WEEK 3 POST 4 (You're probably wondering how I got here)

 After delving deeper into the definition of character versus self, we moved on to another subject that piqued our interest. My group wants to open the movie with one of the classic lines, "You're probably wondering how I got here," followed by a clip from later in the film. This tactic ensures the viewer that the film will take them somewhere new and different, and it will keep them guessing throughout the film. Since he is still struggling with his thoughts and wondering how he got there, this idea fits in well with the character versus self dilemma. We also want to use the situation to build a sense of hilarity and a "What?!?" moment. The teen fighting himself with a rather dark vibe to the shots and techniques may be the "how did I get here moment." We can use fear, heavy breathing, and an internal freakout to our benefit. This can be achieved using multiple editing methods and video shots. By including a voice-over and narration from the same person who plays the main character, we aim to add a major twist of uniqueness to our scene. The narrating is something we've considered. We agree that narrating our opening will give it a different feel and will assist us with some of the film's humorous elements. 

Since it can be difficult to grasp both the internal and external aspects of the film, narrating may be very useful. With narration, we will be able to better direct our listeners. Another essential feature of narration is that it can work well with our film's scary elements. The voice we use can be altered to express a particular emotion. This emotion can be interpreted as something that would be comparable to the emotion felt when watching something which is intended to invoke horror. 

WEEK 3 POST 3 (Setting Development) Ha, see what I did there?

My team and I delved deeper into the film's settings and atmosphere. Since the film is about teens and school is such an integral part of their lives, it would be perfect to screen it in a school. Unfortunately, due to safety and health issues, we will have to film the scenes in a different location. We looked at a few sites, and the beach was one that caught our attention. We can set the film's opening scene at a high school beach party. Because of the framework we've built for our film's opening, this will work well. We should use the setting to our benefit in order to better reflect the issue of character versus self through our main character's conscious mental fights. Given the social aspects and situations that are presented at a gathering of this magnitude, it will create a good opportunity for a "psychological episode" to take place.

WEEK 3 POST 2

 My group and I began delving deeper into the concepts we had explored earlier in the meeting. We spoke a lot about character vs. self, and how we want to start the movie. We assume that character vs self will be the most powerful because it correlates to a highschooler's struggles. We can include events and problems that have occurred in our lives. These incidents may be portrayed from two viewpoints. The first is our character's emotions and how they can trigger fear or uncertainty in his or her mind. We may do this with voice-overs or another character that reflects the thoughts of our main character. We can construct the horror element of the film using this portrayal of personal issues through character. We made the viewer afraid of the character's actions. When, instead of something awful, something funny happens, the panic turns into comic relief.

The character can laugh at himself in embarrassing circumstances, but his mental issues lead to horror and fear. The viewer is engrossed in the film as a result of these two-sided encounters. This definition, we believe, has the potential to be a fantastic film opening. Suspense can be produced using techniques such as camera work, and this suspense can be further manipulated by editing. The scenery can also be used to our benefit by making the protagonist fear stuff he concocts. We can use sounds to create both suspense and comic relief. We will illustrate the technique and demonstrate how elaborate our film is by using upbeat sounds to create irony and then using eerie and dark-themed sounds to create suspense.

WEEK 3 POST 1

 My group and I talked more about the ideas we had and where we wanted to draw inspiration from after discovering a genre that we hated and going over our savings. We watched a few movies that gave us some ideas, but we haven't made up our minds yet. My group and I also want to vary our film and not make it look exactly like the films that inspired us. We must first establish a problem in order to begin thinking about the film. Character versus Self and Character versus Character are two of the choices open to us.

We decided on Character versus Character because it is a common plot device in horror films, and it helps us to generate ideas and build our plot. In a horror film, character versus character is expected to be scary and terrifying. We try to make it fun while still being terrifying. This seems to be a daunting challenge because the two feelings are so dissimilar and subjective. My group aims to demonstrate that we can achieve this goal quickly and with a fantastic film opening. We want to start thinking about what kinds of characters we want to use, but first, we need to determine whether we want Character versus Self or Character versus Character.

The choice of pitting character VS self is very appealing.

Creating content based on target audience.

 Today, I took it upon myself to think about what type of content should be implicated in the film opening. After talking to my group, I thought it would be a good idea to create a film opening that looks to the future in the movie, I.E. at the end of the opening, it says 2 days earlier or something along those lines. This allows us to demonstrate the climax of the movie in the film opening. Now, rather than having to set up a story in our film opening, we can essentially leave it to the imagination of the viewer what he or she believes the movie is about and how the characters got to the point that they were at during the film opening.

Genre Research!

 In order to truly master the embodiment of our chosen genre, I decided to do some research into the statistics pertaining to horror and comedy. 

Horror: Horror films are typically consumed by people ages 15-25. A simple explanation for this is that teens and young adults enjoy the thrills embedded in the plot of a given horror film. It can also be argued that someone in this age range may not be fully convinced that the events taking place in the movie are impossible. This creates an interesting dynamic in which the movie can tell a story and be interpreted totally differently by anyone who watches it.

Comedy: Comedy is very similar to horror in that its typical viewers are around the ages of 15-25. This essentially means that we can market our film to people this age, making it acceptable to use certain strategies in the movie opening that appeal to people our age.

Meeting the gang!

At the start of class today, we had to have our group members chosen. After letting our teacher know of our choices, we were put in a breakout room to discuss our ideas. The first question that comes to mind when given a project like this is what genre would I like to represent. I consulted with my group, and we quickly landed on comedic horror. After discussing how to pull this off, our teacher joined our conversation to let us know that this task wouldn't be as easy to replicate as we would have hoped. Upon looking into comedy as a genre, I realized that comedy is subjective. In order to create humor that appeals to everyone, you have to essentially remove all personal biases. After giving it some thought, I realized that with a horror film, people are expecting it to be scary. I cited the example of "Scary Movie." It is a comedy disguised as a horror film. Rather, there are very few horror elements implemented in the plot, simply put, the film is essentially a satire on what it means to be a horror film. Knowing this, I realized that the film opening wouldn't have to be scary per se. Rather, it would have to imply a scary tone, while maybe even implementing a jumpscare or two, however, there would have to be a number of jokes and funny scenes of the characters essentially messing up so badly that the audience would think its funny.

The transition begins!

 So, now is the time to begin transitioning from the last project to our latest endeavor. We are assigned the task of creating a full film opening that is two minutes in length. This is a nerve-racking task due to the fact that none of the members of my group, myself included, have ever considered even attempting to create a professional film opening from scratch. The first task presented to us was creating our groups. From the start, I was pretty set on working with David and Anthony as I knew that they were reliable group members and would be perfect to create the type of opening that I had in mind. What did I have in mind you may ask. Well, since a very young age, (as seen earlier on the blog) I have been a huge fan of horror films. Due to this fact, obviously, I wanted to experience the art of actually creating something that had an element of horror. However, I knew that wouldn't be as easy as I thought. So, in order to create an excuse for some element of "cheesy" horror, I decided it may be a good idea to implement some aspect of comedy in the film. Keep reading to find out what happens next!

Music Marketing Pt 2!

    In AICE Media, we were put into groups of four and given the task of creating an artist or group in the music field from scratch. On the surface, this project may seem rather difficult. However, we were given the genre and song that our artist had to represent which narrowed the possibilities by a large amount. For example, my specific group was given the R&B Genre. For that reason, it would be silly for us to create a group reminiscent of One Direction or Eminem given the fact that they have no connection to R&B. 

    We started off by doing some research into our genre and some artists that are well known who represent the genre. I focused specifically on "The Weekend." Specifically, I focused on the fact that "The Weekend" has created himself to be this mysterious and unknown figure. This gave my group the idea to create our artist, "The Unknown." The idea behind the artist would be a nonconforming being, that wore a blue facemask and all-black clothing. This fit perfectly considering our idea for the music video which was going to be a combination of different dark camera shots, compiled together to tell a love story. 

    The result was fantastic, we were essentially able to create a story in which both figures wore masks conveying the whole point behind our artist. Using various effects and camera angles, we were able to match the flow of the story to the flow of our song, which happened to be "If I Ever Fall In Love."

    In regards to our presentation, which was required to outline our artist and an overview of various marketing plans and techniques pertaining to how we planned on getting our artist's name out to the public. Some of our ideas included merchandise, designed with the signature mask featured in the music video. We created social media accounts, including an Instagram page and a Snapchat. Most importantly, we created a website, on which we were able to create a central place where fans are able to go in order to buy tickets, watch the music video, and contact the artist. 

    Overall, this project taught me a lot, not just about the music industry but about marketing as a whole. It was interesting examining very closely different marketing tactics that are commonly used throughout the media world in order to appeal to specific demographics and groups of people. This presentation plays a crucial role in the journey to truly understanding the media world and how a being can and should be represented to the public.