(Week 3 pt 2) Checking in

Last time I checked in, I gave a way more detailed description of our storyline and our plot which I really enjoyed as I felt that I hadn't said too much about our story and vision. I hope that after reading our story you can see and hopefully understand our vision and goal for this project.
As far as updates, I have been working on writing, editing, and finalizing our script, which is coming along really well and I am really exited to be able to finish it and be able to have an actual real hard copy of our vision.

Script 

As I write the script, we are creating the storyboard that way as soon as we come up with an idea for our script, we can immediately see what it would look like through our storyboard. I really do believe that we will have these finished as soon as next week. Another major update is that we pretty much found our filming location. As I had explained, almost, if not all, of our filming will happen inside as we our filming in Avaley's bedroom and later what would be the kitchen of her house. To do this we have decided to use Isabella's home - a huge thank you to her for allowing us to use her humble abode. This is pretty major stuff as now we can actually start using an actual location to further finalize our vision and get ready for filming. As our filming days start approaching, we are definitely starting to think about more production issues like costume design, makeup, and mise en scene. Starting next week, we will definitely be focusing on those things as they are extremely important and will have an effect on our project if not done correctly. I hope to have more updates tomorrow and have some new information to share, but until then, like always, I will leave you with our Google Calendar. 

(Week 3 pt1) Updates!

Title 

Now that we had a concrete idea we felt confident enough to come up with a title for our film opening, in retrospect we probably should have waited longer until coming up with the title of the movie but it really came natural to us. As some of you know for my previous postings, our movie opening is going to be about the relationship between a father and a daughter. The daughter, Avaley Grace, is a 9 year girl who more than anything in the world wishes to be able to be her mother and be able to hold her, hug her, and tell her how much she loves her. Sadly, this is not possible as Avaley's mother, Scarlet, passed away giving birth to Avaley. Avaley wishes she could learn more about how her mother was before the tragedy occurred; what she liked, what she didn't like, what her favorite color was, what her favorite ice cream flavor was, but sadly all that Avaley had of her mother were some old pictures of when she was a teenager and one of when she was pregnant. The father on the other hand, was an abusive drunk that blamed all of his problems on his daughter who he couldn’t even look at for more than 5 minutes without wanting to punch a whole through the wall. Now, Avaley's father, Damian, was not always this cold hearted man with no emotions, he used to be quite the opposite. When Damian met Scarlet, he felt as though meaning had just been introduced to his life. He fell in love, hard. She was his whole entire world and all he think about at every moment of his day was what he could do to make her the happiest women in the world. He wanted to give her the sun, the moon, and the stars. When Scarlet got pregnant with Avarey, they became the happiest couple in the world. They knew that they wanted to have children and they knew that they wanted a family together. The day that, sadly, Scarlet passed away, the day she gave birth. Something broke inside of Damian. His whole life had just stoped and he had no idea how to start it again. He was confused, angry, sad, miserable, and o many other things that he could even understand how to feel. He became numb. The moment that Damian saw his newborn daughter for the first time, the first time he looked into Avarey's eyes, all he could see was Scarlet. She looked exactly like her mother. This is what Damian could not handle, every time he looked at his daughter, all he saw was Scarlet and the only way that he could deal with this was through turning to alcohol and hatred. 

After establishing that this was the story that we were going to use and further establishing it, the movie title, "Love Me" came natural to us. 

General 

After searching for some days, we finally agreed on music for our opening. The song that we chose is actually perfect for us and the story we are trying to tell s it is about the relationship between a father and his daughter. Now we thought this was perfect as the whole song is alluding to the relationship that Avarey wished she could have with her father as he is the only that she was left. This song is called, 'Butterfly Fly Away" sung my Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter, Miley Cyrus. Today, we actually emailed Walt Disney Records asking for permission for the use of the song, so we are excited to hear back from them and hopefully be allowed to use the song. 

In other news, we have started our script and our new storyboard. They are both almost done and I will hopefully be uploading pictures of both by my next blog, but if they are not fully ready by next blog expect them in next week's blog for sure. As always I will leave a picture of our updated Google Calendar below. 

(Week 2 part 3) Auditions and schedule

Auditions

Now that we knew want kind of storyline and plot we wanted to have our next step was finding our actors. We wanted to hold auditions for our two main characters, the little girl and the father. This weekend, February 21st-23rd, we had auditions for the little girl. We knew we wanted someone blond and preferably from the states, but we really were not closed to anything. Luckily, this process went by extremely smooth and fast, really a lot faster than I thought it would. Thanks to my wonderful partner Isabella, we were able to find a little girl that was available to film during our filming schedule, and that also fit what we had envisioned perfectly. This little girl is so justin for our movie and such a natural actor, that even when we asked her to give us an impromptu cry, she did it with a hitch! I am really excited to work with her and truly be able to see her evolve along with this project. 

                                  

Schedule 

As fas as a filming schedule, we have decided to film from march 3rd-8th. We came up with these dates as those are the ones that work best with our busy schedules from school and our personal life. We also plan on holding one more round of auditions the week end, February 28th- March 1st, for our last main character of the movie. We will be looking at a man in his mid 20s-30s with dirty blond/blond/brown hair of average hight and fit to play the role of the little girl's father. As always, we will be using Google Colander to track our schedule and keep ourselves organized.

(Week two, part 2) Did a full 180...

Did a full 180...

BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! I have made life altering decisions that will completely change the outcome of this project. Ok ok I might be exaggerating just a little bit, but this is an absolute cause for celebration. For the past 2 weeks, I have been struggling to even get some plot ideas for my movie opening, but I am proud to say that this is no longer the case. By some miracle, my AICE Media teacher informed the class today that if we are working alone in the project and would like to work with a partner, we could do so. This for me was a hail Mary because like I said I truly was very lost in what exactly it was that I wanted to do. 

See my new partner, Isabella Gonzalez and I worked very well together as we have done most, if not all, of the previous AICE Media projects together. We know our strengths and our weaknesses, and this only makes the team that much stronger. Within 5 minutes of us two sitting down and putting our ideas together we were able to come up with a storyline for our movie, figure out the type of characters that we want and come up with a general idea of how we want them to look. With this, came the decision to step away from the romance genre and verge into the drama genre. Luckily, Isabela had a lot of research on this genre as it was the one that she had originally posted. Isabella and I created a google calendar were we will be posting our blog post schedule, shooting schedule, and any other scheduling that we made need to make. 

Google Calendar 

For our storyline, we wanted to create a story revolving around a little girl dealing with a tragic life event who is living with her single father who is not supportive at all. Some films that we will be using to further research our ideas, include I am Sam (Jessie Nelson, 2001), and The Pursuit of Happiness (Gabriele Muccino, 2006). 

                                        

I am really exited for what this change entails as I know that Isabella and I can deliver outstanding results. In my next blog I will be giving detailed explanations of our ideas and further expanding on our characters and genre. Until then I will leave your with a picture of Isabella and I when we found out the we could work together on the project. 

(Left) Isabella Gonzalez (Right) Ana Larez

Week two (part 1)

Finally getting an idea!

Inspired by one of my favorite romantic movies, The Best of Me (Micheal Huffman 2014) -cheesy, I know-, I was able to further define what I wanted to create and what sub genre I wanted to use. Deciding that I was going to be creating in the romantic drama sub genre, was really ground breaking for me because it really helped me narrow down my ideas. At the beginning of the week I was really nauseous with all of the possibilities and ideas that I was having, which really confused me and quite honestly it became frustrating as it made me feel as thought I wasn't doing things correctly, so having a solid decision of narrowing down to romantic drama really helped me. My next was researching everything of romantic dramas. This is what I came up with; deciding that I was going to be creating a romantic drama, I knew that I had to research the drama genre.
The drama genre usually entails themes such as; drug addiction, alcoholism, racial prejudice, class division, etc. The main focus of the genre is on creating an in-depth development of character(s) going through a critical moment in their life’s and the journey of going through those emotions. While the romance genre focuses on the development of emotions and relationship between two main characters utilizing themes such as; love at first sight, love triangle, sentimental love, unrequited love, etc. To combine these two genres to create a romantic drama, I have to create a story where two characters are both going through individual problems in their own life's and are trying to learn how to handle these emotions on their own, all while they meet and fall in love. I like this idea because even though the characters fall in love entirely and want to nothing more than to be together, they are the ones who are preventing them selfs being able to do that. How are they supposed to be in a relationship and support themselves through all of their problems and help lift and better one and another, when they can't even do that for themselves. These characters are going to have to learn how to deal with themselves and get control over their own life, before even thinking of being together.

Examples of Romantic Dramas:

A Star is Born is a great example of a movies where both characters are going through their individual problems which in the end, end up taking over their relationship.

Call Me by Your Name, one of the greatest movies of all time, plays this theme out very well, with of the characters struggling with a past, well technically current, relationship, and the other character struggling with his sexuality and trying to understand his needs and desires.

Me Before You, again another great example of the sub genre. Here one of the characters is learning to accept his new disability and how to live with it, while the other is trying to figure out how to help and maintain her family while still trying to find out what she likes and enjoys doing.

In the end...

In the end, I am very gland that I have narrowed down my idea and sub genre. My next step was identifying a specific plot with developed characters and ideas, which I know will probably be the hardest part, but I am hopeful that with such a large age range of 13-55 for my target audience it could possibly be easier to come up with an idea that will please all. With females being my main audience, as they typically tend to enjoy romantic movies more than the average man, appealing to emotions and create a very strong and independent female lead is definitely a very important for me and my movie. For now, as I keep on researching for a more narrow down version of my plot, I leave you with a clip with one of the most beautiful, and also one of my favorite, movies of all time, Sleepless In Seattle. 

Romance Genre

Romance Film

“It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together … and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home. .. only to no home I’d ever known … I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like … magic.” (1993. Ephron, N. Sleepless in Seattle). Who doesn't enjoy staying inside on a cozy couch with popcorn watching romantic films all day? The fact is that whether you admit it or not, romantic films are everyones guilty pleasure, this is one of the main reasons as to why I choose this particular genre.

Romance?

According to The Script Lab, one way to define romantic films is as a genre where the plot revolves around the involvement of two people.  Primarily focusing on the romantic relationship between two people, some of the genre's themes include; love at first sight, forbidden love, love triangles, and sacrificial love (Buffam, N. 2011 March, 26. Romance). Some of the romantic films that show these themes the best include; A Walk To Remember(2002), Titanic (1997), and The Notebook (2004).

The Notebook

Titanic

A Walk To Remember

Sub-genres

Sub-genres are a lesser or subordinate genre or a much larger and broader genre. The sub-genre of romantic films include; historical romance, romantic drama, chick-flick, romantic comedies, and romantic actions among others. 

Conventions

Media conventions are general rules that directors follow in every genre. This is used to create meaning and for genres to be easily recognizable to their audience. In other words, media conventions are agreed upon ways of how to do things when working with a specific genre. the typical narrative in a romantic film is; tow people meet, fall in love, someone usually disagrees, and the couple breaks up. Romantic films are usually known for opening with their main characters; a boy and a girl. This allows the audience to understand that these characters will be important. As far as setting, romantic films are usually set in urban places, for example, a school. This is done tp increase the probability of the two characters meeting. In order to set the mood and atmosphere of a movie, directors use sound. In romantic films, this is of up most importance. For example. directors use instruments to do this. To create a sad mood, a director may what to use a violin. Camera movements and shots can also help directors tell a story. For example medium shots can set the scene and introduce the characters. To show attachment between two people, panning and tracking movements may be used. The way that the shots are edited may also help to establish a relationship between two people. In romantic films, fast cuts are used to create emotion and atmosphere, while shot reverse shot is typically used to establish a conversation that is happening between two characters. 

Film Opening

Film Openings 

As we learned in class, Storytelling is joke telling. Everything that we sayin a story is leading to something bigger and a lot more meaningful. If told correctly, stories can pass the barriers of time. One major aspect emphasized during our in class discussions was in order to be successful at telling stories, you have to be able to make people care. We learned that although there are many to do this, storytelling without dialogue is the best approach you can take. By not adding dialogue you are making your audience work to understand the meanings behind every portion of the story without them actually knowing that they are doing it. Make the audience put the elements together. Stories are inevitable but not predictable. It is important to remember that storytelling has guidelines, not rules. A strong theme is always running through a well told story. The best way to tell a story is to take a step back and use what you know.

In class we were shown a variety of different film openings. This allowed use not only to analyses the choices and techniques that each director took when creating the film opening, but also to be able to analyses the different approaches that one can take when creating a film opening depending on what type of feel and reaction you want your audience to have. To me the most compelling out of all of the ones that we watched was Scream. This is due to the way that the director was able to create a meaningful aspect behind every camera movement, noice, and light at the beginning the tone was calm and then escalated quickly. The use of the popcorn cooking is used as a metaphor, as it cooks and i gets closer and closer to explode, the tone gets more and more intense and mysterious. The start of the slow zoom with one point of view, that starts to develop her fear and ends when she finally starts to reach to her fear.

Music Blog Post

 Marketing Project 

For the past month, my partner Isabella Gonzalez and I worked together to develop our new artist, Hardin and prepare him for his up coming debut single; "Steps". With our genre being alternative rock, every decision we made as far as marketing goes, we made sure it tailored to our target audience which was male and females in between the ages of 16-25. We supported this with research that we found explaining that 72% of the people that listen to alternative rock where in between the ages of 14-25 years old. 

                            For our marketing we took inspiration and tips from the very famous alternative rock bands; Coldplay and Radiohead. Through them we found out that exposure and fan interaction is most important for this type of genre. For example, to promote their up and coming album in 2012, Coldplay organized an international scavenger hunt for their fans to find lyrics to every song on the album which led to the release of their album. For our marketing campaign, we decided to take inspiration from that idea, but make it our own. We planned to print out Hardin's official logo and wrap downtown Los Angeles -which is where Hardin is based- with it. Behind the flyer would be a discount code which would allow anyone  to receive one item of Hardin's merchandise free of charge. Our thought process behind this was to maximize exposure as much as possible and with this idea alone we are getting all different types of exposure simply by printing Hardin's logo. Downtown Los Angeles is one of the busiest places all around the world, every type of person that you could think of is walking around downtown L.A, so if people see the same flyer over and over again, around every street corner, on every post light, and on every window, they will get curious and try to find out what it is. Secondly, the fact the we are giving them free merchandise will not only serve as a way for new fans to be created and people, to look the artist up and see what the deal is, but it also allows us to advertise in other places around the world without having to spend a lot of money. If people start wearing Hardin's merchandise all over the pace, not only will other people repeatedly see the merchandise over and over, but it will allow people to get "hooked" and want to listen to Hardin's new music and start to build that relationship with the artist that we are striving for. Another marketing campaign that we would use is the use of Instagram and Snapchat filters. Instagram and Snapchat are two of the biggest social media platforms currently out, so this is a perfect fit for our target audience.

                 

                  

As Mentioned above we did decide to release merchandise that includes clothing with Hardin's logo or the name of his debut single 'Steps, as well as tangible merchandise like the vinyl that plays Hardin's single. The reasons as to why we chose to do this is really very simple, it works. With bands such as Coldplay and Radiohead, we found that their merchandise is a good way for them to make money and promote themselves as they do. The designs that we created, we also felt as though they were very in-tune with what are target audience might want t buy and wear as other alternative rock bands also had similar layouts for their merchandise with either the logo or name of the single/album. 

To conclude, I would definitely have to say that what I learnt the most, which coincidentally was were I felt we struggled the most, was how to stay or keep within our genre. At times it would get difficult to stay within the lines of our genre and we felt as though we were representing aspects of the pop genre rather than our genre which was alternative rock. To fix this we made sure to research specific characteristics and representation aspects of our genre.