We made it! It's finally time for this to go in. Frankly, it was quite a struggle but overall a great experience. The last-minute changes made were just a couple cuts to scenes and making other ones longer for the sake of time management. I think that one of the most major issues was being able to make the videos available, however, I worked around it.
Enjoy :)
Behind Me
Creative Critical Reflection
Welcome back ladies and gentlemen, in all honestly, I didn't work on anything too major other than nitpick the final scenes I want to input into the film opening, it's spring break, and the majority of my actors are unavailable to film. So until then, this entire process is on hold. I plan on reviewing material and maybe shortening what I have. The plan, for now, is to play with the film I already shot and then review what I like to call "The Game Plan" and be able to pick out the most important scenes that will be most beneficial to the opening and story I want to portray.
I apologize for the short post, but that's all I have for you tonight.
Until next time...
Today, we filmed the opening scene for the film opening. Frankly, it was a really funny process considering half the time Maddie and I couldn't keep our laughs in when she was being strangled. It was fairly easy to film, we had a good setting that was dark and empty so we didn't have to worry about too many background noises.
The group consisted of Maddie, Luis, and me. We waited for it to get dark, so naturally, we waited at Starbucks :) Whilst at Starbucks, I spotted an officer and took my chance to get some intel on whether we would be able to get the department's help with an interrogation scene. With that said, I explained the project and he gave me his card to get in touch with public relations to see what I can do with that. The officer was really nice and helpful and left me hopeful for the department's future involvement. I do think I may not need it considering I may have planned way too much for the opening because after filming I realized how quickly time will fly, so we'll see where that goes.
We went to Town Center to film by the lake and the lighting wasn't right so we headed over to Vista View in the dead end of nowhere that felt like we may get murdered for real. We filmed the opening playing around with different shots and angles to experiment with what would be the best way to piece it together with the opening music.
A few days ago the group came over and we finalized timing, shots, and other things we needed to fill in. We discussed casting and had quite the time doing "auditions" for who died the best. Throughout the plan, we got to bond more and get closer as a dynamic. U got really lucky choosing a group of people who I am close with and being able to have people I usually enjoy spending time and hanging out with helped with the entire process immensely since it was super comfortable being around them along with not many formalities like it would be if they were people who I wasn't close with. The google doc of a few of the basic shots I want to film is down below:
We finished planning it out and everyone went their separate ways. Luis went home and began creating the beginning music for the opener. For the record is so sick. I am still working on getting it shared with me since he swears it isn't ready but once I have it in my hands I will make sure it get into my next post. I listened to it and think that it is the epitome of an anxious vibe and will work with the opening scene perfectly.
A couple days later were the group meetings. This helped a lot since we all got to discuss the different holes in our projects and other things we needed ideas or even just advice with. I got help with discussing the issue that I thought my film opening was more of a short film and eventually came to a conclusion on how to end the opening to make it seem like a film opening and not a short film.
Luis Mendoza and I had met up to discuss the different ideas and aspects of this film opener and brainstorm some things to add substance and make it entertaining. We took attention to The Weeknd's "After Hours" album as an inspiration for the type of idea we are trying to give off. After hours of storylines and storyboards, we found a play of events and ideas. One of the main things we plan to incorporate is physical credits. Something filmed with the movie like lipstick on a mirror rather than being edited in.
We took a lot into consideration, threw ideas around at each other, and even took some example shots to see how we can plan it out better. For one of the scenes, there's talk about involving a member of the Broward community to act in this. Generally speaking, I find this to be a rather interesting project and we have a lot of ideas. I can't wait to see how this turns out in the end.
The plan is to finish the final storyboard and storyline by the end of Wednesday, and from there start filming. Once we film scenes and start cutting from the lot we can put them together and edit. I have a couple friends acting in the film but it gets difficult to manage with everyone's schedule considering they have jobs and school activities. At the end of the day, they're helping me out so I need to accommodate their schedule. It is going to work out because as of right now, we won't need every person for every scene.
The consistent blog posts are to document the progress made for my Cambridge Media studies project. To begin, I have recruited a couple of my friends to be sort of a "team" for this project. So, I have a cast, music producer, and any more people I may need to assist in the production of this film opening. Once I got hop I printed out every paper I needed for guidance on how to approach the project and hung it up on my wall to sit in my face. Said wall is shown below:
The project was an eye-opening experience. The song choice was dependent on the song we didn't like. The repeated number of times this song was heard in order to record, edit, and get familiar with became sickening. The research was fairly easy considering we had such a popular genre. On top of that, the chart was split up, and using big names as examples was extremely helpful since there was already background knowledge on the case studies. After the research was done, we brainstormed ideas for the type of music video we wanted to create. We related the song to Sabrina Carpenter's "skinny dipping". They had the same general idea in the sense that they both used things like a speaking tone in order to "sing" the song. The brainstorming process was fairly easy since we wanted to create an awkward vibe that represented the title of the song. We had decided that the group was relatively indie/pop and utilized our knowledge of the genre in order to create the best image for our stars. We decided to use names that related to indie bands like "Sticky Fingers" or "Miniature Tigers". We were throwing ideas out and the word "glitter" came up. After discussion, we had settled on "Puffy Paint".
Upon deciding the name, we had created a sort of Pinterest Board that would allow us to get a clear idea of the vibe the band was giving out. We had artists like Giveon and Willow heavily influence the vibe that the band portrayed. Of course, the vibe we decided on was the pastel and then ran with it.
The ideas for the music video surrounded inspiration from the "Somebody that I used to know" video and the fact that it's iconic. Keira offered up her lights and other things to make that a possibility and we had decided to film at Tess' house and it fell into place. After we established the general outcome of the video, I began working on the social media pages while Tess and Kiera worked on the storyboard bouncing ideas off each other. I continued the marketing portion while we all worked on separate things for the multiple social media pages and websites we are to create. We discussed merchandise, advertising, promo, and challenges until we found what best fit the band and their image.
The production of the video was rather trial and error. I tended to offer up ideas on how we could shoot certain shots and it was very much a team effort. Tess' room was just the image we were looking for, Keira filmed for the most part, and we all were bouncing ideas on how to make the initial idea better. After we finished filming in a few locations for different scenes, we went our separate ways and met back up in class to work on the marketing portion. I had completed the majority of it, however, running through the ideas and adding on was basically what was talked about. The idea of using a puffy paint font logo, which Keira designed, and the merchandising development went rather smoothly.
We had a day where the girls came over and since Tess had already found a template and worked on inputting some of the information, I completed it while they worked on the editing. I think editing must've been the most time-consuming thing and Keira was a lifesaver when it came down to it. In the end, we added notes to the presentation and turned it in, and waited for presentation day.
I am not the best person when it comes to public speaking, so I think the presentation of the project went fairly well. Unfortunately, Keira was not there but I was glad to have it over with. It was a nerve-wracking experience but once I got comfortable it went rather smoothly.
I learned a lot about production, marketing, and building a brand through this experience and completely intend to use everything in the Cambridge portfolio project. This was an amazing first-hand experience and practice for the final project and I think it would be the reason I pass LOL. I tend to do better with hands-on learning and practice rather than lectures so this was a huge help.
This project has been a very interesting and enjoyable experience. The brainstorming was flowing throughout the group along with handing the tasks well. In the beginning, Tess, Keira, and I had chosen the song we felt would be the best to make a music video to. We created an imageboard of the inspiration for our band and the vibe we wanted to portray. After we had done the research chart, it was fairly lengthy but all good research takes time. We had split that up and worked on it thoroughly through each column. After that, we were brainstorming ideas for the video taking inspiration from other iconic music videos, like the "Somebody that I used to know" video.
After we established the general outcome of the video I began working on the social media pages while Tess and Kiera worked on the storyboard bouncing ideas off each other. I continued the marketing portion while we all worked on separate things for the multiple social media pages and websites we are to create. We discussed merchandise, advertising, promo, and challenges until we found what best fit the band and their image.
The challenges with this project may very well be limited to it is a lengthy process, however, it is a fun way to get creative and get closer with the girls in the class. We had invited one of Tess' friends to be in the video as the male love interest and he was a pleasure to work with. The filming today consisted of trial and error and just testing out a bunch of things, specifically shots, angles, and composition. Overall, it was super fun and a good way to know the girls outside the classroom setting. The next steps would be to put a marketing PowerPoint together, create merchandise mock-ups, and finally edit the music video. This is an example of an imageboard we put together:
