Coming Soon to a Theater Near You "Younger"

       

         The moment we have all been waiting for here you go, ladies and gentleman, the final opening scene to "Younger" the movie starring ME. I will be awaiting my Oscar now. Much love for being with me on this journey it was more fun than any other school assignment I have done. It barely felt like work.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/0MDnNzRWW2g

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zidK6o4N-ibEl3eHVQpWMg8kY-lZk8Ru/view?usp=sharing

CCR!!!!

       

   Hey guys! I'm finally done with my CCR. It took a lot of time to put together but I hope my hard work and dedication reflects in the final version. I had a lot of fun putting everything together for you guys and hope, you guys also enjoyed it. I will be posting the final video tomorrow have a wonderful day.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/5NoqpluQmjo

 Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-b3wG_6flzWwY9g6WtbdRjwsU4kIHAlG/view?usp=sharing

All Done

  It was pretty late when the girls finally made it to the house but Pearse and I were determined to finish or at least get most of it done. We began by filming the dinner scene and it was actually pretty complicated to do since all the girls were laughing and would not take it seriously. We switched girls until we found the one that could stop herself from giggling, eventually. This scene took a while since there were various angles and shots we needed to film in order to have a variety of shots to use when editing the scene. Taking multiple shits allows the editing to be smoother because if one shot doesn't work we can move right on to the next one. I was actually super concerned whether the ramen would seem like a real dinner but it turned out to work just fine.

           Next came shooting the scene that included the room. This scene was a lot faster to film since by the time we got to it it was already midnight. I was really tired through it all I have an early bedtime but I fought through and focused all my energy into filming. We continued to the outside scene which was actually a lot easier to film and by 1am we were DONE. It was time to go home.

             The next few days we're focusing our energy and time on the editing. Pearse walked me through it and I kept watching more and more videos on youtube on how to edit. By the time I got the hang of it we were already done but I am glad that I got to contribute at least a little bit. Soon enough I have to edit my CCR so my studying will be put to use. I am super thrilled with the way everything came out and I hope you guys love it!

Getting to work!

How it looks from the actual screen!

Sources for CCR:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/nearly-60-percent-of-americans-are-streaming-and-most-with-netflix-cnbc-survey.html
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/streaming-netflix-movie-theaters-1203090899/

Filming duh duh duhhhh Part. 2

      Pearse and I continued to try and follow our shot list as much as possible but it got sort of hard at one point. The person playing the mom had difficulty comprehending how to act and made it difficult to shoot our scenes. We didn't want to say anything to discourage because she was helping us and we don't have any backups to call last minute, and we were still missing 3 people. So we were right on track and kept a positive attitude throughout. We first shoot the mom prepping to cook the ramen which took more or less 45 minutes. After we shot the ramen cooking as well as the mom seasoning to show some type of cooking effort but not as much as what I did earlier before, cause that was more of a professional effort. 

               Here is a picture of Pearse filming his mom cooking the ramen. As you can see we used anything to get better shots of what we want to show in our opening scene. Pearse got up on chairs to get some high angle shots which was smart considering most of this scene were close-ups of the mom cooking. There were a few medium but the close up shows the activity and emphasize the cooking.

           After the ramen cooked we filmed the mom prepping the bowls to serve her children food. We also filmed the table being prepped. We want it to seem as smooth as possible so there are the least amounts of hiccups as possible. Overall this part of filming was a lot more quickly than the rest, but the girls were nowhere to be seen and it was already 10pm by the time we were done and I fell asleep. Spoiler: We still won an Oscar.

Also another update it is my second day working this week and yesterday went by super slow and all the parents just let their kids run around the pool. Actually, the new guy had to jump in his first 30 minutes of working because some baby fell in and was starting to drown. Learning to swim is not a joke.

Filming duh duh duhhhh

We finally did it and I have proof. I have proof and nobody can say we didn't.

          It is Sunday and I have been sick for a couple of days and I wake up to the smell of my mom's cooking burning. I quickly put out the fire and dig into burnt toast and eggs. I continue my day by passing out for a couple of hours and waking up to my friend checking up on me. I decided it is time to eat again at 11am so we start cooking ramen since he had bought various ingredients in Japan the week before.

This what he bought and we used it to make the soup. I think it is called miso paste.

This is the final result. Maybe I should have done a cooking magazine lol

            Then we went to my house and ate AGAIN. My grandma cooked this time so nothing burned (please don't show this to my mom). Then my friend and I went to our swimming competition, however, I wasn't allowed to swim :(

            Later I went to soccer but I lost track of time and I was late for filming and I am the main actor so oops.

           To my surprise when I arrived the other actors were not there and Pearse was FURIOUS.  We looked over our equipment, set up the rooms and did some things here and there. I helped Pearse open up the windows so it is easier for us to "sneak out" when filming. We also went over very carefully with Pearse's mom what her job was and how she would have to act out several times the same scene so we get different angles. We decided to start filming at least something so we changed our opening scene from an establishing shot of the house and so on to the mom starting to cook. Pearse had bought some quick ramen to cook since there was no other food and we just rolled along with it and hoped for the best. We really had to adapt because we were both falling asleep waiting for the girls to come. 

Spoiler: We won an Oscar.

           

New Equipment... Sorta

         It is officially time to start filming and I will take you guys on a magical story of how everything might have gone just exactly average. Ok so Pearse has a MUN conference and we were supposed to start filming however our schedule is super busy. I am working a lot since I need to buy a new laptop because mine broke and my parents can't afford to buy me a new one. I have recently just ordered one but it is gonna take about a few weeks to get here because I customized to meet my needs. I upped the amount of RAM memory a lot because I am constantly using multiple windows and I need a fast laptop that won't die on me when I open more than one window. I Stayed with the one terabyte of storage because I work mostly with the cloud using programs such as Google Drive to type and save my documents. I decided to go with a newer HP model that also has the touch screen option that could come in handy at any point. This model has an i7 processor compared to many laptops in the market right now with i5 which can work as well but would be easier if the RAM memory is enhanced. I enhanced the RAM memory from 8gb to 16gb that will be a significant increase in speed and price since in total the laptop ended up costing me more than a thousand dollars. I still believe it was a needed investment since it is a device I use more than my phone in some cases and what good would it do if it can't do its job efficiently. I am posting this right after my really long 7-hour shift with almost no break time. There has been a lot of cutbacks at work and it is really starting to affect the employees. But as of next week, they are going to increase the staff amount and hopefully, it will be easier for me since I am working roughly 20-30 hours (that is right my Spring Break and all I am going to do is save people LOL). It is okay from time to time I will escape and shoot the basketball a little bit. But, back to the main topic Pearse and I are 100% filming tomorrow and we have everything ready to get this project on the road. Wish us luck!

Le De Tour France

          Today I will be discussing the set of "Younger" and why we decided to buy this house out of all houses. I would like to start off by announcing that the official name of our movie is "Younger" and was inspired by our music video project which we did fairly well on and learned a lot on. At first, I didn't want to have the same name or at least just one word in our title but I can't deny it that name sure is good, probably cause I came up with it.

If I ever saw someone wearing that mask I would literally flip and scream it is so creepy. Ok so continuing here are some of the pictures of our set that Pearse sent to me, we love Pearse.

Ok here is the dinner table where our main character will be eating dinner with his mom and sister and where his friend will catch his attention through the window. One thing that will be off about all our images will be that they were all taken during the day but we have a few tricks up our sleeve to help with filming at night.

Here is the window you see from the dinner table. Right now the blinds are shut but when we film they will be open for obvious film purposes.

Here is the room where our main character will be in the beginning when his mom calls for dinner. He will also be sneaking out through this window you see behind his bed.

Here is the actual window through the outside part where his friend will be getting him from.

This is the kitchen we are gonna use for the opening scene in order to how the credits and have the story start developing early on.

Here is the street the two characters will be running down the street to god knows where. Probably an ice cream store because I am not in shape right now and would not be able to make it anywhere far.

Might Mess Around and Edit Everything

           Pearse and I have worked together on every project possible in this class to understand the groove of our skills and energy. We have both learned a few things about each other some that we wish to ignore and others we are glad that we learned because it has become a huge asset to our projects. And Pearse's secret weapon happens to be his slightly over average editing skill. For as long as I can remember Pearse has been editing videos and posting them on social media for everyone to see. I believe as time went by he got a lot better and his videos began to receive more recognition, more locally in our school but still, there is no such thing as bad media.

             For the Projects we have worked on together Pearse has most of the editing with a program called Premiere Pro.

              This program is actually a very advanced program that has countless features that can be used to create projects. I am not knowledged in any way at all about this program like Pearse is, however, I really enjoyed the after effects feature it does have and have watched multiple videos on how to use it. Even though we won't be using After Effect I think I can begin to learn more about this program and even download it on my computer (when I get paid it is pretty expensive on my budget) to begin editing. Pearse has let me use his computer a few times to get a better feel of the system and how it works and has even offered to teach me and walk me through his process. I will continue to learn on my own and try to find a way to toy around without the need of Pearse but for now I must work with what I have.

This is how the program looks:


And here are some videos that I have watched in order to get me started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hls3Tp7JS8E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhBeziSa6-E

Fonts and Giggles

     Earlier this week Pearse and I went font hunting to find the perfect fit for our story. It may be perceived as a simple task that should not take much time, however, it must well throughout in order that the font captures the movie as well. Like all elements that go into making a movie choosing a font has its own process as well. The font you choose to use needs to be appropriate with the theme of everything else, especially when you're an amateur movie maker like me. You can't take big risks but should try to be as creative as possible when choosing a font for your title or credits. For us, it took longer than we expected but I found a website called FontBundles and suddenly it got a lot easier. I used a separate email when I signed up so I wouldn't get the annoying spamming but besides the many emails, you may receive from them it is a very good website to search for your font.

So here are the ones that caught our attention:

Maskoolin
Pearse found this font when we were searching for HOURS (just kidding not that much). He really liked the 90's theme is brought to our production. In my opinion, it does bring that feel to the words but I don't think our production has enough 90's theme elements to make sense.


Honey Bee
This font is kind of random but it looks really cool in a way that could work towards our film production. It is definitely something we should really think about before choosing 100% on but I really feel like we won't know which font to use until our filming is done and our video is put together.


Inflatable Flamingo
Again it is also really random but when I saw this font it reminded me of a teen movie filled with endless beach days and summer pool parties. It looks like it could really fit in with everything that we are trying to bring into this production. It could work, it really could.



       Overall, those are the top 3 as of now but nothing is guaranteed. I am happy to announce that we are filming soon and I have a feeling it is going to be so much fun and it is going to look awesome. Also, I am officially the main character so yeah it is gonna be filled with amazing acting.

#SquadGoals

          Pearse and I have decided to schedule out the sequence we would like to shoot our opening scene. First, we would like to begin with shooting the dinner scene with the main character, another character acting as a sibling, and the mom. This scene is also the foundation of the whole opening and starting with it would help get a lot done. In this scene we would need props such as actual food to make the dinner realistic as well religious decorations to show a little bit of what the family is like. Although this can seem as a bit of a touchy subject it is just to show that the family follows religious customs and takes them serious. This is important because it is a stereotype that religious families are a bit controlling and the film revolves around the concept of teens becoming rebellious. A ying yang situation. Our main character will be dressed in a conservative matter, most likely very clean wearing colors that are very plain such as white and beige to show a bland lifestyle. This scene will be the most time consuming because it involves most of the characters that would appear in the whole opening. Getting everyone to act perfectly will be very hard so it is our goal that everyone understand their role and helps us achieve it. We want to have people involved that are willing to help us make the best video we can not a mediocre piece.
           This is why I suggested to Pearse that we should have a group meeting with everyone involved to explain to them our scene and everything else. We will talk about the role everyone will be taking in our scene and how it is very important to us that they understand why we need them to do it. We want to ask the out of kindness to please help us cause we need as everyone as we can get. We also want to hear their ideas out and see what they think because it would be fair to them, even if their ideas are not acted upon. They would feel like they are being heard and that their opinions matter making them more productive. I think this meeting will be a huge success and will help our project immensely.

           So basically these are a few things to look forward to since we'll be having our meeting some time next week and getting a major portion of filming done the week after in order to catch up to the schedule we have planned. I also would like to add that I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off and I want to implement somethings like the sneak out portion to be as exciting but not as happy and gloomy, I want it to have a more of a Stranger Thing's feel were the plot is fun but also a serious production. I really enjoyed both productions as an fyi, however Stranger Thing's season 2 does not live up to the first.

Coming Later to a Theater Near You

            And here is our very detail shot list that I promised Enjoy! It took us a while to write up so I hope it lives to your expectations.

1. Establishing shot of a house in the suburbs
Long shot of the house. In the background, sounds of dinner (forks clicking, swallowing) can be heard.
2. Medium shot of a family having dinner

Slow zoom in. Have the camera facing the back of the main character’s head.
3. Close up of sister grabbing milk
Pans with the movement of her hand to the glass. Cuts to a close up of her drinking.
4. Medium Shot of boy sitting Still shot. Camera is facing the teen. The teenager shows signs of boredom/disgust.
5. Close up of boy’s leg shaking

Camera is under the dinner table. Shows boys leg tapping vigorously signaling impatience.
6. Over the Shoulder Shot of girl entering scene
From the outside perspective of the house (looking into window). A teenage girl enters the frame.
7. Close-up/Medium Shot of girl trying to get boy’s attention
Camera is at a side angle of the girls face. She is whispering and motioning with her hands to the boy sitting inside.
8. Close-up of boy looking confused
Camera is looking straight at the main character. He looks upward and looks confused.
9. Medium Shot of girl motioning to sneak out
Teenage girl motions to the boy to come outside and sneak out.
10. Medium Shot of boy getting up
From the side view (Camera shows the whole table, window, and subjects). Boy quickly scrambles all the food and walks out of frame.
11. Close up dishes
Shows boy aggressively placing his dishes in the sink
12. Medium Shot washing hands
Boy quickly runs water through his hands then runs to his room
13. Close up opening door
In a high angle, the frame shows boy opening his room door.
14. Medium shot of window
Angled view. Boy walks through the frame
15. Lower angle shot of window opening
Boy quickly unhatches his window
15. Over the shoulder of boy greeting girl
Over the shoulder shot shows boy opening his window. Once open the shot cuts
16. Two shot from outside
A lower angle two shot shows the boy and the girl talking. He fist bumps her and says “What's up?” she responds “Let's sneak out”.
17. Over the shoulder of girl 

The guys upper torso is in the frame. He seems hesitant for a second but then says “Ok wait one sec”
18. Close up of door locking
Still shot of boy quickly clicking the lock button on his door.
19. High Angle Shot of bedBoy quickly reaches at the pillows, roughening up the bed
20. Medium shot facing the boys face.Shows in more of a low angle the boy stuffing pillows into the bed simulating a dummy.
21. Same two shot as beforeHe peeks his head out the window and says “Liz you there?” she then steps into the frame and says “yes what are you waiting for?”
22. Long shot of windowWith the boys back facing the camera, you see him quickly leap out of the window.
23. Two shot outsideGirl picking her bike off the ground as the boy lifts his out of a bush
24. Two shot long shot of street The subjects are far from the camera. Music is playing loudly. The leave the frame then the title of the movie plays.

         This is the shot list we want to follow when shooting our opening scene.

Let's Dive in!

Wassup beautiful people how are you all doing?

             I just got off my 6 hour shift at 5 in the morning so I am feeling good and the bag is secured (slang for getting money). And it is time for the second grind of the day before I go back to work. Why am I working so much? I have to buy a new laptop since my old one stopped working, but it is all good since I have been saving up since I started working.

So let's dive in SHALL WE

*Video of me diving at a competition

              We had our second gang session this past week to discuss our process and ideas we have. I listened to some of peers talk about their ideas and how they were planning on pursuing their obstacles. I was the second to last one to talk and I did not have a lot of time to talk about my idea but I did get some feedback that I think could really help me. So one of the problems Pearse and I have had is choosing between a male and female main character. The problem is if we choose a guy it would have to be me since Pearse wants to work with the camera. Pearse and I have been discussing this for sometime and he already decided he doesn’t want to be part of it and focus on shooting. However, I also want to be more involved in the producing side to see if our project is coming along the way I want it to also. And yeah I am really good looking and cameras love me (lies), but I have more to bring to the table than my good looks. Now if we were to choose a female role my group pointed out the following:

• Women’s looks are easier to manipulate. What I mean by this is we could change her hair, make up, clothes to look different when she is with her parents and with her friend. This helps show a difference in character a lot easier at our budget size.
• Women are awesome and that’s always a plus.

                  Another idea is in order to make our story more intriguing we need to add something. My peer, Amanda, suggested we could have the girl steal cigarettes. This could really add a twist to the story that shows the teenage rebel side, which is what we are looking to represent. Another one of my peers suggested that the character grabs a concert flier and shoves it in their pocket. This shows the rebel side as well but it isn’t as drastic as cigarettes. I really enjoy these talks because they give be a better insight in what I should focus on next. I will be posting the shots storyboard tomorrow stay tuned😉

Photo from our group meeting sessions. I am the one with the grey sweater

2(Shots x16 + Everybody)

        This past few months my teacher has been constantly providing us with tools and information that will expand our knowledge on some key elements to film making. So I would like to take some time and dedicate a blog posting to things I want to implement into my opening. I would like to begin with one of the most valuable things we have learned when it comes to storytelling, make me care. Why should the audience care about what they are watching? Why should they stay towards the end to find out? Questions like these are essential when telling a story, which is what we are doing. Like I talked about in one of my earliest blog postings there has to be a promise made. This promise will grab the audience’s attention and will make them wonder how it will turn out. Plus since our genre is drama it is very important that we follow this convention: drama is anticipation driven by uncertainty as Andrew Stanton best put it in his Ted Talk “The clues to a great story”.
         However, in order to do this there are various things Pearse and I need to focus on when filming. To begin with I would like to talk about some of the shots Pearse and I will be using in our opening and why. I will also dedicate a blog posting to a script we made that includes every scene and the shots used in those scenes. We first want to start with an establishing shot because it is a common shot to begin with in teen dramas as I discussed before. We want to have a high amount of close ups and medium shots as well as quick pace editing in various scenes so our amateur side is hidden by the change of angle.
           The reason we want to use medium shots is to build intimacy between the main character and the audience. It is also a shot were the character is the main center of attention, and since we are actually more focused on the character “telling” the story rather than the background it is a more useful shot for us.

*Medium shot of the movie The Hobbit

           The close up shots will be used to show the actions the characters are making it when it could be unclear in shots that are farther away. As well as to change from a medium shot that could get boring to the audience. This close up will fill most of the frame on what we are shooting and it would be smarter for us to do this with the cameras we have. This is because the cameras we have have higher resolution in closer shots than further away.  

*Close up shot in the movie The Shinning

         Another shot would two shot because we want to show the relationship of characters in the same shot and allow the audience to see the contrast of how the main character acts with her parent compared to her friends.

*Two shot of the movie Harry Potter, just kidding Pulp Fiction lol

 I will be sure to post our shot list soon. Bye guys!

Andrew Stanton's Ted Talk :https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story?language=en

RAWR xd

HELLO WELCOME BACK
I see you have had a long day and the last thing you want to do is read this grammatically perfect blog posting because it is just too good to be true. That is right I have installed Grammarly into my computer so get ready! Just kidding I only have the free version so there might be some premium things that are undetected but I don’t have premium money right now I have other bills to pay. That’s right I have bills, I work every week to pay for my things, I can’t always rely on my parents they have taught me better, also they told me to stop asking for money. But continuing…..

I have set my own individual agenda basically I would like to......

• Finalize what we will call our movie
• This week I would like to at least get the establishing shot and some of the props such as posters to set up the room for the main character
• Next week I would like to film all the shots that take place at the dinner table
• A week after getting all the shots that are left and start some light editing to see how it is coming together
• I would like to find a song to use that would work to build the story:; maybe try contacting some artists for permission
• Research how to make an amateur film look more professional
• And have fun

I think this can be achieved if I dedicate myself and make time. I have to be focused and I cannot procrastinate because this isn’t something that can be done in one night. I NEED TO BE SMART AND I WILL SUCCEED!


(You guys would not believe how many mistakes Grammarly fixed for me. I really recommend it)

STRESSED BUT STILL SERVING LOOKS

Alright so we definitely have a problem in our hands and I think it is time to address it so we have to get real for a second. Since we began this project Pearse and I have been focused on setting everything up so when we start filming we are ready to kill it. However it has been 3 weeks and we have no footage, nada people, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! However, I haven’t been slacking off, I have had to deal with many things constantly, junior year is hard and I am really really tired. I’m a tough guy but most of the time I want to go home curl up in a ball and cry. I am ~exhausted~.
BUT RAUL YOU ALREADY TOOK THE 2 SATS YOU WERE PREPARING FOR!
          Oh me you’re so cute yes that is done, for now, we signed up for the ACT February and we have to study remember it is not the same.
         Oh, shoot. Damn how do you have a social life, 4.0 GPA, stay fit, and have time for your girlfriend?
Well me, I haven’t seen my friends in a week. Last time I had 8 hours of sleep I thought girls had cooties. I got kicked out of my swimming team because I never go. Oh, and my girlfriend texted me we need to talk. BUT the gpa looks cute :)
ANDDDDDDDD you look cute ;)


       That's inappropriate, but thanks <3 But continuing with our initial problem. We have no footage and we need to address this problem NOW. Well, not right now cause I am tired and my mom is making food so maybe like another day, we just need a schedule. SO A SCHEDULE I SHALL MAKE. Here you go: 

• Film this week
• Next week too
• Week after too
• Take a break the week after you ~deserve~ it
• Edit if you want too lol

        Just kidding I will make a more specific schedule but just so you guys know I am serious about this project I will tell you when I’m not filming. This upcoming Saturday I am working all day and I will be unable to work, and Sundays I go to church with my mom early.
         Those are my only plans, sorry I am so boring and completely academic #harvardclassof2023 #willhateharvard #willbecomeharvarddroput #atleastiwenttoharvard #cambridgeuniversityisbetter. Pearse and I have made plans to start filming next week either Friday or Sunday in the afternoon. However, we are both extremely busy and swamped with countless things. Hopefully, we manage to get this A1 project on the road to show these amateurs how it’s done. Sorry, not sorry Steven Spielberg. Also, I would like to talk about why we decided on an outside hire to be the main actor. Male toxicity. We couldn’t decide which out of the two of us was cuter to be on screen. Actually, that is not 100% true, although we both know it kinda was. Pearse and I would have had to act at the same time on some scenes and we would have to rely on one of our moms to film, and my mom can’t even change her screensaver so we made the right call. This way we both can focus solely on the production of our opening, not on how we look. Tough decisions like these take long face-time calls and a lot of thought, but we made the right choice. Manos a la obra chicos!

COMPUTER CATCHES ON FIRE AT SCHOOL *STORYTIME*

              Earlier this week Pearse, my partner in crime, and I researched to find a song we wanted to put into our opening. Spoiler Alert: everything goes wrong. It was a sunny morning, the birds were chirping, just kidding I don’t really know if there were birds since my earbuds were so loud I couldn’t hear my own thoughts. Skip ahead to a few hours and I’m sitting next to my co-director and we are arguing loudly. What went wrong you might ask? Well, let me tell you. I have tended to try and think outside the box quite often and it seems to make simple tasks harder to solve. But, this time I decided to keep things simple and choose a song that related to the age group we are representing and set the mood of adventure. SO as you may have guessed I searched up various playlists on playlist titled “Who Runs the World”, girls!!!

OH, I FORGOT TO TELL YOU GUYS!

           Drum roll please, “drum roll” (x3). Our main actor is going to be a female! I will explain why on my next blog posting sorry I didn’t tell you guys sooner :(
            Ok, back to the main story. So I began to suggest various female empowering songs that our audience could relate to from big artists such as Ariana Grande. However, in order to use these songs in our opening we would acquire permission from the artists and the record companies and we just don't have the time to see if Ariana Grande will answer us (I still tweeted at her to see if she sees it and/or if she wants to grab a cup of coffee,, but that's plan D). Plan A consists of finding an old school that has not been copyrighted and would be available to our usage. By the future tone of the last sentence you may have figured out we still don’t have a song, and here’s why. Website with free non copyrighted music has a large variety of EDM music, which is close to useless for us. We searched various songs we have in our oldies’ playlist but all the songs we thought would work are copyrighted. Our efforts to find a song were humongous, we wanted a win, we needed a win.

Why did we need a win?

              We had taken the SAT the day before and it was tough, really really tough.
          We never found a song. The websites we used to find out if some songs were useless and didn’t work. It was a tough process, and long. But let me tell you something. I am going to start making music now and not copyrighting it because I am not selfish, also I can’t sing so no one will want it. We are still in search of the perfect song or one that is not copyrighted whichever one comes first. So if you have any suggestions comment down below and I will take a look at it. Have a gorgeous day and keep cranking it Soulja Boy!

Here are the most played songs in movies:
https://www.billboard.com/photos/6450981/most-overplayed-songs-in-movies
Here are 19 songs every woman needs (Happy Late International Women Day!):
https://www.bustle.com/articles/93415-19-songs-every-badass-woman-needs-in-her-life
Here’s a website I signed up for free and includes many songs that you can use, sadly still no luck on my end:
https://www.epidemicsound.com/browse/?&moods=Moods.Happy&active=moods&activeFilter=energy
Here’s a picture of Pearse and me having fun:

PLOT WAS LOST *STILL NOT CLICKBAIT*

           My partner and I decided to create our own outlines of what we want our opening to look like and what elements we would like to implement. Therefore, I showed him what I had posted on my previous blog and he liked it much better than his idea so we decided to work around it. We did, however, talk about some of the few things that could be a problem or what he believed would work better for the opening, since in a group you always have to compromise. Here are some of the notes we wrote down when analyzing our plot:

Establishing shot of a house in the suburbs: (*In this shoot we agreed on having noises in the back of the family eating dinner to establish the setting and what is occurring all at once.) 

Medium shot of a family having dinner: (*We have decided to keep away from having either of us as the main role in order for both of us to focus more on the shots being taken instead of acting.) 

Silent dinner- mom, dad, son (*We actually plan on changing the main roles’ gender into a female: however, this could affect the role of the second character because we don’t want this to seem like a romantic movie featuring two teenagers. ) 

A friend is in the window and is signaling his kid having dinner to leave secretly- the kid does everything suddenly and clumsy 

Kid asks to be excused to sleep and rushes upstairs- feet makes a lot of sounds as he rushes 

Upstairs: (*We actually inspected a few houses to use for our filming and decided it would be easier to shoot in my partner’s house. He has a spacious house with a dinner table near 3 big windows that we could use to film. His sister’s room is also greatly decorated if we want to approach a female role.) 

Opens window- Asks friend what’s up 

Friend responds- “let’s sneak out” 

Close up low angle- he hesitates and then starts locking his door setting up a dummy to sneak out 

Dinner table: 

Parents continue to eat- Parents refuse to act on all the noise upstairs and seem tired of being grown up (representation of lazy parent stereotype) (*Around this part to most of the end we will be implementing parallel editing in order to show the two different worlds of the people being represented in our opening: parents and rebellious teens.) 

Upstairs: 

the kid starts to get ready to jump down- kid looks scared and is very nervous and he and his friend yell back and forth. (*Unfortunately this part will not occur because the house we plan on using is a one-story house. Instead, we plan to replace the suspense of jumping by using tight shots and suspenseful music to establish the mood. This scene will also have parallel editing of the mom walking near the room as soon as the character decides to leave the house, but the mom never enters the room. It is the possibility of all going wrong that creates tension in the scene.) 

SWITCH BACK AND FORTH WITH KIDS YELLING AND PARENTS STILL FOCUSING ON IGNORING EVERYTHING 

5th: kid finally jumps (COOL MUSIC YET TO BE FOUND STARTS PLAYING LOW)- still unsure about showing a kid jumping or not. 

Outside front lawn: 

Kids grab their bikes- they seem filled with adrenaline and continue to scream and run away. 

Switches to parents watching their kid through the window leave as they pour more wine 

Mom- asks “Should we do something?” Dad replies with “He still sleeps with his teddy bear, mom nods like ‘Yeah he’s right he needs this’. (*This scene is getting deleted since our 2-minute time frame will not probably allow it. With parallel editing it is going to take up too much time limiting what we can show. We decided this part wasn’t essential to the main story line.) 

Shot of house in the back as kids bike away- music gets louder. 

Symmetrical shot of the street: 

kids are biking- in the middle of the street and music gets louder and as the turn left camera stays on the same shot and tittle pops up. (*Title of the movie has yet to be discussed but I will be presenting my friend with some ideas I have come up with. For example, Younger, it was the same name we used for our band and we enjoyed the simpleness and audience attraction of the name. It calls for the past, looking back on old memories. Another idea was Ages 13-19, which are the teenage years in which kids begin to develop more the characteristic of being rebellious. I know it's not an ideal title but it also implies the age group we are looking to represent.) 

         These are the revisions we decided were important to our plot and opening scene. Thank you for taking the time and overlooking the decisions we believe could help our final project. We enjoyed critiquing each others’ work in a positive and productive aspect

ROOM CAUGHT ON FIRE *NOT CLICK BAIT*

          After some discussion comparing our ideas we stumbled across some obstacles that need to be addressed before we can further continue with what we want and don’t want to include. For example, when we looked at past opening scenes in class we realized that they incorporated more music and nondiegetic sound in order to help the scene run smoother. But, it is also because a film can look very unprofessional when it comes to the symmetrical sound being used with no sound equipment. Movies use high quality equipment to make every aspect of it perfect and professional. However due to our lack of resources we don't have a boom mic to use in order to help us.


*boom mic

          Nonetheless we still want to incorporate some dialog into our opening scene so we found a product online called ‘shotgun mic’ that is comparable to our Sony camera and could work in our case (if what you pay for is what you get this isn’t going to sound like my imagination hopes it does). I have however seen this type of product being used before but it was more towards vloggers that are very close to the camera and don’t have a problem with long shots. So we may need to rely on more close up and medium shots in our opening scene is we want to have quality sound.


*Shotgun mic

          We have set up a schedule to start filming very soon in order to start understanding what will or won’t work. We need to incorporate many different elements into our shots until we start to get a feel of the type of atmosphere we want our opening to show. For example my room is very bland and does not represent the average teenage room. We would need to get more posters, accessories, anything that represents the ‘average’ teenage boy room in our movie. Every prop must have a purpose and we need to start to make a list early on of what must be included so our scene has a smooth sequence and understanding.



*This is my room it may look cool but that is only the lights

         Overall I think it is very good that we are detecting these obstacles early on in the process and not crying after we shoot all our scenes and we realize we can’t hear anything. I am so excited to make this and show my magic with you guys.

MOVIE SCRIPT LEAKED!!!! *NOT CLICKBAIT*

Waaaaasupppppppppp!!!

My partner and I have been talking back and forth on what we want to do for our opening but we have decided to first write out an outline of what we believe should be the sequence of our opening scene so here's mine (I tried making it like a movie script so hopefully you guys like it):

Establishing shot of a house in the suburbs:   

Medium shot of a family having dinner:

• Silent dinner- mom, dad, son
• Friend is in the window and is signaling his kid having dinner to leave secretly- kid does everything suddenly and clumsy
• Kid asks to be excused to sleep and rushes upstairs- feet makes a lot of sounds as he rushes

Upstairs:

• Opens window- Asks friend what’s up
• Friend responds- “let’s sneak out”
• Close up low angle- he hesitates and then starts locking his door setting up a dummy to sneak out

Dinner table:

• Parents continue to eat- Parents refuse to act on all the noise upstairs and seem tired of being grown up (representation of lazy parent stereotype)

Upstairs:

• kid starts to get ready to jump down- kid looks scared and is very nervous and him and his friend yell back and forth.

SWITCH BACK AND FORTH WITH KIDS YELLING AND PARENTS STILL FOCUSING ON IGNORING EVERYTHING

• 5th: kid finally jumps (COOL MUSIC YET TO BE FOUND STARTS PLAYING LOW)- (still unsure about showing a kid jumping or not we don't want any injuries).

Outside front lawn:

• Kids grab their bikes- they seem filled with adrenaline and continue to scream and run away.
• switches- to parents watching their kid through the window leave as they pour more wine .
• mom- asks “Should we do something?” Dad replies with “He still sleeps with his teddy bear, mom nods like ‘Yeah he’s right he needs this’.
• Shot of house in the back as kids bike away- music gets louder.

Symmetrical shot of the street:

• kids are biking- in the middle of the street and music gets louder and as the turn left camera stays on the same shot and tittle pops up

TITTLE STILL TO BE ANNOUNCED!!!!

Well this is an outline of what I would like the opening scene to Look like. But of course there are some obstacles with this script I will address in my next blog posting.

KANYE READ MY BLOG!!!! *NOT CLICKBAIT*

          After our group discussion and evaluating the opinions I received, I decided to find an intro to a movie to watch that had some of the same aspects I wanted to implement into my opening scene. I went on Google and decided to search ‘teen drama movies’ in order to see what type of movies would come up. Furthermore, I wasn’t surprised to find numerous amounts of movies about teen love. I watched a total of 3 opening scenes starting with:

• Paper Towns- Begins with an establishing shot of a town with a voice over introducing the two main characters. It then switches to a young kid discovering a new girl is moving close to him (the voice over is still going) and the scene ends as the kid drops the ball he was holding in awe of this new girl and a song begins to play in at the same time. A stroke of genius.
• The Fault in Our Stars- After watching this opening scene I remembered it was another one of John Green's famous works. I will not lie I actually cried the first time I watched this movie. The opening scene begins with a close up shot of a woman (voice over as well) as she lays in the grass and remembers beautiful times she had with what seemed to be a special boy that used to give her kisses, signaling something bad happened to them. In other words the girl was reminiscing the good old times.
• The Edge of Seventeen- I decided to watch a third one in order to have more credibility if I decided to judge teen dramas later on in my blog. However, this one did not start out disappointing. It began with intense music as a girl power walked to a teachers office were she announced she was going to kill herself, and he laughs in her face. The shots were good, acting was good, no voice over, intriguing content, it has potential. I decided to let it roll a bit longer to find out the next scene had all the same elements as the first opening scene: young kids, voice over, etc. Once again I'll stick to the sophisticated movies I watch (just kidding last weekend I watched Hotel Transylvania 3 and it wasn’t even that bad it was pretty entertaining).

           “Maybe all the teen drama movies in the world start out the same way?” I thought to myself. Well self I have something important to share with you, there must be a reason why they do this. Answer: to be continued like & subscribe if you like my content and would like to see more checkout my previous blogs. I will be posting more each week as requested so comment down below what you guys want to read!

Gang Session

      WHAT IS UP BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE?

      Earlier this week we had our first interaction with other groups were we could share our ideas in order to gain some thoughts on our projects. At first I was very skeptical on how this meeting could work to our benefit so early into our project. But regardless I went in ready to take in any form of criticism or opinion that could work in my benefit. As I have mentioned before my partner and I want to create a film opening for a movie, specifically focusing on the drama category. After some discussion we decided upon a film opening were the main cast is mostly teenagers since it works to our advantage. Although this may seem very obvious we felt like trying to create an opening for any other genre or movie type would look less professional and could lower the art of the film opening.

       After I shared my broad idea with my peers I was able to receive some useful opinions on what they thought I could expand on and what they liked. For example, one of my peers pointed out that the music I implement to my opening has to represent the mood of the movie and the character development of the main character. Since it is a teenage movie it has a high focus on character development and how they grow or change throughout the film. They made sure to make me realize that I need to have a clear set up of what needs to be in the opening in order for it to make sense. We discussed a lot on how I should approach my blog and what to post about but for now they suggested I did more research and started to sketch out a storyboard. 

       Overall this activity did work to my advantage, however it will be more useful later on. What helped me the most about it was seeing the enthusiasm and dedication going to these projects. It shows that the environment around me is proactive and that what they shared with me was done in order to help me.

Types of Conflicts

                 Conflicts are essential to development of a story, whether it be internal or external. There can be many conflicts in one film but there's usually a main one in which the story builds on. In dramas there are many different types of conflicts so understanding why they matter and how to introduce them in our genre will help us in many aspects of our story development. In my earlier post I discussed how character development is crucial in drama films. Moreover, in movies there's usually a conflict taking place at the same time. While characters begin to grow or unfold it is usually while they're trying to deal with the conflict. In order to build a connection, the audience has to see the character(s) go through different conflicts, for example:


Man vs. Himself (Internal): in the mind, decisions, emotions, feelings.


Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, etc. (External): opposing ideas, other people, surroundings, outside force.


             Listed above there’s examples of the broad categories of conflicts. There’s two types internal and external. Internal is the struggle that takes place in a character's mind, usually in movies with internal conflicts they are more focused on one character. This makes it easier to manifest the emotions taking place in the character’s head. External conflict is when the the conflict is between character(s) and outside forces.Both of these conflicts are very useful and can be critical to have a strong plot because they create tension, stakes, and (drum roll please) character development. The tension makes the audience grip their seat and wonder what is gonna unfold in front of their eyes in the next hour or two.The stakes will help create the best-scenario and worst-scenario that could occur. And I already discussed character development.


            So, what am I going to do with this information? I will be further clarifying with my partener what is it that we want our character to deal with. We have to start asking ourselves questions such as how do we want him to be introduced to our audience. We also have to try and say more about our character through their clothes, accessories, surroundings. Everything must have a purpose.






https://www.nownovel.com/blog/difference-external-internal-conflict-writing/

Character Development

                My partner and I have decided to go a different route and explore the drama genre. Drama is huge genre category that spreads out to many branches. There are a variety of subcategories under drama, but for the sake of our project I will be focusing on the key elements that each of these subcategories posses that classifies them to be under drama. Usually drama films revolve around a character(s) that are in conflict “at a crucial time in their life” (AllMovie). Drama movies tend to try and connect with their audience by developing stories that will touch on people’s emotions. It is mostly about creating a connection with the audience in order to deliver the story more efficiently. Drama’s focus highly on character development throughout the whole film. Movies are not about telling a story, they’re about telling a story through character(s). Every role must have a purpose, a specific reason on why it must be on the character. According to The Guardian one technique many screenplay writers use is they ask themselves some questions when building their cast:


Who am I? Answer: what type are person are you, shown through what drives your actions.


Where am I? Answer: It can be a literal and rhetorical question. Location, emotionally, etc.


When is it? Answer: time, season, day, etc.


Where have I just come from? Answer: what were they doing before you introduced them.


What do I want? Answer: their goal.


                 There are many more questions but I just wanted to give a few examples that show the extensive amount of work that goes into creation any role, even the most simple ones. There's constant analyzing of every aspect of the character at all points of the story. What are their strengths and weaknesses, how do they play a role, IT IS SO MUCH AHHHH!!! But when executed right it can create some beautiful roles that can revolutionize the film industry such as Forest Gump, Jack Sparrow, Doc Brown, Han Solo, James Bond, etc.


https://www.scriptmag.com/character-development


https://www.ceros.com/originals/4-character-development-tips-from-film/


https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/09/character-building-great-actor


https://www.filmbug.com/dictionary/drama-movies.php


https://www.allmovie.com/genre/drama-d649





https://stephenfollows.com/genre-trends-global-film-production/

Music Marketing Presentation Analysis

Hello! I"m back more ready than ever to share my experience presenting a marketing pitch influenced by the music industry. Lets rock and roll!
My partner and I were assigned a music marketing project based on the song You Are by Punch Brothers. We decided to create a new band based on the song called Younger. Younger is an indie oriented band that focuses their songs on the good old times. We shot a music video for the song we were assigned, and it came out very professional. My partner used an editing program called Premiere that helped him edit very precise and  came out professional as well. We had to prepare a presentation to present in class and it could not exceed 20 minutes. My partner and I were focused on keeping our ideas achievable and affordable. Since the project is based on an upcoming band we wouldn’t have a huge budget to work off. Therefore, it would need to be approached in the most creative way while keeping our expenses limited and realistic.
Before designing our marketing plans we had to get a deeper insight of the music industry, especially our genre. We conducted two case studies based on our genre of music in order to see what they did and if there were any patterns between both of their success. We also analyzed the record company that signed both of these bands in order to get an idea of what actual companies do. This helped us approach the project in a business perspective that would help us give a business presentation. We were giving a presentation on our business and we wanted to make sure we focused on that perspective primarily.
We decided to use platforms that anyone trying to gain exposure would use. For example, we started by building a website using Wix which already had a prototype for us that made it easy to just add information and upload some pictures. During our presentation we also discussed our use of social media but only showed our Instagram prototype since we believed it was more important to explain our reasoning behind our use of the platforms. This allowed us to expand on why we decided to use the platforms instead of showing our prototype accounts. I believe this was a risky move but when we decided to pitch our ideas we valued more the why behind it then a visualization. We didn’t have a lot of time to include everything so we stuck with the most important stuff. Below are links to our website and you-tube account.
This project helped me gain a lot of experience in preparing myself during a business like presentation. What must be done and what pace must be kept throughout the whole presentation. But, what really stuck with me the most this presentation is that my teacher later shared with us that we must have had reasoning on why we are presenting our information in a certain order. Although very obvious to some people I believe it is an important element most people forget when presenting. I will be using this knowledge in all my other presentations, essays, projects, whatever it may be because it adds value to anything. I also learned a lot about the specific uses of platforms and how artists should plan out every move carefully like it may lead to their breakthrough. It is simply about taking it slow and evaluating every move before making it.

Links:

Music video in Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kAS9nnIkOw&feature=youtu.be

Website made in Wix: https://raulpassarini1.wixsite.com/younger

Case Studies made before building a plan: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17f7FVSwxz22MjcE9iU8M1DCoMhX_P8gd9xulTLRUcU0/edit?usp=sharing

Below are some images from the music video. We actually shot these during a field trip to Gainsville with our school.