Searching for the Perfect Song

Today I met up with my partner for Alessandro for the portfolio project. We came upon an agreement to use a popular song made by the Vampire Weekend called A-Punk. We understand that in order to use this song in the video, we need to ask permission by whoever licensed this song. With a little bit of digging, I came across Beggar, one of the licenses of the song. 

With this knowledge, I decided to email them a personal/formal letter giving them all the necessary information about what the project is and asking for permission to use the song.
I hope that I will get a reply soon just so Ale and I would be able to know whether or not this is the song to use, or if we have to go and look for another song that would fit the genre like this song did.

Fighting the Pandemic

Going into the probable circumstance of going into quarantine, me and my partner came to the conclusion to stay together as a group for our portfolio project. We also had the opportunity to come together and discuss further action towards what we'll do for the project. This conversation allowed us to completely dodge the fact that the pandemic would have messed with our time in producing this film opening for the project.

We noticed that since the beginning of our idea for the project, we only needed a house as the main set for the opening of the film. That being said, that won't have to change regarding the coronavirus being the cause of making a difference to our idea. Also, our schedule would be more or less the same since my partner would be allowed to work on the film at his house with editing and everything else needed on the portfolio project. We have a best-case scenario where he would be allowed to come to my house which would make the project become easier because doing it by myself wouldn't be impossible either, it would just be more difficult.

Pandemic

Currently, the world is undergoing a pandemic due to the corona virus. Because of this, my partner and I have to adapt to the situation and still be able to pull off a fantastic film opening for our portfolio project.

We have to sit down and discuss what our next move is and figure out how to schedule our new schedule. We're lucky enough to live close to each other which gives us the opportunity to continue the steps that we were going through prior to this pandemic.

Since we are currently under quarantine, we would have to lay low for a bit until hopefully, the situation turns out to be less than what it is at the current moment. Our plan for right now is to hopefully film as soon as possible which we can luckily do due to the fact that we live close to each other.

Target Audience Research

Today in class we were introduced to notes regarding the CCR for our portfolio project. It's essential for the CCR to have incorporated as much research as possible. Because of that, I've decided to research today on the target audience for our film opening. Since our project is a dramedy, that would be the specific genre that I would research who generally watches this specific genre.

Since our specific genre has a "teen movie" sense incorporated into it as well, it can be much easier to determine who the target audience would be for this film. That being said, it's obvious that our film would appeal to an audience ranging from the ages of 12 to 20 years.

                                                           
                                                                     Marc Weinstock
Marc Weinstock is Paramount Pictures' president of marketing and distribution and he said in an interview how teen girls are "a really big factor in the success of teen movies". With a percentage of 40% being teen females who watch these movies and 30% teen males, it's safe to assume that the film opening should be appealing to these specific types of audiences since it would make our film opening successful.

Weinstock also said how comedies are one of the main choices for teens these days, while dramas aren't typically what teens go and watch; However, since our film incorporates both comedy and drama, with a full cast of teenagers, it's positive that teens would be the target audience for our film.

Reference: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/teen-movie-marketing-138425

Time of Day

It is essential to understand what time of the day would be needed to film the opening of our film. This information is provided by knowing what scene is needed to portray the aftermath of a successful party.

So since the scene is showing the aftermath of a party, it'd be best to showcase the house in the morning where the sun is present and daylight is as bright as ever. Filming in the afternoon would not be good since it would be unrealistic for a party to end at that time. Filming at night would also be unrealistic since that would be when the party would essentially start. Because of this, we want to film around 12-2pm since even though it isn't in the morning, we could convince the audience that it is since the scenery would look similar as if it was 7-9 in the morning.

Film Set

So for our film pitch we needed to find out where it would be best suitable to film. We needed an area that represents a suburban home that is big enough for a party to be thrown. This would be done in order to show the realism of the scene as it is unrealistic for a party to be thrown in a small area.

We decided to use one of our houses because not only is it what we'd imagine to see in a party, but it correlates with the budget of the film opening as we're trying to use as least amount of money we possibly can. This means we won't have to rent any area that is what fits what we want to showcase in the film opening.

Regarding props, we want to use items that show a dirty home that represents an aftermath of a party. For example, red solo cups are necessary for the prop list. Items like these would set up a great scene for what we want to represent in the film.

Fixing Key Issues Regarding Plot

 While going through ideas and generating a storyboard, many ideas that were planned throughout the days of making the project was ultimately turned down. So we decided to introduce the characters for the film opening as two teens with different emotional characteristics. We plan on showing this with dialogue and the way they interact with their surroundings.

In one of my previous posts, I made an outline that showed two kids cleaning up after a party they had thrown in one of their houses. An Idea came to mind which included the character who lived in the house had a little brother who went missing. Even though this can generate a sense of mystery to where the kid is, we don't want to confuse the audience regarding what type of genre our film is.

Being a dramedy, we want to ensure the audience depicts what makes the film both comedy and drama. Because of this, including a missing child would develop a sense of adventure for the audience which isn't what we want. Also, it came to mind that this kid who was missing left the house sleepwalking. This also would not generate a sense of teen dramedy for it highly represents a comedy film which wouldn't make the film a dramedy.

Group Meetings

So today I had been assigned to meet up with my peers in order to get feedback about my idea on my film opening. We all had completely different ideas about our film openings which was great because it gave me the opportunity to see different tactics and methods of camera shots, mise en scene, etc. Not only that, but I was given tips to make my film opening be the best it could be. Feedback is always important to grow and become better, which is what I needed for this film opening.

So I presented my idea to the class and what I came across to be my most difficult obstacle for the film opening is to not make it cheesy since a dramedy regarding teens can easily become cheesy. Avoiding obvious cringe tactics in dramedies is essential for the opening to play out correctly. Overall the group liked the idea that the opening is showing two teens clean after a party they threw even though the movie doesn't revolve around the party.