Group Meeting

 Group Meeting #1

Yesterday in class, we held our first group meetings to get feedback on our projects from other classmates. Previous to actually meeting in groups, we watched a TED talk, shown by our teacher, providing helpful information on story writing. I will provide an image of my notes from the class period, in which I wrote down the most important things that I thought could benefit my film opening.

In the top section, you can see my notes from the TED talk video, and on the bottom, by quick notes from the group meeting.

    During the group meeting, I met with 5 other classmates, one of them being my partner, Alex. Each person proposed their idea for their film opening, and then we discussed any questions we had and any recommendations that could improve our piece. We also had access to looking at other classmates' blogs, to reference whilst they spoke about their ideas.

    The first thing I wrote down from the group meeting was not said out loud, but was more of a recommendation that I had for myself. I saw on my classmate, Agam Gago's, blog that she had written a blog on representation in the characters in her film opening, and I thought I should write this down as it would be a good blog post to create for my own film opening, as it will allow me to further research characteristics that the characters in my film opening will have, such as how they process emotions. This will allow me to create a better piece, in the end, as I will have a deeper analysis and understanding of our characters.

    When it came time to explain my concept during the group meeting, Alex and I explained our plans for the film opening together. While we did not have any major issues that we were encountering, our classmates were incredibly helpful in giving us recommendations to improve our film opening. As we explained that the film in its entirety would be about the older sister, Valerie, our group members expressed concern that the film opening seemed to be a bit too centered around Mara, and that if we wanted to introduce that the rest of the film is about Valerie, that we should begin showing this towards the end of our film opening. They proposed that we could show a scene, set a few days/weeks in the future, showing Valerie's strong emotions dealing with the loss of her sister. I think this was a great recommendation that solves an issue that I had not yet thought about, and I like the execution of the potential solution. After the group meeting was over, I discussed this with Alex and Andrea, and even offered that we could show dates on screen using text in the film opening to make it clear to the audience that time had passed.

     Overall, I think this group meeting was incredibly successful, as it not only helped improve my project by giving me feedback from others, but also allowed me to hear about my classmates' creative ideas for their own film openings! I can't wait to see their projects in the future!!

Small Update!

Character Names and Film Title

Character Names:

Last class, my partners Andrea and Alex, and I compared our research on names and came up with these final names for our characters:

Valerie(Val): For person A, the main character in this film, and the older sister of Person B.

Mara: For person B, Valerie's little sister, who eventually passes away in the film opening.

Isabella(Bella): For person C, the friend of both sisters.

    Research for both Valerie and Mara can be accessed here, in one of my previous blogs. The name Isabella, however, was proposed by one of my partners, and we decided on using the name as it is a very common name, and has a meaning that ties back to friendship.

Film Title:

    I'm excited to say that Alex, Andrea, and I have finally decided on our film title! We decided on the name 'Dear Mara'. The name of the film is meant to reinforce that the entire piece will be about Valerie overcoming the loss of her sister. We will be hinting at this title in our piece as we plan to briefly show Mara writing a letter addressed to her sister in the film opening(which the audience can later assume is something of a suicide note, leaving her last words for her sister to read). By titling the piece 'Dear Mara', the audience can make the inference that the film will be about Valerie overcoming her sister's passing, and that she would write a letter displaying her emotions after her passing and her journey overcoming this tragedy. Obviously, we are creating film OPENING and not an entire movie, and therefore we thought that using this title would be a creative way to hint to the audience what the contents of the film would theoretically be.

Visualizing Our Ideas

 Storyboarding Complete!

    As I mentioned in a previous blog, my partners and I completed an outline for our film opening in class just a few days ago. Before creating a script, we decided that making a storyboard would be the best task to accomplish first(I will insert images of the storyboard below). By creating a storyboard, we can visualize what shots may look like, and therefore reference the storyboard during filming. Additionally, it allows us to see what we will need when we are filming, such as mise-en-scene elements. In reference to our story, for example, we included in the storyboard a shot including a desk, so we must make sure our filming location has a desk to use. Or, we can set up a different location to shoot the required shots. As you can see, storyboarding helps as somewhat of a guide, allowing us to see ahead into what the production of this film opening may look like, and therefore allow us to avoid as many issues as possible.

    In our storyboard, we cover the basic visuals of what our film opening will look like by using still images. We include frames with dialogue and other techniques that clearly convey a message to our audience, as well as including others that make the reader/viewer make an inference to learn about the character.

    This storyboard begins with a quick showing of Person B, introducing them in a messy environment to show a chaotic state of mind. As you continue deeper into the storyboard, you can see that we plan to begin the inclusion of credits early in our film opening, around the time when Person A and Person B begin engaging in conversation. Continuing, the plot continues to unfold as the viewer finds out the reasoning behind Person B's sad and chaotic feelings(they are being blackmailed, this will be shown through text messages). The story continues, with Person C arriving at the location (Person A and B's house), and Person B can be seen focusing deeply on her reflection in the mirror. At the end, we focused on visualizing the scene in which a pill bottle can be seen spilled, which will show the death of Person B, and the audience can infer that the cause of death was an overdose.

    It is important to note that this storyboard is a brief visualization of our film opening. While it shows a majority, not every shot is visualized, although we made a point to envision the shots we deemed most important, as well as those that we want to begin imagining due to technical aspects(such as the shoots including credits and the title.)

Naming our Characters

 In my previous blog post, I simply referred to the characters that will be in my group's film opening as Person A, B, and C. My partners and I had a brief conversation that before creating our script, we should finalize the names of our characters. We made the ultimate decision that we will each research names separately, in order to focus on names with strong meaning behind them. Thus, I began to research potential names for our characters.

Each character in our film opening has a different role:

Person A is the main character of this film, and she is the older sister to Person B.

Person B, the little sister, which is shown committing suicide in the film's opening.

Person C, Person A's friend who is invited over, is also friendly with Person B.

 

    For Person B, I am very interested in the name 'Mara'. Depending in the culture, the name has different meanings, one of them being death. This is very direct to the characters' fate and thus I find it fitting. However, an alternate meaning to the name is 'bitter', which can be related to the root of Mary in Hebrew, which my partners and I can play off of because the root of the issues in this film would stem from"Mara".

For Person A, I am intrigued by the name 'Valerie'. The name Valerie means 'strong' and 'brave' in Latin, which would be key personality traits that I would like Person A to have, as she must be both emotionally strong and brave to face the trauma of losing a relative to suicide.

    Playing off the name below, I think Amy is a fitting name for Person C. As person C's primary role in this film is to be a good friend to the other characters, I tried to slightly alter the name 'Amity' by removing two letters, this way the name would originate from one with the meaning 'frienship', which is a strong characteristic that Person C holds.

    In the near future, my partners and I will review each other's research towards naming the characters of our film, and come to a final decision for the names of our characters together. 

Story Outline

 Finalizing the Plot

In previous blog posts, I mentioned the idea that me and my partners had for our film opening. Today in class, we had a long, thorough, discussion in which we brainstormed a large variety of ideas we had for the plot. I will insert an image of our *nearly* final idea and plot. We made sure to include the ideas of all members as well as work off of each other's suggestions.

One thing I would like to add is that we verbally discussed further details of person B's death. This was important for us to discuss as we want our film in its entirety to bring light to the struggles that come with drugs and addiction, and so we want to show that the cause of death comes from an overdose. In the scene of person B's death, we plan to imply the character's cause of death with a shot of a pill bottle with pills spilling out of it, similar to what can be seen in the image inserted to the left.

Additionally, I referenced the video below as inspiration for the death scene. I was reminded of this scene as the character 'Violet's' death was also caused by an overdose in a bathroom, as well as the male character 'Tate's' strong emotional reaction. My partners and I can reference this video during our storyboarding, shooting, and editing for inspiration on what the shots and pace of editing may look like during the scenes leading up to person B's death as well as when it actually occurs.

I was also interested in the use of a running shower to subtly hint to the viewer the idea that life moves on after death. This particular idea was inspired by Psycho (1960), in the scene in which a woman is murdered, but towards the end of the excerpt the camera focuses on her blood flowing into the drain to reinforce this idea. This will likely not be strongly apparent or emphasized in the film opening, but it is, hopefully, going to be present to hint to the viewers that the rest of the film would theoretically cover the main character's (Person A) journey overcoming her difficulties in life after her sister's (Person B) suicide.

Portfolio Schedule

 Scheduling/ Planning

As mentioned in my previous blog, my group members and I have determined the plot for our piece, and plan to include a sneak peek of the plot in our film opening. The plot for the piece covers the lives and emotions of teenagers as they experience the loss of a friend to suicide. In the opening we plan to show the characters suicide and the protagonist numb feelings caused by the death.

To properly complete this project with enough time and not create stress as a team, we have created a detailed schedule to follow. The schedule can be seen in the images below.

As a team we plan to follow this schedule and even attempt to get ahead of the schedule when possible. Seeing as I will be busy during many weekdays due to sports, me and my teammates have discussed the importance of communication. Luckily, we are all good friends, having know each other for many years, so we have regular conversations and know how to communicate  with each other well. 

Genre Research

 Genre Research: Coming of Age

    After some back-and-forth discussion, my group members and I finalized our idea for the plot of our film opening, as well as settled on the idea that our piece will be a coming-of-age story. 

    Coming-of-age stories focus on the protagonist's journey into adulthood(maturing and experiencing large events), therefore the title 'coming of age'. The protagonist typically faces a major challenge that ultimately leads to their growth as a person. These pieces typically use a combination of both humor and drama to tell a meaningful story. To introduce characters and their struggles, coming-of-age pieces regularly use strong, impactful dialogue to influence their audience.

    We researched a few different coming-of-age films such as Thirteen(2003), The Breakfast Club(1985), and Lady Bird(2017)  to get inspiration for our piece. During this research, we found that the target audience for coming-of-age films is teenagers and young adults, and we feel that this will help us when creating our film opening as we are creating this piece as teenagers, and therefore we are the target audience for the same thing we are creating.

    My group members and I researched a variety of topics generally covered in coming-of-age stories and decided that our protagonist's challenge would revolve around the issue of suicide. We hope to make the film opening for a piece that would cover suicide and its impact on the people close to the issue. Our main focus is covering the idea of recovering from a large trauma (which in this case would be losing a loved one to suicide) and facing discomfort while healing and growing from the experience. We plan on conveying strong emotions in our film opening to really focus our audience on the tragedies of suicide.

Let's switch things up!

   Starting my portfolio project...

  At this point in the year, the time comes when I am transitioning my blog posts to be centered on the processes of producing my film opening for the Cambridge exam. My previous blog posts consisted of research on topics such as genre and representation, or reviewing the production process of other projects, such as the Music Marketing Project or my Soundscape project.

My initial feelings on this project is that it will be a large project that I am afraid to start, as I know that not only is it half of the AICE exam for Media Studies AS level, but more so that I have to create an original production with such a large amount of freedom, in a large period of time. But, I do feel excited to get to work on such a creative production, because such a feeling of liberty in choosing to do exactly what I want in a project does not come often in high school.

While I do not have a clear idea of what I want to create in this production, my research on different approaches for a film opening does help to narrow down what I want to establish in this project. I will include my notes below.

The first approach for creating a film opening that calls my attention is that of establishing a character. In this kind of film opening, the main goal is to introduce and develop a character. Mise-en-scene, dialogue, and character interactions are commonly used to create this kind of film opening. For example, mise-en-scene elements such as makeup and costume design can help the audience infer the character's age and profession. Dialogue and character interactions, on the other hand, may allow the audience to see the character's personality.

Another approach to creating a film opening that interests me is that of creating mystery. By building mystery in a film opening, it can attract the viewers' attention and intrigue them to continue watching the film. Film openings that aim to create mystery commonly focus on three things: using sound techniques, mise-en-scene, and posing a question. By using these, techniques, a film opening can build suspense and can engage its audience.

 

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

 Music Marketing Project Process:

    The task at hand for this project was center around making a campaign for a new artist using a selected song. My group members(Andrea A., Corina F., and Sofia B.) and I selected the song "Send My Love(To Your New Lover)" by Adele, and therefore we got to work researching pop as a genre. 

    We began by creating case studies(seen below) researching well-known pop artists Adele, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande, as well as researching their respective record labels. These case studies consisted of an analysis of these artists' marketing and distribution techniques, allowing us as a group to learn techniques commonly used for pop. This allowed us not only to further build our understanding of pop as a genre but also helped introduce us to techniques we may want to use in the marketing and distribution of our own project.

    The next step of our project was planning, in which we discussed who we wanted our artist to be. We used our knowledge of genre characteristics to develop a rough idea of our artist, and we decided on creating a young, female, humble, and relatable artist named Rayn. We also studied the lyrics of our song and came together to create a storyboard for our music video to have an outline of what we would like our music video to look like. The general idea that we developed was that the video would be a combination of a promotional and storytelling music video, in which Rayn discovers her ex-boyfriend has a new girlfriend, and she expresses her feelings towards her ex-boyfriend's immaturity.

    The production was very enjoyable, as it allowed us as a group to be creative with the creation of our music video. Since we were going for a very home-made feeling for our music video, that is enjoyable for the viewer to watch, we kept the production of our video very positive. During the production of our video, we made sure to film in a variety of different backgrounds and use lots of camera movement to create visual interest for the viewer.

   

     Post-production for the video was also very collaborative, as different group members would share ideas that we could implement in our video. An important aspect that we wanted to include was the use of different cameras, so we used videos filmed on a digital camera, to create a home-made and comforting feeling.

    For our presentation, we wanted to emphasize Rayn's focus on being a relatable and humble creator, so we made sure to provide lots of content on how this would be achieved, such as the use of social media, and the inclusion of social media samples. We also focused on creating a visual appeal of Rayn as well, as this helps to attract and create interest in fans. I will provide some samples of slides from our presentation below.

 

This project allowed me to greatly expand my knowledge of marketing and distribution techniques for music, particularly the importance that social media holds in the promotion of music. As for the creation of the project as a whole, I created enjoyable connections with my classmates and learned the importance of time management for large projects, such as this one. Two very important parts of this production that I believe will be helpful during the creation of my Cambridge portfolio are the experience I gained from filming the music video, as well as importance of planning and proper time management for larger projects.