Planning by Dates

 Hello Blog!

My partner Sabrina and I have really busy schedules outside of school since I have extracurricular sports and she as well.  As a result, I thought it would be beneficial to make a timeline for our project by weeks and dates, up until the final due date.  This is what my timeline looks like:

The website that I used in order to make this timeline is https://dashboard.visme.co/v2/projects/own

This upcoming week is a two-day school day week.  Sabrina and I will only see each other on Tuesday and Thursday.  As a result, we need to finalize our storyboard this Tuesday and begin filming starting Thursday.  We will most likely have to film on the weekends outside of school or after school if we really need to.  If we stick to the schedule at hand, Sabrina and I will have our project ready enough to submit maybe even before the due date of April 4, 2022.  

Thank you blog!

Hannah signing off✌🏻

Mood Board!

 Hello Blog!

Hannah again! 

Today I have begun a mood board to capture the mood for the film and to capture more ideas on the setting and mise-en-scene.  
The website I used for creating this mood board is https://create.vista.com/home/

As illustrated in this mood board, the colors my partner and Sabrina are honing in on are more blue hews of light and dark orange (burnt orange) hews of light.  The blue captures the tone of the film when we flashback to past memories of mental abuse from arguments and negative mental health ideas that the main character/ athlete endured.  The image of the track star in the top left corner of the mood board is what Sabrina and I are going for in our film.  There is a single female track athlete that the image focuses on, which is what Sabrina and I are going to do.  There is also a track outfit that the runner is wearing.  This is crucial in our film opening as I am going to dress in a running outfit so that the audience understands I am a runner and that I planned on running due to my clothes.  The costume of a track outfit adds to the mise-en-scene of the production.  

As for the middle and top right images in the mood board, the main character athlete is exhausted mentally from their life.  The laying on the ground shows this.  The exhaustion and frustration which is what we are trying to capture in our film.  We want to show emotion as the main character is running and thinking about her past sad memories.   Running is her escape from reality and we are going to capitalize on that by showing the emotion of the character thoroughly in small close-up shots and flash-back edited shots.  The headphones on the woman in the top right corner show her seriousness about her sport.  The bottom middle and bottom right images show the acts of mental frustration over home life.  When we show flashbacks in our film, we will capture these emotions.   The idea that mental health can be saved by sports is what we are trying to instill in our film opening.  

This mood board has allowed me to organize my thoughts on the overall tone of the film introduction and I will be sharing this mood board with my partner Sabrina in order to express how I visualize the direction of our film in hopes we are on the same page.

Thank you!

Hannah signing off ✌🏻

We Got the Beat!

 Hello Blog! 

Yesterday, my partner Sabrina and I were in class listening to music and working on our storyboard.  We were researching ways in which we can access music.  We searched songs that were on specific "nature" or "sad" playlists on Apple Music that we felt fit the vibe for our film introduction.  Our main character is a teenage girl who is escaping her home life and her lonesome life at school through running track.  

Here is the song that we feel fits our introduction the most: 

"Dirty Paws" by Of Monsters and Men

This song is very important because it will play over the videos throughout the film.  At approximately 57 seconds into the 3 minute and 41-second song, the beat drop, and it is a quicker-paced beat and lyrics match that change in intonation.  This will be the part where our main character athlete will begin to run around the track. The running symbolizes our track character's running away from her problems and using her sport as an escape. The song will further pass along this message.  As we incorporate flashbacks into the film opening, we will muffle the sound of the videos over the sound of the song "Dirty Paws" by Of Monsters and Men.  The song is the main focal point as it synchronizes with the running of the main chracter on the track.  

In order to get acceptance to use this song in our project, my partner and I had to email the production company to get the copyrights.  We are hoping that they accept our plea or else we will need to find a new copyright-free song.  Sabrina took it upon herself to email the copyrights company.  

Here is an image of Sabrina emailing the producers: 

(We did not exclusively show the content in the email in this picture as it would be inappropriate)

That is all for today! 

Thank you blog!

Hannah signing off✌🏻

Music + Storyboard

 Hello Blog!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Today in class I worked on my storyboard with my partner for our Portfolio project!  Just in case you forgot, we are planning on filming a movie intro on a track athlete with personal issues that she overcomes as she escapes her reality through her sport.  Our genre is a sports genre theme with the main character being a teenage girl.  

During class today, Sabrina and I watched a few movie introductions to get some inspiration for our topic.  We watched the movie introduction of Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and Midnight in Paris (2011).  These films helped us to see how we establish a setting through establishing shots. Since we are using the track at school as our main focal point for the film introduction, we got inspiration from the multiple establishing shots in these films.  Sabrina and I then began sketching out our storyboard.  

I did most of the drawing for our storyboard as Sabrina and I both listened to music to feel inspired.  Her task was to go on the app Apple Music and find one song that we felt captured the tone and mood for the whole film.  As we are sketching the storyboard, we are listening to songs that we feel could fit in with the shots we are taking for this film.  The pace of the song needs to match with the pace of the edits. 

Here is a picture Sabrina took of me creating our draft storyboard.  

As you can see, I have headphones in as I sketch the storyboard with Sabrina because we are choosing songs that correlate with our introduction theme. The songs that we listened to were that of sadness or a more natural and relaxed sounding song.  This goes with the theme that we want to present throughout our film.  The main character is going to be relaxed as she is running as a method of therapy for her personal life problems. 
My partner and I have not chosen a song yet but we have listened to a hand full such as: 
"All I Want" by Kodaline

"Cherry" by Harry Styles

"Bloom" by The Paper Kites

These songs are tricky to get copyright access to.  In order to do this, my partner and I need to email the head of the music site or fill out an application form on the website of the song's company that we choose.  We are having difficulty choosing one specific song, but we need to choose quickly as it might take a long time to get the approval or we may even get rejected.  

Stay tuned to hear about what song we choose, what our completed storyboard looks like. This is what we have so far: 

The top right of every page shows the number in order of the pages.  

Thank you blog! There is still so much to be done. I will keep you updated on how our music selection process is going.  

Hannah signing off ✌🏻

How I Plan to Conquer Sounds and Location!

 Hello Blog!!

Hannah again :)

I have missed you all since my last post yesterday regarding my partner Sabrina and I's genre topic and our plan on how to bring our story to life.  Now that you know the genre we are choosing (sport's drama), let's get down to detail on how we are going to make this film under our time crunch.

This is the first week since our assignment was prompted to us by our teacher.  There have been some hiccups in the brainstorming process as we have explored rom coms, sports dramas, and even teenage coming of age films.  After much research and Google Doc collaborations, we have landed on a sports drama introduction idea about a track athlete using her sport as an escape from the harsh reality of her mundane/ harsh life.  In order to make this film introduction come to life, my partner and I started thinking of locations to film.  Of course, we came up with the track at our school.  The track team is not in season right now which is beneficial to us because it means fewer people on the track.  My partner and I are planning on taking a day towards the end of next week to start venturing around the track. We will check to light, the possibility of the stadium in the background, places where we can get an establishing shot, etc.  

This upcoming Wednesday, my partner and I will create a storyboard for our project.  We are planning on using our time in class and if we are not finished we will use our personal time outside of school to get this done. This upcoming week, we MUST finish our storyboard so we stay on schedule.  

In case you do not know what a storyboard is, here is one we created from a previous film project that Sabrina and I both worked on:

As well, for this project, we have many sound effects that need to be present in our film introduction in order to embody and express drive, determination, and resilience.  The audience needs to feel the struggle from the track athlete working through all these emotions on the track.  Sounds such as heavy breathing, feet running on the track, sweat dripping, muffled sounds from clips in the past.  These are all sound like may need to be covered on voice memos instead of live outside in order to play over the visuals used in the intro.  In regards to sound, since we will be showing clips from the track athlete's past to show the struggle and escape track gives her, we will insert muffled sounds/arguments into these clips of the past to further express the thoughts of the athlete as she is running. 

There are foley sound websites that allow you to buy foley track sounds however, my partner and I do not think these sounds are as great because they show the noise of an entire track meet when really we just want to hone in on the individual track star's breathing and body noises as she runs on the track by herself.  The focus is more on the individual main character instead of an entire audience and track team.  

One example website of foley sounds that we want to stay away from are:

https://www.audiomicro.com/sound-effects/sports/track-and-field

That is all for today!

Hannah signing off✌🏻

What Makes a Movie Intro GREAT?

 Hello Blog!

I have been researching, what makes a movie introduction exceptional?  I have found a thorough website that helped me come to this conclusion: intrigue, inform, and impress. 

https://nofilmschool.com/beginning-movie-great

With our film introduction, I am hoping to embody all of the techniques in the film that I have learned so far to help engage the audience.  Our introduction needs to be eye-catching and I believe we can do that through close-ups of our track athlete running, closeups of arms moving fast and body moving quickly away from the camera.  I hope to capture sweat dripping from our athlete's body onto the track to show the hard work and drive of athletes.  We will most likely shoot in the morning or afternoon in order to get peek sunlight because it is crucial that we have bright lighting to show the elevation in mood and tone of the film as the athlete is excelling in their sport. We will most likely have a female athlete as our main character, as we take a personal look at this film, through my experiences as a female in sports.

The genre we are choosing is sports drama.  Some examples of films that are sports dramas that we have researched and watched prior to this conclusion are: The Blind Side (2009), Rocky IV (1985), and 42 (2013).  These movies show the emotion behind sports and more importantly the feelings of athletes in sports.  For example, the plot of the movie, The Blind Side, is based on a football player who comes from a low income community or "the projects" and makes his getaway from his home life through sports.  This films shows how his escape from his reality and home life was football and football is how he became a collegiate athlete.  This emotion and drive are something we plan on showing in our film introduction.  although, our introduction will be around 2 minutes we want to show the emotion thoroughly. We plan on really striking a nerve in a draw-dropping and interesting twist on sports.  Many people see success in sports and think the athlete is okay when sometimes the mental stress is too overwhelming and that is why athletes immerse themselves completely in their sports.  Sports is a stress reliever and getaway and that is something we plan to address.  

Through close-up shots and crucial lighting techniques, we hope to capture the film introduction to its greatest potential.  

Here is a great look into our three light point system we plan to embody. 

Thank you!

Hannah signing off✌🏻

Brainstorming Took a Turn😳

 Hello Blog!!

Hannah, again.  I am in class with my partner right now brainstorming ideas for our film introduction.  We spent about 30 minutes creating a google doc that we shared on our coming-of-age teenage film.  We brainstormed ideas left and right and finally came to terms with our failure- we had no interesting plot.  Our inspiration was the 90s or early 2000s themed introduction opening, however, we did not want to be unoriginal and base so much of our film off of other films in the past such as Clueless, Legally Blonde, and Princess Diaries.  We felt as though if we chose to do an introduction film based on this era it would not differ much from the great early 2000s films already out there.  We want to be different and we want our audience to be taken away by our production to the point where they wished we had an entire movie made, not just an introduction.  

Here is our google doc brainstorm of a Y2K theme!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n99_9Lf85z2FvL5Ff0UpsdgX2quay-oAJ8Y_pJn4pws/edit?usp=sharing

Turning a page, my partner and I have decided on "going with what we know."  I am an athlete that loves being outside.  My sport, soccer, is my getaway from any mental struggles I go through and any family arguments that may present themselves, even arguments with friends.  We are going to create a film that follows a track athlete around a track at school as she runs away and escapes her reality through her sport.  Our idea is that we will switch back from present to past.  The athlete running around the track will be thinking about her arguments, mental struggles, physical struggles as she is running.  We plan on using parallel editing to demonstrate this as well as the cutaway technique used to develop context and interrupt the continuous scene by inserting a separate shot (of the past).   When we show the past clips and the present, we plan on changing the filter or color of the shots.  The past ideas of negative arguments and altercations will be in a darker filter to create a dense and somber tone, whereas the present time on the track will be in a lighter light to demonstrate that track is the main character's get away from reality.  

The title may be called "Escape." ...

Our idea is unique and I believe it will capture an audience's attention as it relates to a young and youthful target audience that endures a lot of emotions growing up in high school.  

Cannot wait to see what our storyboard and layout sketches are going to ensue!

Thank you!

Hannah signing off ✌🏻

Brainstorming for Film Opening !

Hey Blog!

In my previous Aice Media Studies class, my teacher showed us a PowerPoint and Nearpod slide presentation so I can become a professional at blogging accurately and effectively for you all.  So here we go... 

Ever since I was assigned this Cambridge Portfolio project I have been planning with my partner the ways in which we will create an intriguing and moving film opening.  Through the research of previous film openings, something that really caught our eyes was the coming-of-age film idea.  For example, the film The Edge of Seventeen (2016) has a great plot about the coming of age of a young teenager discovering relationships with her family, best friend, and males she is attracted to.  This idea has piqued our interest as it demonstrates the growth of a character in an entertaining and unfolding way.  

One thing that I have learned in Aice Media Studies previously is that when creating a film or film opening you must give the audience 2+2 and never the 4.  My partner and I believe we can incorporate coming of age in an unfolding and fascinating way.  We want to give our audience the 2+2 in the film opening and leave out the 4 for them to latch onto and draw them in.  One way we can create this idea is by using scenery to attract our audience.  In the film Call Me by Your Name (2017), the setting really impacted the storyline of the film.  The film was located in Crema, Lombardy and the scenery really encapsulated the storyline, and the accents of French and the speaking of French blended well with the scenery as well.  It showed that the film did not take place in America.  This is crucial.

After brainstorming many ideas and researching films, this example of film has inspired my partner and me to use the scenery surrounding us such as the Everglades and outdoors to really illustrate our film plot (main character personal development).  This is going to be super fun to create and I am so excited to take you along on the journey of filming or day I say... "self-discovery."

Some links to show how setting affects storyline:

https://blog.celtx.com/5-ways-a-storys-setting-can-influence-a-screenplays-narrative/

https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-setting-shapes-the-characters-plot.html

https://www.nfi.edu/special-effects-in-movies/

Thank you!!

Call Me by Your Name  (2017)

Hannah signing off✌🏻

Let's Conquer My Portfolio Project

Hello, Blog !!!!!

This is Hannah again! Today I am going to blog about a new assignment my teacher gave us students. The assignment is a new portfolio project. I am super excited to partake in this journey. When my teacher introduced this project she told us students that we will be blogging a lot more. So, get used to me blogging more often!  I will be tracking my journey for my final Aice media study project, which will also be part of my end-of-year Aice course exam.  

As I turn the page entering Semester 2, I plan on approaching this project head-on with one other partner to assist in part of it. My partner and I will conquer this project to the best of our ability.   We are going to film a movie introduction that is eye-catching and intriguing to a large audience and Cambridge!  As well, me personally, I will research, navigate, and practice new technology strategies and research more media projects and companies in order to prepare and start the process of my portfolio project.

Thank you so much!

You will hear from me soon,

Hannah signing off✌🏻

Conclusion of Music Marketing Project

Hello Blog!

Since my last post, I have completed, turned in, and had my music marketing project graded.  This project was intense, long, and worth 400 points.  My group and I had to really come together as a team and concur on this project thoroughly and precisely as we had a strict rubric guideline.  

As mentioned in my last post, the project began with research.  As a group, collectively, we researched the music industry in terms of record labels, artists, and groups involved, as well as case studies for each artist. This research allowed our group to analyze the context of each artist and record label and base our project and band group off of the research.  For instance, when my group researched marketing strategies and cross-media convergence as well as distribution, we applied the best methods to our band.  As our project was presented to classmates, we cited the case studies we researched below:

Although the research was mentioned in our presentation, my group could have elaborated more on the influence of the distribution strategies and record label analysis on our band.  The research was analyzed on paper, however, when it came to the crossover between our band pitch, we did not elaborate on the effect of these strategies and examples from the research as much.  

Through the research aspect of the music marketing project, my group started to brainstorm for our project, naturally.  We wanted to create a band that was unique and through great marketing strategies, we decided on what we wanted to go for.  My group created a band based on the song “Me and My Mama” by Childish Gambino.  This band consisted of three characters.  All of which would be masked on stage.  Our band is a pop-funk band that has an electric neon theme throughout.  The main idea we came up with to be unique like artist Sia, was to be an anonymous group that focused on drug addiction awareness.  In order to get our message across about drug addiction, we thought our band should be anonymous as the message of the music is our top priority. Our band is called “Wake Up.” As we worked through this idea of our band, we began to draft our presentation pitch in the app called Canva.  Here are some of the slides:

Through these slides, we created a neon theme and created simple slides to where the main information being pitched to our classmates was that of what we memorized and experienced through our brainstorming and research project. 

Part of our project was to create a promotional video for our band, “Wake Up.”  So, my group began a storyboard along the lines of a main female character who overdoses and “Chases the Next High.”  That is the name of our music video.  I and one other group member took the time after school to begin the storyboard.  After completion, we sent the draft to the two other team members who could not make it for approval.  This was one hardship my group endured-being able to get together outside of school.  Once the storyboard was approved and complete, my group decided to meet and film at a park nearby as well as one of our homes.  Again, only three out of the four members could make it.  So, in order to make the workload even, the one team member who could not make it was left to edit the shots together.  This was another struggle endured by my team.  Since one member was left to edit, not everyone had a say in how the clips were edited together.  This caused some backlash in our overall music video as we received an 80% instead of an A.  

Here is a look inside the music video slide presented during our presentation pitch:

In regards to the presentation presented to our classmates, my group did a successful job of splitting up the slides in terms of who was going to talk about each slide.  Our voices were projected well and the audience was intrigued by our website, marketing strategies, and overall our theme of drug addiction awareness. 

At the end of our presentation, my group was asked questions on the topics of the band “Wake Up.”  We soon realized that we were receiving backlash for the music video, “Chasing the Next High.”  Many people missed our message of the cycle of drug addiction and how it is hard to overcome.  Many classmates thought my group romanticized drug addiction because of the lighting in some shots in the music video.  This is something my group had to take into account for future reference.  The lighting is crucial to the theme and tone of the video, we may have missed the mark slightly as some questions from classmates were concerned in regards to the overall message of our video. 

In regards to the entire music marketing project, I have learned many strategies for marketing, distribution, research, and even film techniques.  This project has taught my team and me immensely in regards to teamwork and dealing with differing opinions.  In order for everyone to be successful during this project, all group members needed to be on the same page.  Thus, when opinions were voiced, we had to hear them and adjust.  The most important takeaway from this project was how to get my message across clearly and concisely to an audience and to always hear my group members out because listening is more influential than talking. In regards to my Cambridge portfolio, this project helped immensely in planning strategies and planning under a time crunch.  I have learned how to deal with differing opinions and differing work schedules for those around me.  I will take what I have learned and use it to complete my Cambridge portfolio to the best of my ability moving forward.

Thank you.