Film Opening - Blog #4 - Planning

Now is the time to initiate scheduling as the back bone of our project in the making. Today I'll discuss three core ideas to set up everything: set design and the score for the opening segment.

Set Design
Creating the scene behind the opening of the film includes extensive lighting set up around a table in a garage stuffed with vintage relics. Alyssa Wheelock has offered her home as the main establishment for the shooting days. 

Key Concepts:

• Musky lighting and soft details around caking everything in the garage.
• Rusty tools, equipment, and other machinery.
• Stuffed boxes of novelties, supplies, screws, little parts.
• Daunting warm lights to bake the room's ambient light.
• Wooden or marble backgrounds to create a cabin-like look.
• Comfortable couches and chairs
• Pillows, misplaced laundry around the area.
• Dirty floors and dusty things.
• Basic electronics like a television or radio operating quietly in the background.
• Refrigerator full of beers and other treats, including a microwave for a quick snack. 

The goal of these ideas is to create an essence of a man cave, private and exclusive to a group of elder friends in a time of need. The room no one speaks of but is welcome to visit for the refreshments and entertainment with other social pals. Its a paradise for friends - a comfortable place to crash and for them to be themselves, the true definition of a home. Who doesn't love to crack open a cold one with the boys and enjoy a nice Friday night with buddies?

We wish to create a scene that can offer a place of relaxation and challenge that with the dialogue between the characters as tensions are introduced for the main character, bringing him sickening troubles for his future.

Score

A fantastic source we found for quality musical productions was a website named "Artlist.io"

We have purchased a subscription to access the rights for their entire library of content, giving us the ability to use it without legal troubles regardless if its commercial project or not. We are granted the expansive ability to use their music in any fashion we choose. Most of these examples for concepts incorporate a blues style of jazz music. 

Notable Songs Pitched:

• "Ellis St" by Duffmusiq - Likeable classic ambient jazz; Includes light sax and drums with a cinematic "Soul & Rnb" charm in the style.
•  "Traumatraum" by Denhollander - Slow, smooth, deep saxophone notes with deep bass. A eerie romantic theme of dramatic darkness.
• "For You" by Olivier Olsen - A fusion of both "Ellis St" and "Traumatraum", but losing the drums for a quiet snare, synth, and classic piano.
• "Circle" by Columbia Nights - Foreign drum sequence with romanticized strings, a beautiful melody with a peaceful tone. Great listen with natural songs bringing reminiscence to a casual lounge. Playful and charming in harmony.  
• "Dallaltra Parte Del Muro" by Livio Bartolo -  Acoustic guitar and harmonizing piano come together in a loving urban duo. The nature of the song is fashionable and dreamy.

I hope you have a beautiful day fellow reader, and I wish for you to enjoy the music as much as I have. Cheers!

Film Opening - Blog #3 - Concept Work

       This whole week has been a shower of rigorous brainstorming and the blossoming of new ideas to smash together into something marvelous! We awed at the drive of characters' changes throughout a canvas of experiences and challenges in life. The incredible stories of characters defeating Nazis, overcoming disease, learning lessons to be a better human, proves that the idea of an adventurous drama styled film has so much potential from the simplest of sets. There is no need to introduce spastic sci-fi sets for a complex saga of a universe. The adventure-drama is a stunning moment for a complete and wholesome story that many can connect within a moving experience. The best films of all time contribute an astounding lesson to be learned and understood from the story, and that is what I truly credit in what makes film-making so extraordinary; Its ability to touch at someone's soul or heart through the artistic application of colors and sound. The potential for masterpieces is unlimited, as they can make us saturated with vile hatred, crush ourselves in sorrow, or drive us to a radical burst of proud energy and excitement in a thrill.

       Our origin concept develops the exposition premise of a young adult lad whose father had died in a shoot out dispute. The timeline is the 1990s, and his father had been a part of a local street gang of more finished men who each have their hustle in the neighborhood. Now an orphane, a lonesome young man, the main character is adopted legally and socially into the pack of folks, taken under the wings of some special and unique individuals.

    

        It begins with a casual Friday night gathering, one withered garage stuffed with the stench of salsa, cigarettes, and classical hair products. The musky aroma of age and leather sets its place amongst the walls. The main character is placed at one end around a poker table, handling cards and their conversation follows for what to do as a father-less man. A new chapter in his book of Life emerges as his goal now is to see who slaughtered his father, and the hunt goes far deeper into who he understands himself as since birth. 

Photo credits:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070735/

"The Sting (1973)"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165598/

"That '70s Show (1998-2006)"

Film Opening - Blog #2 - Genre Research

Here are three more prime examples of adventure/drama films: Hugo, Interstellar and Apollo 13.

1) Hugo (2011)
(Photo: "Hugo Review" by Rogerebert.com)

When "Hugo" was released in 2011, it was denounced as one of the most creatively done films with unseen implementations of special effects and camera work cinema. Its inventive application of CGI environments and cinematography led to a gorgeous film with a heartwarming story at its core, one with an orphan boy searching for the answers to his origin. This movie brought unheard-of storytelling techniques to a 3-D family film and adventure, taking its massive budget and making it count to something beautiful.

Hugo lived on his own in the train-stations of Paris during the 1930s. His whole knack was fixing clocks, tinkering with robotics, and messing with novelties left to him by his deceased father and uncle. Using his knowledge and access to hundreds of gizmos, he takes care of the station's clockwork and timepieces. Later on, he discovers a "mechanical man", an automaton, which holds a secret from his past unless he can get his hands on a special key. After uniting with the god-daughter of George Melies, they team up to search for the answers to why there is a connection between them and the automaton. It holds the ultimate collection of secrets from his past, and they go on an adventure together with twists of mysteries to solve.

2) Interstellar (2014)
(Photo: "Interstellar Style Black Hole Visualization (4K Ultra High Definition)" by somewhereishere)
This marked the time of a new age in computer rendering technology, as this film was marveled for its advanced mathematical engines to spawn the scenes that were present in "Interstellar" The new graphics designers also noted important data that made scientists awe at the potential for such physics mechanics. These tools were used to visualize black holes, which were vital to the story-line for one of Christopher Nolan's most notable works yet.

Nolan went to great deals of efforts to immerse his audience in such a charming level of detail into the shot composition and plot. The drama between a father and his family, mainly his daughter, adds a heart-wrenching level of stress to the journey back home, decades later after his life is manipulated by the powers of black holes. The human race is dying and only has so many days left on a withering Earth, forced to run a secret program in search of a wormhole as a potential escape to save them from extinction. Only Cooper will have to sacrifice a lifetime with his family to find a solution and complete the journey, as he eventually comes home only a few months later in his time to discover his once-young daughter on her death bed. Leaving behind his family leads to an epic adventure to make every second count on his expedition, as minutes can mean months back home.


3) Apollo 13 (1995)
(Photo: "Loren Dean and Ed Harris in Apollo 13 (1995)" by Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment)
Ron Howard's film "Apollo" highlighted the aborted mission of Apollo 13 once disaster strangely struck their space probe, yet the longer it took them to solve the sooner their doom was inevitable. The film follows the teamwork between the crew on-board and back home in Houston as they search for answers to get their men back home safe and sound.

They learn that the goal now is to make the impossible possible; To make the mission a relief and not a tragedy for America with the loss of 3 astronauts. The fight against the clock menacingly ticks as they join together to stop the internal damages to their spacecraft, with their lives in extreme crisis. They were stranded 205,000 miles from their beloved Earth home and the strength of their thinking and instincts brought them back in one piece but still on death's door for the route. It has proven to be one of the most nerve-racking and nail-biting experiences in cinema torturing three vigilant men, all because of one exploded oxygen tank dangling in space with them.

Now with six remarkable films on display, I am excited for the trips anticipated for the future of cinema. Goodnight folks!

Film Opening - Blog #1 - Genre Research

Adventure/Drama films have demonstrated themes that have proven to be some of the most innovative and entertaining content in the last fifty years of cinema. Hysterically written characters, turbulent journeys, and epic lessons are the fundamental concepts behind some of the most creative stories in media. Down to the raw details, we see the conflict between characters who have a soul or mission of their dearest importance, and it offers a thriller full of mystery and opportunity. Adventure/Dramas can arc into different categories of styles, covering a broad spectrum of themes or engaging enjoyed qualities (or trends) specific to a targeted demographic. Today I'll discuss three prime examples, each touching at characteristics unique to each other film given: The Dark Knight, The Lion King, and Jurassic Park. 

1) The Dark Knight (2008)

(Photo: "The Dark Knight", Warner Bros. Pictures)

This is Christopher Nolan's second film of his Batman-themed trilogy, including "Batman Begins" (2005) as the first and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012) as the finale. 

 

Bruce Wayne, after escaping the wrath of Ra's al Ghul, learns of the new villain Joker terrorizing Gotham into torture and raw fear. The film follows a triangle relationship of events between Bruce, Harvey Dent (soon to be known as Two-Face), and Joker as their choices unfold into a crime style adventure drama. Each primary character in the film such as the ones mentioned in addition to Gordon, Alfred, Rachel, and Lucius Fox follow a major change in their life from the clash of terror. The line between the good and bad guys blurs and painfully twists as the drama blossoms, with Gotham as the victim to a new era of hell. A classic idea of cops and robbers to a whole new depth about the flaw in humans at its most effective manipulation in nature.

2) The Lion King (1994)

(Photo: "The Lion King", Disney Enterprises, Inc)

This masterpiece of animated artwork marks a question, "Are there any good children's animated films?" at rest. It was the symptom of Disney's renaissance era, starting with "The Little Mermaid" (1989) It brought a new charm to the magic behind what could be expressed through the writing of talented storytellers and what made film special through the composition of animation. 

"The Lion King" continued this legacy only 5 years later when it told the story of a young lion tricked by his uncle King on who was responsible for his father's fallout, soon to learn of his true history and past as an adult on a search for answers after his exile. 

3) Jurassic Park (1993)

(Photo: "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom", Universal Studios)

A dazzling disastrous mixture of mad science and cooperate greed bring us the mutation of ideas into one monstrous chaos of an adventure as some kids fight through the jungles on the search to destroy Jurassic Parks cloned beasts.

This film is the pinnacle of practical effects at its finest craftsmanship and the optimized balance of techniques to bring the audience through an understandable expedition in a situation no man has seen before. It brought a contemporary look at the theme of dinosaurs tied with the theatrics of paradoxical mishaps between characters who search for answers. The charm in realistic effects and relatable characters brought the audience through an amazing adventure that looked beautiful on the 90s big screens.

Tomorrow I continue my search for what makes adventure dramas the masterpieces they are - Analysis of the plot synopsis's I'll see are at the utmost value in my research. Monday afternoon will bring three more tributes to the table.

Music Blog Post - "Jay Moon" - Maroon 5 Parody

January 2020 was the big month where we finally developed our own parody based on pop band Maroon 5's song "She Will Be Loved" and produced our own marketing campaign. This included in depth research into the category of pop culture and other influential artists sharing the same genre.

Our genre in particular was modern electronic pop music.

Popular trends in this style (summary) include a teenage target audience, distribution across easy access platforms like Youtube, Spotify, and Instagram. There is a major implementation of interaction with the audience in live streams or thread communities. Most artists follow a marketing plan of a certain color theme throughout their products. Some notary examples include,

Billie Ellish

• Black and Green
• Collaborations with other artists - Khalid and Justin Bieber
• Partnership with Spotify allowed an interactive area for 3 days in LA for fans to go into 14 rooms for  fans to understand her “mind” (her room, puppies...)
• 24.8 million subscribers. 

Zedd

• Blue and Gray
• Electronic style music.
• Constant tours in home city Las Vegas - OMNIA Nightclub since 2017
• “Clarity” Album debut in 2012 was a major boost in success for mainstream music and reached #8 on the HOT 100
• 5.6 million subscribers.

The main focus behind developing the sense of character and personal connection back to the fictional artist Jay Moon included,

• Color themes to have a visual appeal.
• Representation of common hardships for the teenage demographic in American society.
• Easily enjoyable and accessible content.
• Methods to connect across Internet mediums like Instagram and Snapchat.
• Red, Blue, and Purple all represented prime ideas all teenagers experience, such as heartbreak and newfound freedom.
• Attractive model
• Popular clothing and designer choices
• Major connection to emotional experiences.

The music video implemented the majority of these core principles into one fun-backed and well-produced short film music video. Producing the final vision of what the video ended up being taught my crew and the difficulties of birthing a concept into an approachable and realistic goal. Balancing time, finances, and resources were the ultimate tug of war against our creative concepts for an influential video. Setting up the costumes, colored powder, film sets, lighting, camera equipment, framing, transportation, and editing all proved to be the utmost critical priority. Delivering the export to Youtube was the biggest celebration for a month's worth of passion and care for a work of true cinematic art. I am fortunate to have mastered my camera technology and was able to utilize my skill sets with Blackmagic Studios equipment to have the foundations in creating quality media. My previous experience with video production in cinema and television brought me to a better fundamental understanding of my boundaries in what I was capable of achieving and how far I could challenge myself. 

Marketing included a handful of campaign products created for the promotional night of our video, including CDs and clothes.

Representation Analysis

Representation is an important aspect of variable ways we understand different demographics and people in media. Today I'm reviewing the status of three advertisements: Tide, Axe Body Spray and H&M "Close the Loop."

Demonstration One: Tide Ad

One of the most common attributes of ads is its generalized representation of its market group. The opening shots introduce a safe, comfortably luxurious home with a dressed and healthy mother with a young daughter. The mother speaks about their abundance in clothes and the option for choice, enhancing the idea of a wealthy sum of spending available. Their house: Bright, spacious, clean, and wholesome. Far from reality about the average American household. The characters also reflect these unfair stereotypes, as they are both white individuals who also generalize the demographic of Americans.

Demonstration Two: Axe Body Spray Commercial

For wild cave-people, we are immediately introduced to the ultimate difficult goal for most women to achieve: the tan, lean, glowing hair model that the clothing and makeup industry strive for them to become through their products. This perfected woman sprints through the forest with luscious hair and a fabulous body dressed (for lack of a better term) in an attractive bikini. The intent for the audience to be targeted to, males mostly, are found appealing to such orientations in media. Soon following is a stampede of countless females, all different flavors of the same advertisement in the feminine body. The revealing clothing takes away their humanity providing a feral theme but also removes the realism of what's on screen. The stampede of desperate women with juggling bodily parts. If the target audience and appeal was not already clear, the video ends with an eccentric man using AXE spray to attract this hoard to him like a chick magnet. Incredibly demeaning and one-sided sexist representation. 

Demonstration Three: H&M "Close the Loop"

The most influential commercial I have seen regarding the cultural representation out of these three. The college of shots opens up an iconic welcoming to new styles and social taboos, conveying that whatever one choices are meant to express oneself. This is a fantastic message that shares encouragement for anyone to wear whatever they like whichever way. The blossoming expression and expansion of colors given by each individual in the video representing a minority between race, gender, culture, religion, and much more. The diversity in all these categories shines a new light-reflecting our modern era free (or close to free) of bigotry and discrimination in society. Audiences can take these new ideas and find it enlightening for all sorts of people.

Horror Films (Genre Research Activity)

A fear, whether it be ingrained in our conscious or a spine-chilling villain eating away at your humanity, its storytelling capabilities have lead it to evolve to a creative yet formulated flavor in cinema since the invention of film cameras. 

Conventions - Content

Horror films are designed to take the audience on experience beyond reality, breaking our expectations and keeping people on the edge of mental disaster. History has shown that the antagonist of such films has ranged from vampires, demons, devils, parasites, aliens, zombies, monsters, supernatural creatures, maniacs and more. We follow a singular or group of characters representing the expectations and reactions to the nightmare-fueled roller coaster of a story. Modern films have shifted to embedded the monster in the characters themselves, often bringing spontaneous plot-twists and deeper meanings to the genre as a new trend. The antagonists can introduce the demise of our person through torture, trickery, and forces against all odds on the victim. The mental drive of a well-told story is shown as effective when we leave the theater eyeing behind our backs. Horror films are the key to those campground stories becoming all too real in our minds. We can derive the diversity of common stories from folklore about ghosts, myths, Biblical writings, fables, and novels. It is frequently demonstrated that feature-length films boldly represent known ideas, and fresh ideas brought onto to the scene are refreshing. Jump-scares and too frequently used trends are also everywhere. The core element to a horror flick is embedding the atmosphere around us, crushing us into a corner of unrelenting terror.

Conventions - Production Techniques

One of the most important assets in creating the composite of a horror story is the choice of cinematography and color palette. Casting images in a dark scene, commonly underexposing shots, can set an ominous mood for a film. Lighting is kept minimal to let darkness fill parts of the composition, setting an uneasy lack of knowing to the audience. The pacing in editing, especially for more psychological stories, along with simple coats of aggressive or cold color themes strikes a chord in us mentally. Color contributes to the way we should react to a scenery or influence on our main protagonist. The set can provide an interesting environment for the characters, such as designs with contrasting lights, haze, and dynamic angles for composition. These can create an unsettling balance to the drive; Dutch tilt is a popular tool to deliver this effect. The deafening silence of a scene can keep the audience on edge waiting, or have their adrenaline pumped to watch intently.

Institutional Conventions

Marketing a horror film follows a typical and admittedly overused template. Trailers will often bring a teaser from the monster or antagonist in the film to interest the audience into a full watching. There is the anticipation to learn what lurks among the screens and to experience the adventure of a dark movie. When the advertising introduces just enough to set the mystery yet not reveal the best scares in the film can create a buzz in the film community to discover the truths. It has also been an important tool in trailers to embrace the stylistic choices of the movie's design to bring light to new content.

Sample One - "The Babadook" (2014)

This Australian film has been one of the most recognized and iconic modern horror films made this century. Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, and Daniel Henshall were some of the cast that played as the family falling victim to the Satanical demon breaking their mental state just in their household. One notable credit in the film is their effective connection to the audience through relationships with hardships, care, a family, grief, and struggles as a lonesome people. We follow a depressed widow dragging through life with her hectic child; The book "Mister Babadook" book welds with their home, and they fight together as a team that has experienced so much pain to defeat a demon. The spectacular performances and the world revolving around the experiences from the characters shines a refreshing light upon what makes a horror movie great. The attention to the character's origins and primal fears is the strongest treasure in the production.

Sample Two - "World War Z" (2013)

Brad Pitt's iconic film about a worldwide zombie apocalypse follows his character Gerry Lane and his family's affliction through hell to survive an epidemic. As the world becomes infected with a disease, his family is fortunate to have the military relationships to find a haven during Gerry's nightmare search for a cure. This film applies a large emphasis on visually interesting sequences through dark lighting and solid color schemes. Gerry follows a singular task as he strives to overcome the disaster the planet is facing. The CGI elements provide a valuable layer to the experiences and storytelling aspect to the film, emphasizing the depth and scale of the threats when half the world is infected. The suspense of the scenes drives us through the fear around every corner. The pinnacle story arc in the film, where Brad Pitt collects the zombie vaccine in the corrupted laboratory follows a tense and distressing journey to freedom for humanity. Each zombie proves a heart-wrenching reality if one becomes on the verge of destroying our hero, yet he survives. Nighttime scenes in the film are infused with a monochromatic blue tone which brings a haunting emotion to the mise en scene.

Other Example Screenshots

1) "It" (2017)

2) "Us" (2019)

3) "Hereditary" (2018)

4) "A Quiet Place" (2018)

5) "Get Out" (2017)

Bibliography

Bishop, Bryan. “‘World War Z’ Review: Brad Pitt’s Zombie Thriller Is a Scary Summer Surprise.” The Verge, 19 June 2013, https://www.theverge.com/2013/6/19/4443364/world-war-z-review.

“Conventions of Horror Genre.” Prezi.Com, https://prezi.com/hmd048pyis0h/conventions-of-horror-genre/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.

“Horror Film.” Wikipedia, 11 Nov. 2019. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horror_film&oldid=925579657.

Horror Films. https://www.filmsite.org/horrorfilms.html. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.

“Horrors of the Modern Horror Film.” Prezi.Com, https://prezi.com/svhmcwm2zk9m/horrors-of-the-modern-horror-film/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.

Kroll, Noam. “Cinematography Tips For Horror Filmmakers.” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 8 June 2015, https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/cinematography-tips-for-horror-filmmakers/.

Murrian, Samuel R. “5 Undeniable Reasons The Babadook Is The Best Horror Movie So Far This Century.” Parade, 2 Aug. 2019, https://parade.com/897935/samuelmurrian/the-babadook-jennifer-kent-analysis/.

The Babadook. www.imdb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2321549/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.

Wonka, Verthandi. 

“The Do’s And Please-Don’ts Of Horror Movie Marketing.” Medium, 20 Sept. 2016, https://medium.com/@Vbwonka/horror-movie-marketing-516d3c99f1fa.