type of editing.
I'm thinking of doing some horror type of film, since I enjoy horror movies, and I've already done lots of research on the horror genre as seen in my previous blog (link here). My teacher also showed me the introduction scene for Scream, and I thought it was really cool how it was mocking the traditions of horror. But my teacher also said I should stick to what I know instead of breaking the genre conventions. I'm not Steven Spielberg yet. Some things I know best are running (since I'm on a varsity cross country team), mountain biking, and school. But I don't want to do anything about school, as it would be cheesy.
I'll be thinking about the topics some more and brainstorming ideas on what I should do for genre and plot. I can only create the opening of the movie if I know what the plot is. So, I'll keep this blog informed. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
I have been working with my three groupmates on a music marketing project for the past two weeks. This project revolved around a random genre we were assigned and then we would have to create a brand or a new artist based off of that song. Forget about the singer or band of the song chosen. We have to make a new brand and an entire marketing and distribution plan for said brand. We were assigned the genre of alternative music. This was a bit of a problem as I didn't know what alternative music was prior to this project, so I had to learn about it and create an entire brand revolving around it. Out of the four given songs, we chose "Night Running" by Cage the Elephant. Me and my three groupmates have worked hard on creating a storyboard, a research paper, a music video, and a presentation for this project. Let me tell you about the process of each of these components.
Planning
Before we could start this project, we needed a plan. This project is an extensive one, so we would need a schedule for all the components of the project to make sure we can complete it on time and properly. We got onto a word document and just created a quick schedule so we could get started with our research chart.
Picture of schedule
This schedule would give us a good idea of what we needed to do and how much time we would have to complete each task. We wanted to complete all of the research before we would do the presentation, which included the marketing and distribution plans, since this would help us understand the genre better and create a better marketing and distribution campaign for our brand. Then we wanted to brainstorm ideas for the music video and storyboard as soon as possible so we could start the filming of the music video. Completing the filming would give us time to edit the video together. After planning, we got started on our work.
Research
Like I said earlier, I had no idea what alternative music was. At first, I thought that it was an older kind of music because the sample songs that we were given were all older music; however, as the project progressed I realized that I would be wrong. But first, we needed to research about two different music publishing companies and under each company, we needed to research two artists or bands related to our genre. In our research we wanted to include the marketing and distribution practices of artists in our genre so we could have an easier time creating our own campaign using the research as an example of a campaign. We also wanted to note the target audiences and the audience interactions of these artists.
Page 1 of research paper
The research paper would also help us with an upcoming essay that would be about marketing and distribution to a specific target audience. We noticed that a lot of these artists utilized multiple different social medias to advertise their band, and they all used multiple streaming platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music to upload and distribute their songs. We thought we would do the same with our campaign. Now that we had our research done, we could start our brainstorming for our music video.
Brainstorming
Now can we could start filming? No we cannot. Before filming we needed to plan out the music video. We can't just film without having an idea of what we were going to film. So our group got together and discussed ideas of what the song's video could be about. We decided that we wanted to do a story music video rather than an artistic or promotional video. Each member of the group said an idea that they would like to see as the story of the music video. My idea was a party, as the vibe of the song just felt like a late night party. The idea we chose was a house robbery and then a police chase. Although this sounded ambitious, we knew that we could accomplish this.
After getting the idea for the music video, we had to create a shots list to create a storyboard. Rather than creating the music video first, we wanted to create a shots list on a word document. Creating the list of shots before doing the storyboard would make the storyboard much easier to do as we would know every shot that we would want. Then we could draw it.
List of shots for music video
With the shots list done, we could finally start the music video storyboard. Only one person was needed to do the storyboard since the shots list was already done, and we just needed someone to draw and label the most important shots. I took up this task.
Image of storyboard page 1
With the storyboard finished, could we finally start creating the music video? Yes, we could now start filming once we had all of the members together.
Production
This music video required the filming to be during the night time because robberies are usually done at night and the song was called "Night Running." It was only fitting to film during night. There were some problems that we had to solve before the filming of this video. We wanted a cop to pull up to the robber and start chasing the robber; however, we didn't have a cop or a car. We solved the problem of having no car by calling one of our other friends and asking him to bring his car. We solved the cop problem by printing out a badge and just making him an undercover cop.
Shot of police badge
One more problem we had was that we didn't have a gun. Obviously high school students wouldn't have guns. So we would have to get creative. Instead of showing a shot of a gun, we showed a shot of the shadow of the "cop" holding a phone. This looked like a revolver or a pistol, which was good.
Shot of shadow of police officer holding "gun" (My favorite shot)
With all these problems solved, we started filming. We wanted to take multiple different shots for each scene as it would make the video more interesting and fast paced. I was the cameraman with one of my groupmates helping me. My friend with his car would be the cop and my other two groupmates had roles in the music video. I would tell each actor what they would do in each shot, and then I would film each shot at the intended shot type: medium shot, close-up, long shot, POV, etc.
Post-Production
With the filming finished, all we needed to do to finish the music video was to edit the shots together in a cohesive manner. Although we worked together to film the video, it was better that only one person worked on the editing of the music video because it would be a hassle if two or more people worked on it, since they would have to transfer the files to each other, and it would be a mess. One of my groupmates worked on this part while my other groupmates and I worked on the presentation. Before he could edit, we had to send the files to him because we filmed the shots on another group member's phone. However, we had a problem sending the files to him during class one day, so we had to wait another day for class to send the files to him.
My groupmate did a good job of editing the shots together that made the story understandable and cohesive. He used Premiere Pro to edit the video. We uploaded it onto YouTube for ease of access and because we wanted to include a YouTube page for our distribution and marketing plan for our band.
Presentation
Finally, with all of the other components done, we worked on the presentation. We did work on the presentation during the creation of the music video, but now that everything else was done, we could completely focus on the marketing campaign and distribution plans for our new band. We first wanted to be on the same page for the marketing plan. With everyone on the same page for the marketing plan, we could then split up the work and make a cohesive plan, instead of everyone just doing what they think is the right plan. We also named the band RedSkyz and created the brand message of chasing your dreams. We called the band RedSkyz because we wanted show that the sky was the limit and that we wanted to include red in the name as it would be more edgy and create a color scheme for our band.
Marketing steps slide
We split up the slides so we could finish faster. I got the slides for social media marketing, distribution plans, and cross media convergence usage. Examples of slides my team members got were internet presence and genre conventions. For my social media marketing slide, I needed to create examples of the social media that we would use. I decided to create a Facebook page.
Examples of social media posts on Facebook
On the social media pages, we would post merch advertisements, upcoming concerts around the world, and announcements for new releases for songs or physical copies such as vinyl.
One of my other groupmates created a website where we would sell the merch and also market our band. He also created lots of merchandise and the band logo. For the color scheme of the website, he chose red, obviously, as it is in the name of our band, and various greys.
With the presentation completed, all we needed to do now was present it in front of our class. We decided to present first as it is always better to go first. Since there is nothing to base our presentation off of, ours will look like the best. I had prepared a paper with all the things that I would say, and I put less words on the presentation, so the audience would have to listen to me speak as I held valuable information.
My groupmates had note cards with what they would say. I think we did a good job on presenting as I did a good job on explaining my slides and talking to the audience, instead of looking at the board or at my paper.
Reflection
In this project, I learned all about the alternative music genre, as I had known nothing about this genre before this project. I also learned that there are multiple different components to creating a marketing campaign because I had to create a marketing campaign. I also learned how to be a better leader and manage a team. In this project, I had to manage my group with what they would do in the filming process and in the presentation. I was the one who was reminding people of what they had to do, and I learned of what to do in this type of position in a group project. My newly gained knowledge of leadership and time management will help me on a big project like the Cambridge portfolio, as planning my time would be very useful, and if I work with others on this project, leadership would help a lot.
