A Reflection (Kinda)

 I just realized a big part of this project will be really difficult to create, and that would be the sound editing process. I basically have zero experience with editing sound apart from an earlier project we did in this class and honestly terrifies me since it plays a huge role in my opening. And yes, I have been hit with thoughts of doubt over my project. My thought process for the idea of this project was that everyone else will make a horror movie opening since they're the easiest to make, so I wanted to make something different. So when my teacher said she liked my idea, that gave me way more motivation then it should've.

Group Project Conversation

 The Group Project conversation was great, it was interesting to hear everyone's potential idea's for the portfolio project and giving each other feedback. One of our group members didn't really share or talk and it was hard to give them feedback. Since my film is gonna be a silent film, audio will be a big part of my project so I'm gonna have to practice audio mixing and editing. Speaking of audio, the initial obstacle we talked about was editing and audio, since we all had one person in our previous groups who was good at editing we all don't really know how to edit properly. So my group member basically just said to watch videos and learn new techniques. To be honest we didn't really do much after that since we only had one major obstacle which was the editing.

Planning

 I haven't really thought about my target audience as much as I should. But I have decided what the target audience should be and it's definitely for people who are mature and can relate to the main character. 

  I don't think I will have something even close to a budget, I don't think I'll end up spending much money since I do plan to get clothes in a thrift shop. 

  Before shooting I will have to learn how to act a little bit because obviously you can't speak in silent films so I'm gonna have to work on facial expressions to convey the emotional state of which the character is in. 

          Shooting the film opening might start after March 3rd, I will have already uploaded my shooting schedule. The film's setting is in a big city, and since I'm going to Chicago on March 18th I will seize the opportunity to get some shot's to set up the tone of the film. Furthermore, I might change the opening a bit and get some shots of the main character outside because I initially planned to do the opening indoors.

  After shooting, I'm gonna have to edit the different takes I took and to edit sound. Finally, my opening and project should be finished at least 6 days before the due date so I have time to see if I want to change anything.

  

Character Background

 Name: Joseph "Joe" Stanton

 Hair color: Brown

Eye color: Hazel

Weight: 135-160 lbs

Height: 6'1"

Age: 20-25

Life story: Joe was like every other kid when he was growing up, he grew up in a small boring suburban town which he felt was like being in a bubble. In middle school he was an excellent student to which he was ranked as #4 student in the county, but nothing lasts forever. It wasn't until 8th grade where Joe's mother had fallen ill to cancer and eventually passed away later that year. After his mother's death, Joe became silent and pushed people out of his life so that he could heal but he just couldn't. Entering high school, his dad had left him and left Joe with his aunt. Soon after, Joe's grades began to drop. Joe had no motivation to do anything with his life, he grew mute and talked to no one but his aunt. He eventually graduated high school but couldn't get into any colleges. Eventually his aunt gave him enough money to live by himself.

Character's Story: Joe now lives in a big city and works at home selling car parts to online-buyers. He has no desire to have any social interaction since he is still haunted by the trauma of his mother's death. It isn't until Joe meets a woman in his apartment building where he starts hearing sounds again, Joe and the woman start talking to each other. Joe starts to socialize and for once in his life he feels like he is being listened to. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genre and Research

I've always loved silent films since they were the only films my parents would let me view, so that was my initial love for film. My film will be mainly a drama with some thriller aspects to it. The story that I have so far is about a young man's reality coming apart by having sound introduced to him. Usually silent films are released in black & white but I decided that this film should be in color since I want to be a modern version of a silent film. 

My biggest inspiration for making this film is a scene in the "The Artist" (2011). The scene is that the main character slowly starts discovering the horrors of sound and it ends up being a dream. I can't really describe it in words but that scene is so impactful within the context of the film that I want to make a full-length inspired by that one scene alone.

Link to the scene:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_58I2YrkKdk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music Marketing 2

  The research process of our presentation was fun, as in like having fun whilst learning. I discovered many things I did not know about some of my favorite artists and different marketing techniques that music artist use as well as some record companies that I have never heard of. This was the probably the slowest process since our group didn't know each other and were still figuring out what our plan for the rest of the presentation.

   Our brainstorming and planning process was when we really started to work as a group efficiently. This planning process was my favorite because as a group we were all listening to each other's ideas and furthered our progress since we all were trying to incorporate as many ideas as possible into the presentation. Our artist's name is Javan since we wanted our artist to be different and standout since it is an exotic name, we mostly took inspiration from The Weeknd's real name (Abel) since it was also an uncommon name. At first we wanted to do a darker video tackling the effects of drugs or alcohol and the effects of heartbreak but we didn't learn until the next day that we couldn't reference anything related to drug and alcohol so we had to do work our way around that. Eventually we ended agreeing to just have soda cans to represent a "substance" of some sort. 

   Before we went to go shoot our music video we all agreed that we shouldn't strictly follow the storyboard, if opportunities for interesting shots were brought forth to us then we would have to take them. Sometimes we had to wait 30 minutes just for a cloud to cover the sun to get the depressing vibe that we were trying to achieve and I'm guessing we all learned our lesson to rather film in a controlled environment. Our editor Eduardo was essential in post-production since he is the best editor and sound mixer out of all of us so we were all giving him ideas of how to make it connect. After he had finished editing the video, the rest of us asked him a bunch of questions about sound-mixing and editing since we were astonished by how amazing the final product was. Personally, I do feel like I learned more from Eduardo than I ever have from anyone else in our group.

   Some aspects of this project that will be helpful to creating my Cambridge portfolio would be the new sound lessons I learned and marketing techniques.