From Days of Research to Portfolio Project

     Hey Cambridge! For the past semester, I've been learning technique, terminology, and the most important factors to make a hit film. From now on, though, my blog will be dedicated to showing the planning and production of my Portfolio Project. Since I was informed of the final project being making a short production of my own, it's been the focus of every class. My mind has flooded with a thousand ideas already, but I'm still in the process of honing down on my final topic. Utilizing the knowledge from the case studies and research I've done previously, I'll be able to create my dream portfolio. To transition into this chapter, we were assigned a Nearpod assignment to note on about different styles of movie openings. We were shown different approaches to develop a film opening noted below.

    Having taken these notes on the different ways to establish purpose in an opening, the creation of mystery stands out to me further than the others. In the 2-minute film opening I am assigned to produce, I aim to create some kind of mystery. Not in a creepy way, but instead a curiosity towards why certain aspects aren't being shown or what pieces are missing. I'll do this through sound techniques like diegetic asynchronous sound to hint towards certain aspects of that 'world' that aren't being shown. The difference is that I won't use it to provide contextual information, but instead to contradict what the viewers are being told. I would also use contrasting mise-en-scene, much like in the film Emma., that would literally show innocent, beautiful, and gentle elements like dresses, gardens, and flowers, but depict them in a dark, gloomy, and rude way.

    Another approach I've considered is the establishment of the main character. The mise-en-scene would include the colors my main character is wearing and the costume design to show small insights into his or her personality. They could be wearing a necklace that says "mom" on it or a pin of a team they love. I would also ensure to include dialogue that would be contrasting like previously mentioned. Maybe they would speak kindly to one person and coldly to another. Leading from that, the interactions they have with other characters would tell a lot about the type of person they are. Though I'm working on this project alone, I'm planning to find actors in my theater class to have those interactions and dialogue which I'll direct.

Music Marketing Project BTS

 

Music Marketing Project: Research & Planning

       The girls in my group and I were assigned the genre of Alternative Indie to research and break down four of its artists' marketing and brand strategies.

Alternative Indie

Initially, we researched and skimmed through a few websites and articles on current alternative indie artists to grasp what the genre sounds like. We then picked around six artists or bands that interested us and tried to find other alt. indie ones within the same record label. We ended up with Twenty One Pilots, Panic! At The Disco, Steve Lacy, and Rex Orange County. I researched Panic! At The Disco and followed five steps to try and get as much information on them as possible. First, I searched for P!ATD fandoms for information from a fan's point of view. Then, I looked for biographies of the lead singer, Brendon Urie, and some other original band members. Third, I searched for Fueled by Ramen, their record label's, website and background for information on the band's origin. After that, I found P!ATD's official website where they sell merch and promote their image the most. Lastly, I found their social media for the most personal content from them.

Steps for Researching:

1. Found background and brief history on websites and YouTube channels like Panic! At The Disco Wiki and Brendon Urie's Story.
2. Scrolled as far down as possible on their social media platforms and slowly scrolled up to look for their marketing tactics on Panic! At The Disco's Instagram in 2012 and Panic! At The Disco's YouTube
3. Searched for P!ATD's features on different shows and events along with partnerships with stores and clothing brands such as the Hot Topic Partnership and the High Hopes Dance.

Planning:

My team and I wrote out a schedule with each day we are going to work on the PowerPoint or record. We then planned out certain aspects of our music video like the plot and mise en scene to have a clearer idea going into the recording. During class, half of us work on the PowerPoint presentation having to do with our marketing and distribution strategy while the other half work on mapping out roles and jobs for the music video such as editors, actors, and camera crew. We work backwards from the due date in terms of what we need to have done by when. For example, if the project is due in 8 days and we need 1 day of review, 2-3 days of editing, and 3-4 days of filming, the earliest we should start is today and the latest we can start is in 2 days.

Representation Lesson

  In The Vampire Diaries, my favorite TV show, the two characters with the most distinct representation are Bonnie Bennett and Jeremy Gilbert. Bonnie is a black teenage girl living in a mostly-white community whose family line is all witches. She gains a lot of character development throughout the series, but a lot of construction and stereotypes stay the same throughout. The three traits I listed before contribute to how her entire character is portrayed in this show. Jeremy is a teen boy with a more alternative style than his peers who goes through a range of changes throughout the seasons. The selection and exoticizing of his character are constantly carried out, not allowing a full insight into how he is underneath other's perspectives of him.

    While Bonnie Bennett goes through some changes maturity-wise, her personality doesn't grow as much as other characters. Because she is a witch, when she is shown on screen, the music pitches lower and the lighting usually fades darker. She's always shown in somebody's shadow which a lot of the time is also a stereotype when it comes to black girls. Sadly, they are often cast as the main character's best friend and nothing more. This leads me to stereotypes displayed in her character. Her family line of witches is obviously also black since they're related, and being witches sets them as outcasts. For this reason, a lot of the family members aren't very trusted by the characters they interact with and are often lied to and called crazy or insane for claiming to be witches. The media unfortunately also views people of color as being untrustworthy, leading me to assume that the cast of African American women for the witches had intentional meaning behind it.

    Similarly, Jeremy Gilbert is a side character often put in an overly depressive light because his style puts him in the box of a sad teenage boy who only resorts to drugs. While Jeremy is shown with opportunities for love interests, he repeatedly does something to mess it up before much happens. It's almost as if the selection of traits shown of him says that he's incapable of love because he has none for himself. While most likely not true, Jeremy is only ever shown on screen in his lowest moments. The exoticizing of the fact that he was a plug is also wrongly overused because he has depressive and suicidal issues. The show, specifically in the first season, has heavy changes and deaths that stemmed from Jeremy's drug problem and would not focus on any other part of him. It's almost implying that teens like Jeremy who have an emo style and are in a dark place can only resort to drug use. 

Bonnie Bennett:

Jeremy Gilbert:

Soundscape Project

     For this Sound project, the instructions were to create a soundscape of some scenario or moment by layering 5 to 8 sound effects at a time. Additionally, at least four sounds must have been created by the student, recorded, and entered into the project. The scene also had to be realistic, take place in 1 to 2 minutes, use at most 7 words, and tell a story.

    My partner and my take on this project took many different shapes. We first started brainstorming different scenarios and sifted through around 10 until we found the pediatric clinic. Our first outline included the full checkup and visit, but we were then reminded that our scene had to be only 1 to 2 minutes and a full doctor's appointment usually takes a little under 30 minutes. We then modified it to simply the initial waiting room and sign-in of the clinic. We decided on this bit because once you're getting the checkup, the door of the examination room is closed and you can't hear much other than the doctor talking, but we had a word limit to work with. Once we finished our outline, we spent a few classes looking for the right sound effects on the provided websites and called after school once or twice to finalize the project together since all the actual editing was done on my partner's laptop. We used Adobe Premiere and she had used it numerous times before while I was completely new, so she did the editing and I learned by watching and aided in finding the right audio clips.

    I think our sound project was well laid out and layered. The audience should easily be able to identify the location and situation within the project and I liked the way we added reverb to some sounds to make them sound like they're in a separate room; we were creative in that way. One thing I wish we could've done better from the start is choose a soundscape where there was more going on, and not such a quiet environment. That made it significantly more difficult to fit and layer sounds. Despite that, we were still able to make a descriptive and clear sound project.

Click here for the link to our project.

One Word Film

     In the One Word Film project, we were instructed to make a one-to-two-minute film showing something that could realistically happen in that timeframe to portray our assigned word. The catch was that we could not have any words or dialogue in this project.
    

    My partner and I's approach was well thought out, structured, and planned. We first started with brainstorming ideas for 'bored', our word, and put them in a list. Then while thinking about the different ideas we had and how they would look, we narrowed them down to one. We then wrote down all the shots that would be needed and how they would look on a storyboard.                   

    Once we knew how we wanted our project to look shot for shot, we took pictures of the real setting precisely where we wanted to film. The following class, my partner and I took the clips we needed and started editing on iMovie from our phones since the laptops in the classroom were not running fluidly. We took each shot around 3-5 times and edited the wanted clips of video for every part.

    In my analysis of our project, I'd say we could've improved in a few areas not having to do with the editing or idea itself, but with the acting. The main character often looked annoyed instead of bored, which could be misleading while trying to guess the target word. Otherwise, though, I believe my partner and I did reasonably well on our project.

My project: OWF_Seoane.mov

Camera Shots Quiz

 For this assignment, we were instructed to tell a story with 15 pictures, using different shots and angles to convey the idea and tone of the story. 

My partner and I chose to tell the story of a little eraser that was left behind by its original owner and was later found again by a new student.

We did well in the details of emotion. For example, when the little eraser was sad and lonely, we showed it with a tear rolling down and also looking at the clock to clarify the idea of it being left behind and alone for a long time. My personal favorite implement of this was the last shot where the viewer gets a sense of satisfaction from the little eraser finally being used. Something we also did successfully was the identification of characters for we used different backpacks, clothes, and notebooks for each student. However, we most definitely could have done so more efficiently by focusing the camera on the students when they're introduced so the viewers could more easily identify the differences. Contributing, we could've also utilized the perspective high and low angles have on the subject, which we hardly used considering the eraser is so small and an iPhone camera could only go so low.