Today we made a big jump, as we talked to Mrs. Stoklosa on ways that we could improve our film opening. We were sort of stuck in a pickle thinking it was going to see cliche or cheesy due to the memory sequence, but after discussing we decided to include certain memories which include different emotions: happy, sad, nervous, frustration, etc. Additionally, we are including a mother to emphasize the loneliness of the family.
Our main story
The opening begins with the memory sequence about the entire family. We will start off with a black screen, and the diegetic sound of laughter. Following that the first memory scene will start. This will include our credits and our title ( we may title our story Affliction). Then our next scene will be the loneliness, where the mother will first be shown alone in her bed and a few sequences of the mother and daughter in silence.
Music rights!
Today I reached our towards UMG to see if I could use Sparks by Coldplay as our main song during the memory sequence. Hopefully, they respond to my license request and we can use that beautiful song!
Finding our actors
I am happy to state that we finally found our actors! We were hoping to include the application portion but we realized it would most likely take a lot of time and we must start filming. Therefore, Jessica and her parents have volunteered to be our actors.
We felt that it was very important to include actors who could really capture the emotional aspect of our film opening since it does include an emotional sequence of family memories and the young girl crying about her past. This will allow us to engage the audience whenever they are viewing the opening, where they can feel empathy for the character.
Finding our actors
We are using different methods to try and find our lead actress, such as creating a "tryout" form where we can ask people through our social media if they would like to participate and share their experience. Recently, I've gotten a few people who have reached out and want to participate!
During our group discussion, we decided we wanted to keep the storytelling of losing a loved one, but incorporating past memories. We believed that the original story-line might cause people to become bored since it was about the main character getting ready throughout her day and finding out about the loss of her parent. We wanted to create something with more emotion and that can grab our audience to become intrigued. Our main message of the story now is how a young teenager will discover grief and how to move on with her life.
First, we want the main character to first be looking at photos from the past, and the time and setting changes to that certain photograph. Then as the memories are shown, we will incorporate a golden (yellow/orange) color palette to show a warm feeling of happiness. Suddenly, it'll change to a blue/dark coloring to distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality.
Additionally, we decided to incorporate a mood board, therefore, we can branch out with certain tones that we want or ideas that we can add on.
While planning out our ideas, we decided that creating a rough draft storyboard would really help our imagination on certain techniques and shots that we could possibly use in our final project.
The scenario that we planned out is from Jennifer's point of view. She first wakes up in the morning and has a completely normal day, but throughout she has a weird, lonely feeling. We included a plant as symbolism in our story, where it represents her father's passing. Jennifer then comes home sees the plant in a dying state and receives a phone call from her mother about what has occurred. This is just our first rough draft, we plan to include more detail and various shots but this is our beginning ideas.
During our time in class, we decided to plan our entire schedule from day one to our final day (February-March). As you can see in the first two weeks, we are using our time dedicated to planning out our ideas and such as well as discussing important elements. Additionally, in March we will begin to film and edit.
During the research process for our film opening, we have decided we wanted to base our film on something we can relate to Coming-of-age Drama movies. While discussing in class, we quickly realized we wanted to create something meaningful about our teenage struggles/ life processes. Jennifer mentioned to us that her father passed away a few years ago and that she wanted to show her struggle of going through it. We developed a real-life depiction of what Jennifer felt when it first happened. This is a very important story to Jennifer and our group, and we want to show exactly what someone might be going through behind closed doors.
The Edge of Seventeen
We felt like this most resonated with our story, where Nadine's father passes away and she lives with that struggle of living with it. It is also a coming-of-age story about a teenager growing up.
The struggle of losing a parent
“When a parent dies when you are young, it’s like you are left to free-fall without a parachute while everyone around you is getting helicoptered-parented well into their 30s.”
- Huffington Post.
We want to create something meaningful that would at the same time help anyone who can relate to the feeling, where they will know- they are not alone. Additionally, according to an article on Vice, "An estimated 1.5 million US children lose one or both parents by the age of 15, comprising about five percent of the population. In younger children, grief often manifests in anxiety. Because children rely on their parents to meet their basic needs, kids who have lost a parent may ask who will pick them up from school or make dinner. They sometimes worry about their surviving parent dying, too."
Film openings are the key to engaging audiences on whether they will enjoy your movie or not. In Drama, there are various different film openings that really inspire and engage me as an audience member. There are many things in which film openings could do: introduce the main character, set the tone for the movie, and introduce the setting.
Lady Bird (2017)
This film opening is great for many reasons!! It first introduces our two main characters Christine and her mother in which both of their personalities are really shown. Christine talks about her wishes for the future, moving to the east coast where she prefers to be. Meanwhile her mother tells her she can’t leave because they can’t afford it. They fight for a bit, which shows the strain in their relationship. Additionally, the music at the beginning of the opening was soft and quite, but as they started to argue it increased in pitch and became louder. Lady Bird is a great example of setting characters, tone and the setting.
Moonlight (2016)
This film opening is a great one for showing the setting of the movie. It shows the low economic status of the characters and how they will possibly live through that struggle. Additionally, it shows one of the main characters which will be essentially later throughout the movie. (P.S this movie is great if you haven’t seen it go watch it! it’s one of my favorites.)
Once upon a time in Hollywood (2019)
This film opening is great at showing the two main characters and who they are. We’re first shown Rick Dalton who is seen to be a movie star, where he is being interviewed and speaking as well with his stunt double Cliff Booth. This shows us the tone of old Hollywood where we will get to know these characters more in depth. Additionally, the use of black and white is a great way to differentiate when they are on-screen and off-screen.
Marriage story (2019)
Now this film opening is a real tear jerker... but it really shows exactly how to introduce a character and show their personality. Here we are shown Nicole, where Charlie is heard talking about his favorite things about her. It really captures how much the two characters really love each other but still have a strenuous relationship. This film opening is just beautiful and I can’t describe how much I love it.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
This opening is different from the rest, this one includes credits at the beginning and really shows who the character is without any dialogue. We are introduced to Freddy Mercury whose personality is mainly shown through mise-en-scene. We see his elaborate outfit choices and well as his own home, which show his ornate style. At the same time, we can hear “Somebody to Love” by Queen which gives us a little preview to what’s about to come.
Drama is one of my favorite genres and will be my portfolio project genre! There are various types of dramas that make it a broad genre, aka why it is my favorite! Although this is true, there are certain conventions that Dramas usually follow, for example having a relatable character and having the character go through ups and downs. One of my favorite movies, Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) is a drama that constantly uses this technique. Such as showing the main character Christine go through a teenage realistic part of her life, as well as showing economic issues that the character and her mother face. This shows relatability to most audience members, who consist of young-old viewers, mainly middle-class and female. Additionally, Drama's use a lot of coloring techniques that represent/symbolize something. Typically a color palette of cool hues such as blues, purples and neutral colors such as brown or beige, are used to represent the main character. I would really love to use drama as my project genre because it is a beautiful category that includes various conventions and can be used for many ideas.
Our band New York Revival was a creation of our genre Alternative Rock which we took inspiration from in many ways. This genre was found to embody from the '90s where it became popularized, thus our band's aesthetic. Alt. Rock usually consisted of ages 15-24 years old with a middle-class socioeconomic status, as well as both male and female and people who typically have a fun and rebellious side to their personality. During our research, we found many Alternative Rock artists who use simple and interesting marketing and distribution tactics. For example, The Neighbourhood and Foster the people both use engaging methods towards their fans, such as including a Twitter hashtag (#TheNeueTimes) where they can interact with audiences and having an Art contest on, popular distribution streaming service, Spotify where fans could draw album covers that the artist may use in the future. In addition, these artists used social media to attract new audiences. Some of which included Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. On Instagram, The Neighbourhood would "go dark" which is a method of deleting all posts whenever a new song or album is on the way, this creates a mystery to what happened to the band which can attract more people to your page. As well as social media, In Alternative Rock, most artists have a website in which they can have a clear path towards reaching audiences, but also a way to shape stories, share a merch line and view their music.
How did we develop our brand? - To do this we mainly tried to use social media as our number one way to increase our audience. For example, we used Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok and made sure that audiences could access these through a mobile device. On Twitter, we found that 44% of our target audience resided on the app and we decided to create a hashtag #NYREVIVAL where fans could share their thoughts on our song and we could engage back to them creating a closer bond. On Instagram, we decided to use the "Go Dark" tactic to make us seem mysterious to our rebellious target audience, additionally, we wanted to create an Instagram filter, which has been extremely popular in 2020, that says "Which Ny Revival Band Member Are You?". On TikTok, we felt that we could place our Alternative Rock song on there due to another similar genre artist MGMT gaining over a million streams with their song. On there we will have exclusive content and dances that will follow our band's aesthetic. Additionally, we wanted to have“pop-up” performances in local places such as coffee shops (El toro cafe, Ella Cafe) and small venues (The venue Fort Lauderdale, Revolution live) gaining attraction to new people.
Marketing Products
- Our marketing products were created to fit our target audience. For example, our merch line that is environmentally friendly with biodegradable phone cases/ reusable clothing. This will appeal to our 15-21-year-old target audience who mainly care about the future of our planet. Our merch also includes a 90's aesthetic which is exactly what is brand is going for. - We also created an app where fans can view our music video hours before it is released to the public, which can create more people to download our app. Additionally, for every stream on our app, we will donate to Onetree.org where a tree is planted in Australia for every dollar donated. ( We hope to collaborate with them.)
What did I learn?
- This project really allowed myself to understand the world of music production and how much it really takes. During the making of the music video, I took the skills that we had been learning during the year to implement them into our video. For example, the different kinds of shots we wanted to include, using a storyboard to really plan out and have an idea set out for filming, and seeing how the final product will help set up our band's brand. When we were researching marketing skills for our music genre, I learned a lot about how artists put out their music and how target audiences are the most important thing for a marketing campaign. We also learned how huge social media is in marketing strategies, where it can reach new people and attract new listeners.
