Portfolio Project: Bria's new stroyboard

As you know I'm changing the visual concept of my film opening so this means that I have to change the shots that I intended to film for each character. This isn't a bad thing because it's going to make it easier for me so let's rewrite Bria's storyboard!

Originally, Bria was going to go to follow the bad guy to the gym while Luana popped his car tires in the parking lot. Then the scene would end with Bria walking out of the gym seeing him frustrated at his car and she would offer to help repair his tires. But since I'm not going that route anymore, I am going to rewrite her storyboard.

All of the locations that I finalized are going to remain the same, nothing is going to change location wise. The only thing changing is the actions taking place in the individual scenes.

Since Bria is an edgy teen, I want to get shots of her skateboarding, doing mechanical work on a car and hitting a punching bag at the gym.

If you remember from the first storyboard, the film opening started with Bria riding her skateboard while listening to music. I want to keep this as the initial shot because I love the technique portrayed in the scene, the diegetic to non-diegetic sound, the camera movements (pans and tilts) and the combination of shots.

The transition is going to reveal her walking to the gym and then it will cut to her running on a treadmill and punching a punching bag. There will be a pan to the left that will transition from the gym to her working on a car. Transitions in my opening are going to be used to show a smooth location change. I love transitions and when they're done correctly, they can be amazing!

Since I’m not the best drawer I thought it would be better to just type what the rest of Bria’s scene will look like! I will go more into detail on the script but this is the basic outline of her storyboard. Thank you for checking in and I’ll see you in the next blog!

Portfolio Project: What's the name of my opening?

This is probably what is taking me the longest in terms of the actual film opening project, figuring out what to name it! I'm trying to come up with a cool, simplistic title but I haven't been able to decide yet. Here are some ideas for titles that I've come up with so far:

• Messengers of Karma
• Karma's messengers
• The Vigilantes
• Daughters of vigilance
• The Quad

These are a few of the titles that I've come up with that I actually like. They're symbolic and reference an element of my film opening. There are four characters, their vigilantes that fight crime and are the epitome of karma. I had a few other ideas but I didn't think they fit the theme of the opening well.

I asked my friend Caroline, that's playing Bria, what she thinks about the options and she preferred Karma's messengers and I agreed. I still want to brainstorm and come up with some other names to chose from but as of now 'Karma's messengers' seems to have the popular vote.

I like this title so for now, this is the name of my film opening! If I come up with a better name I will change it but I'm happy with what I have so far. Like always, I will keep you all updated on my progress and if I make any changes. I'll see you in the next blog!

Portfolio Project: My target audience!

The target audience of my film is both females and males in the age range of 15-35. Because the actions and topics mentioned in crime thriller productions, the audience has to be mature enough to handle the content withing the production. The Mature Audience TV rating recommends that the viewer be 17 years of age or older because subjects in the film may be unsuitable for younger audience members. I chose to lower the age of my target audience because even though the crime/ thriller genre is known for possessing intense content, my film will not have a lot of gore or contain anything explicit. The rating of my film would most likely be PG-13.

I believe that my production will attract female viewers because the characters all possess relatable traits. Having an all-female crime-fighting group portrayed as normal women just trying to survive in a male-dominated world while juggling their personal lives at the same time will help women relate to my production even more. Bria is a rebellious and edgy teenager, Valencia comes from an affluent family but was disowned by them, Luana wears her heart on her sleeve and Zora's the mastermind behind all of it that's just trying to do her best to keep everything running efficiently. The reason behind this is to have the audience identify a part of themselves with the characters whether through fashion, personality traits, experiences, personal background, etc. I wanted a diverse range of characters and a lot of representation of groups ethnically, socioeconomically, and behaviorally so that both the male and female demographic can feel a connection to at least one character. 

It is common for the characters in films to be what draws the attention of the audience. Since my film is primarily female, theoretically, my audience would most likely be male. But some may be wondering:

Guys can't watch this, it's a girls movie, right?

Wrong! I know that my film opening's theme is female empowerment and this may be misleading for the male audience because when they hear a movie is centered around women and empowerment they associate it with being a girl's movie. That's like saying since Black Panther was an all-black production only black people can watch it, which makes absolutely no sense. Anyone that wants to watch my production can no matter their race or gender identity. The goal of my film is to celebrate women and their amazing qualities, not exclude men and this is the issue that comes up a lot in films that are labeled as "chick flicks", men feel like they can't watch them, I don't know maybe it has something to do with their egos and masculinity.

Of course, I found this picture on Pinterest which accurately sums up everything I said in that last paragraph. Again my opening is about empowerment not putting one group down to uplift another, that's hypocritical.

Women are most likely to watch thrillers because they like the mysterious element and they enjoy piecing the puzzle together. Men enjoy watching thrillers because of the action and adrenaline rush they get from intense action scenes. This is why both genders can enjoy my film because I would incorporate all of these elements in the full version of my film.

That's it for this blog, I'll see you in the next one!

Sources:

“TV and Movie Ratings with Descriptions.” Spectrum.net, 2020, www.spectrum.net/support/tv/tv-and-movie-ratings-descriptions/.

Silbermann, Ben. “Pinterest.” Pinterest, 2010, www.pinterest.com/.

Google Images, Google, images.google.com/.

https://www.slideshare.net/DanaSummerfield/target-audience-for-a-crime-thriller

Portfolio Project: Change is good... right?

(Mini personal update woohoo! I know I'm just now posting in the middle of the week and I usually don't wait like this to post but my wisdom tooth is coming in and it is excruciatingly painful. I'm sorry about the delay but I went to an oral surgeon and we're going to get it all figured out so I'll be better soon! This has definitely slammed on the brakes for me in the production world but the show must go on! I have to get caught up with everything so let's get into the blog!)

Surprise! I'm changing my film opening! Okay, I'm not changing the WHOLE thing but I'm just going to make it simpler for myself. I realized that I was way over my head so I'm not going to overcomplicate things and I'm going to KISS my project. KISS means "keep it simple sweetie" and that's what I plan on doing with my project. The shots are going to be a lot simpler since I'm not trying to fit 2 different concepts into one opening. I am so bummed that I can't incorporate both of my ideas but I'm sure I'll be able to do it so another time! I'm glad I've reached this conclusion now before I spent time drawing the rest of the storyboards! I posted Bria's storyboard but we're going to discard that and revisit the drawing board and start over... yay.

The shots are going to be showing the girls in their everyday lives while the narration introduces them. It will make it easy to follow compared to it looking busy and congested visually. I still think my opening will still be great I just have to really make it visually appealing since the music and the narration will be playing in the background.

All of the locations I finalized in one of the previous blogs are still locations that I plan on filming at.

Of course, I'm going to editing the rough draft of the script but the narration part of the script won't change that much since that's what's the action in the scenes are centered arounC. What's going to change is the actions and the shots I had incorporated into the script. I've got this and I'm going to fix it!

I am so happy that I've finally been able to figure out which direction I'm going in regarding my film opening. I feel like I can finally breathe! I'm actually happy with my decision to change the visual direction of my film opening because I can still make it look good and be able to convey my message clearly. I had to be realistic with myself and have a "come to Jesus meeting" and I have clarity now! I'll keep you guys updated, see you in the next blog!

Portfolio Project: Zora's lair

Zora's lair

Zora is the narrator of my film opening and she's the last one to introduce herself. I want her introduction to take place in her lair where she does the majority of her crime-fighting work. There will be a board of past cases and criminals that they've taken down on her wall and a desk with laptops and technical equipment. I really want the fact that she is a computer genius to be made clear to the audience and that means that I will have to make props. In this blog I will be showing you some ideas and inspirations that I got from, you guessed it, Pinterest! 

My sister, Aneesa is playing Zora just in case you forgot!

Ideas for the board on her wall with past cases & criminals:

  

Key components of the board are pictures and documents with the classic red string connecting them on the wall. Sticky notes will be on her wall and it will have names and different information listed on them. The goal is to make it look like an overwhelming collage of bad guys and their personal information.

The technical gear in her lair:

Lighting

This is exactly why I love going on Pinterest to receive inspiration because I didn't even consider a lighting scheme for her lair but now that I'm looking at rooms with this computer set up, I like the concept of there being like a purple or pink light in her introduction. Pink is a feminine color and since this film opening is about female empowerment, that would be expected but maybe blue. When we studied colors and their meaning in mise-en-scene we learned that the color blue is associated with dominance, intelligence, and business. That color would work because Zora is dominant- the leader of the group, intelligent- computer hacking genius, and business- works with clients directly and handles all of the paperwork before working on cases. The color blue is also commonly associated with masculinity so it would be ironic for her room to be blue and the whole concept of the film opening is female empowerment. Speaking of, happy International Women's Day!!!

The computers won't be hard to find because I will be using my computer, my sister's computer and my mom's work computer as props. I don't have a computer chair but that's not the focus of the scene so I'm not too worried about the chair we use not being a wheely computer chair. I have a purple plug in light that I could use if I can't figure out how to change the color to blue. 

Purple still would work because it's not pink and is still affiliated with femininity but not as much as pink so If I can't figure out how to change it blue, I'll keep it purple. I'll post a blog with details on lighting later on.

In the last blog, I posted on finalized filming locations I decided that Zora's introduction will be filmed in a garage and I still think that is the right choice production-wise. I have to have space to film all of the shots and for the props to fit in the room and actually be seen in the opening that's why I chose to film in a garage.

This blog was for me to share my ideas with you guys on Zora's lair and some inspirations I have for props and the lighting. The props will probably be the hardest part of creating Zora's lair and figuring out how to change my light from purple to blue. Like always, I will keep you all up to date on my progress and inform you of any changes that I make. I'll see you in the next blog!

Source:

Silbermann, Ben. “Pinterest.” Pinterest, 2010, www.pinterest.com/.

Portfolio Project: small update

Quick update: I was competing in a pageant all day today so this blog won’t be that informative but I did want to let you know that I will be submitting extra blogs this week! It’s been a long day and my eyes are crossing typing this so I’m going to go to bed and post all of the posts that I need to in order to update you guys on how everything’s going. But right now all I can think about it sleep so I’m going to see you guys in tomorrow’s blog! Goodnight! (Side note: I won people’s choice so that was cool)

Portfolio Project: Finalized Film locations

I've narrowed down the locations of my film opening! I had some trouble figuring out where I wanted each scene to take place because the locations have to be able to accurately portray the vibe of my film opening. Fortunately, I figured it out and I believe that these locations I picked out are perfect!

The beginning of Bria's introduction will be filmed at:

Pembroke Village in Hollywood

The Weston YMCA Family Center

Luana's introduction will be filmed at the Northwest Regional Library

Valencia's introduction is going to be filmed at 

The Shops at Pembroke Gardens

And the last portion of Valencia's introduction will be filmed at the actress's (Keira's) house in her bedroom. It will be easier to film here and she'll most likely be more comfortable acting in her bedroom instead of mine.

Zora's reveal will be filmed in either a garage or in the actress's bedroom. We live together because we are sisters so it will be easier to film her part and do as many takes necessary to get it right. Her scene will most likely be the most detail-oriented scene to film and edit. I am planning on making a lot of props and set design specifically for Zora's scene but I will not be revealing any of those plans in this blog! 

The final scene where the bad guy, Victor, is captured will be filmed in Caroline's basement. Her basement has more open space than mine and her parents are willing to let us shoot there so that works perfectly! This scene won't take long to film but editing it to get it the way I want it to look will probably be the hardest part because it's the last scene so it has to be right.

These are all of the filming locations that I've decided will work for my film opening, I may decide to switch film locations but as of now, I feel pretty confident in the locations that I've chosen. These can always change during the planning process but hopefully, everything goes smoothly and no major changes will have to be made regarding the film locations. I'll keep you updated, see you in the next blog!

Source:

Google Images, Google, images.google.com/.