Some complications...

So, as I thought about it more, I realized very quickly that my initial plans are very unrealistic for this project.

In my excitement to create something "deep" that "sheds light on a dark subject that needs to be addressed," I forgot that I not only have a miniscule 2 minutes to use for my film, but it also needs to be a film opening...meaning barely any plot or plot development. My goal has changed from showing important subjects to me as a creator to just making something that will leave viewers wanting more.

Abuse in relationships has always been a topic that I feel very passionate about. When this project was first assigned, I had the clear idea of what I wanted to create in my head: I wanted to portray the anxiety you feel being entangled with a toxic individual and how it impacts day to day life. I wanted to show my main character nervous and uncomfortable, and include voiceover of them narrating on the time before "things changed." I would have had their voice be very nonchalant, a complete juxtaposition from the worried mess of the current portrayal of the character. The narration of implying that something big changes would be to invoke interest in the viewer, but now I understand that this is why too hard for someone with my skill set and available materials. Even as someone with personal experience with this situation, I don't even trust my own acting ability to truly convey the emotions behind going through something of this weight.

So, now I am leaning more towards a simpler topic, perhaps something to do with my creative interests. I would like to do my opening maybe on showing a character creating a poem or a song for a love interest, as this combines two of my favorite interest: love and art. The film would probably still include voiceover, but this time alluding to how things go at the time of the confession of the final product as a way to invoke interest, and hinting at something much more humorous and intriguing.

As I figure more out, I'll keep you posted. 

Until next time!

Character Research!

As discussed in a previous post, I love writing and have been writing since I was a young child. And yet, I do not know how to properly write a character. My writing tends to revolve around poetry and short stories. Because of this, I figured that I would research how to create a character, as I plan on utilizing character development heavily in my short film.

Something that I came across a lot during my research was the importance of character development. Characters must change and grow their personalities and morals based on their experiences. This process allows for characters to become more relatable to viewers as well as more dynamic and less static. This is very hard to encapsulate, and even harder when I only have two minutes to set up an interesting basis for a character that requires development. I did find ways that should make this easier, though.

A huge tip was to give the character strengths and weaknesses. I plan to make these flaws and abilities some that I can personally relate to, so the character will be easier for me to write. Another way to help the character have more depth is by giving them clear morality, although I don't know if I will have the time or need to do this.

I want to create realistic motives as well, and stay in my lane of dealing with my own experiences when making characters. For example, I don't want my character to have the motive of time traveling to the black hole age of the universe.

Another was to make them obviously struggling with something within themselves or with the outside world; give them a conflict that they must solve before the end of the story. 

This can include:

- Character vs. Self

- Character vs. Character

- Character vs. Nature

- Character vs. Supernatural

- Character vs. Technology

- Character vs. Society

Smaller details I want to include are smaller ticks and habits of the character that create a sense of individuality that can clearly be attributed to my mc.

Thank you for reading! Until next time.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-tips-for-character-development#how-to-develop-a-protagonist

https://self-publishingschool.com/character-development/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-conflict-in-literature-6-different-types-of-literary-conflict-and-how-to-create-conflict-in-writing

Color Research!

I decided that regardless of the plot I choose, I want to incorporate color into my film. Color is a very prominent aspect of all of my photography, so I know I could do something great with that visual technique if I looked further into how to properly utilize it. It is also one of my favorite details in media, as it holds great power over the comprehensive aura of the piece.

Color is a pretty tricky tool to work with, as it can be interpreted vastly differently based on context and culture. For example, red is considered a lucky color in Asian cultures, while in Western cultures, its generally regarded as being sexual or passionate.

Example of red being used as a lucky color

Here, I will list the difference between how color can be regarded in the East versus in the West.

The West

Red: passion, love, power, but also heat, aggression, fire, violence

Pink: love, care, tenderness, femininity

Beige: quietnes, calmness

Yellow: joy, optimism, dreamy, but also illness, jealousy, hazard

Dark Blue: seriousness, knowledge, masculinity

Blue: clean, cold, tranquility, but also melancholy 

Turquoise: water, femininity

Purple: royalty, mystery, fortune, but also arrogance

Orange: energy, warmth, flamboyant

Green: good luck, nature, youth, but also greed, envy, misfortune

Brown: Earth, home, comfort

Gray: security, modesty, maturity, but also boring, aged, practicality

White: purity, birth, snow, marriage but also sterility

Black: sophistication, wealth, formality, but also evil, unhappiness, death

The East

Red: good luck, happiness, longevity

Pink: marriage

Gold: wealth, strength, evilness

Yellow: royalty, luck (in China, associated with pornograpy)

Blue: wealth, immortality, healing, relaxation

Purple: wealth, nobility (in China, associated with mourning)

Orange: courage, good health

Green: family, harmony, health, fertility (in China, associated with infedelity)

Brown: Earth, home, comfort

Gray: helpfulness

White: death, mourning

Black: darkness, glory

From my research, I learned numerous things about color, one of which is that filters of certain colors can be put over entire movies to change the mood or showcase themes. For instance, in the movie Up in the Air, the film has a blue hue, which represents the main character's unhappiness and the dismal environment.

Up in the Air (2009)

Something else that was new to me was contrasting foils, which is when one color pops out against a background of another color. For example, in the movie Schindler's List, this technique is used to highlight a character who moves the plot along. I plan to utilize this in a manner that shows the viewer that my character feels ostracized from their peers and the world around them. 

Schindler's List (1993)

As of right now, I want my main character to be emotional. I want to show that they are passionate and very in touch with their feelings. Additionally, I want to play with themes of loneliness and isolation. Although I don't know the plot yet, I know that this is important to me regardless, and I will use this research going forward to better my piece.

Until next time, bye!

P.S. Don't overuse black in character design!

Sources:

https://www.k-international.com/blog/color-meanings-around-the-world/#:~:text=Eastern%2FAsian%20cultures%3A%20In%20most,mourning%20in%20the%20Middle%20East.&text=Africa%3A%20In%20Africa%2C%20white%20symbolizes,purity%2C%20goodness%20and%20good%20luck.

https://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/color2.htm

https://media.codes/colour-symbolic-code-c1af9a09fde8

https://dreamfarmstudios.com/blog/color-theory-for-character-design/

Initial thoughts...

Initially, I was very excited for this project. I love to use my imagination to create amazing works. Now, I am a bit more worried.

I decided to work alone because I am a socially awkward teen that does not work efficiently in a group. I like to do everything myself and take control, yet I am too shy to voice my opinions to others. This was actually very awkward as I had to turn someone down who wanted a partner but...oh well.

Anyway, I expected to have this project in the bag, even if I have absolutely no prior experience with producing films. I figured I would simply pull from my other skills. Filming process? A breeze. I've been in photography since freshman year. Editing? No problem. I've been making video edits since sixth grade. Script writing? Easy. I've been a writer for almost ten years. 

Now that I've thought about it a bit harder, I realize that perhaps I am not as well off as I previously thought. All of my assets are slightly off the mark from where I need them to be. For example, I know how to create beautiful shots, yet I have no knowledge on how to move the camera in an effective way. I know how to edit, but not in a way that utilizes sound effects or sound techniques. I know how to write very well, but all of my dialogue is stale; I am very bad at producing authentic sounding conversations. At least now that I understand my faults, I know where I need to do the most research.

My next step is to do some more research with genre. I don't have an exact idea of what I want to do for my film opening, but I know I need to create something within my wheelhouse. 

Possible plots include:

- experiences with the guitar, writing, drawing, or photography

- experiences with abuse relating to love/relationships

- experiences with being a queer teenager

- experiences with being a person of color/mixed person

- experiences with living in a suburban town

Right now, I am leaning towards representing an abusive teenage relationship, so I will do more research on the coming of age and drama genres. If I change my mind, you guys will be the first to know. Stay tuned!

New Project Incoming...

Hello everyone! From now on, this blog will mainly be focused on my journey as I take on a huge end of the year portfolio project. I will be creating a 2 minute film opening, so if you're interested in my progress, stay tuned!

Music Marketing Reflections!

 In my last blog, I discussed the initial hardships of this project. Now that the assignment is completed and submitted, I will be looking back at the overview of my experience while creating DeeNah.

For the production, it was quite difficult to figure out how to coordinate plans with my group in a way that was compatible with everyone's individual schedules, especially since most of my group had jobs and extracurriculars to attend. To problem solve, we decided that it would be easier for only the required group members that would film and act to show up for the music video filming. Since I worked on the entire storyboard and research chart by myself, I was not involved in the music video filming process. From my understanding, my other group members chose to film at town center on two separate days. 

For post production, I was not very involved with this process either, as editing was assigned to another member of my group. In class, though, we discussed what type of editing techniques could be used to better portray the story. One thing we decided on was to add filters as a way to make the film more engaging to the audience and relate to the common Internet culture of using "aesthetic" filters. 

Ex. of a filter used in the music video

The presentation was an aspect of the project that I was heavily involved in. I developed most of the marketing and distribution techniques, as well as the rest of the Canva slides. From my research, I knew that DeeNah needed a social media presence before trying to develop any kind of of following in the music industry. Because of this, I envisioned her as a young Tik Tok star. While this would definitely sell, I thought that it was boring and overused. I wanted to give her a passion that made her relatable to the younger generation, while simultaneously developing a personality that is often not seen in other social media celebrities. I figured that environmental concerns would be an interesting route to go down, seeing as climate change advocacy has been skyrocketing in recent years, especially among our target audience (younger adults and teenagers). If DeeNah was a social media star that used her platform and musical ability to promote change, she would be more respectable as a role model for younger girls. 

Another common marketing technique used in the modern day and age is collaboration. Most songs on the radio, especially from up and coming artists, are singles that usually feature another artist. On social media as well, collaboration is a very common tool meant to reel in audiences from both content creators. I envisioned that once DeeNah gained traction, she would collaborate with other artists her age who had similar followings in order to pull more attention to her song. If that plan also incorporated promoting environmentally friendly content, it could blow her up even more. 

Ex. of DeeNah's Twitter account

Her social media was mostly created and handled by another group member, but on her social media accounts, I planned for her to be very active and headstrong about her opinions. This would be mostly where her fans would get to know her and interact with her, as well as understand what she stood for. For her performances, we decided that we would have her perform as a very low level artist at Coachella after initially gaining traction. Once this took off, we would have her go on a nationwide tour to major cities. 

Ex. of DeeNah performances

Another thing that I thought could help DeeNah gain traction would be to go for brand deals that could easily be marketed to younger girls. With the help of another group member, this came in the form of a stationary set from Office Depot, and a pink drink with a paper straw from Starbucks. A way I thought I could make this more unique and market it in a better light would be to have 50% of the profits go towards Friends of the Earth, a charity geared towards being ecologically friendly. I thought this would also raise her reputation as well. 

Ex. of Starbucks brand deal

For distribution, I knew that every other group would be using online methods to distribute their song, and I knew this would be the smartest decision for us as well. To add something more to ours, I decided to also release a vinyl that would be pink, sparkly, and in the shape of a heart. This would relate to DeeNah's brand and song while also being easily marketed towards the target audience. Among the younger generation, aesthetics are very important and by creating a product that would be considered as such, we could pull more attention to our artist. 

Ex. of the DeeNah vinyl

Something that this project taught me was that I am extremely terrible at working with others when I do not know them. I felt way too shy and insecure to voice my opinions openly on what I thought should be done, and instead tended to just agree with what other people suggested even if I didn't particularly like the idea. This went hand in hand with my lack of ability to ask for help or reprimand those that were not contributing at all. Instead, I simply picked up all of the slack from the members that did not help. I felt too embarrassed to be the only one trying to be productive in class, so I would quietly do the work and not act as a leader in the slightest. I also felt very controlling during this project, as I had a very specific idea of DeeNah in mind that my group members did not seem to share. I felt very anxious during the presentation every time a group member would share information about our artist that did not align with my idea of her. This was very eye-opening for me, as now I know I have to put effort into being more verbal when working with others and not try to do all of the tasks myself.

Music Marketing Blog!

Before we could begin our process of creating an engaging and interesting artist, we had to do research on how real pop musicians have successfully marketed their songs. To do so, we created a chart filled with six case studies from two different production companies. Completing the chart was my task. Something I immediately noticed was that a majority of songs that have gained popularity in recent years can attribute their success to going viral on TikTok. Some songs also went viral due to controversy and/or drama, but this seemed like a very tedious route to go down, so ultimately we decided not to play with negative press. For example, Lie, Lie, Lie by Joshua Bassett arose to fame after he released the song in response to another Disney star's cheating accusations following their breakup. Although the drama initially garnered a large following of the scandal, the fame was not long lasting and ended up ruining Joshua Bassett's reputation for a lot of fans.

  

 

Ex: snippet of Media Research Chart shown above

As I wrapped up the research, we were ready to begin creating our brand. A challenge that we faced was deciding how to create an artist that could accurately encapsulate the song we chose. Since "Send My Love" represents the more artsy side of pop, it was difficult to come up with a brand that was "quirky" enough to match the energy. At first, we wanted to call the band Floyd and Lloyd, and have a group with two members. The backstory would revolve around the pop stars arising from a meme, gaining fame by going viral for their Spongebob-themed band name. Eventually, after debating back and forth, we decided on DeeNah: just a solo girl from Ohio who likes to play guitar.

Ex: DeeNah logo and song promotion on her website

The next trial was coming up with a storyboard for a music video. As the real music video did not have much of a plot or an idea on how to approach the song's lyricism, this aspect of creating a brand was quite difficult. We scoured the Internet for ideas of music videos relating to the song's artistic singing style, yet the closest we could find to good ideas were parodies drenched in bad millennial humor and fan-made Roblox recreations. We decided that since the song was quite difficult to work with, we would utilize the music video as a way to further the concept of DeeNah's brand. She is wild and carefree, but also very in touch with her emotions. We were going to represent this by having her dance and throwing paper airplanes on the beach, but after some discussion, we decided to instead create a storyline of a young girl having lost her lover and sending her love to beyond the grave, showcasing her creativity.  

Ex: one panel from the rough draft storyboard