Project

For my project, I decided that I would get a close friend of mine to help me with the camera for filming and I plan on shooting Tuesday and Wednesday after school. For one of my beginning shots, I’m planning on incorporating a tombstone to show the death of the protagonist and I’m currently struggling to figure out how to create one. I researched online on how to do it yourself and I came across this two minute video that demonstrated how to do one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6SY86S8yh4

I’m planning that by the end of this week I will have gone to my local craft store and that next week hopefully, I will have already  finished the tombstone. For the scene incorporating the tombstone I’m planning going to Markham park, and doing a close up or dolly zoom of it. A problem that I’m currently experiencing with my project is that I can’t seem to decide how I want to start it. I’m debating whether to begin with the protagonist dying and unnatural events begin to occur after her mourning or to begin with the future and later move on to the past. For example, to begin with scenes of unnatural events occuring and then towards the end going a week back in time to demonstrate how the main character passed away. I got this recent idea from watching “Annabelle Comes Home,” in which the film begins by displaying one of the main characters in the later future in trouble. 

Upon watching this film, I conducted more research on information about the film to see how well it did. In the box office it made a total of 231.3 million USD. Moreover, a gross in USA of $74,152,591 according to imdb.com. I’m still undecided about how I want to conduct my film but, I have the plot coming together.

Week 3

Throughout my planning period I’ve come to a realization that I have to really plan out my ideas and organize myself. I want to have key elements that emphasize my thriller. I’m planning on going throughout my neighborhood and looking for possible locations for which I could film at. I began to create a storyboard to plan out how I want to develop the theme and shots. My story is going to focus on a teenage girl who committed suicide and unnatural events seem to be occuring in her bedroom. The setting is going to take place in the 80’s. I chose this time period in reflection to a series called “Stranger Things.” Stranger Things is a Netflix series that began in 2016 and has been nominated for four golden globes and has won many awards. My plan to incorporate the theme of the 80’s is to grab antique items that are no longer used today and decorate the protagonists room in it. I also plan for the main characters to dress in an 80’s theme style. According to the Pearl Source, the 80’s was all about bright colored clothing and high sports brand attire. Moreover, I’m thinking that the actors could wear Stan Smiths, that although they came out in the 70’s, they became very popular in the 80's/90’s. 

Another article of clothing that also defines the 80’s would be scrunchies. Since I don’t have much of my story in order, I am mainly focusing on establishing the time period for the moment. For room decoration I am going to include  a turntable, a jukebox, a polaroid camera, neon colors, for example a neon sign and a dvr cassette player. 

Shots

For my film opening, I want to use various shots that will enhance the suspense in my portfolio project such as close ups, pans etc. I want to really build the tone and keep the audience in suspense. According to “Gemini Productions,” some shots that are most commonly used in thrillers consist of high angle shots, close ups, pans, dutch titled shots, long shots, low angle shots, point of view shots, zoom shots and over the shoulder shots. I want to take advantage of these shots, especially maybe multiple dutch titled shots as they are mainly known for setting an unease mood since the camera is positioned in a weird angle. I also want to make use of low and high angle shots as they help show a figure/person with dominance in comparison to who is stronger and weaker. 

Research

I also began to make shooting schedules in which I could probably cast some auditions in the next few weeks or so. My ultimate goal is to set up a schedule in which I could film every Tuesday and Wednesday after school and probably some Saturdays at night. I want to prioritize my organization skills so I have enough time to carefully plan everything and get the shots I need. 

Week 2

For my film opening, I was thinking of using lighting to my advantage. I was thinking of using very dark and un edge/ weird positioned shots. I want to keep the audience intrigued and unaware of what is to come soon before them. I want to build a lot of suspense and tension. I want to help build a narrative of things that seem unnatural that are occurring. 

Genre Examples

Film openings that would represent my genre are

 The Sixth Sense (1999) PG-13

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American supernatural horror drama film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), a child psychologist who tries to help him.

 Get Out (2017) 

Get Out is about a black man who stumbles into a very white, very weird world. After dating for about five months, Chris (Kaluuya) and Rose (Williams) are headed upstate to hang out with her aggressively white parents, neurosurgeon Dean (Bradley Whitford) and therapist/hypnotist mother Missy (Catherine Keener).

genre

My genre is going to be a thriller. Thrillers typically tend to illustrate suspense/horror characteristics by having an element which keeps the audience unease and puzzled as to what is going to appear on screen. Moreover, the film keeps the audience active in the throughout the plot by having them question what is causing such unnatural events to occur. The sense of not knowing what's happening or what's soon to appear, creates both questions and fear elements among the viewers. What makes thrillers so unique is that most have various defined moods as some might have excitement, suspense, anxiety and the audience usually wants to try and anticipate what’s soon to come before them. Having the audience on the  edge of their seat helps keep up with the 2 + 2 unifying theory, that the audience doesn’t want to have a defined answer as to what the film is about, rather they want to try to solve what’s its about for themselves. Suspense is the main key element in thriller movies, as they keep the audience intrigued and wanting for more. 

Music Blog Post

For the music marketing project my genre was pop. We named our group “Romant!c Di^ision,” as the name bestowed a greater hidden meaning. The main message of our band is to stop looking in the past, move on and begin looking towards the future. This concept was embedded in our band by having each member containing a tattoo of two parallel arrows facing opposite directions from each other. The arrows help represent  the symbolic meaning of the band’s idea and were heavily enforced by showing it in the music video, in the social media pages, in the website and merchandise. Not to mention, that if you connect the exclamation point and the arrow from the band’s name, it creates an arrow facing forwards. We chose to develop the brand of our band by incorporating an easy accessible website that enabled our fanbase to get daily updates about the band and be able to reach them easily. Our website also allowed the fans to enter their emails so they can reach the band directly and can receive constant updates of upcoming gigs or information about new song releases. Another form that we chose to develop our band was through creating social media platforms. Through promoting our band throughout platforms such as Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. We help achieve the attention of our main target audience. In Instagram, there is a current option that enables the user to use his or her page as a business profile and allows you to promote your work or ideas by popping up as ads on other user’s account. For our band, we did this so Instagram users, while using the app, can stumble across things about our band and click on it if they are interested. Once they clicked on our instagram page, there they have access to our website and all of our information. Not only does this work as a way to develop our brand, but it is also a very practical marketing strategy. Some marketing products that we included for our band were merchandise and online accessibilities. For example on Snapchat, we created/developed a snapchat filter, which are being used constantly amongst teenagers and millenials, which is our main target audience, and this allowed them to hear our music while playing with a silly filter.

This helped promote our band through the use of propaganda and helped spread the word about our music. On Instagram, we also created a kind of bar code like, that when scanned, the user gets immediately located to our instagram page and there can discover/find out all there is to Romant!c Di^ision. Our band is mainly focusing on creating a fanbase and starting off local so, the idea was to print out flyers or stickers and put them throughout the city or hang them up in local restaurants therefore, to reach the attention of potential fans. This form of propaganda helps create a strong local fanbase and helps the band in becoming more popular. Another thing we created for marketing purposes was merchandise. On our website there is access to all possible merchandise and fans can see what it looks like from all perspectives. We incorporated shirts, hoodies, vinyls etc. to help reach our target audience as these possessions have become popular among adolescents. Throughout this project, I learned that time management is very important, as is a band's marketing techniques. The way your band markets/promotes itself is everything and influences the success and popularity of the band.