Small Updates

I have made my casting calls. AKA I texted two people who are dear to my heart if they would like to star in my film opening.

I essentially only need the protagonist, who is a girl, and two doctors. My friend Veronica will be playing the lead. In regards to the party scene, I will need a room filled with people that I’m just going to call extras since they will have no speaking parts. These extras will be compromised mostly of Veronica’s friends.

Lucky for me, I have a sister who happens to be in medical school as I previously mentioned on my last posts, so this hospital scene is her test of whether she whether she could be a believable doctor or not ;) I will have to consult with her in order to find the second doctor, but it will most likely be one of her colleagues. Scheduling could be an issue here since these med-school students barely have time to breathe or even text me back (not being passive aggressive at all), but I will work to find a date where everyone is available.

Veronica, the protagonist

Mariana, the doctor

Comas 101

A coma is a state of prolonged unconsciousness that leaves a person unresponsive to any outside stimuli. There is no “normal” experience for patients who have been under a coma, but many describe it as being one long dream.

This website detailed what several people who have been comatose remember about their experience. It mentioned how some patients are capable of hearing and processing auditory information. I took this as inspiration for my dream-sequence scene, and the sounds/dialogue that would be included in it.

Moreover, I would like to have the protagonist get a phone call while she is at the party, so the beeping of the cell phone emulates the beeping of the heart-rate monitor that would be next to her hospital bed in real life. Also, I was thinking perhaps any of the dialogue said to her by her friends in the party could mirror dialogue said by the doctors who are hovering over her comatose body in the hospital bed.

I actually came up with a name for my film too! I chose the word Reverie since it means “a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing”. Genius... I know, right?

Schedule

In order to be more organized, I developed a project schedule to follow for the next few weeks. This will (hopefully) make the whole process easier and allow me to dedicate an equal amount of time to every task.

2/24 - 3/1
• Create storyboard

• Develop script
• Develop the main character

3/2 - 3/8
• Location scout

• Cast Characters

3/9 - 3/15
• Begin filming
• Begin editing

3/16 - 3/22
• Gather any final shots needed
• Continue editing

3/23 - 3/29

• Choose font for credits and title sequence

• Color correct

3/30 - 4/5
• Finishing touches
• CCR

Location Scouting

Since I wanted to create the most realistic setting possible to embrace the drama genre conventions, I decided that instead of attempting to recreate a hospital room completely, my best option would be to gain permission to film in a real one. An integral part of my opening is the realization that the protagonist is actually comatose, so I dedicated a lot of time to finding the ideal hospital room setting.

The closest hospital/clinic nearby is the Cleveland Clinic, but as I expected, I couldn’t find any information online about a way to film in these facilities without renting them for outrageous amounts of money that ultimately, my minuscule bank account does not possess. But then I found my savior: my sister whom luckily goes to medical school half an hour away.

At her school they have “fake hospital rooms” as she quoted, pictured below:

Closer look at the bed my protagonist would be on.

Although these rooms more closely resemble a doctor's office than a hospital room, I could probably manipulate the bed area by adding some more white sheets, and by inserting sound effects such as a beeping heart rate monitor to fully emulate the real deal. Additionally, this scene would include one or two doctors professionally dressed in white lab coats, so I would use these mise-en-scene elements to my advantage to continue to add to the believability and realism of my opening.

Outline-ish

Thousands of tears later, I have come up with a solid idea for my film opening. Mrs. Stoklosa advised us to envision the whole plot of the film, not just the opening, so I came up with a super general vision for the entire story.

Generally:
It will revolve around a girl who discovers she’s been living a in a coma fantasy for over a year. She has to figure out how to wake up before she’s taken off life support. It will establish the background mostly.

Specifically:
My opening would consist of the girl in a dream-like sequence, most likely the girl would be at party having the absolute time of her life. The audience would believe they are watching a standard opening of teenagers making poor choices until the very end. I want to give subtle hints that she’s in that fantasy state, primarily through the use of bright lighting and slow-motion. The scene would then cut to her in the hospital bed in an unconscious state, with doctors peering over her discussing removing her from life support.

TBD:
• The title of the film
• Do I want to use copyrighted music during the party scene? Or can I just utilize a random house song to get the same effect?
• How much dialogue do I need to incorporate in order to make the story line clear?

Most importantly:
• Will my vision be able to be pulled of in 2 minutes?

I sure hope so. *dot dot dot*

We Love Analyzing

To continue my understanding of the drama genre, I felt it would be appropriate to view other film openings within the genre. Since drama films provide a lot a freedom for the director, it provides a great range of possibilities for the narrative of my film opening. 

Children of Men (2006)

This scene efficiently establishes the background of a dystopian society that is on the brink of human extinction. It opens up with a sound bridge of a newscast directly introducing the issue of global infertility, which is done to slowly provide context to the audience. The tone is consistently negative/melancholic, and showcased through the use of dark colors and the smoggy street setting. Moreover, the ambience in the background consists of traffic noises and people crying which contributes to the realism most drama films tend to evoke. The opening also has little conversational dialogue and relies more on the newscast along with other sound effects to introduce the story, continuing to create a dramatic and realistic feel.  At the end of the scene, a bombing of a coffee shop foreshadows future problems of destruction and turmoil. This action-packed use of suspense is something I would like to experiment with since it is a great way to enthrall the audience and keep their interest.

A Clockwork Orange (1972)

This film opening uses brightly colored red and blue title cards paired with non-diegetic music to create an unsettling and eerie feel. Additionally, as the scene goes on, the music increases in intensity to hint towards something more dramatic. I appreciated this particular use of sound because it greatly increases the amount of uneasiness being experienced by the audience. This scene also does an excellent job of introducing the protagonist, with the first shot being a close up of him. The makeup design used on his character divides his face in two (with one side carrying eye makeup and other without) to represent the duality of personality, showcasing he can be a psychopathic murderer or a charismatic man. As the camera pans out, the setting reveals various mannequins of women being used for functional reasons, which reinforces that women in this film are viewed solely as objects. Overall, the combination of the mise-en-scene and sound elements work to develop the main character and set up the narrative for the rest of the story.

Besides demonstrating how to engage an audience and establish the tone, these two film openings show the broadness of the drama genre as I previously mentioned, with Children of Men being more of an action-drama and A Clockwork Orange showcasing mystery film conventions.

Drama Research

I spent a great amount of time brainstorming. Spoiler alert: I had no solid idea for what I wanted to my film opening to be about. Should I make it personal? Should I make it about a kidnapper or stalker? (Ok definitely not the latter).

Ultimately, I decided to conduct some research on the drama genre. Original, I know. I was conflicted because with this project I want to take risks and fully get out of my comfort zone, but this genre provides me with the flexibility I need to work around such a loose concept. Hopefully along the way I’ll be more confident in my ideas that I’ll end up electing a more specific sub-genre, as the drama genre is extremely broad and can be interlaced with other genres such as comedy, action, or romance. Due to to this, the target audience may vary by sub-genre.

Drama films are usually narrative fiction, which gives me endless possibilities for the direction of my story in the creative sense. Naturally, emotional themes are present in these films which tend to revolve around real life situations. These themes can include poverty, drug addiction, and moral dilemmas. They rely heavily on the emotional development of realistic characters, and exhibit intense social interactions. Conflicts can occur between these characters or within one’s self. In terms of sound elements, they tend to have intense soundtracks which are crucial to developing the tense tone many of these films carry. Most importantly, films in this genre all communicate a story of human struggles, which is what I believe I need to achieve in my two minute time slot to truly resonate with my audience.

As the great Alfred Hitchcock one said, "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."

References:

Buffam, N. (2011, March 15). Drama. Retrieved from https://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/952-drama/

Music Marketing Project

Our latest project immersed me into a field that I only had basic knowledge of before. When my group chose the indie pop rock genre for our music marketing campaign, we discovered the target audience was mainly 16-24 year old students, with an almost 50/50 ratio of males and females. The genre includes elements and styles of punk, psychedelia, and country, but can also be more melodic and less abrasive. Ultimately, we realized indie pop rock music has varying musical approaches so we wanted to embrace the uniqueness of the genre in our project.

Indie pop rock artists rely heavily on social media, and usually have a website which contains information about tour dates and new singles/albums. We did a case study on the band Foster the People, and found that the band performed extensive live shows, eventually performing at large music festivals such as Lollapalooza to spread their reach. The band promoted their first club shows by emailing fans who had downloaded their single from their website about the shows. After they released their first EP, fans who purchased the EP through the iTunes Store were able to apply it toward the purchase of their full-length debut album. These techniques allow for a fan base to be built over time by creating anticipation and consistency with the audience.

When developing the brand for our new indie pop rock artist IZZA, we wanted to be certain her bold and rebellious personality was showcased as efficiently as possible. It can be difficult to gain recognition in the music industry, so our primary goal was to create an iconic element for our artist with the purpose of making her stand out. We chose the color pink for that very reason, and decided to incorporate black as well to produce a sense of mystery and edginess. Additionally, we created a logo for her brand that consists of a neon pink sign of a rose, to further create an essence along with a visual appeal to our works. These are the main pictures of IZZA we posted across her social media sites demonstrating the aforementioned themes:

The neon pink light and black shadow establish her distinct theme.

IZZA's iconic element of pink dyed hair is showcased in this picture.

Besides establishing a social media presence, we focused on creating merchandise for our marketing products, since indie pop rock fans tend to wear "band t-shirts" of their favorite artists. The merchandise consists of black colored clothing items showcasing our rose logo, and included options that would cater more to our male audience with the skull t-shirt. These alternative options still remain consistent with our theme because the pink rose is still present. The merchandise would advertise our name effectively and expose a greater number of people to our music. A sense of community among our fan base would also be achieved through these products.

Overall, this project taught me the importance of planning when it comes to creating a music video. Editing choices and how you choose to portray your artist in their music video are crucial because you have to accurately represent the persona and brand you are trying to promote to the audience. The target audience and brand established must influence all the choices you make when it comes to marketing and distribution. Ultimately, a marketing campaign requires deep analysis of how all the aspects will come together to introduce your artist into the world.