Casting!

 AND THE ROLE GOES TO...

Okay!! Finally... the casting post! Time to meet our two main actors (well, one actor and one actress) who will be playing William and Raquel in my film opening. I'm hoping it will stick and I won't be scrambling at the last second to find a William, but as always, if there are any changes, I'll be documenting them here. We plan to start filming the week after the March 13th SAT. As I stated in my first introductory blog post ever on this blog, I'm a junior in high school, which typically means it's time for me to take the most mind-numbing 4-hour test that, oh, by the way, basically has a huge determining factor on which colleges I get accepted to and if I get into the ones that I want (no big deal). So, with that being said, the weekends have been crammed with studying, coffee breaks, and more studying. So, I'm going to continue to prep for this project using these posts, but the actual filming of the project will commence the week after March 13th. I should be able to do all the filming in one or two days actually, so I'm not worried. Anywho, just wanted to get that out there, but here is our cast! 

Meet Keira- playing Raquel

Oh... wait a second... that's me! Yup! I'm going to be starring in my film opening and playing Raquel. I actually really love acting and to be completely honest, I don't really trust anyone else to do it the way I want it portrayed. I'm kind of a control freak when it comes to these things and I just feel so much more comfortable when everything is in my hands and my time (hence why I'm doing this project alone). I'm really excited to see what I do with this character. I really want to sell her personality to the audience and portray her popular nature. 

MEET RYAN- PLAYING WILLIAM

This is Ryan! He is one of my best friends and he is also the son of the drama teacher here at my high school, so he's a good candidate to play an intricate character. Ryan and I have known each other for a while but got close in our school's marching band program. He's also agreed to help me film as well. 

Ryan and I have been friends for a long time and I'm really happy that I can rely on him for support and not someone at random. 

Hopefully, this all works out well and a nice final product will come of it! I'm really excited!

Stay tuned to find out. 

Group Meeting

Grasping (My Project) 

    Heyo! I want to quickly go over a group meeting I had with my peers last class where we all discussed our projects and what we can do to improve them. I thought this was a fantastic idea because it's better to get all our concerns out in the open now and have a plan to fix them early on. My group consisted of Kim, Amy, David, Ana, and myself. We all got randomly placed in a Teams breakout room to individually discuss our plans and help everyone else out with each other's concerns. It seemed like it was really needed within the group and I got a lot of my concerns resolved. 

Group Meeting

Upon entering the meeting, I was the first one to present my topic to the rest of the group. Basically, I was concerned about where I wanted to film and how I wanted to go about it- meaning, how I was going to film without masks in an area where I wouldn't get in trouble. 

The group quickly helped me solve this problem by suggesting that I film at this one popular park near my community. I have no idea why I didn't think of this location because it is completely perfect. It's large and it also has a playground. Kim also suggested some ways I could end my film on how to allude to the fact that William is a stalker, but I don't know if I want to pursue what they were suggesting or not. I have almost my entire plot planned out except the ending- which I think I might ask Mrs. Stoklosa about it next week. Anywho, my other peers in the meeting thought that my plot was pretty decent. I'm really glad that I was able to meet with my peers though and help other people in my class as well help them with their plot/their other concerns. 

I'm actually a bit concerned that I'm too much ahead- like I already have my set idea on what I want to film and how I want to film it (storyboard coming soon, I promise), but I know that my other peers in the class aren't for sure set on an idea yet. I hope I'm not rushing into one idea and fixating on that when there could be other options for me. I just want to make sure my project is the best it can possibly be. Tomorrow, I'm introducing the main cast and how my filming process will work. Stay tuned! I'm super excited to introduce the actors. 

As always, stay tuned to find out. :)

Plot Aspects- Changes

 Plot- Changes and Exchanges 

    Hey! So... some interesting news. I met with my media studies teacher one on one to discuss the progression of my project, such as my research, genre, plot, characters, etc. She said that my genre and my blog posts were good (phew), but she said that I needed to adjust my plot. 

    My teacher said that the kidnapping gimmick was cliche and overdone, which I actually agree with. Also, the plotline itself was too much for a film opening. A two-minute film opening should not contain an entire climax and falling action/resolution, but rather, a collection of scenes that may seem simple, but come together to allude to the plot at the end. This actually makes a lot of sense, and to be honest, it's going to be a lot easier to film on my end. 

Revised Plot

So, I'm still keeping the theme of the photographer wanting to kidnap the main girl character, but I'm not going to actually show the girl kidnapped or anything. My teacher and I talked about it, and we were thinking that the opening could start with Raquel bringing her little sister to the park. William will be seen approaching the playground and viewing her from afar, camera in hand/around his neck. 

The only thing that I need to decide now is how to allude that Raquel will be his next victim, and to show what he's done to others. My next posting will be the final rendition of the plot. Later in the week, I will be sketching a storyboard to plan the shots exactly how I want them. 

Hopefully, my revised idea will meet Stoklosa's approval (my media studies teacher). I'm actually really excited to start filming and watching my ideas come to life. A cast list is coming soon! 

Stay tuned to find out! 

Character Analysis- Background

CAPTIVATING CHARACTERS 

Hey y'all! So today I'm going to discuss the background of my characters and do a simple analysis on each. There are really only two main characters that actually need a background- Raquel and William. Yup! Those are their names, which, are based on the middle names of the actors who are playing them. I wanted a name that would look like the actors who are playing them so going with their middle names of the cast made the most sense- an official cast list will be coming out next week. For now, here is a character background on each of the two main characters. 

Raquel

Raquel is a 15-year-old teenager who was exceedingly popular at her high school. Growing up, she was a straight-A student and continues to amaze her teachers with her dedication to school. Although her academic achievements are superb, her relationship with her parents is less than perfect. Her father was caught cheating on her mother with another woman when Raquel came home early unprecedented from school one afternoon. Since then, she has resorted to receiving male validation from random strangers on the internet that she feels she cannot receive from her father. She hasn't told anyone about her pastimes and plans to keep it that way. Her style is simple; jeans and a t-shirt are really all she needs. She likes to wear flannels occasionally and enjoys writing poetry; she thinks it helps collect and keep all her emotions organized. 

Here, I have created a mood board for Raquel for a more visual aspect for her background: 

William

William is a 20-year-old man who is studying to become a pilot. Meanwhile, he also has a passion for photography and takes some photography classes on his own time. He has developed a dark fetish for capturing someone in a moment of desperation. For the past year, he has seduced and drugged under-aged women in order to add them to his sickening collection; he then blackmails them and threatens to release the photos if they do not continue to come back and pose for him. No events in his life have a direct correlation for causing his sick actions, which is even more worrisome; there is no direct reason for him to act the way he does. He has a solid family dynamic with a caring mother and father. Typically, William wears jeans and a sweatshirt, but when he is in his "studio" he wears gloves when handling certain substances. 

Here, I have created a mood board for William as well; 

Hopefully, these backgrounds have given you some insight into the type of characters I want to portray. 

Stay tuned to find out!

Plot Aspects

 Plot- Time To Get Down To It!

Alright! Time to delve into what I want to portray along the lines of my plot. I have previously stated that I wanted to do a thriller genre with an overlying theme of "be careful with strangers on the internet". But what else? What will the actual content of my film opening be? I haven't worked out every single kink yet, but I do have the general sentiment/synopsis down; 

                A 17-year-old girl meets a boy online and gets kidnapped; he plans on drugging her and taking pictures of her for his grotesque collection, for he is obsessed with capturing his subjects in a moment of desperation. 

That's basically the premise of it; kind of cool right? I think so too. A shot-by-shot analysis will come out next week when I draw my storyboard, but for now, here is a general summary of what the opening will entail: 

The opening will start with police car sirens, and transition to a news report of a missing person- our 17-year-old (I'll have the names picked out by tomorrow). The scene will then cut to her room to show that it is empty, and pan to show the open text conversation up on her computer with the boy she was planning on meeting. 

The scene will then cut to show the boy filling a syringe up with liquid. Meanwhile, it will show the girl duck-taped on the ground (or to a chair, I haven't decided). I will utilize a collection of different shots to show her and her helplessness. 

The final part will show a bookcase in the boy's studio with a variety of binders with different girl's names shown on the sides. Finally, a binder with our character's name shown on the spine, and the boy grabs it. He opens it up, and we can see that it is a photo album. The opening will end with the girl looking up at the boy with hopelessness in her eyes. The boy will look down upon her, camera in hand, and the camera will flash. 

As I was writing this, I realized it's kind of difficult to write exactly what I want to portray, but I tried my best. There are still some filming aspects I need to incorporate, like certain parts I might want to add or change, but this is the basic plot for now. My next posting will do an analysis of the characters and who is playing them, but for now, they are nameless. 

I'm hoping this idea will stick and work out because I really like it, and I'm hoping my teacher will like it as well and give me the green light, but for now, we're still at a sort of yellow. Let's hope it all goes to plan! 

Stay tuned to find out. <3

Time For Research! Part #2

    Hey hey! So I'm back with more research on the thriller genre. In the last posting, I dove into the content of the thriller genre and gave a specific example that gave me a lot of inspiration, a film titled "Megan is Missing". Today, I want to go deeper into the production process/techniques used to support a thriller film. Again, just a reminder that I'm not planning on portraying anything gory; doesn't mean it won't happen, but not only do I think that that isn't very appropriate for a school project but I also think it doesn't really belong in a film opening. Anyway, let's get into it. 

Production Techniques

    Certain production techniques take place in order to create that suspenseful and captivating theme the directors want the audience to experience. Much of this actually occurs in post-production. Certain sound techniques are incorporated within the film to create a sense of paranoia and stress. For starters, the music that is used in these films typically utilizes minor chords and unpleasant sounds to make the song sound...not so pleasurable to the ear. The chilling chords mixed with the gruesome visuals shown onscreen coalesce and create a piece together that gives the audience that apprehension and tension that directors want to achieve. 

    

    A certain set design in a thriller/horror can give the film that suspenseful or stressful theme, which the film wants to achieve. Dirty/filthy props are implemented in order to make the characters feel uncomfortable, thus giving that sense of being uncomfortable to the audience. Typically, scenes take place at night rather than the day, for the dark has a general public stigma of being viewed as scarier since daylight is no longer available. This gives the directors more opportunities for murderers, monsters, stalkers, etc. to "lurk" in the darkness, causing more build-up. 

Above is a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho- a famous scene where the main character is murdered by taking a shower. The music is utilized immensely in this scene; there are high pitch, sharp notes played when she is being murdered, and lower, minor chords being played when she is struggling to stay alive after the murderer leaves. This is a prime example of how the music can intensify the scene and make it just about 10x more horrific. 

Above is a picture from the film Scream. The setting serves that the main character is talking on the phone with a random number who keeps contacting her home phone, and a collection of POV shots insinuate that the stalker is outside her house. She cannot see him, however, since it is dark outside. The darkness helps to draw more fear from the audience and makes one even more scared for the main character. 

Sample

In the movie Unfriended, a group of teens are all talking together on an online video chatting website. A random user joins their call, but they pass it off as a technical glitch and keep talking, until one of the teens gets a text claiming that they are a classmate that killed themselves the previous year. It is revealed that the account is the spirit of the girl, and the movie continues with the spirit terrorizing the group where they all end up dying or getting injured. 

The reason I thought this was a good sample to include was because it incorporated the theme that I want to include with the whole "be safe on the internet or you might die" kinda deal. With the inspiration from this and other thriller films, I'm actually quite excited to see what I come up with in terms of representation and creativity. I'm hoping to include the previously discussed production techniques in my opening as well. 

I guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out. 

Citations:

22, Noam Kroll September, et al. “3 Directing Tips For Adding Suspense To Your Thriller.” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 22 Sept. 2015, www.premiumbeat.com/blog/3-directing-tips-adding-suspense-thriller/.

Dryan, Daniel, and About Daniel DryanAfter completing a BA in English Literature from the University of Leeds. “The Power Of Set Design In Horror.” Raindance, 3 Aug. 2018, www.raindance.org/the-power-of-set-design-in-horror/.

“Unfriended.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfriended.

Time for Research! Part #1

 Alright! Week two! After mulling about around my house, I think I'm set on my decision to do a thriller genre. I already have a set idea for my plot/characters as well, but I'm saving that for a later posting ;). Anywho, today I'm going to be focusing on research of the thriller genre and show some specific examples of certain films that I have taken inspiration from in order to develop my plot and be creative with it at the same time. 

Content:

The thriller genre consists of plot that emits a suspenseful and engrossing theme throughout the film. They are filled with conflict and tension, as well as unexpected twists. Plots could vary from gory and physically sickening to psychologically twisted with deeper hidden meanings. Thrillers are never meant to be boring, and each scene has a purpose to further develop the plot and leave the audience on the edge of their seat. Content of such films can range from murders to kidnappings, to serial killers, etc. 

Above is an image of some popular films that are categorized under the thriller genre, including Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. 

One movie that matches with my aesthetic of what I'm trying to portray is a film released in 2011 called Megan Is Missing. This movie recently gained a ton of popularity over the everso growing social media app, TikTok. 

This movie has been one of my main inspirations for my film opening plot-wise. It is filmed uniquely in the sense that it is filmed in the "found-footage" style to make it seem like it is a true story, though it was based on several. The film is about a party-loving, popular high school student Megan and her closed-off, child-like best friend Amy (kind of creepy cause my best friend IRL is named Amy). Megan falls down a rabbit hole of drugs and addiction which leads her to meet a stranger named Josh on the internet, who never shows his face on camera because his "brother broke his webcam." Megan abruptly goes missing one day (shocker), and her best friend Amy sets an investigation in motion to figure out her whereabouts, for she doesn't believe she just "ran away", which is what the police concluded. She finds security footage of Megan being abducted along with sickening photos of her being mutilated that popped up on a dark web fetish website. Long story short, Amy gets abducted as well by, you guessed it, Josh, who had kidnapped Megan. Josh keeps Amy in a cell and when he tells her he is sorry and will let her go, he has told her to get inside a barrel he had so she wouldn't see where he lived. Upon opening the barrel, Megan's rotting corpse can be seen, and while Amy is screaming bloody murder, Josh shoves her into the barrel with Megan where he takes the barrel and buries Amy alive inside the barrel with her best friends rotting corpse. And that's the end :D.

Kind of gruesome, I know, and I'm not planning on showing any rotting corpses in my film opening, but I do want to use the theme of kidnapping as well as spread awareness of the dangers of trusting strangers online. Unfortunately, it's not like humanity will somehow shift and we all sing Kumbaya and eat cake; there's always going to be sickos who want to take advantage of people. So, I'm hoping that not only will my film opening be entertaining, but it will also spread awareness to not be dumb online. 

Hopefully, I'll be able to pull this off. 

Stay tuned to find out. 

The Beginning- Initial plans

After thinking about the topic/genre I wanted to go with, I have decided that I wanted to portray something horror/thriller-esque. Nothing gory per se, but something to have the audience on edge while watching. The horror selection I want to dive into is about the dangers of the internet and giving your trust in strangers online. I don't have the exact plot figured out as of yet, but I think that would be a cool concept to implement; something creative while also giving awareness to the dangers of the internet. 

My approach to this project will be pivotal in order to achieve success. I'm planning on having some of my friends outside of this class help me by being characters in my production. I'm thinking about writing a script and creating a storyboard to help visualize what I want my film opening to look like. I'm gonna take the upcoming week to try and perfect my story so I can start to discuss research and production techniques. 

Hopefully, things all go to plan! I guess you'll have to stick around to find out. 

 Hey! 

So recently, we as a class have been introduced to what seems to be a long and lengthy project. Although I'm not entirely sure what to expect, I'm excited to see where this project will take me through in regards to expanding my knowledge of film and its production. 

The introduction of this project brings many questions on my end. What genre do I want to make my film opening? What type of story do I want to portray? How can I implement editing techniques in my project? It may sound easy, but there are a lot of factors to consider. This project requires me to make many selections of what I would like to include- the possibilities are endless. There are many different genres to choose from, but I'm thinking something along the lines of either horror or coming of age. I'm hoping to create something that I will enjoy working on since this project will be a heavy time investment. 

I hope you enjoy the journey along with me! 

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

    

 Music Marketing Reflection

    Upon completing the music marketing presentation and project, I can for sure say that the process was lengthy but fun and educational as well. Not only did my team and I create a solid campaign for our artist, but we also used the marketing techniques learned in class to create a music video to promote our artist as well. Below, one can find the explanation of the full press involved in the creation of our artist, Chastity. 

    Our team researched the genre of rock extensively so that we could create a proper campaign for our star. We compiled a list of case studies, specifically those with an affiliation to the rock genre, and created a chart documenting certain distribution steps taken by such case studies. Bands such as Foo Fighters and 21 Pilots helped us create a visual on the type of style of social media we wanted, as well as what social media to use. 

                                                  

 

We then created a google document that connected all our team members so we could all brainstorm. In this document, we discussed what type of style for the website we wanted to have, as well as clothing, merchandise, and the specific shots we wanted to film for our music video. We also created a WhatsApp group chat in order to keep in touch and make sure everyone was keeping on task with what they were assigned to do.  We created a storyboard to help us plan our shots even better. A lot of our planning consisted of what to film for our music video. For our song, "Heather, Heather", we wanted to portray our artist struggling to get a grasp on the world outside the home of her mother. We wrote the plot of the story, which is about our artist leaving her mother and her home to go off to college, and how our artist is not handling this change in her life very well. We coordinated the outfits so that in scenes where the girl was happy, she is wearing bright colors, whereas when she was stressed and depressed, she was wearing all black with thick eyeliner. All of the filmings took place in my house or in my backyard, for I was the one who portrayed Chastity. The editing was then taken to two other group members where they incorporated cross-cutting to reflect on how the girl is feeling. In some clips, a black and white filter was used to represent that there is no color from the artist's world; it has all slipped away. Next came our presentation. We created a google slides that incorporated our social media, genre marketing, internet presence, target audience, and distribution plan to present our artist to the world. We included snippets of her performing concerts as well as our website/merchandise to distribute our song for listeners on all streaming platforms. 

From this project, I learned that sometimes I need to take a step back and take a deep breath. I normally do not work well with group projects, for I tend to take over and become quite bossy. This group project helped me put my trust in my group members. On an educational aspect, I learned about the many different ways digital distribution and marketing can come together to spread something massively using the internet and social media. Although it was fun, I have decided that for the Cambridge Portfolio I will probably end up working by myself.