Finished Script, onto filming!

I’m back! On Thursday, 2 of my group members and I met up to work on this script and we finished!! It came out well, but we want to find a way to make the ending more indicative of the purpose: criticizing the court system and its unfairness/ bias.

I'll copy only some of the script below because I don't want to give too much away:

Enrique: “Can we get back to the reason why I’m here?”

Interrogator: Watch your tone. In America, we respect authority.”

Mood changes from aggression to passive aggressive. (chuckles)

Interrogator: “So tell me, you haven’t been here in awhile…”

Enrique: “Yeah I’ve been trying to clean up”

Mark: “Face it, your people will always be criminals”

Basically, we really wanted the interrogator to be as mean and rude to the “criminal” as possible. The interrogator is symbolic of the court system and the justice system. The protagonist, Enrique, is symbolic of the hard-working, lower class minority who is trying to make a living and get by in America. At the end of the scene, we wanted Enrique to have his hands somewhat moving and the interrogator slap them down and shut them closed. This is symbolic of the court system shutting down minorities and being bias of them before actually knowing who they really are.  

    We also looked at TV shows like Criminal Minds to get some inspiration. We looked at one scene in particular to show the characterization of the interrogator. He is slick, rude, and knows the type of information he’s looking for and will try to twist Enrique’s words to get him to confess to anything. Especially in this episode where the criminal says “so, you have no right to search me?” and the interrogator asks “why? What would we find?” is perfect for how we want our interrogator to come off as. He puts the criminal in an uncomfortable situation, trying to get him to break easily and confess to anything. This scene really helped us get a better understanding of how interrogators act, what they say, and how our actor should stand, walk, and position himself.

We also focused on the little things like slang words and context. We figured if our protagonist was to be lower class, he should talk like a lower class person and his dialogue shouldn’t be enriched in vocabulary, opposed to the interrogator's dialogue. This will also help the audience understand the differences between these two characters.

We’re waiting on our other group member to add her comments on the script, and help us finish with a stronger ending, and Sunday we film everything. I’m very excited, especially because our actors are going to be amazing in their roles and this is finally coming together quite nicely.

I’ll post more information and updates tomorrow.

Until then, keep watching!

References:

Spera, R. (Director). (2008, November 5). Criminal Minds [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM2f9nWb_GU

Script 2.0

Hello, I’m back!

So it’s been a pretty busy and crazy weekend, with my group and I freaking out over the fact that none of us can agree on how to approach this project. I’m seriously considering on starting over, but I know we can’t do that.

The script is coming along, but one of my group members realized that I really can’t start the script until we know what we’re doing, so instead I laid out ideas for a script.

• Start with him meeting up with his lawyer
• File would be really big = troubled kid
• Lawyer should probably be hypocritical/ unhelpful = shows injustice
• Should we show the verdict?
• Voice over of his thoughts (not main source of dialogue though)
• Take place in a meeting room (we can kinda do one of those 12 Angry Men kind of scenes)

That’s all I can come up with for right now, and hopefully our actors can deliver the performance. On Friday we’re playing to shoot, since our schedule got pushed back, and by Wednesday everything: The storyboard, shot list, script, character development, actors, etc., will be done

Well… Until then, keep watching!

Script

Hey guys! So yesterday my group members and I met up and we started to discuss the different feedback each section gave us for the project.

Most of the feedback we received dealt with the first 30 seconds of our opening. Most of the people liked the idea of going against the court system, but they agreed that we should probably start with a meeting between the main character and his lawyer, or something more visually pleasing than a dark interrogation room or cell. They also mentioned that if we want this project to work, our actor should be picked so it is clear that he’s a minority. We realized that we have the “meat” of the project done, like our overall plot and what we need (prop-wise) to get it done, but when it comes down to how to start and end the scene, we’re hopelessly lost.

One of my group members thought that to make it easier and save time, each person should be assigned a job. These jobs will help us develop our opening and hopefully reach a mutual understanding of how we want it to start and end. Maria and Jenna are going to collaboratively work on the storyboard, where Maria will draw and Jenna will write down the shot/ angle composition for each scene. Kaelin is going to start on character development, because we realized that we should have an idea of how our movie will end even if we are only showing the opening scene. Lastly, I am working on the script.

When working on the script, I turned to different types of films for inspiration to get a better idea of what terms or vocabulary I should be using.

For example, A Few Good Men, and in ...And Justice for All  has perfect representation of the court system, it's corruption, the terms used in a court of law, and how a court system operates. I didn't watch all 2 hours of these movies, but for the first 30-45 minutes of these films (especially the court scenes) I noticed how each character was dressed, acted, where they stood, etc. Also, when spoken to they always refer to the Judge as “your honor,” and most times than not, the victim/ defendant is quiet and only their lawyers talk.

I was taking notes of these scenes to help me with the script. Most of my notes dealt with representation, the mise-en-scene and the lighting. I've noticed that when in court, most of the time, it's darker than when they step outside or are home somewhere far away from the courtroom. This probably is making a statement of how dark and corrupt they system is. My notes and watching videos has helped me with starting the script. I got to run it by my group to make sure they agree with me as well.

Until then, keep watching!

References:

Sorkin, A. (Director). (1992). A Few Good Men [Motion picture]. USA.

Jewison, N. (Director). (1979). ...And Justice For All [Motion picture]. USA.

Meetings

Hello everyone! So I completely forgot to post about this, but better late than never right?

On Tuesday, my group and I expected to meetup to discuss our plot, but instead my teacher came up with this brilliant idea that helped us out way more.

So basically this “meeting” exercise went down like this: one member from each group was placed into a “section,” so that way we were exposed to the different ideas other groups were coming up with. There were four different sections. Whoever was presenting their idea to their section, had to project their progress or any other information they thought would be helpful to the “observers” in order to explain what their project was and how they planned to accomplish this task. The “observers” then had the chance to provide feedback, commentary, ideas, questions, etc. to the presenter in order to help them with their project.

I LOOOOOOOVED THIS ACTIVITY SO MUCH!

It really helped me gain more ideas and insight to our project. After I presented my group’s progress, some of the comments my classmates made really made me think of a better idea of our plot and how I can approach the opening. Not only that, but some of the feedback other members received was helpful to me because I learned different ways to make a scene more interesting, leave it intriguing, or make it worthwhile even.

So you’re probably asking, “uhh that’s great and all, but what were some of the ideas that helped you?”

Good question. Well, after I finished presenting and showed them all my ideas about voice over and the different plans my group came up with to open the project, one girl asked, “That’s really good, but how are you going to make the audience want to keep on watching?” It hadn’t hit me until then that she was right! An opening is supposed to leave the audience wanting more. So with this activity, my section helped me come up with the following:

• Look at 12 angry men, and Raising Arizona for inspiration
• Maybe start with the character talking to the lawyer and use vague terms to make the audience think
• Don’t rely too heavily on voice over
• Have a strong opening line
• If you want to criticize the court system, make sure you indicate somehow that it’s going to be about that
• Interrogation or lawyer is the best way to go
• Dramas focus a lot on music and editing so that’s important, as well as know your audience

All these tips really helped me to rethink our whole opening. I do agree definitely that editing and music should be a big part of it, and ambiguity is needed to leave the audience wanting more. Tomorrow, I’m meeting up with my members and we’re going to share our experiences and ideas with each other. I hope by tomorrow we have a set plot, and storyboard because I’m so ready to start filming. This activity made me even more excited about our project.

Well I’ll keep you updated and probably post tomorrow.

Until then, keep watching!

Voice-overs!

Hello! A promised I have come back prepared to explain the different types of voice overs I think we should definitely consider using for our film opening.

The first movie I chose was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. This movie  relies heavily on the voice over as a way to carry out the story, and even says the same line as the character at times. Without the voice over, the whole story would probably be Raoul and Dr. Gonzo screaming the whole time. This movie, especially, uses voice overs to incorporate the character’s thoughts, actions, and motives to the audience and why they do or don’t do certain things. If we go this route for the film opening, relying heavily on voice over, then we have to make sure we time the scenes correctly with the character’s lines, and we have enough going on that a voice over is absolutely necessary. Using voice over to this extent may hurt our production so we have to make sure we edit the scenes well so it works.

The second example is from Fight Club. This movie doesn’t rely so much on voice over as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but is still incorporated to explain to the audience how the character thinks, why he thinks that way, and what was going on in his head. This voice over is funnier and even freezes the scene to show that the events taking place on screen are in the past. Also unlike Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the voice over does not overlap with the character’s dialogue or explain what is going on in the scene. Instead, the voice over is used after the character is done talking and only describes what he’s thinking and what is going on in his mind at the moment. I think this type of voice over will be the one we end up choosing. Are voice over has to describe what our character was feeling, thinking, planning, and doing before and during the event. This voice over will help us not only develop our character, but our plot as well.

Lastly, the infamous Breakfast Club ending. This voice over is different from the others. Instead of describing the characters, it is at the end of the film. As seen, the teacher reads a note written from the students (i.e the Breakfast Club) and the contents of that note is the voice over. The voice over in this case is a way of explaining the ending, how each character was affected by the Saturday school, and shows the character development of each character. It won’t really add to our benefit to use this voice over since it normally shows character development and we shouldn’t really place character development at the beginning of the film.

Overall, looking at the different types of voice overs really helped me understand exactly what type of voice over I would like to see in the film and which one would fit best with our character. I think the 2nd example is the best because we can use it to describe what our character was thinking at that moment and how it affected him. Especially with our topic of injustice in the court system, explaining how something affected our character is an important element of the plot.

Hopefully my group members agree with me. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Until then, keep watching!

References:

Gilliam, T. (Director). (1998). Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [Motion picture]. USA.

Fincher, D. (Director). (1999). Fight Club [Motion picture]. USA

Hughes, J. (Director). (1985). The Breakfast Club [Motion picture]. USA.

Progress!

Hi! I’m so happy because my group and I have started to have some great ideas for the film. Not going to lie, I was a little worried with the timing and production of the piece, but I think we can really make this happen. Last time we met, we were discussing the main, overall concept of what we wanted to do. Yesterday in class we met again and we started planning our schedule - when we’re going to film, edit, blog, meet up, turn it in, etc.- and we discussed the storyboard more as well.

So far, one of my team members, and myself, is going to be out for a whole week, so we have to film next week to fit everyone’s schedule accordingly. On Wednesday, after school, we’re going to start recording - or that’s the plan so far. Our schedule is obviously subject to change, but with less than three weeks to have this project done, we need to start recording soon. So far are schedule is as follows:

3/21: Meet up with group - finished storyboard

3/22 : Start Filming

3/23: Meet up with group

3/25-26: Film

3/27: Meet with group - discuss techniques

3/29: Film

3/31- 4/2: Finish filming

4/4: Edit film

4/6: Edit Film

4/8: Turn in project

We agreed that are critical reflection would be on our own time, so we didn’t add it to our schedule.

When we started discussing the storyboard, one member thought of keeping the main character’s face hidden throughout the opening to add “suspense,” and even though I understand the message they are trying to convey, this might hurt us in the long run. Another member thought that a voiceover could help us and would tell the main character’s story perfectly. I agree with this member a lot, actually. I just came back from watching Beauty and the Beast, and I was seeing how the voice over really helped to clear up the plot and any “plot holes” that could’ve resulted. I thought of two ways we would use the voice over:

1. As he is sitting in the police cell (present), the voice over would “reverse the clock” so we go back to the beginning and tell the story from a specific point in time.
2. As he sits in the police car, his voice over is explaining his current situation and we only see snippets of his past - to add mystery to the story.

The third way is that we have no voice over and the audience is a third party to the movie. I think a voice over would benefit us and help fill in any missing holes for the production.

I’m going to start looking up films with voice-over openings actually and post about my findings tomorrow.

Until then, keep watching!

Ideas? Send help

Hi again! So on Monday, my group members and I met up to discuss our project in class. The goal we set for ourselves was to have a basic plot going for our project. At first it was pretty difficult to come up with an idea all four of us liked. It got to a point where I for sure thought we were not going to get an idea by the end of the day. We started looking at the list of genres and finding information on which ones were the most successful over the last couple of years, using my previous websites.

After talking it through for about half an hour, we came to the conclusion that we wanted our film to stand for something we all thought was relevant and important. Something that is happening a lot regarding the politics of this nation. We wanted to make a statement about the court system of America.

After reading books like The Stranger by Albert Camus this year in my english literature class, and hearing about countless stories where many innocent people were convicted of crimes they didn’t do, we figured it was the best way to go for inspiration to create our film opening. The only problem we had left, now that we had our main idea, was to think of a plot and create a storyboard.

After about an hour or so, we got it down to a rough draft of what are character is going to be like and what the problem will be. We figured that the main character would be a male who has had a troubled past, meaning he has been arrested before. This time, he was getting arrested for a crime he did not commit and was being tried for it. We would explain his situation, his side of the story to show how he’s innocent, but at the end have him be found “guilty.” We still have to figure out the storyboard, shots, what we want the character to say, if it will be a voice over or not, and a lot of other details, but for now we accomplished our task of having a main idea for the story. Phew!

I’ll post later to keep you guys updated on are next steps.

Until then, keep watching!

References:

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_(film_and_television

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Best. Quote. Ever. Just saying.

Anywayssss, I’m back with more insight to dramatic films.

After seeing different videos about film openings, with one of them being the Dark Knight, I started to come up with ideas for our own film opening. None of these will probably be finalized since my group hasn’t met up yet to discuss the sub genre we want to do. Tomorrow, during class, we will discuss that further.

I’ve been getting inspiration from various dramatic films. Some of the openings that stood out to me the most were La La Land’s opening, for its originality, Social Network’s, for its editing and shot compositions, and The King’s Speech because I love that movie and it’s amazing in every way possible, including the actors, the music, etc.

Starting with La La Land, the first time I watched it, I was really confused yet drawn into the scene mainly because of the music. All the different colors and dance moves fit the beat and theme of the film perfectly. The quick cuts make the scene much more exciting and upbeat. The cinematography as a whole is beautiful. All the openings I chose above had similar elements of editing that drew the audience in. While watching this opening, I tried to keep in mind that even though we can’t produce something this big and wild because of our budget, we can still use editing and camera shots to our advantage to make the opening more entertaining.

The Social Network’s opening is really complicated, and I’m not just talking about Jesse Eisenberg’s complicated dialogue. Even though the scene is only between two people, there is so much going on in this opening scene. The different shots: over the shoulder, pan, two shot, etc., all come into play in producing this scene. Also, to get Mark Zuckerberg’s personality exactly, they probably had to retake the shot over and over again. The dialogue and fast pacing of this scene is what makes it so remarkable. Unlike La La Land, there isn't much going on, but it’s still an award winning movie.

Lastly, The King’s Speech. This opening starts off with white letters on a black screen describing the year and the situation of the following opening scene. This is a great way to introduce the setting and the main conflict. By the end of the opening scene, the audience realizes that the Duke has a stutter problem, and by the looks of his “subjects,” this problem has been going on for a while and the movie will probably be about him and his speech impediment. This opening also uses great mise-en-scene to hint that this was during the 1920s because of the technology, devices, and wardrobe used.

All three different types of opening scenes showed me how important it is to set up the time frame and conflict, using mise-en-scene, editing, and camera shots in order to keep our audience intrigued and wanting more. I have no doubt that our low budget costs will be a problem, but I think we can overcome that easily. Hopefully. Stay tuned.

Until then, keep watching!

References:

Top 10 Opening Scenes in Movies [Video file]. (2014, May 22). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74BE-_jsEmc

Chazelle, D. (Director). (2017, February 22). La La Land [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teLFKKa7aqU

Fincher, D. (Director). (2013, November 6). The Social Network [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlXwTxpC6u0

Hooper, T. (Director). (2013, December 30). The King's Speech [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrdJqrKBwZ4

HELLO AGAIN!

SO APPARENTLY THERE ARE OVER 500 DIFFERENT TYPES OF DRAMAS!!!???!!!! Okay not 500, but there are so many different dramas it’s so hard to break it down and choose one type as our focal point. Thus, I began looking into the different types.

Through my research, I found this link that shows me the top 50 dramas presented in the last year. Many critically acclaimed movies, such as La La Land, Moonlight, and Lion are among this list. In the past four months alone, La La Land won over 20 awards with over six of them being Oscars. Moonlight was also very profitable and acknowledged for its amazing production and picture, winning the Oscar for best picture.

Another film that has been remembered and critically acclaimed was Titanic. Titanic and La La Land are both romantic dramas that have done well because of its well-known actors (I mean Ryan Gosling and Leonardo Dicaprio HELLO) and its original cinematography. These movies have been names as “groundbreaking” for their time and will always be remembered for its originality and beautiful story.

Other films, such as The Dark Knight and Saving Private Ryan, are also dramas. Though they’re different from Titanic-like story lines, they are still considered dramas. This link allowed me to see the most popular dramas, each with different sub genres of drama (i.e. horror drama, docudrama, or even melodrama).

When looking into The Dark Knight, I found that it was also extremely successful, even if it wasn’t a romantic drama. The danger, thrill, and Heath Ledger all make the movie memorable. This DC film brought in great revenue for the company for two reasons: 1) Heath Ledger KILLED the role (get it, killed? Yeah okay) and 2) the music and score was fantastic. Just like another drama film (La La Land) the score and music made it memorable and stand out.

Through my research, I’ve learned that the music, actors, and editing are the most important things to consider when filming a drama. Since our “actors” won’t be able to reach the level of profession and acknowledgement like Ryan Gosling, Tom Hanks, or Heath Ledger, we’re going ot have to focus on music and editing more.

Until then, keep watching!

References:

Nolan, C. (Director). (2008). The Dark Knight [Motion picture]. USA.

O. (2012, July 6). 100 Best Drama Movies. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/list/ls009668711/

Most Popular Genre Feature Films. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/genre/drama

Chazelle, D. (Director). (2016). La La Land [Motion picture]. USA

Drama (film and television). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_(film_and_television)

WELCOME!!!

Hi! I'm so excited to start blogging about our awesome portfolio project and my own experiences with my teammates. This is gonna be interesting to say the least...in a good and bad way.

Before I start talking about the progress I've made, I wanted to introduce myself. My name's Sofia and I'm currently a senior in Cypress Bay High. I looooooove watching movies. I feel like they're a way to escape reality and experience new emotions, maybe ones we've never experienced before. It amazes me that I can feel the pain and heartache of Julia Robert's character in Notting Hill  as she asks Hugh Grant's character to love her, even though I've never experienced such heartache.

Anywayyyyys, my teammates and I met up this week during class to discuss where our starting point should be. I, obviously, love romantic comedies/ dramas, and most of my teammates agreed with me. After some random googling and seeing  statistics  about our chosen genre, we realized that dramas bring in a good amount of revenue and is very highly praised, especially a good drama movie, in the US.

I still have more research to get done, but I'll be back soon with my latest finding.

Until then, keep watching!


References:

Most popular movie genres in North America by total box office revenue from 1995 to 2017 (in billion U.S. dollars). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/188658/movie-genres-in-north-america-by-box-office-revenue-since-1995/