What’s My Audience?

     These past few days I’ve been talking with my partner about possible ideas for our film and we stumbled across something we had learned in class, which is that the target audience is always important when developing a product. So we wondered, what is our main target audience?

    So I started doing some research on the target audience so that I could develop my film in a way that is aimed at that specific group of people. I found that the main target audience for coming of age films are teenagers, leaning towards a more female than male audience. Teenagers ages 12-18 are the main targets are they are most likely to relate to the content being shown in the films, such as first love, friendships, family relationships, or just overall pathways to adulthood. They all have common themes and use many mise-en-scene elements to help develop their characters. 

    This research on the target audience will allow me and my partner to be able to come up with ways to make our film aimed at that group of people to help illustrate our genre the best. 

Managing My Time

     One of the greatest challenges that i have noticed with this class is being able to manage my time wisely to be able to dedicate enough time and thought to each part of the project. So for this project, I decided it would be really helpful if I made a schedule for myself to have a goal fo when I should have each thing done. this will help me not procrastinate and will allow me to spend as much time as i can developing each aspect of this project to make it come together as a whole. 

    For this project, I need to find time to research, produce the film, edit the film, revise it, and work on the critical creative reflection. So here's the schedule that me and my partner agreed upon: 

WEEK 1 (1/29-2/2)

• Research
• Brainstorm ideas for plot

WEEK 2 (2/3-2/9)

• Research
• Develop the plot more
• Start thinking about script

WEEK 3 (2/10-2/16)

• Research
• Complete storyboard
• Find filming locations
• Start casting process

WEEK 4 (2/17-2/23)

• Develop characters (mood boards?)
• Research mise-en-scene
• Maybe start filming?

WEEK 5 (2/24-3/2)

• Filming
• Work on sounds (foley might be needed)

WEEK 6 (3/3-3/9)

• Finish filming if more time needed
• Start editing (2 versions to choose the best one)
• Revise which one is best
• Research for creative critical reflection

WEEK 7 (3/10-3/16)

• Edit edit edit
• Revise revise
• Work on creative critical reflection (CCR)

WEEK 8 (3/17-3/25)

• Finish CCR 
• In case there are any delays or difficulties

    I am expecting some changes within the schedule because it's inevitable to have some difficulties along the way but i will try to stick to it as best as i can. I know this schedule is really going to help me organize my time for this project in a more efficient way. Can't wait to begin the process of bringing this production to life!

What Credits Do I Need?

    These past few days, I started thinking about the credits I’m gonna need to include in my film because I had no idea how many or which ones are most commonly included. This led me to watching some examples from other coming of age films that could inspire my credit sequences. 

    The first film credit sequences I watched were the ones of the film Lady Bird. It starts with “A24 AND IAC FILMS PRESENT” which I have seen that is a very common start for coming of age films. Then, the title of the film is shown in fulls creen and then moves on to show the name of the cast members consecutively while shots are being displayed on screen. It continues to show who casted, music supervisors, music by, costume designer, edited by, production designer, director of photography, co producers, executive producer, produced by, and written and directed by. This shows a big list of credits that are included in films which I will need to take into account when creating my list. 

    The second film was The Breakfast Club and the credit sequence included of Universal Pictures, followed by an A&M Films Channel Production, A John Hughes Film, and the title of the film, followed by the cast shown in alphabetical order, casting by, costume designer, production supervisor, executive producers, music composed and supervised by, edited by, production designer, director of photography, co-produced by, produced by, and written and directed by. This list is similar to the last one I watched apart from the fact that it was all shown on a black screen instead of showing the start of the movie, but this could be because it is an older movie.

    The last movie opening credit sequences are for the film Juno. This sequence begins with Fox Searchlight Pictures presents, a Mandate Pictures, Mr. Mudd Production, a Jason Reitman film, and then display the film title. It the begins to show the names of the cast members, casting by, costume designer, music by, songs by, music supervisors, co-producers, film editor, production designer, director of photography, executive producers, produced by, written by, and directed by. Unlike The Breakfast Club, this film shows the credit while there are some shots being shown with an artistic twist to the graphics instead of just a plain white screen.

    Overall, the credits listed in all three movies are basically all the same. This really helped me have a clear idea of what I need to include in my film credit sequence and I will definitely use what I learned today as a form of inspiration. 

Finally decided on a genre!

    Me and my partner have finallyyyy decided between our two options of genre. We were stuck between mystery and coming of age but we decided to stick with coming of age as we felt we would be better able to develop the opening with a focus on the character as a whole, which is what coming of age is all about.

    So, to get started with the brainstorming and keep the creativity flowing, I have started to look at inspiration by watching film openings of other coming of age films. 

    The opening scene of the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower clearly introduces the main character that is going to be developed throughout the film. It starts with shots moving through a tunnel, like if it was in a car, but the car isn't shown. The moving through the tunnel and finally coming out of it can represent a journey that the character will go through. While the shots are moving, the credits are seen spread out throughout the shots. This is something i would like to include in my film as I feel like it is common for many films to do this and it would help the beginning of my film to flow better. After those shots, it moves to a shot of Charlie (the main character) sitting writing on his desk. The voiceover here helps us understand the character and what his journey may look like throughout the film as he is starting high school. 

    The second example of a coming of age film opening that i watched for ideas and inspiration was Mean Girls. Similarly to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it started with the name of the production companies and then the title of the film, followed by the first shots. Throughout the first scene, there are multiple times that a voiceover is heard to help describe Cady's (the main character) thoughts of this new and strange place. It can be seen that she is used to a much different environment and this helps develop the character as we start to wonder if shes going to diverge from everyone else and keep who she's been all her life, or if she will convergence and start being like everyone around her. This will show the character development that is essential for a coming of age film. 

    Lastly, I watched the opening scene of a film inspired by a book that I read in 8th grade for English class: The Outsiders. This film is much older than the last two being that it was released in 1983 and the others were 2004 and 2012, which means some thing will differ between them. Similar to the other two, this film also begins with the production companies being credited, but then it cuts to a boy writing on his notebook, which then fades out into the sun and music starts playing as the title of film slides through the film. One major difference is that this film lists its cast members all at once instead of spreading them out throughout the opening. The Outsiders also include a full three minutes of full credits, which the other two don't. 

    For my film, I would like to inspire the credits more on the way that The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Mean Girls does it because I feel like having it spread out throughout the whole opening allows for development of the characters and will not cut my filming time short. Overall, I'm really happy with the inspiration I've gained from watching there and I'm so excited to get started on making my ideas come together into a storyboard!

    Here's a picture of my note taking process when watching these films to help capture the uniqueness of each one and help see the differences between each as well.

Picking a Genre!

    This past week, me and my partner have been brainstorming ideas for what we would like our film opening to look like. We were both lacking inspiration because we were not liking any of the ideas we were coming up with, but after asking one of our friends for help to bounce off ideas and watching some film openings, we were finally able to construct 4 ideas that we could work with to develop further.

    We decided that the genres that we could end up working with could be either mystery or coming of age (or maybe even a mix of both), so we started research to help us decide which one would be best for us to use in our film and to further understand the genre and know what we should and shouldn't include.

Mystery:

    Mystery films are often characterized by their representations of unsolved crimes and suspenseful plots. They include a lot of close up shots, a specific color scheme, dark lighting at times, and will sometimes mostly focus on the setting where the crime or mysterious thing happened. 

    Some examples of mystery films include: Knives Out, The Prestige, and The Sixth Sense.

Coming of Age:

    Coming of age films are often character-driven, meaning that it focuses on the personal growth of a character transitioning from youth to adulthood. They often explore themes of self-discovery, friendship, love, and emotional growth. 

    Some examples of coming of age films include: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Mean Girls, and The Outsiders. 

Transitioning into the Cambridge Portfolio Project!

    Hello Cambridge! From this moment forward, all the posts that will be seen on my blog will be related to the whole process of developing my portfolio project. 

    All the previous blogs have been reflections of what I've been learning throughout this school year in this course, which has helped me gain a lot of knowledge and experience. 

    To introduce us to the project, we were shown some approaches we could take to help develop meaning for our film opening. 

    I would like to establish tone with color schemes and lighting for our film, or to develop the characters as I feel like those are the ones that I'd be able to work with the best. 

    With the help of these examples and ways to develop our opening, I believe that me and my partner will be able to accomplish the task and give our best work. I am really excited to get started with this project and see where this creative path will take me!

Music Marketing Project

 For this project, the genre me and my group got was alternative. To begin with our research for a marketing campaign for a new artists, we researched the marketing strategies of alternative artists such as Billie Eilish, Glass Animals, Imagine Dragons, and The Cure. This research allowed us to gain ideas and inspiration to how we could effectively pitch our new artist: The Blueprint. 

Once we finished that research, we started planning how we were going to tackle the task of creating the whole marketing campaign. We split up the work and decided on our own due dates for specific parts of the research. For example, me and Simona worked on the storyboard in class while Daniela and Roman started their research. Today in class, we started filming the video, along with the behind the scenes of the production, and we will continue and finish filming on Wednesday and have it edited by December 16th the latest.

The part of the research I am responsible for completing is which social media would be best suited for our artist and why, the type of performances we would book to start with, and how we will reach our target audience in the most efficient way. 

Overall, I believe we split up the work in the way that will allow us all to contribute significantly and evenly to the project. We plan on sharing all parts of our research with each other so we are all aware of every part of our campaign so it becomes more cohesive. 

(Here's a picture of us while filming our music video with the help of some friends for extra people.)