Portfolio Project Genre #2

    The second genre I would like to propose for our upcoming portfolio project is Teen/Young Adult Drama, specifically the Coming Of Age sector. I believe that this genre would work well with our project as this specific genre focuses on the introduction of characters rather than starting with a big event that audience might not have an idea of. This works very well if we decide that we want to go forward with a genre that focuses on dialogue and realism as opposed to paranoia and mystery (what I discussed in the first genre posting) and thus gives us two polar opposite differences in genre which allows for more variety in our options. 

    People who watch this genre are typically teenaged as these people generally favor common themes which resonate with them such as identity, relationships, pressure and loneliness. The added bonus here is that the people who watch this genre are often similarly aged as the characters in the films which uses this genre. These films often consist of a protagonist who faces a personal conflict while everything else is maintained to be as realistic as possible, from emotions to setting and many more aspects as well. Natural lighting along with a simple camera setup allow for an even more realistic environment which is exactly what the target audience wants specifically.

    The institutions which produce these kinds of films are often independent studios while also being heavily marketed through various forms of social media which often further appeals to authenticity and realism. Two examples of films which fit this genre are Lady Bird (2017) and The Edge of Seventeen (2016).

    Sources:

British Film Institute. (n.d.). Coming-of-age films collection. British Film Institute. https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/collection/coming-of-age

Goodman, J. (2021, April 15). 31 cinematography techniques every filmmaker should know. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/cinematography-techniques-no-film-school/

Lang, B. (2020, May 6). The 30 best coming-of-age movies of all time. IndieWire. https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/best-coming-of-age-movies-lady-bird-1201894572/

IMDb. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/

Portfolio Project Genre #1

    The first genre I would like to propose to be a part of our portfolio project is Psychological Thriller. I believe that this would be a good genre because of how they rely on atmosphere, mystery and tensions to introduce audiences to a film instead of giving cut and dry answers or a full plot resolution which describes how the rest of the film goes. The unknown element of the genre is what questions audience into what could happen next instead of giving a structured timeline of events which might seem boring to some people. 

    Most people who watch this genre are usually from their mid teens to their mid adulthoods and often enjoy suspense, mystery and overall darker themes. Content and technique wise, what would fit this genre would be elements of paranoia, isolation, and fear, as they further add on to the mystery narrative going on. Low key lighting along with uncomfortable elements such as close ups, slow pacing and non diegetic sound would make this genre even more of a good use case for the project.

    The institutions that are responsible for making these films are often independent or mid size indie studios. The institutions often prioritize mystery and psychological tension rather than action and anything from promotional material like posters and trailers will avoid revealing too much of the plot and narrative in order to protect the element of mystery. Two examples of films that demonstrate this genre are Black Swan (2010) and Shutter Island (2010).

    Sources: 

British Film Institute. (n.d.). 100 essential thrillers. British Film Institute. https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/100-essential-thrillers

Goodman, J. (2021, April 15). 31 cinematography techniques every filmmaker should know. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/cinematography-techniques-no-film-school/

IMDb. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/

Official Transition to Portfolio Project.

     Hello all, I have reached the point in the academic year where I officially transition to the start of my nearly two month long project for AICE Media Studies: The Portfolio Project. This project consists of creating a film opening for a fiction film which can consist of any genre. After that is done, a CCR (Creative Critical Reflection) must be done which demonstrates a reflection the film opening creation process. The CCR is done through various digital formats. 

    With this project starting, I am now tasked with planning how the project is actually going to go and how I would treat the project going forward. I decided that I was going to work on this with one other person so that this could be a thoughtful collaborative process that we could both utilize in order to delegate work and share ideas with each other. At this time, we have yet to fully decide our genre for the project but I, myself would like to propose two genres. These two genres are described in my next two posts after this particular post. As for overall planning of the project, we will first decide on what exact genre we would do, and then from there we plan to start gathering inspiration from various film openings that are based on the exact same genre that we decide on in the near future. We want to start at a steady pace so that we do not quickly overwhelm ourselves as this project is something that we both believe that should be taken very seriously and with caution as well. Overall, as soon as we begin planning for this portfolio project, we will prioritize our ideas which come throughout the planning stage and as ideas flow in, we then filter through them and then land on some which we both agree on and believe they are supportive ideas which are relevant to our research and genre. My next posts are my two proposed genres for this project. 

Music Marketing Research #2

    Here is the behind the scenes video for our music marketing project: 

Music Marketing Research #1

    Hello all. For this project, I was assigned to research marketing and distribution techniques that two artists/bands that are signed to the same music production company (Fueled By Ramen) use in order to attract, build, and maintain audiences. A genre was assigned to each group in the class (we worked independently despite being in the group but each group member within a group had the same genre), and we had to find our artists/bands based on that genre. We also had to find artists/bands that had produced music recently (up to five years ago from when we did the project). I started the project by first finding out exactly how my two artists/bands (Twenty One Pilots and Paramore) attracted their audiences through marketing and distribution techniques. They each had their own methods that were unique and rather interesting to me as well. When I was done with this part, I used this same logic on how these bands build and maintain their audiences as well. I felt like some of these methods were predictable but were still effective nevertheless. 

Music Research Chart-1.docx

    

Mise En Scene Project

     For this particular project, me and four other people that were in the same group as me were assigned the task of creating a complete representation of an assigned character personality (not as part of an actual real life fictional character). We had to come up with how we were going to define the character (what were the character's personality traits in addition to the given traits) and how we were going to take those definitions and make them into physical representations of the character. The ultimate goal with these physical representations was to have our audience understand our representations of the character and fully know the character's personality and traits in about seven minutes on a day where we had to present the representations to the rest of our classmates and they also presented their projects to our group as well.

    We as a group were assigned the character personality along the lines of "always seeking adventure and very curious". As a result, we came up with our character, Jasper. He is a 8 year old boy who went to New York City with his parents but as he is there, he loses his parents and is completely alone by himself in a city that never sleeps with a population of about 8.5 million and he only some items that his parents gave him and had in his backpack. He is tasked with finding his parents for once and while he does this, he is very scared and is constantly walking in the city hoping that he would find his parents and that what he was going through would be over. We as a whole came up with this backstory because we thought that this situation would be how his curiosity would be expressed but as he gets ahead of himself, he loses his parents in the process and does not realize the gravity of the situation until it is too late. This would come to show that he is seeking something new and is curious about his surroundings to a very high extent.

    As for what we actually did to represent this fictional character, we came up with and did six activities (five of which are shown and described as the sixth one was presented only during in person class presentations) for our character station which were as follows: A mood board that one of my group partners made which shows our character, what he likes to do and be around, and the setting of where the story of our character takes place, which takes me to our next thing that another one of my partners did, a storyboard which describes the story of our character in text and what exactly happens in the beginning, the end, and everything in between. Next, a third partner who I have worked with 2 times in the past since the start of this school year, did a map of New York City which was the map of what our fictional character got and used to navigate the city when he lost his parents and was trying to find them. Another thing that was done as part of the activities we did was a video. The video consisted of multiple drawings that illustrated and gave more depth to our character's story in addition to the storyboard. The drawings were drawn by a fourth partner while the editing was done by me and the third partner. Lastly, I personally made a theme song that was to be associated with our character. The theme song helps describe the situation they are in and the challenges he faces as time goes on. The song also conveys what the character does to make things right again while he is lost. These five activities then became individual substations within our character station when it came time to present our stations. We also had a sixth station which consisted of various physical objects that were associated with our character and his personality. These objects included a radio, boots, and a small bag.

    Overall, me and the rest of my group members feel like we tried our best but we thought that we could do better in many aspects. For example, the video was initially sloppy and poorly edited at first but we later went back and improved it, but improving it meant spending more time then necessary and that took time off of our other activities that also needed work on. I personally also feel like the song that only I made could've also been better planned from the beginning as there were many different sound effects I could choose from and make the song sound, transition, and convey meaning better. I also feel like we should've utilized a slide show for one of our stations to better present information about our character. But other than those improvements (in my opinion should've been done), we did a good job overall.

Here are the activities (stations) we did (excluding sixth one):

 

 

Storyboard

Mise En Scene video

Theme song Mise en scene.m4a

Sound Projects 1 and 2

     Hello again, these two recent projects that I and a partner did both were related to sound. They taught me and others how to properly incorporate sound to develop meaning and context using sound only (Sound Project 1), and to properly accompany a previous project that I did called the one word film (Sound Project 2). Specifically, the first sound project told us as students to create a short (60-120 sec) story and develop context using only sound. We did this by obtaining free sound clips from the web, creating foley sounds using various objects, and layering them together to create a story with just a soundscape. The second sound project told us to add sound to our previously done project, the one word film. We added sound using sound clips from the web to properly accompany the previously done video and make a complete film altogether. 

    When me and my then partner started the first sound project, we first started with a brainstorming sheet that helped us brainstorm what story we wanted to tell as a team. We decided that we wanted to go for a meteorite hitting a space station. Then, we got to work on outlining project 1 and organized the sounds and decided where exactly they would go in the soundscape. This would prove to be a very helpful task because it essentially organized in exact order what would we put in a certain time/scene of the soundscape. After this, we then began gathering sounds and layering them together on while fine tuning them at the same time to then create the final product. I believe that we did a good job at actually layering together the sounds and finding the proper sounds that would fit the soundscape best. The only thing that I think we could improve on is on the actual story as I thought that we did not plan it with enough time and I think we could've added more context to the story.

    When me and a different partner Sound Project 2, we already had the one word film with no sound, so that made brainstorming sound effects for the film easy. We still did an outline which described what sounds were gonna be used and where exactly they were gonna be in the film. After that, we both went our own ways and each created our own soundscapes for the same film. I believe that I did a good job at editing and layering the sounds I chose for the film, but I also thought that not all the sounds I chose were exactly what I was looking for. 

    Me and my partners used Microsoft Clipchamp to edit both soundscapes for Projects 1 and 2. 

    Project links:

Sound Project 1

Sound Project 2