STORYBOARD AND SHOOTING SCHEDULE

Hey guys! Hope you all had a great weekend (:

My group and I finally set a shooting schedule and made our storyboard to follow! This was a big step closer to a final product because we finally have a set plan and vision for our opening. We plan on making our film about a boy dealing with a death and a specific symbol of death, that'll be shown throughout, haunting him. Below I’ll attach our storyboard and shooting schedule so you can check out the specific details (:

Our shooting schedule is done throughout two days because we want all shots that are supposed to be consecutive to be done looking the same so our final product doesn't look choppy and off balance.

For our shots in the cemetery all need to take place on the same day due to the sunlight and weather changes day to day. The shots in the room/house/school are all the same day as well due to mise en scene looking the same and environmental conditions being the same throughout.

Can't wait to shoot these shots and see how they will lead up to the final product! Hope you enjoyed our storyboard and that you are as excited as me for this film opening!

OUTLINE DRAFT

Hi again! Hope you all are having a great Saturday (:

Yesterday in class we met to discuss plans for the film opening but unfortunately, I came down with a cold and spent my morning at the doctor. I found out that others in my group were absent as well due to field trips so either way we didn’t get to discuss the project in person. Instead, we made a group chat and we spoke about the project and came up with the basis for the plan we will follow but the details aren’t for sure yet, things may change as we film and see what looks good. We also haven’t come up with a name for our film yet so we will need to discuss more to figure out one that really fits the message we are sending.

This is an outline of our film opening:

-Start with creepy music in background

-Keep low-key lighting throughout

-Establishing shot of cemetery 

-Close up graves (we plan on trying different angles and shots to see which looks the best)

-Cut to dead victims with a symbol on their heads (this symbol on the heads will make more sense throughout) 

-Cut back to graves (in the amount of dead victims)

-Title of movie is then shown (bold that catches the eye) 

-Close up of clock

-Sound of clock ticking (foley sound-made by us)

-Cut to close up of faucet dripping water 

-Close up cut to extreme close up of a kid tapping on a desk with pencil (foley sound of tapping on desk) (Kids face isn’t seen)

-Cut to medium shot of door opening and mother walking in room taking the pencil away 

-Close up of kid getting mad and storming out of room

-Close up of mother shocked 

-Weird drawings (the same symbol on dead people) all over the walls

-Cut to close up shot back to mom looking down at desk 

-Close up of hand grabbing a crumbled paper

-Medium shot looking at the paper

-Close up of the symbol on the paper 

-Close up of mothers reaction to the symbol seen

This is all we have so far, we need to play around with the shots and see what looks best with the plan we have. If anything changes I’ll update you guys ((:

SCOUTING LOCATIONS

Hi again!! Happy Friday!!

Today I decided to go scout a couple locations for the film opening. I, along with my group, decided that we needed to shoot in a park that we can make look like a cemetery. We decided on a couple places such as Vista View Park and Markham Park. (I'll attach photos I took below) The amount of grass and fields in these parks will make it possible to spread out tombstones in which we will be making. (I’ll be sharing that process with you guys as we make them so wooohooo!!!) We also need a place where we can shoot with empty walls so we’ll probably be shooting at one of our houses in order to accomplish that. We aren’t 100% sure on the details for that yet but we will be for sure attempting to create a cemetery.

Since we plan on shooting outside I looked up some tips on how to achieve good shots without the lighting affecting it. 

Heres a little bit of what I found on Premium Beat, a shutterstock company:

Film during the middle of the day so the light isn't as harsh, use the sun as a backlight (this is a tip I am definitely using when I decide to film the cemetery scene), use the sunrise and sunset, invest in filters for camera lens, make use of flags and reflectors, use the right lenses when filming shots. 

I also found a YouTube video by Film Riot, I linked the video below if you're interested in the tips I was given. (:

Here are some photos of the places I scouted if you are all curious of where we plan on shooting:

Thank you for reading my blog!

Hope you keep coming back for some more information on our journey to filming this film opening!

https://www.hgtv.com/design/make-and-celebrate/handmade/how-to-make-foam-halloween-tombstones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r9GvqDiPSI 

https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/6-tips-for-filming-outdoors/

UPDATE: DIFFERENT GENRE!!??

Hi guys!! So I met with my group today and we changed our plan up a little bit. As we came up with our final idea for our film opening, we decided that it would fall into more of the thriller genre than the horror. With that being said, I immediately began my research on the thriller genre.

This is what I found: 

Thriller genre is usually gives the viewer the feeling of suspense, excitement, anticipation and anxiety. Thrillers aim to keep the audience at the edge of their seats as they get closer to the climax of the film. They often use many plot twists and cliff hangers which involve personal obstacles one must overcome. 

According to a blog I found, Scribbling On The Computer by Katherine Roid, subgenres within thriller include action thriller, conspiracy thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, eco-thriller, forensic thriller, legal thriller, medical thriller, mystery thriller, political thriller, psychological thriller (which my group and I plan on doing), religious thriller, romantic thriller, spy thriller, supernatural thriller and techno-thriller. 

We plan on doing a psychological thriller because it includes mental conflict within a character which we plan on achieving. We choose to do a psychological thriller by showing the mental conflict within the head of our main character, a male, who sees symbols of death as he is coping with a death. It may not make complete sense hearing a portion of it, but I promise its going to make sense when I go more into depth in my next couple posts.

My group and I are working on more of the details and going to sketch out our storyboard once we decide on some more details in which we don’t completely agree on such as the props we plan on using and the locations for filming.

Thank you for stopping by! I’ll be back with more details tomorrow ((:

https://kathrineroid.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/list-of-thriller-subgenres/

ONE STEP CLOSER..

Hi everyone! Since my last post I have done some research on the horror genre and want to share some stuff I found.

Horror Genre:

The horror genre intends to scare the viewers through frightening images and sounds. Horror films take the things that people are most afraid of and uses them within their film in order to leave the viewer thinking of the what they just watched. Within horror there are many subgenres including action horror, body horror, comedy horror, drama horror, psychological horror, science fiction horror, thriller, supernatural horror, slasher film, etc. I plan on doing some more research on these specific genres after my partners and I discuss which we all like the most.

I also did some research on the characteristics of horror films and found some information that will help make the film as close to the horror genre as possible. According to information I found on Psychology Today, "horror movie elements that scare us the most include Fear of Death, the dark, creepy, crawly things, scary places, disfigurement, dismemberment, suspense, spooky music, lightning and thunder, and fear of the unusual." I intend on my film opening having most these characteristics so that from the beginning it is established that I am creating a film within the horror genre. 

I am trying to decide whether I want my film to include supernatural activity such as ghosts or if I want to go more along the lines of serial killer deaths. I plan on meeting with my partners tomorrow to bring all of our ideas together to see which idea we like the most and begin our planning (research, storyboard, characters, etc) from there. Although there is much more research and planning to go before we begin to film, I am excited to see what we come up with and can't wait to share it with you all!!

Thank you for stopping by my blog for updates, talk to you soon!! 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201410/the-top-ten-things-make-horror-movies-scary

DECIDING ON A GENRE

Hey there, Welcome to my blog!!
My name is Alexis and I am a senior at Cypress Bay. I have been interested in film and the production within since I was about seven years of age. My neighbor, who I grew up with as my babysitter, is a filmmaker who began making "movies" of almost every genre at home with friends and now has three independent short films with her first full length movie coming out soon. Growing up around her as a filmmaker has lead me to see the inside of filmmaking and see all that goes into it from raising money for the film, to the final product being accomplished. When I heard about this project I was excited for the day in which I could finally begin working on creating my own film opening.

Knowing this project was approaching quickly, I decided to brainstorm genres and ideas ahead of time. I spent time thinking of ways in which I could successfully create a film opening that was memorable. The genre in which I decided on is the horror genre. Since I was young I always had interest in horror movies and how they are made to look so real and bring awareness to things that happen in real life. With that being said I am going to attempt to stick with the horror genre for my film opening. I'm not sure on an exact idea yet but after the research I plan doing I will have more of an idea on how I want to open my film.

I will keep you guys updated with my final idea within the next couple posts. Thank you for checking out my blog. Hope you continue stopping by to eventually see the final product. Talk to you all soon! (:

MUSIC MARKETING

In the music marketing project that we completed, we were given three songs to choose from and using the chosen song we had to create our own band name. Once we chose the song and a name, we researched the genre and ways in which other bands of that genre market. After that we were assigned to show the ways in which we will market the band using different marketing techniques and also make a music video for our song. After we completed all of our research we presented our marketing plan to the class.

When researching for this project we had to look into the genre of our chosen song and find ways in which bands that fall into that genre market to help give us some ideas on how we will market our band. Researching different genres of the songs we were given to chose from led us to find the song and genre that we like the most and work from there.

My group members and I decided to market our band through social media including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and a website dedicated to our band, House of Cards. On Instagram our marketing goal included sponsored posts and stories, on Twitter we used promoted tweets and on Facebook we posted about live events so that fans are aware and can RSVP. The use of social media to market helps become the band known by the target audience who mainly uses these social media platforms.

In this project, I learned more about editing and shooting videos which will help me with my film opening for my portfolio project. I learned that there must be multiple shots taken in order to find that perfect shot and how to manipulate videos in order to fit in the video I am editing. Using the different shots I experimented with for the music video will help me when I am filming my film opening making it more successful.