Movie opening.

Movie Opening

Here is the link to the video. 

Mood board.

For the movie opening I want a very specific mood and aesthetic for the whole film. I want all the grunge and dark colors, as well as the rock and roll aesthetic.

that is why I created a mood board to better show off how I want the aesthetic to be, and then work my way to portraying it I each element of the movie. 

Here as you can see the main theme is partying, night life and rebelling. With some hints of red which means danger, showing how this teenagers are not going to end up well and something is about to happen.

I love when movies/series have a unique aesthetic, that is why I want to create my own piece that when you see it all the shots and scenes are related in some way, were every element is meticulously chosen to give off some type of message or vibe.

Then I made another mood board for the costume and characters aesthetic:

As you can see the whole mood of the characters will be very rebel, dark, and rock and roll vibes, they will be all black dressed, with chains and leather to add up to the rebellious theme, they will have very dark and heavy makeup showing how they are covering their true self. 

here is another example of the outfit Inso, I wore this for a shoot and represents perfectly the vibe I want to show off with the costumes:

Target audience.

 For this movie opening the genre is going to be teenage drama, so the target audience will be teenager or even young adults that passed their teenage years not so long ago. As the main characters are all teenage girls, this will probably make the target audience mostly girls, however because of the car sequence and the partying theme, some teenage guys may be interested in the movie too. However, the main target audience will be teenage girls, who are a little bit depressed and love drama, they don't have a good relationship with their parents and they probably are a little bit rebellious!

To get this specific audience the movie will count with some key factors like alcohol abuse, partying, loud music, dancing, and fashion too, as this girls will be very fashionably dressed after they are going out to a club. The fact that they are doing illegal things like drinking and going to a club under 21, driving under the influence, and trying to break into a bank, are all things that attract teenagers as most of them love to break the rules and rebel against authorities, they just love romanticizing drugs use and vandalism. Also teenagers love driving fast and listening to the music all the way up for some reason, so this teenage girls will reflect them in the film. Moreover, in the film a conflict with the main character and her parents is going to be showed, where the girl feels like her parents are never there, where her parents don't give her attention and don't take care of her properly, and that is why she does all this things. With this conflict, many teenagers will relate in some way and a strong bond will be built with the main character, making the audience feel empathy for her as they know someone or they themselves went or are going through the same thing.

very similar to what happened with the movie "Confessions of a teenage drama queen" but in a much "Disney" way. In this movie we saw how the main character screwed up multiple times, she was in a constant fight with her parents, and she always served looks, because of that, and the fact that it was produced by Disney, this movie attract many teenage girls who could relate to her, felt bad for her, and kind of wanted to be her too. In this movie there is also alcohol abuse by one character (this was before Disney was so censored) that then is explained by his horrible life, he is going through a lot of stuff so he gets drunk to forget, and that creates a strong empathy from the audience towards him. 

The car crash.

 I was kind of unsure if I was going to add the car crash scene, as I have seen some openings with this same scene and they weren't very realistic, they were all the same, using a bad quality sound effect and filming it from inside the car. But after doing some research and watching some tutorials I figure out some ways in which I can make it look a little bit more realistic.

https://youtu.be/VJF9bwY1CHo?si=VBZKnPxqAuxH5rcv

In the video I liked how the car is filmed from the outside too, how there is an establishing shot and then a close up with the camera moving in a panoramic motion showing the driver and then quickly cutting to a black out and then the sound effect implemented at the end. Also, a good advice that the video shows is to film the cars driving away from each other in reverse and then when you edit it make it look like there are approaching each other, this is to ensure the cars won't touch each other in any way, to prevent any accident. 

https://youtu.be/KDjQUpS0NSo?si=Bl7GVSmXHKk2xiY4

In the second video I liked how the guy is more specific and shows you step by step on how to create this illusion, also he shows you how to film it, and considering one of my options is to film it in a convertible, this video helped me a lot to better know how to do it in case I decide to use it. Moreover, I loved how he added not only the crash sound effect, but also a siren after, it makes it more dramatic and it lets the audience know that this was a serious accident and that medical assistance was needed, which means someone was injured, maybe... And as the opening will finish with the flashback after the crash scene, the audience will be left excited to see more, to know what happened to this girls, how they ended up after the accident.  

Figuring out the settings.

 The film opening will have three main settings, the bank, the car, and the bathroom.

For this I decided that the setting should be a very calm city where there are not a lot of people as in the film it will be 6 am and no one is supposed to be out, so that is why I decided to do it in Weston and in a day and time that not many people are out, like on a Sunday in the evening. For the bank part I needed to choose a small bank that not many people go to and that we can film without being suspicious or anything, that is why I picked Bank of America in the town center.

this bank is super hidden and there is no one ever in there so it would fit perfectly for the plot too.

In my opening the social status of the girls are not explicitly said but I always had the idea that they would come from a "good family" with a good economic status, that is why Weston also fits the plot.

Then, for the bathroom scene I will film it in my house in my bathroom that has a great lightning. 

Finally, I have two options of cars, first a very sporty and convertible car that would add up to the "spoiled" and "irresponsible" theme, as their parents are letting their teenager drive it to go to a club, this is a car that would be perfect for the opening but I don't know how comfortable it will be to film inside as it is super tight. Then, the other car would be a truck which would be way easier to film inside but it doesn't add to the plot. This is something I will see as I film. 

Choosing the main song.

 Before starting to film I am in search of the best song that fits the story, I wanted a song that gives off teenage rebel vibes and partying, something euphoric that makes you dance. for this I will be looking through this four non copyrighted song websites:

Freesound.org
this website I found it more useful for specific sound effects and not for music, so ill have this one in mind when editing.
Bulletproofbear.com
unfortunately, bulletproof bear had the best music but didn't work for me, it wouldn't let me download music without creating an account which is okay but when I tried to log in it wouldn't let me so I guess that ill have to look for more websites.
Bensound.com
this are some of the sounds that I found and might work:
Music by: Bensound.com/free-music-for-videos
License code: UBSW4ZUWIYVG1TNO
Music by: https://www.bensound.com/free-music-for-videos
License code: O4LHJY1CGJLMQ1NJ

I found this site that also has non copyrighted music,
https://www.purple-planet.com/

and this were the best sounds yet:

Work It (1:56) 100bpm
Grease Monkeys (1:14) 120bpm

 I am still not 100% sure that I will be using this tracks but it was definitely a good research and now I know what sites to use when I will be editing the film. 

New story board.

 After the group meeting I did quite a few editions to the storyline and the theme of the opening, turning an action/comedy story into a dramatic one, here is the final story:

The big change that I did was instead of them being delinquents and robbing the bank, they are just teenagers that don't have a family support system so they do dumb things to get their parents attention, in this case getting drunk and breaking into a bank at 6am. 

I plan the credits to be flashed in between the first and second scene as they are driving and the characters are introduced, and the title of the movie is going to be showed in the scene where the driver is dancing and singing in the car from outside of the car contrasting the "party" she is having inside and how calm it is outside since it is 6 am and no one is around. 

moreover, the car crash scene is going to be portrayed with sound effects and thought the inside perspective just showing the girls, this choice was made as I am not very experienced with this type of filming and I don't want it to look that much unrealistic. 

Finally, the flashback will be added at the very end of the opening with a text saying something like "the night before..." as I will be specifying the time in the scenes, which is easier for the audience to be aware of the timeline. This main character will get a text message while she is getting ready from her mom saying something like "take care" and "I will be back next month" showing how her mom would just let her teenage daughter go driving to a club without even being there to take care of her.

I want this opening to be about how teenagers that don't have a good family support system, end up messing up and sometimes getting into serious problems because they don't have their parents to educate and take care of them. This is a topic I am very familiarized with and I see it all the time in the teenagers nowadays, coming from a great family that are over protective I can say that this teens need some limits in their life or they could end up like the three girls in the story.  

Complete change in Costumes and Mise-en-scene elements.

 As I changed my whole concept and idea for this movie opening, all the wise-en-scene elements were affected by it. I had to change them as it would make no sense to the whole storyline. First of all, it is not going to be placed on the early 2000s anymore, as the main character will be receiving a text message with a smartphone so it wouldn't make sense. Moreover, the girls are no longer going to be delinquents, they are just dumb teenagers that did an awful mistake. therefore, their costumes will change, they will be all dressed up as if they were coming back from a club/party and their makeup and hair is all a mess because they were dancing all night.

the aesthetic will be something like this:

we can see that black is still the main color of the costumes to indicate that they were coming from a party at night, also showing a negative connotation to them, because they ere reckless and don't care about anything. This girls just want to have a good time, drink, and dance, they don't care if their actions might have consequences.

while they are driving they will be drinking alcohol, the way I will portray the alcohol is by using a bottle and covering it with a brown paper bag as it is a well known way to show alcohol without actually showing it.

Group Meeting

 The group meeting we had on class was very eye opening, my group really helped me make changes and have new ideas to have a better movie opening. I made changes and now the story is going to be that this three girls are coming from a party and its very early in the morning, they are all drinking while driving and blasting music, dancing and singing, having pure fun. Then they have an impulsive idea that they want to break into a bank, two girls go out to do it, and the driver stays inside the car singing and dancing to the songs. Suddenly, an alarm goes off and they all escape rushing, because of the rush, and the fact that the driver is drunk, they end up crashing. Finally, if I still have time, I will do a final scene of the main character (driver) getting ready to go out and receiving a message from her mom saying "Please take care today". Before this group meeting I had a much more "action" and "comic" vision of the film, but now is much more of a drama, as the original idea was that the girls were a group of delinquents that went to rob a bank and then was chased by the police. I liked this idea way more, as it has a much deeper message being that teenagers sometimes can have mistakes that they'll regret the rest of their life and that they are too young and need their parent to guide them and be close with them, which is shown by the fact that the main character's mom doesn't even ask how and where she is going or with whom, she just texts her "take care" but if she had her mom taking care of her she probably wouldn't end up making such serious mistakes. This is a topic that I know about and I can much relate to as I am a teenager and I've seen people that their parents are never at home and they make a lot of mistakes because of that. 

My team suggested me to use a brown paper bag to cover the "alcohol" bottles so that the audience knows what it is as they can't be showed, also I had trouble with communicating the audience that the scenes of the car where very early in the morning, so they told me to just use edition to add the time in that scene and in the last scene when she gets the text message from her mom to ensure the audience knows the time frames. Moreover, one of the girls suggested me that last scene where the main character is getting ready before that party. I feel like the movie after my opening would go on digging inside the relationship the main character has with her parents, how she is not taken care off and has a very messy life, and that opening would actually be the last scene and the girl would end up in a wheel chair and one of her friends wouldn't make it.

while each group member was presenting I was writing down different features of their movie opening and adding some suggestions to it and this is what I came up with:

Ayami

·      Coming out story 

·      Character vs character 

·      Conflict development 

·      Do the shot list 

·      No dialogue 

·      Only one character will be visually seen 

·      Conflict between her friends and her

·      Represent the coming out on the opening so that the audience knows what is going on 

·      Conflict with her parents 

·      Goes to the store and gets flashbacks 

 

Violette 

·      Drama

·      Changes her identity in the bathroom 

·      Flashback of funeral

·      People think that she died 

·      Cut down some scenes to fit the 2 min

·      Just focus on the bathroom and flashbacks 

·      Include a voice over of the girl 

 

Dan 

·      Interrogation 

·      Security camera shots 

·      Include flashbacks inserts of what happened why he is there 

·      Research actual cases to see behavior 

 

Sebastian 

·      Horror 

·      Group of friends partying 

·      Got super drunk 

·      Serial killer stocking them 

·      Not showing inside of party 

·      Gets a message of serial killer 

 

Kayla 

·      Sci fi 

·      In the future 

·      Dystopia 

·      They are sick

·      All dressed up the same way 

·      Include security camera

Camera and action.

 When we first started working on the project I had no idea how I was going to be filming, I wanted good quality but I don't have any cameras in my house. However, I remembered one of my friends has a camera and took a photograph course on favs, so she will be filming my movie opening. She told me that she is not sure her camera is best for filming but we will see how it works, if anything I can use the cinematic setting on the iPhone camera, that to be honest is super good too. I was not sure if I wanted someone else to film it, as I know how I want it to look like, and I know all the shots and techniques best, but none of my friends wants to act on it yet so I know I am going to be playing the main character and then I will get two of my friends to be the other two characters that literally don't speak and they appear for less than a minute. Before starting to film I will teach my friend all the shots and techniques I learnt in class so that she has a background, moreover, I will be telling her while we are filming how I want it to be done, and probably the parts that I'm not acting I will be filming them myself.

this days I will be researching different songs that would fit the opening, because it is crucial for the filming to have the main song already picked as the main character will vibe to the song in one part. Also, I feel like listening to different songs will inspire me more and let me be more creative when filming, as I will already know how the vibe will be with the song when I finish editing it.

After that, next week I am going to try to start filming, I still need the confirmation of two friends but someone will help me, I hope. Then I really hope that arranging one day to film will be easy, as all of my friends work or have different activities during the week. The filming part might take longer than expected, but I will start to pick the songs, shots, and angles before so that I can be more advanced with work.

The settings I picked for the movie are all located in Weston, as the setting is not really going to be shown as much. the whole movie opening will be focused on the inside of the car mainly, even when they are driving it will all be showed from the inside. The only parts when the setting will be shown is when they are robbing a bank, where the bank will be showed from the outside and very quickly.

Costume design & props.

 For this film I portrayed the girls wearing all black, however, I don't want them to be wearing all black and their costumes in the beginning as I want to create a contrast between the first scene, being the girls having fun and joking around in the car, and then when they get to the place to start robbing the bank.

So at first they will be using casual clothes, and then they will change to their actual costumes that will indicate the moment of the robbery. They will all wear full on black and I want to add black sunglasses to the costume, looking something like this: 

Also I want them to be wearing a very light makeup but very coquet at the same time, they are thieves but they are stunning! I was thinking of letting one be wearing a red lip gloss to indicate danger and she will be putting it on before going out. The costumes will focus on being super fashionable but very sober considering they are thieves and they should pass without no one seeing them. 

I want the film to be seated in the 2000s so I will try to implement different props in order to let the audience know an approximation of the year. This props will be taken prom an old box I have in my house full of old stuff including cellphones, iPods and headphones that are all very vintage. 

Over all I really took inspiration from the early 2000s era which will be portrayed not only in the use of props and the makeup, but also in the music choices I will make. 

Research & Reflection.

 To create this movie opening I got inspired from three different movies, taking some aspects and approaches from each one of them and portraying them in my story. 

One of them being the movie "Baby driver":

https://youtu.be/7ARFyrM6gVs?si=0gTRk9jr0sHH9RZs

From this opening I liked all the "robbing" and the driving part, as well as how they played with different sound effects and songs to add some comedy into the scenes. Moreover, I enjoyed how they contrasted the seriousness of going to rob a bank, and the foolish and funny dances the driver was performing, it was kind of absurd but it fitted perfectly, showing the personality of the main character, being much more innocent and funny, but  most importantly the audience can empathize and even like the character even if he is a delinquent. 

However, the parts when they are escaping and driving fast is not going to be in my opening for budget reasons, as well as the part when they are inside the bank fighting and robbing with weapons, that would be pretty much impossible to do and it would be an exact same copy of that opening. What is different from my opening to this one is the fact that all the characters are going to be females and other scenes are going to be added. 

The next movie is called "Italian job":

https://youtu.be/cgJuVOrXv68?si=cQE1KEWTyoaxu1BU

From this movie opening I loved the car shots they implemented and how they contrasted the pacific environment with all the nice music, with the explosive event. Also, I liked the way they put in all the credits and the movie title, including them with the driving parts, which I am definitely doing that in my opening. I am going to add the credits in the first scene when they are driving to the bank, when the audience is not expecting anything bad to happen, when the environment is chill and they are just driving and enjoying their time. 

I am not going emphasize on the setting like they did in this opening, everything is going to be centered on the inside of the car and how the girls interact with each other. 

The last movie I inspired from is called "Set it off":

https://youtu.be/0dfYUjB7pPQ?si=Tf7W00rQRrSm27nj

This movie opening is very bloody and intense, it shows how they are robbing the bank and killing people, they are a group of black males with weapons threatening to kill everybody if they don't get the money. I got inspired from this scene in the "robbing of a bank" aspect, however, in my opening the robbing part is not going to be explicitly shown, the audience is going to infer it from different shots and sound effects.

Story Board

 Today I put together all my ideas and created a story board to arrange them and see which ones were good and fitted the film and 2 minutes.

I decided that the credits are going to be flashed during the first scene when they are driving and the girls are interacting in the car, before they arrive to the heist. Then the heist is not going to be showed but the audience is going to infer it by the use of sound effects and different shots. After that, the title (which I don't have yet) is going to be showed when the driver is blasting the music, there is going to be a shot from outside of the car and the title is going to be displayed. 

I had other scenes in the end, that the characters would arrive to a parking lot and they would come out of the car dressed normally like nothing happened, but for time purposes I don't think it will be possible, however if I have more time in the film I will definitely consider that scene.

Actors & Mise-en-scene.

 This days I've been thinking a lot on how I want the cast to be composed, if I want it to be mixed or only one genre, and I came to the conclusion that I am going to also be acting so I am probably going to pick three more women around my age to be acting. The reason for picking only girls is that I want to add like a feminist twist/message that is going to be pretty different from the action movies you commonly see, as most action movie's cast is primarily composed by men. This "girl delinquent" vision was initially inspired by the series "Good girls" and the "Bad blood" music video by Taylor Swift, that is what I am reaching for talking about mise-en-scene and the whole theme.

here is what "Good girls" cast looks like:

They all look very innocent, each one has their personalities and style, but they all work together to steal.

and here is what the "Bad blood" cast looks like:

They look extremely cool with their unique style, but some how they look harmonious as they are all wearing the same color. they portray the power of woman and they look great doing it, each one with very different anatomies. 

 

Conflicts with the opening

 Today I was thinking a lot on how the opening was going to look like and if I was going to be able to actually make it. that is why I came to the conclusion that the car intersection scenes were probably going to be very difficult to make, as I don't have the tools and the set up to do it, also it is very dangerous to film a car intersection were they are going really fast and the two cars are chasing each other, also where I was going to get a cop car?

that is why I decided that the cop car is going to be represented with sound effects, blue and red lights, and the editing, also I am not going to show explicitly the car driving fast and everything. with the use of sound effects, editing, and different shots of the car, I am sure I am going to do a great job representing the situation. this are some examples of the different shots of the car I am going to do:

I am still trying to make that opening I have in my head happen, it is not going to be easy, but I have a great idea of how I want to implement the sound effects, the different shots, angles, and editing techniques to create an action piece that also incorporates a little of comedy as a sub topic. I will soon make a storyboard to paste all of my ideas and organize them to be realistic and fit the 2 minutes margin. as this is not a simple concept, I will start to pick the actors and the setting, as well as the costumes to make sure this will be possible.

Time line approximation

This will be an approximation of the timeline and the peace I am going to have for the project.

Week One (2/8-2/11)

-research different genres

-watch different film openings to get inspiration


Week Two (2/12-2/18)

-Pick a genre

-decide what the opening is going to be about

-have an outline of what the film will look like

-pick main characters


Week Three (2/19-2/25)

- make a story board

-select the camera I am going to use to film and test it

-start collecting all the mise-en-scene elements 

-get the actors

-pick the different settings

Week Four (2/26-3/3)

-select the main song not copyrighted 

-have the props and costumes
-start filming

Week Five (3/4-3/10)

-continue filming 

-after having all the footage start cutting the scenes and editing them

-writing down all the edition needed before starting


Week Six (3/11-3/17)

-research on editing programs and apps

-find not copyrighted audio material or make my own 

-start to edit the footage

Week Seven (3/18-3/24)

-finish editing

-make the final touches 

Week Eight SPRING BREAK

-just post blogs and make final touches



Week Nine (4/1-4/2)
- post the reflection

-upload the video on blog 

Research on action genre

Although I knew I wanted to do action, I wasn't sure what were the basic principles, I knew there had to be fast cars, fights and persecutions for sure, but with the basic knowledge I had not many original ideas were coming to mind, and I think I am also going to combine the action with a little bit of comedy, as I don't have the budget to have a great car persecution and be able to film it.

The car scenes is something that is going to be very difficult but I am exploring certain ways that I could maybe have a good approach and be able to film it as best as I can, as I don't have the tools to do it either. 

this video helped me see different approaches that I can have on the topic:

https://youtu.be/qNbTBI_hmSk?si=00liakTIVgBoJEM- 

What I learned through the research on the genre, is that it basically consists on chase sequences, fights, explosions, shootouts, and stunt work, also I learned that it is a pretty new genre as most action movies were created after the 2000s. I know that most action movies have plenty of special effects and explosions, however, I am probably going to focus on a robbery, followed by a car sequence.

this is the website I used to research the genre:

obo-9780199791286-0157.xml

The beggining

 As soon as I was told I had to do a film opening, I knew I wanted to be an action movie but I didn't know exactly what about. After researching some movies like fast and furious (which didn't help that much) and a couple of other movies that are very well known, I clicked on a movie opening that I never heard about. This movie is called "Baby Driver":

https://youtu.be/7ARFyrM6gVs?si=Rd0vtFzPMEzVrmo-

I loved how without saying anything they were able to let the audience know that they were robbing a bank and they probably have a double personality. The car scenes are very difficult to film but are very important to give the movie action and adrenaline.

I am probably going to be inspired in this movie, I was thinking about an opening with the car part, the robbing part (which I don't know what is going to be robbed yet), and the music part for sure. I loved the final moment when they changed clothes and appeared like ordinary people again.

The car scenes are probably going to be very difficult to recreate but I will probably going to skip some parts and use sound effects to make it believable.  

Music Marketing Blog

 For this project we investigated four bands and their records industry through a study guide chart, we discussed the different marketing distributions and the story of each band/artist. We got to have an in-depth view of how different artist/bands distribute their music and what company owns them. We gave the genre and the artist we will work on.

We also did a story board illustrating the music video we are going to film, with all details and the different shots with its angles and camera movements. this story board is a rough pre view of what our music video is going to look like.

we are going to film the video on two different settings, one being a park and the other a mall. We are filming on Sunday and then we plan on edit it during class next week. The type of music video we are filming is a storytelling.

sound project blog

Sound Project  

          This sound project intended to make us create an atmosphere for the audience by using all individual sounds to create a story that everyone can follow and understand easily. By selecting each specific sound you had to create an ecosystem that felt realistic to your story.

Me and Lucia decided to create a story about a person getting coffee, but more specifically, we portrayed the journey of a person coming in from a very chaotic city, were there was traffic, constructions and people, to a coffee shop where the ambient is more calm. This person orders a drink and all the sounds drive you through all the process of preparation. After the drink is prepared a bell rings indicating it finished, and also the project finishes as well.

 There were certain sounds that were super difficult to obtain, that is why we used foley and other sounds that were intended for certain things, and were used for other things, for example there were some sounds of swords that were used to create the illusion of spoons and plates to indicate people were eating.

going back to the foley sounds we did, we used a juice powder to create the sound of a coffee mixer machine, we also used a spray on sun screen to create the sound of whipped cream, then we used a pack of tums to create the illusion of ice pouring, then we used an electric shaver to create the sound of the electric mixer for the coffee, we also did the steps, and finally we used grinding powder to create the sound of grinding beans. here you can see all the videos of the foley:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fyL89RpFj0gLwjeg1y91mZMBWEXoBVrk?usp=sharing  

Moreover, here is an image of the outline we prepared before starting the project, to guide ourselves through the whole process:

Finally, here is the link to the sound project that we created: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fyL89RpFj0gLwjeg1y91mZMBWEXoBVrk?usp=sharing