Creative Critical Reflection

 I hope you are having a fantastic day. I uploaded my CCR on YouTube. Thank you for being on this journey with me. The link is below:

https://youtu.be/TDmEKimVaN8 

Film Opening

I uploaded my film opening on YouTube and I hope you enjoy the product as much as I liked creating it. The link is below:

https://youtu.be/BT1jn1iv8cM

A Big Change to my Project

 Okay, so basically I decided that my opening would be shot on a rainy day and soon realized it was a horrible idea. Since it's spring break it's mostly sunny here in Chicago. For most of my shots, sun reflecting off glass ruins the atmosphere that I am trying to make. So, I have decided to make my entire opening in black & white since for some shots the weather doesn't match with the grayish sky in my establishing shot. Therefore, the continuation wouldn't exist and that would obviously cost points on my project since it could have been seen as lazy. 

Unexpected Problems

 Most of the shooting locations that I planned out in Chicago were off limits. I might have to shoot a major part of the opening scene back in Florida since I think I will run out of time here.

New Shooting Schedule

 

I will now be shooting the film opening on March 18th through March 26th. That week I will be going to Chicago for personal family reasons and I hate the fact that I am going to such a cold place in spring break. Anyways, I decide to shoot the film in Chicago since the film's setting takes place in a large city with skyscrapers, also the places I decided to shoot the opening looked too much like a small town instead of a big city. Weston in general is a boring place and there's not many interesting shooting locations here. But, with the windy city in my hands almost anything is possible.

Title and Screenplay

 THE WORDLESS

EXT. ESTABLISHER - HUGE CITY

A lonesome city stands out overlooking a lamented lake. 

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING 

A boy starts his day by taking a shower, washing his face and eyes he begins to wonder what this day has in store for him. He soon stops showering and walks to his bedroom to put on some clothes, as he walks to his bedroom he notices that he left his computer on. Whilst dressing up to go to his job, he notices an article about the national guard's new policy regarding the so-called "terrorist group" who's intentions are to restore the sound barrier. He scoffs, gets his keys and leaves.

EXT. STREETS 

The boy now walking through the streets being watched by those damned security cameras, soon the article crosses his mind. He asks himself why sound doesn't exist, why people don't have freedom and being watched constantly. He exits the parking garage onto the streets where that simple thought cannot escape his mind.

EXT. UNDERNEATH METRO TRACKS

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He starts to get lost in his own thoughts and starts wandering the city aimlessly. This whole time he's been asking himself "what if its real? sound." He makes his way underneath the metro tracks where suddenly he hears a low grumble, making nothing of it he continues on his aimless walk. That dreaded low grumble soon comes closer, confused the boy looks up to see then BANG. The sound of the metro comes crashing in, scared he goes into an alleyway to get a hold of himself.

Changes to the Story

 I've realized that having a love story in the mix of a thriller don't exactly mix with each other.

I've cut out the the characters backstory because it was too depressing and wouldn't fit the tone of the film. 

The new story is about a teenage boy who lives in a society where everybody can't hear and eventually the boy starts to hear things and everybody thinks he's crazy. It's a dystopian film where the government makes people deaf in order to manipulate them easier, eventually when the government discovers the boys new revelation they start going after him to silence him. 

 

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.

 

 

Representation Analysis

 H & M

I’ve never really shopped at H&M before because I have never seen one in public before . I can guess that H&M is really progressive with the whole clothes having no gender , age or limits because doing you is beneficial . In the video they show all races , ethnicities , genders because honestly why not . It’s always a great feeling watching all groups included even if it’s an advertisement . I feel like plenty of viewers would be satisfied .

AXE 

Weird . Kinda takes me back to Middle School where every dude kept spraying this stuff on , I never saw the hype behind it though . The advertisement consists of mostly women in bikinis trying to get to a man just gassing himself with AXE . The ad definitely has an over-exaggerated take on the product about how every woman will instantly find you attractive if you spray AXE on yourself , but I’m guessing this was made in the early 2000’s because of the camera quality and colors they use . I definitely feel that back then I would be ok with these types of ads because it was kinda normal , but today this wouldn’t even air because I just know the massive outcry the media will cause and because people have mostly stopped sexualizing women in ads .

Being Dramatic

 

                  Drama films have always been and probably remain as the most dominant genre of film in the industry . The reason for this is that drama films are essentially what started to make film grow in popularity , audiences were looking for something  mature and to have deeper meaning . But , drama doesn't always have to attract a more mature audience , drama films can attract any type of audience since there is so much diversity in the genre . Drama has many subgenre's as well . 

       The Prestige (Christopher Nolan) is a film that takes place in 19th century London . This piece has 2  protagonists , the sympathetic and caring Alfred Borsen (Christian Bale) and the competitive and vulnerable Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) . Alfred and Robert are 2 magicians competing with each other after an accident which tore the duo apart , their hatred for each other goes so far as to even trying to kill each other . On the surface , this film is an exhilarating and fun thriller with shocking twists and turns but deep down this film is truly about morality . The audience is forced to question the men’s ambitions and goals , their goal to outsmart each other with new magic tricks or just to flat out run the other out of business . 

         Hereditary is a horror drama directed by Ari Aster who also directed the recently released Midsommar . This film is a unique drama film because its main theme is grief with horror elements . Annie Graham (Toni Collette) is a miniaturist whose recently experienced the loss of her grandma and copes with her death by making miniatures , Peter Graham (Alex Wolff) is a regular teen whose just going through highschool . Steve Graham (Gabriel Bryne) is the father of the family who looks at everything with reason and is passive and then there’s Charlie Graham (Milly Shapiro) who is the daughter of the Graham’s and is resourceful . The acting in this film is superb , especially Toni Collette because she is mostly know for her light-hearted comedies crushes her role as Annie . The scenes where the family is arguing are gut-wrenching and beautifully composed .

        Rocketman is a drama that takes a more mature approach at a musical . Rocketman is basically what everyone hoped for in Queen’s biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, fans wanted an R-rated take on Freddie Mercury but it never got to see the light of day due to the studio just wanting more money . This film is about Elton John’s life , it’s about his struggles as a sex addict , alcoholic , drug addict and trying to fit into society as a gay man . Classic Elton John songs are remade into bombastic musical numbers , each song having a connection to Elton’s current state emotionally and physically . Every musical number in the film is seen through the eyes of Elton and each number is fresh , innovative and has stunning visuals because of Elton’s creativeness . The theme the audience is completely oblivious to is how this isn’t about celebrating or memorializing Elton John’s life , the theme is overcoming substance abuse , loneliness , depression and just wanting to be loved . 

                    

                    

                   

Intro

            

Introduction

Hello , my name is Luis and this is my blog . The first thing you need to know about me is that 

I've always loved the game of basketball , I've been a Miami Heat fan since 2007 even though

I have no memory of being a fan for so long . My parents do have a photo of me next to Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O'Neal . Once I became 12 my brother introduced me to film and from then on I just fell in love with film and acting as a whole . What I think is good about me is that my taste in film and music has no limits , I really enjoy anything even if it's country . My favorite music artist is definitely The Weeknd and my favorite director is Christopher Nolan . 

If anyone wants to know the reason I created this blog , it is for school and I'm learning how to use a blog