ೃ⁀➷ PREPARING TO FILM *ೃ༄

 Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog! Today I will be talking about my groups filming and our preparation to film.

ACTORS

Actors are very important in our movie, as we need teenagers who will embody the role of the friend group. We will have a diverse friend group of both boys and girls. The friend group is of 7 people, and four of the actors will be my group (Aleena, Samantha, Sofia, and me), while the other 3 will be played by other friends of us. The reason we are using friends is so that it is easier for us to act as our characters friend group and bond together. Specifically for my media studies group, we will each act well in playing our roles in the friend group; for example Samantha plays a crucial role in acting scared in the pool scene of our opening.

COSTUMES

For our costumes, since our opening is taking place at a sleepover, we will all be wearing pajamas to help the audience connect the dots that it is a sleepover hangout. The pajamas will be teenagers style in the 2020's as well, since our main characters are teens in the present time. For the narrator, her full costume will not be shown, but the audience will know of her black gloves, to hide their identity from the audience and to not leave fingerprints on any crime scene.

PROPS:

The main prop in our film opening is the deck of cards. As you can see in my previous blog (the storyboard), the cards were used in the title sequence to resemble the deaths and the roles of each player, and they were used during the actual playing of the mafia game with the friend group. The cards give off further mystery to the game, and help determine the rest of the movie. 

LOCATIONS:

In the film opening, we will only have 2 locations: The inside of the sleepover house and the outside backyard with the pool. The film opening mainly takes place inside the sleepover house, where they play the mafia game, and where the polaroids, burning letter, and entire title sequence is filmed.  Outside of the sleepover house with the pool is where the first death will be filmed. Since we are using a real location it would make the noise less controllable than a studio, however it adds realism to our film.

DATES AND TIMES:

At first, me and my group had conflicting dates and times to film due to vacations. However, we decided to start filming in January, specifically the 2nd-3rd week. The times do not matter in the case of filming the sleepover inside, as we can simply close the curtains and turn the lights off to create a dark atmosphere. However, for filming outside, it would be preferred to be darker so that the eerie atmosphere is maintained. Also, we want there to be candles lit as the only light, so it would need to be darker. This is good because it currently gets darker quick.

FILM EQUIPMENT:

The film equipment we will use depends on the scene we are filming. For certain scenes, such as the sleepover scenes, we will borrow cameras and lavalier microphones from Shortcuts TV. However for the underwater scenes, we will not use that equipment and rather use Sofia's GOPRO to film. This way we can avoid damage in any way. We will also use a drone for overhead swimming shots and our iphones for some small shots.

 

ೃ⁀➷ INITIAL STORYBOARD: MAFIA *ೃ༄

Hello everyone! Today I will be showing you my groups storyboard for our film opening "MAFIA", and talking about it! Here is the storyboard:  

The first thing I will talk about is the process of making this. First, we made a script of the film opening, with stage directions, camera angles, movements, dialogue, etc. This took a long amount of time as we kept having new ideas of what to put in the script and got conflicted on what to have. However, we managed to all agree on certain aspects. After we did the script, we divided the script into different parts for each of us to sketch. Sofia sketched the first two pages (from the beginning of the film opening to the doctor opening their eyes), Samantha sketched the next three pages (the doctor opening their eyes to Aleena winning the mafia game), Aleena sketched the next two pages (the reaction to winning the Mafia game to Samantha beginning to swim), and I sketched the last two pages (Samantha's death and the title sequence). 

For the storyboard, we had a variety of camera angles. However, I think most of our scenes are close up shots, because we decided to place an emphasis on our characters emotions as they speak, to give subtle foreshadowing or to make the audience pay attention to the expression. We also used close ups for the candles, to set up the atmosphere and create a dark and eerie mood. To also add to the eerie mood, we have ominous music playing in the background. For example in the title sequence, there is eerie music playing in the background to make they audience feel uneasy. It also builds suspense, as for when Samantha is about to get killed. Some transitions we have is a fade, for example after the shot of Samantha underwater, it fades to the title sequence. Some text we have is in the title sequence while the polaroids, burning letter, and "sorry" are being shown, the credits text fades in and out. 

ೃ⁀➷ MOOD BOARD: MAFIA *ೃ༄

 Hello everyone! Today I will be showing you my mood board for my groups film opening, "Mafia". 

    First, the general aesthetic of this fim opening is horror, as you can see the blood on the hands picture and the grave, the dark candles, and the girl with the bloodied dress and knife. Those pictures all add to the general aesthetic of the film opening, and help build the mood and concept. For the main characters, I put a picture of friends having a sleepover, a regular picture of friends, and a picture of someone getting interviewed by the police. This establishes the main characters, which are the group of teenage friends who are playing the "mafia" game. For the lightning, I used pictures of a dark living room, the dark candles, and the dark house to show a creepy atmosphere. For the costume, I showed the main costume of the killer, which is the black mask to hide her identity.

For the setting, I have 5 main pictures; the sleepover house, the library, the police station, a creepy dark house at night, and the hospital. These show the main settings in which the characters will be doing different things. In the sleepover house, they will be playing "mafia" and most of the flashbacks would be taking place here. In the library and house, the deaths of the characters would be subtly shown. At the police station, the interviews of the surviving characters will be shown. Finally at the hospital, the narrator/killer will be shown,  leaving the watcher on a cliffhanger showing that they did the killing.

ೃ⁀➷ FINAL PROJECT IDEA*ೃ༄

 

Hello everyone! Today I will be sharing my final project idea for the film opening.  We decided to do the horror movie idea, where the deaths described in the game "mafia" ends up coming true. The teenagers are playing the game mafia, and the narrator will choose themselves to be the narrator and as they describe the people playing the game are described to die,  they end up dying like that in real life, This is a horror/thriller movie genre, and the way that our movie will be similar to the horror genre is that the lighting will be lowkey, and the point of the lowkey lighting is to create suspense, and fear in the watcher. 

However, another thing about the horror genre, is that they usually have supernatural aspects, but we will not have supernatural/magical aspects to it. Filming supernatural scenes is really difficult, and we felt like it would be more interesting if it was not supernatural. We will also have a stable camera most of the time, instead of a handheld camera that is usually used. I hope our project goes well!

ೃ⁀➷ TITLE SEQUENCE RESEARCH*ೃ༄

 

Hello everyone, and welcome back! Today I will be analyzing three title sequences:

Anne with an E, La La Land, and Lady Bird. 

ANNE WITH AN E:

The first title sequence I will be analyzing is Anne with an E. The music playing in the background is very youthful and upbeat. It resembles Anne's outgoing personality and gives the watchers more insight into how she acts. The paintings on each clip of the title sequence set the atmosphere of the show, showing friendship in the painting with her pinky-promising with herself, and the branches that say "True friends are always together in spirit". The repeated showing of nature also lets us know that the main character is very connected to the world and that the show will be very vibrant.

LA LA LAND:

The next title sequence I will be analyzing is La La Land !! The title sequence of La La Land is very upbeat, and the coloring is super vibrant. It sets up the scene for you, making you infer that we will be watching something that feels nostalgic, like a dream. This also connects to the title name "La La Land", implying that we will be watching something that feels like we are in another world. The singing in the title sequence and the font of the title creates a musical-themed atmosphere, in a era of classic musicals.

LADY BIRD:

The last title sequence I will be analyzing is Lady Bird. The music playing in the background of the title sequence of Lady Bird sets up a comedic atmosphere, which is also reached at the very end, where the principal talks to the main character about her "Lady Bird" campaign. The clips also have a vibrant coloring, which sets off a vivid tone, and makes the audience infer that the main character is very spunky- also shown by her bright pink cast making her stand out.

ೃ⁀➷ BRAINSTORMING*ೃ༄

 

Hello everyone! Previously, I talked about my group members for my Media Studies Project. Now, I will be talking about our "brainstorming" ideas about our project.

Our first idea of a project is a horror film, where the characters are playing mafia. In the game, there is a mafia, citizens, and a narrator. The narrator of the game describes how the people that the mafia chooses to kill, die. The idea for this movie is that however the narrator says the citizens die, is how they die in real life. The pros of filming a horror film is that this is a genre that we all excel in and enjoy. The cons of film this is that it would be difficult to film the deaths of the characters.

Our second idea of a project is a romance movie, where the girl decides to focus on herself this summer and stay away from boys. But over the summer, when she comes back to school, she gains the attention of the guy she used to like. The pros of filming a romance movie is the fact that we can show different forms of love in film. The cons is finding actors to play a couple, as that is very difficult to do.

ೃ⁀➷ FORMER STUDENT WORK*ೃ༄

 

Hi everyone! Today I will be reviewing previous Media Studies students' work. I will be talking about the strengths and weaknesses of each of their openings.

ROLL CALL:

The first film opening I will be reviewing is called 'Roll Call'. A strength of this opening was the music playing in the background. It engages the watcher and builds suspense as you see the cop care coming into view from the light. The voiceovers for each suspect were also very telling and makes it feel like a Hollywood opener, with the mugshots of them and showing the case file as the voiceover goes on. It gives you brief knowledge on each character and makes you want to know more about them. Another strength of this video was the title opener; the pan up after showing the police walking in felt like a real Hollywood opener. This, however, brings me to the weaknesses of this film opening. Starting with the title opener, the sudden pause after the title 'Roll Call' is shown makes the film opening look messy, and the pan up should have been continued. Another weakness is the handheld camera used in the police car scene. It gives off comedy or instability in a scene I believe was made to be serious and intensifying. 

NEW EVERYTHING:

The next film opening I will be reviewing is 'New Everything'. A strength of this film opening is the emphasis it placed on the movements of the main character, such as the heartbeat suddenly getting loud as the main character goes up to introduce themselves. It shows the anxiousness the main character is experiencing, and builds suspense for the watcher, wondering what's next. Another strength of this film opening was the music idea, with the music starting as the character puts on his headphone. It makes the watcher feel like they are inside the characters mind. A weakness of this films opening was the awkward sound effects in the beginning. There should have been music in the background, as silence may draw the reader away.

DREAMLAND:

The next film opening I will be reviewing is Dreamland. Right off the bat, I noticed a strength in the film opening, which was the title sequence. The clip is aesthetically pleasing to look at and draws the audience in.  This continues on after with the high-key lighting and soft melody playing in the background. It makes the audience feel as if they are in an actual dream, and feels like a real movie opener. The abrupt change in lighting- and sound, is also a strength, as it brings the watcher back into reality. The only weakness I would put for this opening is the abrupt ending, it did not draw me in as the last ones did, or feel like a Hollywood opening.

DEAR LOVER:

The next film opening I will be reviewing is called 'Dear Lover'. A strength of this opening is the music playing in the background - it sets the mood for the rest of the opening, and makes you know it is a romance genre. Another strength is the voiceovers in the background, telling you the story of the main character, while showing you scenes of the story she is describing. The less saturated coloring for the scenes of the main characters girlfriend help you understand that it is a flashback. The cliffhanger at the end, showing you that the narrator is about to tell you the whole story, is the perfect ending of the film opening. This film opening truly felt like a Hollywood opener.

DARE TO THRILL:

 

The last film opening I will be reviewing is called 'Dare to thrill'. A strength of this film is the amount of cuts it has. The large amount of cuts creates a fast-paced environment, and with the music in the background, gives the watcher a thrill; just like the title. The opening also ends with suspense, with the upbeat music coming to a sudden end and the watcher seeing all the characters in shock. A weakness of this opening was that there were some parts where the music was too loud and you could not hear the background noise at all, or it made a muffled sound. 

ೃ⁀➷ GROUP MEMBERS*ೃ༄

 

Hello everyone! For my AICE Media Studies Project, I have chosen to work in a group. The reason I chose to work in a group was because it will help me gain cooperation and communication skills. It will also help me understand different perspectives of movie creating, and the roles it takes to make a movie scene. Also, I believe that working in a group will benefit all of the members as it also makes it more efficient, and we are all very responsible regarding assignments and school. 

My Group Members are Aleena Abid, Sofia Ali, and Samantha Garcia. Aleena is a hard worker and is very determined to be successful. This makes her very reliable, and I am sure that she will consistently help the group and help us get a good grade on this video. Aleena is also close to all the group members, so her communication skills will also be a benefit to us. Aleena also loves movies and TV shows, her knowledge on this topic is remarkable. Sofia Ali is also a very hard worker and is very diligent on her assignments, and is also very positive. She also is very qualified in photography and videography, so these skills will be very helpful in the movie filming process. Like Aleena, she also loves movies and TV shows. Samantha is very responsible, and always makes sure she gets her work done. Not only does she get it done on time, with no procrastination, but she does it with accuracy and does very good on assignments. She will be a great team player in this project. I am so grateful to be working with all these amazing people, and hope that we do great and build a stronger connection!

Here's a little photo of us :)

ೃ⁀➷STORYBOARDING*ೃ༄

 Hello everybody! Today I will be talking about my experience storyboarding for the first time. The scene I decided to storyboard was the iconic "Shooting an Apple" scene from The Hunger Games. 

Here is the clip:

And here is my storyboard:

 

What I learned about storyboarding is that it you need to describe each shot in a way that you could be able to imagine it in your head. In this case, we had a scene to base it off of, but usually we would not as it is just a scrap piece. I also learned that you can draw parts of the mis-en-scene, such as lighting. You can also draw or indicate the pans, or if the shot size gets smaller. I also learned that you do not have to be very talented at drawing to do storyboarding, as you can describe on the side. What I believe is important to storyboarding is drawing the key pictures of the shot, and the angles need to be described. I also think labeling is important, as you need to remember which character you are drawing. You could also need to label a drawing that may not be understood without it.

My experience storyboarding this clip was challenging, however I managed to do a decent job. I am not the best at drawing, so having to draw complex scenes, or even just a shot of Katniss aiming her arrow was difficult for me. Another challenging aspect of storyboarding for me was drawing the whip pans, or any movement. I felt as if I did not show the angles or movements properly, however I described them on the side to make sure it is known. However this helped me learn a lot about storyboarding and it also helped me be a little creative too!