Update on the storyboard

 Hello and welcome once again! Yay finally I got something to say about the storyboard! I feel so accomplished with myself, anyway it's not 100% done, but it's definitely a thing.

So what we decided to do with the storyboard was first of all, discard the original idea and come up with what we're doing in what certain shot. Before we even begun the storyboard, we obviously met up with our teacher and clear up any questions or concerns we had, in which resulted on our plot change and the tight shot idea for the beardown scene. So after that, we went straight into working on a layout. We decided that before we even started a storyboard, we would plan out what we would include in each board. And don't worry I'll show you our descriptions. We also came to the conclusion that Amy will be filming and I'll act in front of the camera, as well as helping film if necessary, so we also have to find someone to play the second character, as well as the mysterious figure.

I tried to put the pics in order but it's kind of impossible sometimes

We have already about 20 pictures in our storyboards over what we were going to include, and yeah it's definitely a lot in about 2 minutes of footage or maybe a little more. We also decided to split up the work and my partner Amy would do the first 10 pictures of the storyboard, while I did the other half. The storyboard is almost done by the way, probably by next week I'd say since even though we have what we're doing already, it's kind of time consuming for the pictures to look like how we described it. Since let's face it, neither of us are artists and that's ok.

And well, that's it for now, I'll most likely post in a few days and post the storyboard and our schedule for shooting and the proof we're definitely not leaving this last minute, we don't like procrastination in this project. Anyway hope you enjoyed this post and I'll see you guys next time, bye!!

I met up with people (although not irl)

 Hello and welcome again to this blog where I spill all my personal thoughts while on AICE Media Class. Today, I'm bringing you with another update (shocker) about a meeting that I did with different classmates of mine in my class and we spoke about our opening film projects, and I'm going to tell you guys what went down.

Okay so what we did was talk about our opening scene ideas and give the others a chance to say what they think about those ideas, as well as the chance to ask questions and for the person to get some advice on what they can or cannot do. When I talked about my opening scene, we started discussing how the beat up scene was going to take place, and I asked what shots or techniques they could recommend so it looks more realistic. And a girl named Isabella, recommended me to use tighter shots while filming the beatdown and also not use many shots or footage of the beatdown to make it seem more realistic, kind of like what they did in the movie psycho. Other than that, I discussed how it's supposed to be a horror/comedy combination and how there isn't that many films out there with the genre. 

With the other openings, a guy named brought out this idea for his opening about a horror/comedy and the different locations he wanted to use, he even recommended locations for others in the group. Another member, started talking about her group and how the movie is about the last person on earth and Max recommended different deserted or abandoned places they could use (safely and legally of course). Then the last person that went discussed his idea about a coming of age film about a boy with superspeed, which he still hasn't decided 100% what he wanted in it which kind of concerns me due to the amount of time we had to put everything together and I kept wondering, "What will the superspeed have to do with the character and the plot in general?", but I'm pretty sure he'll think of something interesting based on what we talked about.

And well that's my daily spill for today, that meeting definitely gave me more insight and inspiration over how to film this opening, and I would definitely love to do this more often. I'll also most likely post an update regarding the storyboard tomorrow, which so far so good, but you'll have to with and see. Byee!!

Update about our story

 Hello and welcome to another episode of, "Doing this huge project which most of my final depends on". And today I got an update for you guys regarding the plot of our opening. And my partner and I decided to change the plot of our opening just slightly. 

So what our final conclusion was that the plot will now be, 2 drunk girls walking off somewhere and they're both pretty drunk. We decided to take out the car part since it would be harder to film due to the limited space, and also these girls are drunk and we don't encourage drunk driving (duh). Anyway, the 2 girls would be walking home, they're stumbling and singing random songs, ya know like most drunk people do, and suddenly, a tall black figure comes out of the bushes, and one of the drunk girls starts talking random stuff to the man, while the other friend notices the figure has something in its pocket, and they make a run for it. The figure then starts chasing them and catches up to them (somehow). And then, the 2 girls start beating the figure up, and not very well since they're drunk and don't know how to fight.

We had to talk to our teacher and make sure that the content we wanted to put in the opening was appropriate and gave us some advice about how to make our beat down scene. And she recommended us to use some tight shots. And yeah that is our update, I hope you guys like this idea better, I kind of do since it made more sense. See you guys on the next post, byee!

What will I use?

 Hello and welcome back to my blog once again! So today I wanted to talk to you guys about what in the world will I be using to make this GRAND opening scene, as I like to call it. So sit back, relax, but not too much or you'll fall asleep. 

So first of all, I would like to tell you guys our filming equipment. For camera, we're actually going to use our phones to film our scenes, we'll most likely going to use iphones. We're also planning to use a tripod to hold the camera phone in place, because if we don't use a tripod, the footage will look kind of shaky. I already have a tripod, so that's one less thing to worry about. We might also need to use a car tripod for our car scene, we'll figure out if we're going to need it when we have our storyboard complete, which is coming together by the way, and don't worry you'll get a sneak peak of the storyboard soon enough.

          

Another thing I'll definitely use will have to be my holy editing grail Adobe Premiere Pro. This editing software has saved my life so many times with the videos I have had to edit since I was in 8th grade. I started using it in Film 1 back in 8th grade, wow that seems so long ago (that was 3-4 years ago). Anyway, I'll most likely use that editing software since it's the one I feel the most comfortable with. If I end up not using it, which is highly unlikely I won't, I might use iMovie, I most likely won't though because let's face it, Premiere Pro is better and my post-production soulmate.

Well anywho, I'm also planning to do some foley sounds for the opening (duh), I'm not sure where or when I'm planning to yet, the whole thing is still a work in progress, it'll most likely be the part where the car scene will take place. Also don't worry there won't be any extreme or dangerous stunts, we take safety seriously. We're also both safe drivers, (I hope ;)). But anyway, that is all for today, storyboard post will come out sometime this week, so don't worry my peeps. I'll see you guys, probably tomorrow writing my next post, byee!! 

           Not exactly what I'm doing (I'm not that great at foley lol)

Hello It's Me Again

 Hello it is I once again and welcome back to yet again another update about this project which will probably make my head explode. Okay so over the past couple hours, my partner and I were thinking on how we'll be shooting our scenes. Like the whole how, when, where method. So I have decided to tell you guys somee behind the scenes stuff such as costume, location scouting, and casting with you guys today, and if you want to check it out, keep reading.

LOCATION

So I firstly wanted to start off with our location scouting, and we had a few ideas. My partner Amy thought it would be a great idea to do our shooting for our opening scene in the Town Center, which I thought it would suit well with our film's opening and the plot that'll take place. Some things that might happen though, would be the amount of people that show up and may delay shooting. And since the scene is at night, it might be a little more complicated, but we thought the location would be great and we just have to be careful over shooting in certain places at a certain time.

                              Town center during Night                       Town center during Day

COSTUME DESIGN/PLAN

Next thing I'll be talking about will be costume design, how exciting. So basically what we decided to do, was to give both characters pretty simple and casual outfits, since they're both young and I also gave out the idea of playing a little bit with the color of the girl's outfits. I had the idea of Julia who is the more mature protective friend, to have colors such as grey and blue, since blue represents both peace and maturity, and the blue to represent loyalty and security. For Olivia, I thought it would fit her the best to use colors such as white and blue, since white represents innocence and purity, which represents that she loves to make others feel happy and be Julia's anchor. And blue to represent her loyalty, but also trust and support. Lastly, we wanted to dress our mysterious individual in all black, to represent it's mysterious identity and aura in general, it might even represent some power, who knows?

                                                                                                                

                                        CASTING

Lastly, I'll talk to you guys about our casting. So basically what we're going to do is that me and my partner Amy will play as Julia and Olivia, which seems best and what we can do regarding filming is that either one is going to record if we have an individual scene, while the other acts their part. For our scenes of us together, we can ask a family member to record for us and we give them directions on what to do. But for our mystery character, we're planning on someone that knows how to stay still but in a creepy way and we want their body language to show that intimidation.

And this is pretty much most of the stuff coming together for our opening, I hope you guys enjoy it and I appreciate the time you have for reading my posts, it means a lot. It kind of makes me feel like I'm not talking to a wall, or well in this case a computer. I hope you guys decide to stick around and see some more sneak peaks and behind the scenes info on this crazy project of mine. Thank you so much and I'll see you guys next time. Byee!! :)

                         

Little Update

 Hello again folks!! So today I'm bringing you my day's breakdown and planning for this opening, and honestly, I'm freaking out. I really want to pull off this project and not have any issues with anything. Which may sound dumb since things are bound to happen and sometimes plans do change when you least expect it. My partner Amy and I at least have a pretty solid idea on what is going to happen in our opening scene and what we will include and what we won't

We are planning on starting to put together our screenplay and as well as our storyboard. The screenplay shouldn't be too hard since we already know what'll happen from beginning to end, so I'm not too worried about a writer's block. I am kind of worried about the storyboard since, a) it's pretty time consuming, b) the storyboard might be pretty long due to different shots and angles we're using during those few minutes, and c) we're not exactly sure which shots and angles we're going to use yet since we just have a story.

Honestly, even though I do have my reasons to be nervous about this whole process for the next couple weeks, I know it'll be just fine. I got a partner which I luckily get along with really well and we literally click. We always have such great ideas on the table and it'll be fun to do this with her, we trust each other on what can make this opening great and the things we might need to improve on. So we pretty much start doing a rough draft on our script and also start building a storyboard, which I'll of course share with you guys later on and break it down for you guys. Anyway thank you for listening or reading, whatever you want to call it, I appreciate taking the time, hope you guys have an amazing day/night and I'll see you guys on my next post, which will probably be tomorrow ;) Byee!!

Meet Our Characters

 Hello and welcome back to my dear blog, so I have returned yet again for a little update from my upcoming huge project I've been talking about for the past couple of days. Yes, that opening scene one. So I wanted to share with you guys how our characters will be like and maybe a slight peak of the plot, or maybe not. If you want to know, you'll have to keep reading.

So introducing our very first character, I present Ms. Julia Price. Julia is a 20 year old girl that is what you consider the type of person that doesn't take things too seriously, but at the same time, she's very mature in situations where it's needed. She's really picky over who she hangs out with and she'll be the most loyal person you'll ever meet. She is like the older sister the other character, who we have decided to name Olivia Barnes (who you'll learn more about later on), never had. She's very protective and practically inseparable from each other.

                                              (Inspo on who they are but not how they'll look)

                                             

The next character, which I have mentioned earlier, is named Olivia Barnes. She's the same age as Julia, but she's more of a scaredy cat than Julia, but she doesn't really like to show anyone that she's scared. She's very attached to Julia since they've known each other to what it feels like forever, and they always know to protect one another. They're practically almost attached to the hip. She's very honest and loyal, and loves being around others. But be careful with her, when she gets scared, she loves to scream bloody murder.

So after some discussion, we also decided to introduce a mysterious character (oohhh) which is a dark figure, and no we won't tell who he/she is. We got some inspo from the movie psycho, and it seems really interesting how there's times you don't know who the antagonist is or their identity. So making the "mysterious" character, well mysterious, it makes the audience want to keep watching and figure out who it is behind the shadow. Maybe the figure is a man, a woman, an alien, a monster? Who knows? You'll probably have to watch the film to find out. Lips are sealed. I hope you've enjoyed my character introduction and I'll be back (See what I did there?) with some more behind the scenes. Bye!!

I have decided, also showing you my inspirations

At last! I have finally decided what I was going to do with the genre of my project! I have decided on doing some horror and comedy opening scene. I have also planned on working with someone for this project, which is a smart idea since it would be too much work for little old me to do everything, especially for a project this big. So while I'm a it, I'll show you some research I've done into the horror and comedy genre.

Horror 

Horror is a classic genre to make people want to hug the person closest to them or even have nightmares for the next week. Horror involves bringing someone's worst nightmares into real life and give people emotions such as fear, awe, and sometimes disgust. It is a really loved genre, especially among 15-24 year old males, only a few females like horror movies, but most of them probably cover themselves with a blanket or hugging a guy for protection. Horror movies are also incredibly popular during the Halloween season, and it also brings inspirations for Halloween costumes. Some well-known Horror characters include Jason, Michael Myers, Freddie Krueger, and Pennywise. What makes a horror movie great and stand out, is the mystery and curiosity behind what makes the characters the way they are. For example, what made Freddie Krueger want to murder people in their dreams, or what made Jason want to kill teenagers at a camping site. 

Comedy

Comedy movies have also been a really loved genre, but it's probably one of the hardest genres to make. Comedy involves a lot of laughter and goofy stuff, and especially make the audience have a good laugh, sometimes a little too much. Actions and expressions are what makes a film funny, and its target audience seems to agree. The target audience is a lot more spread out for all ages and both men and women. Some well-known comedy movies include Mrs. Doubtfire, Shazam, and Clueless.

Horror/Comedy

But for the combination of both Horror and Comedy, they're not really as common as some might think. Horror and comedy are an interesting combination of getting something scary and have the ability to make it funny. Some of the few films of this genre include Ghostbusters, Boo!: A Madea Halloween, and Scary Movie. Some of these films have had a hard time being able to balance horror, but also being able to make a horror movie in a balance with Comedy.

Hmmm... So here's what I'm thinking

 So over the past couple of hours I've been thinking about what would be the best genre to do my film opening with. I think I'm planning to go with the horror comedy genre, because I love how horror mixed with comedy can freak people out but still have a good laugh. These types of films are especially good with the ones that are not huge fans of horror movies, myself included. It would also fit really well with the target audience of preteens and teens since both audiences love comedy and horror. By bringing those 2 genres together would definitely bring more attention to more audiences.

 But, I also have the question whether I should work in a group, or work by myself? I mean the pros of working alone would be more control over everything, for cons, I would have to do multitask and would probably be a lot to handle at once. But with a group... everything could be done quicker, even though there could be times our personalities or us in general might clash. I might go with a group though, since we would most likely discuss our ideas and come into a conclusion as a group and with something everyone is comfortable with.

I already have a few ideas and some inspiration from other films from both comedy, horror, and combination of the 2 and figure out how I want the opening to be portrayed in the screen. But knowing me, I might change the genre and opening scene idea completely since there might be some new ideas coming out that I might come up with in the near future. But for now, I'm pretty happy on the few ideas I already got in mind. I won't say what's coming into the opening just yet, since not everything is set in stone yet, but I think you guys will love the outcome. Well that's all I got for now, and by next post, I hopefully have a better idea on the whole opening in general. See you guys next time! Bye!

Brainstorm for my huge project with me

 Hello and welcome back to my blog! So a couple of days ago, I was assigned my biggest project of the year, and most of my Cambridge grade depends on it. My project is called The Film Opening Project, where I literally have to make an opening scene to an actual movie, there's definitely no pressure (sarcasm). I honestly don't know what I want to do with my project, and I'm definitely feeling like I got a lot of ideas of what genres I could be choosing. It could be Drama, horror, or comedy? I was considering action but that would be way too complicated, especially since I have a budget of like zero. So here I am, spilling my thoughts and ideas into this blog.

So I already have some ideas on what I want on my project:

For my first idea, I was planning on doing a horror/comedy type of opening. Maybe it can be about a girl that is having a slumber party with her friend and she suddenly gets a phone call. The caller starts saying how she's looking at her and her friend, they get freak out and they start to play along, after a funny while, they hangs up. You then follow them through their way to survive a serial killer in this fun but scary movie.

Another idea I had is that it can be about a girl being followed around and fighting a stalker in her own home, a bunch of funny things happen so she can get the stalker out, including being hit with a pan, spilling hot sauce on their mysterious face, but then the stalker gets an advantage and catches the girl against the wall with a knife pressed near her chest, then time seems to stop and a voice comes in talking about how her night got to that point.

Well, so far those are some of my ideas, I'm planning to find some other ideas of what I could make of my story and be able to catch the audience's attention to want to see more. I'm planning to do some more brainstorming and experiment with different genres (except action) and really bring that vision to life. Probably by the next time I write something on this blog, I'll have some idea on what I'd like to do planning wise for this project. Wish me luck and I'll see you guys, or well you'll hear from me, next time. Bye! 

Music Marketing- Daisey Davis

 Research

What my group and I did first in the beginning of our project was creating a chart with 2 different music companies with our designated genre of country music. We ended up choosing Universal Music Group Nashville and Warner Music Nashville. We split up both companies so 2 members of each group could research one company, my partner Jaqueline and I split up research on Universal, while the other 2 members Jireh and Rafaella researched  Warner. After researching the companies' history, we looked up case studies from artists from those companies and their marketing strategies and distribution methods. For Universal, we chose Carrie Underwood and Kacey Musgraves, and found out Carrie carries out her music by her history as winner of American Idol and TV projects and performances she's done, and Kacey Musgraves also includes a game on her website to interact with her fans called "Street Team". For Warner, we chose Blake Shelton and Dan + Shay, Blake Shelton is extremely well known for being a judge on The Voice and also did random vids in his YouTube channel he called "Pure BS", while Dan + Shay are known for using their music videos as a way of storytelling.

Planning & Brainstorming

During our planning process, we were brainstorming different ideas that could go best with our song of choice, "Need You Now", until we came to a conclusion to go with a classic breakup type of music video which tells a story at the same time. Our teammate Jaqueline volunteered to be the main singer and we all decided on the artist's name and something that can make her stand out. We then finally decided on the name Daisey, but with different spelling to also make her unique and since her name is Daisey we also wanted to incorporate flowers as part of her brand.

Presentation

For our presentation, we wanted to bring out different marketing techniques and ways to bring out a larger audience. We split our groups with the project such as Jireh being in charge of gathering marketing plans and ideas, I would work on the YouTube channel, website, and help the music video's techniques and symbolisms. Jaqueline filmed the music video and edited it too, and Rafaella worked on Daisey's social media. We all tried our best to work together even though we couldn't meet up as we wanted to, but we still managed to make it work.

Production/Post-Production

During production, we went with a more Taylor Swift vibe music video which seemed to fit the music video's theme better. We wanted to start off with some shots showing Daisey's sadness after her boyfriend broke up with her over the phone. We wanted to include some color into it to represent her emotions such as the blue lighting to reflect sadness and her dark clothing. Then there's some shots of her holding different types of flowers with different colors. Such as the White flowers first shown to show innocence, then they transition to more colorful flowers which symbolizes her moving on. Then there is the classic guitar solo which makes the audience feel more connected with her emotions and for her audience to feel that they can relate and look up to her.

Reflection

At the end, I'm really proud of what our group did despite the limitations and circumstances. I couldn't ask for a better group to work with and it definitely put some creative thinking to the test. Each and every member gave it their all into the project and we were all able to bring one idea and bring it all together. It took some long and stressful days of blocking but were able to pull through and pull it off.

To watch our presentation click here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DJI_JgO6iR5h9czX9dmBPJ28hx5DWRzPNcAwjxo5ovc/edit?usp=sharing 

For the Music Video click here:https://youtu.be/BVW1EL50l-4