PROPS

 PROPS

    One part of filmaking, that has proved to be crucial throughout the years has been props. Incorporating props into films, can help to advance the storyline it can help actors and characters to better play the part, it can help identify the setting of a scene or just of the film, and finally some props sometimes become a huge focus of a film (Dick George, 2020).  Props can also be linked to a character in a movie or movie franchise if this particular character is seen interacting with this prop a lot. An example of this is something like Darth Vader and his red lightsaber, or even captain America and his shield these are iconic objects which us the audience link to associate with a certain character. This can also be done with movie franchises, an example of this is the red shoes in "The Wizard of Oz", the ring in "Lord of the Rings" and lastly the sorting hat in the "Harry Potter" franchise.

(DARTH VADER WITH HIS RED LIGHTSABER) 

(HARRY POTTER WITH THE SORTING HAT)

    In our film opening, we want to use props that help emulate the environment and setting of a highschool party. To do this the main thing that we will be using will be red solo cups as this is what is commonly used in most parties to hold drinks. We feel that the use of these cups will help to illustrate the setting, as well as can be used as something that characters have and hold in their hands. Apart from this we also want to have snackbolws and well as chip bags and soda cans laying around to make the setting be more realistic, and how a highschool parry really is.

(EXAMPLE OF RED SOLO CUPS AND HOW WE 
WANT TO SHOW THEM)

SOURCES:

- https://dickgeorge.co.uk/2020/02/the-importance-of-props-in-film/#:~:text=Why%20are%20Props%20Important%3F,huge%20focus%20of%20the%20film.

-https://www.looper.com/862056/the-most-memorable-movie-props-of-all-time-ranked/ 

CHARACTERS (Continued)

 CHARACTERS

    As reviousl mentioned in my blog, we want to have different characters in our film, each with their own personalities. We wish to immitate old TV friendgroups that each have a certain type of person in the friend gorup, therefor whoever is watching the film will be able to feel identified with someone in the film.We plan to have 4 different main characters in the show as there are four os us. As of now we will be the ones acting in the film as we feel that we can portray the characters correctly and will bring justice to what we are thinking of doing. We have not yet come to a fnal conclusion on with person will play which character, but we kind of know which characters we want to have in the film, and with what personalties. 

    For starters, we want to have a charcter in the film who is the "Player", he will be shown during the movie scenes talking to girls and will be having red light around him to signify this. We want to have a shy one who will be shown in the party by himself not talking to anyone. We want to have a character who is shown as the life of the party and will be shown doing crazy things during the party. Lastly, we want to have a character who is like the mom of the group, and keeps everyone in check they will be shown taking cups and other items out of people hands and making sure the house stays in shape. We feel that this wide variety of characters and personalities, is enough so that people as well as frendgroups can feel identified within the film.

    Also, with the new aspect of using different colors when the characters are introduced ina freeze frame shot, that allows for us to give and show further information about the character to the viewer by showing their relation and correlation to a certain color.

COLORS

COLORS

    As mentioned in my previous blog, we want to incorporate color into our freeze frame part of our film. This way, the freeze frame will serve as a way to introduce the character and the actors and will also allow for some back story to be shown. What I mean by this is that for the majority of the population, they normally associate certain colors with certain characteristics or personalities in people. For example most people associate the color red with evil or something bad, and they think of the color white as something pure or new. After conducting research, we have found what colors, scientifically, people associate with what characteristics and have came up with this ideas.

    To give some examples, during our film the character that is the player will be frozen with a red light over them, since red is associated with courage and passion (Wikipedia, 2022). The character who is more timid and shy will have the color blue over him since its a more calm and sad color. The character who is having fun and messing around will have the color yellow over him since that color stands for spontaneousness and happiness.(99 designs, 2020)  Lastly, the rich character will have the color purple over him since that stands for royalty and wealth (Nix Color Sensor). We feel that this technique will display our understanding of film and will add a really special effect to our overall film. We are really excited about incorporating this element into our film.

SOURCES:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red#:~:text=Since%20red%20is%20the%20color,anger%2C%20love%2C%20and%20joy. 

- https://99designs.com/blog/tips/color-meanings/#:~:text=Yellow%20is%20for%20happiness%2C%20hope,caution%2C%20like%20red%20and%20orange.

- https://www.nixsensor.com/blog/color-column-violet/#:~:text=The%20color%20purple%20is%20often,mystery%2C%20independence%2C%20and%20magic.

ROADBLOCK

 

ROADBLOCK

    Recently, in my school, certain events have occurred that put students' jeopardy in danger, due to this our school has gone on secure protocol measures both on Tuesday and Today which are on the days which I and my group happen to have AICE Media. The secure protocol requires us to stay in the class that we are in until it is called off. This takes hours and makes us lose full classes and class time for other classes. Due to these events, my groupmates along with many other people felt it was best for them to leave after the secure protocol was called off, and even though I went to class, I can't do much by myself as I need the input of all of my group to make decisions.

    Regardless of this, today in class we held group meetings with different classmates and discussed our video ideas thus far and gave each other ideas that we thought would make the projects more complete. This really helped and the feedback I received from my classmates gave me excellent ideas. Even though I haven't been able to communicate in person with my group, we are still talking through a group chat we have for the class and for our project ideas. We are set to have a type of call tomorrow where we will discuss key parts of our project.

    Even after all that has happened we have still been able to communicate and talked about an idea that one of my classmates gave me today. The idea was that when we do the freeze frames in our film to introduce the characters and the people playing them, we could freeze on a certain color on each character. I will go further into this in my next blog, but I think it's a great idea, and my group seems to think so as well. This obstruction was bound to occur at some point, but I am glad that we are working through it, and we are very excited to continue to develop our film.

(SCREENSHOT OF MY GROUPS GROUP CHAT
WHERE WE COMMUNICATE)

CHARACTER (OPENING)

 CHARACTER (OPENING)

    One of the most imporatnt parts of a story and one that drives the plot and its elements, its its characters. Characters are a force in the story and create and pusbh the plot forward (Nybookeditors,2018). Characters come in many different fonts, and usually each character is differen in its own way in order to creat varierty and so that the watcher can relate to and take interest in the character they feel represents them the most. For our film, though we dont know exactly what charcters are going to be we what, we are sure of some things. 

    We want all of the characters in our film to be friends. We would want them to be in a friendgroup, kind of like many coming of age movies have the friendgroup that the movie is based around and follows that gorup around. This group in movies usally gets into some type of trouble and have to find themselves out of it. Our story will be similar to this as the house being trashed will be a problem which they attempt to fix, yet fail and this gets the main charcter in trouble which then helps create the bais for the rest of the movie. We know that the main charcter of the filkm will most likely bue Aaron since we are filming in his house. The on thing that we do not know is what character will have what personality since they all can not be the same and need to have characteristics for which they are known by. For example most movies with friend groups in them have the shy guy, the popular guy, the crazy one, and so forth. To decide this, we will need to further meet and discuss and we plan to do this very soon, as we are very excited about our film.

(EXAMPLES OF FRIENGROUPS IN MOVIES)

SOURCES:

-https://nybookeditors.com/2018/01/5-important-characters-to-have-in-every-story/#:~:text=Characters%20serve%20as%20the%20driving,your%20characters%20view%20their%20environment.

SETTING OPENING

  SETTING (OPENING)

  Recently, my groupmates and I discussed what is possibly one of the most important parts of a film, the setting. The setting of a film helps establish the theme of the story, and it can help give background to the story. Therefore, the setting of the film is of utmost importance and can break or make a film. Since our film is a party, we decided that our film should take place in a house since most parties nowadays are in houses instead of venues, these are commonly referred to as "house parties". Since we needed a house we decided to use one of our houses and when talking about which house would be best for us to use we decided that my groupmate Aaron's house would be best.

(Aarons House)

    We think that this house would be best since it has all the commodities that we would want in our film. This house has a media room which would be the perfect place to shoot scenes where we want it to be dark and have the flashing color lights show a lot. It is also a big house which allows for more places to shoot and therefore allows for a variety of shots. Lastly, it has a pool which would be a great place to shoot scenes where people are outside, and someone even possibly jumps in the pool. As I previously mentioned, we want to incorporate a lot of color into our film, flashing lights of color. we feel this would make the film look really good as it fits our vibe and makes really good shots. It fits into the genre of action/adventure and helps make the vibe we are trying to create.

(Example of flashing lights of color at parties)

SOURCES:

- https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-setting#:~:text=Settings%20not%20only%20help%20to,secrets%2C%20grandeur%2C%20and%20dignity.

FILM OPENING (IDEAS)

FILM OPENING IDEA

    Yesterday in clas, we discussed some of the technical elements that we wish to incorporate into our film. While discussing my group mate Aaron, came up with a clever way to introduce the characters. This was the art of using a freeze frame and showing the characters names. Much like in the film "Trainspotting (1996)" By Danny Boyle this technique is used in the introduction of the film, and is commonly regarded as one of the most iconic movie intros of all time.

    As you can see, the opening above utilizes the freeze frame really way as a way to introduce the characters and their back stories which gives a bigger inside into the movie as a whole. While in our film, we dont want to show our characters background, since we dont have that much time, we still want to usew it to show our characters personalities and how each of them are. We intend to do these by having the characters be doing different actions when we freeze the frame therefor giving an idea to the viewer of things that they enjoy doing and how they act. As an example one character could have their freeze fram as them playing a party game, showing that they are more wild and social. Another character could have their freeze frame be done when they are in a corner by themselves, showing that they are more timid and an introvert. Lastly, a charcter could have their freeze fram when talking to a girl showing that they are the "Player" od the group. We really like the idea of freeze frame, as we also feel it fits the genre of action/adventure really well, which out film is, as well as the overall vibe that we are trying to create.

SOURCES:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaP7qmsQbSI&t=29s

GENRE

    GENRE

  BACKGROUND OF GENRE

    Action and adventure movies, have been a genre that has been imbedded into cinema history for a long time. These movies are generally associated with quests as well as issues within the film. The individuals or groups in these movies always face some type of enemy whether that be physical or mental. These movies can be shot anywhere and can be bases on any basis as they are not restricted to anything historical or environmental.

  Today, my group and I met up and discussed what the potential genre of our film could be. We decided that the option that would be most suitable for our film, would be action/ adventure. This is due to the fact that the vision that we have for this project has characteristics that match those of these genres. Action/ adventure films have unusual locations, journeys, and action and danger (Gardner, 2017). Our film wishes to incorporate these elements into it.

    Films that are in the action/adventure genre are films such as: Freeguy(2021), Uncharted(2022), Strangeworld(2022), The Hangover (2009), and Deadpool (2016). These movies depict fun time adventures that take the characters through an intense journey. Our movie, yet lacking in some development, already has had the basis of it made, and we know that we want to have these types of things in our film. We discussed many other factors of our film project during our conversation. We also had some different opinions on how we should go about things and will further discuss them with our teacher tomorrow in class.

This is an example of one of the movies I listed that is in the action/adventure genre. (The elements of this poster display the genre of the movie effectively, which is something we wish to replicate)

This is a screenshot of the call that my groupmates and I were on, in order to discuss the project.

SOURCES

- https://education.seattlepi.com/characteristics-adventure-fiction-6640.html 

- https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/action-and-adventure-films

TRANSITION TO PORTFOLIO PROJECT

     Today in class, we discussed the components of our portfolio project and were able to view some blogs as well as video samples which were really helpful. I am not yet sure if I will be working by myself or with the group that I have had for the whole year so far. It is a group of 4 people which I know is not recommended, but we all work really work together and think similarly. In class, while watching the videos, I got some really good ideas of things that I don't and do want to have in my project. I know that putting the title of the video at the end is not something recommended, but I think I could execute it really well with the idea I have in mind. 

    During class, my group and I had an idea for a video. Our idea is to have a group of teenagers that throw a party and leave their house trashed. Then when they wake up they get a call that their parents are on the way home and have to rush to clean as their parents get there. There would be shots of them cleaning the house and the parents driving in. They clean the whole house but forget to clean up one part and their parents see it when they get home, and this is where the video would cut off and the title would be displayed. This obviously is just an idea that needs a lot more work and thought p[ut into it and is in no way final. But I think that it would be something that my group and I can execute well and I like the idea of it too.

 

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

     MUSIC MARKETING PROJECT

  RESEARCH

 For the research of our Music Marketing Project my group partner Aaron and I as well as with some help from other group members Juan and Henrique, did a deep dive into two of the most successful record labels in the world. Atlantic Records and Columbia records. In the span of this research, we were able to find many awards that these companies had received, and struggled with finding some research on their actual marketing techniques. But finally, after two classes worth of rigorous searching we were able to find some of the things that these companies did in order to be so successful. This involved doing things that specifically attracted their artist's target market. For Pop star Harry styles, they did pop-up shops and a lot of social media promoting. For other artists who have young demographics such as a boogie with a hoodie, Atlantic records did some marketing through the metaverse. This research and more was able to help take us on the correct pathway to our project as well as aid us in writing our essays.

    

Here are our research charts.

BRAINSTORMING/PLANNING

    The brainstorming and planning of most of the music video were done by other group members Juan and Henrique, but Aaron and I still helped with critiques and giving ideas. Juan completed the storyboard, which we then used as a guideline for our video. And after various names and a lot of thinking we ended up with the name Wildroots for our band which we think Is perfect as the roots part first into the nature aspect of our band, and we as a band are like wildroots.In this part of the project we also made the logo of our band which matches perfectly with us. This part of the project came naturally for us as we already knew what we wanted to do as soon as we heard the song. The first day we got our songs we all knew we wanted our song specifically and what we wanted to do. We wanted to tell a love story through the song and wanted to spread an important message of nature throughout it, this was planned beforehand, and all the symbols such as the man pushing the girl like we humans push down earth and Juan picking her up much like we as a band where trying to do so with nature was planned. We also knew how we wanted to dress and the type of video we wanted to produce. We all wanted to be matching in black shirts and pants to contrast with the green background and light/bright colors around us. We also planned how we were going to promote our band and planned our entire marketing plan and distribution plan, this included social medias, calendars with event dates and tour dates, websites, and platforms on which our band's music would be available. We also made merchandise with our band's logo and message on it.

    Here is an example of our social media  

  Here is the logo for our band

    

Here is the storyboard of our project

PRODUCTION

    When it comes to the production of our project, we all choose a day that was comfortable for us to shoot in, and set off. We used the storyboard and got inspiration from it. We all got together in the set location and immediately began shooting. Though I do feel we lacked some variety in shots I still had a fun time/experience shooting. We did multiple takes of each shot and for the shots of the whole band together, we would put the song on a speaker so that we could know what part of the song was playing and play/move accordingly. The shooting took us a couple of hours and I did not really see it as a tedious task. We reviewed the shots shortly after wrapping up filming.

    

 Here is a picture of one of our group members Aaron at the site we shot out with the instrument he used in the video, and a picture of me shooting a scene of me playing the guitar in the video.

 POST-PRODUCTION

  For the editing of our project, we were all involved in it, but the main person to do it was Juan we decided that it was better for one person to do the editing and consult and send updates on how it is going, so that is what we did. Juan would send updates on how the editing was going and we would give feedback, as well as suggestions of things that we could do for some of the shots. I think that editing overall went well, colors were used effectively but I feel like some of the shots could have been cut a little better.

   PRESENTATION

 For our presentation, well did slides that we thought we could do the best and helped each other do them. We then added the necessary information and explained further when we were actually presenting. We also added all of the examples of merch, social medias, and other visual elements we thought were important to add. When it came time to actually present, we all split up the slides by what we all knew best, for example, I made the calendar for our band, so, therefore, I presented it since I knew the material the best. I think that no one in my group was nervous to present, as we all don't mind public speaking. I overall think that the presentation was solid and we were able to get our point across. I feel that we spoke and expressed ourselves well and people were able to understand what we were talking about. For other questions of our project I think that we performed well we had an answer for all of the questions asked, even some that were a bit convoluted.

      Here is the Calander that we made.

FINAL THOUGHTS

    Overall, I think that this project really helped to understand all of what goes into making something like this. I had a very good time doing it. Projects of this magnitude, have a lot of working parts that sometimes are not noticed unless you actually work on them. I think that the planning aspect of this project will help with the Cambridge portfolio project. This project since it has so many parts took a lot of planning, which is something I believe will be necessary for the portfolio project since it is such a long-term project. I also think that just overall working with people and sharing ideas is something good to practice as it helps you get others' points of view which might be of help in the future. This project, also just helped me refine my media skills since it works with many aspects of filming, such as conversing, planning, shooting, and editing.