Representation

Happy Saturday everyone! 

Today I wanted to talk about the representation of under-represented groups in my project. Recently, I came up with the idea to cast somebody of the hispanic ethnicity as my main character. I did a little research on the hispanic representation in Hollywood and the results surprised me. 

Hispanics/Latinos Are Rarely Cast In A Lead Role

Just 7% of major films in 2019 featured a lead Hispanic or Latino actor. When it comes to speaking or named roles, about 6% of characters cast that year were Hispanic or Latino — not even a full percentage increase in representation when compared across the total 13 years of hit films.

Hispanic and Latino characters continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes

When they are seen on screen, Hispanics and Latinos are often typecast in roles that involve criminality, poverty or immigration, according to the USC report. More than one-third of lead Hispanic and Latino actors in 2019's biggest movies were depicted as criminals.

In my film, I will be casting my main character as a good guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time to show the world that this should not be a stereotype. My friend Santiago Fermin who will be playing the main character is Columbian as well. The character will be somebody that was born in Washington DC but ethically Columbian with the dream of becoming a government agent. 

I will be showing that he is hispanic because when he is being interrogated, he will say some words in spanish. Latinos/hispanics are not represented well in this genre and especially in the lead roles so I think that it would be a GREAT idea to incorporate this into my project :)

Here is the link to the website I used for my research:

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037504461/hispanic-latino-heritage-month-hollywood-movies-usc-annenberg

Hope you guys have had a good weekend and i'll see you next time!

Camera Equipment

Hey guys!! Hope you're having a good weekend.

I wanted to give you a bit of an update on what's going on next and how the project is coming along. Now that most of the planning is done. Now it's time for the specifics. What I will use to shoot, what will happen in each scene, etc. Next week I will be doing a storyboard of the EXACT things happening in each scene so stay tuned!

Today we are going to talk about what I will be using to film. I want the best resolution possible so I will be using a Nikon D800 for the pictures and my Iphone 13 for the video. This NIKON camera has AMAZING resolution and would be perfect for pictures and my phone has amazing resolution as well for video. My mother was taking some photography classes in college and used this camera after her classes and she has taught me how to use it so I think it would be fun to use it for at least one thing.

 I won't be using it for pictures in the final video because there are no pictures I can really put in it. What I can do is use it for taking pictures of us filming. Using this camera is always fun and I do need to document out progress somehow and i'll be using my phone to film so why not!

Here are pictures of what I will be using in case you didn't know what they looked like: 

After the pictures are taken, I will be downloading the footage from the SD card into my laptop to put it into my blog but that's for another time though. 

This project is really coming along and I am excited to see how it will turn out. That's basically it for this step in the planning and I hope to see you in the long run! 

Casting

I wanted to talk to you guys today about who I will be casting for my parts. For this project, I will need 2 main characters and about 3 backup people. Here are the people I will be casting for the parts:

Johnny Walker

The person that would be playing Johnny Walker in the film opening would be my friend Santiago Fermin. He is a big looking guy so he would play this older character well. He is fast and the clothing I have planned for his character would suit him well. In case you don't know what this person's clothing looks like, check out the mood board in one of my previous posts about the characters. The same for Pakhan. 

Pakhan

The Pakhan will be a character that is not shown in the film opening. This is a character who is mentioned in the opening but does not show up since he is a busy person. This definitely adds to the suspense of the opening because it will make people imagine what he looks like and see him as this huge powerful person who doesn't show up to all meetings since his time is precious. I know there's nobody to cast for this character since he will not be shown in the opening but I thought it would be a good idea to just introduce the character a bit so you know that he is there but not there at the same time. 

Backup People

Since the backup people have to look like "followers", I can cast my friends for these parts and it would make it easier and look great as well. I will be casting my girlfriend and my sister to be the backup people. This is good because it also ties into representation. 

That's all I needed to say for today's post and i'll see you on the next post. Have a great day!

SS - Setting & Set design

Hey guys, I have a few things left in my planning and that's what I am going to be talking about for the rest of the week. Next week, we get to the fun part lol. Let's get right into it.

Setting

There will be 2 settings. The room and the holding area. In the beginning of the story, the main character goes into his room in a panic to get all of his stuff and get out of there. That setting will be shot in my sisters room. It is supposed to be a hotel room so since my grandmothers house is very big and has many isolated rooms, I think that would be the best place to film this scene. The next scene would be the warehouse scene. In this scene, the main character is kidnapped and brought to some warehouse. Since my grandmother's garage is very big, I think it would be a good place to film the warehouse scene. Here below are pictures of where I will film so you can better picture more or less how the film opening would look like.

Set Design

Room: 

Similar to what I said in the previous posts, the room setting will be like a motel room. Typically, people with government jobs have have a lot of fast food in their rooms. That is why I will be having empty fast food items on the floor and around the room. The room will also be filled with papers with classified stamps on them hinting some type of government job. There will also be a picture frame of the main characters family on the desk. The room will be messy overall and  be chaotic. 

Warehouse / Garage:

This setting will be dark with one overhead light and pretty dirty/dusty. There will be mainly one source of light like you see in the picture behind the sliding doors. When filming, I'm thinking of putting one large overhead light above to make it look like an interrogation. There will be a singular chair in the room and some tools to get them talking if you know what I mean. My grandfather's workshop used to be right through those sliding doors so i'm sure I can find some tools to satisfy this scene. 

Well that's all for this post and after this, we'll be getting more in detail so I hope to see you there!

Ideas / Planning Pictures

 Hey guys, I just wanted to post something small today to show you my planning page. 

When I was first trying to come up with an idea, I grabbed a pen and wrote away. I started writing things that I would like in my project. Then it just clicked. I started writing and couldn't stop. I was just writing everything down. The techniques, the storyline and so much more until it turned into a paper that only I could understand. Here are the 2 papers. My ideas and my real plan. 

Catch you next time where the fun really begins!

Story Development / Character Development

Today's the day, the day I finally announce my idea for my film opening. I will also talk about the 2 main characters that will be in the opening. 

The film will open with a hotel looking room. Papers are scattered everywhere with a classified stamp on the top corner of the paper and folder. In the panning, it'll stop near a briefing paper to give the audience his name and his mission. The camera will be panning through the room until it stops at a medium shot of the door. A man suddenly barges in. He's super paranoid and looks like he is trying to escape somebody. He is wearing a heavy coat to infer that it is somewhere cold. He packing up his things as fast as he can. He grabs all the papers and shoves them into his bag. He starts packing his things on the night stand when he stops to stare at a picture of him and his son. He takes a second staring to infer that he did what he did for him. All these papers with the classified stamp infer a government job. As soon as he's about to finish packing his stuff, he suddenly gets hit on the back of the head and when he hits the ground, the screen cuts to black. It opens with a POV shot of him blinking and 2 people in front of him. He seems to be in a warehouse or a garage of some kind. There are 2 women standing there. He wants to know where he is and wants to speak to the Pakhan. The 2 women say that he couldn't make it and they get to have the fun of getting information out of him. He resists and they handle it the hard way. Johnny walker screams and the scene ends there. 

Johnny Walker

This is my main character. He is a government spy who is originally from Washington, D.C and has always wanted to be a government spy. He is a medium height man who is in way over his head. He has a messy room but is overall an organized man. He has a dark color palette with whites and blacks to keep hidden when he's undercover. 

 Pakhan

This man is a bit tricky. Nobody knows his name but only what he goes by. They call him Pakhan which means boss or somebody at the top. He is the head of a mafia and that is about all we know about his position. He has an expensive taste as well. Cars, watches, expensive suits, and so much more. He doesn't drive his own car. He has drivers and security guards going everywhere he goes. There is not much on his mood board below because not much is known of the guy. He is mysterious and leaves not trace when he is done. He doesn't get shown in the film opening but is talked about in a way that solidifies the power since he had other things to deal with and couldn't make it. 

I am so excited to develop this story and film it and i'll see you guys next time!

Movie Research Results

 Hey guys, I have watched the film openings for 3 of the films. I thought they were actually really really good. Here are my research results:

Gladiator (2000)

The film opens with a quiet scene with serene music accompanying it. It shows a closeup of a bird creating a sense of calmness in nature. It almost seems peaceful, until it flies away insinuating that something is about to happen. It then walks through a battlefield with many soldiers. The main character is wearing flashier clothing which insinuates that he is a leader of some kind. He tries to give us an idea of the vast scale of their empire, telling us, “one quarter of the world’s population lived and died under the Caesars.” This is a very important statement as the emphasis on “and died” prepares us for the coming battle scene they secretly insinuated throughout the whole opening. These small little details hinted here and there helped create the story and helped us understand the plot.

https://www.markedbyteachers.com/gcse/media-studies/analysis-of-the-opening-scenes-of-the-film-gladiator.html

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Here is the link where I got my information for "Saving Private Ryan": 

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/film-studies/realism-in-saving-private-ryan-opening-scene-film-studies-essay.php

The most important techniques used in the video are the following:

Camera Shots

- Close ups

- Medium Shots

- Long Shots

- Establishing Shots

- High angle shots

- Wide angle shots

Camera Techniques

- Hand held camera shots

- underwater shots to add emphasis to the chaos

- Shaky footage to intensify the chaos

Sound

- Loud Sounds to insinuate explosions

- intense music 

- faint ringing to make if feel like you are there because when you hear something really loud like      an explosion, your ears ring. 

Mis-en-scene

- Old war items like the guns and land blockades to stop boats from getting on land. This insinuates    WWII time period.

- The clothing they are using as well insinuates that old war time period (most likely WWII)

Jason Bourne (2016)

The most important techniques used in the video are the following:

Camera Shots 

- Close ups

- Medium Shots

- Long Shots

- Establishing Shots

- High angle shots

- Wide angle shots

- Extreme close ups (to insinuate the importance of it) 

Camera Techniques

- Shaky footage to add the dramatic effect on it 

- Hand held shots 

- underwater footage to show the deepness of the situation

Sound

- Loud thunderstorm sounds to insinuate the danger of the situation and the confusion the fisherman. 

- emphasized the metal clanking when pulling out the bullet almost to give a relaxed feeling. 

- Intense music 

- When the bullet was taken out, the music stopped. This also gives the calming effect after it is removed. 

Mise-en-scene

- The. set was very fisherman like. Things laying around, tools and food in the background, etc. 

- They are also wearing the typical fisherman outfits for when it storms. 

These small little details hinted throughout each opening helped create the story and helped us understand the plot. These are things that I am thinking of putting in my opening to add these specific effects on the audience that I need.

Well, that's it for today and tomorrow we will talk about my idea for my opening, so stay tuned!

Movie Research / Ideas

Back for more? 

Well today we are gonna talk about some research we will be doing for some ideas for our project. I have created a list of movies of the same genre with really good film openings. Below is the list of movies:

- Gladiator (2000)

- The Dark Knight (2008)

- Saving Private Ryan (1998)

- Jason Bourne (2016) 

- Mission Impossible (1996)

- Jack Reacher (2012)

I plan on watching at least 3. I want to do some research on this to get inspiration and ideas to do in my opening. I already have some ideas but I am not sure if I should do them yet but you'll hear them soon 👀. I want to watch a few openings before deciding for sure my ideas. Since the openings are semi-short, I am planning on watching a few between now and my next post. My next post will be a detailed description on my research results. I wanted to include a bit of information about my target audience as well. If you didn't know already from my last post, my genre is action/thriller and my target audience is mainly young male adults ages 18-25. This is because people around this age bracket are drawn to the realness and graphic action around the intense storyline. This makes this genre perfect for our age group and is personally one of my favorites. 

Here is the website I used for my research: 

https://whatnerd.com/most-thrilling-action-movie-opening-scenes/

Well, that's it for today and i'll catch you on the flip side!

Brainstorming: Genre

 

Hello again, 

ever since I posted the last blog, i've been thinking about the angles I could take with this project. The storyline, the genres, etc. But after careful consideration, I think I have figured out my genre. My favorite genre is action/thrillers so I think going down that route would be smart since I know about it more and it interests me. 

Some of my favorite action thrillers are: 

- Bourne (the whole movie series)

- Jack Ryan (TV show)

- Reacher (TV show)https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-write-a-thriller/

On the website listed below, I found 7 easy steps when creating a thriller.

Step 1: Flesh out you character and their motivations

Step 2: Start with action - The opening scene should start with action. It is important in the creating/building of the plot

Step 3: Show what's at stake - High stakes are important characteristics in thrillers. 

Step 4: Make it difficult for your protagonist - Your audience needs to care for your protagonist and their fate, and a good way to do this is by placing them in situations where it’s impossible to tell if they’ll make it or not.

Step 5: Bring on the twists - Thrillers are mainly propelled by plot events

Step 6: Build up to the climax - Make sure you take time to get to the point and make it shine.

Step 7: Give the story a satisfying ending - Keep up with the story you've been telling and make sure the ending fits well. 

https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-write-a-thriller/

Looking forward to bringing you along my journey. 

Till next time!

And Takeoff !!

 Hello there and welcome to the beginning of our journey.

For those of you who haven't read my other posts, I am a student in AICE media studies. If you don't know what the class offers, it is a class that focuses on how the power of media influences the world. 

We have just begun a huge project that will take up the remainder of the year and I am very excited to share and complete this project. We are creating a 2 minute film opening that establishes the tone, illustrates the genre, develops purpose, and most importantly engages the audience. You can't make a piece that people wont want to watch!

You may be wondering what the ideas are for our genre, storyline, and characters. But you guys are gonna have to stay tuned for these next few weeks if you wanna find out!

We will start off with planning and production the first couple weeks. This includes things like the genre, characters, plot aspects, technical elements, outlines, layout drawings, storyboards, and even shooting schedules. The next couple weeks after that would entail the production process and reflection portion of the project. If we keep on schedule, we can finish this project in no time and still have time to spare. 

We have about 8 weeks to complete this project. Like i said, it will be chalk full of research, planning, production, post-production, and finally reflection. This whole journey will documented and be very detailed so be sure to check out the blog every week and I am so excited to share my journey with you guys along the way!

RedSkyz Process

Hey guys!

I wanted to to write a little update on how the project from my last post went and our whole process. Although this project has been pretty demanding and specific, it has also been one of my favorites. So, here is my process in the creation of RedSkyz. 

Step 1: Planning

We first started with the picking of our genre. One member from our group went and picked from a number and was given the genre. The first thing we did was brainstorm. As I said in the last posting, we started with just writing all the ideas down that came to our head. I thought this was a good idea because we were able to see how everyone wanted to go with this project and be able to include parts of each persons idea.

We then started thinking about band names. This was a very important part of the process because it dictates how your band looks to the public and the message you are trying to send. We searched up famous band names for inspiration and to see if there is any pattern they all follow. A lot of bands include a color in their name. So we started with that. We then started to think of the message we wanted to send before we could choose the second part of the name. We though of the image of soaring high and chasing your dreams. We then knew we had to make skyz the last part of the name and added a Z at the end of it to be different than the rest. We started wondering how were were going to market and distribute everything from our artist. After we decided what we were going to do, we started with the storyboard. It helps map out everything and plan our every more making filming easier. After all of the basics, we went into specifics. How the video would be, where we would film, when we would film, etc. Here is a picture of our storyboard:

Step 2: Filming

When we got to the location of where we would be filming, we started visualizing everything. As we went, we changed a couple things to things that we thought would better suit our video like a low angle, an over the shoulder, a tracking shot, etc. The filming was very fun and we were able to get a lot of good shots and footage. We had a very great idea as we were filming. Our character was getting shot and we decided to video the shadow of the man shooting and it made it looks 10x more realistic. It was one of our better ideas but overall I think that the filming was a success. 

Step 3: Post-Filming/Slideshow

After we had filmed, we split the work throughout the group. One member got editing, one member got the research, one member got the brainstorming, and I got the website for the marketing and distribution part of the project. The website was very fun to make but very time consuming. I had to create a theme for it and insert information about the band. I also included a merchandise site to market our brand. I created many different styles of merchandise and many different items like t-shirts, hoodies, hats, bottles, CD's, vinyls, pins, and so much more. I also created a poster for the viewers to know where and when our next concerts would be. When we saw our final outcome of the video, we were shocked. The video came out very well and we all loved it and couldn't wait to show it to the class. We then started doubling down on the slideshow part of the presentation giving that it was the only thing left to do. We each divided our slides and chose to present the ones we had done. The group members that got the hard work got the smallest amount of slides to do and present so it is more fair for the rest of the group members. Here is an example of the merchandise I created for the website:

Here is the logo I created as well. 

Step 4: Presentation Day

At last, the presentation day. We were excited and nervous to present but we were fine because we had been prepared. We decided to volunteer so that we could show the class ours faster and so that we could get it over with. The presentation went smoothly but there were some technical difficulties during the transition in the slides and in the playing of our video. Luckily, we had a backup uploaded on youtube. I felt that it went very well and everybody seemed to like it and be intrigued, We decided to make our slides interesting and more alive to keep the audience interested. That is a very important part of presenting. Below I will include a few clips from our slideshow. 

Step 5: Reflection

This as stated in the beginning, this project has been one of my favorites. It was specific but I learned a lot from this experience. I learned about the difficulty and complication when becoming a new artist. I also learned the importance of the marketing and distribution world. Next time, I will have an extra backup in case of technical difficulties that could happen at any moment. I think that when developing my portfolio project, I will look back at this project and use the techniques I used in this project on the other one to enhance my understanding and create a great project. This project was super fun and a great experience!

Catch you guys next time!