First Storyboard

First of all, my drawing is terrible. Like it literally sucks, I have no idea how I passed Art class when I was a freshmen. But whatever, I finished the first draft of my storyboard of the opening scene based on the screenplay that I created (i will be uploading the screenplay in another post)

These are some pictures of my improvised storyboard that I made in my small notebook where I keep my ideas:

Creating a character

 So this whole plot story will be focusing on one character: Michael Ortiz. As I created the character I wanted to make a full background of his life to make him more vulnerable to the audience by knowing about him.

Michael Ortiz

- He is a 22 year old man. He was born September 18, 1998. His mother is from Peru and his father, who he hasn't seen since he was 5, is American.

-  Michael had a rough childhood, having several disciplinary problems. He was expelled from high school due to bad behavior. 

- Michael's desire is to become rich one day and try to enjoy life.

- Michael was diagnosed with having anger issues because one day, when he was 20 years old, he got into a discussion with his neighbor. Michael ended up destroying the front window and the lights of his neighbor's car. After that, Michael takes a daily medicine to control his anger.

- His mother helped him to get a job after the incident for him to pay the damages of the neighbor's car. He works in a small real state office.

- After becoming legal, Michael tends to drink a lot and smoke a pack of cigarettes every two days. 

- Michael may have some issues with some people ant usually tends to be an asshole (sorry), but he still has good feelings and cares for the people he loves.

- Michael has an on and off relationship with his toxic girlfriend Jenna. She treats him very poorly and always abuses of him. 

As we can see Michael is a very troubled character that has some issues that need to be fixed. Now I am going to compare my character to several inspirations of what helped me create him. 

Jordan Belfort portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)

One of the best movies of Mr. Scorsese and one of the best performances by Leonardo DiCaprio. Jordan Belfort is based on a real character of a famous stockbroker in Wall Street. His desire of power and money lead Jordan to become completely successful  at his job. The character of Belfort even though has everything he wants economically, still possesses an addiction to drugs and alcohol. Also, he pledged guilty to fraud and crimes related to stock-manipulation.  

Connie Nikas portrayed by Robert Pattinson in Good Time (2017)

In the first big film of the Safdie Brothers, Good Time (discussed in previous posts) Robert Pattinson plays the character of Connie Nikas, a criminal that after getting his younger brother involved in a failed attempt bank robbery, he would do anything to get him out of there. Connie is a very aggressive abusive character that when he thinks he is doing good for others, his actions are completely the opposite. In this case he cares about his brother, but every time he tries to do something for him, he just makes it worse.

Holland March portrayed by Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys (2016)

One of the most underrated comedies of the last years, The Nice Guys was released in 2016 but wasn't successful in the box office because of the animated movie Angry Birds... I mean that's really sad. But whatever, the character of Ryan Gosling is a private detective that has a problem with alcohol, but does a great job. He has a daughter that loves very much. His first appearance in the film inspired a lot my idea for the opening. 

WORDS!

So I've started to develop my main idea by making a screenplay to create the dialogues and the setting together. After finishing my screenplay, I'll then develop a storyboard to get an idea of how my shots are going to be when I start filming.

The title of my film is still unknown because I want to finish first everything with the story and then make a title that makes sense and has symbolism and foreshadowing.

Here are some pictures of a small part of my screenplay:

Developing the ideas!

I've already started to develop some ideas about my project with the genre that I already described in a previous post but I would also like to add a the sub-genre of TRAGIC-COMEDY. This type of genre blends aspects about tragedy and comical forms. A lot of relevant and award winning movies from the last decade have used this type of genre to make their stories and engage the audience with the idea that anything can happen in these films.

Some examples include:

               

My #1 idea of the story that I'm trying to develop is:

A criminal-drama about a young 22 year old alcoholic named Michael that is trying to do anything to be successful in life but doesn't seem to achieve any objective that he tries to get involved with. After getting involved in some bad business, Michael must face his worst fears to survive in the dangerous city. My opening idea, will mostly establish the character to get a sense of connection with him.

We are going to have a Good Time... ok that was a terrible pun

I've spent the whole day watching, analyzing and reviewing A LOT of film openings from really amazing movies, not just from my own genre but from a all types of genre just to get a clear idea of how and why of the importance of a film opening. 

This video also helped to explain a lot!

One of the first film openings that I would like to talk about is of the movie; Good Time, directed by the Safdie Brothers. This is the first big feature film of the Safdies to the big screen. The film stars Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie (one of the directors) and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film is about two brothers that after a failed bank robbery, the young brother gets into prison, so the older brother embarks on an odyssey through New York's underground to get him out of there.

As I couldn't attach the opening to the blog, here is the link to the opening scene. Some parts of the opening are cut. 

Good Time (2017)

The opening scene, gives us a background on one of the main characters, the younger brother interpreted by Benny Safdie. That seems to be talking with a special therapist that asks him some question that trigger the character to a past trauma. This opening help to give some background of a probable mental illness that the character suffers and is in needed requiere of help. After some conversation, the older brother comes in gets his younger brother out of there as soon as possible. He tells him that he is not one of them.

This scene shows different techniques that gives us a sense of emotion of what is happening between the two characters that are having this conversation. The shots are divided by always having close ups between the two characters with small zoom in and zoom out off their faces. I like this opening very much because it gives us a little background and connection to one of the characters. It also gives a lot of foreshadowing.

And. Here. We. Go!

MEDIA STUDIES PORTFOLIO PROJECT

This will be my first major project of what will potentially lead to help me learn, create and participate on what will help me on my future career selected in possibly the film industry. This class is the only one I've been more focused in school and I really want to work on this really passionate and hoping I will make a really great job. I will not comfort with just good, I want to make it great.

Opening a film

The opening of a film is essentially of the most important pieces in the creation of a new production for the audience. It is the first statement of the film to attract the audience and by making them want to keep watching. For it, the opening needs a series of elements for making it unique and innovative. Some of them are:

- Establishing a setting
- A background
- A character (sometimes)
- Foreshadowing

And many more.

Selecting a genre

I am still on the brainstorming decision of the plot story of my opening scene. But I believe that I have already selected the genre, which is DRAMA - CRIMINAL DRAMA. I've selected this genre because it is one of my favorites genres in a movie of how a story is developed and unfold with every single characteristic and minor detail being very important in the plotline. Everything matters!

Character:

• The character in a crime drama can typically include; a suspect, a criminal, a villain, a detective and such. 
• Mostly male characters
• Minor characters in this type of genre are stereotypical

Setting:

• Modern crime fiction that uses everyday locations
• Setting is depicted in detail to describe the atmosphere

Themes:

• Danger
• Crime
• Thriller
• Mystery 
• Justice
• Power
• Morality

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET - MARTIN SCORSESE

 

SE7EN - DAVID FINCHER

 

Music Blog Post

MUSIC PROJECT

THE GENRE

The genre selected for our music marketing project was ALTERNATIVE ROCK. The genre that our group chose is one of the sub-genres of the independendent type of music. In this genre, the "alternative" use is to show something mainstream or edgy very different of what is seen in regular pop and rock. The genre started to earn a lot of popularity in 90's as numerous bands started developing their products with distorted guitars and rooting generational discontent. One of the most famous bands that implemented this concept was the famous American band; Nirvana, with their first success, "Smells like Teen Spirit".

The amazing thing about this type of genre is on how it can portray different types of melody from janglo-pop to a more heavy metallic. But all of these are tied together by a similar aesthetic. Bands that have been related to this type of music between the 80's and the 90's never signed majors as they decided to have independent labors and have a more open minded and artistic view.

MARKETING TRENDS

In the research of marketing trends and examples of different case studies of music bands of the last five years, we selected American bands; Cage The Elephants and Half Alive

CAGE THE ELEPHANT

Cage The Elephant has become one of the most famous and influential bands of the genre of the last decade. They have released major hits that have been #1 Billboard singles, they have gathered more than 1.5 billion streams worldwide, have done tours and featured in music festivals around the world. CTE has an official website were they have a lot of content promoting the band like photos, music videos, upcoming tours and tabs were it can be connected to the different streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. They also sell their merchandise with an apparel that includes hats, coloring books, bandanas, and rings. They also have different social media accounts in Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and an account on YouTube. 

 

HALF ALIVE

The rising American band, Half Alive, was founded only four years ago in the year 2016, since then the band started earning a lot of popularity due to music video of their hit song; "Still Feel". Due to it's original choreography and amazing cinematography, the band attracted the attention of millions of viewers and a even the possibility of signing a major with RCA records. The band has an official website where they show all of their content involving their new singles, albums and upcoming tours. The band also started selling merchandise in the website starting with hats and long sleeve shirts that represent the band. Similar to CTE, they also work a lot with their social medias on Instagram and Twitter by promoting their products and showing upcoming content.

 

TEMPTATION

The artist that we chose to make for our project is called Temptation. We wanted to make him as unique as possible by having his own mainstream and edgy idealism. For the artist we selected a specific costume design and how different colors represented him to the audience. We used dark clouds as a brand for the cover of his picture and our website, as he faces with a young adult target audience in which he tries to represent with his music depressive thoughts and just pure anger. The clouds are used to represent a mood that can be relatable. We also used dark cool colors when choosing a color palette to give dark emotions to the audience and completely related to the artist.

MARKETING PRODUCTS

We developed and created original marketing products for our artist thinking about on what the artist was trying to represent and how we could achieve our target audience. We created an official website for the artist where a lot of information and background can be found from upcoming tours, links to the official social media accounts of Instagram and Twitter, connections to find and hear the music on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. We also created original merchandise that included long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, hats, phone cases and official posters of the band. All of these merchandise products are created with a design related to the artist and the message he is trying to convey. Here are some of the examples:

     

EXPERIENCE

I would say that what I learned most about this project is experience and how much hard work it requires to make a marketing plan for a product that you are trying to sell. For the marketing campaign, a lot of research was required to know very well what you are trying to sell to an audience by knowing very well all concepts, the genre, and what strategies will be used. It all requires a lot of hard work and to have passion and confidence of what you are doing. Choosing a genre in which you do not know very well and have to work harder to achieve the objectives is a very good way to learn how to these types of campaign. When developing the music video, a lot was needed to make a successful product by having innovative ideas and preparing very well for every specific detail that is trying to be portrayed to be viewed. Experience was gained by learning from my mistakes and by accepting the different critiques that may help me to improve more and more on what I am producing.