Plot

 After deciding what genre I want to do, mystery/horror, I was able to talk to my group members and brainstorm ideas that the plot could be about. We first thought about genre conventions in mystery/horror and we know that music and mise-en-scene play a big role in making a good mystery/horror film. We took into consideration our strengths and weaknesses. We know we aren't the best at acting so we have to work around that. The good thing about choosing mystery is that we don't have to develop the character much with dialogue in the beginning. We have the benefits that we can get props and we have a location set to film. Our location is indoors where we have full control over lighting, an important part of the genre.

Taking all this into consideration and talking with each other we came to the conclusion we want to make the film about a psychopath. It is portrayed that he/she is psychotic by showing the location of where they plan out their "crimes". To do this we are going to take inspiration from Se7en and Dexter. During the shots of his basement/lair, it's going to show pills, drugs, files of people, and a row of jars, that are labeled, with marbles in them. (The jars will be filled at different levels) These jars will develop meaning throughout the movie. After showing their mental state with their surroundings he will put on a coat and walk outside where the sunshine will juxtapose the darkness inside showing that they are a different person outside. They will get a phone call and pick up when the caller says "Hey, Doctor" and end there.

To explain the whole plot of the movie, it's basically a psychotic doctor who is out of touch with reality and views his patients as objects to make money from. To keep making money off of them he had the idea to give them drugs to keep them sick, but he doesn't want to kill them. That is what the jars represent, each jar is a patient and the labels are the patient's name. As the jars fill up it means that the doctor is giving them more drugs and if the jar overflows it means that the patient is going to die. We are also planning on showing the credits in the patient files but we have to see how we would do that.

Deadpool 3 was the best example I could find of what I am trying to get at, with the bones and other stuff in the movie showing the credits. We are still not sure if we want to do it but we will try.

For now, that is all we have about the plot of the movie and I think we all love our idea. I cannot wait to start filming!

Group Meeting!

Group Meeting #1

I officially started week three, and I am slightly behind on schedule, but nothing major. I just need to wrap up the storyboard, and then we are set to continue on schedule.

Today my teacher told us to get into groups and share our stories with new people to give and get feedback. Overall I found that it was super helpful and useful to hear others' unbiased opinions 

Simona- Psychological Thriller

Title: Til' Death do us Part

My group consisted of five people: Simona, Emi, Sofia, Roman, and me. Simona was the first person to present their progress. She has a thorough idea of what she wants to do with her psychological thriller. The film will start with the main character doing some calculations while driving and getting stuff like tape, ropes, and other appliances. She takes this stuff to her car and drives to a place where she starts digging with the implication that she is burying someone. The biggest "issue" with this idea is that a part of it would have to be filmed outside especially since she is planning to do it at sunset. This is an issue because she can't have full control over the lighting or the weather. The group came to an agreement that if she could not get the lighting right during sunset, she could do it at noon in broad daylight. There was one more thing that could become a problem but isn't necessarily one and it's that the intro seems too long for 2 minutes. But if anything it can be cut down to being shorter and it's better to have more than enough shots. Her blog posts are extremely well done as they are very detailed and relevant to her project. Overall the idea was very good and I enjoyed listening to her talk about it and I can't wait to see it

Emi-Western 

Title: Death is no Friend

Next went Emi, now Emi doesn't have her idea fully planned out but she knows she wants to do a Western movie. The rough idea she has for now is a woman that has a bounty and she's getting hunted. One thing that I find very cool is that they are designing their own costumes. I think that is so cool and will probably be the best thing to do to get exactly what they are looking for. This would also overcome the whole costuming since it's such an important part of Western films. The biggest issue for her here is that we live in Florida. Florida doesn't have any deserts where she can film a traditional Western movie.

                        Western  Movie                                                              Florida

One way that she could overcome this issue is by finding a place with less amount of greenery maybe like a farm or since it is a Western film she could make it black and white making the background less noticeable. She had also thought of a title "Death is no Friend" which I really like. I really enjoy hearing a different genre as I haven't heard of anyone but them doing Western yet.

Roman- Suspense

Title: N/A

Roman had in mind a suspense film dealing with the cartel. He plans on his introduction to a cartel member getting interrogated while being tortured by an officer. He wanted to make the interrogation of the cartel member resisting information and finally giving up the name of the leader at the end to make it his title card. However, I find that if he does put the title card at the end it might feel like too much of an ending adding some stuff after the title card even though not fully developed could fix that. He already has his props ready so is ahead in the preparation for filming. One other issue with the film that I see is that 2 minutes of interrogation might not be the most engaging to the audience but I would like to see how he overcomes that issue and if he manages to make it interesting or maybe change his idea a little.

I feel like this is the vibe he's going for so watching Casino Royale and analyzing this scene is a good idea.

Sofia- Dystopian

Title: N/A

Then, Sofia explained her dystopian film idea. Although she's not fully clear on the approach she wants to take, she knows that it will be about a society that revolves around powers. Since she didn't have a planned plot, we gave her some ideas. The main one is a futuristic society that revolves around a power that you get chosen to have. You would think getting the power is a good thing but getting it means getting tested and being chosen to do something bad. It would be about two best friends and one gets chosen and the other one goes on a journey to save her. She had the idea to make them be in poverty taking inspiration from Divergent.

My Feedback

Finally, I shared my idea with the group and they seemed to enjoy it. They really liked how I would put the credits in patient files. Other than that they really had no comments on it after I finished explaining it. But I will be using the resources they gave me. Overall I enjoyed hearing everyone's ideas and I can't wait to watch all the finished products!

Research

For this post, I'm going to be mostly researching OCD and psychosis and how doctors are portrayed in the media.

OCD:

Defined obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental health condition characterized by intrusive unwanted thoughts/obsessions and repetitive behaviors

Affects more than 200,000 people in the US per year and around 70 million people worldwide

The most common type of OCD is contamination and arranging stuff in a certain matter which will be our way of showing that the main character has it. 

Some treatments can help but cannot be cured

Psychosis:

I found a very short but informative video of a doctor Phillip L. Rice explaining psychosis how to identify it and what to do.

Defined as a mental health condition characterized by a loss of contact on reality.

Symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, altered emotions, disorganized thinking, difficulties in social settings

Can be caused by abuse, trauma or substance intake

It is common with about 200,000 recorded cases per year in the US.

About 85% of serial killers are psychopaths.

Doctors

One show that heavily influenced how doctors are portrayed in media is Grey's Anatomy even though it is a heavily romanticized version of doctors in real life.

Males are most of the time the main doctors while women take the role of a nurse

Costumes: scrubs, gloves, mask, ID, doctor tools, clipboard

Why?

Now you might be wondering why I would research OCD and psychosis and this is because we want to portray a character who is psychotic and is out of touch with reality and doesn't see others as humans. He wants to take advantage of his position and make money off of it. The OCD part is because he has every little step and thing that could possibly go wrong planned out and is very organized with specific things.

The purpose of researching a doctors costume is to make sure that it is correctly portrayed in our introduction.

Schedule

 Creating a Schedule

The schedule will be for the 7 weeks we have to work on it.

1. Research

• Researching and choosing the genre
• Create an idea of the intro
• Research plot choces

2. Production

• Come up with a detailed plot for the movie
• Choosing music
• Script
• Decide roles and location
• Setting a date to start filming
• Create a storyboard
• Buy necessary props
• Film scenes
• Record foleys

3. Editing

• Choose the best footage
• Choose font and credits
• Put sounds and music

4. Revision

• Analyze the finished product
• Make any changes needed

5. Reflection

• Research for reflection
• Create the reflection
• Go over

I plan to focus on getting the production done as soon as we can so we have time to perfect the clips and sounds with editing.

Week one is already over which is the research week and for now we are on track to follow the schedule.

Week 2

• Start script
• Start storyboard
• Find Location
• Actors
• Find a date to film

Week 3

• Start production
• Record foleys

Week 4

• Continue week three if needed
• If not start editing

Week 5

• Finish editing
• Analyze finished product

Week 6

• Start CCR
• Start and finish the reflection

Week 7

By week 7 we will hopefully already be wrapped up with the project and we can use it to look over our work once again to assure that it is the best it can be. 

To keep up with this schedule, I will use an agenda and remind my group members to do the same.

Studying Film Opening Scenes

Film Openings

Se7en

Even though it is a movie I have already mentioned when discussing the mystery genre, it's a movie that I found so interesting how it was made I believe it is worth analyzing the opening further. First, it is important to explain the context of the movie, it is about two detectives who hunt a serial killer that uses the seven deadly sins as his motives, explaining the title. That is the most undetailed description of the film but it really dives deep into the investigation and manages to keep the audience with suspense and the mystery.

This is the part of the movie that will be discussed 

It starts off with a black screen and an exploding/thunder sound. I've noticed that other movies also start with a sound before visuals, for example, Whiplash. (From previous research about these types of beginnings it could mean that sound is important throughout the movie.) The intro continues to show close-ups of all different things using a "creepy" and jittering font to show the credits. It also uses the mise-en-scene to add to the creepy and mystery by having shadows and making the amount of light on the subjects very dark. It shows the title scene in the first 30 seconds and only for a short 3 seconds. It keeps the same dark vibe going with the changing shots and objects. The objects include black and white pictures, files, sharp knives or needles. All of this is used to create that sense of mystery is what is going on or what is going to happen as you keep watching. In the end, it goes completely off the "scary" part to a Monday in New York with sirens.

From watching the whole introduction you can clearly understand the genre and where the movie is headed with someone who is clearly psychotic. Many people also say it creeps them out before even watching the movie.

Overall, things I would like to take from this film's opening are the use of close-up shots of objects that a "murderer" would have/used and a creepy font. The dark lighting is definitely a must-have for a mystery/ horror movie.

Suspira

One thing most people can agree on is that horror depends on sound a lot. Without the correct creepy music, a horror movie can just look dumb, to say the least. Suspira does a good job utilizing music and sounds to convey the suspense and mystery in an introduction. That is the main thing about that introduction that I looked for to point out.

Missing

 

Missing is a kidnapping movie. What makes this movie so different and innovative is that the viewers perspective is just based off of one laptop and they manage to keep the audience engaged. However the main thing I want to talk about is how they use foreshadowing. They gave a short almost innocent clip of a family in the beginning with a twist in the end. However they managed to build so much on just that one clip and add so much background to it throughout the movie. 

Aice Media Portfolio: Genres

    After talking to my group we have narrowed it down to two possible genres that we could center our portfolio around, mystery or romance. There could of course be some sort of overlapping of these genres in the introduction but to have certainty that the project will be an accurate representation of the genre and their normal introductions I have done research on each.

Mystery:

    For now mystery is our top choice. 

Conventions:

    Mystery films usually start with the introduction to a detective and/or a detailed crime committed. They involve a villain, usually being the criminal, and a hero, who is usually the detective. In some movies these heroes have a sidekick. The mystery genre also focuses on making the plot realistic to add to the suspense a viewer gets while watching. At the end of these movies there is usually a resolution. however many movies have gone against that standard and left it a mystery.

    These films make use of dark colors and shadows within the mise-en-scene and creepy music. These are used to create tension and suspense within the movie.

There are some genres that overlap for example mystery and horror. A great example would be Se7en. Not only is it a great example of a mystery and horror movie but it also shows how mystery movies can have an unresolved ending.

Other mystery movies:

Romance:

Conventions:

    Romance films are typically made to be believable and realistic. Often the main character is a woman, which helps with the target audience, in a central love story that faces challenges throughout. These challenges are usually a partner keeping a secret. Between the two partners is usually a strong sense of masculine and feminine sensibilities, making emotional and sexual tension between them. Usually has a happy ending.

    Romance conventions in the production include a romantic setting; these settings stereotypically are in cities like Paris, Italy, New York, and London. This creates a juxtaposition from the messy and loud world to a save haven when with their partner. The ambience is warm colors like red to represent love and a sense of comfort, lighting is extenuated with candles and lamps. Avoids harsh lightings that would create contrast and shadows

    Romance movies:

Romance/Horror movie:

Transitioning into the Cambridge Portfolio Project

     Hello Cambridge! From this blog post forward it will be about my progress with the portfolio project. This week has been overall very exiting knowing that I’m going to start this big project. I know all the past blog postings should help with my overall filming of this but I can’t help thinking I am still not fully prepared, but I have confidence in myself and my knowledge in this. I also know that I have all my resources that I could go back to any time.

    I am thinking of working on this in a group and put all our knowledge and resources together in this journey to help each other through it. We have already started brainstorming and setting roles for everyone to get ahead on this project. Some of us have made it their responsibility to watch introductions of movie and/or shows to find inspiration and techniques to our own project. 

    We have seen one show that specifically caught our attention. However we have not decided if that’s what we actually want to do. It is a show surrounding the mystery genre and I think that is the approach that we are going to be looking into. 

    Overall we are all preparing for the project and getting our minds in the right place to make a sophisticated and accurate representation of an introduction and it’s genre.