Houston...... We have a problem

Hey guys, well basically, the group and I ran into a little problem with our genre. As we were discussing this week about the story and the outline of our film opening we realized that our film was more of a thriller then it was horror. Therefore, we are no longer doing a horror film and have researched a lot about thrillers to discover the main elements that they must have.

Research: During my research I came across a very good slideshow and article that really explained what thrillers are and what they include to make them one.

1. Setting- They can range from inner city areas, houses, forests, and abandoned places. Usually anything that brings mystery and suspense
2. Clothing- The antagonist is usually shown wearing dark clothes
3. Sound- This is mainly used to create tension in thrillers, they can include natural sounds or sounds made by people
4. Lighting- Mostly use low-key lighting to create shadows, suspense, and a mysterious atmosphere
5. Props- Usually include weapons, blood, shadows, dark clothes, fog, and mirrors ( all to create tension) 

              

 - Here is a visual representation of two thrillers that we want to form our decisions around because they both include psychopaths, blood, suspense and murders and these are all aspects that we want to include in our opening scene. 

     1- Orphan

     2- Split

   - We've already started researching on how to create the scenes and make some of the props. For example, here is a picture I found on how to make blood in Pinterest! This will be great for a project since it is one of the main props

   - Another thing we researched on was how to create the light for the scenes and  I found 5 different ways through this post on Pinterest. This will play really well with our tone and help us develop a thriller vibe. 

All this research made us come to the conclusion that we will definitely include a psychotic character, dark atmosphere's, creepy scenes, and a death or murder of some sort. I am so excited to fix this problem and be able to move ahead into the development process.

   

These next few days we will be working a lot towards the planning and filming of the opening so these are some things that will be expected in the next week:

• Storyboards
• Outlines
• Shooting schedules/ location scouting
• More research

Therefore, stay tuned for my next posts where I will be talking about these in depth!

Sources:

5 Horror Lighting Setups You Can Do with One Light. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/288934132335562727/feedback/?invite_code=52f5e7dfbcb64d53bacae29ab9c00652&sender_id=583638570367977853

Halloween DIY - Making your own fake blood. Super easy; only 3 ingredients! Imagine, See, Do | Kid Fun! EVERYTHING Munchkins. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/107171666106413920/feedback/?invite_code=da7ae14bec2f4da4a23acf602b48b446&sender_id=583638570367977853

Hine, C. (2013, October 08). Thriller Genre Research. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/rtia7aozloa3/thriller-genre-research/

The Thriller Genre: Conventions. (2017, February 24). Retrieved from https://patrycerichter.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/the-thriller-genre-conventions/

5 Horror Lighting Setups You Can Do with One Light. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/288934132335562727/feedback/?invite_code=52f5e7dfbcb64d53bacae29ab9c00652&sender_id=583638570367977853

Halloween DIY - Making your own fake blood. Super easy; only 3 ingredients! Imagine, See, Do | Kid Fun! EVERYTHING Munchkins. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/107171666106413920/feedback/?invite_code=da7ae14bec2f4da4a23acf602b48b446&sender_id=583638570367977853

Hine, C. (2013, October 08). Thriller Genre Research. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/rtia7aozloa3/thriller-genre-research/

The Thriller Genre: Conventions. (2017, February 24). Retrieved from https://patrycerichter.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/the-thriller-genre-conventions/

FINALLY!!

Hey guys, I'm SO HAPPY to be saying this right now. My group and I have finally laid the foundation of what our film opening will be on. Basically, we were stuck in between a drama or horror film, but due to my research (I discussed this in the last post) we finally decided on going with a horror film. We have many ideas, one of them is that we will have some type of serial killer who would play the role of the villain, and a victim who would be involved in something that has to do with the serial killer. Of course there will be a hero as well who would help the victim with the serial killer as well.

Some of the tools we plan on using to help us create a well developed film opening are:

• Outlines
• shooting schedules
• storyboards

But we wont be getting into this yet, that's for next week; for now I am mostly excited on finally deciding and coming up with a plan on how we will pursue our project as a horror film. 

Also, my group and I are also planning on buying lights, clothes, and other types of tools that would help resemble a creepy feeling. For example, we plan on using dark cloths for the villain and low key lights to go along with his scenes.

Another thing we have in mind is finding the right type of suspenseful music to give a creepy vibe to the movie and for this to happen we plan on using killer tracks and YouTube Audio Library.

Lastly, we all agreed on including an establishing shot of a lonely location at the beginning of the opening because this will help develop the tone of the movie, which is scary and creepy. During this scene there will also be fog to inflict more fear into our audience. In order to do this we would need to buy a fog machine and film in a dark area. Overall, the opening will grab the viewers attention and also develop the tone of the film.

This is the type of atmosphere that we are trying to go for (without the trees just the foggy and dark aspect) and this is just a concept so we might end up changing this if it doesn't work out. 

Sources:

Killer Tracks - Online Production Music Library Resource. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.killertracks.com/

The Beginning...

This post is officially the date where my group and I start our project! I am so excited to finally be beginning my research and film opening. We aren’t going to be producing anything yet, but at least we can start planning and thinking of ideas. I’m looking forward for these next few weeks and I hope this project turns out amazing.

RESEARCH:

This is debatably one of the most important parts of our project because it will give us the necessary information that we need to create a well developed film opening. The first thing I will research is genre and this is because in order to make a story we need to base it off a specific category. The group and I have all decided to go with horror. We would want horror because we believe that we could make a very interesting film opening with different shots and editing techniques. To better understand this genre I used different cases studies.

Horror:

For this genre I chose Insidious (2010) and The Conjuring (2013) because they are both very iconic pieces that includes many of the common aspects that this genre requires. During my research I came across a Prezi presentation that explained all the common characteristics of a horror film. This includes the presence of death, isolated settings with mystery, and a form of a hero, victim, and villain. This was useful because if I were to choose horror I would definitely include some sort of victim and a mysterious/ scary villain.

       



Insidious- This is considered a very well known horror movie and this is mainly due to the elements used. These include dark environments, a mysterious setting (haunted house), a victim and villain, and includes spirits and demons to resemble more fear. These all work together to create a well developed horror film because all of these establish creepy vibes, which is an iconic part that all horror films must have.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

The Conjuring- This is a film directed by James Wan and is characterized as a horror film. Like the last film, this one also includes many of the aspects of horror films from dark locations to spirits. This film is about a family living in an isolated farm house who are experiencing paranormal activity.                                             






Sources:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591095/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1457767/
https://prezi.com/hmd048pyis0h/conventions-of-horror-genre/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2d/Insidious_poster.jpg/220px-Insidious_poster.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Conjuring_poster.jpg/220px-Conjuring_poster.jpg

Everything about ScarBoy

Recently I was given a project where I had to create a music marketing campaign for a new artist trying to get into the artist world. I really enjoyed the project because it had many different elements involving the real world. The artist my group came up with was ScarBoy and he was a young artist in his upper teens who loved to sing alternative rock. His dream was to one day be like Imagine Dragons or Maroon 5 because he’s always looked up to them and how they do things. His target audience  were from the ages of 14 - 21 year olds, so we based most of our decisions on what they would enjoy the best. We presented the power point to our “investors” through google slides and colored it to match ScarBoys logo, which we also created for him.

We first researched on our genre, which was alternative rock, and got to find out its target audience, what makes it a hit and why, and two specific examples that fall into the genre. These bands included:

• Imagine Dragons
• Maroon 5

Through these case studies we were able to see what they do to market themselves and get big in the music industry. We included this in our presentation to give our “investors” and example of how we wanted to market ScarBoy.

     

After we introduced the genre, target audience, history, and two bands that we want to revolve our campaign around we introduced our campaign strategy. Included in the campaign strategy were many of our marketing creations that we developed in order to get ScarBoy known to the world. The first creation we made to get ScarBoy known and in contact with people who would be interested was social media accounts.

1. Instagram: We decided to use Instagram because a big part of our target audience uses Instagram daily, especially our younger target audience. The intended purpose for this social media page was to market to the audience. For example, we included pictures of upcoming videos, fliers, albums, ScarBoy, and even a trailer.
2. Twitter: Twitter was another social media account used but for communication within our fan base. Twitter was a perfect way to get ScarBoy to share his feeling, daily life events, and even tour dates because of the ability to tweet and retweet things. Also, he would be able to communicate with people through here. Basically the main purpose for its use would be so that people don’t forget about ScarBoy and that he establishes a healthy fan base.( https://twitter.com/scarboy15 )

Then , we created a website so that people could buy merchandise, get in

contact with ScarBoy, learn more about Scarboy (background), Buy his albums or singles, and even to see his upcoming tour dates and buy tickets. Not only, is it helpful in giving out information, but we also made it user friendly for those who aren’t really good with computers. Here are a few pictures of the website and its contents:

Here is a link to the website just in case any of you guys want to check it out ( https://giulilupica.wixsite.com/scarboy ). In our website I mentioned that we had merchandise. This was another big part of our marketing campaign because it would allow ScarBoy to make profits, while at the same time spreading the word because those who buy the merch would wear it and “advertise” ScarBoy. Here are a few pictures of the merchandise we made:

Lastly, we made a music video to not only represent the single created by ScarBoy, which was called Float On, but to also represent how ScarBoy is as a person. In the video we showed ScarBoy as a very chill person, who just liked to “float on” with life and that is why he decided to make the song as well. This was a crucial point in our campaign because it allowed listeners to connect to ScarBoy and also allowed them to become interested in his music.

Overall, I Learned many new things through this project and how the world of media connects from social media to music artists. It all plays a crucial part in exposing an artists and that is why the genre and target audience are what the main focus had to be on. The things that I learned from this project that will impact my work on the portfolio project is that I learned how to market someone through means of media, such as social media account, websites, and streaming services. Also, I was able to learn more about target audience and how it plays a major role in decisions made. Not only that, but this project also helped me with my time management, leadership skills, organization skills, and even technical components. These include the ability to make clothes online, create websites/ social media accounts, edit, and even make a professional presentation. All these components will for sure help me in my portfolio project because they will allow me to create quality work in a given time period.