Media Portfolio Blog 10

Today's post will entail much less writing, as I will be showing my shot/planning outline for the film opening. Some of the shots that we selected require additional equipment, as well as a more appropriate location. We plan on trying to go to a boxing gym to film one of the scenes. Moreover, we also picked out our song but are currently waiting for approval from the artist to be able to use it. The song that we picked is called "You Might Find Me" by Ludwig Goransson. The track is upbeat and calm, but also has a hint of determination and sadness. 

The following is a basic outline of our opening film scenes.

 

Media Portfolio Blog #9

Hello everyone, today my partner and I began to plan out the first few scenes of our film opening. We mostly talked about the various angles and techniques that we could use, but we also did a few drawings, to visualize our ideas. We have already come up with the majority of our filming locations but, we have not yet come up with a shots list. This is what we attempted to do today over the phone, and I must admit we were kind of successful. However, we were only able to brain storm a couple shots, that occur at the beginning of our film opening.

The first shot that we wanted to start with was an over the shoulder tracking shot of our athlete (Floyd) walking into his garage gym, showing his coach staring at him, as he walks in. We wanted everything in the shot aside from his back shoulder and whats directly in front of him to be slightly out of focus. We plan on making him wear white colors, and his costume design will consist of gym/boxing attire. 

The next shot will then be a close up of a pair of head phones on a bench that he picks up. This will then cut to a medium shot of him, and elements of the background as he places the headphones on his head. After this, we will cut an extreme close up, as he will press a button on the side of the headphones, and the music will start playing (diegetic sound).

We will then cut to another medium shot of him stretching and mentally preparing himself for this training session. We plan on using sound effects to show his muscles cracking as he stretches, and we want to show an extreme close up of his eyes, to show that he is locked in and ready for this long and difficult process of training before he can fight.  

Unfortunately, both of us had soccer games to go to so that is all that we were able to come up with. In the next blog post, I will have a full shot list uploaded, followed by a detailed story board. I apologize for the shortened nature of today's post and the following posts will be much more specific and much more detailed.

Extreme close beautiful eyes tan man stock footage video (100% royalty-free) 30334417. Shutterstock. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-30334417-extreme-close-beautiful-eyes-tan-man-expressing

Media Portfolio #8

 For today's post Mrs Stoklosa organized us into groups of five, to discuss our ideas and share our film opening plots with each other. She did this so that we could obtain a different perspective on our story ideas, and so that we could explore any possible alternative ideas that others in our group have to offer. This was a very interesting exercise for me, as it completely changed my story line and idea. After discussing my idea with Tai, Josh, and Mariana (The members of my evaluation group) they suggested that I alter the training story line to better portray/narrow the focus on to one main character or one athlete. They suggested this as they said my original idea was way to similar to the training scene that occurs in Creed 2. They suggested that I show one athlete training for a fight in order to earn money for his child who is sick with cancer and is in the hospital. This both displays a meaningful message and is significantly different from any other movie training scene

They suggested that I show a reason as to why the fighter is training so hard, giving him a motive to win his next fight. They also said that I can film the training more effectively if I only focus on one athlete instead of both. I thought that this advice was really impactful and I plan on altering my plot to address their concerns. Additionally, we discussed changing the name of my main fighter to better match his physical appearance. 

We then talked about Joshes post, and recommended that he display his social message of gun violence more clearly, and specifically. His idea was to show a player getting drafted into the NBA, and then flashing back to a tragic moment (a shooting) that injured him in his past, and showing how he overcame that injury. Tai's idea was very interesting and it was more of a psychological thriller. The plot was very cool and they said that it would take place in an art studio which sounds really interesting to me.

Overall I would say that the meeting was very productive, and I really gained a new insightful perspective on how to better improve my film plot. I plan on talking to my partner over this week on how we can incorporate these ideas into our planning, and final production. 

Media portfolio Blog # 7

 Filming schedule

First filming date Sunday February 26th:  Plan on filming initial garage scenes of Floyd putting on head phones, and getting locked in before training. Him stretching and mentally preparing himself (Filmed with friend Tanner), would also shoot scenes of him jogging by the lake outside my house, and lifting some weights.

Second filming date March 5th: Film scene of other fighter (Dimitri) training, and getting ready, taping wrists and putting on gloves while looking serious and angry. Would mainly be wearing dark colors with a dull kind of cold background. These series of shots will be filmed in the YMCA bicycle/light room. Furthermore, we would also like to show Dimitri  practicing with his trainer, we would like to go to a boxing gym to film this part but are not yet sure of an exact location. Furthermore, we want to show him training with weights, in a professional looking environment, we plan on going to another state of the art  gym called House of Athletes.

Third Filming Date March 12th: Film near sand in a desert/beach area, likely on the side trail of high way 75. Would show ladder work, as well as working out in the sand, and also using resistance ropes. Also have an idea for a really cool tracking long shot, showing the sun setting in the background as Floyd shadow boxes on the trail.

Fourth Filming Date March 16th: Would also film final face off in the auditorium, because of lighting and surrounding, looks like a boxing introductory area.

First editing March 18: For the first editing session my partner and I will sit down and piece all the clips together, and adjust the lighting, and saturation of each. This will be more of the preliminary editing, the little stuff, just getting the editing process started.

Second editing March 20-22: The heavy lifting, finalizing a song for the training, that starts playing in the film opening when the head phones are put on. Then deciding on which font to finally use, and what color that font should be. We would also create the credits, pick an appropriate background for the credits, and add some select sound effects.

Medi portfolio Blog post #6

Finally, my partner Juan and I have agreed upon our plot. We are going to create  an action film opening that shows two boxers in the process of training for a fight against each other. In order to better understand how to further develop our plot my partner and I dove deeply into the common genre characteristics, and elements that make such sport action films successful. We also began to analyze our target audience and are making film related decisions around what our audience is known to like.

For starters, the target audience of most sports films are males primary aged thirteen to fifty. Moreover, these fans often watch such films as they are interested in the actual sport itself. Many times audiences expect the film to copy the way sporting events are depicted in real life, because of this making the film look as close to real as possible is extremely important. That being said, sports fans are not the only target demographic of such sport movies. The plot and story line is meant to entertain all audiences regardless of whether they like the sport. Sports movies target people of all socioeconomic classes, from the rich to the poor. Often times the plots of sport action movies involves an athlete who came out of poverty, or faced tremendous adversity to get to where he is today. This can be seen in numerous sports movies such as Creed, Jessie Owens film Race, and even Jackie Robinson's movie 42. All of these films show an athlete overcoming struggle. Such a powerful message appeals to many, regardless of underlying factors.

 

 

Moreover, there is no specific race which watches sports films. Such movies have a very diverse audience, as sports are known to bring people together. there is however, a specific age demographic as the majority of watchers are aged 18 plus, but the number of viewers decreases greatly after the ages of 60 and above. Our film opening is set to target the younger spectrum (ages 15-30), as we believe that they will be most entertained by the style of film opening that we chose. Additionally, we plan on targeting more of a male audience as the film is centered around combat, and boxing, which is a predominantly male watched sport. A fun fact is that the UK has actually shown the most interest in boxing over the past five years. Additionally, there is said to be an increase in excitement around boxing for younger audiences, and boxing was recently ranked the fourth most popular sport in America. We tend to capitalize on this growing interest, and plan on marketing specifically towards younger adults, and middle aged men, because of the action and fast paced nature of our production.The overall audience of sports in general are extremely diverse, and although we intend on targeting younger to middle aged men, we believe that our film opening can appeal to all.

In our next few posts my partner and I will be creating our shot list, script, and filming schedule.

Catariail. (2021, August 25). Review of Sports Movies. Sport in American History. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://ussporthistory.com/2021/08/21/review-of-sports-movies/

Team, S. (2023, February 21). 17 boxing viewership statistics to knock you out (2022). Soocial. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://www.soocial.com/boxing-viewership-statistics/ 

IMDb.com. (2013, April 12). 42. IMDb. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453562/

IMDb.com. (2016, February 19). Race. IMDb. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3499096/

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, February 22). Creed III. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creed_III

 

Media Portfolio blog post #5

Hey everyone, this is blog post number five and by now I think we all have a general idea of how to format and produce these blogs. For starters, the production process of our film opening is slowly and methodically coming together. My partner Juan was absent last class so unfortunately we were unable to meet and further discuss other elements of our production. However, we talked over the phone and came up with a few possible filming locations, as well as discussed who (if not the two of us) could we ask to play the role of both fighters. 

Regarding the location of our film opening, we would need a couple different settings. The first area that we would like to film in is the YMCA Zumba class room. The lighting in this room is fantastic as it is perfect to show the tone of the athletes muscle. It is also very open, and can be made quite dark. Here we would have Floyd, the main fighter shadow boxing, as well as training with a jump rope. We would then cut to a scene of him jogging, outside of my house by the water. After that, we would introduce his opponent, who will be training in a dark, and remote location, which we have not yet decided on. We will then cut to a shot of him doing push ups and sparing with a teammate. After this we will cut back to Floyd hitting a boxing bag, in my garage. And finally back to the other fighter jogging. We will then end with the two of them meeting to face off.

Lastly, regarding cast, either myself or my partner Juan would act as both of the characters. We also have a friend named Tanner who we are going to ask and see if he may help us and act as one of the fighters. Lastly, I am going to ask  my soccer coach to act as one of the coaches for Floyd, and I am going to ask my dad to act as the coach for the opponent Dimitri. However, all of these actors are still yet to confirm and if they are unable to attend Juan and I will act as the two fighters. 

That is it for today's blog, please stay tuned for new posts and updates.

Media Portfolio Blog Post #4

Today my partner and I discussed some possible character personalities, various props that we could use, and some technical aspects of our production. Our main character is going to be an orphan, who grew up in an a very poor area in Baltimore. He was a good kid but would constantly get into trouble because of the environment that he grew up in. His father was murdered, and his mother who was in and out of prison, didn't care for him. Growing up he would always get into fights, and was constantly bullied. His only real escape from the horrible things that would happen around him was to step in the ring and start boxing. It was a way for him to take out his rage and not get in trouble for it. He also got into boxing in order to better protect himself from being beaten up, and become more tough. Through much hard work and training he was able to achieve his goal and book his first professional fight. The scene that we would like to show is him preparing for   the biggest fight of his carer against his arch rival Dimitri, a Russian boxer who had a similar rough upbringing. He was an ex convict and spent much of his life in a Russian jail where he had to fight to stay alive. He is known to be a dirty fighter, and has an extremely ruthless coach.

 

 

 

Some possible props that we would use are: Boxing gloves, wrist tape for the boxing gloves, and a punching bag. Fortunately all of these items I have at my house and whatever else we need we will buy later on. Moreover, we are going to use a spray bottle and water to create sweat, as well as weights and a pull up bar to show their intense hard training. We would also like to play with different types of lighting and utilize high key/bright lighting, as that seems to be a common theme in many boxing related movies/ face offs. Additionally, we plan on using a light kit, and also using various lamps/flashlights that we have to create this effect. Moreover, my dad has a Nikon camera that is very effective at capturing video related content. I also have various other filming devices that we will use when producing our film openings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to end today's blog with a fantastic quote that I think was really interesting, and truly shows the wonderful ways in which movies should be made and interpreted. "If a million different people see my movie, I hope that they see a million different movies" -Quentin Tarantino. I believe that all films should be interpreted in a multitude of ways, and be produced so that the audience can determine the underlying outcome.

Mythbuster. (2008, November 23). Ten scariest looking fighters. Bloody Elbow. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2008/11/23/668549/ten-scariest-looking-fight

15 inspiring quotes by famous directors about the art of filmmaking. ScoopWhoop. (2015, September 12). Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.scoopwhoop.com/entertainment/movie-director-quotes/

 

Media Portfolio Blog Post # 3

Today my partner (Juan De Castro), and I got together, in class to discuss which route we would like to take regarding the plot of our film opening. We narrowed the possible plots down to three main options. The first, and our favorite opening idea is to create a scene where the good fighter (our protagonist, likely to be named Floyd) is preparing for his up and coming championship fight against his arch enemy (Dmitri). We would like to use parallel editing when filming these scenes cutting back and forth to both fighters training hard for the fight (as this would suggest that the two events are happening at the same time). One set of shots would be Floyd training, boxing, running, and working out. The other set of shots would be Dmitri training hard, doing pull ups, and lifting weights. The second story telling route which we also disused, would be to show a boxer facing problems within his own personal life. However, when he enters the ring and when he starts training, not only do his problems disappear but he feels at peace with himself, kind of like boxing is his escape from reality. In both of these scenarios we would like our fighter to represent someone who faces poverty, and adversity, but overcomes these hardships through hard work and dedication. Our final plot idea, would be to have a fighter who is just becoming known, and is fighting in an old beat down gym, to gain popularity and experience. We would show him mentally preparing himself in the locker room, and then him walking out into a gym that is beat down and dirty, he would then fight his opponent and defeat him. The opening would suggest that he is something special and will go on to become a great boxer.

At first, we struggled with creating story lines that are both entertaining and original, but after watching a few iconic boxing movie scenes, and a boxing workout video, we were able to come up with a few ideas. We watched the following clips, for about 20 minutes, brain storming ideas and possible plots. Some common Mise-en-scene elements that we saw were: high key lighting, sweat, boxing gloves, and darker hues. We watched the boxing workout video to learn how to show our protagonist, and antagonist  preparing for their fight, in order to make it seem as realistic as possible.

References:

YouTube. (2018). YouTube. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPuOmHpGH2o&t=2s.

YouTube. (2023). YouTube. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTaIZo8OJYE.

YouTube. (2021). YouTube. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y47z1E1GYm8.

YouTube. (2022). YouTube. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2UKuKxCJqc.

Blog Post Number 2 Portfolio Project

I apologies for the length of last weeks post, and I promise that this one will be far more specific and much shorter. At the time I had so many ideas flowing that I felt as if I had to write a very long introductory post. For today's post I will be solely focusing on genre. Hmmm, what genre to pick, well out of the options that I mentioned earlier it is likely that my group and I will choose to make a film that falls in the action genre. According to the Numbers.com, action films are currently the second most popular  genre close behind adventure. Between 1985 and 2023 action films have generated about 54 billion dollars. Because of this tremendous amount of money, and the fact that action films have consistently been popular, and entertaining for years my partner and I believe that it is an appropriate choice. 

One very common genre convention that many action films have is that they are extremely fast paced and typically include a good amount of fighting scenes. A great example of such scenes comes from a series of movies we all know and love, John Wick. A combination of both slow motion shots, and quick cuts makes the combat scenes in the film very interesting and exciting to watch. I think we could incorporate something like this if we show our protagonist fighting and throwing punches in the ring. 

Moreover, the use of various mise-en-scene elements can also further contribute to the telling of our story. Obviously are fighter will be in boxing trunks and have on boxing gloves, but aside from that we are unsure as to what else he would have on. Furthermore, we would like the color of his clothing to represent his personality, maybe a mix of red to show his passion for the sport, and a mix of light blue to show his calmness and poise while fighting. Chad Stahelski, the director of the John Wick movies (and of course his costume design crew), did a fantastic job picking out Wicks outfits, most of the time he is wearing all black showing his anger, and serious nature as he hunts down the people who killed his dog.

Similarly, like the John Wick films we would incorporate both a protagonist and an antagonist, the protagonist would be our fighter and the antagonist would be his opponent who is known to be a dirty fighter. For today that is all I could think of, I plan on further exploring more genre characteristics and plot aspects later on this week in the following posts.

 

References:

Genres movie breakdown 1995-2023. The Numbers. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://www.the-numbers.com/market/genres

Hellerman, J. (2019, October 9). The 11 greatest fist fights in action movies, ranked. No Film School. Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://nofilmschool.com/best-fight-scenes-in-movies-john-wick

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Keanu Reeves Black Suit. The Genuine Leather. (2023, February 13). Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://thegenuineleather.com/product/john-wick-3-keanu-reeves-suit/

 

Portfolio Project

 All that was on my mind this week was MEDIA, MEDIA, and MEDIA! A million ideas began to flow through my head. Should I do a film opening from the horror genre, or the action genre, or what about a murder mystery. After much thought and deep film analysis, all of these ideas finally began to settle in my mind and I think that I am now able to narrow down the numerous options to a select few. With some inspiration from films such as Creed, and Murder on the Nile, I have planned out two main opening scenes that I would like to further explore. I want to create a production that is both entertaining, and inspiring. Moreover, the genre and scene has to be appropriate enough for me to display the usage of various film techniques in order to show my knowledge of the subject. 

My partner and I are still unsure as to what exactly we want to create but we are looking at three main options: An opening to a boxing movie, a soccer movie about a kid who makes it out of a poor neighborhood, and/or an opening about a murder and the mysterious nature of the killer. One challenging aspect of this planning is trying not to copy ideas from other films but rather use their opening as inspiration, and as a form of guidance. We want to pick genres that interest and excite both of us as well as entertain our target audience. Out of the many different genres that we could pick action, and crime are the two main ones that stood out for us.

Regarding the opening to our boxing idea, we have discussed creating a locker room related scene in which our fighter (or protagonist) is mentally, and physically preparing himself for one of his major fights. We would incorporate various Mise-en-sen elements such as boxing gloves, wrist tape, and even a punching bag. To mirror locker room conditions we would use darker lighting with the main stream of light focused on the fighter preparing himself. Regarding the soccer production I would like to have an opening scene of a young boy in ripped clothes, with no shoes dribbling a ball in a dirt area smiling, and having fun. Finally for the murder mystery my partner and I would like to start off in a dinning hall/fancy banquet, in which one of the waiters finds an extremely rich client dead on the ground. All of these ideas are just ground work and more research must be done before we decide what genre we would like to create our opening around.

These are some examples of shots that contain certain interesting angles, props, and lighting that I would like to also utilize when filming my opening scene. (I included a couple different pictures as I am not yet entirely sure as to what opening scene my partner and I would like to shoot)

Both my partner and I play sports and have a true passion for soccer, creating a film opening that displays our passion, as well as entertains our audience is the primary goal of our project. Speaking of which, our target audience for both the sports related films would primarily be males ages 14 and up, of all socioeconomic classes. We also believe that we can represent under represented groups through our film openings. In the Boxing film, our fighter is an orphan who has been kicked out of school for getting into fights. For our soccer idea, our protagonist is a poor young immigrant whose only escape from his bad environment is to have a ball at his feet.

In order for me to make a proper decision on which genre to create my film opening on, I must conduct more research and analyze more samples to determine which genre I am more passionate about, and which one helps me display my knowledge of film more effectively. Please stay tuned as the decision will come soon! 

Special note: (All information is tentative and ideas are prone to change in the next few posts, thank you for listening)

 

References:

Tangonan, E. J. (2022, October 17). Creed III: Michael B. Jordan and jonathan majors wait for the bell in new posters ahead of Tomorrow's Trailer. JoBlo. Retrieved February 11, 2023, from https://www.joblo.com/creed-iii-posters/

Download Manchester United Locker room wallpaper. Wallpapers.com. (2023, February 6). Retrieved February 11, 2023, from https://wallpapers.com/wallpapers/manchester-united-locker-room-mq3mcchp09vaerus.html

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

Our music marketing project was extremely enjoyable to work on and really taught us all a lot. Not only  were we able to display our film technique knowledge when making the music video, but we also used our knowledge of color, and lighting to ensure that our singer was able to lip sink properly. Additionally, we tried our best to implement the presentation techniques that Mrs. S gave us, making the power point simple, and having few lines on each slide, by memorizing most of the information.

To begin, we were assigned the Rock genre. Our song "Time Is Running Out" by the band Muse was chosen by our group to be the center of our marketing campaign. We began by conducting research on two record labels that our known to have famous rock artists, Warner records, and Radio Corporation of America. Then, we each conducted further research on an artist, or band who is contracted by one of these two companies. My job was to conduct research on a band called Red Hot Chili Peppers. They are a well known Punk Rock band that performs year round at many venues, and also hosts talk shows. Originally, the members of the band were all classmates at Fairfax high school, and their first major hit was their song called "Under the Bridge" which took off in 1992. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a prime example of a band that used technological convergence, and digital marketing to advertise their songs, and market themselves. Not only do they have various social media pages, but they also have a mobile app, a website, and a merchandise store. Because of all these new techniques the band was able to market themselves further and gain a significant following basis. 

With regards to the brain storming, and planning: we began by first listening to the song multiple times, and reading the lyrics over and over again. After we all had agreed upon what the theme/message of the song was, we began to map out the various scenes that we felt would math the song, as well as promote our artist. Sam created a story board on her Ipad, and we all began to discuss what the first and final shot would be. We came to the conclusion that our theme should be about drug addiction, and that our music video should promote a positive social message as well as show that if you are fighting addiction it is important to get help. I included our story board bellow, as well as a link to our power point. 

After we had finished our planning and our story board, we began to start filming. Thankfully,
Sam is a member of CBTV, and was able to borrow a light kit, as well as a few cameras to make our project look far more professional. We first filmed at Markham Park, using a wide variety of long shots, close ups, and extreme long shots in the process. We then went to Sam's house where we shot most of the artist advertising related scenes. We used a wide variety of different angles, camera movements, and colors to keep the scene interesting as all there really was to look at was our artists face. We also filmed the drug addiction scenes here. What was really cool about these scenes was that we used a wide variety of props to display drugs, and used a striking two shot to establish the relation ship between our addict, and the person who is trying to save her from addiction. That was my favorite shots because we were really able to utilize proximic patterns to further contribute to the message of our video. 

 

 

After our video was done it was then time to create our presentation. A new idea that one of our group members mentioned was to use Canva to create the presentation as it is contains far more creative and innovative design styles and templates. To complete the presentation effectively we each picked two slides to complete and then present. My slide talked about marketing techniques and gave an outline for our campaign. I included examples of our social media pages, as well as created a Spotify account, and even example merchandise. When it came time to present I feel that our group did do a good job, but we could have spoken more clearly and been more concise if we had been able to practice a few more times together. Aside from that I believe that we all did a good job and learnt a lot about the whole creation, and marketing process. 

Finally, I believe that we learnt a lot from the whole project, not only were we further made to apply the techniques, and strategies that we were taught, but we also learnt that there are many key, unnoticeable steps that media producers must take in order to ensure that their projects are marketed successfully, and to the correct target audiences. Almost all aspects of the presentation will be helpful when it comes time to developing our Cambridge portfolio project. Everything from the shots, the composition, the editing techniques, the props, and even the marketing are all extremelly important in making a film successful. All of these things that I just mentioned will prove to be very use full when developing our Cambridge Portfolios. For me, I believe that the research aspect of the project will also be very important, as a lot of the information takes a good amount of digging before one can find exactly what they are looking for. Overall, I believe that the project was a great experience, we were able to work together, and work effectively to ensure that our band was marketed and created in such a way that we are able to captivate our target audience.