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.
In my AICE Media Studies class in school, me and my classmates are learning about music marketing and brand development through a music marketing campaign project. We were put into groups and assigned a random music genre, in which we would choose one out of four songs to do our music video to. We would also need to create a "new" band or artist. Me and my groupmates got the genre of alternative, and we chose the song we liked the best: Night Running by Cage the Elephant. First of all, I did not know anything about the alternative music genre before this project, so I had a lot of research to do. Also, these songs didn't really fit my taste, so I would have to adjust to it throughout this project. I ended up liking the song. But to start the project, we would have to make a schedule.
Before doing anything towards the completion of the project, me and my groupmates got together to make deadlines for each component of the project. There were four main components to our project, that we had to complete in a short amount of time. These components were the storyboard, research paper, music video, and presentation. All of this had to happen in around two weeks. So, we had compiled a schedule to keep us aligned and ready for the completion of this project.
Picture of schedule
Next, we wanted to complete the research paper, as we agreed in our schedule. We had to research two music publishing companies who each had two artists or bands that worked for them. We also had to research the individual artist or band's marketing strategies, distribution practices, and fan interactions. We decided to study Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner Music Group. These two companies are very large companies, so finding artists would be simple to do. This research paper helped us understand what alternative music was.
Image of the research paper
Next, we had to think about ideas of our music video. We decided that we would do more of a storytelling type of a music video, rather than an artistic and promotional video, although we would have some promotional elements and shots. We created a document where each member of our group would write down an idea that would fit the song and write a basic plot of the storyline.
Music video ideas
Once we had chose our story plot (the robbery and police chase), we then started to expand our ideas and start writing out a shots list. Rather than doing a storyboard right away, we wanted to discuss the different shots and all of the storyline plots that would happen. We created a document where we split the song into 6 parts: a beginning instrumental, verse 1, chorus 1, verse 2, chorus 2, and an ending instrumental. In each of these parts of the song we would have a different pace of shots because the pace of the song is slower in some and faster in others. Once we had all of the storyline elements discussed, we created a shots list of all the shots we would have in the music video. This would make the production of the storyboard and the music video much easier.
List of shots for music video
After creating this list of shots, we decided that it was time to start working on the storyboard. This storyboard would help us film the music video later. While I was working on the storyboard, the rest of my group began on the presentation. I chose the 20 most important shots to the plot and included them in the storyboard. I included the shot type, angle, a description of the action, and a picture for each scene.
Image of storyboard page 1
One of the biggest challenges we faced in the music video planning was that we wanted to have a cop car drive up to a "robber," but no one in the group had a cop car or a drivers license. This got us thinking. We could ask one of our friends to be an actor who can drive the cop car. One of the two problems were solved. But none of us had a cop car or siren. This problem stumped us until one of us suggested that we could edit the police lights in when we were doing post-production in the editing process. Another problem occurred to us. We didn't have a cop costume or a gun for the cop. Also, we can't include the image of a gun as it's a school project. We thought for a while about this setback. We then suggested that we could try to use an "undercover cop" who just has a badge, and we could show this by having a closeup of the badge. This would work, but how would we represent the gun in the video. We took inspiration from another video and thought we could film the shadow of the "undercover cop" and show him holding a "gun" and firing it. This would work.
Now we had everything we needed to start our music video, we just had to film and create our presentation. The day after we finished our storyboard, we went to film, which went smoothly and quickly. We also discussed the major marketing plans needed for our band. Our band's name would be RedSkyz. The further steps we need to take are finishing the research for our presentation and compiling all our information into an easy to read format in our presentation. We will also create social media accounts and a website for the marketing of our band.
