Production on a Budget - Portfolio Project Blog Post #10

 PRODUCTION ON A BUDGET

SIGH.

When you place four TV production students together and hold their AICE Media grades over a cliff, their creative sides can truly work wonders. Ideas erupt from  all sides- so many that some must be tossed aside for "future projects." If you've been following my blog until now, you know that we've got the creativity and the motivation up there. But, you know, there's this one itty-bitty minor detail that needs to be addressed:

budgeting.

The one word that haunts every film student in the making. The crucial topic that, at some point, needs to be brought up so we can all scramble to search our pockets.

SPOILER ALERT:

WE HAVE NO MONEY. 

As teenagers, we often let our creativity run wild, and at times, some crazy ideas with no means of possibility come up. Our current plan is relatively possible, but we mustn't confuse our capabilities with the visions we might be having- ARRI ALEXA level camera-quality, Christopher-Nolan-style practical effects, Michael Bay explosions...

Budgeting is something I want to address with my teammates in our next meeting because we have been spurting out some ideas that require chipping in money together. For example, in a previous meeting, Isabella mentioned that using a fog machine could help us achieve the dusty, abandoned office look we want. But, none of us have a fog machine (and we fear setting off the fire alarm), so the idea was scrapped. 

We also must explore ways to maneuver around our issues without the production equipment of the films we see online. Our biggest issue that has been lingering, watching us from the corner because none of us wish to approach it yet, is how we will reinforce the whole "last woman on Earth" idea. Luckily, Logan has access to a drone, but the regulations of the city the office is located do not permit us to use it. Personally, I think a drone shot of an empty area of a city would help us push our ideas forward while sitting comfortably in our budget, so I'm going to suggest we location-scout for another empty side of town that might let us film a quick shot with the drone.

If the drone doesn't end up being a viable option, we'll have to consider our other possibilities. But I'll leave that for another update.

Breakout Room Horror - Portfolio Project Blog Post #9

BREAKOUT ROOM HORROR

WHAT WE'VE ALL BEEN DREADING

After weeks of constructing our ideas, location-scouting, and getting attached to our characters, it was finally time for what all students dread: sharing these thoughts with others in the hellhole that is a Microsoft Teams breakout room. It is not only the awkward pauses and "...so what are we doing?"s that made this task worrisome, but also the fear of my ideas being downright awful. Many questions came to mind, such as "what if this all sounds better in my head?" and "what if this concept is some famous movie already that I haven't heard of?" 

PHEW.

Thankfully, however, this did not seem to be the case. After a few minutes of awkward interaction and me pushing others to speak up, I finally decided to just present my ideas first. I presented our plans from the very beginning, even walking my peers through the entire outline of our opening. Sadly, however, I did not receive much feedback that I consider inherently helpful, because "that's cool" isn't the most detailed response. But, even then, I decided to ask my peers for help on a specific concern I have: how do we reinforce the fact that our protagonist is the final human on the planet? At first, the breakout room answered with a heavy-weighted silence that really made me think "why did I even bother?," but I judged too soon because I did receive some beneficial advice. One of my peers mentioned how our original idea was to have Aria (reminder: that's our protagonist's name) break into the office to begin her scavenge. They suggested that if we did away with that plan and instead had the door to the office be wide open, that could suggest that the location has been abandoned. A break-in style sequence may be more suggestive of a burglar rather than a survivalist. 

She's Quite the Character - Portfolio Project Blog Post #8

 SHE'S QUITE THE CHARACTER

PROTAGONIST UPDATE

Since we started this project, our team has focused heavily on world-building and location scouting, specifically because our story revolves around being on a deserted planet. But, since the four of us have acted before, we all understand that acting is not as simple as reading lines off of a sheet. In order to present a loveable character, you really have to understand exactly where they're coming from. In the weirdest way possible, you have to allow yourself to become them, not being hyper-aware of the fact you are putting on a show. Much like how Jared Leto practiced for his role of the Joker outside of the set, I plan on perfecting our protagonist's personality. But, in order for me to rehearse, we had to come up with a background for our character.

SO WHO IS THIS CHICK?

Our protagonist is Aria Gil, a 17-year-old born and raised in Miami, Florida. She lived a relatively normal childhood, coming from a lower-middle-class family, and, despite living in a rough area of the city, she had no real complaints about her living situation. 

When disaster struck Earth, however, she quickly had to accustom herself to no longer being able to live care-free and recklessly.  Although her lower socioeconomic class meant that she was never swimming in riches, she never had to scavenge through an office for survival materials, either. Now that human interaction seems to no longer be an option, she constantly ponders why she wants to survive the cruel world she has been trapped in. As a human, is she too far evolved to comply with the animalistic, survivalist ways of nature?

SOME BASIC COSTUME DESIGN

During our meeting yesterday, we also discussed potential costumes for our protagonist. Many ideas came up, such as cargo pants and vests, but we ultimately decided to go for a less exaggerated look. At the moment, we are considering jeans, a plain shirt and jacket, and a simple beanie (for that extra character, you know?). Oh, and boots, of course.

I personally think our characters should have a bandaged wound on their arm in order to hint that they are in a state of survival. Additionally, with some basic makeup, I should make myself appear dirty (because what survivalist would bother showering?) and somewhat wounded.

For Aria's costume design, I am taking a lot of inspiration from "The Walking Dead."

Mission Outline: COMPLETE(?) - Portfolio Project Blog Post #7

 MISSION OUTLINE: COMPLETE(?)

THE OUTLINE

These past few meetings, the team has been slowly brainstorming some possible scenes to have during our film's introduction. From dark, looming factories to twinkies and coffee, we have planned an array of moments for our character to have in order to best portray their current situation. On our first day of meeting, we created a google document where we have dropped, discussed, and edited ideas, until finally, we have sculpted an opening we like.

FILM OPENING OUTLINE (FIRST DRAFT)

• Start with shots of security cameras, multiple shots as character goes into building - constant shots from the cameras
• Security camera shots (last one is when character is about to go in)
• Transition with OTS shot of character looking at camera)
• Character enters into building
• Various shots, exploring office surrounding, looking through desks/cubicles (may be cut for time)
• Kitchen (coffee and twinkies)
• As they look through office cabinets, titles of actor, director, etc appear in screen
• Extremely wide shot of office space
• Goes into factory looks for supplies
• Could do shot where they find scrap metal/nut and look through it
• Cut to traversing outside could use drone here?
• Eventually Close up of foot being placed on track, just as they are going to walk over it, and then they hear the train (show train lights blinking?)
• Close-up of them being scared (since they think they are the last one on earth)
• Last shot, from across train track, space in between character and camera has motion pass by it to show the train
• (Possible title - Losing Track)

THIS IS COOL

So far, I enjoy the majority of our outline. I especially appreciate how we are considering our time limit, as two minutes is not as long as it seems. Since we are going all-out for this project, it is likely that we may accidentally go over our time limit if we are too ambitious, so it is definitely a good idea to label the unimportant shots we can cut, just in case. As someone who tends to go over the given time in my projects, including these details in the outline helps ease my nerves.

THIS IS KIND-OF NOT COOL

Due to some circumstances with a few of our group members, the four of us meeting up at the same time has proven to be a challenge. Even if we are on the same wavelength, making crucial decisions without other members' creative input is a difficult task. One thing I'm unsure of as of right now is the title for our film ('Losing Track' still hasn't grown on me), so I plan on bringing that up in our next meeting.

Gears are Turning - Portfolio Project Blog Post #6

 GEARS ARE TURNING

NEW IDEA ALERT

My group met on a call to discuss some new ideas, and for once, we were all there and ready to go. After scrapping the alien-monster-creature-thing idea, we had some difficulty coming up with something new, but thankfully, our brains decided to wake up and our ideas began bubbling up. So, here's what I've told you so far: female protagonist, lone survivor, office, trains. Pretty simple, right?

EXCEPT NO.

WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW

Our story follows a woman who is the final human being on Earth after an assumed apocalypse has rid of all other beings. On her own, she is fighting to survive by gathering materials, searching various buildings. She is first introduced to the audience in an office, where she begins her mission, and then she continues wandering into a factory. At the end of the opening, she hears and sees a train headed toward her in the distance, and a frightened look is plastered on her face.

THE FINE DETAILS

In our meeting, we discussed some possible shots to include within our opening narrative. A big challenge we were facing was a way to introduce our story in a unique and attention-grasping way. Since I have been to the office location before, I remembered a detail that I think will definitely benefit us: there are security cameras with live footage throughout the building. This news was a big hit, and we all agreed that security footage of the protagonist entering the building will be a great way to begin our opening in an interesting manner. I also think that this is a great subliminal indicator to the audience that this character may not be as alone as they think, and perhaps something is watching them. 

I mentioned in my previous post that I desire for our opening to have an intimate moment with the protagonist, in which their animalistic, survivalist ways are put to a halt for a quick moment. But, without other humans to interact with, how can we highlight her inner emotions? The answer:

Twinkies.

Seriously. 

While searching the office, we plan on our protagonist stumbling across the kitchen, where she begins to loot the drawers and cabinets. In one of these compartments, she finds some twinkies, and a little twinkle in her eye (haha) shines for a brief moment. Though we don't want to put some Disney-style glisten in her eyes when she sees this treat, we do want to put emphasis on her facial expression. These twinkies mean a lot to her. Perhaps they bring forth a memory of some kind.

In the office, we also plan on her seeing an old measuring cup of Cuban coffee, where she rushes to take a sip straight from the container. Personally, I really want to make sure it's obviously Cuban coffee because that could introduce a minor detail about our character: her heritage.

Got Inspiration? - Portfolio Project Blog Post #5

 

GOT INSPIRATION?

Let's Try Again

In my previous post, I discussed my group's newest idea for our genre and overall feel for our film opening, post-apocalyptic. We want to emphasize the feeling of vulnerability and loneliness in a vacant world, breaking various "survivor" tropes within the opening as well. 

There are various films that I have gathered inspiration from for the mood of our introduction, and while many of them lack similar traits to our film (such as A Quiet Place's antagonist being a monster), all of these examples emphasize either vulnerability or loneliness.

Cast Away

In the film "Cast Away," a man by the name of Chuck Noland is stranded on a vacant island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. Throughout the piece, he scavenges to keep himself alive, searching for food, shelter, and entertainment (which he finds in a volleyball named Wilson). 

Cast Away is a film highlighting "Man VS Nature," and, even if our opening is meant to portray "Man VS the Unknown," there is much inspiration we can take from this movie about survival. Our character, who is not yet named, is a sole survivor herself who must gather materials to stay alive, much like Chuck Noland. It might also be beneficial for us to take notes on Tom Hanks' acting, as he does a phenomenal job at presenting a man who has lacked human contact for a prolonged period of time. 

A Quiet Place

"A Quiet Place" is a horror film that highlights vulnerability. A family of four (that was once five) seems to be one of the sole survivors in a world that has fallen. Throughout the film, they avoid making any noise, as the monsters hunting them down travel through sound. Creating vulnerability off of one of the very things that make us human (making sound) is a concept that has always interested me, and while we may not be able to incorporate this in our opening, we can definitely use some other ideas from this film in our own. 

The first ten minutes of A Quiet Place displays a run-down world, with shots of street lights and vacant streets. A family is inside of a market store with mostly empty shelves and dirty floors, searching for materials in silence. Despite their situation, however, they still manage to have some humanity left in them. Regan, the sister, communicates with her brother through sign language, smiling as he signs back to her. In our opening, I want to have this "human" moment in which our character displays some internal emotions that do not revolve around survival.

Trial and Error - Portfolio Project Blog Post #4

 TRIAL AND ERROR

So... What Now?

So our last idea was scrapped. But, without murderous monsters roaming the Earth and a stupid, oblivious character shielded in ignorance by their "normal" life, what do we do now? 

Chaos.

We managed to turn our idea around, but somehow we managed to transform our already unnerving story into something madder. As a group, we all agree upon keeping our main character in a threatened position, alone in an office while danger awaits outside. But, in order to keep things unique while giving ourselves a challenge, we want to make our antagonist something unconventional, something that is normally viewed in a positive manner. But, how could we turn something sweet and innocent into a terror-inducing villain? Our answer: the apocalypse. 

But, Not Your Usual Apocalypse

When one thinks of the "end of the world," they normally picture some kind of disaster, whether it be natural causes, nuclear war, or an alien invasion. Images that may creep into mind include burning buildings, fogged alleyways, and dark skies will the human race slowly fades from existence. But... we want to steer from cliches (and we don't have the budget for that, but that is beside the point).

Instead, we want to present a world that seems parallel to ours, nearly identical in every aspect- buildings clear of flames, clean skies, colors all over- except for one thing:

There are no human beings left.

Our main character, who I am going to play, is the final human on the planet. I'm very excited to act in this role, especially because most "lone survivors" in films tend to be men. Very rarely are women depicted as animalistic or instinctive outlivers; in many post-apocalyptic pieces, in fact, they take on a nurturing, emotional role while the men tend to scavenge for resources. Defying this trope is in my particular interest.

So, What's Up With This Girl?

Our current outline revolves around our main character searching for materials in an office and factory to keep herself alive after the "apocalypse." Presenting her as the final human on Earth will be a challenge, especially without extensive set design and CGI to make the world seem run-down and abandoned. But, we hope that some drone shots displaying her as the only figure within miles will help reinforce this idea. At the end of our opening, the character is going to hear or see (or both) something that implies other humans are still alive: a train.

Our protagonist will be frightened by this contact, and the final shot will be her standing on the railroad, glaring over at the train as it creeps forward.

Are there other humans inside? Or is what comes closer their annihilator, ready to claim its final victim?

We don't know either. Yet.

A Change of Plan - Portfolio Project Blog Post #3

 A CHANGE OF PLAN

The Original Idea

In my previous blog post, I mentioned our story including some form of extraterrestrial life. We envisioned a character going about their relatively "normal" life at their office job, completely unaware of a monster killing their coworker right outside. When we were brainstorming upon this idea, however, only three out of four of the group members were present, so about 25% of visions for this project were being left out. So, when we told this 25% about our crazy plans for an alien-monster-bloody-invasion plot, they gave us a wonderful warning:

That's ridiculously cliche.

Back to Square One... Or Two?

Cliche. Cliche. Man, how didn't we think of that?
Looking back, we were blinded by our ideas for the film in its entirety that we didn't realize that our opening was just some rip-off of every alien movie known to man. Our creativity was running wild, and we were picturing how our monster would look, act, and find its victims, even though  A) we were not planning on revealing the beast during the opening and B) this is just the introduction to our film. Now, we have taken a step back, and from now on, we're making sure that our video fits our criteria of being unique without revealing too much about the rest of the film.
Rather than starting over again, we are going to keep some of our original plans, such as the main character being alone and in an office.

Newly Found Chaos

We still have to discuss what our new plot is going to be, but I plan on showing some images to my group to describe the "feel" I'd like for us to present. The current genre I'm picturing is post-apocalyptic, which I think we can achieve well with the location we plan on filming at. The area is in an empty, industrial area with lonesome streets, so the isolated feeling could be presented well.

Getting Somewhere - Portfolio Project Blog Post #2

 GETTING SOMEWHERE
Beginning the AICE Media Portfolio Project

Scheduling Difficulties

    Originally, my group had planned to meet together to discuss our ideas in a single call, since most of our plans so far had been sorted out in smaller groups. However, due to conflicts in our scheduling, our plans of calling together fell through, and we must wait yet another few days. Hopefully scheduling does not become a repetitive issue, and if it does, we will have to find a way around that problem.

Choices, Choices

    In my previous post, I mentioned that we wanted to portray a certain "hollow" atmosphere in our film opening, highlighting on contrasting colors like blue and red. We all seemed to agree upon a common mood of emptiness and loneliness for this project, so as of right now, we plan on emphasizing on this aspect of the project. 

    Three of us called a few days ago, in which we discussed some potential plot points for our opening. However, due to the absence of one member and feeling overwhelmed from TV competitions, we found ourselves with no concrete ideas in mind. But, we always went back to two options: a dystopia or a science fiction piece. In an attempt to get our gears turning, I suggested we get ideas from a setting, and what better setting to emphasize urban hollowness than an office building? I just so happen to have access to an office, and we agreed that this could match our mood, so it was a hit.

    From here, we got to working on the general idea of our opening, making sure to look at both of our options. We want the opening to give some mild "Big Brother" vibes, but we also want to present danger early on in our piece. But, we couldn't think of a way to combine the extra-terrestrial with government control; introducing two conflicts, character vs nature and character vs society, felt like too much for the introduction. Logan, however, thought of a way to hint at a strange government without shoving it down the viewers' throats: a news channel.

    Using a news channel was perfect, as we want our protagonist to be completely oblivious to the conflict around them. This way, the news can be playing in the background so the audience can hear, while the main character seems to pay no mind to it. We developed this idea further, and we think that having our character be alone in the office is a great choice. We'll highlight this by having the final coworker leave within the first few seconds of the piece.

    We are still developing our idea, but we definitely think an extreme danger should be nearby the character as they go about their normal night of work. We want to display security footage behind them of their coworker being killed by a monster, perhaps while they drink their cup of coffee at their desk. For our final shot, I really want to do some blood running down a sewer grate from the sidewalk; this will reinforce the idea that the coworker has died without us 

actually having to show the monster who killed them. 

A Little Confused, but Fair Enough - Portfolio Project Blog Post #1

 A LITTLE CONFUSED, BUT FAIR ENOUGH
Beginning the AICE Media Portfolio Project

INTRODUCTION

In the past six months, I have learned various aspects of planning, filming, and post-production that I wasn't well-versed in before, such as mise-en-scene, color psychology, and parallel editing. Although I had learned these topics previously in my TV production class, having to apply them in my projects has proved far more difficult than I had expected. The challenges this course has brought me so far have assisted me in heightening my skills, as well as given me a reality check effort-wise (I originally believed my TV experience would make these projects a breeze, but that is not the case). Now, months later, with my newly-found skills (and areas in need of improvement), I will face the portfolio project through a different lens, beginning with spending more extensive time brainstorming.

So far, my group for this project has gathered inspiration from a certain color scheme and aesthetic: bright blues and reds, paired with an empty, hollow mood. In my free time, I listened to an album titled “Everywhere at the end of time,” a psychological horror piece that gave me ideas for an eerie film opening.

The next day, I met on a group call with my teammates to get our ideas out. We decided upon two genres for our film: dystopian or sci-fi horror. Personally, I prefer sci-fi, but we’ll see how that goes.

Music Marketing Blog Post 2

Music Marketing Blog Post 2 - The Process

    Creating a band from scratch was no easy task, but, although M’lady isn’t perfect, I am proud of what my group was able to accomplish in a matter of weeks.

    Although the research itself was not difficult to obtain, we found ourselves getting distracted with music video ideas popping up in the back of our minds. Due to this, we decided to call a second day after school in order to complete the research chart. When reading, we decided to change our target audience from teens to 20-24-year-olds, and we concluded that a common trait among alternative bands is a quirk or theme of theirs, such as the constant symbol of llamas within Fallout Boy and the optical illusions making up Animal Collective’s brand. We also decided that a quick and strong way to market ourselves would be through social media platforms, like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. We considered other applications but decided that TikTok was geared for a younger age than our target audience, and Facebook for a far older group. Finally, we agreed upon our last necessary marketing platform: a website.

    With Isa’s experience in website building, we were able to find a layout that best fit our target audience. A simple color palette that matched the logo of our brand (a purple and yellow lion), and pages that were easy to navigate through. Within these tabs, listeners could purchase merchandise, read the origin story of the band, and watch music videos and bloopers available on YouTube.

    When it came to writing our music video, we had various changes in ideas. Our original idea was to have a woman standing up against various men in her life, as the title of our debut song was “The Man.” However, after some time, we came to an agreement that a serious music video would go against our brand’s idea of lighthearted fun. Our new idea was the exact opposite, actually: “The Man” in question was the band member himself causing chaos throughout his neighborhood. He disturbed the public, stopped cars to let ducks cross the road, and fell out of a tree. At one point, he trespassed into private property to his own demise. The crew agreed that what this video needed was fun. The more ridicule, the better.

    For our video, we wanted a symbol, like  Fallout Boy’s iconic llama. To match our logo, we went with a king and ordered a purple robe to match our color scheme and a gold crown. We filmed for about 3 days, far longer than we had originally planned. The biggest surprise to me is how well we managed to work together; when I created the shirt for Isabella to wear, Anthony taught himself how to use my camera to continue filming with Logan. 

    Editing was the most difficult part for us as a group, as we fell into many issues with the way our shots turned out. Yet, after much back and forth, we managed to push through and get it done. Logan and I found that editing in person was more efficient than over discord, and we managed to finish in just a few hours.

    I felt very uneasy throughout the presentation. Although we knew our information, I experienced some technical issues that wasted some time for the group. Other than that, however, things went smoothly, and we each presented our section without any issues. The critiques really made me smile, and I'm glad that our hard work was appreciated.

    Overall, this project opened my eyes to the layers that go behind creating a band or musician's marketing. It also gave me a great opportunity to collaborate with other students without an intense time limit, giving us time to really get to know each other.