Who are our Characters?

 

    Creating and writing our character in as much detail is important because I think that our project is very character-driven. Our inspiration for our character stems from films like Taxi Driver and Nightcrawler. We want to create a sort of sigma male-type character that these films portray. We will definitely need a good actor for this role, even though there isn't any dialogue, expressions are key.

The name of our character is Jack, which is what Gaby decided, although I don't think the name really matters because we're not going to mention it in the video. 

Finding Places

 

    We have decided that this weekend we are going to begin shooting. We plan on filming Saturday with the help of some of our other friends seeing as how we will have multiple characters in the shoot. However, I am worried we won't find a good location to film at, so before our first shoot, I want to come prepared. I'll probably go location scouting on Friday night with some of my friends to see how certain places will look on camera and whether the scenery works with our project. 

    Depending on the direction our story goes, I was thinking of filming at either Town Center or just someone's house. I think I'm leaning more towards filming at someone's house as it'll be much easier to control the lighting and there won't be any external factors that could delay or ruin the production. And I also feel like I see Town Center way too much in school projects I think it's kind of overdone if that makes sense. 

Here's a movie whose atmosphere I love. Obviously plot-wise and content-wise our project is very different from this film, but the way the city is captured and the mood the setting builds is outstanding and something I'll definitely try to draw from. 

On the Storyboard

 

    During class, we decided to begin our storyboard. Our storyboard is a very very rough idea or blueprint of what our project is going to be. Both Gaby and I prefer internalizing how our project is going to look rather than drawing it out because we both feel that sometimes our true vision can get lost in translation when putting it through pen and paper. 

    As you can see the storyboards aren't the most visually stunning or comprehensive storyboards on the planet, but we wanted to get the ball rolling and start putting some ideas onto paper. As mentioned earlier, for both of us it is very tough to put down what we visualize and have planned for our project into drawings, hence why we'll also be writing down all of our different shots in words. 

P.S- I'm not sure how to rotate the pictures of our storyboards.

Finding Music

 

    Before starting the project I was really excited to incorporate my favorite music into the project. However, to use copyright-free music we would've needed to get permission from the music's owner. Below was the song that I wanted to use the most in our project because I think that it creates such a great mood and atmosphere to film a project around. 

    My partner and I messaged the lead of the band that made the song in hopes of getting permission to use the song. We also messaged some other musicians how we thought their music would work with our project. We were hopeful they would answer us considering they aren't extremely big artists like Kanye West or Billie Eilish. Heck, the guy that made the song I really wanted to use isn't even verified on Instagram. However, we were left with no responses from any of the musicians we messaged. 

    We might try our luck again this week with some other musicians as we really don't want to use copyright-free music. We're still hopeful of securing the permission of an artist as one of my friends was able to get permission from the artist Astrobrite, which was pretty cool. I'm hopeful of getting permission from the band Duster as I feel their music would work great for a film project like ours. 

Blog Post #4 (Week 2)

 

            While doing some research on how drama films open up, I found that there really isn't much of a pattern when it comes to how it's done. What I was able to find was that films in this genre focus a little more on the use of opening credits. In addition to this, the opening credits will usually be accompanied by a short sequence that hints at how the main character of the film is. 

            While it may seem obvious that this is the case, I think this knowledge provides a solid blueprint of what my group wants to achieve with this project. This also gives a better sense of direction when filming as it serves as a reminder of what the purpose of our project is. Throughout this week, we've been stringing up ideas for what we're going to film, and hopefully the next week will allow us to materialize these ideas even further so that we can enter the production stage. 

Blog Post #3 (Week 2)

 

            While my partner and I were planning, we decided to change up the genre from horror to drama. Although in my previous I said that my group wouldn't do drama, I figured that if we didn't focus hard on the acting elements of the piece, then we could make it work. We both decided that if we focus on filming the characters' surroundings, such as the setting of the opening, then we could still make a valid project.

        I also bought a tripod for the phone, seeing as how the type of project we want to film will require a lot of steady and still shots. My partner and I are also planning on filming our project somewhere in the city. My group was most definitely inspired by the aesthetic of a film like Drive, and I definitely want to be able to capture the same style. 

    

Blog Post #2 (Week 2)

 

                While doing some research, I found that watching other films is a great source of inspiration. Directors like Scorsese and Tarantino say that watching other films is the best way to get inspiration. Therefore, I was thinking of rewatching some of my favorite film openings of all time. Rather than analyzing the films' styles, I wanted to see the different ways film openings can be done. This not only includes different camera techniques and editing choices but also whether the opening directly begins the plot or is a separate vignette. 

           Some films that I'll be rewatching this weekend that have openings that I find great are Persona, A Clockwork Orange, and Paris Texas. These films are very different, but all have great openings. Hopefully, I can find not only inspiration but a greater understanding of what makes a good film opening. In addition, I told my partner to watch some of her favorite film openings so that we both learn and are on the same page when we are filming. 

    

Blog Post #1 (Week 2)

 

        

        Before writing ideas and coming up with what my portfolio project is going to be about, I need to figure out what genre and plot aspects are to be in my project. I thought about scraping off the genres that I thought were the hardest to do. So for example, sci-fi would be pretty hard for my group to do considering we don't have the resources to create a typical sci-fi opener. I also think that a serious drama would be difficult considering my partner and I aren't actors. 

    Right now, I think I'm leaning towards creating a horror opener for my portfolio project. This is because I like the idea of creating suspense through the use of camera and editing techniques. This also suits well with my resources as I don't think a particularly great actor is required for this and could be done without using things like CGI or any other expensive equipment. 

Music Marketing Blog Post

 

            As mentioned in my previous blog post, the brainstorming process was probably the most difficult part of the project among my group. I noticed that we were one of the groups that took the longest to brainstorm and come up with their music video, which is probably because we were left with the miscellaneous genre. This made the possibility of what our music video would be much broader, and therefore harder to come to a consensus as a group. But after a couple of days of looking for inspiration and planning out what song would work best for the resources we had available, we were finally able to decide on a song. 

    After we picked our song and figured out what we were going to do for our music video, we met together on the weekend to film the video. This was definitely the most fun part of the project, as we all had a good time recording the music video. It was also the easiest I felt because we were very prepared prior to filming. 

    While we were working on the music video, we were also working on the presentation. I'd also say this part was fun--at least for me--because I love music and how artists tour and sell their records. Therefore, being able to essentially create my own artist was really cool.

     Ultimately, I thought this project was really cool to do. I think it does a good job at creating a stronger connection with fellow classmates as it forces students to be open to creative ideas and comfortable with collaboration. What I learned while doing this project was how difficult it is to actually make a music video. Even the music videos that don't look like they have a lot of effort put into them are actually much more difficult to create than what meets the eye. Therefore, I've gained a newfound appreciation for the art of the music video. This project definitely enforced a lot of collaboration between people, which I feel is a skill I can carry onto my portfolio project that will be of value.