Title Ideas

Our Title...

So Cami and I have been talking over FaceTime to come up with the final details we need for our film, but the biggest struggle we have at this moment is deciding on what we want the title of our film to be. We have already created a complete outline of the scenes we need for our opening and when we reached the scene where the title is supposed to, we both came to the realization that we still have no clue what we want our film to be titled as. The title is usually one of the first things that cross people's minds when creating a film but in our case, we completely skipped this very important step. However, even if we did this it's better for us since we already have everything formed so finding a title or that clue word that defines our film won't be that complicated. 

We want our title to portray our whole film, we want it to be something that shows that this is a film between two teenagers fighting against a pandemic to find their way back to each other. Something that shows the whole essence of Daniela's and Michale's love story while also showing the heartbreaking truth of their separation because of the pandemics. Our title should show the terror of the pandemic and the situation they were placed in.

These are examples of our main options:

-Love...Separated

-Yours Truly, Michael

-Lovesick

These ideas are just me and Cami brainstorming nothing is set in stone yet but we still thinking since this is a very important decision for the film. We still don't feel a connection with any of these title ideas that we have come up with but as soon as we decide on what our film will make sure to share it with everyone!

Schedule & Location

When and Where?

So my partner and I were talking about how we would elaborate the film. We started talking and trying to fix our schedules to be able to film our opening. Since we both have an SAT on March 13 we decided that we wanted to start to film after that. So we will start filming the week of March 15 that Saturday the 20th we decided that we wanted to go to Miami to film some of the first shots of our film. We would do this around 6pm and film near Bricklle since it's where the city is the most visible. Cami and I decided that this would be the best place since the film takes place in New York so the closest thing we have to NYC is Miami since there is a lot of tall buildings that could be easily viewed by our audience as buildings in New York.

Then on, March 16 and 18 we would stay here in Weston and record in our houses. We would use Cami's house to be either Daniela's or Micheal's house and then also my house. We still haven't decided on which house is going to be for each character but we will see that later on. This day we are going to film the scenes of them getting ready for the game.

Later, on Sunday, March 21 we decided that we wanted to being our editing process. By this day we want to have our film half done since the next week is spring break and we do not want to have that much left to do. If we do not finish editing on Sunday then we would continue this through the week but hopefully, have everything done by the due date. Following this schedule would allow us to complete everything on time. 

This schedule is perfect since we have a lot of time before the due date in case we have any delays and we need more time to do something. 

We still have a long way to go but step by step our film project is coming together. I'm looking forward to recording and editing and seeing the final result of our film opening. 

Group Meeting

Discussion in Class

Today was a very interesting day, in class we were separated into different groups with different people doing other projects. Our teacher gave us this opportunity so we could get some insight from others' points of view. This was very helpful and provided me and my partner with many ideas that we hadn't talked about.

The idea that my group gave me was the fact of recording them both getting ready for the football game where they are supposed to meet. Then proceed on playing a TV announcement in the back that announces the pandemic and ordering people to be careful about it. They said that my idea of crosscutting between both characters while they get ready was a good idea and that this would be good to show the audience that these are our two main characters and the love interests. They thought that this would also be a good way of showing the different lifestyles.

Another, idea that one of the students in the meeting suggested was showing a scene of Michaels's phone getting a lot of text messages asking if he was going to the football game. Then on the other hand show Daniela painting in her room and her mom coming in to force her to get ready to go to the football game. This is something that would help show their characteristics and introduce the fact that Daniela is very shy and doesn't know tat many people when on the other hand Micheal is very popular and know by everyone.

These ideas that were suggested were very helpful to me and my partner. Talking to other people and receiving their point of view on our story really helped us come up with what we wanted our film opening to be like. Deciding this is very hard but talking to other people helps us see that we are not alone and that there are also many other students struggling with coming up with many things just like we are. This helped us see realize that if we are ever stuck and don't know where we should take our film or how to interpret our idea we could talk to others and get their insight and perspective on what we are doing. 

Coming to the conclusion of what our film opening is really hard since it is only two minutes we have to demonstrate something that helps the audience realize what our film is about and gather the basic information to be able to follow along with the movie. This is very complicated but I and my partner are really close to deciding what scene we want to develop to be our film opening.

Outline

The Story Line

After a lot of talking Cami and I decided how we want our story to go!

First, we are going to introduce the first two characters, by showing their morning routine or basically them getting ready for school. In this time the audience will be able to see the different houses and social classes they are from. In these scenes we will incorporate many low angles, meaning just showing our character's feet and a lot of medium shots. 

We came to the conclusion that our characters were going to meet at a football game and after that, they, both of them were only going to keep interacting in school. One day school was canceled due to a pandemic outbreak this is going to separate both our love interests since they didn't have any other way to communicate other than in school, they never exchanged phone numbers or social media information, and now they couldn't leave their houses because of the virus that was going around.

This is the problem they are going to encounter that is going to put to question their love and make the audience start to wonder if they are ever going to be able to see each other ever again. 

The two characters lived really far so there was no way to meet again. Daniela lived in a faraway small neighborhood while Micheal lived in a rich neighborhood. This made it even harder for them to be able to ever cross paths. 

So this is basically the main plot of the story and then it will continue expanding to show how they met and how they finally found a way back to each other even if this pandemic was keeping them away.

Outline:

1. We start with a medium shot of both of them getting out of bed, we are going to try to set like both events are happening at the same time so we will use cross-cut editing.

2. Then they will proceed to the shower before going to school we will show a low angel of just their feet.

3. After they get out they will go and change we will do a low angle of these two and just after proceed to a medium shot once they have changed.

4. Medium shot of looking in the mirror, for example, Daniela doing her make-up.

5. Then we will proceed to show a long shot of them going down the stairs.

6. Here is where the constant cross-cutting wills stop and will start to show Daniela talking to her family eating breakfast and then proceed to show Michael's family.

This is just a rough draft of the idea we have, but we still have many things to edit and decide but these are things that just come along with the process. We are trying to use this film start to show our both love interests and also introduce their different environments and lifestyles. There are still many shots and scenes to add but this is kind of the main idea of what we are trying to show.

Examples:

Inception: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmptU7vEkNU

Mean Girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYrAs2h4MxE

Best Cross-Cutting Examples: https://geppettosclocks.com/2019/07/13/my-25-favorite-montages-cross-cutting-sequences/

Location

 The Location of the Film

The film will be mainly be located in a school in New York City. This will be a public high school, with a lot of diversity and a lot of people.  The main scenes will be filmed in the hallways, the classroom, or the fields.

We will have mainly locations such as Micheal's house or Daniela's house but the main scenes will be filmed in the highschool. Daniel lived in a small apartment, in a very low-class area, they're apartment isn't very big and she has to share a room with her brother. On the other hand, Michael lives in a bigger house with a lot of space for him and his siblings, Their apartment is very high class and they live in a nicer community. The city is very busy and is full of noise always. We would make this happen by filming in a similar place such as Miami or nice plazas like Town Center. So we can achieve the dark Twilight tone we want, we will also add filters and manipulate the lighting so we can create the tone we want.

The meeting location of the couple will be in the school hallway. This is a regular school hallway where all the students hang out and talk before going to class. This will be recorded in our school Cypress Bay but in the film, we will say it is a high school in New York. The school is a very typical or traditional place, looks like every other high school, with plain white walls with a poster hanging on them, white shiny floors, and many doors directing to the classrooms.

Previously, Daniel had lived in Columbia which was a very dangerous place and the family worked a very low-class job and they did not live a peaceful life since they were constantly worried about the outside dangers. Also, Michael had lived in Missouri where he lived an average life with his parents but they decided to move due to the fact that New York provided more opportunities for their family.

Photo Inspirations:

Helpful Sources:

https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/11-things-to-keep-in-mind-when-picking-film-locations/

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/essential-film-location-scouting-tips/

Film Opening Inspiration Bored:

https://www.pinterest.com/camirod037239/film-opening/?invite_code=bf5c45199e8a4381bbc19aafea192175&sender=811985145224609229

Main Characters

The Main Characters

After a long discussion with my partner Camila and I finally decided on the two main love interests for our story. We came to the conclusion of what we wanted each character's back story to be and how we wanted their personalities to be like.  We wanted their personalities to pop out and shine through our film opening and to help the audience create a connection with the audience so that they feel an attachment through the movie, so they get more engaged.

So to conclude we came up with Daniela and Michale!!

First, meet Daniela...

Daniela a 16-year-old girl, that grew up in Cartagena, Colombia alongside her mother Marianne, her father Rodrigo, and her little brother Diego. When she was 12 years old her family decides to take a chance and move to New York City so that her dad could find a better job and her family could live a more stable and safe life. This was one of the most impactful and hardest moments in her life, and it greatly impacted her and her family. They all had to leave everything behind especially their relatives without looking back. Her home disappeared to create a whole new better life.  

Daniela physically is relatively short compared to the other girls her age. She has dark brown eyes and hair that was really long and it even reached her waist. Her favorite hobbies are drawing and painting just like her father which is really artistic. She used to always paint the beautiful mountains scenes from her balcony in Cartagena before she moved. Her family and her would always do activities such as taking long walks outside and this is something that she really enjoyed.

She is really shy and afraid to speak up. Her grades are amazing out of the ordinary. She takes really advanced classes and she is really focused on her future and going to an awesome college since she has seen the effort her parents made to give her this opportunity so she is trying to make the best out of it. She doesn't have many friends due to the fact that she is really shy. 

Now, meet Micheal...

Micheal is a 17-year-old boy, that grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri. He is part of a family of eight; his two sisters, Chloe and Chelsea; his brothers, Max, William, and Johnathan; and his two loving parents; Marcey and David. He and his family had moved to New York City when Micheal was 10 years old, due to the fact that his brother Johnathan got an offer to go play for a great team in New York.  They would often go to visit Missouri mostly to visit their family and friends and for any special holidays. 

Michaels favorite way to spend time is by playing lacrosse and spending time with his teammates mostly every day.  He was so focused on lacrosse that he had never had a girlfriend before and since he appreciates his friends too much to lose them.

He is really tall compared to his friends, he has blond straight hair, with ocean blue eyes. He is very fit since he really cares about taking care of himself and his body. His favorite thing in the world is playing lacrosse and he would never let anything come between him and his team. He was one of the most popular kids in school, he was very friendly and outgoing.

Topic Choice!

What is our Plot?

Camila and I have been thinking very thoroughly about what we want our movie to be about. We came to the conclusion that we want the topic to be related to a dystopian world or environment that the two love interests have to deal with. We want to focus on romance while still giving a sense of terror or creepiness, and incorporate it into our romance film. Our main focus will be to make this a romantic story but at the same time incorporate other elements. We have come up with many storylines that we can focus on bringing to life. We thought of maybe incorporating a global pandemic since it's something we have experience with dealing with or maybe a district division, for example; the movie the Hunger Games. We also thought of creating some sort of war or battle but were still not sure which one of these elements we wat to use. The setting and plot are going to create some sort of difficulty towards the two love interests.

We researched two movies, that have two love interests that are divided by some sort of difficulty. 

Our first movie is The Notebook:

This is a romance movie is base on the background history of the 1940s. This story describes their social differences and stereotypes of that decade and how they are separated because of social norms. Many struggles come up as their story progresses and they are separated more and more by their social divisions. In our film, we want to include some elements such as the separation or division between the two love interests.

Then we researched the movie Only:

                                                    

Even though we have decided on creating a romance film, we also decided to research this action movie since it is a movie about the division between love interests, which is something that we are trying to incorporate in our firm. This movie is about a global pandemic that only affected women and they were the only ones that could get infected. This couple has to take the decision of hiding and disgusting the female as a male character for them to be able to survive since the government wants to kill or eliminate all of the women. If we decide to pick the element of using a pandemic to divide the characters that this film will create great inspiration since it shows action and a feeling of terror while helping a relationship survive.

Genre Final Decision

Our final decision!

This week  I took the decision to start working alongside a partner, Camila Rodriguez. I believe that both our knowledge and creativity will be very helpful using this project.

Our decision to what we want the genre of our film intro is...

ROMANCE!

We came up with this conclusion since we had previously in another assignment both done research about this genre in the media. In that research we talked about everything there is to know when creating a romance film so we decided that this would be a great way to take that research and turn it into something real that we formed. Here are the links to our previous genre research about romance:

My Romance Blog: https://anahandalmedia.blogspot.com/2020/11/romance-genre.html

Camila's Romance Blog: https://camiilablogger.blogspot.com/2020/11/genre-research-activity.html

Now that we have decided what our genre for our film has to be we have to start thinking bout the next big step. What is our story? or What is our plot? These questions are the next step that we have to take in order to smoothly continue our journey in creating this film.

My partner and I have been looking and reading what a great romance film includes and we began to think about how we could elaborate ours. We began to think about our personal experiences since the best movies come from people's own expertise and feelings.  This is a  difficult and serious choice since whatever we decide our movie to be is what the rest of our project will circulate around. We are still thinking and analyzing what we want, is it a basic romance movie or do we want to have something different than the rest? This is a tough choice but with this blogs will keep an update about our project all the time.

What Genre to Choose?

What Genre to Choose?

At this moment all that is crossing my mind are my favorite genres and which one would fit my film the best. To create this project and be able to create something amazing my topic has to be chosen accordingly to what I like and feel passionate enough to form a whole project based on it. This is a very huge part of the film since it will define everything to come and basically what the whole project is going to consists of.

What is genre? This sounds like a simple question but in this case, the answer to this question is going to decide the rest of our path in this project. Deciding between what type of film we want to create for the public. Whether it is going to be a horror, romance, suspense, or comedy film is a very tough choice and something that has to be thought through very carefully.

 

To decide the genre, I first have to do a lot of research on the different information about the different genres that a film could be. Then after gathering all the information I have to decide which one I feel the most passionate and interested about. The ones I am most interested in before researching anything are suspense and romance but before deciding which one I want my final project to be I have to figure many important details. Such as the different characteristics that a specific genre has or uses. Also, figure out their target audience and what attracts them to seeing these types of films. The research has to be very specific and very informative so this all helps form the conclusion on what I want my film genre to be.

I have to research the type of characteristics and after coming to that conclusion of what I want my project to be, starts the next step of actually planning everything out. Deciding the story, the characters, the setting, and the plot, but first before starting that I have to finish all my research before starting to work on the larger picture.

Intorduction

Hello!!

My name is Ana Handal, and I am a student in the AICE Media Studies class. I am very excited to create this blog since it's an easy way for people to follow along with my creation of this new project I'm forming. 

This is a very complicated start since I have to come up with a whole project idea and create something based on my creativity, however; it won't be that complicated since I am very passionate about everything related to the media so this project is something I am feeling very inspired about. 

Today begins the thought process and the beginning of the next three amazing weeks of forming this amazing film. Gathering all the information a creating an idea in my mind is very overwhelming but I believe that with time everything is going to fit together into the perfect film. This process is confusing since there are many ideas to process together, from what genre the film going to be to what the story going to be. This blog is going to help me to sort my ideas and hopefully form the final project. These questions are very complex since they will define the whole film. I have to be very careful when deciding on everything since every small detail counts and could change everything.

Even though this project is going to be very stressful and full of a busy week of putting a lot of effort and work, I am excited and looking forward to being able to see the final result. Through these blogs, I'm going to be blogging my progress and keeping you guys up to speed with any updates related to this amazing experience we are starting.

 

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

The full process of our project was very long and involved a lot of work individually and as a team. We began with our research, looking for companies that represented similar artists like the one we were trying to represent. In the end, we decided to talk about Columbia Records and Universal Music Records, talking about characters such as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Justin Beiber, and Harry Styles. My individual job was to talk about Katy Perry and also research other characters that Columbia Records represents. With this research, my team and I came to the conclusion of how we wanted to create the video for the song we were releasing. The song we picked was Royals. We came up with the idea and the marketing strategies. 

Later we began to work on the storyboard of the music video. We divided each scene, each of us had to do 5 scenes and there was a total of 20. I had to do from the scene 16-20. The music video consists of a girl, which I acted as, who was mentally unstable who began to picture her life if only she was rich. The video consisted of switching between the royal life and the low class or real life. She later struggles between what is real and what is not, which concludes the video with her in a car accident. While I was acting in the video, Gerardo my other partner was directing and completed the editing process. David and Juan were in charge of controlling the blogs that we posted on our social media for our fan engagement and also on participating as side characters in the video. The film process was really fun, we went to different locations to record. The process was fun and I had the most fun since I was the one acting in the video and I had to change outfits and act which I really enjoy. 

Later while Gerardo was editing the video, my partners and I started to work on our PowerPoint presentation that would be shown in class. This is where we talked about our marketing ideas which basically revolve around the use of social media such as Instagram and TikTok. We also talked about the release dates of both the music video and the song, and the platforms it would be streamed on. Through the PowerPoint, we talked about strategies and about our target audience. We also created a website and merch for the band. Later, we had to present the PowerPoint we divided the slides and did a 15 min presentation on our artist and their song. I mostly had to talk about the distribution plan and the expansion of what Pop genre was. Then my other team members presented the other slides, as for example, the video explanation, and the main marketing strategies. 

To conclude, from this project I learned about the hard work that is put into creating a new artist or releasing a song. Also, I found out that now with social media marketing songs are very easy, and creating fan engagement is also very easy and accessible for people. The research chart will help me the most when creating my Cambridge portfolio alongside our music video, which I believe came out really nice and professional. This whole project showed me many things alongside how to create a marketing strategy and also how to create a distribution plan for a new releasing song. This was a very interesting project that expanded my knowledge of music media. Up till now we mostly worked with the movie media so this project really expanded our minds to a whole new world of music media. 

Music Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Aa6d_8wGzGl5YYYtoSSeDdDUl9VHRsrQ/view