The Start of the Filming Process

 So as the third week of the start of the film opening comes to an end, let's do a recap. The idea is to create the beginning of a psychological drama that follows a main character who suffers from derealization and depersonalization. It's going to be as if the main character is "walking through life" in a way. The storyboard and shooting schedule along with a few notes have been created to keep me on track. The next step is to start recording. As of right now, I'm planning on figuring out whether or not the main character will stay in the same close or change throughout the opening. I also need to take colors and the overall theme into consideration. Make sure to stay tuned for more updates!

Shooting Schedule

To the left is a schedule I've created for the filming process. Personally, I know I need to see things written out and planned ahead to be organized so I wrote mine out to have. I've paced the filming through the span of 3 weeks. Each week will have a different location(s) focus. This way each part of my plan will get enough time to successfully record and shoot the desired shots I want.

Film Opening Outline

 
To the left is the rough outline of the storyboard for my opening. Now, I know what you're thinking, it's way too short. This is my broad idea for the film. Because of the location types I want to use, I need to see what is available to me and also figure out how to make the scenes have more depth. I did create a planning sheet though so that my ideas are mapped out and on paper. This way once I get to filming I know exactly what I'm looking for.

Techniques and Choices

 The biggest technique I'll be using is close-ups. Close-ups are the best shots to use for what I'm trying to portray. As I said in one of my last posts, I needed to do more research on the mental disorder that the main character will have and I was very successful. Depersonalization disorder is a mental illness in which you feel disconnected from your environment and/or detached from your thoughts, feelings, and body. With the idea I have for the film opening, depersonalization is definitely a big aspect of the film that will need to be more thought through. My next step is creating a storyboard for the film opening so stay tuned to see my idea fully laid out.

Bringing the Plot to Life

 Now the plot is a huge aspect of the entire film introduction, so even though I have the main aspects of it... there is still a lot to be planned out. For starters, my main theme is going to be an "out of body" experience as I mentioned before in one of my last posts. But to go more in-depth, the opening will start in some sort of classroom or busy area with lots of people. There will then be a close-up of the main character's eyes and once back to seeing the surroundings the once-busy room will be completely empty. The main character will be confused and will open a door to another place, which as of now I am thinking will be a flower field or pretty view. I'm choosing this specifically because I want it to seem like the main character is kind of in their own reality and is in a relaxed state of mind without actually being in a relaxed environment. So once in this field of some sort, the main character will pick up a flower and smell it. As this is done a close-up of their eyes closed again will be shown. Once their eyes open again they will be in a dark and/or gloomy setting to show how what they think they're seeing is actually just part of their imagination. This main plot will be expanded upon once I finalize filming locations and I can't wait to start the first steps in the filming process!

Creating a Character

 Before I can get into planning the whole film's opening, the characters need to be discussed. I've thought a lot about how I want to approach the idea I have and mind and I think it's best to stick to having one main character. Now of course there will be other people in the film, but they won't be developed characters.

My base idea for the main character is a person who is dissociating or is "walking through life in clips in pieces" if that makes sense. The main character will have some sort of mental illness that is causing these "out of body" moments, but I'll have to do more research to see which will fit the character best. I think the idea I've created for my main character is more focused on their surroundings and experiences rather than inner conflict so I can't wait to start finding the filing locations!

Picking a Genre

 After a few days of contemplating what genre I should pick for my project, I have finally landed on my final option: Psychological Drama. 

 Now for starters, here's what I know about the genre of Dramas:

- it tells a story of some sort

- focused on the character(s) and usually a conflict

- relies on the development of emotions/relationships within the character(s)

These are the general characteristics of a drama, but to really understand the psychological aspect of the genre I chose I did a little digging.

A psychological genre, instead of focusing on conflicts with others or the outside world, focuses on internal conflicts the most common being mental disorders, odd behaviors, denial, and dissolving or multiple realities.  It's typical to see flashbacks and narration of what's happening from the main character. Because the genre is very character-driven, the story focuses on internal thoughts and emotions to progress the plot and storyline. 

Don't get confused though. Although the psychological thriller genre exists, there is one big difference between the two: a psychological drama is much slower-paced and does not have the suspenseful aspect a thriller has. It also rarely has violence incorporated.

Some good examples for the image I'm going for are...

Sybil (1976)

"Sybil" is a movie about a young woman who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID) due to psychological trauma from her childhood.

David and Lisa (1962)

"David and Lisa" is a film that follows a teenager named David who has developed an extreme fear that if he comes into physical contact with another person he will die. His mother places him in a home for mentally disturbed young adults. This is where he meets a girl named Lisa who suffers from multiple personality disorder.

Brainstorming

 Hello, I'm Kaitlyn! Over the several months that I have been in class, I have learned about all the aspects that come together to create a successful and entertaining film. I know that when coming up with a film idea there are many things that must be considered like genre, characters, sound, and colors. With the start of a new project comes each piece of an unfinished puzzle and honestly, there are so many questions to answer. What genre should I choose? What kind of concept am I looking to produce? Which genre will I be able to use to bring my patches of ideas to life? The very first step is figuring out what I have in mind. As I've been pondering over these questions over the last few days many ideas have popped into my head. But in order for me to land on one I must do some extensive research on genres I think will fit the energy of the bits and pieces I've thought of so far. I'm so excited to start this new project and I can't wait to see it grow and come together. Welcome to the inner workings of my brain... best keep up because this is going to be a good one!

Music Marketing Project Reflection

The research was a big part of the foundation of this project. Since our genre was rock, our audience was mainly public engagement based. We had to come up with ways to promote our artists in the most successful way possible. By going over basic music marketing first, we were able to extract ideas and strategies that enabled us to put our campaign together. 

Social media also was a huge factor in creating our campaign. Social media, in today's society, is a crucial way to share creations with the world. By using sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, we can be able to promote our artist and their music. With this established, we can post snippets and clips of the production process as well as post a trailer for the music video to ensure that people are aware of the release. 

The music video was the hardest piece of the project. Filming and recording our concept turned out to be a little difficult. Since our idea was a car race, we had a hard time recording the cars and finding a way to safely record the shots we wanted to capture. In the end, the video came out great and we were able to find a way to record safely while still filming the shots we wanted.