SPRING BREAK (but not really a break)

School is currently out for spring break, but all I can think about is the time crunch that my partner Lexi and I will face once she gets back from her vacation... We've planned to start filming Tuesday April 2nd, because neither of us have prior engagements that day and school will be out that day.

I realized we shouldn't simply worry about the future ( but instead plan ahead like crazy so that our project will turn out how we want it to. Thus, in this blog post I will be organizing the details that will go into our film opening:

1. Casting: Lexi and I have agreed from the start of the project that scouting an actor/actress to represent our protagonist would cause more stress than necessary. We decided that I will fulfill the role of the main character (the musician) and my dad is going to play the role of the father.
2. Costume Design: After considering ways that the costume and makeup design could reflect the tone of the film or convey/foreshadow the main conflict, I decided that the character should be wearing clothes that reflect her status as a modern young musician. Since there will be two different settings (the park scene and montage sequence), I will have to choose two different outfits to promote the illusion that they were filmed at separate times.
3. Title Sequence: First we need a title!!! I've considered suggestions from friends such as "To Be Heard" and "The Sound of Music" (LOL) but I definitely have to run all the ideas by my partner Lexi before we make a final decision...(to be continued). Anyway, regardless of the movie's title, we have to think about where the placement of the title is going to be. Perhaps this is a job for after filming and during the editing phase. 
4. Equipment: Although the camera quality on a newer iPhone is exceptional, Lexi and I have agreed that we prefer the crisper quality of my sister's Samsung camera and will be using it on Tuesday when we begin filming. 

Making A Movie About A Musician, Almost Forgot The Music

The irony. I almost completely forgot about the music in the film opening. We wanted a diegetic piano track (sound is presented as if it originated from our film's world) to be playing in the titular scene of the film opening... however, I have yet to compose the track and record it. As the tone of our film is melancholic, it would make the most sense to use minor chords and play something slow and sappy, in order to follow drama conventions and create an appeal with the audience.

Luckily, the process of making a track/song isn't incredibly complex for me. I mentioned in a previous post that the software GarageBand was my initial inspiration for our character's musicial ability. Being musician myself in the real world, I have learned my way around the software. It has the capability to record what I play on my piano keyboard and saves it as a file that I can email, text or AirDrop to myself, which makes the process of recording minimal.


The process of composing is a different story. What should it sound like?? My partner Lexi told me to "just do some slow piano melody"... which wasn't very helpful. I'm pondering the idea of playing some soft minor chords coupled with some ambient vocals (me going "oooOohhh" or "aAHhhhH") for the title sequence, and then the rest of the film opening be the solely the piano instrumental. I of course have to run everything I consider past Lexi, but I really do  think she'd love the idea.

Screen-capture of GarageBand final product 💁:

I don't know if you can tell from the screen cap, but the music track essentially has two nuances to it. Initially, I created a piano track of the same 4 repeating chords and laid down a ambient vocal track on top of that. After that was finished, I made the instrumental track by muting the vocals and lowering the sound, and then recorded my character's monolgue on top of that track. Simple right?

Group Feedback Reflection #2

So today in class we worked in groups to discuss our projects for another feedback session. Going around in groups and hearing what everyone was working on was really inspiring...but also incredily stressful. One group is literally almost completely done with filming already and it's not even spring break yet! I have a disadvantage with my partner being gone on her vacation, but I have faith that we can rush the filming process if the planning is perfect. One girl from my group showed us her blog and it was so in-depth--there were so many pictures and of her asesthetic inspiration as well as behind the scenes from when her group was filming it was amazing! I'll be sure to take similar pictures and post them in a blog post:) Stay tuned!

~The Vision~

Welcome back to the Portfolio in Progress. Now that Lexi and I have overcome our major problem and actually have an idea, we can now begin the process of refining and adding details in this week so that we can start filming next Tuesday, which is a super testing day so we don't have school.

I will do my best in this post to articulate the vision for the 2-minutes:

• Establish the main character as a musician in the first frames with diegetic sound of a piano melody playing (I'll either use a pre-existing track or create a new one with GarageBand)
• The sound of the song is interrupted by the protagonists' father who gestures her/him to follow him
• Scene cuts to a brief montage sequence which will build the character development of both the protagonist and her father. Narration will also begin in this sequence, which will continue for the duration of the 2 mins. Lexi and I have discussed the montage and are thinking that it will include shots of a father playing guitar and watching the protagonist play piano.
• The script has yet to be written, but we have decided that the protagonist must narrate something to reveal the bond between the protagonist and their father, as well as their corresponding relationship with music.
• The scene will then take a shift and begin explaining otosclerosis--the genetic disease that caused the protagonists father to lose his hearing. The narration will explain that their father was an aspiring musician like them but had to give it up. 
• The next shot will cut back to the initial setting and reveal that under the protagonist's headphones there is a hearing aid...the narration will divulge the main conflict of the movie that will follow: the musician has inherited his/her father's disease and will continue to lose her hearing.

The plot conflict will be introduced when
the main character reveals their hearing aid

WE THOUGHT OF A CONCEPT

So after spending an entire class period brainstorming together, I am proud to say that Lexi and I have finally agreed on a concept that I think is going to turn out really well!!! Here, I'll elaborate for you:

Right off the bat, we established that our protagonist should have a niche--something that makes his/her character memorable and more appealing to an audience (which is important in a drama!)

We took admittedly a long time to carefully consider the various directions that we could go in before commiting to one idea. I felt very strongly that it would be wise to make a movie incorporating things that I am an expert on--for example, I did not want to make the mistake of writing the main character as an art prodigy when I can barely draw stick figures.

Left Side: What I envisioned for the art
Right Side: What the art would have turned out like

The answer was music! The idea came to me in my media class while Lexi and I were spitballing for ideas, blurting out the first thing that came to our minds. It was a desperate attempt to find any suitable concept at that point, as we felt pressure to come up with something quick. I looked at my laptop which had GarageBand open (a digital music software) and that was when I suggested to Lexi that our main character be a musician. 

After spending half of another class period refining our plot, we decided the movie as a whole would revolve around a young musician who inherits a hereditary disorder that causes hearing loss and how s/he would handle the obstacles that arise. In the opening scene however, the protagonists' hearing disability is not revealed until the end--which not only satisfies my needfor a twist ending but also  

stays within genre conventions, as it is not unusual for a drama to peak the interest with a twist.

Group Feedback Reflection:

Today in class my classmates and I formed small groups (each person was from a different portfolio-project group,) and were told to share our concepts and ideas with each other in order to receive feedback and/or constructive criticism.

After going around the circle and listening to my peers' ideas, I realized that we are kind of behind relative to everyone else in class, because we haven't come up with an entire concept that we both agree on. My partner Lexi and I are, however, on the same page about the general vision for the movie: A protagonist who is living a better life now, but had a rough past/background. I wanted to introduce the main character's struggle through the use of flashbacks (super quick jump-cuts to a different setting with the subject in the same position throughout, like the 21 Savage video).

While I have the vision for a number of creative shots, I am struggling trying to come up with a movie plot-line that I think is adequate. I mean, if I am going to be working this hard on a film opening, I want to make sure that it makes sense to an audience! I am really impassioned to create something impressive, but time is running out! Lexi is going to be away for spring break, which starts the 22nd, and the project is due to our teacher the 7th of April...meaning, we have to rush to lock down a concept and just roll with it. Wish us luck.

MORE Research

My partner Lexi and I have decided to change our scene’s genre from horror to drama. The reasoning behind this decision comes from the fact that I believe the horror genre may be too ambitious, as well as not original enough. After discussing project ideas with friends, I soon realized that most of them were going to try to make a scary scene. With this new information, I deduced that if we continue to go in that direction, there would be a chance that our project would have the possibility of being very similar to someone else’s―which we obviously don’t want. Therefore, we are going to continue to brainstorm concepts this week, but this time in the context of drama conventions instead of horror.

1. Genre: Drama
2. Genre Conventions:
1. Content:
1. Realistic setting, characters, and storylines
2. The purpose is typically to tug on the audiences’ heart-strings and move them emotionally
3. Conflicts include realistic struggles depicting hardships, difficulty, and pain
4. A form of realization/epiphany at the end (may or may not have a happy ending)  
2. Production:
1. The use of gestures, objects or people will be utilized to emphasize the deeper meaning that is beyond the literal material
2. Color schemes will be used to signify the overall tone of each scene in a drama
3. “Dramatic” music (strings, soft piano), is often used to affect an emotional response from the audience
3. Institutional Conventions:
1. Marketing
1. Opening scene usually introduces/alludes to the main conflict but does not reveal the resolution
2. Main characters appear on talk shows and participate in interviews and promotional tours to build the hype of the film
3. Celebrity actors appearing in film help increase anticipation
4. Quotes from popular critic sources are typically embedded within the trailer (towards the end)
4. Drama Film Example:
1. A Star is Born (2018) https://youtu.be/nSbzyEJ8X9E
1. This film is the epitome of the drama genre, encompassing several standard conventions of the genre.
2. The trailer vaguely introduces a realistic struggle, alcoholism, but doesn’t reveal the resolution, if there even is one.
3. Production values were quality, showcasing the love story of the characters by including several dramatically intimate scenes of the couple meeting, falling in love, arguing, etc.
4. Lady Gaga appears as the female lead in the film, while Bradley Cooper directs AND stars as the male lead role. The double-celebrity appeal increases audience anticipation.