Beginning of shots/early storyboarding

 Hello there!

Yesterday was Saturday and I had a little break and some days to breathe which was GREAT, but now the time is ticking and it's really the moment to step this project up a notch. First of all, I talked to Blake and he is all down for shooting on the week of March 6-12. This might be a little behind other students, but it's one of the only times I can do it since I leave for a field trip on Wednesday and will be gone until Tuesday. The plan would be to film during that week, one or 2 days after school in the HOSA room or the nurse's office with hospital beds, and to film the other scenes on the weekend, or weekdays, depending on whichever is best. And so, today, I want to get started on these storyboards, and decide what shots I will be doing! I will be doing them on paper, and uploading an image here, and that will be all for my blog post for today!

My first storyboard above details the first half or so part of my film opening, beginning with the NBA draft scene and showing highlights of Blake playing. Some things not displayed are the shirt Blake will wear (anti-gun shirt) and the broad range of the highlight video Blake has. I'm not entirely sure what shots I will use for it, so I put down some sample shots that I thought would look great with it. I plan to have some copyright-free music going on in the background, while the commentator (Riley) talks about it. 

In this storyboard page, I have displayed what I really think will be the rest of the film's opening (because of time's sake). There is like 1 idea I had to put after this, being Blake getting used to moving his hands or walking, and I can work on that later this week. Otherwise, the rest of this storyboard is pretty accurate with what I want to do and accomplish for the film opening. It was great to plan everything out so that I'm a lot more prepared and won't waste time during the actual filming. I can just look at my storyboards and see what the next shot or clip is for me to do. I'm not a great artist (as you can probably tell), but for the most part, I have it in my head what I want the clips to look like, and it was a little hard to show it on paper. The highlight reel mentioned above would look something like Rocky's famous reel, or a scene from Hustle, shown below. 

This is a clip, and what I am taking SOME inspiration from, but nowhere near all, because my movie is nowhere near like the movie pictured above. 

Lastly, I just wanted to show my Instagram DM with shortcutstvshow, to see if they would let me borrow some film equipment to shoot this video. While good equipment is not necessary, it would make the video look a lot cooler than if it was shot on an I-phone, since I have more creative control over different aspects of the video. Just wanted to show the picture, letting you guys know I'm really on this and can't wait to start filming! Anyways, that's it for today! See you later this week!

Group Discussion/Edits

 Hello and good afternoon to all of you fine and wonderful people. Today is a great day!!! Despite once again another lockdown yesterday after the ammunition for guns was found, I am fairly confident that nothing will happen today, and so far, I have been right

Anyways, today my teacher orchestrated a group discussion, where the class was split into groups and every individual spoke about their story ideas and was given advice from other classmates. I personally loved this idea. I was able to speak about my proposed idea and was given great advice on improving it. 

My group is pictured above

The first question I asked my group was where I should film the hospital scenes. Originally planning to film at my house in the white room with white beds, I was enlightened to hear new ideas. My groupmates gave me great ideas which were to film in either the HOSA room or the clinic. My school has a room with tons of hospital beds meant to basically show and educate students on how to become future nurses, and if I asked politely, I was told that I would be able to use the area for my film. To do this realistically, I need to plan everything out with my actors and have all the production equipment ready to film. Ideally, it would be best to film the other shots first just so I know how everything is working out. Overall, the idea is great, and I plan to implement it.

The other topic brought up to me was regarding my idea for the school shooting. My group members thought that if I were to seriously implement the ideas of the mass shootings, I should at least make it a main story point, or don't include it at all. They felt that it was just an afterthought and didn't really make sense with the whole story, since I was focused on the character development. Therefore, I proposed to make the whole idea of the anti-guns a lot more of a center point, as that is what really fueled the character development of Blake. The new proposal included having Blake represent the anti-gun movement in the NBA draft scene, and have the commentators talk about how he's changed and the impacts his injuries have had on him and his basketball skills. The group really liked this new idea and I plan to implement it with Blake for the draft scenes. 

\

An NBA player wearing a gun control shirt, to support the cause. 

By the way, today I reached out to Blake and asked if he would be in the video. He said yes! Now I need to just make the storyboards, and actually decide what shots I want to do for what parts of the video and then we're ready to shoot! 

Overall today was a very productive day; I was given great advice on where to shoot for my project, and confirmed with my actor that they would appear in my video! Well, hasta luego, see you tomorrow (or sunday)!

Film Opening Planning Continued

Hello! Today, I will be continuing and resuming the conversation from yesterday.

How will this really work?

Blake getting shot and being transported to the hospital

Now, this idea would turn out AWESOME in a real movie with a reasonable budget. However, this isn't a real movie and I don't have a budget greater than like $4. Therefore, I must be creative. I know from experience, that movies nowadays use a lot of flashing lights, dim lighting, and sound to really show the idea of an ambulance, emergency, or hospital trip, and I intend to do the same. This way, I won't need an actual ambulance or anything major like that to convey the idea. 

FLASH FORWARD TO NOW.

I had a great conversation with my teacher about this idea, where we talked a lot about the actual plot of the story and how this idea would affect/not affect the plot. The conclusion was that this whole idea really wasn't going to progress the plot in the way that I needed it to, and therefore is a bad idea for a shot. Since the main storyline isn't focused entirely on the actual shooting and more on how Blake recovers from the shooting and he goes to progress and improves, it is essential to show immense character development, and showing the trip to the hospital doesn't really do that. Therefore, I think it's best that I just put a black screen and have some radio chatter talking about the event, and then the next scene would be Blake waking up at the hospital, and how he progresses with his daily life. Thus, the new plan for the film opening would be

-NBA draft

-Shooting, quick radio

-Blake wakes up in a hospital bed

-Blake trying to stand and works through injuries (if time permits). 

So, to continue what I was doing yesterday, I will not be working to reasonably see how the proposed scenes would actually play out. We already covered the NBA draft scene.

As stated a little bit before, after the NBA draft scene, I would probably want a fade-to-black transition to a black screen with radio chatter talking about the shooting, either some police chatter or the news speaking briefly. It also might be cool to have the TV in the hospital playing the news stories about the shooting, with the camera panning to blake in the bed but that might be a little hard to do because I don't really have a hospital bed. Therefore the police or news chatter without video might be the best instance. 

This is a great example of how the camera panning would work after the news is played, but it would be unrealistic since I don't have a real hospital bed. 

I think I would want to do something like this, but with the black screen instead of video, leading to the character waking up to find out what happened and being in shock. 

Waking up at the hospital scene

This scene will be quite difficult to film because I don't really have a hospital bed or hospital room that I can feasibly film in. I think that the best scenario is to use my guest room, because of its super bright white walls, and white decor, which mostly resembles a hospital. Also, because of my mom's job, I have IV tubes I can "insert" into Blake to give more of an idea of a hospital. I could probably create a makeshift heart rate monitor and definitely include the heart rate monitor beeping to give the allusion to a hospital bed. The key to making this really is the lighting, and mise-en-scene, so I will have the actor dress in hospital clothes as well. Additionally, I will be very careful with the shots and angles I use so that I don't reveal too much about the scene (Lots of close-up shots). I will also be able to put some bandages on the bullet wounds and more, and maybe use some make-up to make all of this seem a lot more realistic. 

This is a great example of using many close-ups to hide the actual set or location that this is filmed in. Additionally, when the actor wakes up, it would be neat to have his girlfriend or his mom being the first thing he sees, to kind of let him relax and break the hard truth to him. 

The start of this scene is also great, with the camera facing the roof, and I could definitely incorporate this feature to not reveal too much about the actual room being filmed in. 

Sound

In terms of sound, the film opening will start out with the sound of the NBA draft, which I will record separately from the actual video, and there will be no actual sound from Blake celebrating with his family, it will mostly be the commentator talking and giving details about his highlights. The scene using real sound will be the hospital scene, where I will be forced to record the sound using a high-quality microphone, to ensure that the sound quality is crisp and that there are no distractions. All of the audio in the film I will be making or using sound effects are found freely online. I might borrow a good microphone from my school's TV program. 

The scenes of Blake working through the injuries will occur in the same room, or on the basketball courts, but will be using the same filming techniques as mentioned above.

Well, I finished up what I wanted to do today! LET's GOOOO! I have thought and discussed my plans for the storyline with others, gotten advice, and figured out how everything would realistically work. Things are going great so far! I will catch you all tomorrow on my next blog post where I will continue my story/plot/shot list, or TBD. Will take a break for the next few hours. 

Film Opening Planning

 Good afternoon everyone,

How is everyone doing on this fine day? 

Before I begin the actual planning of my film opening, I wanted to readdress one of the main goals I had planned to raise awareness of during my film: Mass shootings and, in particular, school shootings. I wanted to specifically address this by making my main character recover from a shooting, that seriously tore up his life. Just yesterday, on February 21st, my school was on lockdown for about 3 hours due to a suspicious object being found. The object ended up being ammunition for a shotgun, found in a garbage can, This finding raised mass panic among the students causing great fears of a possible shooter, or someone with the intent to kill given the ammunition. 

In my opinion, the worst part of the situation wasn't the bullets being found or the students being scared for their lives. It's the fact that most teachers weren't surprised, students weren't that surprised, and parents weren't shocked. Why weren't they surprised? Why weren't they extremely worried? Because this happens so often. These terrible events occur every month across America, so much to the point that it's become a common thing. My hope is that with my movie governments will put into place better measures in order to stop these terrible events from happening. Without getting political and describing what I think the government should actually do, I will simply state that I hope for change, and the government is the in the best position to enact it. These events just continue to reiterate why it's so important that this movie gets created (even though it won't). Anyways, moving on to the fun stuff! Today I'm going to go into more depth about how my film opening will actually work out. These will be the posts I will be doing today and tomorrow. 

As mentioned in the previous posts, my film opening storyline will consist of something like:

-Foreshadowing of Blake getting drafted by the NBA

-Back to the present time where Blake has been shot and is being transported to the hospital

-Blake wakes up in hospital sometime later

Within these ideas, I need to pick the best time to incorporate the title scenes and the credits. I think that the best time for the credits would be while Blake is getting drafted and celebrating, which is similar to how I've seen other sports movies place their credits. Even more of a priority, I will need a name for my movie, as well as fonts. I plan to accomplish these tasks after I've filmed and gotten into the production process. Now, I also must remember that this movie is going to have to take 2 minutes of screen time. For now, I need to think realistically of how that is going to happen.

Blake getting drafted by the NBA

I originally wanted to use some old videos of the NBA commissioner announcing the draft picks, and just replace the name with Blake's, but I am can't do that due to it not being my original content. Therefore, I have to be creative and think of other ways to show what I want to show. I was thinking about how players no longer have to attend in-person at the event and can just be sitting on their couch while getting drafted. I want to do this with Blake, and even more, I can add the tickers at the bottom that says "Blake getting drafted by..." This will make the whole draft experience a lot more realistic for the viewers without having to show the commissioner announcing the pick or the stage. Additionally, I wanted to show some highlights of Blake playing basketball, like what is often shown in today's NBA draft. Unlike today's draft, I don't plan on using college tape (since the actor doesn't have, and I have to use original content), so I want to instead go to a basketball court with Blake and some others, and record him absolutely going off, to make a great highlight reel. This way, I will be able to incorporate these clips seamlessly into the video. 

As we can see in the clip, the commissioner announces the pick, and right after that, there is a highlight reel shown with a commentator speaking about the player. I want to re-enact this except instead of the commissioner announcing the pick and the player going up on the stage, the player will be at home with family. Here is a clip for an example of how that would work. Also, SO EXCITED to do the commentary or see who would be good at making the commentary for the highlight reel. I'm currently thinking about having my friend Riley do it, and if she does it would be GREAT for the movie but also for the representation of women in sports, as there are a lot more men than women in sports positions such as the NBA. 

This video highlights how well it would work for me to do the draft scene at Blake's house. The clip is shown at 4:30. While Tua wasn't very happy in the clip, Blake will!

This is it for today, since I'm running out of time today, but will resume tomorrow. 

PLOT STORY DEVELOPMENT

Good morning

Good morning everyone, how are you all today. Today is a huge and exciting day because today is the day that I'm going to plan for my storyline for my film opening, but also for my whole movie. I've had some time to think about my ideas from yesterday,  I am currently at a Starbucks with my friend Riley (who did this class last year), and we are here together brainstorming ideas for this movie. I will be attaching audio clips of us actually brainstorming. 

Instead of doing the end scene first, I might want to do a middle-to-end scene first!

Below, I'm going to be thinking out loud, rather than using a paper, I'm just going to be jotting down my thoughts to show proof of my brainstorming process.

Brainstorming:

Blake Kazinec as actor?

Being hated on because of his height?

How the movie will end: star actor gets drafted by the NBA.

Now all I need is obstacles he will overcome, and introducing conflict and relationship.

Meaning I'm going to do a drama sports film. 

The movie will cover a total of 2 years.

THE MAIN OBSTACLE WILL BE HIS INJURY. 

scene is him hitting the buzzer beater or getting drafted and flashing back to him in the hospital bed going what time is it. 

Gets drafted by the 76ers? 

maybe gun shot? 

cant use clips of actual commissioner bc copywriter 

him getting shot ina  school shooting

him getting drafted 

then flashback to real life

him getting picked up in ambulance

taken to hospital

with radio chatter "gunshot wound blah blah"

him being like where am I

his girlfriend saying its gonna be okay crying

his family too

and then news showing "college basketball player shot in just the most recent school shooting.

WHOLE THING IS BRIngiNG AWARENESS AND ATTENTION TO SCHOOL SHOOTINGs

 blake dedicates his career earnings to stopping gun violence? 

Storyline could be blake getting injured and then overcoming injuries to be drafted into the NBA, while he struggles with his relationship with his girlfriend, and has his supportive parents backing him.. 

Basic movie plot

Blake in his sophomore year shoots a shot and makes it but 

Maybe use superhero as a background when he gets drafted?

When he gets drafted he's at home.

commissioner announces he gets drafted and then it goes, Blake Kazinec 

Movie will help bring awareness to gun shootings and hopefully help prevent them

ACTUAL STORYLINE

Film Opening:  

first 30 seconds to a minute or so: Blake getting drafted by the NBA this scene needs to include some highlights of blake playing, the commissioner announcing the pick, him getting drafted, and celebrating with family, (maybe showing something about his past or advertising anti guns). Make like a typical NBA draft scene. Mentioning the shooting and what happened before?

next 40 seconds to a minute: hospital scene. Blake getting picked up by ambulance and taken to hospital, hospital showing nurses rushing around, family worried and rushing to try and find out information. Then Blake waking up some time later. AND THEN THE GRIND BACK TO BALL BEGINS.

The rest of the movie plot will show:

-Blakes's recovery and constant PT and basketball practice to try and get back in the game

-Blake's struggles with his relationships as he battles the motivation and will to keep going (sort of like Dr. Strange's relationship struggles after injury)

-Blake having a phenomenal junior season showing his recovery, the constant team wins, and leading to high ranking in march madness

-Blake getting drafted by NBA

Reasoning for Certain storyline points:

Why Basketball?

I love basketball and was inspired by the movie Hustle. Also, I think that there are a lot less basketball movies out there compared to other sports such as football, so I wanted to balance that out a little.

Why name the character Blake?

The name isn't officially decided. I was just using Blake as the filler name for now since the actor's name is blake. 

Why put such a tragic spin on the story?

Firstly, I wanted to create a sports drama film, and random story twists are great ways to get the target audience involved and loving the story. Additionally, the spin of the story is inspired by real events that are happening almost every day in America; school or mass shootings.

Why include mass shootings, or more specifically school shootings>

School shootings are becoming increasingly more and more common, which is horrible. I have a very strong opinion regarding this topic because I know a lot of people that have been personally affected by deaths from school shootings. In fact, I have a couple friends that attend Michigan State University, where a shooting occurred 7 days ago. My friends were posting videos on their stories of them running away while gunshots are heard. Shootings like these are caused by a lot of reasons, including loose gun laws. My hope is that with this movie, I will be able to help bring awareness to the issue of gun shootings and get legislation to create change so that shootings don't happen so often. All in all, I don't just want this movie to be entertainment to people, but to also serve as a message to the general public, and warn them about issues of injustice that exist in society today. 

*a lot of decisions about casting and actual filming will be decided based on availability and convenience. I'm not paying people to act in this, so I don't have a wide choice of who can be my actors for this film.*

Why include relationship struggles in the story? 

I used the research that I learned previously about my target audience to help with this choice. My target audience of a sports drama film loves to see relationships and conflicts in their films, and I decided to accomplish both of them with this film.

How is this going to be a sports drama film? How will this fit within the genre?

To answer this question, a lot of my story making ideas came from the research I conducted. I know that typical trends in these genres include overcoming obstacles, hard work beating everything, and overcoming odds. Therefore, my story encompasses all these trends to fit into the genre but also stands out by me incorporating unique ideas such as the tragic spin on the story. Also, most sports films don't serve as societal messages, while this one will. 

Target Audience/beginnings of plot

    WE'RE BACK EVERYONE!!! LET'S GOOOOO IT'S TIME TO SHINE. So, I am currently sick and have been the last couple of days, so it has been tough to concentrate on focus on the work that I have to do, HOWEVER, the good news is that I have been free to watch lots of movies to go study up on what I want to do with my film opening. I will discuss this more later on in the blog post. Firstly, research on the target audience must occur. Now, research is excellent, but it doesn't make sense unless I actually make something of it. So, while I research the target audience, I will be using what I learn about them to help me in making my movie (so it can best appeal to them), and for my CCR, so that I can understand how to market and distribute my movie to the audience. 

Here goes the research!

It is very hard to pinpoint a set target audience for sports films because of how broad a definition of "sports film" can be. Ford V Ferrari and The Blind Side are extremely separate movies, and different in every way, yet they are both considered sports films. They also have completely separate target audiences with The Blind Side aimed at families, evident from film advertisements, and Ford V Ferrari aimed at men older than 25. The different target audiences are all due to the subgenre being completely different, drama vs adventure/action. Therefore, it is best for me to decide what my subgenre will be so I can understand my target audience. I am in between two choices of a drama and an adventure film, so I will be researching both target audiences. \

Drama Target Audience:

A great sports drama movie, Coach Carter.

-People who love to feel emotions (emotional people)

-People who appreciate a good story 

-People who are looking for something more than light entertainment

Ends up being people who are typically

-lower and middle socioeconomic class

-Teenagers and adults aged 15-40

-majority women

-any race/ethnicity, although the race and ethnicity of the actors will influence the target audience

This target audience typically likes drama films as well as

-films regarding romance, violence, and society

-expects to see love, conflict, suspense, and relationships in these movies

-stereotypical societal features in the film

Adventure Target Audience

A great sports adventure movie, 127 Hours.

-People who enjoy suspenseful movies

-People who appreciate heroic acts

-People who love adventure

Ends up being people who are typically

-55% male

-mainly aged 25-34, but 16-40 is a broader range

-majority single

-college degrees

-mainly American, but also Mexican and Brazilian

-lower and middle socioeconomic class

-any race/ethnicity, although the race and ethnicity of the actors will influence the target audience

This Target Audience typically likes adventure films as well as 

-Science fiction

-Horror

-Survival

-Comedy

-expecting conflict, lots of twisting turns in the plot of the movie

Sports Fan demographics:

-middle to higher socioeconomic class

-the majority are caucasian 

-quite literally all ages, ranging from 16-84

-majority males, however, women are rising in the demographics

Conclusions

As mentioned above, this information isn't useful unless conclusions are drawn from it. So, what are the conclusions I am taking from all of this research?

-My movie has to be modern. Not a lot of my target audience is from the older generations, so doing a movie set in the past wouldn't really bode well with these fans

-My movie HAS to be suspenseful and entertaining, as well as contain adventure, a good story, and relationships depending on what sub-genre I would like to choose. 

-Realistically speaking, my movie could make a lot of money with merchandise and impulse products. Statistically, women are more impulsive than men, and women either influence or make 85% of the disposable income purchasing decisions that occur in the United States every day.

-If thinking about movies for profits: my movie should contain caucasian actors to capture more of the sports fan audience, given that research shows that fans are more likely to watch a movie with actors of their race/ethnicity in it, and the majority of sports fans are caucasian (in the U.S. at least). If the movie plans to be released internationally, Asian actors might be the best choice for the movie, considering there is the highest percentage of Asian people in the world than any other ethnicity or race. However, this should only be thought about if the movie is intentionally aimed at profits. I am creating this movie to create an amazing movie, so I won't be focused on profits, therefore, I am not thinking about race or ethnicity when hiring employees for marketing purposes. 

-Much of the target audience research helps with judging how to market and distribute the film, which isn't super essentially right now. The main focus is the storyline.

Storyline ideas?

I really haven't given the storyline much thought just YET. But one thing I wanted to mention is that in the sports films I watched today, I noticed some of them began with a scene and then had a 3 years later, and continued the film from there. Simply put, the film shows a glimpse of what happens in the future, and then gives the whole background of how they got there. I thought that this would be a super cool idea to incorporate especially in a redemption story. Although this will give away a lot about the end of the story, and how the David versus Goliath or underdog story really ends up, I think it could add a lot of conflict throughout the movie, where the character is in such big problems, the audience has no idea how in the world they will get out of it. Also, I do think that the audience will mostly know how the story will end up, if I didn't do my opening like this, meaning the audience will probably assume it will end happily like most sports movies end up. However, I could do a movie where it ends badly, but all I'm showing is my actual film opening, therefore that might not be the best idea. So, as of now, my current leading ideas are:

-start with the last scene, then show how the characters progress

-Sports film with either adventure or drama

-the 2 minutes will be the last scene, with the last 5 seconds giving a preview of how life is maybe 3 years earlier. This is hard to explain, so I want to show a visual example. 

Movie examples include

-Fight Club

-Saving Private Ryan

-The Usual Suspects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S2VfkxR5bk&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HUf68gFGEE&t=171s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6msq8mgdnE

Anyways, that's it for my research and ideas for today. Stay tuned for more storyline development tomorrow as well as some schedule planning for the future! 

Citations:

“Audience Expectations and Target Audience.” A2 Media Studies, maddiemedia.weebly.com/audience-expectations-and-target-audience.html.

The Blindside. slideplayer.com/slide/9601996/#:~:text=The%20film's%20demographic%20The%20film,is%20mother%20orientated%2C%20%2D%20ppt%20download.

Gaille, Brandon. “17 Captivating NFL Fans Demographics - BrandonGaille.com.” BrandonGaille.com, 28 Oct. 2015, brandongaille.com/17-captivating-nfl-fans-demographics.

How to Target Facebook Ads to “Adventure Film” Audience | AdTargeting. adtargeting.io/facebook-ad-targeting/adventure-film.

Rubin, Rebecca. “Box Office: ‘Ford V Ferrari’ Races to First Place, ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Collapses.” U.S., 17 Nov. 2019, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-boxoffice/box-office-ford-v-ferrari-races-to-first-place-charlies-angels-collapses-idUSKBN1XR0NC.

Weedy, Kate. “The Target Audience of My Short Film.” prezi.com, prezi.com/odywqbkeky-j/the-target-audience-of-my-short-film.

Wikipedia contributors. “Demographics of the World.” Wikipedia, 18 Feb. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_world#:~:text=The%20world's%20largest%20nationality%20group,in%20terms%20of%20native%20speakers.&text=The%20world's%20population%20is%20predominantly,toward%20cities%20and%20urban%20centres.

Genre Research Pt2

GREETINGS ALL! 

We are back again, getting ready to continue our genre research!!! I hope everyone is having a great Friday, I know I am! See if you can comment and let me know how your day is going! I would love to hear. I am SO pumped for this project right now man, I just can't wait. I haven't quite exactly developed the storyline, but all in due time. Today is the day to finish my individual sports genre research and investigate certain movies, and tomorrow I will be investigating my target market!

The following movies are going to be analyzed: The Blind Side, The Karate Kid, Rocky, and Ford V Ferrari.

When analyzed, I will be looking at what specific themes they included to make them be considered sports movies, and what specific techniques these movies had that made them successful amongst other sports films.

Up first!

The Blind Side: 

The Blind Side is about an African American student who dealt with a rough childhood and was given a second chance with a White family. With his second chance, he became a phenomenal football player eventually going to the NFL. He also learned the true meaning of family, as he had never experienced it before.

Themes covered:

-true story

-player-oriented

-underdog story

-redemption story

-ends happily.

-never give up!

Main techniques used:

-narrative form (help the audience understand the story)

-mise en scene (difference between White neighborhood and Black neighborhood mise en scene contributed majorly to the plot of the story)

-sound (football games sound contributed a lot to the movie. The sound of the fans cheering fades at one point, to show we are in Michaels's head)

-dolly shot (during the action of a football game)

The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid is about a teenager who learns how to defend himself from his childhood bullies, who currently are the love interest of his crush. 

Themes covered

-player-oriented

-underdog story

-David versus Goliath story

-Never give up!

-overcoming the odds for a last-minute victory

-ends happily

Main techniques used:

-lots of shots/countershot to show the emotions of the main character/athlete; while playing sports it's hard to understand emotions

-music/sound effects (sound goes along with the storyline, intense moment leads to intense music to really make the audience understand the storyline and feel like they're there. Music is also great for the pacing and contrasting with fights to show the tone

-costume design (mise en scene) colors can represent enemies. Black color for the opponent and white color for the teammate can really carry along the story. MISE EN SCENE IS USED EVERYWHERE!

-lighting (lights dim at certain parts of the film to add emphasis and build more emotions for the actual character)

Rocky

Rocky is about a small-time boxer who resides in Philly and has chosen to take on the reigning world champion because the original fighter was injured. The story also follows the relationship built with a female.

Themes covered:

-underdog story

-player-oriented

-Never give up!

-ends happily

-win and get the girl

-hard work is key

Main Techniques used:

-video montages (used during training series), since Rocky, a lot of other sports films have started to do this. The montage really gets the viewer to understand the progression and timing, as well as the depth of what is going on

-tracking camera (used to make the audience feel like they are with Rocky while he is moving and training, great to get the audience's emotions)

-Music (a huge part of storytelling. is the music played in Rocky.) It is synonymous with fans and meant to show how time flows fast along with the fast beat of the music. Also, the sound effects used in punches that Rocky experiences are much louder than they actually are used to show the depth of the situation, and make audience members truly feel like they are with Rocky and not want him to get hit. 

-Lighting (used in lots of fight scenes and really shows how rocky is doing throughout the fight. (differences between lowkey and high-key lighting)

Ford V Ferrari

Ford V Ferrari is based on the true story of a team of engineers working for Ford attempting to compete against Ferrari to win the world-renowned 24 hours of Le Man's race in France.

Themes covered:

-a clear distinction between loss and victory

-our team vs their team

-underdog story

-redemption story

-true story

-David versus Goliath story

Main Techniques Used:

-shot very close to the action using wide lenses 

-used cameras mounted onto cars to follow other cars to record the scenes

-mise en scene SUPER IMPORTANT (needed to give viewers the time illusion, as well as information about context and setting, and more.)

-sound (used to give the audience the feeling that they're actually there able to experience the live car race, the sound is turned up to give that illusion)

-makeup (huge to give actors the age impression of looking older and younger)

Now this research is great! But there's no point in doing it unless I have conclusions to take away from it. Therefore, I know that I need to use some of these recurring themes and techniques if I want my movie to be as successful as these. The question of which ones will be answered once I start planning out my storyline, but right now I'm really thinking of doing an underdog story that also is a redemption story and some sort of David versus Goliath story aspect in there. Obviously, you won't be able to see the full movie, only 2 minutes, but I want you to know the full story idea instead of just what 2 minutes is! Anyways, my research for today is done, thank you very much! Tomorrow I will be researching my specific target audiences and my storyline so I'll keep you posted! Have a great day!

P.S. For some reason the website didn't allow me to upload pictures to it, so we'll see why that is. 

Sources:

“Analysis of Filming Techniques in the Blind Side: [Essay Example], 827 Words.” GradesFixer, 14 May 2021, gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/analysis-of-filming-techniques-in-the-blind-side.

Gonzalez, Gabby. “Film Analysis: Karate Kid.” prezi.com, prezi.com/2folxo-a57pq/film-analysis-karate-kid.

Maher, Michael. “7 Things Filmmakers Can Learn From Rocky.” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 20 Nov. 2015, www.premiumbeat.com/blog/7-things-filmmakers-can-learn-rocky.

Riley. Riley’s AICE Media Studies Blog: February 2022. rileyaicemediastudies.blogspot.com/2022/02.

Genre Research pt 1

    Hello fellow earthlings. I come in peace. 

Good morning! 

Today is a great day because today I will be learning a lot about my target audience. However, in order to learn about my target audience, I must learn about my genre first! So, proceeding from the previous post, I plan on doing a film opening for the genre of sports, or sometimes it can be known as a drama with sports involved. Since I don't have my story all the way planned out, I will just be focusing on the genre of sports. 

Woo hoo! I've already done the hardest part in choosing my genre and now must do actual research on this genre. Essentially, what makes a sports movie fit into the category of sports genres?

Today, I will be analyzing what different sources say about what makes said movie a sports movie, and tomorrow I will be analyzing specific movies individually to see what they do to become a sports movie. 

It is helpful to mention that Wikipedia states that sports genres can have subcategories of sports dramas or sports comedies and that while sports fans are not necessarily the target audience in these movies, sports fans do tend to be a big percentage of viewers. 

Wikipedia states sports films typically

-have a richly developed sports world

-be more player oriented or thematically complex

-feature a hero of adventure origins

-a clear distinction between loss and victory

-"our team" vs "their team" mentality

Masterclass states sports films typically contain

-the underdog story (a player that is not expected to win, and then attempts to succeed. Sort of like the David versus Goliath theme) 

-the redemption story (a team or athlete that tries to redeem themselves after falling from great heights)

-true story (can feature historically true stories regarding sports)

Sean Crosson states sports films 

-are gaining recognition as one of the most popular genres today

-provide audiences with affirmative pleasure (showing why sports films are so popular)

-recently have become their own genre

-often contain a plot of overcoming the odds to win last minute

-is very divided into subgenres

-are given high expectations because of televised sporting events becoming so entertaining

In total;

What I've learned so far today is that the movie that I plan on creating needs to follow some of the themes mentioned above in order for it to be considered a sports film. I will have to work on that while creating the storyline in the upcoming days or next week. Tomorrow, I plan on researching individual successful sports movies to see what they did that made them so successful. See you then!

Also, a basic schedule I will be loosely following can be viewed here as assisted by my teacher Mrs. Stoklosa

Week One:

-choose project genre

-begin developing full film plot

-research genre and story ideas

-post to blog



Week Two:

-continue research on project components

-continue to develop story – land on final idea for film opening

-post to blog



Week Three:

-continue to research project components (if necessary)

-develop script

-develop filming/editing schedule

-create shot list

-post to blog



Week Four:

-continue to research project components (if necessary)

-begin production of film opening

-post to blog



Week Five:

-continue to research project components (if necessary)

-continue production of film opening

-begin editing of film opening

-post to blog



Week Six:

-research information relating to creative critical reflection

-finish editing of film opening

-post to blog



Week Seven:

-research information relating to Creative Critical Reflection

-create Creative Critical Reflection

-post to blog



Week Eight:

-create final, overall project reflection

-post project and CCR to blog

Here are some citations for today:

Riley. Riley’s AICE Media Studies Blog: February 2022. rileyaicemediastudies.blogspot.com/2022/02.

The Sports Film. openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/download/1320/1730?inline=1.

Sports Movie Genre: 18 Iconic Sports Movies.

Wikipedia contributors. “Sports Film.” Wikipedia, 16 Feb. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_film.

The Time is Now

     And so, it begins. The first (more or less) half of the AICE Media Studies AS curriculum is over, and the film opening begins. No more easy projects that Cambridge doesn't care about. We're on to the real stuff!!! But wait. What even is a film opening? 

    Film Openings, as defined by Wikipedia is "the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound." WOW. Those are a lot of complicated words. Let me sum it up real quick. Basically, a film opening is just the first minute or 2 the audience sees and needs to tell them about what the movie will be about. Since I will only be presenting my 2-minute film opening, I need to be able to convey a lot about the main story, just from this idea but also maintain a sense of curiosity to keep viewers engaged and wanting to watch more. 

    The good thing is that I am prepared!!! Ever since I signed up for this class last year, I knew what the AICE exam would be and started brainstorming all the way back in 2022, about what ideas I should use for my film opening. Taking my background in musical theatre, I initially thought it would be a SUPER neat and creative idea if I made a musical for my film opening, but after some thoughts on logistics and whatnot, I realized this would be a LOT harder than it seemed. Next, I thought about the different projects I helped with last year. I was an actor in about 4 film openings last year, ranging from spy scenes to football scenes. I originally wanted to create a football movie film opening, but after some thoughts about it, I knew that I would like to be behind the camera, and that would take most of the fun of doing an actual football one. (Since I am a huge football fan, I also play football.) At the end of the day, I knew I wanted to do some sort of sports film opening, and then I watched Hustle on Netflix. WOW. I was thoroughly shocked and impressed. It was one of the greatest sports movies of all time (in my opinion). I thought the cinematography was phenomenal, along with the storytelling. And so, around August last year, I had decided what my film opening was going to be. A basketball movie, with some aspects of Hustle. 

    Now that I know what sort of film opening I want to do, I can sort of plan out my next steps. I'm not going to make a whole calendar just yet, because I'm not entirely sure about the details, but I know that I need to research the target markets and the genre of sports movies. Being able to understand audiences is crucial to how to create a great film, and capturing attention. After I research the genre, I need to plan out the entire storyline of my film. Once the whole storyline is created, it's going to be a lot easier to understand what the film opening should include, and how to create mystery at every step of the way. Once that is created, I would ideally move on to filming and whatnot. 

    To sum it up: I'm ready. I cannot wait to go create this absolute BANGER of a film opening and impress everyone reading this message right now. I will work hard and diligently on this project and use the filmmaking skills I learned in Stoklosa as well as throughout my own time. Anyways, it's time to go watch the super bowl. Score prediction: Chiefs 31-29 Eagles. We shall see if that's right. 

    Have a great day! Let's GOOOOO. ( I am a huge sports fan, so I'm super excited to make a sports film opening.) Maybe the beginning will be cool shots at practice?

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

     Wow, this project was certainly something. Between the learning this project induced, and the time taken to experience the teaching, I feel like a changed man. I am blessed to be a member of the group I am a part of, but like all good things, there are some speed bumps one must go through. After the first project, I did with this group (the movie pitch) I felt pretty confident that I knew my teammates enough to be able to work with them just like before on the music marketing presentation. Boy, was I wrong, and I learned a great lesson from it. Never judge a book by its cover. No inside is like the outside, and vice versa. Through the project, I was able to learn more about my teammates from a personal level and grew to respect them all equally. Daniel, while funny and loud in class, isn't the loudest person at home and still has things he is scared of (definitely not public speaking). Camila, while quiet in class (for the most part), really isn't that quiet personally and has quite an opinion when ready to voice it. Lorenzo, while chill in class, is also chill out of class.

    Anyways, I am here to give a full blog post on the process involved with this project so here I go.

    First off, this project, like many others, began with the research phase. However, even before the research stage, we must first talk about task delegation. Given that this was such a big project, and everyone knew that, the team decided it would be best to delegate tasks in order to finish the project on time and more efficiently. I was the coordinator when it came to task delegation, and I gave people tasks based on what they wanted to do and how good they were at it. From the moment we received our genre of pop, I was ecstatic thinking that this genre would be really easy to cover for a marketing plan and a music video. Unfortunately, these feelings weren't similar throughout the group. Lorenzo wanted country and Camila wanted rock. To compromise, I thought it would be a good idea of having Camila and Lorenzo do the main research portions of the project because they wanted to do it on their own bands (BTS and OneRepublic). This worked and allowed for a lot happier group. Next, the group delegated the tasks of creating the business idea, storyboard, and filming. Since the group had lots of time commitments the next weekend, we only had about 40 hours to go through, make the story, and film the video. Therefore, we prioritized and paused a little on research and the business idea, regrouped, and went full-out music video preparation. One of the hardest parts was getting another actor/actress for the video. Since the storyline revolved around a couple, we needed a couple that would work well together and has good chemistry on set. Stressed for options, with every member of the group reaching out to their friends to see who could film on such notice, we found our actress (Daniel's friend) and set to work on the music video. 

    We needed to brainstorm/plan the actual music video. We accomplished this by analyzing the lyrics of the song. Every group member was more than free to give their own analysis of the lyrics, and we didn't make an official solution to the story until everyone was on board with it. Additionally, we watched some online interviews with the actual songwriter about what inspired him to make the music video. Once this was all accomplished, we created our storyline and designated Camila to make the storyboards since she had great penmanship and wanted to do it. 

    Filming day was the next day, and fortunately, there isn't much to say about it. It went smoothly, and we were able to accomplish most of the shots in the storyboard. There was a little time constraint towards the end of the filming session because our star actors had to leave for an event. This did lead to a little less footage than expected and definitely did impact the editing process when deciding which clips to select, but thankfully we had enough clips. 

    After filming day, editing, research, and the business presentation all had to be finished. The next day in class, everyone worked independently, and efficiently. I edited the video, while Daniel worked on the business presentation, and Camila and Lorenzo did their separate sides of the research. This was one of the most productive days ever because we didn't have any distractions whatsoever and just worked hard. After this day, the research was finished, and the packets were lovingly printed from Lorenzo and distributed to all. For the next days, Lorenzo and Daniel would work on the business presentation while Camila would work on the storyboards (drawing) and I would keep working on editing. 

    Editing this project was very difficult. I typically would say that I'm good and faster at editing, but this project really just slowed me down. I don't know why or how, but I just wasn't very efficient with editing. I was slow on creativity and running out of ideas. Then, I managed to renew myself by talking to some friends and getting their ideas. The key to everything is others. If I kept doing my video solo the WHOLE time, things really wouldn't have worked out well. Eventually, I finished editing the music video, but at that point, it was the day before the presentation! I had no idea what was going on with it because I was focused on editing the whole time, so that night we had a discord call and completely regrouped. 

    Camila remade the presentation, with better design and better graphics, but with the same information that was previously on it. And now, it was time to DECAfy it! I took full control and just absolutely used all my DECA knowledge to the best of my ability to make this presentation as realistic as possible, while also showing the potential investors why they should invest in us. I appealed to logos, pathos, and ethos to try to get that investment. Pathos was appealed to through the Ukraine Story, Ethos through the strategies we are implementing directly from our research, and logos from the ideas of targeting our actual target audience. After we made the PowerPoint, we did a couple practice run-throughs so that everyone knew what to say, how to say it, and how to elaborate on it. We did this multiple times, until about midnight and were ready for the next day. 

    We ended up not presenting the next day, and that night we just ran through the presentation a couple times to make sure that we all still knew what to do, how to do it, and all. After everyone was very confident, it was presentation time! The group had a little argument about what we should do at the beginning, but once that was settled, we presented. Our goal was to be energetic and fun, while also fully remaining professional. In the end, I think it worked out, and our A grade certainly reflects that. 

    Overall, I learned a lot from this project. Most importantly, I learned that confidence is hugely key in making a music video, or even making any video. Also, when in doubt, ask for help! People will be there for you, and it's never bad to get help from others. Apart from getting help from others, it is best to work with your teammates. Communication is key! For the Cambridge Portfolio, I think that learning how to edit the music video and just getting that practice SUPER helped for the portfolio project as I will have to edit. Also, getting practice "directing" the cast of the music video was great practice for what I will do for the Cambridge project. Additionally, it was great to be able to understand the target audience and see how that should affect your music video. That is something I definitely need to incorporate into my project for Cambridge. Ultimately, I learned a lot from this project, and plan to incorporate a lot into my Cambridge portfolio. 

Photos/Examples. 

Above is examples from the actual project process. Includes pictures from the business presentation, storyboard, story outline, music video, editing, and more.