Film opening approach

 What have I been doing for the past week and a half? Watching coming-of-age movies and film opening. As I stated in the previous blog Huge inspirations have been films like "the edge of Seventeen, spiderman, the Florida Project, and The Breakfast Club. When brainstorming our film opening we came down to 3 options. Both carry many of the same characteristics as these films. For example, for OPTION1 the film opening of "The Edge of Seventeen" begins pitch black when finally we see the title in bold letters and the music starts. We took huge inspiration from that and we wanted to do sort of the same idea with the music starting at the climax of our scene and then the title popping out in big bolded letters. In the coming-of-age genre, there is a common theme of the usage of the color yellow for the titles, this is done not only because it is a bold color but also because the color yellow represents youth, happiness, and growth, other colors that are frequently used are red and white, what all of these colors have in common is that they usually stand out compared to the poster. Another inspiration we have taken for our OPTION 2 is the Spiderman movie pause. This may be super clique and we are still in the works of brainstorming but we were thinking of starting things pretty climatic and then abruptly pausing before doing a rewind. For OPTION 3 we decided to see inspiration from movies like "Jessica Darling It List" and "16 Wishes", there is a unique transition style of editing that goes through different places of the set and it lists the names of the actors, casting directors, etc, this is accompanied by an adventurous pop song usually representing getting ready, growing up, perfect days. Of course, another option would be a combination of these things considering they all represent the youthful attention-grabbing aspect that the genre needs, it all comes down now to our finalization of what we want to do for our film opening.

Project Schedule

 

Week One  (2/12-2/18)

-Being discussing what genre we will be doing, characters, plot, mood/emotion

-Review movies within our chosen genre and discuss the key elements

 

Week Two (2/19-2/25)

-detailed planning 

-create outlines, layout drawings, storyboards

- develop script

 

Week Three (2/26-3/3)

-create a shot list

-discuss filming locations

-develop filming/editing

Week Four (3/4-3/10)

-begin and finish filming

Week Five (3/11-3/17)

 -begin and finish film editing

Week Six (3/18-3/24) 

-review editing

- peer review our editing

-get rid of any mistakes

 

Week Seven (4/1-4/2)

-overall project reflection

Researching Film Openings

Analysis

The Edge of Seventeen

The opening scene gives viewers a glimpse into the way Nadine sees the world. It begins with a black screen showing the music chosen for this film's opening creates a sense of adolescence and rebellion, and mirrors the protagonist's life. It begins with a black screen showing the producers and distributors with moving transitions and then the title of the movie in a bright yellow font. The use of vibrant colors, bold font, and creative transitions captures the attention of the audience and creates a sense of youth energy. Then it cuts out to a low-placed angle of a high school, a car comes in and the main character steps out and we are shown her shoes, in the bottom of the screen we are also provided the names of the actors. There is a tilt shot and we are only seeing the back of the main character, then there is a cut and now we see her face she Is stressed out and shaking her hands. The entire time she is seen walking in the opposite direction of her peers and the shots usually go to her feet. The pacing and facial expressions establish the emotional tone for the film which would be, anxious, isolated, and feeling like an outcast.

Analysis 2

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This one begins very differently. It establishes the producer and distributors aswell in a black screen but it also tells us the names of the main characters. This film's opening has a chalky font and in the background, we hear typewriter noises. This creates a joyful but also somber mood. The typewriter makes a noise that it has finished and we are introduced to the title of the film. A song begins to play in the background it reflects a bittersweet nostalgic feeling of youth and the longing for connection. We begin to see a shot of the roof of a tunnel, it is assumed we are in a car and the names of other characters are displayed on the screen, casting directors, the music supervisor, the costume designer, the editor, the production designer, the producers, and the distributors. There is a tilt movement and we see more of the road and the sides. We are constantly seeing the roof with lights and it is dark outside because it is night. The film's opening, rhythm, and overall mood of the film opening take us into the world of the characters and it gives us a sense that there will be an emotional transformation journey throughout the film.

Coming of Age

  So it was time to pick a genre. With so many options it took a lot of work to narrow it down one. We wanted to choose a genre that we both enjoyed but felt like we could create a decent film opening with. We came to the agreement of picking coming of age. Coming of Age genre focuses on focus on the growth, development, and maturation of its main characters as they transition from childhood to adulthood. We had many inspiring films to watch to do research and fully grasp all the quirks that make the genre the genre. The Edge of Seventeen, Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Breakfast Club were huge inspirations and we want our film opening to give off the same feelings as those. The cool thing about coming of age is that we can relate to it, considering we are the target demographic for those kinds of films it gives us an advantage because we are the plots of the movies, teens struggling through high school, mental health, growing up, etc. 

The coming-of-age genre captures the journey of personal development and self-discovery, offering an emotional reflection of the human path from childhood to adulthood. We explore the emotional and psychological development of its protagonists as they deal with the difficulties of puberty. In the genre there are a lot of interactions with peers, mentors, and romantic interests that play a crucial role in the protagonist's journey, shaping their perspectives and influencing their decisions. Loss of innocence is a key theme in this genre because as the protagonist encounters the complexities of the adult world they lose their innocence and naivety. Whether set against the backdrop of a small town, a bustling city, or a fantastical realm, coming-of-age narratives offer a mirror through which audiences can reflect on their own paths to maturity.

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Beginning of The End

Today marks the beginning of the final project for my Aice media studies class. We went over the project briefly in class, and I have a lot of mixed feelings. All the products we have done so far were done to prepare us for this. The sound project focused on creating a scene only using audio and how to make our own foley sound will help us with the audio part of our film intro, we will be able to create our own sounds and know how to properly layer them. The music video project, allowed us to practice our filming and editing, so we could have the best outcome for our final project.  With this project comes new skills that we will be learning, like our ability to work on a long-term project, and working to create a movie intro. Now It is up to me and my partner to take everything we have learned, use it to ensure we do great, and learn new tips and tricks along the way.

There are so many ideas coming to mind when thinking about what to do with this project. What first came to mind was the genre of "coming of age", but I'm scared it will be too simple, this is a common genre but I feel like if done right me and my partner can make it different than what has been seen before. What came to my partner's mind was horror, now this is a topic that I also feel is very overused, it may be easy to create ideas, if horror isn't done right it can be seen as cheesy and basic, but I also feel like we can create a strong project with this genre. To fully decide me and partner are going to do a deep dive into all the genres to see what best will suit us and our ideas. We will also start brainstorming everything on a shared note on the note app we have, so when spontaneous ideas come we type it and the other partner can see it whenever and give feedback on whether they like it or not. I'm very excited for what's to come with this project, this is the beginning of the end, of the class, of the school year, and much more. 

Music Marketing Blog Post 2

Research

For this project, research was fundamental. It all began with case studies assigned to us by our teacher. We had to find information on multiple bands within our genre (rock) We chose Pierce the Veil, Locket, Muse, and America. For each band we had to find out its history, so background research of the record label they are on, how the band presents themselves within the genre, early performances like festivals and concerts they played in, press conferences, interviews, the time the band began making music and when they started to become well known. For the "case studies" part we had to talk about their marketing and distribution practices obviously, this information isn't given off for free on the internet so extensive research was required to find out this information. I got to find this Information for "Pierce the Veil" and "Muse".When looking I wanted to find information that would not only complete the assignment but teach me how to build some distribution/marketing practices for my own band and campaign that I was creating. Distribution practices are the easiest ones to find you can find out, I went to their Instagram. I found a link to all the digital options to listen to their music and the ways you can buy their music physically like on vinyl and DVD in places like Walmart, target, amazon, urban outfitters. Marketing is where I had to deep dive, I went searching through all their social media to find ways they promote their music, concerts, band, tour, merch, etc. For merch, they have an Instagram highlight with a link to their merch store. For other things, they posted on their social media every time there was exciting news (concerts, meet and greets, song releases, merch release). One thing that stood out to me was that they posted their fan's Tik Toks on their Instagram and that really spoke to me I realized I wanted to make it something our band does aswell.

Brain Storming/ Planning

When brainstorming and planning, my group and I decided we would listen to the music multiple times on our own, build our own ideas, create a story, and then come together as a whole and create a mixture of all of them. We talked in our class and finished discussing the final details over the phone. Once we had decided what we were going to do we decided to build a story board to make sure all our ideas were in order and made sense. We discussed the shots and angles and the storyline of the music video. Our song is "Something from Nothing" by the Foo Fighters and the song contains lyrics of someone building up and going out and creating great things. We also had to make sure our music video attracted the target audience of our band which is teens to young adults. That is how we decided to make a video of a man who got fired from his job and decided to become an internet sensation. With college rates dropping and teens just aspiring to become YouTubers and TikTokers Then we planned our music video filming process we had different places to be at different times of the day so we had to find out transportation, and what scene we were going to film where. Considering we were a rock band we decided the best place to film was the hard rock, we also wanted to make sure we had a house setting, bathroom, and something that made some resemblance of a tattoo and percing workshop.

Production

For our production, we had to gather our actors. We chose to have 5 members in our band and they needed to be musicians because we needed them to bring their instruments. We had to make an exception for our drummer because we couldn't transport their instruments. So gathered them all around in our friend's house and we all left in our cars and we drove to the hard rock where we were going to film the scenes of them playing their instruments. Unfortunately, we got kicked out of the Hard Rock, but had to think smart and we decided to film at a McDonald's that was in front of the Hard Rock, which was perfect because we had a great view of the Hard rock in the background. After we finished with the band we worked with the actors in filming the scenes. We filmed multiple times for each scene trying different shots and angles that we have learned in our media studies class. When filming the scenes of the singer actually singing the song we played the music to make sure we were going to be able to sync up the audio to match the video. For each scene after we filmed we made sure to look back to try and point out any mistakes, we also made sure our story was making sense and coming along smoothly. We had to call different actors to play small roles in our production because we wanted to try and make everything as realistic as possible with the small budget we had. For our tattoo and piercing scene, we had very limited materials and location but we decided the best choice would be a garage and use a needle to try and resemble an actual piercing needle. We tried our best to film in the morning/ afternoon because we knew our video would be bad quality if we filmed in the night. For our filming, we also used a stabilizer to make sure our scenes looked professional.

Post-Production

After production, it was time to edit! We used the app "Vn" and began by adding all of our clips. We made sure they were all able to establish our story correctly. We then followed by going through each video we recorded for each scene, looking for mistakes and choosing the best one. Then began cutting, going through each clip cutting and syncing to the audio to make clever arrangments, we also had to figure out when and where we were going to add the spontaneous clips of the artist playing instruments and the singer singing along to the song. After that, we viewed the results multiple times to point out mistakes and places where we could make things better, add clips, and remove them. Then we began editing things like color, overlay, effects, zoom, focus, and blurs. This gives our video an edge and it allows us to demonstrate what we have learned in the class throughout the year. We decided we wanted the lighting to be special, so we decided to begin the music video with dark colors to resemble unhappiness and depression. So when the song begins the colors change to resemble change and how he is happier now. We also added overlays of the band playing their instruments, we added slow motion because it is something that many music videos use. We added inverts and shortcuts to make sure our video was interesting and able to entertain those who have very short attention spans such as the target audience. After that, we rewatched the music video multiple times and we got it peer reviewed by many other students. We took out any little mistakes and watched it one more time before saving the project to my phone and submitting it to our Google Slides presentation.

Presentation

For the presentation, we decided to use Google Slides. We began by looking at the instructions and everything that was required to be in our presentation. The teacher told us we needed to have an overview of genre marketing/distribution, our brand and target audience, an outline of our campaign, samples of marketing products, a full viewing of music video with an explanation, a distribution plan, and a final statement. Me and my two other partners decided to split these requirements evenly. I took on the music video explanation, samples of market products, and an overview of our campaign. For my music video explanation, I had to explain how our music video was used as a marketing tool to attract our target and broader audience. To do this I rewatched the music video, and I talked about how the theme and story of our music video were targeted to our target audience, I explained how the story of an influencer attracted teenagers because of college dropout rates skyrocketing because people are more inclined to just being lazy and wanting to become a YouTuber or tik toker instead of actually getting an education. For the marketing samples, I went along and made t-shirts, hoodies, caps, and tote bags that I thought our target audience would like, I also explained and talked about how we would market these through our social media and make websites, and how and where we would sell these. Including marketing I also talked about how we were going to promote our band through our social media accounts, posting TikToks, concert information, pictures, flyers, and merch. Finally, I talked about the distribution plan, we made a total of 10 steps, my steps included talking about how we were going to begin by posting on social media about a free concert at a diner where there was going to be free, merch than we were going to begin posting about our music and albums, which then would lead us to build up to the release of our music and posting about it. 

Reflection

To reflect on this assignment, I think the greatest thing I learned was about marketing and distribution. When researching and writing, I was able to notice so many things that are going to be valuable when I'm going to take the Aice media studies essay on media context. I also furthered my knowledge of shots, composition, and movement. When making the music video and editing I was able to learn new things so I can better my future projects. 

Music Marketing Blog Post

 Our project is a Music Marketing PowerPoint/Music video. For this project, we had to use a provided song to create a music video and then create a marketing campaign for a “new” music artist/group, building the brand from the bottom up and using this marketing campaign to introduce your musician(s) to the public. To begin our project we chose our song from a set of 4 rock songs provided to us by our teacher. We choose “Something from Nothing” by the Foo Fighters. After choosing our song we were instructed to create four case studies for bands so we could get further knowledge on bands marketing/distribution techniques. Researching this information helped us for when it was our turn to find out how to market and distribute our band, we could kind of mimic some clever techniques the bands we researched used. Weston experienced some challenges trying to find out the marketing techniques because the information wasn’t available online, we had to do deep dives into the bands/artists' social media to be able to find information. After finishing the case studies it was time to start planning out what we wanted for our band( fake names) the vibe/style, the target audience/demographic, the name, etc. We came up with “Parasomnia”, and we decided we wanted it to be similar to the band “Pierce the Veil”, and our audience was going to range from the ages of 14 to mid-20s.

Now that we had our basic research it was time to create our music video. I and my partners sat down in class and listened to the song repeatedly because the goal of the music video was to represent the meaning and vibe of the song. After listening for quite a while we came up with the idea for a “story music video” of a guy who just got fired from his job and goes from nothing to this successful rapper/artist, pretty basic but we decided it fit well with the theme of the song (the song is called “something from nothing”). Next on our plan, we had to decide our actors, location, props, etc. We decided to meet up on a Saturday to film everything we could. We chose to film at the Hard Rock Hotel, but with it being private property we were kicked out sadly so we changed locations to a parking lot in front of the Hard Rock so we could still capture the guitar. We filmed a couple of scenes, mostly of the band singing along and playing their instruments to the song. The band was a total of 5 with the lead single 3 bassists and the drummer. We filmed close-ups of the musicians playing their instruments, long shots of the 
entire band, and some medium/close-ups of the lead singer singing along. After that, it was time to record all of the story parts of the music video. We began with filming the before the music starts scenes of the boss and main character arguing and then quitting, this scene contained over-the-shoulder shots for dialogue and two shots. Then we filmed the main character walking away angrily to his car and getting angry so he turns on the radio to relax when he turns up the volume the music starts playing. We do a long shot of the car driving away. Now the main character is going to change himself so we recorded scenes of him getting a tattoo changing his hair and getting piercings. After this, he begins writing lyrics goes to sleep, and wakes up as an internet sensation. We used a variety of shots and movements such as close-ups, tight close-ups, medium shots, long shots, POV shots, over-the-shoulder, pan, and zoom movements.

We commenced our filming process and it was time to begin editing. We used a mobile app called “VN”. We began by placing all the scenes into the editing software. Then we commenced by shortening/ elongating the shots. We also played around with the lighting to advance our music video. Editing is a challenging process especially when trying to match the singer's voice to the lyrics of the song. They could be singing at different tempos and it takes time and dedication to try and get the best possible match. Editing also takes a lengthy time because there are multiple shots taken for each scene to try to eliminate as many mistakes as possible, so it takes a lot of reviewing all the footage, merging it, and cutting it, to try and get the best results. Currently, we are still in the editing process because after doing some peer reviewing people were able to point out mistakes we missed. So we are taking time to refilm those shots that didn’t meet the project expectations. What is next for our process is to create our marketing campaign PowerPoint. Since we have to pitch our ideas to a group of “potential investors and music consumers.” We have to do this on a PowerPoint and we have to include our marketing/distribution practices, an overview of the brand, samples of marketing products, and the selling point. We already have the marketing products and some of the distribution plans, but we will continue to work hard to make sure our “campaign/project is successful