Initial Groundwork for the Story

After sharing my research with Jonathan from my previous posts, we came to one concrete idea that we could do for the film opening. The idea proposed is a character-centered story which has two succinct events ongoing that serve as a juxtaposition to each other. The story revolves around one main character who we know will be male and probably be in the age range of 18 to early 20s, as we are the actors. The story itself consists of him doing a heinous act (possible attack, kidnap, etc.) and that will be paired with more a more upbeat side event that we are still working on. The part of this that stuck out the most was my proposition for using the song Breakfast in America by Supertramp.

This song is rather upbeat and has a lighthearted meaning to it. Paring this with a combination of scenes will develop the character and his intentions/motives and mindset from the beginning. Now ultimately the events going on and the song will serve as juxtapositions, strongly developing the character throughout the opening.

My Deeper Research into the World of Drama (Part 2)

Tying back into my previous post, as I was researching a multitude of openings, another one that I thought was fantastic was in the A24 production and 2017 Best Picture Winner, Moonlight.

Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins) has an opening in which it is establishing a setting, tone, and character at the same time, seen here. The piece begins with a song that is playing with the same lyric being said over and over, which outlines a slur that has a negative connotation tied to it but is being used in a somewhat "motivational" and "nice" way. This is outlining the tone that is depicting the characters, relaying that it will not be in a typical negative and slanderous way that has been done in America's past.

To develop the setting that is present within the opening, the character is seen in a suburban area and the cars that the characters are driving, seen here, clearly set the timeline for a younger date. Along with this, the design of the houses tie into a time that fits with the cars and engulf and further expand this timeline

The next major piece of this opening is the establishment of a character. Mahershala Ali's character is seen getting out of the car and he approaches a drug dealer. He is seemingly the one in charge as for how he is being talked to and looked up to by the person who is dealing the drugs along with the person who wants to purchase them. The dialogue is subsidiary at this point as their actions and looks establish his role as a character

To final piece illustrated is the tone. This is done by a circular camera movement around the three people within the opening. This movement is creating an inside look at the relationship and intensity that is between all these people. They are all necessary to be in contact with each other so they all function, whether that be to get money or drugs. This creates a message that the characters and the motives behind the actions in the films are all heavily reliant upon each other. This plays seamlessly into the arc of the story being split into three parts and how they all rely upon each other.

This opening blew me away and I was so impressed that this was all done in just a little over two minutes. I want to take this and use camera movement in regard to creating a tone and feeling for my opening without necessarily having to implement dialogue or action to do so. Along with this, I would like to have a setting and timeline established without having to state it but by showing the features of the area in which the characters are present.

My plan with what I gathered from every opening, especially Call Me Be Your Name and Moonlight, is to take the information within my blog posts and share them with my partner, Jonathan Giat, in our upcoming class. I will relay my different ideas and conventions we could use to establish a setting and character at the same time and to outline our collective vision for the genre of the opening and what we intend the content of it to be.

My Deeper Research into the World of Drama (Part 1)

Earlier this school year I created a post about the drama genre, “How is Drama so Dramatic?”, where I talked about the aspects seen in the typical conventions used when filming, posters, and had two minor case studies, but it was not specific to film openings.

In order to expand my knowledge of how openings are done within the drama genre, I went further and explored more examples and typical conventions that are associated with it by watching them on YouTube.

My diverse search ranged from Forrest Gump to Citizen Kane and during so I stumbled upon a different and less popular piece, Call Me By Your Name.

Call Me By Your Name (dir. Luca Guadagnino) has an opening, seen here, that does not contain any acting, dialogue, camera movement, or anything that I would have expected. This was different from what I typically saw, as most pieces were revolving around a character or an action/event, but this relied solely on still shots and the credits. The shots contained multiple photos of ancient Greek sculptures, like such and an elegant yellow cursive test displaying the credits.

What I enjoyed most about this was that the setting that was being established in a different form and tone. The statues make it clear that this piece is most likely taking place in an area that isn’t the US as ancient statues and sculptures are more prominent in foreign countries there are more prominent in foreign places. Along with this, they are illustrating a clear theme within the film which is, the uniqueness and beauty tied along with the draw and appeal that they have on everybody and this is only made more apparent as it is matched with the elegant font of the credits.

I thought this entire opening was fascinating and most importantly differ. What I take from it and would consider using in my project is the idea that not every shot needs to be still or moving. It is possible to create an aura and a setting without needing to necessarily show it. I think it could be used for shot diversity and for a possible juxtaposition in the opening.

Play-Back and Jam

The music marketing project that Jonathan Giat and I created was for a band by the name of Play-Back and Jam. The project entailed creating a music video for the band, a plan to distribute and market the band's music, and a vocal/visual presentation in front of our class.

The first step in such a project revolved around doing research to understand what types of music are associated with certain target audiences. In doing so we created a chart detailing a production company and two species bands that are signed to the label. The production company was Fueled By Ramen. We learned that it signed multiple artists along the lines of Paramore, fun., Fall Out Boy, and many more. The two we focused on were Twenty One Pilots(TOP)and Panic! At the Disco.

I focused specifically on TOP and their social media as for their target audience, 18-29 years old, it was dominant in everything that I saw. This meant that looking at their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages I was able to come to understand what was common and necessary for an upcoming and similar band. I learned that on all their pages there was something different and this was brought into our project too. Along with this, I learned that it was necessary to be active and have fan interaction to establish a brand.

The most important thing I learned was retention. Through research of various websites and how long people spend every day on social media, it was vital to incorporate it. According to Statista, Social media sites average 135 minutes daily as of 2017, seen here. 

Taking all of this information that we both gathered, we started working on our band ourselves.

This stemmed to the creation of everything that could be done to market the band and what was needed creatively such as the music video and a logo.

The first part stems from our social media pages and any tours, merchandise, or anything else necessary. The social media sites that we created were Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and a hub website under the Weebly domain. Each of these followed TOP and had original content on each. Twitter was focused on fan interaction with Q&As. Instagram was for behind the scenes and more quirky content. Facebook was for serious and mostly info regarding upcoming dates, sales, and music. The website served as the hub and linked everything and allowed for purchases of music, merchandise, and tour tickets.

The second part revolved around creating the music video and the persona and look of the band. This led to a hand-drawn design, seen here. The letters are P, B, and J which lead to our name Play-Back and Jam. An easy and memorable name that we came up to abbreviate the band was PB&J and this also followed up in TOP’s footsteps with the easily recognizable icon and the name. This icon is present in the music video as well which is the introduction of the band as a whole and launches all of their marketing that is seen on all social media sites and the website.

As a whole what I learned from this project and how it will impact my portfolio project in the future is quite simple. It is heavily evident to me that before doing anything and making any major decisions that there must be a heavy basis of research that allow us to have motive and understanding behind a decision. If we want to create a specific shot or have a heavy theme present throughout then it must be evident that it goes towards the genre or target audience we are using for the film opening.