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.

Representation

Representation is the way media chooses to portray certain types of people or communities. Certain groups who are underrepresented in Western media include women, people of color, LGBTQA+, and the elderly. There has been an increase of diversity in the media, but the process has been steady and slow.

In the Axe commerical, large crowds of women dressed in bikinis are shown running after a single man using axe body spray. In regards to the women in the video, there is slight racial diversity present, since there are some women of color shown in the video. Despite this, most of the women are white and appear to be at least middle-class. There is no range of body types shown, as they are all slim and appear to have an “ideal” hourglass body shape. Audiences viewing this commercial who don’t have this ideal body figure may feel insecure about themselves since they don’t live up to society’s standards of what an attractive woman is. Additionally, the man in the video appears to be gratified because of all the woman running towards him like animals chasing their prey. The advertisement is solciting the message that attracting women in such a manner is some type of achievement, therefore one should use the axe body spray in order to reach this goal. This might cause men to oversexualize women in general, and solely view them as sexual objects they must obtain.

Conversely, the H&M commercial displays great diversity, showing many different races, ages, genders, sexualities, body types, religions, and even disabilities. People of color, the elderly, and a man with a prosthetic leg are just a few specific examples of the representation showcased in the video. Audiences viewing this commercial will certainly feel more included in society as they can potentially be seeing someone who resembles them on-screen, which could also increase their self-esteem. Furthermore, this allows those belonging in minority and marginalized groups to feel validated for who they are. Diversity in the media is important because it provides an accurate reflection of our multicultural and multiracial world.

Genre Research Activity

Thriller

Genre Conventions - Content

The thriller genre typically revolves around high feelings of tension and suspense, with the purpose of keeping the audience at the edge of their seats throughout the entire duration of the film. In these productions, the main character's life is usually at stake because they are involved, knowingly or unknowingly, in a dangerous situation. They are fast paced and can include lots of action to progress the narrative. 

The narrative of the film generally contains one main objective the protagonist must fulfill. The concept of a secret is crucial to forming the story because it creates anticipation for the audience as they wait for the big reveal. The stories are complex, and may involve multiple story lines with the addition of plot twists that change the direction of the narrative. There is a grand build up to the climax which is designed to make the audience want to keep watching. Cliff hangers may also be utilized to amplify the suspense, often occurring at the end of a chapter. Flashbacks are yet another plot device that may be used to provide a backstory to the characters.

Common themes within the thriller genre include: kidnapping, murder, captivity, ransoms, investigations, conspiracy, obsession, psychology, pursuit, and terrorism.

Genre Conventions - Production Techniques

In terms of the mise-en-scene, the costume design is never over the top since thrillers tend to convey a more realistic tone. The villain is usually wearing darker colors such as black to symbolize their wickedness, whereas the victim will be dressed in brighter colors such as white to display their innocence. Low-key lighting and shadows may be utilized to create an eerie tone for the film and make the villain seem more frightening. A darker color palette may be present to create a gloomy atmosphere.

The non-diegetic sound could include a slow orchestral score to assist in building up tension, along with fast paced music to create a feeling of anxiety. On the other hand, the diegetic sounds that can be associated with this genre are heavy breathing, foot steps, and slamming doors.

Institutional Conventions - How Is Genre Marketed

Thriller films target both males and females, mostly around the young adult age. In terms of marketing, the trailers for these films use similar techniques to create anticipation in the viewers, such as fast-paced cuts and ominous music. The central mystery of the story is introduced with minimal detail to influence the audience to go out and watch the movie. They may also end in a some form of a cliff hanger. Additionally, thriller movie posters are usually filled with dark colors and typically show the protagonist(s) of the film in low-key lighting.

Horror and thriller films share similar characteristics, but the main aspect that differentiates them is that horror films market fear, while thriller films market suspense.

Film Example - Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is a psychological thriller, with a storyline centered around a young woman traveling to California and checking into the Bates Motel. The common thriller theme of murder is present, as the woman is killed by a man with two personalities. The film has scenes in which the murderer is psychoanalyzed at the end of the movie explaining the rest of the story, which is filled with various plot twists. Common motifs in thriller films, such as shadows and mirrors, are heavily used in this film as well. The entire film is suspenseful due to the build up to each of the murder scenes, and the mystery of the murderer’s character.

Film Example - Gone Girl

David Fincher’s Gone Girl involves a married man whose wife went missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. His innocence is questioned as media outlets begin to believe that he was involved in her disappearance and possible murder. Flashbacks are efficiently used to show the early days of the two main character’s romance, along with each of their backstories. The film is centered around the investigation of the case and includes plot devices common to thrillers, such as plot twists, suspense, and red herrings. The color palette is dark and cool to represent the coldness/bleakness of the disturbing narrative. Gone Girl intrigues the audience from start to finish, with a big twist occurring halfway through the film which takes the film in a completely different direction, making the viewer question everything.

Other Thriller Movies 

The Silence of the Lambs, 1991

Black Swan, 2010

Get Out, 2017

Memento, 2000

Seven, 1995

Zodiac, 2007