Group Meeting

Today in class, we held a group meeting between members of different groups to exchange feedback. I was very excited for this day as I wanted to get a lot of constructive criticism to make my project as good as I can. Although I had a lingering thought in the back of my mind that my idea might not be as clear to others as it is to me, so I came into this meeting hoping for some constructive criticism.

The meeting was held, where everyone had time to explain their project one at a time and then receive feedback from the group, and the member speaking would also share their blog posts to show their research. I went last during the meeting, which I think was good, as listening to other projects first was helpful because it gave me a better understanding of how different people are approaching the same assignment and made it easier for me to articulate my ideas to my group members as straightforwardly as possible.

When it was my turn, I explained my project idea, the genre, and what I wanted to establish in the opening. At first, I tried not to overexplain so I could see what people first thought of, but I realized my original idea was very broad , and my group members helped me realize this.

My original idea was to make a serious action film opening where two characters would do a sort of house raid to catch this high-profile criminal, but I was also open to the idea of the house raid actually just being a sort of practice raid for training if that makes sense. However, the other group members brought up great points and made me realize that I would need good actors, props, and a certain level of camera knowledge/skills to make this film opening good, which my group and I do not have. So instead, the idea of doing a comedy-action opening instead was suggested, where the two characters doing the raid are these two doofuses who are hilariously bad at their job, which would make the film way more lenient when it came to the whole aspect of seriousness, which also meant it required less camera knowledge/skill than the other film idea. Aswell, I feel like this idea is more fun, which would make me want to work on this project more, which I feel would end up in me wanting to make sure every aspect of the film is perfect.

After we talked about my project ideas, we started to circle back on the other members' projects again. This time, however, we started giving raw feedback and advice/suggestions on other's film ideas. I personally had a lot of ideas to share, and honestly, this part of the meeting was fun as I always love giving feedback. Some of the project ideas the other group members felt incomplete in certain areas, so I elaborated on parts I thought they were lacking on so I could hopefully give thema view of what I envisioned their project to be like and how I thought they could improve it.

Overall, the meeting was really helpful. It gave me a better idea of what’s working, what needs improvement, and guided me in the direction of a comedy-action style film. And of course, we had to take a group photo for the memories

Project Schedule and Timeline

 Making A Timeline

To keep myself on track and accountable for my project, I will be creating a timeline that I will strictly follow over the course of the next 8 weeks I have as of writing this blog. This will make the project a lot easier (at least for me) as due dates create a sense of urgency. This class especially has shown me how effective creating a personal timeline can be to reduce procrastination

For the timeline, I plan to get all of the research aspects of this project to be done by the end of the first week, so I can give myself enough time for quality planning and to also give time to get props, which I plan to do in weeks 2-3. After that, weeks 4-5 will be spent on the filming/production. Week 6 will be spent editing and then weeks 7 and 8 will be spent on final revisions and my CCR respectively. I dedicated at least a week to each final revisions and my CCR so I can make sure I am happy with my portfolio project and to ensure its quality.

All of that in timeline form looks like this

TIMELINE

• Week One { 1/16 - 1/23 }
• Research genre
• Research movies/tv shows  in my genre
• Week Two{ 1/26 - 2/1 }
• Research camera, editing, and post production techniques for said genre
• Start to plan the script/video

• Week Three { 2/2 - 2/8 }
• Continue Planning all week
• (Locations, extra actors, storyboard, script, props, recording days, outfits)
• IF DONE PLANNING EARLY, start recording early

• Week Four{ 2/9 - 2/15 }
• Start recording (or continue if recording started earlier)
• Filming
• Foley Sounds
• Voice Overs
• Scenery
• Locations/Backdrops
• Actors

• Week Five{ 2/16 - 2/22 }
• Continue filming
• Foley should be complete by now (only if needed)
• Most of the minor shots should be done by now
• Gives time for shot re-takes 

• Week Six{ 2/23 - 3/1}
• Start editing
• Follow examples from TV shows/movies I researched
• Analyze video recordings
• Add sound effects
• Add non-diegetic music

• Week Seven{ 3/2 - 3/8 }
• Finish editing
• Final revisions
• Check editing for any mistakes
• Make sure all VO's, music, foley, or sound effects fit the film

• Week Eight{ 3/9 - 3/17 }
• Complete CCR
• Research 
• Create the reflection
• Analyze, edit, and review my CCR before submission
• Make sure everything is completed and good quality
• Submit everything
• Relax 😎

This is the timeline that I plan to stick by for my portfolio project. I know that nothing in life is guaranteed, so to compensate for this in my timeline I've left extra time between weeks just incase of any roadblocks or unexpected setbacks I may face.

Film Inspirations

For inspiration of my film opening. I decided to analyze these three action films.

    John Wick (2014)

    The Dark Knight (2008)

    Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

John Wick (2014)

Content
To me, what stands out most about John Wick is how simple the story is. John Wick's motivation to get revenge is the entire plot of the film. What I like about it is that the film doesn’t explain his past, but rather uses John Wick's own actions and other characters' reactions to him instead to create his character. I think I could apply this to my project as I want the characters in my film to be underexplained like John Wick to create a sense of mystery and to give viewers that feeling of  "Why is he so important."

Opening
The opening of John Wick isn't really action packed, but rather it shows the after math of what looks to be a big action scene. This creates that sense of mystery as mentioned earlier. This gives me an inspiration for my film as creating an opening scene like this is a much more viable option for me as a student rather than an action packed opening filled with vfx or fight scenes.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Content
Unlike John Wick, The Dark Knight focuses on multiple characters at once. Even though Batman is the main character, the Joker plays just as big of a role in the story. At first, I thought this was something I wanted to copy, but the more I think about it, the less practical it feels for a short project and the limited time I have.

I feel like trying to balance multiple characters/story lines in an opening could make things confusing, and I’d rather fully develop one character than introduce several important main characters. 

Opening
The opening bank robbery is effective because it sets the movie's tone without showing Batman at all. The Joker is defined through his actions, and this made me realize that an opening doesn’t need to introduce the protagonist immediately to be engaging.

However, for my project, I still want the audience to see the main character early on. While I like this opening, I don’t think delaying the introduction of my protagonist would work as well for what I’m trying to do.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Content
This movie opening relies almost entirely on visual storytelling rather than dialogue, much like John Wick.

While my project won’t be nonstop action like this movie, I do want to lean more into the idea of showing rather than telling. I will take influence from this film as I like the sort of fast paced intro where the viewer is kind of just thrown into the world with little time to adjust.

Opening
The opening immediately throws the audience into the world. I'm thinking of copying this movie opening where the beginning is an action scene with no context, as to me those types of openings are the most engaging and I personally like them.

Takeaways

Looking at these three films helped me narrow down what I want my opening to do. Rather than trying to introduce too much story, I want to clearly establish a character and the beginning of the plot. After looking at these film openings, I realized that for an action project, visual storytelling matters wayyyy more than a complex dialogue scene.

Going forward, I want to continue researching action films that focus on a few, maybe two, characters  to gain more inspiration. Even though my opening will only show a small part of my story, I'm still going to treat the project as if it’s part of a complete film, and I'm excited to start the production.

Music Marketing 2

 

Music Marketing #1

 For the research process, my team and I first began researching music branding and marketing strategies to get a view on how to shape our own bands branding and marketing. We then did research on how artists used social media like Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube to connect with their audiences and create their brand or aesthetic. We plan on doing more research into streaming websites like Spotify and Apple music to see how they promote new artists with targeted ads or playlists. This research will help us understand how real world marketing and brand creation usually plays out which will help us make our project realistic and accurate.

 After this we will plan our marketing for our chosen song, "The Righteous One" by The Orwells. We already decided to build our brand around a rebellious aesthetic which goes along with the song well. We want our campaign to focus on a bold identity so we will create exaggerated costumes for our music video. On top of this we also want to put more emphasis on the rebellious aspect so we will try to use very unique camera angles and play with the lighting and the setting to hopefully create a music video that really captures the aesthetic and brand identity we are going for.

Sound Projects' Reflection

In the sound lessons and assigned videos, I learned about the different types of sound used in film production. This includes sounds that come from inside the film (dogs barking, ocean waves), and sounds that come from outside the film (sound effects, background music). 

Sound Project #1 

For this sound project, my partner and I had to use only sound to convey a 1-minute and 30-second scene that told a story. (We couldn't use already-made soundscapes)

My partner and I decided to make our sound project #1 based on a dog in the middle of a stormy field getting abducted by an alien spaceship.

During the brainstorming, my partner and I listed a bunch of sounds we thought would go with the scene we thought of, and wrote down every sound we could think of. After that, we created an outline with multiple "scenes" where we divided the project into different sections to organize the sounds. Then we used this outline to download sounds from Pixabay.com and import them into Clipchamp. The outline definitely saved us time with organizing the sounds in the timeline, but when it came time to put everything together, we added new sounds not from the outline that previously slipped our minds, making the project feel more complete and real. Furthermore, Foley sounds were added later, which added more personality to the project.

I believe my partner and I did a good job at portraying our scene with only sounds. The timeline was complex and utilized all of the sound editing tools to their fullest capacity to give the project an immersive experience when listening. Although I feel as if our ending was rushed and did not fit well with the atmosphere of the entire project. I feel like we should have spent more time finding quality audios for the ending. Overall, I am happy with the outcome.

Link: RamsayStark_soundscape_per1 

Sound Project #2

For this sound project, I had to go back to my original OWF (One Word Film) project and add audio to it to further elaborate the story.

During brainstorming, I talked with my previous partner from the OWF project, and we thought of many sounds that could be used to elaborate on the story of our film. Once that was done, we created an outline that described which sounds went into each scene in the film. The outline helped organize the film as it allowed me to download the sounds for the specific scenes as I went along editing the film. For this project, I used Clipchamp.

I am very happy with how this project came out, and I am confident in saying I feel like this is my best project I have created to date. I think I utilized the sound editing tools (fade-ins, fade-outs, volume, speed) to their fullest capacity to create an immersive atmosphere that added to the story of the film. I spent a lot of time perfecting everything and making sure everything matched with the video (footsteps, transition sounds, songs), and I believe there was not much better I could have done. I maybe could have spent more time adding more sounds or refining sounds already in the film, but overall, I think I did a great job

Link: OWFSound_Ramsay.mp4 

One Word Film Project Reflection

The one world film project was a project where my partner and I were given a random word and we have to use our knowledge on filming techniques to create a 1-minute to 1-minute and 30-second film with no audio to convey a story that resembles the word we were assigned

To start off, my partner and I brainstormed a plot we could do for our film, and once we did we grabbed storyboard papers and started to sketch out different scenes and the meaning behind them as well as techniques to give the film some life.

The storyboard helped us visualize what we wanted to do with our film, as we were creating it, we got new ideas during the process, and we used those ideas and implemented them into our storyboard. For example, during our initial storyboarding, we decided to add a scene where a close-up shot zooms into the main character's eye to represent deep thinking or a feeling of realization.

We used Adobe Express to put all of our clips together and get rid of the audio. In Adobe Express, we also got rid of the saturation in some of our clips to make it represent a hypothetical scenario that the main character is thinking about, which appears right after the shot that zooms into his eye happens.

Overall, I think we did a pretty well-rounded job. I think we used our knowledge and applied it to our filming of the shots very well, which made it easy to capture the story of the main character and his morals. I believe we could have executed our shots better with more techniques to add more depth to the plot of the story, and added more scenes in general to make the film easier to understand. Next time, I would like to plan with the storyboard more thoroughly before going out to film, as many last-minute changes occurred right before filming, which reduced the quality of the film itself.

Here is a link to our film project.

OWF_Ogias Mazari_Ramsay.mp4