Day 7

     Recently, we did a group meeting review of each of our film openings. In my group I tried my best at giving out as much tips and suggestions to my group. The people that were in my group were Antonio, Nadia, Giulia, and Andreina. I told Antonio to think about color scheme, and to think about a better title name than the shapeshifter. I thought that the shapeshifter gave away what the story was about too easily. I told Nadia that she should pitch in more of her authentic ideas to her group because she doesn't feel very in control about the storyline at all. I didn't really know what to say to Andreina and Giulia to help them out. The idea that they gave me was for my title name. Antonio said that the name could be Betrayed since my main character's parents get betrayed by the government. I don't think we'll end up using this suggestion because the plot doesn't really focus on the fact that his parents got betrayed. The story is supposed to focus on the downfall of the government because of the main character. So, Alec and I don't really think it'll fit well with the plot.

Day 6

    In class Alec and I shared our ideas and finally came to a conclusion on what exactly we're doing for our project. We established that our genre is military fiction. We also established a few things about our main character and the general overview of his backstory and how it will be demonstrated through the film opening that we will create. Our main character is plotting to construct an anarchy in society and is trying to rise up in society to be able to do that in the first place. He does this by joining the military. The whole reason behind his intentions is because the government made a negative lasting impact on his parents and he shares a deep connection with his family. So, this hurt him deeply. He seeks revenge on the government by establishing an anarchy, and down with the monarchy. 

    As for our setting, we decided on good places that can serve its purpose for our film opening:

• School courtyard
• Auditorium
• Basketball Court
• JROTC room
• Home/House
• Street

The setting is supposed to establish the main character's line of work and personality. So, basically we're establishing setting and character in our film opening.

The general overview of the film opening:

Begins with a speech about needing a monarch, which leads to the title drop on the screen. Then, the main character views a photo of his family and admires it. He gets ready for work and then he tries to visits his parents who suffered an accident that is related to the government but fails to do so because he feels guilt or anger towards the government or the fact that he couldn't do anything to protect them. Next, we're gonna show the main character changing his attitude and face to a more friendlier face before entering a place where he'll meet his colleagues and friends. 

Day 5

     After doing our research last class, Alec and I were assessing our situation and decided that we need to decide on a genre. Because the both of us are being indecisive on what we wanna do. So what we're gonna do is on today's blog post we're gonna write a detailed explanation of what we wanna do with each other's ideas and use that to decide a genre. Then, on Monday we're gonna assess what genre we're gonna do. 

    So I really enjoy the use of "The First Napkin" speech in the film opening. Alec and I already for sure decided that we're gonna do a character vs. society film opening. I also already have vivid imaginations of some shots I wanna make happen and how I want it to look like. Key colors that I want in it are mostly like a light blue, gray, and white. I feel like those colors need to be present, because I feel like it would be great. Before I get into more depth here is my vision of what our film opening can be:

    At the beginning it'll start off with a scene of someone setting a table which will symbolize the structure of society. It'll show how everything is organized in a way where everything is where it's supposed to be. Next, people will start getting seated at the table and will take what the speech is saying literally at some point. Which is someone is going to take the first napkin. That person is going to be the one who "rules over" society, or the one who sets the rules in the setting that they are in. I have not really developed the context that they are in at the dinner table. However, the last person who picks up their napkin will be our main character. Which will symbolize how he rose up from the bottom and made it to the top. The top being the person who destroyed society. 

However, I'm not really sure where to put the title of the film. I also haven't thought of what the title could be. For our film opening I really want to use things that are symbolic of something, I'm really inspired to do this because of a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho that we analyzed in class and because of the research that I did on different character vs. society movies. For music, I'm really stuck on two songs that we can use for the film opening that could be great.

Music:

On The Run by Pink Floyd

Eastside Story by Trevor Duncan

Day 4

Alec and I decided to begin our research in class. We agreed on character vs. society, so I searched for character vs. society movies and watched their film openings. The film openings I watched were from V for Vendetta, Shrek, Pleasantville, The Hunger Games, Footloose, and Breakfast Club. For every film opening I paid close attention to detail and made a short analysis.

-V for Vendetta:

Establishes the structure of society, and the main characters. The coordination of their movements and activities in the opening scene may be trying to tell the audience that the characters are similar. I have watched this movie and the film opening does reveal how messed up their society is. The coordination of their movements does align with the plot because they eventually meet and become friends. The film opening demonstrates both characters shutting off the tv that's showing a man talking about things that both characters don't agree with. I think it's safe to assume that from the film opening because one of the characters says "That's enough" and shuts it off while the other character does the same. 

-Shrek:

Establishes the fact that Shrek is an ogre that is hated by society because of his differences. The way he lives and eats is different from society. I have watched this movie and I think the film opening does a great job at setting the stage for what the movie is gonna be about. It gives the audience everything you need to know.

-Pleasantville:

Cuts between three instructors talking about things that will happen in the future that will probably have an effect on the well-being and general lives of students.

-The Hunger Games:

Establishes the state of society and what the hunger games is exactly, and the person behind it all. People have to fend for themselves, shown through Katniss hunting. Food is hard to come by. The difference between costume design between the man behind the hunger games and Katniss. The first seem luxurious and well off compared to Katniss. This demonstrates that there is some type of inequality.

-Footloose:

Opens with credits and title name and different types of dancing styles in the background. You can tell that the people dancing vary from teenagers to young adults because of their attire. At the church, it seems that the teenagers are targeted by the church for listening to rock and roll and the rest of the adults at the church agree. I have watched this movie and the film opening clearly sets the stage for what the movie's about. Dancing. The scene in the church establishes that the guy having his soapbox has something against rock and roll and preaching it to the rest of the families, which is spreading the message of how rock and roll is most likely "demonic". Throughout the movie, the man bans dancing. Which is entirely against the kids because they love dancing.

-Breakfast club:

A quote by David Bowie is presented on the screen and is then literally shattered as if someone through a ball through a window. Which is a metaphor for how society rejects that quote, or ignores it because of the sense it makes towards children. The main characters are then presented through their interactions between their parents. Every parent treats each character differently in their own way. One of the characters doesn't walk in with any parents, he walks in by himself. The other parents are disappointed with their child, have unrealistic expectations of their son, and the other two characters are disregarded by their parents. This demonstrates that the parents are out to get the main characters. I have watched this movie before and after re-watching the film opening it has shown me how much it tells you about each character's life. Because later in the movie, each character opens up to one another about their situation with their parents. Each story relates to the film opening. The film opening tells the same stories except with less detail.

Day 3

     Over the weekend, I have been delving deeper into my imagination for my idea. Alec and I have not really talked much about ideas since the last time we saw each other at school. The last time we talked was when I was telling him about my idea. He had told me that it's a really great idea but that we just need to become more specific about the ideas we have so that we can successfully piece it together. For the scene I was thinking of a song similar to the song "On The Run" by Pink Floyd. I feel like a song like that could really bring the scene and story together. Because the main character's purpose is to basically start an anarchy by implementing the idea that society doesn't need authority. I feel that "On The Run" does a great job of presenting that surge of adrenaline that is constantly circulating through the main character's thoughts and ideas. I feel that this song combined with the narration of the speech, "The First Napkin", would be a great combination since the song doesn't contain lyrics. However I'm not sure if I want to use this song specifically because of how long and difficult the process is to obtain permission to use copyrighted music.

"On The Run" by Pink Floyd

Day 2

  Alec and I were discussing the topic of our film opening a bit more and he presented to me his new idea. He wants to do a film opening where there is a narration of a speech called "The First Napkin". I think the narration of the speech over the film opening is actually a really great idea. I feel as if it could leave a lasting impact on the audience. As for the mise-en-scene, Alec described some of the things he would like in the opening. He described to me men in suits, and a table. Since, Alec is in the JROTC program, he suggested that for the men in suits we utilize some of the JROTC students in our film opening since they are required to wear uniform. I think that's so useful for our project, and could really make it look legit!

    I was brainstorming ideas based off of Alec's new idea and eventually thought of something. What I told him was that I think it should be character vs. society because of the context of the speech. I was reading the speech again and it basically talks about who gets to hold power in a society. Who gets to make huge decisions that cause for others to follow along? I told Alec that our main character could have the purpose of changing the structure of society. The protagonist dislikes the idea of power being held by only one person. He believes in freedom. I still have to brainstorm a little more though and be more specific about my idea. However I do think that there should be a close-up shot of our character looking at the men in suits with intent. The intent to change how the world works. Basically saying "everything's going to change" through his eye contact to the men. His eyes are supposed to speak.

This is the link to the speech 

 The First Napkin

1st day

     Me and Alec are officially working together for our portfolio project! We have yet to discuss all the general details of our project and our ideas. However, this week we will be brainstorming and deciding on what we want our film opening will look like. I'm pretty sure we decided on our genre being horror. Alec described to me his vision. His vision is a person in the dark on a computer screen and the character noticing something terrifying in the reflection of the screen. My idea is to make the film opening a dream sequence. Both our ideas could play hand in hand. If we were to combine our ideas we could make a horror film opening that is based off the main character having a dream that tells them what will happen in the future. He told me that he's going to give me the full detailed description of his vision for the project. So I will be talking about it in my next posting.

transition post

  In the beginning of the year we started off by learning the different elements that media consists of: sound, camera shots, mise-en-scene, and editing. The past few months have been preparing me and everyone else in my class for our final portfolio project. Today was the day that we began the process of the portfolio project. We learned about all the important aspects of it, and all the necessary requirements that the project needs to meet in order to be an acceptable piece. I still have yet to come up with approaches of what I would like to do for my project. I decided to work on my portfolio project with my friend Alec.

Alec was telling me about one of his ideas for our portfolio project. We didn’t have much time to fully discuss it, but he gave me a general overview of what it is. It falls under the horror genre. He described it as someone paying attention to a computer at night and having to see a terrifying reflection on the screen of something that was behind them. I’m open to anything, so I thought this was a really fun and cool idea.

My approach to this project would be to create a dream scene that would insinuate something happening in the future. The scene would start off already in the dream, and it ends when the person wakes up confused. When the character wakes up, that's when the title of the film will show up. The credits will appear as soon as the title disappears from the screen.

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

     The research process of our music marketing project took about two to complete with accurate information. We had to complete our music chart first. We had to look into the record labels that had signed off on the song that we had chosen for our project. Which is "We Are Young" by the band fun. After, we researched Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, and Bruno Mars. We looked up the history behind the record label, and other famous artists that are signed under them.

    Brainstorming occurred constantly throughout the progress of our project. At first we had brainstormed about which song to choose for our project, which led to thinking about what type of music video to produce. A promo, storytelling, artistic, or combination video? We went with a storytelling type of music video. We then wrote down our ideas about what our story was going to be about and how it would capture the essence of the song we chose. We used a storyboard to illustrate the technique we were planning on using for our video. 

    The production process of our project was tough because everyone in the group had a difficult time deciding on a specific time and place that could correlate correctly with everyone. My group consisted of three members including myself. Me and one my partners, Megan Kelly, were able to start production just the two of us because our other member, Mariano Bertello, was not able to make it to the shoot. Which did make things difficult. He was hard to work with, but we eventually were able to obtain everything we needed for our music video. 

    For the post-production aspect of the project, we were able to edit the shots we took into a dramatic fast-paced music video. We had better expectations of the music video but in my opinion it is not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm proud with what we made. After finishing up the video, we recorded our voices for our presentation and began to solely focus on the PowerPoint and the extra aspects that we wanted to incorporate in it.

The presentation is a good length. We made it look very colorful and lively, which mostly corresponds to the color scheme that we chose for our band, Snow Birds. We talk about our marketing strategies, and how our band came to what it is throughout the presentation. I had constructed and decorated a website for Snow Birds, to make it seem legit. On the website, I included press comments, merchandise, and upcoming tour dates. Our band mostly consists of the colors blue and pink, which is what the color scheme of the website is. It is very colorful, and it is everything we expected it to be which is very satisfying. We created an Instagram account, and a YouTube account for the band. We also created images for their hit song "Tonight" on SoundCloud and Spotify.

I learned a lot about attention to detail and creativity throughout this project. I feel that this project will certainly help me be more creative and think of every detail for my Cambridge portfolio. It also has helped me to coordinate with people and ideas which I find very helpful. Being organized also plays a great role in this project. The practice that I have acquired from this project will be very helpful in the future.

Storyboard:

Band logo:

Website link:

flying-snow-birds-2xgz.squarespace.com

 

password for website: flyingsnowbirds