An indecisive human attempts to make a decision

This is where I evaluate the loglines that have made the cut.

1. 'Porcelain'

The idea:
Inspired by 'Porcelain' by Red Hot Chili Peppers, this film would be about a soon to be teen mom who suffers from drug addiction.

The vision:
The intro would introduce the main character, and also include a hook where the viewer wouldn't know she is pregnant until the very last few seconds, right before introducing the title. I would have to get permission to use the song, which perfectly conveys the whole story with the slow beats and dreamy guitar.

The risks:
My vision could turn out to look too montagey which is a big nono. Also I refuse to ask around for a pregnant teen who would be willing to star in a school project about a pregnant teen.

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2.  (Insert name when you come up with one here)

The idea:
An artist continuously blacks out right before it starts to paint, and wakes up to find his work already done. His paintings get more disturbing and questionable over time.

The vision: 
I could make a really cool setting in a messy art studio. The use of symbols would be prevalent, including colors, photographs and props.

The risks: 
I would definitely need an older actor for this, which could be harder for me to find.

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3. 'Barely Legal'

The idea: 
Just after turning 18, Anais, despising the fact the rock is not a prevalent genre anymore, is on a mission to pursue her dreams of becoming a groupie.

The vision:
I love this idea because I could introduce a female character with a strong personality. I could also include some humor components. I would introduce the character waking up in the morning of her 18th birthday, and use symbols for people to assume what her dreams are, and what are the things she hates (being a groupie and tacky pop music).

The risks:
The plot has cheesy teen comedy potential. Once again, big nono.

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4. 'A Certain Romance'

The idea:
An alternate version of the early 2000s, where love is completely dead among the youth.

The vision:
I imagine this opening in a very messy party scene, portraying the realities of teens in the 21st century without glamorizing anything. The way that teens are represented in the media in general is not very accurate so I'd like to take the opportunity to show their reality.

The risks:
I am not 100% convinced that I could make a very powerful opening with this idea.

Coming up with "loglines"!! (more brainstorming)

Based of my previous blog posts, here are the ideas that I have come up with for my film. Here are my kinda, sorta, not really, loglines.

Thriller: 
I like how these are somewhat dark, and I feel that I could create very compelling openings with them.

• Artist has a condition when he starts painting and suddenly blacks out, wakes up again to find his painting already finished, art eventually gets more questionable as time goes by.
• Writer has a condition when he starts writing, suddenly blacks out, wakes up to find his writing already done 
• Candid: a young photographer captures candid images of his surroundings, and discovers an alarming connection among them
• A teenager on a mission to create a short film, asks a close friend who's talented at writing for ideas. As she receives a notebook of his full of ideas and writing, questionable aspects of his—and even hers, are unraveled. 

Sci-fi: 
I came up with these, but at the same time, I'm scared that they will eventually get too complex and complicated for me to do. 

• It's the year 2201 and technology is advanced enough for people to get to chose how long they want to live
• A certain group of people who are able to predict the future in their dreams
• A young girl, frustrated to only be able to live one reality, starts dreaming through the eyes of other people

Coming of age: 
Some of these are inspired by songs, others are loosely based on my own experiences. I believe it's important to produce something one can relate to for a coming of age film. Some of them have titles already!!

• 'Porcelain': a pregnant 19 year old who suffers from drug addiction; a heartfelt, profound story about her ongoing battle
• 'Barely Legal': Just after turning 18, Anais, despising the fact the rock is not a prevalent genre anymore, is on a mission to pursue her dreams of becoming a groupie.
• The life of immigrant high school kids in Florida the 2010s
• 'A Certain Romance': a period piece of an alternate version of the early 2000s, where love is completely dead
• A young adult is growing and realizing his youth is slowly fading away
• a 17 year old is tired of being every boy's manic pixie dream girl

I thank the universe for song lyrics: a very disorganized brainstorming session

I've brainstormed like never before in my entire life.

Disclaimer to the reader: I would like to tell you that I am okay, happy and healthy. And I am not pregnant. You know, just in case.

These notes you just saw are probably 80% song lyrics. Song lyrics are the best thing to ever happen. Why? They're my number one source of inspiration. I sit down and analyze songs for leisure. Fun fact: I got this blog's URL from one of my favorite songs ever. I forever will deeply appreciate good lyrical work and I can't express it enough. Songs also help me visualize things. Whenever I listen to any song, I visualize colors, a landscape, a scenario, a mood. In fact, I have made a whole playlist called 'Visions' where there's room for any song that creates this effect for me. Here's the link.  Don't be surprised if I use one of these songs (which I will have to get a copyright from).

As soon as I knew bout this project, I knew that I would want to base my inspo on a song. I just don't know which one yet.

Is it possible to merge both coming of age and sci-fi? I mean why not right? I feel like every film ever has some kind of coming of age element. Character development and such. But then again I don't want some hybrid thing that turns out to be extremely odd and questionable. Or hey, maybe I can stick to the ironic route and make the intro about a young frustrated writer who lacks inspiration to make her own short film. (so qUIrKy and OriGInaL)

It's two minutes of a final outcome and I am doing somewhat extensive research, I wonder what it's like to do this for a whole movie.

11:49 AM -  I am pacing around my room and I have the idea at the tip of the tongue

11:58 AM - I am considering writing a blog of my own, this is kind of cool

11:58 AM - I am now realizing this is really irrelevant for this blog

In conclusion: 

• I know I want to do coming of age, but I want it to have a twist maybe involved with sci-fi
• There's too many good songs and I can't choose one to base my film on
• I need to really think
• Like really think

How to begin a movie

I am no expert in the film industry, I've never produced a movie in my entire life, but wow!!!!! The opening of any film is probably the one part that is the most well thought out (at least in a good film).

To almost anyone, you could tell them to picture a film opening, and what will instantly come to mind is a montage of the city it takes place in, while random names pop up on the screen and a mediocre sounding tune plays in the background. This is the kind of film opening that everyone would fast forward through to get to the actual beginning. We don't want to stick to an intolerable title sequence.

This video changed my way of seeing film openings. 

Here's what I learned from the video:

1. The best openings imply the kind of plot we will proceed to see, what the characters are like, what the overall tone of the movie is, rather than explicitly stating the entire story 
2. Creating some kind of mystery/hook is key!! The audience needs to be intrigued
3. If it's "as compelling a reading a Wikipedia article" you're doing everything wrong
4. An opening can introduce a character in a film: what kind of role it has, what kind of person he is...
5. Myth: "You have to get right into your story straight away, you can't waste any time and your have to start your main story immediately". 'Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark' has iconic opening scene where he's in the jungle and takes the Gold Eye, and is afterwards chased by the locals. But this isn't the start of the story. This scene establishes the character, but is completely irrelevant to the story. The film would still make perfect sense with no presence of the scene. 
6. In relation to the previous point, there are various films that are introduced with a short story right before the beginning of the actual film, which is a concept used in film: The Matrix, Star Wars, Game of Thrones and many others
7. First impressions are everything!! The whole short story concept may seem redundant, but it's all about the effect one wants to create in the audience
8. Any audio is important to set the tone

A ~perfect~ film opening:

1. tells the audience about the tone
2. delivers exposition in a potent way
3. is compelling
4. creates a strong feeling in the audience (strong meaning literally any feeling but in a powerful way)
5. introduces characters without saying too much
6. is compelling!!!

I also watched this video about opening shots that was interesting to see. An opening shot can also have a lot of meaning behind it through the use of symbols. Symbols can be colors, places, they can related to lighting, sound... It's an ongoing list. Anything could be a symbol. These put a lot more depth in whats to come in a film, which is also what I aim to do for my opening. 

I just now have to start coming up with my film opening. I have a few concepts in mind that I still have to think about and develop. I previously did genre research on both Coming of Age and Sci-Fi, but I think I might've changed my mind about the genre of my opening. At first I was 100% convinced I was doing coming of age, but I feel like I'd like to do something different. I will be discussing this in my next post!!

Music Marketing Campaign

We were given a choice of three songs, where we had do decide with one to come up with an entire music marketing campaign, as well as a music video. We chose Blind by Korn, which was not the usual music type that we listened to, but we felt that we could make the most out of it. 

We researched two different bands: Korn and Slipknot, as well as their target audience and the record company they were signed with, which was Roadrunner Records. From this we obtained a lot of information that helped us make choices for our plan. We firstly built the whole aesthetic of the band and designed the logo:

We were inspired by the fact that Slipknot wore masks to present their image, and we immediately thought about clown masks, so we were inspired to make our logo a scary clown which would create a dark theme. We also combined the "mad clown" aesthetic with the name "In The Insanity" which conveys a reckless image often seen on metal or hard rock bands. We also designed the merchandise including the logo:

The decision to make a skateboard, was because our target audience was generally most likely to be into skateboarding and other "angsty" activities. 

We created social media accounts in Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and included content that would fit our target audience. We obtained ideas from both bands researched to post images of band members, behind the scenes clips, pictures of upcoming merchandise, and banners to promote live shows.We also created a website, which included a merchandise store, links to social media accounts and streaming platforms, contact information, tour dates, and links to the music video. 

Here are some stills:

What I learned from this project is that there is a lot more to music marketing than we think, or even marketing of media in general. Social media has definitely been a huge marketing tool over the last few years, and it has been extremely important for this project to gain an audience.  I feel like social media does help a lot with music marketing, but it might be different in the case of film, so I would like to but more research into that.

What really stuck to me while researching this project, was the podcast with Brian Nolan, where he said that marketing a song is more about the creative that you put into it. A song by itself is nothing without cool artistic components to present it to the public, such as aesthetically pleasing album art or an engaging music video. So for my portfolio project I definitely want to add the use of photography or design to promote it, and make it pleasing to see.