Getting creative (with my critical reflections)

 Hey everyone!! I've been thinking about different creative approaches for my CCR (Creative Critical Reflection) and I think I've found the perfect format. I'm going to structure it like those Genius lyric explanation videos. You know the ones where artists break down their own lyrics with those yellow highlight annotations? I feel like this would be a really cool way to analyze our film opening!!

For question #1 of the CCR (How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?), I can really dive into how our film opening uses sci-fi drama conventions while representing teenage depression. The planet isn't just a world ending threat, it's a metaphor for how Halley feels like her world is falling apart. In the Genius video format, I could highlight specific shots of the opening and explain how they represent her emotional state. Since we're blending sci-fi elements with this personal struggle, I'm challenging conventions by approaching depression in a visually engaging way rather than just through dialogue or traditional drama techniques. This approach would make the analysis way more engaging than just talking to the camera for 5 minutes, and it gives me a chance to really get into the symbolism of certain elements (such as the significance of each item she gets from the store).

Thats all from me for now, stay tuned for my next post about how I plan on responding to the second question in my CCR.

Coloring is fun (and the line edit too ig)

Hey everyone!! We're now officially in the post-production stage of our film opening and it's been such a journey getting everything to come together. For our opening, we're using Adobe Premiere Pro for the main edit (fun fact: I'm Adobe Premiere certified!!), while some of our VFX work for the planet is being done in After Effects and Blender. We decided to start editing the outdoor footage and working on those effects first. This way, once we FINALLY get to film the indoor portion, we can just add it in without having wasted any time. Two of my team members are handling the line edit and vfx, while I'm focusing on the color grading.

Speaking of color grading, it's been SUCH an important part of our project because we shot in both indoor and outdoor settings, plus our shoot ran later than expected, so some shots are darker than others. Here's what some of the clips looked like before and after

Color grading has involved A LOT of back and forth between contrast and exposure settings to find the perfect brightness. I also fiddled with white balancing tools to fix footage that came out either too blue or with that weird purple tint that happens sometimes. We've also been playing with tint and saturation in Premiere's basic correction tools - for some clips we had to increase the warmth and greens, while others needed different adjustments.

It's amazing to see the transformation! The color grade really makes everything feel more cohesive and film-like. Thats all from me for now, stay tuned for my next post about the CCR planning :)

Organization Central (too much footage)

Hey everyone!! We just got back from our weekend competition trip, which means we can now officially start the editing stage of our film opening, and it feels great to finally be putting everything together. Thankfully, our editing process is pretty organized (I think) - My teammate Oriana started by sorting footage into specific folders by scene type. This time, we created separate folders for car scenes, planet scenes, funky, messed up shots (because you never know when you might need them), and extra footage.

For our opening, we're using Adobe Premiere Pro for the main edit, while some of our VFX work for the planet is being done in After Effects and Blender. We originally planned to shoot all our scenes in one day, but then, as mentioned before, we ran into a devastating setback (location permission issues). We got all our outdoor shots done, but couldn't film inside the store because the manager wasn't there. So we're starting the edit with what we have while my groupmate, Santi, works to track down whoever "Katty" is, who can hopefully give us permission to film indoors.

That's all from me for now, stay tuned for my next post about the line edit  & color grading =)

Changing the script on set?? should be fine

During our shoot day, we decided to change one of our scenes on the spot! Originally, we had planned for Halley to simply connect her phone to the car after hearing just 1 radio channel mention the planet, but we had a better idea while filming. Instead, we now have her flipping through several radio channels, all of them covering the rogue planet and its upcoming impact, which makes her increasingly annoyed until she finally clicks the radio off completely.

This new version is much longer than what we initially planned but it works a lot better for showing her character's frustration with the whole situation. We even got some extra takes of her reacting to static and different voices, so we have plenty of options for the edit. Sometimes the best ideas happen right on set! The only downside was that we spent so much time on this scene that we ended up rushing through the outdoor shots and filming later than planned (making our shots appear to be during the nightime), but I think the trade-off was worth it. 

Thats all from me for now, Im very glad that we were struck with this divine inspiration, stay tuned for my next post about the line edit :)

its go time ( film fr now )

 Hey everyone!! I'm super excited to share how our first day of filming went! As I mentioned in my last post, we had to split our shoot into two days because of the gas station permission issue, but OOOHHMAHHGAADDDDD the footage we got looks amazing

We managed to get a ton of shots and we actually ended up with way more footage than we originally planned, which is definitely a good thing since it gives us more options to play with during editing. Overshooting is always better than undershooting when it comes to filmmaking!

Anyway, remember how I talked about our lighting plans in my previous post? We specifically wanted to film during dusk to get the vibrant pink and violet tones in the sky to contrast with Halley's neutral outfit. Well, it turns out dusk doesn't stick around very long! By the time we finished getting all our shots, it was completely dark outside.

This means we'll need to do some heavy color grading to make it look like everything happened within the actual timing of the scene. We'll have to adjust the darker shots to match the earlier dusk footage so the lighting feels consistent throughout the opening sequence.

Since my team and I will be at a competition this week, we won't be able to film the interior gas station scenes just yet. To accommodate for this, we're going to start working on a line edit of what we have so far and begin working on the VFX for the planet. 

That's all from me for now! Stay tuned for my next post on (checks schedule) uhh I'm not quite sure yet... See ya :)))

ORPAH WINFREY SAID NOO ??? ( the gas station)

 Hey everyone!! Today I want to talk about a small issue that occurred during production. So my group finally got together to start shooting the opening and everything was going really well when we were filming outdoors.

Anndd then it all went downhill from here... Our original idea was to film all the outdoor scenes first, and then go inside the gas station to shoot the interior scenes. The strategy was just walk in and ask for permission on the spot rather than calling ahead because, honestly, we thought we'd have a better chance if they could see we were just some random kids working on a school project.

[insert kids working on school project]

The gas station employees were actually super nice about it, but they couldn't allow us to film there because their manager wasn't there, and apparently they weren't allowed to contact them either.

This created a less than ideal situation for us. We needed to pick between finding a completely different gas station to film the interior shots (which would create continuity issues), or split our filming into two separate days. After talking to the group and our actress we ended up deciding to push filming the interior back to March 9th.

The good in all this is that this gave us extra time to be creative with the outdoor footage which will give us more options during editing. But since the most editing heavy shots are filmed and over with, well be able to finalize those before filming the indoor shots.

That's all from me for now. Stay tuned for the actual post about filming (Ik its like the third time I've said this but I promise lol) ! See ya :0

yay drawing ( shot composition )

Hey everyone!! so today we're gonna be talking about how we decided to plan the shot composition for one of the MOST CRUCIAL scenes in our film opening!!

A really important part of our film opening is when Halley looks up at the sky after walking out of the gas station and this is the big reveal of the sort of looming planet over the Earth and a moment for the audience to recognize the actual danger. So obviously we want to make sure the shot that reveals this is well-composed and provides meaning and context to the film.

Me and my group member Oriana worked on illustrating basically a plan for how we wanted to compose this shot once she leaves the gas station. We were thinking of ways to make the planet seem even more significant than it already would seem, and we felt the best way to do this was to have the planet take up almost the entire top third and
be distinct enough in color that it changes the color of the surrounding sky.

So in this illustration, we can see Halley walking with her groceries back to her car and as she notices the planet, she takes off her headphones and it's the first real glimpse into her recognition of this event and also her refusal to care about it, which is a very important moment for developing the character.

This shot is going to be absolutely crucial for establishing the tone of our film. It shows both the apocalyptic situation AND our main character's unusual reaction to it. The contrast between the enormous threatening planet and Halley's indifference is exactly the kind of juxtaposition we want to create throughout the film.

Thats all from me for now, stay tuned to see us actually FILMM EVERYTHING!! See ya ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Equipment Manager Equipment Manages

 Something you guys may not know is that I am the equipment manager of my schools TV production program, thus I am in charge of gathering the equipment as we prepare to shoot.

Getting the right equipment is crucial to our shoot. We will need a camera that does well in low lighting, a tripod to stabilize our shots, and the right lens which also benefits low lighting scenarios.

With that considered this is what my group plans on checking out from the TV production programs closet:

- CANON EOS 5D MARK 4

This DSLR camera has a high quality sensor that does extremely well in low lighting which is important since we will be filming at dusk

- MAGNUS TRIPOD

This tripod has a great head piece that handles smoothly for any pans we may need to do

- 24-105mm Lens

This lens has a consistently low aperture, even when zoomed in, and has a great image stabilizer that will improve the look of any handheld shots we may need to take.

50 mm lens

This prime lens has an extremely low aperture and will allow us to get a high depth of field which is necessary for some shots.

This equipment provides us with all the right qualities to create a great looking film opening. In order to keep track of everything we will be using the program Booksource Classroom which is a free classroom library software which I have cleverly repurposed for camera equipment

Thats all from me for now, make sure to stay tuned for my next post about shot composition, and then later FILMING!!! (woah!!?) (◍•ᴗ•◍)♡

OH OH OH OH OHHHHH (LIGHTT EVERYTHINNGGG)

 if you couldnt tell the title is a zootopia joke, okay now moving on to the actual post

Hey everyone!! Today I wanted to talk about our lighting plans for the opening sequence - something that's going to be really important for creating the right atmosphere and emotional impact. To represent the lighting of the grocery store I created this mood board

Our opening takes place in two main locations: inside the gas station (which we're shooting to look more like a grocery store) and outside in the parking lot/car. Each location is getting its own distinct lighting treatment to help tell Halley's story.

Inside the store, we're going with bright cool tones - specifically a washed-out blue that really emphasizes those feelings of sadness and depression that Halley's experiencing. We're still keeping enough saturation to make certain items pop off the shelves, which creates this interesting contrast between the mundane world and Halley's emotional state. The neutral colors from her costume will play against this cool background, reinforcing her disconnection from her surroundings.

When we move outside, everything shifts. The scene is at dusk/sunset, which gives us this amazing palette of pinks, violets, and oranges to work with. Then we have the giant planet in the sky adding its own overwhelming colors to the scene. What's really interesting here is how Halley's neutral-toned outfit will contrast against this almost beautiful apocalyptic sky - it's our first real hint to the audience about how she sees the world differently from everyone else.

The car scene gets even more interesting with the lighting. We're planning to have warm interior lights when she first gets in, like this brief moment of comfort, but as she starts driving and the lights turn off, we return to those cooler tones. This shift happens right as she looks at a photo of her and her friend, giving us this visual representation of her emotional state and providing foreshadowing for details that may become relevant later in the story.

That's all for now stay tuned for my next post which will most likely be the storyboard we've been putting off. See ya :3

GRWM to go die lol (Costuming)

 Hey everyone!! Today I want to talk about how we're developing Halley's visual character through costume and props. These elements are super important for telling our audience who Halley is without any dialogue.

My groupmate Oriana created a very helpful moldboard based off of the character design board that I made a while ago, this time based in real things we own + our actual actress

We've been working hard on putting together Halley's look, and we've finally settled on something that really captures her character. For our opening scene at the gas station, she'll be wearing layered shirts, a brown long sleeve under an oversized band tee of some kind, paired with baggy jeans. This outfit is meant to show that Halley has kind of given up on caring about her appearance, which reflects her deeper emotional state.

The color palette we've chosen is really intentional too. We've chosen brown, black, gold, and beige. The brown and black create this really interesting contrast that represents the void in Halley's life and how weighed down she feels. The beige adds to this whole vibe of someone who's lost their motivation, it all comes together to basically represent a :| face.

For her hair, we're still deciding between two looks, either down and messy or in a messy ponytail. Either way, we want it to look like she just couldn't be bothered to do much with it. It's another little detail that adds to this character we're building of someone who's just given up.

The main prop we're giving her is a pair of headphones. These aren't just any accessory, they're like a symbol of how disconnected she is from the world around her. When she's wearing them, she's in her own safe space, completely cut off from reality. This is going to be especially powerful in our opening when chaos breaks out in the store and she's purposefully ignorant to it all.

It's amazing how much story you can tell just through these visual elements. Every choice, from the baggy clothes to the headphones, is helping us build this character of someone who's struggling with depression but trying to hide it behind this facade of not caring.

Thats all from me for now next post I'll be talking about our plans for set design and lighting, two more parts that will help bring this world to life. Stay tuned!

Halley (The girl not the scientist or the comet or the chocolate)

Hey everyone!! Today I want to share the process of how we chose our main character's name, because it's actually way more meaningful than you might think!

When we started brainstorming names, we knew we wanted something that would tie into our spacey theme while also revealing something about our character. After researching a bunch of space-related names (googling "space names for girls"), we landed on Halley, named after Halley's Comet.

What makes this name perfect is how it works on multiple levels. First, there's the obvious space connection, which fits perfectly with our sci-fi elements. But what's really cool is how Halley's Comet itself kind of mirrors our character's journey - it's this celestial body that spends most of its time distant and isolated, only passing by Earth every 72-80 years. When it does appear though, it's this incredibly beautiful sight.

This parallel works perfectly with our character because Halley has been living in this state of isolation and emotional distance due to trauma from her youth that led to depression. She's built up these walls, keeping herself distant from others and acting like she doesn't care about anything or anyone around her. But just like her namesake comet, there's something beautiful waiting to be discovered.

The name Halley is also associated with strength and valor, which becomes really significant as our story progresses. While she starts off isolated and seemingly uncaring, she eventually finds the strength to push through her struggles with the help of someone who sees past her defensive exterior. It's like they're able to see the beauty of the comet even when it's far away.

At its heart, our film is about recovery and finding hope even in the darkest places. The name Halley encapsulates this journey - from isolation to connection, from darkness to light. It's about someone who seems distant and unreachable finding their way back to life with the help of others who refuse to give up on them.

That's all from me for now. IK I said this post would be about costuming but I promise that will be the next one. See ya >:D

P.S. for anyone who wanted to see the chocolate here's a pic:

MUSIC !! (and audio)

Hey everyone!! Today I want to talk about our approach to sound design for the opening. One thing I've learned in this course is that audio can actually be more crucial than visuals in creating an immersive experience - it's what really pulls viewers into the world we're creating.

We're planning to use several different types of sound in our opening. The main one will be non-diegetic sound - basically sound that doesn't come from within the scene itself, like background music. This will be super important for us since music is going to be a key element in conveying Halley's emotional state and the overall mood.

We'll also be using synchronous sound to ground everything in reality - you know, the ambient sounds of the gas station store. Everything from footsteps, the rustle of shopping bags, to whatever the news anchor is faintly saying on the TV in the back must be implemented to create an immersive Soundscape. These synchronized sounds help create that sense of place while still letting us control exactly what the audience hears.

There's also going to be a crucial moment when Halley turns on her car radio and hears the announcement about the approaching planet. This will deliver key information without needing to show a newscaster or break away from our focus on Halley using Diagetic sound.

For the music, I just reached out to artists for permission to use their songs. Here are the tracks we're thinking of:

"A Mistake" by Fiona Apple - The raw emotional vocals and somewhat chaotic instrumentation really mirror Halley's internal state, plus the lyrics about making mistakes and self-reflection fit perfectly with her character arc.

"Glorybox" by Portishead - The alternative sound and dreamy atmosphere could work amazingly for the opening. The slow, hypnotic quality matches her detached reaction to what should be a terrifying sight.

"Pathetique" by ROAR - This one has this beautiful melancholic quality that really captures the underlying sadness of Halley's character while still maintaining some hope in its melody, as well as an amazing crescendo that can be used for the shot revealing the looming planet

"ALIEN LOVE CALL" by Turnstile - The spacey, atmospheric qualities obviously fit our sci-fi elements, but more importantly, the gentle, floating feeling of the song matches Halley's disconnected state.

"Red Handed" by Benches - The building intensity of this track could work really well for the chaos-in-the-store sequence, especially since it maintains this ethereal quality that fits with Halley being lost in her own world while everything falls apart around her.

2 other songs were thinking of include "Figure 8" by Paramore and "Alexandra" by The Army, The Navy

We're still working on getting permissions sorted out, and we might end up having to look at other royalty free options, but these songs really capture the vibe we're going for 

That's all for now! Next time I'll probably talk about the official costuming and props. See ya :)

Our full idea (finally)

 Hey everyone!! last class, we discussed the full vision for our film opening and the broader story it introduces. 

Our opening focuses on the first 2 minutes of the film, introducing our protagonist Halley (named after Halley's comet). She's going to be the central character throughout the film, with the whole story revolving around her personal journey.

As described before, Halley is characterized as someone who appears not to care about anything around her. She's supposed to be shown as kind of unapproachable and in her own world. This stems from her underlying depression and anxiety, which has led her to build this apathetic persona as a defense mechanism. While we won't explicitly reveal all this in the opening, her behavior will definitely imply it.

The opening, as shown earlier, takes place at a gas station, where Halley buying some food and going about what seems like a normal day's errands But as she's shopping, chaos gradually descends among other shoppers, people begins to run out in a panic but she doesn't seem to notice or care, she continues to shop with her headphones on.

When she finally walks outside, she sees a planet concerningly close to Earth. Instead of panicking, she just looks at it with mild curiosity. It's only when she gets to her car and turns on the radio that she learns the truth: this planet is on a collision course with Earth, and humanity has only about five months left. Though she briefly shows concern, she simply turns off the radio and continues with her journey, leaving us wondering what will happen next.

Inspo shot from Melancholia (2011)

The title we chose for our film is "Ataraxia,"(we argued about it sounding like anorexia for like 10 minutes straight) which perfectly captures both the cosmic theme and the emotional journey. It' means a state of complete peace and freedom from emotional disturbance, essentially the opposite of where Halley begins. We wanted something that sounded cool and sci-fi while also hinting at the emotional arc of our protagonist.

As for the rest of the film, Halley meets someone who contrasts completely with her, an opposite who helps her recognize the importance of life and work through her issues. Their journey together would continue until the planet eventually hits Earth, but by then, Halley would have found peace and happiness, having overcome her struggles with this person's help.

one of my group members found something eerily resembling our opening

We're aiming for a wholesome, drama focused story where the sci-fi elements serve more as a metaphor and catalyst for character growth. The planet becomes a deadline that forces Halley to confront her feelings and learn to appreciate life before it's too late. It's less about the apocalypse and more about finding beauty and acceptance even in inevitable bad moments.

That's the overall vision for our film! The next post will probably be either the storyboard if it's finished by then or something about music (currently panicking about that). see ya later :)

"youre doing too much" no im not i promise it is that deep (media theories)

Hey everyone!

A really important part of our AICE Media Class is learning, and analyzing media theories and how they're used in actual movies and tv. It's been really interesting to see how specific details in movies aren't just random but actually intentionally placed in order to convey additional meaning. 

Out of all the theories we've covered, my group has been particularly drawn to theories like Todorov's Narrative Theory of Equilibrium (specifically disequilibrium), Binary Opposition Theory, Character Theory, and Narrative codes. After some group discussions, we decided to focus on Todorov's disequilibrium concept and semantic codes for our film opening.

For those who don't know what that is, disequilibrium is basically the "oh crap" moment that disrupts the protagonist's normal life. If you haven't already guessed having read my previous blog posts, that moment is the ginormous planet that is 5 months from crashing into Earth at the time of our opening, (subtle, I know). This works perfectly with our opening since the scale of the disruption starkly contrasts the reaction and attitude of the main character, Halley.

The next theory we chose to apply was semantic codes, which are basically objects or visuals that represent more than just what they literally are. We're planning to use this with the items our character selects at the grocery store. Each item will have a deeper symbolic meaning, though you won't fully get what they mean until later in the film. Of course this would only come up if this film ever were to be made (which it wont).

Applying these theories helps us make our opening feel more intentional and thoughtful, which I really appreciate. It's easy to just film something that looks good, but having these theoretical frameworks helps us make something that actually means something.
Anyway, that's all from me for now! I'll keep you guys posted for my next blog about the the full storyline of the movie :)

Scumptious script-writing

 Hey everyone!! recently in class, we finalized our story and script for the film opening. The script was mainly written by my friend Santi as he had the divine inspiration of the original idea. One change you may notice from how the concept was originally described is that the 2000's setting has been more or less scrapped. We still want to take inspiration from that time period, but we decided that its important for the opening to be less centered on that specifically. We also decided upon the name 'Ataraxia' for our movie since it describes the state our character is in, as well as having a cool sci-fi vibe to it.

SO without further adieu here is the script :0

Group Meetings

Today's class time consisted of group meetings!!!!

I got with a few people from other groups and we discussed everyone's projects, and more specifically we helped each other develop and critique our own ideas in order to get outside perspective on what may work and what may not.

Rewrites

Today the groups pointed out a pretty large plot hole, that being that the giant planet in the sky would probably raise concerns a little quicker than depicted in our opening. Who knew people would want to run for their lives when they see a giant planet about to crash into earth? Either way this plot hole called for some obvious rewrites (something I'm sure our script-writer is thrilled about). So far the plan is to make it more apparent why the panic is only now starting at the beginning of our opening, since it wouldn't make sense for people in a grocery store to just randomly fall into group hysteria and panic attacks, even though that sounds like its own sick story. Anyway that's all from me, ill get back to you guys with the final script in my next blog post :)

Character Design (the fun part :DDD)

 So for our opening we established our plot would revolve around a world ending event, however it would center around a young adult woman who seems to not care about any of it. That being said we need her design to heavily depend on 3 things: character, time period, and setting

The first one is easy, this character seems to be someone who may not have lead the most fufilling life before the discovery of the world impending doom. This actually reminds me of the main character of my favorite TV Show "Dead Like Me" in the show Georgia Lass is a young adult who doesnt seem to care much for any aspect of life. This show will be a helpful source of inspiration when it comes to writing and directing a character such as hers.

The next aspect was established by my group to be the early 2000s. This time period didnt really have a distinct look as far as setting but it did have a very distinct fashion and make up style. The clothing of the time seems to be marked by low rise pants, layered shirts and, surprisingly, RHINESTONES?? To be honest I did NOT expect rhinestones to be one of the most common things i saw when looking up clothes from that era, but something to consider when designing her outfit.

The last aspect to consider is the setting, America in the early 2000s was marked most distinctly by its pop culture for young adults of the time. Flip phones were common, facebook and myspace were the most popular social media, and Pop-punk and r&b were on a rise.

Given all of these aspects i put together a mood board of what I personally envision the character to look like.

Scheduling HELL

 Today my group members sat down to plan the next 7 weeks of our lives (dramatic ik but still). We have many factors to consider as we all have pretty busy lives, this opening needs to be a priority for the majority of the next 2 months. We worked on a shared document together to allocate deadlines for each step of production during each week:

SCHEDULE:

Week 1 (1/29-2/2):Research

• Genre 

• Brainstorm/Idea

Week 2 (2/3-2/9):Planning

• Storyboard (done by 2/7) 

• Script (done by 2/7)

• Location scouting (done by 2/10)

• ShotList (done by 2/9)

• Casting (done 2/9) 

Week 3 (2/10-2/16):Filming

• Get props/costumes (2/10-2/12)

• Begin filming (2/15)

• Create Foley

• Find sound effects/music

Week 4 (2/17-2/23): Wrapping up filming/Editing  

• Wrap up (2/18)

• Start editing- line edit (2/23)

• Start graphics/VFX

Week 5 (2/24-3/2): Editing

• Final edit (3/2)

• Revisions: make changes needed 

Week 6 (3/3-3/9): CCR 

• Creative Critical Reflection

• Research information relating to the reflection.

• Create the reflection.

• Edit and review CCR.

Week 7 (3/10-3/16):CCR

Week 8 (3/17-3/25): Quick Fixes

• In case any fixes are needed

Its important to note that all 4 of us have a 1 week competition trip from 2/28-3/4. Losing this weekend is quite honestly very upsetting because it reduces the amount of time that we have for both filming and editing. Meaning we cannot rely on weekend to get the bulk of the work for this opening completed.

What the heck is a title sequence

Juno (2007)

Juno's title sequence does a good job of reflecting the quirky aesthetic through hand-drawn, playful typography that writes in across the screen like a personal sketch. Credits appear in an informal, doodled form, establishing the protagonist's youthful, unconventional perspective and setting a tone of film's childlike style. I personally love that this opening is animated because it creates such a visually engaging atmosphere and while I may not choose to completely animate the title sequence of my film opening, its creative presentation is something to consider.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind employs a deliberately imperfect, slightly blurred font that subtly represents the film's themes of memory and fragmentation. Credits emerge and dissolve, with text placement that seems to drift and fade, mirroring the narrative's exploration of memory's role in the film. A characteristic of this opening that I personally enjoyed was the use of extremely high depth of field, and soft focus. The sequence centers on the character showing each aspect of how his emotions are affecting his physical body. This opening is definitely something I will consider since my opening also has a similar scene, so this kind of title sequence may just fit with the opening.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko's title sequence employs a minimalist approach with white text against dark backgrounds, creating an unsettling visual tension. The precise placement of credits foreshadows the film's psychological complexity, using typography as a narrative device that hints at the underlying psychological existential and dark themes. Something I like about this sequence is the iconography and typography. Throughout the scene, the audience is shown several images that are representative of the film as a whole which creates a tense and mysterious tone for the start of the film. The typography also grabbed my attention as very dramatic and specific to the themes included in the film.

What I've learned

    Title sequences are also important parts of the opening of a film. Title sequences normally leave space to establish the film's tone, theme, and setting. Good title sequences make creative use of visual graphics, music, and thematic elements that encapsulate audiences into the world of the film. These are all elements that are heavily important in order to establish what an audience should expect from your film.

Film openings (and my character's intended belief system)

For the opening my group has planned, I think its best to look at some great examples of film openings that center around specific characters.

Dead Like Me -  TV Movie Pilot (2003)

Okay, I admit this is a bit of an oddball, but you have to understand that this opening perfectly encapsulates everything I want the character to be. Georgia Lass is an apathetic young adult who does not seem to care about any aspect of her life or the lives of others. The opening uses voice over narration to develop George's character. George explains her philosophy for life in a way that makes it seem as any action at all seem pointless. It is clear that she does not want to be at a job interview, and her conversation with Delores reveals more about her character. She seems to be highly defensive, partially due to her feeling as if her life has amounted to nothing, which contributes to her apathetic belief system. Overall the opening does an amazing job of establishing her character, and foreshadowing the major conflict that sparks a change within her character.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Jennifer's Body also opens similarly. Anita "Needy" narrates her current situation. Her detached voiceover recounts her current inhabitation of a mental hospital/correction facility. The opening does an amazing job of subverting the typical expectations of a teen drama film before introducing the high school setting. Anita begins to recall how just two months ago she was a regular student who was best friends with the most popular girl in school. This opening does a good job representing it's main character throughout, providing good depth into her character both before and after the incident that got her in the mental institute, without giving away what exactly it was. However, something that I would like to avoid from this opening is its use of the flashback format. While the opening of this movie does develop character the scene is largely disconnected from the rest of the movie. Personally I believe this renders it's good aspects entirely ineffective, as it develops a character that isn't reflective of Needy's actual character throughout most of the movie.

Lady Bird (2017)

Lady Bird is another opening that does a good job of developing the character in a way that foreshadows the upcoming conflicts in the film. It opens in the car where the main character, Ladybird, has just finished listening to a 21-hour audiobook with her mother. It begins on what seems like a deeply intimate moment for the 2 as they begin to cry, but the proceeding conversation quickly sours as they begin to talk about her college decisions. Ladybird wants to go to college far away, while her mother prefers she stays close to their home. Their argument escalates until the end of the scene when Ladybird rolls out of the moving car. The scene provides a deep look into her character as a rebellious young adult who is searching for a way to escape her seemingly mundane life, when she jumps out of the car it represents her willingness to go to great lengths to either change her current situation, or create some form of excitement in her life, which sets up the films primary conflicts with her mother.

Drama and SciFi genres

 Now that we have started our portfolio project, my team has decided to go with a more Sci-Fi/Drama approach paired with a more 2000s film vibe. This may be difficult considering a lot of Sci-Fi movies from the 2000s go with a more horror/thriller approach than a drama approach but there are still a few gems out there.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

I recently watched this movie in January during our break and it left me completely shaken. This movie is a great example of a drama film with sci-fi elements. Films such as these are often discuss emotionally deep topics in creative ways. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the bulk of the movie is spent within the main character's (Joel) mind, but explore deeply emotional moments within Joel's relationship with his ex-girlfriend. The film employs the use of creative cinematography and color grading to signal a

and scenes occurring in the real world. Scenes within his mind also alter in lighting as they are erased, starting evenly lit and transitioning to harsher central light coming from the camera.and scenes occurring in the real world. Scenes within his mind also alter in lighting as they are erased, Starting evenly lit and transitioning to harsher central light coming from the camera. 

Arrival (2016)

Arrival is a film i recently watched in my AICE English Language A level class. My teacher made a point of analyzing its relation to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The film centers around 12 alien ships that have landed on Earth, and the main charcter's (a llinguist) work to decipher and eventually understand their written language. Sci-fi films such as Arrival use cooler and grayer tones with sleek technological aesthetics. They also use VFX to portray crucial parts of the story without overshadowing the story as a whole.

The films cleverness is in its use of the genre to explore an extremely complex concept. The film uses strategic flash-forwards that only begin to be understood once the main twist of the movie is revealed. Once the main character fully understands the alien language, she gains the ability to percieve time in the same way they do: non linearly.

How this will be incorporated into my opening

Drawing from both of these films, I hope to incorporate the highly stylized method of color grading and shot composition often used in drama films, while using VFX to highlight the main concepts of the story. I plan to make my opening character driven in a way that will be both emotionally and intellectually engaging for audiences.

Starting my Portfolio Project

      Hey guys so as of this week I officially started working on my portfolio project. From this point on all of my posts will be graded by Cambridge bigwigs so Hi I think. Up until now my In class projects have been preparing me to be able to do something on this scale and I think they have done quite a good job. This week we started class by taking some notes on different types of film openings. Some of my favorites were the Scream (1996) opening and the Stranger Than Fiction (2006) opening. I realize that both of these openings are very involved with the characters they feature and use them as a way of developing context for the story before starting the movie.

The next day in class we had a lesson on how to blog effectively. I took some notes and read plenty of examples, which opened my eyes to what a really good blog actually contained. I had read the blogs of plenty of friends who have taken this classs before but I never had taken the time to break them down and understand what made them good blogs. 

After this my group for the opening met up and decided on a concrete goal for the opening. We wanted it to develop character, and we wanted to model it after the format of many 2000's teen tv-movie film openings. I think the reason we are so fond of these films (even if they may be before our time) is because we still grew up with the atmosphere that these film were created in, and changed under. Two specific opening that we looked towards were the openings of The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Legally Blonde (2001). 

The reason why I think our group likes these opening is because they do a really good job of developing character (1) but also establishing how the world this character is in contributes to not only how they are now, but also teases how they might change. For Andrea in The Devil Wears Prada, New York is the backbone of everything that occurs in the film. The opening shows how her life in working class New York has developed how she is today, and through cross-cutting, it shows the vastly different world the other two girls have come to live in, although in the same place. Meanwhile, for Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, the opening showcases the protected Sorority sisterhood environment that she has become immersed in, and really shows how much her sisters love and care for her, which leads the audience to naturally question how she would do outside of this protected atmosphere, which sets up the rest of the movie where she is taken out of that setting. While looking for this opening on youtube I found a very helpful video by a channel called Art at Midnight which does a really good job of explaining just why this opening is so great:

Overall this first week of class has really helped me understand not just what to do with my project, but I have come to understand what I want to gain from it.