Color Reaserch

     In order to create the best character development, I decided to research more on color schemes and how different colors, have different approaches. 

    Many know that using color in films makes it dynamic and playful, but color can also develop a story. Color is part of how a director developed mise-en-scene, and how it can affect us psychologically, emotionally, and even sometimes physically. Usually, directors will use bright and saturated tones for happy movies, and more dark and dull colors for a more sad and emotional one; however, Wes Anderson uses color in a very unique way. Most of his films have a storyline that consists of one of their characters having a psychological trauma or a problem, however, he uses very saturated and extremely bright colors to contrast that. 

    An example I will be elaborating on is The Grand Budapest Hotel by West Anderson:

    Throughout the film, the audience is exposed to vivid colors that correlate with each other. But even though the characters in this film are living in a world very similar to us where one's life ends with death or war, the story is not reality at all. And that is why he uses bright colors such as in this movie, to create that contrast since that is not a common combination to see. 

But when it comes to how color developed a film, it can sometimes build harmony or tension to the scene being watch. It also, allows for the director to emphasis on a certain item or object  with great importance in the film. 

When it comes to the psychology of color, every single color means something different. 

For starters, red means love and passion. In this shot from Pretty Women, Vivian (Julia Roberst) is out on a date with Edward (Richard Gere) and since they were in a very passionate relationship, caused by her being a prostitute, the color red in her dress is pointing out the love and connection that they have for each other.

However, in The Devil Wears Prada, the red of the heals means danger and power. For the ones that have seen the movie, it makes obvious sense, but one of the main characters in the movie, Miranda Priestly, is the editor-in-chief of Vogue, which makes her assistance and everyone that works for her, their life impossible. Throughout the movie, it was made obvious the power that she holds and how she is dangerous if not done as she pleases.

    There's also the color pink, which means innocence, sweetness, feminity, playful, empathy, or even beauty. This color is also seen in most women in many great films. An example of how this color is being used is in Mean Girls when all of the girls use mostly pink. This color, for example, shows the beauty of these girls and how they are seen by the whole school; they are being described as playful and sweet, but also very feminine but the way they dress and act. 

    The color orange is more of a warm color that shows it through its use. It is most likely used to show happiness, sociability, friendliness, and youth, all adjectives that describe that feeling of warmth and it can be mostly associated with the fall season. Next, we have the color yellow, which is the opposite of orange. Yellow means mostly madness, sickness, obsessive, naive, or even insecurity; it is one of the more difficult colors, if not the hardest color of the eye to catch. Since it is so difficult, not too many directors use it, but when they do, it is everywhere and very noticeable.  

    The color green is also like the color red, which has two meaning two it:

Firstly, it could mean nature. As seen in the recent release of The Jungle Book, the color green is used all mostly throughout the film to make that emphasis on nature. As used in the film, it highlights the environment that this boy lives in and all of the beautiful attributes of the jungle. 

However, on the other hand, green can also mean danger and darkness. One great example of how green is used to describe a danger approaching is the movie Maleficient. As seen in this picture, her power is being depicted as green to show how much corruption she can cause. She is dark and the color of her eyes and of her power depict that. Also if we look closely, we see that the color red of her lipstick is also being used to describe her danger. 

    There's also the color blue, which depicts a more cold, isolated meaning, or also a calm, passivity, melancholy one. Like the green and the red, depending on the hue of it, the color blue could have different meanings. A good example of the color blue being used in a film is when showing the earth from an outer space view. The color that prevails the most is a darker blue which depicts a more calm and passive tone to the film. 

Lastly, the color purple. This one is not too often used, but it mostly is used to represent fantasy, mystical, or something ethereal. An example of this is Avatar:

By using the color purple, it is very evident that the directors are emphasizing, or pointing out that this is a fantasy story.  At this point of the movie, it could also mean that due to the fact that Jake was only an Avatar due to a technological machine that allowed him to be that way, it could be making emphasize how ethereal their relationship was. 

    After all this research, it has helped me and my teammates decide which colors we will be using in our films to furthermore develop our characters. 

Adventure Time!

 Like we mentioned before, our opening consists of a lot of character development, and the setting that we will be showing where these characters not only live but also where the accident will take place.

    In order to film in a place that will allow for the feeling of alone to step in, but also show a more secluded place, we decided to shoot in Markham Park. This public park allows us to shoot all of our outside scenes in one setting; due to its size, it contains many different places that allow for different tones to be created. 

First of all, it has many roads like this one, that we will be using to show them running when they first got there. We will also show that there's little movement of cars and people, but one car will pass by that astonish them.

But also, there are places like this one inside of the park that is more secluded. We will be shooting the murder scene in this place since it is more inside of the park and shows a more scary setting. Showing a place like this one will correctly set the tone for what the audience will be seeing next. 

    However, we also have other outside places that we wish to shot in. As we live in a city that has almost always movement of cars or even pedestrians at all times of the day, it will help us to shoot all of the other outside scenes outside and establish that difference between the neighborhood, which is abundant in movement and life, and then the park which shows little to no life prevailing since it is a very lonely place they are going in. For our extras, we will be using the help of some of our friends to assist us in the extras we need for our opening.

    Overall, after so much searching for the best place to film, we found one that will allow us for the best result to prevail!

An Inside into Our Planning Schedule!

    At this point on our journey to success, we have accomplished various or the starting points on our plan. This week we planed furthermore our storyboard, schedule for filming, and the props we will be using to make this opening as realistic as possible. In this post, I will be talking about our schedule for filming and how it will be strictly run throughout the month of March. However, if you want to check out my post where I talk about our storyboard and more inside on color schemes, click on the links! 

    For our schedule, we wanted to use most of the days of every week to work on our project; either for filming or for gathering our customs and props, we plan on using every day to better our project in some way or another. 

    This is our schedule. For it, we made sure that we would meet up, or have three official days every week to work fully on our project. First, we are mostly focusing on getting all of our props, costumes, and exploring the trail, which is in Markham Park, that we will be shooting on. As seen on the storyboard, our film opening consists of various props; some of them are going to be used at the beginning of our opening when showing the environment that Maya lives in, in order to define her. We will also use various different cars, our own and other friends that will help us record so that we show movement in the town, and once they get to the trailing park, there's almost no movement of cars, showing how alone that area must be. We will also be gathering the costumes and decide which subject will be wearing what in order to also define them and set the setting for them.

    Our second week of filming consists of starting recording the outside scenes. That is made up of the car scenes which will be shot on Thursday, and the trail scenes we will continue to be filming. In our third week, we'll start editing. On Sunday we will get together and start editing the scenes that we have for now; then, on Tuesday if we find that we are missing shots or we want to re-shoot them, we will be doing that then. And on our last week, we will be including the main sound and effects that our film opening needs, and lastly get together once again to make sure everything is set to submit. 

Our Storyboard

     We are closer and closer to the due date of the project. This week we are going to put all of our focus into creating a well-planned schedule in order to be organized throughout this whole journey. 

    Throughout the last couple of days, there were a couple of changes that were made to our stories, such as making her best friend die,  Lucy, rather than a stranger since it would build more suspense and more questions created by the audience into how? where? and what or who killed her, which will not be shown in the opening. But even though some of our plans changed, we successfully finished planning our storyboard in order to be settle and ready to start planning out other of the more important subjects for our project.

Our storyboard is a rough sketch of what most of our scenes will look like, in order to get an idea of how we should be doing it and make the filming process quicker. On the outline, we included various types of shots, such as an establishing shot at the beginning where we are showing how the sun is coming up, establishing the time of the day, and also another one when the two friends are in the car going to the trail where they will be running in. We are also using various close-up shots, extreme close-ups, long shots, mid shots, and over the shoulder when they are in the car talking. However, our opening will have a main focus on the sounds since that will be the only clue that the audience has in order to know what happened to Lucy, as she is being killed in the opening and not shown how.  

Let's Begin!

After a lot of thinking and evaluation, in order to come out with the perfect storyline for our film, we have finished polishing our story. 

Our film will start one Tuesday morning where two best friends, Maya and Lucy went on an early run. Maya, a member of the track team, is used to going on daily runs, but this day she decided to invite Lucy. During their run, Lucy got behind due to her shoelace being untied, but Maya does not notice and continues running. As she kept running she hears a loud scream followed by a gunshot. Due to the fact that they were in the Everglades, this was weird, since they believed to be alone. After a couple of minutes, Maya finds the body and turns into a shocking state. Once Lucy catches up, Maya asks Lucy if she sees the body, but to her surprise, she sees nothing, which worries Maya, and they decide to run back home.

This situation hunts Maya for many months, since every day she checks the morning news, and there's no evidence or news about a murder happening, but Maya does not report it either due to the fact that she does not know if it was true or not. During many months, Maya stresses, and her mind starts taking control of her which makes her believe that all of her actions are products of her mind. This goes too far to the point where her friendship with Lucy is broken by her illusions and her happy life turns into a nightmare. 

To deliver this successfully, we will be using editing software, which will allow us to combine all of the shots we will film. We will also create our own sounds, which will be used sparsely throughout the opening to have a more realistic approach, and we will also use a camera to have the best quality possible. Talking about the external resources, we will be shooting at both the Everglades, and some of our neighborhood's houses and city's stores. We will be including different outfit changes to give the scenes that time has passed and the makeup and hair will vary through the opening to give the feel of growing in time. 

And say Hello to...

 And say hello to our characters! Upon research, we have learned that characters in thrillers, both heroes and villains, are depicted as strongly personated.

Some of the films that were used as inspiration for our character development, were The Platform, a Netflix Original film where the main character Gonreg, played by Ivan Massagué is a very 'secretive' one. Throughout the film, the character is being developed, letting the audience know how he ended up in those circumstances and other questions that the viewer starts having throughout the actions that he has. 

That being said, we have decided to do the same in our opening. For our main character, we decided to extensive research to find the perfect name that will fit her: Maya Miller. Her first name Maya means illusion in an ancient South Asian language called Sanskrit. The idea of illusion tied perfectly with our plot, wince our character feels as if she is hallucinating the murder she just witnessed. While in our film, we will be developing our characters and their hobbies. Maya is a very athletic and school enthusiastic student. She is involved in various of her school activities, and also a member of the track team, which explains why she goes on daily runs along with her best friend Lucy. She comes from a big family, composed of three brothers and a younger sister; they all co-exist happily in their home which is located in a medium class neighborhood in Florida. 

In every thriller movie, there's always the side-chick. In this case, it's Maya's best friend Lucy Walker. Lucy Suco is an introvert but also as invested in school activities as Maya is, which is how they met. Lucy and Mata have been friends for many years now, and as best friends, they trust each other in everything. Unfortunately, their friendship vanishes throughout the movie due to Maya's hallucinations. 

Throughout the opening, we will be introducing other characters, whom some are important and others are not so much. At the start, we will introduce one of the antagonists, which will be the murderers that are not going to be developed through the film. The true villain will be Maya's psychology since that is the cause for Maya's crisis and the development of the story. There will also be other characters included, such as the mailman, and other extras that will appear in the street to give a more realistic form to the film. 

Lights, Camera, ADVENTURE!

    Now that we have decided upon our genre, my teams and I have brainstorm several film ideas we could do; all revolving around the idea of suspense. As a group, we spend today's whole afternoon coming out with potential ideas, that we wrote down on a shared google doc. Here are the ones that interested us the most:

 As we were brainstorming, one of the ideas stood out the most to us, making an opening to a film about how someone witnesses a murder, except that there's no evidence that a murder took place. As soon as we came out with the idea, we were all certain that was the one. It was different and something that required our full attention. While discussing, one of the main topics was the series we all enjoy watching; most of them had in-depth character development. With this prompt, we want to develop our characters in-depth, sharing their hobbies, phobias, and daily activities. Doing this, it will allow us to create a perfectly executed opening, showing the location, conflict, and main characters.

We are more than excited to begin filming. Even though our exhilaration exceeds, we are furthermore planning the character's background and evolving a storyline to correlate with the conflict the main character will go through. We will be doing this by completing a storyboard, to be more organized in terms of filming, a script for our character to follow, and a file that will include the background information of every character in order to develop the ideal opening we are hoping for. 

And The Winner is...

    Thriller! After doing a whole lot of research, I and my team have decided to create a film opening with a suspense genre. Even though it has been a hard decision to make, we decided that it would be the best genre for the ideas we have come up with. Thrillers are meant to create excitement and suspense to the viewer; every scene gives the audience interest in watching the aftermath and how it will after the characters. 

    Even though "Thriller" is a modern term, this genre has excited since decades ago. The first time seeing this type of media in action was in 725 BCE in the Odyssey by Homer; however, this genre can't be successfully achieved without the essential elements that every thriller has. To begin with, it is crucial that every thriller has the element of suspense, where the director chooses not to expose the answer to everything, but rather have little moments throughout the story which will uncover the answer the audience expects at the end. Secondly, a hero. Thrillers are not like fairy tales, they don't necessarily contain a good-looking hero who saves the princess from the locked tower, but instead, a heroin in thriller is one who emerges from the trials they encounter. Most often is the main character, whom the director expands upon to create a heroic character. Since there's a hero, there's always a villain. This is the one person that antagonizes the hero. They are usually introduced shockingly, making emphasis on the fact that they are the person who is creating the hero's crisis. 

    A good example of the hero vs. villain scenario is the movie The Invisible Man (2020). In the movie, Cecilia (played by Elizabeth Moss) is not your average hero; however, due to her actions and how she acts upon the crisis the villain builds on her, shows how brave she is. The villain, on the other hand, Adrian Griffin (played by Oliver Jackson- Cohen) helps build that sense of suspense and excitement throughout the film. The audience does not know if Adrian is alive or if his ghost hunting her, until the end of the movie. This is a great strategy that the directors used to build suspense. 

    Every scene revealed an answer to if Adrian was alive or not, which is key for Thrillers. 

    A good thriller also needs red hearings. These are hints given by certain actions or characters to make the audience believe a false answer. This is often done to not give away the whole truth to the viewers until the very end of the film. This is also a great way where directors build that suspense. Moreover, most thrillers contain cliffhangers, where the expected action will suddenly happen, but the film cuts to another scene, leaving the audience wanting more. And finally, an exciting climax. This is the scene that the whole movie is built upon, and the one the viewers are waiting for the most. This is where the hero faces their biggest obstacle, and all of the other secrets that were kept a secret, are finally revealed. 

    This is visible in the Bird Box (2018) where at the end of the movie all of the questions that the main character had, were answered. In the movie, Smith River, California, gets invaded by a monster called Cthulhu, which is a monster that will kill you if seen with the eye. The survivors are in the look for a safe place to live in. At the end of the movie, the main character Malorie, played by Sandra Bullock, hears that by crossing the river, they will get to a safe sanctuary, which ends up being shown at the end of the movie. This is the secret revealed, which shows that people have been living there safely without fear of being killed by the monsters. 

   

    So yes, this genre is difficult to deliver if not met with all the important elements that build it. But, my teammates and I are up for the challenge and ready to create a successful film opening that will efficiently deliver all of these elements. 

Citations:

MasterClass. “Writing 101: What Is the Thriller Genre? Definitions and Examples of Thriller in Literature - 2021.” MasterClass, www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-the-thriller-genre-definitions-and-examples-of-thriller-in-literature#quiz-0. 

So... The Winner is...

     During this week my ideas seemed to jump from corner to corner in my four wall bedroom. During the first hours after researching melodramatic and action films, my opening idea seemed to be clear; but by the second, it blurred out the more I thought about it. Like my teacher said, we shouldn't complicate ourselves so much with it, but instead work on a simple idea, which could later be decorated with the skills we have acquired during these six months. Due to that, my head has been all over the place.

 I have decided to start over and research even further on other genres. This week I will mainly focus on finding a genre that fits my desires, and from there on, build on what idea fits the best to attract that certain audience. Doing a film opening is not too easy, but what will facilitate the progress, is finding a unique idea that will interest not only me but the audience of the genre chosen. Earlier this year I researched rom-com. Even though at the time it was a genre that interested me, now, having filled my brain with skills that I have practiced through the projects I have done in class, I'm leaning more towards an equally liked genre film. Since rom-coms are mostly targeted at women, I want to spend my horizons on other genres that could equally be of interest to a male audience.

In conclusion, this week I will be working on finding a genre that fits me and my needs better, and through all the research being done, I will be documenting it all in my blog. Stay tuned for more facts about genres!

The Battle of the Genres!

    This week has been all about the research. I have captured so much information these past few days that it has been hard to choose which one I will be using for my Cambridge Project. Due to the fact that I have to create a two-minute video on an op[ening of a film, I have researched two genres in the film industry which could be potential genres for my opening. Ironically, they are both very different in various aspects, however, this was a great overview of the different genres that exist in the world of media. 

Melodrama:

-Plot appeals to heightened emotions                            

-Exaggerated plots

-Domestic situations with "stereotyped characters"

-Appeal to a more feminine audience

-Emphasise human crisis events

Ex: Adrift (2018)

VS.

Action:

-More flexibility when expanding on the plot (Action-adventure, Action-comedy, Action-horror, Action-thriller)

-Emphasis on fights, chases, and explosions

-Stunt work

-Special effects

-Strong Heroes

-Revenge Plot

Ex: Inception (2010)

    Even though both genres researched are very different, they are a great start when it comes to the planning of my opening. This way, I was able to educate myself even further on the desired genre. Nevertheless, I will continue to expand my knowledge in the art of media in the different tunnels it could take me to. 

Citations:

25, Jourdan Aldredge July, et al. “Genre Insights: 5 Things You Need to Make an Action Movie.” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 6 July 2020, www.premiumbeat.com/blog/5-essential-elements-of-action-movies/. 

“Action Cinema.” Obo, www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0157.xml. 

Melodramas Films, www.filmsite.org/melodramafilms.html. 

FERUZA's Music Marketing Project Reflection

    Throughout the months of January and February of this year, my group and I have been working on our Music Marketing Project. As described in my last post, it was a labor-intensive process, however, with help of all my teammates and their skills we were able to achieve a faultless project.

   Our first step in our project was to research the genre we were given, which was R&B. Through our research, we encountered many useful articles that were utilized to educate ourselves and our classmates on this music style. With the information we gathered, we created an informative chart which was later used to complete our case studies in our presentation. 

   Following our research, and given that we had to create a whole marketing campaign for our artist, we began to brainstorm. Through the process of discussing potential ideas to unify one concrete thought, we explored all the possibilities to create a unique artist. Due to the genre we were given and the song we chose being, 'You and Your Mama' by Childish Gambino, we decided that we should create an artistic and creative video to represent our artist. Having listened to the song multiple times, we realized the different pitches and tones that the song contained; at the beginning of it, it has a very melodic sound which later in the song, it merges to a heavy almost rock sound. That being said, and the lyrics of the song implying that he was talking about an impossible love, which results in many fights, we decided to create a music video that overall summarizes the use of different tones, and pitches to create an impossible relationship. 

    As seen in the video, the use of different bright and potent colors such as red, blue, and purple, define our artist. Due to the song being so distinctive due to the various tones and pitches used, we wanted to create that sense with our artist's music video. Both subjects were being shown in either a blue or red color which was assigned to both of them separately, but when they were shown together, the use of the color purple was used specifically to show the unity between them. To show the past memories that this couple, being shown in a tacit way, as a group we decided it would be best to show them in a lower hue, almost resembling black and white. Usually, memories are recalled in black and white, which is why we decided to make this decision, to make it more realistic. 

    When t came to the editing portion of our project, we decided that it would be best and even more coherent to edit the shots in a way that would smoothly flow with the rhythm of the song. The shots would switch accordingly to the way the song flowed. An example of this is, at the beginning of our music video, we presented the two subjects to the audience, in which shots were switched according to the way the song beat, therefore more visually appealing. This is seen mostly throughout the whole music video. Moreover, towards the end of the video, when the song switches from melodic to a more intense tune, we see the subjects recalling their fights. We intentionally did this in order to see the switch in their relationship. At the beginning of the video, when the tune is very calming, our subjects are recalling their content memories and days they spent together; later towards the ned, that switches. We also wanted to establish the cause and effect both subjects came across. As seen around minutes 1:10 to 1:15, we see the way that one of that girl number one felt towards the fighting. Later, in minutes 1:30 to 1:35, we illustrated how girl number two felt towards those situations. Finally, we concluded the video with both subjects facing each other and leaving opposite ways. this shot overall concludes the message of the video and the love story that will never have a happy ending. 

    By the end of our time working on our marketing project, we had to create our presentation. Through it all, we stayed true to what our artist represented. He was seen as very powerful, and one who used color to its capacity. Also, as we researched from other artists in the same field than him, we came across one of America's most recognized artists, Prince. Throughout our research period, we studied his marketing techniques. We learned that OPribce used to be known as 'The Purple One' by his fans due to his excessive use of the color. That being said, we decided to use a similar technique, by using red as a color that represents our artist. Since we had to present all this information in an appealing way to the class, we decided to make our presentation red in all ways. We created a template unique to our artists, and his social media platforms spoke to him as well. 

   We created a website that also brought the message that our artist represents. He is seen as a very energetic and diverting artist who is capable of holding create concerts, which will lighten the crowd. Through it all, we wanted to create a coherent atmosphere and brand that overall summarized who FERUZA was. Even though it was a hard-working process, we managed to go through it in a way that benefits us and our project as a whole, delivering an outstanding campaign.