Making a plan

The best way to make my opening film the best possible is by planning out everything. I grabbed my go-to agenda and wrote down when I am going to do everything in a balanced way. By February 24th I will have concluded what story I choose to do, including how the costume design, set design, etc will be. By the end of that week, February 28th, I will begin filming. By March 1st I will have all my all by props, layout, script, music, costume design, setting and make-up design done in order to dedicate most of the month into filming. I will film from then and hopefully finish by March 29th so that the next day I can start editing the film. I will finish editing by April 4th so that by the next Monday, April 6th, I can do my CCR and have a week to do it since the project is due April 11th.

I am still debating on what opening film idea I like best. I am leaning more towards the one where the strange note is found on the coat that was recently bought but I want to get feedback from someone that is skilled and has knowledge of media. I have texted a few friends who are into media and film but one of the left me on OPEN :(, the other one said they liked the coat one and the runaway one the best and my other friend gave me an idea but it was way too dark and violent for my liking. I am going to try to text my friend that left me on read last time (rude) because he is very talented in film and that’s what he wants to study in college sooooo I feel like I can trust his critiques. 

I’m not going to lie, I am a little stressed but excited at the same time. I have been working at a restaurant nonstop, my other classes are being a little annoying lately and I am working on my scholarships. I think that because of that time management is crucial for making my film work out the way I want it to. Like I’ve said before I am really excited and a little nervous but I have a good feeling about working on my film for the next 2 months. 

An indecisive person making a decision.

Reality has hit, I need to come up with what I want to do now. I have came up with a few ideas of what my opening film could look like BUT making a final decision is not as easy. The problem is that it is time to start doing my storyboard, filming schedule, outline, etc.....I really need to make up my mind.

Idea #1: Runaway
The first idea I came up with consists of a teenage girl running away from home. The film will have dark tones as the girl is packing a bag with a sad/stressed out look on her face. As she is doing this there would be short clips of flashbacks of her abusive parents treating her in a harmful manner in various situations. The opening scene would end with the girl looking back at her room, closing the door and the title appearing on the screen.
Pros: I feel like this could come out amazing if it’s well done.
Cons: I don’t know if it’s creative enough.

Idea #2: (No title yet)
The other idea I came up with consists of a teenage girl at a party with the credits showing up on the party scene. In the middle of the party she receives a text from her mother telling her to go home right away. By the way that her mother said it she knew something was up so she hurries home. As she comes come, she opens the door and her reaction to what she sees is shown but what she is seeing is not shown.
Pros: It could make the audience want to keep watching to find out what she came home to.
Cons: It is not my favorite and it could be harder to shoot due to the party scene.

Idea #3: (No title yet)
This idea consists of a “happy” beginning as a teenage girl is at a store trying on clothes at the changing rooms. The credits are shown as she tries on various outfits and looks at herself in the mirror to see which one she wants to buy. She purchases a coat that she was very happy with. It then cuts to a scene of the girl at home trying on the coat again in the room because she liked it so much and wanted to try it on with the rest of the outfit. As she puts her hands in her pockets as she is checking herself out in the mirror at home, she feels something. As she reaches in she finds a paper that says please help me along with a phone number.
Pros: It could make the audience care and wonder what the message found in the coat is all about.
Cons: I am not sure how to make the cut from the store to her room look perfect.

Well now what I’m going to do is present my ideas to my peers and get some critiques, think about which idea is more appealing to me, produceable, and which one will the the PERFECT opening film. Let’s see what happens! :)))))

XOXO
-Corina

What films inspire me?

It is now time to brainstorm about what films are inspiring me to choose the drama genre for my opening film. I honestly feel a little bit of pressure coming from me about what I will finally choose to do, I want to feel extremely happy with my work. As I started thinking about what opening scenes from well-known drama movies inspire me, I came up with a few.

Room (2015)

Room is a movie about a mother, Joy, and her five-year-old son, Jack, being held hostage in a one-room shed. She was abducted by a stranger and was kidnapped for over seven years. Even though this movie was extremely inspiring and eventually turns you into an emotional wreck, it begins showing the daily life of Joy and Jack, making the audience want to keep watching to understand how they got there, what they do there, and if they will make it out. 

The Help (2011)

The Help is a movie that tells the story of black maids working in white Southern homes in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. This is another example of how I approach doing my opening film. This film begins with the maid of a white Southern home doing a voiceover/interview while showing clips of the interview and of some flashbacks. 

Thirteen (2003)

Thirteen is a film about a thirteen-year-old girl that is having problems with her mother as she comes face-to-face with drugs, alcohol, sex and petty crime with the company of a new best friend who  is trouble. This opening scene is another example of what I could do. The film begins with the two teenage girls high on drugs and things go wrong, then the movie goes back in time and shows the sequence of events to show how they ended up there. This makes the audience wonder and care about how two teens ended up in that situation, therefore they’ll keep on watching to know. 

American Beauty (1999)

American Beauty is about how Suburbanite Lester Burnham tells of the last few weeks of his life, after his death sometime in his forty-third year, during which he had no idea of his impending passing. This film’s opening is of a girl ranting about something facing straight towards the camera. This is a way to make the audience question what happened to her and what will happen to her, making them want to keep on watching. 

XOXO,
Corina.

The beginning: Genre

It is finally the time to start working on our AICE Media Studies portfolio project. My mind has been running on what I’m going to do all year long, somehow it’s been so hard to come up with something. To begin deciding what I’m going to do it is best if I start by choosing a genre. It sounds so easy yet it is not. Which one should I do? Horror? Coming of age? Comedy? Romance? Action? 

After sitting down and brainstorming in my room I decided what genre I wanted to do. I finally chose to work with drama. This has been a genre that I’ve always been really appealed towards and I work best with. Drama is an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances. Drama film is a genre in which realistic characters depend on emotional and relational growth. Although they rely heavily on this type of development, dramatic themes often play a significant role in the story. These themes are often drawn from serious, real-life problems. Either heroes or heroines face an external conflict within themselves. Drama films aim to tell a truthful story of human struggles. Usually women aged 17-50 are the main audience for drama. However, because of the material drama genres cover and its range of characters and various plotlines, it has a broader target audience than some genres such as teen movies. 

Films examples: 

-Lady Bird (2017)

-Moonlight (2016)

-Roma (2018)

-A Star is Born (2018)

-Schindler's List (1993)

-Pulp Fiction (1994)

-The Godfather (1972)

-The Help (2011)

I am really excited to begin this journey, it means so much more than just a grade to me. I want it to be something I will be proud of and show to all my friends and family with confidence. I hope this opening film won’t only be a success but an opportunity to grow my love for media EVEN more. 

XOXO

-Corina 

Music Marketing

Music Marketing 

In the music marketing project, my group and I decided to work with the pop genre. This is currently one of the most listened to in the music industry and tends to appeal to the younger crowd, mostly people in their 20s. The target audience for our artist's music style are females that range from 13-26, who are middle class, and usually have part time jobs or are full time students due to their ages. Not only that but they tend to be more fashionable, follow the newest trends, and spend a lot of their time on social media. 

In the pop genre, there are certain marketing trends that are used due to how beneficial they are for not only their target audience but the artist. One of the strategies most pop artists use is presenting their content on social media platforms. Just as our case studies, Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen, did, we relied heavily on the use of social media to get our artist out there. Instagram users are mostly 18-29 year olds, since it fits the target audience for this genre it is heavily used by pop artists. For example, one of our case studies, Beyonce, uses Instagram. Beyonce is a well-known and respected artist with over 138M followers on Instagram, which she uses heavily to advertise  on Ivy Park release, posts mainly fashion pics/portraits for her audience to see, promotes events, heavily advertises Lion King and homecoming and posts music video teasers. Beyonce also takes advantage of other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to promote her upcoming album or music, Beygood, Ivy Park, Homecoming, and the Lion King movie/soundtrack. Our other case study, Bruce Springsteen, also relies heavily on promoting his content through social media. In this variety of platforms, which we used as well, he exposes his music release information, interviews, pictures and videos of him performing and even uses the hashtag #TeamSpringsteen on his posts so they're exposed to a wider range of people. Both artists also have a website where they are able to own their platform and display not only their newest albums, songs and music videos, but merchandise and products too. Apart from that, we also concluded that our artist, just like Beyonce and Springsteen, will heavily market through YouTube by posting teasers, music videos, behind the scene videos and the newest productions. YouTube gets over 2 million users that stream videos every single month so the artist's content has more exposure and chances of growing. 

When it comes to developing our artist's brand, my teammates and I agreed on a variety of ways in which our artist, Wayne Parks, could enhance a reputation. Apart from taking advantage of social media platforms and creating a website for our artist, we decided to create a reputation by using colors. The colors yellow and purple were used on a variety of posts on social media, on the merchandise that's available to the public, and were used the theme colors on the website. The purpose of this repetition of colors is so that the fanbase can feel a sense of belonging to a larger fan community since they feel as if those colors represent that artist they look up to. This connection between the audience can get them to feel as if they relate to each other as they represent the artist themselves, getting them to converse about the artist and express their thoughts about new releases on social media, giving the artist feedback as well. Additionally, we decided that Wayne Parks would collaborate with other small artists, or as an opening act to bigger ones, on the pop genre. By doing this, he has more exposure, hopefully grow his fanbase, and enhance a reputation as an artist. Another idea my teammates and I came up with is that our artist would appear on as many podcasts and interviews as possible. This way more individuals get to know who he is and what he is all about, coming directly from him. Also he could release news on new gig dates or EP releases and even play his music, creating a name for himself and hopefully giving himself more opportunities to attend more interviews and podcasts if it goes well. 

We as a group created a few marketing products, mostly merchandise that was available for purchase on our website and promoted on the social media platforms. We created t-shirts with the choice of black and white or purple and yellow, hoodies, stickers with the logo, and the camera used on his latest music video. When making these decisions we took into consideration the amount of money that people are willing to invest for our artist. Since our target audience consists of young adults, we made sure the prices were adequate for the product being sold. The purpose of creating merchandise was to get our fans to brand and represent Wayne Parks, giving him more exposure. A few examples of our merchandise were:

   

         

In the making of this project I learned a lot of lessons. From the lessons taught to us by our teacher, I have noticed that I need to start taking risks in the decisions I make when I am producing something. There is always room for improvement and I acknowledge that, because of that I enjoy receiving critiques and just asking myself where I could’ve reached a greater level of creativity or of knowledge. In the making of this project, I also noticed that there is so much more behind than just being a successful artist. The process of marketing and campaign of the music industry is more challenging than what the average person thinks, every step and decision has a purpose and every single detail needs to be analyzed before it is put out there because we, the audience, are the ones that bring success to artists. The amount of consumption of the audience is what determines how far each artist will go, therefore, there needs to be a lot of thought put into the content that would be exposed to them.

Representation Analysis

Axe: The Axe ad there is a group of women of all kinds, black and white, chasing a white man spraying Axe deodorant with despair. In this commercial, the producer did a poor job in deciding how he was going to represent our reality. I am stating this because even though he represented women, who are underrepresented, he represented them in a way that wasn't so appropriate. In the commercial, women are shown as skinny and animal-like since they seem as if they were running towards their prey in the wild, in this case the man. Apart from showing a group of model-like women, their costume design consisted of revealing bathing suits. Some of the bathing suits were even red, which conveys a sensuality to the audience. This ad and the choices made when creating it may have an effect on both the female and the male audience. The female audience may feel a pressure to fit into the ideal image of women represented in the commercial. They may also feel insulted due to the lack of reality, not every women has that "perfect" image. On the contrary, men may feel positive about this ad. The man represented in the ad seems like an average guy, which many men may relate to. The normal-looking man in the commercial was able to attract all the animal-like, perfect ladies. Men may feel the urge to purchase the Axe deodorant after seeing that a normal man was able to call the attention of a large group of perfect women.

H&M: The H&M "close the loop" ad intends to break all fashion stereotypes, telling its audience to do and wear whatever they choose to. They broke the stereotypes in hair color, gender, race and sexuality by representing people of all kinds wearing what is "wrong," such as women having armpit hair, an asian man with an earring and a fashionable suit, two short-haired, black women, and a man wearing a skirt. In this commercial they used representation to encourage people who don't follow stereotypes to purchase from the large variety they have at their stores and also to recycle clothing, urging people to do whatever they choose with their clothing. The producer did a splendid job in representing our reality, people going against the norms of stereotypes. Because of that, the representation choices have a positive effect in its audience. The audience watching the ad may see themselves represented, making them want to purchase in H&M and recycle their clothing.

DRAMA

GENRE CONVENTIONS- CONTENT

The genre of drama has been and continues to be the most dominant area where modern-day films are made. The main reason this genre is so popular today is because it's marketed for the young to middle age community. 

An aspect of the content that makes up the drama genre are the serious presentations with life situations or settings that represent real characters in conflict with: forces of nature, another character or group of characters, or even with themselves. Drama films tend to show characters at their worst, their best, and everything caught in between. 

EX: Jack and Rose in Titanic

Dramatic subjects often include current issues, social ills, or conflicts, complaints and injustices, such as racial prejudice, religious intolerance, drug addiction, homelessness, political unrest, power exploitation, racism, class divisions, gender disparity, mental illness, dysfunctional social institutions, violence against women or other volatile issues of the day.

EX: Ally and Jackson faced drug issues in A star Is Born

In drama films, to keep the audience emotionally committed to the continuing suspense, they depict journeys of character development and introduce intense social interaction packed with climaxes. The protagonist usually enrolls a journey of character development and realization until the end of the film, easy to link the auditorium to the action of the film, using realistic settings and plot of verisimilitude, including a practical guideline.

EX: Chiron’s journey in Moonlight

GENRE CONVENTIONS- PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES

In a drama film, suspense and action is used to put the characters through their journey. In order to portray the characters’ emotional response to certain situations, production techniques are used.

Dramas are only effective when it is visually compelling to bring out emotion. In this case, lighting is a key element. One method is to hide the subject being lit for order to create the scene's dark overtone. Using the types of shots decides the film's overall feel. Low-angle shots can bring a feeling of superiority or power to the character, while high-angle shots do the opposite. Close-ups also give the characters emotion, transmitting a feeling of intimacy to the audience. Also, drawing time is a dramatic effect that is often used. This allows the viewer time to contemplate the feelings being shown by slowing down the time in a movie.

EX: This close-up shot in Room transmits the emotions of the character, and the high angle makes him appear powerless 

INSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS- HOW IS GENRE MARKETED

Because of the broadcast of drama films, the target audience typically varies depending on the sub-genre. Since drama generally works toward representing realistic stories of human issues, they usually try to appeal more to emotions. Drama films use advertising techniques such as trailers, film posters, talk shows, promotional tours and more. They do this in order to get the word out about their productions. Trailers show the core plot of a film without spoiling the movie, and attractive movie posters can catch the eye of the audience. 

EX: Roma using a film poster to catch the eye of the audience

EMBODYING THE GENRE

12 Years Of Slavery

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, was abducted in the years before the Civil War and sold in the South for slavery. He is also exposed to the cruelty of one malevolent holder (Michael Fassbender) and receives genuine compassion from another as he constantly struggles to survive and retain some of his integrity. Then in the 12th year of the disheartening experience, an unexpected encounter with a Canadian abolitionist will forever change the life of Solomon. This film represents the real life issue of slavery during 1853, preesenting the conflicts the main character faces as a slave throughout the film. This is done by using different techniques such as close-up shots, creating intimacy between the audience and the characters, and using high angles, representing the slave as weak due to the horrors he faces. 

The Revenant 

This film consists of borderman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) suffering life-threatening wounds from a vicious bear attack while exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823. After his hunting team's leader (Tom Hardy) murders his young son (Forrest Goodluck) and leaves him dead, Glass has to use his survival skills to find a way back to civilization. The legendary fur trapper, caught in sorrow and fueled by revenge, marches through the snowy ground to track down the man who betrayed him. This film represents a journey where character development takes place as the protagonist faces a conflict using a realistic plot and realistic settings. The Revenant uses different techniques such as using darker tones to create a feeling of conflict and a cooler setting since the film takes place in South Dakota during winter time. Also, slow deliberate motions would go from an intense close-up to a large, beautiful view beautifully arranged, then back to a close-up. The characters in the film were motivated so emotionally that they had to be an emotional extension of the screen.

OTHER DRAMA FILMS

Dunkirk

1. 
   

Safe Haven

2. 
   

Schindler’s List

3. 
   

Forrest Gump

4. 
   

The Pianist

5. 
   

Resources:

https://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html

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https://filmmakerfreedom.com/blog/2015/film-editing-tip-to-enhance-drama

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https://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/952-drama/