Group Meeting #1

 HIII BLOG!! So, after the group meeting on 2/28/2024, I learned so much. This is just an appreciation to my group to thank them for helping me so much in trying to figure out what I want to do. They gave me so much clarity. 

In the group, I gave my own feedback. There was someone in my group who had an amazing idea of a ghost movie for kids, which was a super good idea, but she was stuck on her own plot and the names. In the group, we gave her many ideas, one being zap. We told her that the name of the ghost could be Zappy, and the movie could be Zap. This could symbolize how the ghost died in the first place. I also told her to not mention how the ghost dies in the opening but to show it, so it leaves the audience pondering about what truly happened to the ghost. Another person in my group needed help with coming up with names for his own film, and the monster of his film. We searched up many horror Moster names, and eventually, someone in my group told him to name it "Mirage" due to his monster being a shape shifter, and mirage meaning illusion.

In the group meeting, I presented them with my idea, and they told me it was good. The only problem I had was that me and Nicole did not have our opening planned out, nor an idea of how it could start. To my relief, this was a very common problem we all shared which I was really grateful for because it made me feel less alone and as if I was not so behind. After telling them my story, they gave me feedback, one of them being that the opening can start off with the girl already being dead, instead of making her die in the opening. This is a great idea due to the viewers do not know what happened, which is perfect because as the movie progresses, the audience finds out what happened to Adaliah with Aurora rather than already knowing and just waiting for Aurora to find out.

 

Another idea I got for the project is that since we MIGHT do that, she is already dead rather than killing herself in the opening, they gave me another idea to establish the relationship of the friends. An example of this would be that in the funeral speech, the main girl, Aurora, could be talking about how they were such good friends and how she can't live without her, etc. By doing this, it will establish that Adaliah was a special person to Aurora, which will then lead the audience to understand why she will try an find what happened to her. 

Another great idea we got was that Adaliah could help her friend, Aurora, and help her out by giving her clues. Kind of like a "ghost" but not really if that makes sense. Like she would drop things that help Aurora and open doors you know? While I think this idea is great, I think it is too much for the opening, and would be amazing for the production itself. If we do this, we could only add one scene where this happens, and I would make it, so the audience doesn't know that it is her friend, but it hits at it, to add on to that mystery vibe. 

I want to be able to make my viewers question what is going on, making them ask why, who, when, and where. The group meetings helped impact my portfolio due to them guiding me and helping me get a better idea to my own plot. My group helped me move forward, as me and Nicole were genuinely stuck in what to do and had no clue how to move forward and plan. Even after watching openings, none of us would have been able to come up with the idea of making the girl start off as dead, or even the ghost part, which makes me super grateful for my group.

WEEK 4!

 HIIII BLOG!!! So, since me and Nicole have found out our plot, we wanted to make most of the things symbolic, as mystery contains much symbolism. For naming our characters, we have decided to make them contrast, and make them pertain to what will happen to the girls. For the girl that kills herself, we have thought of two names, Adaliah and Chiwa. These names both mean death, as that is what will happened to her. I think Chia is a very cute name, but Nicole does not think it is, so we are still deciding on that. Now for the girl who will find out what happened to her best friend, her name will be Aurora, as it means light.  

We have picked these names due to the plot of our story. We are also still in the process of picking a title, but we will probably do that today. To do that, we will have to make it symbolic, yet with importance to the story, so we will have to sit and think of the title. 

We will also start story boarding TODAY and HOPEFULLY start filming tomorrow. I know that to do this, we will have to focus and be serious about the work, BECAUSE I WANT THAT FREE SPRING BREAK. I still have to ask the girl that will play Adaliah if she can be in our project, I think she will say yes (HOPEFULLY). 

RESEARCH 2 (kinda)

 HIII BLOGGG!! So since me and Nicole have found out what our plot is going to be, we have started talking and planning how the opening will go and what will happen when. After researching the mystery genre openings, there are things that I have seen from the openings that I would like to include in my own.

In the credit scene, the names of the people that worked on the film all appear as things are happening, and its not just a blank screen. Also, the name of the characters does not appear with the character as they show up, but in different times while other things are happening. We will do this by putting all the credits in parts where the characters are not shown yet. Here are 2 opening examples where this is shown.

Another thing I have noted about mystery movie openings, is that the title is always imbedded behind things that are happening and are not shown on a black screen like other genres. These are 2 example that illustrate what I have discussed. 

They also start a lot of times with the production company, but I'm pretty sure every movie does that??? I'm not really too sure but I want to include that in me and Nicoles. 

When me and Nicole have our whole intro set up, I will discuss in deeper terms how these things will all be incorporated into me and Nicoles intro. I also want to start finding the name of the movie, and I want it to be symbolic to what actually happens.

WE FOUND IT

HIIII BLOGGG!!!! Today, me and Nicole researched TOGETHER and found the plot for our opening. It will be mystery, and it will about these 2 friends, and 1 of them is getting bullied but nobody else knows, and she ends up killing herself. The police open a case but struggle and find little to no evidence on why she killed herself, her friend, knowing her, knows that she would never do this as she was a happy light spirit, so she goes on her own mission to find out why her friend killed herself.

With this plot, I already have some characters in mind and the people who can play those 2. My friends Alex and Gabby are the PERCECT PAIR for this project. 

The way the opening will be planned out will be that it starts with the production companies name, then a part of the scene starts, then the name of the movie will appear, and then the rest of the opening will show. Me and Nicole still have to plan the whole thing, but we are really grateful and happy to have gotten our plot down after a week of going back and forth, and we are happy that we found something we FINALLY agreed on. We still have to figure the name out for the characters and film, but we plan om story boarding first to get an idea to see if we can connect the name to the opening.

WEEK 3!

HIII BLOGGG!! Okay so in this past week, me and Nicole STILL do not know what our opening can be based on. As you can see from what I have said in the past, it will be a mystery, but we just are not agreeing on what it should be about, so over the weekend Nicole will come over or I will go to her house and TOGETHER, we will watch lots of intros, movies, and openings, and write down what we enjoy from all of them so we can come up with something. 

Somethings I have noted that I liked and would like to include in my own openings are ANIMATED PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGOS. Honestly those sound super hard but I am thinking of drawing a bunch of pictures and putting them all together so it will look animated. Another thing I really love about most openings that I would love to include in my own is how simple yet DETAILED the openings are, and how there are so many props that are simple yet add their own detail and help the storyline flow. In another class, my teacher mentioned how some students went thrifting to find their props, so me and Nicole will probably do that, as well as making some of our props.   

Another thing I was thinking about was starting off our intro with people talking but I don't know about what like you know what I'm going for??? I hope that made sense, because the last idea I had was SO GOOD but so undoable.

Schedule

For me and Nicoles projects, we know that this cannot be done in a short period of time, so we have come up with a discrete schedule to help us stay on task during the nine weeks that we are meant to work on this project. 

- week of 2/19-2/25

- Have our whole plot finished

-Start story board

-finish 3 blog post

-week of 2/26-3/3

- start creating our logo for our production company

-start creating name for our production company

-finish story board

-finish 3 blog post

-week of 3/4-3/10

- start filming 

- finish 3 blog post

-check up with teacher to make sure everything looks well

-week of 3/11-3/17

-finish filming

-start editing

-finish 3 blog post

-fix anything our teacher tells us to fix

-week of 3/18-3/24

- finish editing

-finish 3 blog post

-week of 3/25-3/31

-FREEEEE SPRING BREAKKKKKKKKK

-week of 4/1-4/2

-make sure everything looks well

-submit project

This is just a draft of what we would like our schedule to look like, and we will make sure to do as much as possible to make sure this schedule is followed. We are prepared with the past knowledge our teacher has given to us, and if anything ends up going wrong, we have spring break to help us get back on our feet and make sure this project is done properly for a good score and submitted on time. 

Research

For me and Nicoles genre (mystery), I have noted that many openings are very simple, but include many key details to make the scene how it is. One that has especially caught my eye is the opening for Knives Out. This film's opening has caught my eye due to its simplicity, yet every detail in the opening adds to the plot and enhances the true feeling you get when you watch a mystery movie. It leaves you with many questions, as a mystery movie should. The fog in the beginning with the scenery of the fog give it that mystery-scary vibe that most mystery's go for. In out opening, I want people to feel the same way they do when watching this, wondering about what truly happened.

Another great example would be A Clockwork Orange. Even though this movie starts off a little weird, everything about this opening leaves you with questions. Where are they? What are they doing? What happened? What are those statues doing? Why is he drinking milk? Another simple example that shows that great details matter in the making of a mystery film.

My last film opening would be the opening for the film The Thing. The Thing is another film that leaves the audience with many questions as "What is that dog doing?" "Why are they shooting the dog?" Where is the dog leading them to?". Another thing I enjoyed about this opening was the sound, and how it added the mystery sort of vibe to the opening. We also end up with a scene that shows a poster with the words "United States National Science Institute Station 4" I think this detail is nice because it leaves us hanging, as we know something, but we don't know enough to stop watching, leading us to watch the movie.

Something I have noticed about all of these openings, is that most of them include a black screen with the production companies, and that is one of the first things you see in the openings. Since it is a patterned that is repeated, me and Nicole will be including this in our own personal opening. I have also noticed that in many openings the sound is also what gives the scary mystery vibe.

 

WEEK 2!

Me and my partner Nicole have been deciding on what genre we want to pick and what we want to do for our opening. After going back on a couple of genres, (romance, coming of age), and watching some projects, we have decided to do a mystery suspense-like opening, that will include of first, a scene where a picture is being crossed out, then blacking out to our title, and then an interrogation scene will take place with many flashbacks.

example 1

example 2

example 3

We still have to figure out our actors, but we know that one of our parents will be playing the police man who interrogates the girl. 

Okay so after talking to my teacher, Mrs.Stoklosa, she helped us realized that our idea was a tiny bit (really really really)  cliche, so now are brainstorming more ideas. Something we know we want to incorporate in our opening to help the suspense is mise-en-scene elements. 

OKAY SO me and Nicole have a new plan and its not super clear but we have a specific outline. It is going to be about a girl who is mentally ill and kills and police officer?? We're still tryna figure it out but its is going along the lines of that sort of thing. We want to end it off on a mystery as that is our genre and I also need to find actors. 

Transition Blog Post

 Hello, I am Andreina Salvadore and starting today, February 9, 2024, to April 2, 2024, I will be working on my Aice Media Studies AS portfolio. I am looking forward to working on this project, since it is allowing me much creativity and allowing me to also show how much I have learned in my time during this course.

One type of approach I would like to try is a romance, involving a troubled boy and a girl. The inspiration I would be going for is similar to the movie waves. I would also like to try to use Frank Ocean music, but I don't know if that is Copyright free and if it would be too similar to waves. It would be a character vs society conflict, as the guy is troubled and the girl is a good girl, so society does not see them as a good pair for each other. The different aesthetic of the character will be shown with mise-en-scene effects, such as tattoos, costume design, the different settings they live in, and their different dialects.

Another approach I would like to take is showing tone through colors. An idea I have would be like thirteen, where they show tone through color. My film opening would be about a boy in a gang, realizing that the course he has picked for his life is not meant for him. It would start by showing him doing something bad, foreshowed by the color green to show immaturity and yellow to show how naive he is. Then as he starts realizing that he does not want to live like this, shades of blue will start to shadow.

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

 This Music Marketing Project was one of the hardest projects I have ever done in my life. Since there were no specific instructions, I was left to deal with my thoughts and creativity, without specific guidelines that needed to be met. This really helped me go back and forth with not just me, but my whole team, as we were free to discuss most things without restrictions. One of the first things we did was discuss the look of our artist. Since we got the genre pop, there were many different ways that we could've gone, but we heavily used inspiration from Harry Styles and the way he has no restrictions and allows himself to be free as a man and be feminine at the same time. 

Example of light colors

Example of feminine clothing

Once we had decided on the look of our artist, we had to decide what type of music video we wanted to create with our genre, song, and artist. We decided to go with the typical love video to help solidify the aura our artist wanted to give out. Another way our artist gave Lover Boy soft aura is with his use of pastel colors in his merch. During the filming of the music video, it was easy, and everything went smoothly due to our storyboard and how clear we had made it. The only challenge we faced was when the music video had to be cut short due to something happening to one of our group members, but we quickly got it fixed by thinking of another idea. Something this filming made me learn was that you never knew what was going to happen and to always make sure to have a backup plan just in case. I also learned how to learn how to edit with new editing platforms.

 Once we solidified the plan for the music video, we started to move on to the presentation and who our artist actually was a person. Since we decided to go with a soft aesthetic, we used light colors to symbolize who he wanted to be as an artist. We also decided to be out collaborated with bigger companies for when Melvin was bigger due to the similarity of the audience, as anyone could buy a Funko Pop, and Crocs are made for any age, similar to Melvin.

Overall, this project was on the heavier side for me and my group. This project made me realize that I need to better utilize my time with projects, especially bigger ones. Another thing I learned from this was that for a project on the bigger side, you should always have a plan before trying to make an approach to the actual project. Some aspects I think from this project that will help me on my Cambridge Portfolio are helping me with my timing and to do things appropriately timed and helping me pick an actual theme for my portfolio, due to all the research I did in this project.