Mise en scene

    The aesthetics of a film are a crucial part of how a film delivers its purpose. It is vital in order to send the message. That's why I researched a variety of costumes for the killer and the color of the background elements. This will successfully portray the purpose of our horror film.

    Killer Costume

    I originally had a few items in mind for how the killer in our film should look. Throughout the film, we don't want to blatantly show the killer in order to keep the mysterious aspect of the film and for the viewer to think of what it looks like. Regarding this, a very dark outfit is necessary and preferably a bulky one to not show the killer. One idea I had for this was for the killer to have a long dark cloak. This should keep the killer mysterious, similar to the outfit of Dracula, while not revealing any part of the killer. We will need to have a black mask as well to not reveal the face. The dark cloak also gives the wearer an unnatural appearance which is what we're aiming for.

    Another Idea I had for the outfit of the killer is a completely black morph suit. My plan with this is to have the killer only appear when there is a completely black background so it acts as a shadow. The viewer will only be able to see slight movements of the killer which gives it its supernatural aspect. I think adding color to the killer will take away its unhuman appearance which is why I am only posting completely black costumes.

    Background

    The background of the setting is another important piece in a film. We need the appropriate colors to successfully represent a horror film. My intention is to have very little lighting. The only notable source of light in the film should be the television. I think that the environment should also be minimalistic so the viewer pays attention completely to the murder scene and not to background elements. Filming in a location with gray walls will be ideal, but if this is not possible we could just edit a dark background. An example of a minimalistic location is below. We could do something similar to this but we would film with dark lighting.

    There are many other options for the costume and background but for now, this is what I have come up with. Tomorrow in class I will discuss this topic with Hayden and Abhriam.

Storyboard

     We are really getting into the meat of the project now. After finishing the plot we started working on the storyboard in order to facilitate the filming process. Hayden was the one who drew it since he is the best at drawing out of the three of us. He also had the most experience when we were working on other projects before this. Abhiram and I suggested what he should add and revised his work.

The drawings are meant to be simple because we didn't want Hayden taking too long on this storyboard. We also described what is happening under each drawing so we know what we are filming. For some of the drawings we included the type of shot or editing such as cutaway to make the editing process easier. When we actually start filming we will change some things but I think the storyboard came out better than I expected it to.

Further plot planning

    Something really exciting happened this week, that being finishing the plot for the film. This took many discussions and arguments but we finally made it happen. Without further ado here it is.

    The film starts with an establishing shot of the house at night to establish the environment and the atmosphere. The protagonist is on their couch with the TV turned on while talking to a friend on the phone, all while the credits are playing. The protagonist hangs up and leaves the phone on the kitchen counter revealing something mysterious around him. It's only revealed because of the dim lighting of the TV. The protagonist runs up the stairs to run away from the mysterious object. He hides in his room breathing heavily and is very tremorous. He listens and nothing appears so his breathing slows down but he can still hear it loudly. (It's the mysterious object's breathing) The mystery is shown wearing a dark mask. Cut either to the living room or to still shots of the house and a faint scream is heard. The phone rings but this time the mystery picks it up. It's the friend on the phone so the mystery takes off its mask but it's the face of the man he killed. (doppelganger) The mystery says it's coming over.

    Some aspects of the plot are still subject to change but this is the storyline we are going with. I'm excited to see how it will turn out.

Further Project Planning

    Today was a very different day in terms of the project. Instead of discussing the project with my group my teacher assigned the class in groups of five people. She did this so we can get different perspectives on our project and to get feedback on our blog posts. This was very helpful as I got a lot of different critiques and saw the flaws with my project. 

    A member in my assigned group told me something that can be really helpful to me and to Hayden and Abhiram. She saw my blogpost that focused on the technical elements and she recommended me a location in Davie called Broward Education Communications Network. Basically, if we contact their Instagram and tell them that we are working on our AICE media studies portfolio project we can obtain very high quality pieces of equipment such as cameras, tripods, microphones. (etc.)  

https://www.browardschools.com/Page/36124

    Some other feedback I got was to further develop the characters. This is something that is crucial because otherwise the graders will be very confused about the characters in the film. They also told me to completely do the storyboard before I start filming because this will greatly facilitate the filming process.

Characters and Plot Aspects

     Characters

    Our film opening will consist of two characters. The protagonist will be a normal person and the antagonist will be the murderer. (doppelganger) 

    Plot

    The normal person is about to go to sleep when suddenly he has a feeling that he is being stalked. Obviously, the murderer is doing the stalking. However, as of right now, the audience doesn't know what the doppelganger is up to. 

    We have an idea that during the last fifteen seconds of the film or so we can include police cars outside the normal person's house to represent the murderer but we will further discuss this next week.

    There will be very little amounts of dialogue to completely immerse the viewer into the story and to keep them wondering about what is about to happen. We still have to adjust the plot when we create the storyboard.

Technology/Technical elements

     When we get to the actual filming of the project, we will need good and efficient equipment to make the highest quality film we can make. That is why Hayden bought an accessory for his camera that is called a gimbal. 

    What this piece of equipment does is stabilizes the camera to produce more stable shots. This will come in handy because none of us have much experience filming with a professional camera and this will aid us in the process. All we need to do is learn how to use it adequately and we can start using it.

    We will also be using a professional camera that Hayden recently bought(thank you) to make the film more realistic. A big advantage of this is that the camera has a function to change the intensity of the lighting. For example, for our horror film, we will set the lighting to a low level to truly represent the feel of a horror film. Since we want our audience immersed and thinking about what is going to happen during the film the dark atmosphere provided by the camera will be very helpful.

    As for our shots in the film, we won't be using too many different shots. What we will do is use many close-ups and still shots so the viewer has more time to digest each shot. Another technical idea we have in mind is using many shadows throughout the film. The purpose of shadows is to evoke fear in the viewers and to create a sense of mystery. If we used lights instead of shadows then the viewer would be aware of what is happening and we don't want that, we want the viewer to ponder upon what is happening.

    Overall, we're going to have a dark atmosphere and not too many different shots in order to keep the viewer thinking about the film.

Planning

     Planning is an important part of our project so that we stay on track and know what to do. Something that required planning was the genre of the film. As said in a previous blog post, we thought about the pros and cons of different movie genres and weighed them. We ended up choosing horror/crime because we thought it was the easiest to do. 

    PROJECT SCHEDULE

    Abhiram made a very useful time schedule for the project. With this, we will be able to stay on track and be prepared for when we have to do something.

The schedule is planned weekly to make it easier for us to keep track of time. By having a weekly planner, we know what we have to do for a specific time period. However, our group also has to be flexible because if one of the days we planned to film of us isn't available, we will have to push that back hence changing the entire schedule. 

       Another aspect of the project we had to plan is assigning the work to the different group members. We did this by noticing our strengths and using them to overcome those tasks. We unanimously decided that Abhriam will be the one who will edit the film since he is clearly the most proficient in this area. However, we will give him ideas and feedback while he is editing. Hayden will create the storyboard because he is very creative when it comes to coming up with how the film will look. As for the filming and choosing which shots to use when filming will be done by all of us since we want as much creativity as possible in this area.

I am much looking forward to how this project will turn out and excited to start really working on it.

Genre Research

 

        In this blog post, I will reflect upon my research on the genre for our portfolio project, which is the horror and crime genre.

        HORROR

        This genre has the intent of giving the viewer a thrilling and suspenseful viewing experience. Since many people love this intense feeling, this makes horror films one of the most popular movie genres ever. Horror films are more popular with younger audiences since they love the thrilling feeling of these movies. The age range is common from people in their teens to their early thirties but many older people enjoy watching horror movies. This genre predominantly has male viewers, but a lot of female viewers partake in the consumption of horror films. 

        

        One common technique used in the horror genre is dark lighting. The dark atmosphere creates a sense of mystery and tension because something sinister could be lurking just around the corner. Another technique is using eerie music, and when combined with dark lighting the viewer has a feeling of dread and feels uneasy. Close-up shots of characters are commonly used to express the emotions of the characters. This is mostly done when the protagonist has realized something or when the antagonist has something in mind. 

        Something we have in mind for our project is to not include too much if any dialogue. We want to captivate the viewer into the film itself, not the characters per se. A horror film that doesn't have much dialogue is "A Quiet Place." In this film, there are monsters that are very sensitive to noise and they turn aggressive when they hear anything. The characters in this film must live their lives without making any noise which is very challenging for them. We don't want to use dialogue in our intro because we want to make our film more compelling.

        CRIME

        This genre is new to all of our group members so it will be exciting to try different things out here. The crime genre itself almost always pairs itself with other genres like drama, mystery, and mafia films. Additionally, this genre routinely features the death of someone and the characters in the movie are trying to figure out who is responsible for the murder. 

        The crime genre varies across many different age ranges because these movies have been created since the thirties as western films. 

        

        Low-angle shots are typically used in these films to establish groups of people such as a mafia family. The low angle represents that they are powerful and important people. Handheld camera movement is used in this genre to create a spontaneous moment that takes the audience away. 

        In our film introduction, we will have to resort to the subgenre crime thriller. We don't want to make a typical horror or crime film, but instead, combine the two in order to make a unique film.

First Portfolio Entry

      This is the first entry to an exciting beginning in my AICE media studies portfolio project. I will write these posts to the best of my ability to receive the highest marks on my project. I will work with two others throughout this project, Hayden Jalazo and Abhiram Pinnity. 

    The first aspect of the project that was discussed was the genre of our project. We wanted to do something that was relatively easy to edit since only one of our group members is proficient in video editing. The action genre was definitely off the roster since it requires too much editing. We eventually chose to do the horror/crime genre. We also want to create a sense of mystery in our film to have the audience guess the semantics of the film and to keep them hooked. Our plan for shooting the film is to not use too many cuts and to make the film slow-paced so it aligns with the horror genre. We also want to use dark lighting to further enhance the mysterious environment throughout the film. The plot of the film introduction will most likely be about a murder, but we are not wholly affirmative of the plot yet. All of us still need to do more research on the horror/crime genre and educate ourselves more about the genre to create a higher-quality project.

    I am eager to see how the final product will turn out and I look forward to working with Hayden and Abhiram on this.

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

     

                    Now that my group has finally finished the Music Marketing project, I will discuss in detail the process of the project.

                     The first thing our group did was ideate which song we should. We received a list of four songs from our teacher and decided on a song by Maroon 5 called, "She will be Loved." We chose this song because it's an easy song to produce a story-telling music video. After that, the group worked on the research chart. Olivia did the history of the two music companies, while Abhiram and I worked on the two case studies; Megan Trainor and Taylor Swift. We had to research the various marketing, distribution, and target audiences for the case studies. While we three were doing this, Hayden was working on the storyboard for the music video. He is more creative in that aspect which is why he did it. He made sure to include the various shots and angles we would use throughout the film and thought of many different possibilities for the film.

                     Hayden created the music video in a way that portrays the message of the song. The song fits the genre of love; therefore, Hayden created the storyboard in a way that corresponds to the lyrics about love. In the final product, the video focuses on a boy who is sad that the girl he likes is with another boy. The rest of the group reviewed the storyboard to make sure that it fit the theme of the song.

                     In order for the group to stay on track, we made a plan with due dates. This helped a lot, so we could see when we needed to do specific chunks of the project. We also had to decide on a date for the filming of the video. Eventually, we chose to film on Saturday afternoon. Sadly, Abhiram and I were required elsewhere so we could not film. However, Hayden said that the filming process wasn't as tedious as he thought it would be and finished in about three hours.

                    Since Abhriam and I couldn't attend the filming process, we worked on the PowerPoint presentation. We thoroughly reviewed the guidelines and rubric for the presentation to make sure we put in the correct information and met the requirements. We also got on calls to address any doubts we had about each other's work. The presentation took a decent amount of time because we needed to make sure it would be suitable to present in front of the entire class. We included unique and creative ideas in our PowerPoint such as marketing the band with FunkoPops to our presentation would obtrude. Our presentation also had to look professional and Olivia volunteered to design the presentation. Hayden also made a logo for the band. We revised each other's work and critiqued it before submitting it.

                     Another critical part of the project was the editing of the video. Olivia and I don't have much experience with editing videos so Hayden and Abhriam were the ones who edited it so it would look more professional. Hayden arranged the videos in sequential order and sent them to Abhriam who would edit the lighting and add effects. Once the editing was finished, we revised the presentation for one final time.

                    The presentation was complete at this point, but we each had to present a chunk of the project. I presented the most slides since I wasn't able to film or edit the video. I also did this because the slides I presented are the ones I wrote. I would present the first six slides and after that Olivia would follow, after that Hayden, then finally Abhriam. None of us have big issues when it comes to public speaking so we were all calm when going to present.

                    We presented the presentation on Monday, February 6. We only messed up a few words here and there but apart from that the presentation went well. We were all satisfied with our work and thought we performed well.

                    A day after presenting, we realized we could have adjusted some aspects of the presentation to make it seem more appropriate. For example, I could have still read six slides but spaced them out. This was the main issue, and we should have each read one slide only until the group rotated and it was our turn again. This was our main issue, as seen in the critiques made by our other peers. Throughout the project, I learned to notice our group's strengths, and use them to accomplish tasks. For example, since Abhiram is good at editing, he should be in charge of that aspect in future projects. This can also be useful in the Cambridge portfolio project. We each worked on what we're good at then were review each other's work. The main aspect of this project that will be helpful in the portfolio project is the filming of the project. This experience can greatly aide us in creating the two-minute film opening.