Creative Critical Reflection

Here's my CCR!

ALONE

Attached below is my film opening, ALONE. Enjoy!

Finally...

Guys. It is done! All of it!

Jorge made a brilliant piece for my film and the second I heard it, I started laughing because of how perfect it is for my film.

He emailed it to me earlier this morning, along with an email in which he gave me his permission to use this piece. I spent about an hour or so, adding the crescendo part to my film because I wanted to make sure it sounded perfect.

The audio starts the second Cynthia gets up to (verbally) fight Danny. I wanted to put emphasis on the severity of the situation, from Kyle's perspective, and I figured the best way to do that is to start the music at that part. As the video gets closer to the climax, I increased the volume of the music clip so kind of put my audience on edge. The audio stops right when Sydney enters the scene. I used this part to end the audio clip because I wanted to show that her entering the scene drags him out of his state. He comes back to reality, AKA his dominant identity.

Although I don't know much about the technical aspect of music, I think this clip goes perfectly with the feel of my film. My biggest worry was that I wouldn't be entirely satisfied with this composed music, and therefore would not use it and have to find something online. But, this is great.

I cannot explain to you guys how happy I am with how this whole project turned out! 😊

Looking back at the process..

This has definitely been the most interesting project we've done in this class! I started out not having any clue about what I want to do and now I have an almost finished project that I'm very proud of.

Creating a psych thriller most definitely proved to be a challenge because although I've watched lots and lots of psych thrillers, I had not created my own, original film. I chose a film opening because I thought it would be easier than a magazine, but just starting my film was so challenging or me that I wished I had picked a magazine. Even during most of the script writing and editing part of it, I wished I'd chosen the magazine. But, I actually modeled for one of my friends' magazines and watching her made me realize how hard magazine making is. Anyway, right now I'm very satisfied with myself and my project an I'm glad I chose this.

Also, here's a picture of Taylor Barton, who plays Sydney in the film. She is Kyle's sister in the film.

Below are some of the major issues that I faced during this process. 

The Beginning

Right when I started this project I realized just how hard script writing can be. I had no clue what I was doing, or what my movie was going to be about. It took me almost two weeks to have a proper plot in my head that I could turn into words. Without Taylor's help, I might not have finished the plot until much later.

The Middle

The filming was extremely stressful. I thought I was past the hard part when I had developed a plot and a script but boy, I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, my actors were great! But, on the first day of filming, due to problems with individual schedules, we couldn't finish filming. We had to meet again. But, we couldn't finalize dates until Jose (who plays Danny) gave us one. Then, on the day of filming Diego (Kyle) lost the shirt that he wore on the first day of filming, so we had to refilm the whole thing. Luckily, I had already edited and compiled the parts that we filmed on day one, so I only filmed from the shots and angles that I needed. After that, my friend who was originally supposed to act as Sydney couldn't do it anymore due to some problems so I had to ask Taylor to fill in for her.

The End

The editing went much quicker than I thought. But the cutting-down-to-two-minutes part was harder than I imagined. The introductory audio sounded pretty good too. The only thing I'm worried about now is the crescendo that my friend, Jorge, is making for me. I don't know when he will be done with it, but hopefully soon because I need to sort of blend it into my video and make sure it gels well with the rest of the video. I will have him write me an email, formally giving me permission to use his music, and when that happens, I'll post a screenshot of it! 

That's all I had to say about this journey! It's been a good time, and a very interesting one too. I'm going to work on and finish my CCR tomorrow so I don't have to worry about that the last moment (because I have the crescendo to worry about ha!). Thank you for following me in this long process!

Target Audience

One of the most important elements of film making is knowing what your target audience is.

When I started making this film opening, I made it so that it appealed to viewers of about my age. I wanted to make it exciting and fast paced. I even added the job part to make it seem relatable and I hope I succeeded.

The general target audience for these films include people that are 18+ years old, because some of the content in these films, like serial killings and psychological disorders, is very graphic for young children. This also appeals more to females than males because of the lack of physical violence- fighting scenes, battles, etc- that is portrayed in action films.

I also found out that thrillers often bring out emotional and mental conflicts, which often attracts less males.

Most films' target audiences vary from film to film. Films like the Scream series (1996 dir. by Wes Craven) may be more appealing and interesting for people between the ages 18-25 because the protagonists are young and go to high school and college which makes it easy for the audience to relate to them. Films that are more intellectually demanding have an audience range from 35-45 years such as Memento (2000 dir. by Christopher Nolan).

Out of all the different types of thriller I researched, psych thrillers proved to be the most intellectually demanding ones because of the complex disorders and mental workings of the protagonists. The mature themes and twists may be hard for a younger audience to understand.

Although my film is a psych thriller, it is more suited towards a younger audience of 18-22 years old because I made it so that it attracts people my age.

Hopefully, it'll be received by viewers the way I want it to be.

Sounds of my Film 2.0

(I know, I'm not very creative when it comes to blog titles)

Okay, so my film is nearly complete! woooo!! 😄

I talked to my teacher and she made it very clear that it cannot be over two minutes, but we settled on cutting it down 2:03 minutes. Hopefully, the additional three seconds won't negatively affect my grade.

I now need to focus on the music part. I talked about using an audio clip called Ectoplasm in one of my initial blogs. Initially, when I started putting together all the shots, I didn't think it would sound good but when I added it, I felt that it really went well with the vibe of the film. I still haven't figured out how to upload an audio clip here, but if I do, I'll definitely post it here. I like the way Ectoplasm sounds and I'm glad I found that music early on in this process so I didn't have to worry too much about music.

The only thing remaining now is the crescendo foreshadowing the climax of my film. Two of my highly musically talented friends have agreed to compose that part for me! Since I finished my video last night, I'm going to send it to them today. The thing that worries me about this is that my video is due in exactly a week and I'm not sure if they have enough time to create something. Preferably, I'd want the music ready by Friday (04/07) so I have some buffering time between that and the day the project is due. I'm going to leave some room for error, although I really hope I don't need it.


I'm also going to try and find some audio clips of crescendos online, just to be safe. If things don't go the way I've planned, I want to be able to have a backup. I found two websites (one and two) that seem pretty good and have royalty-free music and I will got through them all, when I get home tonight.

The Ectoplasm part gels really well with the entire video but I'm afraid the crescendo part might not. My friends are going to watch my video and then create something. They will be making something more personalized for me, but finding the right audio online will be a challenge. Let's hope they have enough time to make something brilliant for me so I don't have to worry too much about it!

I need to start thinking about my creative critical reflection (CCR) now!

Continuation of the Editing Process

Guys, I'm almost done with the editing!

I spent most of my weekend editing and compiling all of the videos and the different takes that we did. I really like how everything's come out.

The only part that I still have left to film is the last part where a friend/sibling opens the door to check on Kyle, although I'm not too worried about getting that part right because it's very short.

This is all of what I have left to record and I plan on getting it done on Monday. My friend is coming over then and we'll film this one part. I don't need any of the other actors for this because Sydney is not in the frame with Kyle.

While editing, my biggest problem was cutting the clips down because my video is currently at (without the last short scene) 2:24 minutes. When I was making my storyboard, I wanted to add a lot of jump cuts and sharp cuts at the end but when I was first compiling the videos, I didn't incorporate any jump cuts. I took a 180 degree shot of the two alters fighting followed by zooming in on Kyle as he got more and more upset. I really liked the way it looked but as I started cutting down on the unnecessary parts, I realized that that part would need to be cut short. So, to sort of combine the sharp cuts and the 180 degree shot, I cut out the few seconds between each dialogue. I feel like this gives it a rushed and panicky sort of vibe. It didn't help much with the cutting-down-time part but now I like the way it looks. Next class, I'm going to show it to a couple of my friends and get some critiques.

I also decided on the film title! It's called "Alone". Diego suggested it the other day and I kind of like it. It's not the most original or exciting title, but until I can come up with something better, I'm sticking with "Alone". I feel like this suits the film because the whole time, Kyle is alone. He thinks that there's people around him and that he's having real conversations but it's actually just him, by himself. He's alone.

My friend sent me the link to the video attached below, a few days ago. I was talking to her about my film and how it's loosely based on MPD when she told me about a video that she found online. It has nothing to do with my video besides its concept of MPD but I thought the video was amazing and so spooky. I just wanted to share it with you guys so here it is-

Also, here are some bloopers from day 2 of filming!

So, there's been a couple of changes...

Since my last blog, a lot of things have changed.

I was going to film the last parts with my actors on Tuesday but due to complications we moved the filming to Wednesday. But the actor who plays Kyle lost the shirt that he was wearing that day. So, because of that, and to avoid a large and very obvious continuity error, we had to re-film all the parts that we filmed on Saturday. Luckily the actress who plays Cynthia was wearing a black dress to school that day. According to color psychology, black color indicates power, mystery, and anger. It's also used as a symbol of evil, which is essentially what Cynthia is. I thought the black dress (and the dark lipstick that she had on) perfectly fits Cynthia's personality. So, anyway we ended up filming that whole part again because of the change of wardrobe.

Here's the third actor:

This is Jose Perez. He will be playing Danny, the third dissociative identity of Kyle. He is very carefree and light-hearted, yet rebellious. Out of both his identities, Kyle likes Danny better because he sees Danny as a friend. Obviously, he doesn't enjoy Danny's company because Danny can be very overbearing and possibly annoying, but he is definitely the "better" one. 

In my last blog I talked about how the video is turning out to be much longer than the minimum limit and that I wasn't going to change the script. Well, I decided to change the script and make it shorter. I just think that it would be easier for me to not have to worry about all the editing. And I'm glad I did because even with the shorter script, the partially compiled video is already over a minute long.

Also, in an old blog I mentioned the opening sequence and how I want to film it. I did that a couple of days ago and that itself is over a minute long and the videos only have to be two minutes long. I honestly thought that the time would be a problem, but not like this- I thought that two minutes was way too long for me and that I wouldn't be able to make mine longer than a minute. But now the time isn't enough and it is very frustrating because I can make my film-opening look so much better with more time. But yeah, I need to remove the entire opening sequence now because of how long it makes the video.

So these are the changes that took place in less than five days. It's been a little rough but I have all the videos now and the compilation doesn't look so bad anymore! 😊

Citations:
Marshall, Peter D. "12 Colors and Their Meanings". Film Directing Tips. Film Directing Tips. http://filmdirectingtips.com/archives/157. Accessed 30 Mar. 2017.
Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?" Very Well. About, Inc. 15 Nov. 2016. https://www.verywell.com/color-psychology-2795824. Accessed 30 Mar. 2017.

Beginning of the Editing Process

Hello!

As I mentioned in my last blog, we filmed for a few hours this past weekend and I got some good shots. I also started editing and compiling this together and here are some of the problems I've sadly come across:

- As I watched some of the video clips from the filming, I realized that my neighbors were using a very loud machine in their backyard. This loud sound got picked up by my camera which sort of drowns Patricia and Diego's voices. Currently I'm trying to figure out a way to edit the sounds out of the clip, or to try and minimize that sound and amplify the actors' voices. I'm in a instant messaging group chat with some of my AICE Media Studies classmates and I asked them if they knew about any good websites and one of them suggested Audacity. I plan on downloading it when I get home and hopefully it'll solve the problem.

- I wanted to  maintain a color palette but I forgot to tell the actors that so now their isn't a palette and the video is just a mix of different colors and mismatched palettes. There's really nothing I can do about that besides asking my next actors (Danny) to wear some dark clothes.

- so even though we filmed during the day, the lighting isn't that good and I feel like I'll have it edit it some or add some filters to make it look like the way I want it to. I found two websites: Magisto and WeVideo. I'm going to go through them both soon and hopefully they fulfill my requirements.

- Another film editing technique that I never learnt but will have to soon is adding text on moving objects.

- When I compiled all of the materials from I didn't quite like how some of the shots and camera angles looked like so when they come back to shoot again, I'll hopefully be able to retake those shots from the desired angles.

- Also, after compilation I realized that in total with all the filming I've done currently, which is about half, the video is 1:20 seconds long which in my opinion is too long because I still have a lot more to film and my limit is two minutes. whoops. I don't plan on altering my script to make it shorter. I want to go through with filming and editing the way I'd originally planned and put together a video (which will definitely be over two minutes). After that, I'll start editing again and remove the redundant or not-as-important parts and cut it down to two minutes.

I'll keep y'all updated!

Filming + Script

I have some good news! I finally wrote a script!

So, it was a very long process and I did get a little help from my friend but I'm satisfied with how the script has come out. 

When I started writing it earlier this week, I had some trouble starting the conversations. I knew that Kyle would get very stressed out when one of the alters started talking about something that means a lot to him. I also knew that I didn't have a lot of time to give a backstory of anything. So, with all that in mind, I decided that the easiest topic to pick would be a job. As a senior in high school, I'm very concerned about college and the tuition. Many of my friends started working recently just so they can save up some money for college. I wanted to go off of that idea and portray how stressed Kyle is, about getting a job. Mind you, his disorder has not been diagnosed yet; he has had a split personality for only a couple months and doesn't fully know what's happening to him yet. 

Kyle ends up not getting the job that he applied for. The split personality that feeds off of Kyle's disappointment is Cynthia. Danny is the "good guy" here, who seemingly tries to help Kyle and get Cynthia off his back but ends up in a verbal fight with Cynthia which only makes Kyle more upset. 

Towards the end of the film, Cynthia and Danny are in a very heated argument about which one of them is "worse," when Sydney rushes into the backyard to ask Kyle if everything is okay. When the shot cuts back to Kyle, he looks confused, dazed and exhausted. 

Attached to the right, is a part of the script. I filmed this part today, with Patricia and Diego, and I'm pretty happy with some of the shots I have. We couldn't film more because there were some time issues with the actor who currently plays Danny. I didn't want to waste this weekend so I decided to only film the first half of the video with Patricia and Diego. For good measure, I also had them record an audio note of their dialogues so I can add them if the sound is low at some point in the video or to help with editing. I have also attached a video below, which shows some of the bloopers from our filming today. 

Faces in my Film 2.0

Hello!

Like I promised in one of my previous blogs, here's a continuation of the characters of the film. I still don't have a title for the film yet but I know the names of the characters and their gender. I have actors too, but there might be some complications with two out of four of them, so I'm only introducing you guys to two of the actors.

This is Diego Ramirez. He will be playing A who I named Kyle. Kyle is the character who is suffering from MPD. He is an introvert and is very antisocial. 

This is Patricia Ramirez. She is Cynthia, one of Kyle's split personalities. She is very hot-headed and manipulative. She is very self-righteous and likes to control Kyle. She always wants things to go her way and does not handle opposition very well. 

We start filming over the weekend and since the other two actors haven't confirmed yet, we'll only been filming their parts. At first I thought that we would be done filming in one day and that I would have over two weeks to edit but then when the complications started to arise, I realized that we'll definitely need more filming days. 

I have been working on the script this week and I think it's coming along okay. It'll be fully done soon, definitely before the weekend starts because I need a script to give to the actors. I've been trying to approach the script from different angles, trying to nail the MPD aspect of it, but writing it I realized something very important: with the direction this film is going in (script and plot wise), the disorder might possibly seem like schizophrenia. I feel like this is somewhat a game changer because I've been so focused on the idea of MPD/DID that I didn't realize that I was kind of deviating from it. Well, not entirely deviating but just that to an audience it may seem like MPD or possibly schizophrenia. I don't think I'm going to address that in any way because after the aforementioned realization, I also remembered that nowhere in the film will I explicitly state that the disorder is MPD. Therefore, I want to leave it open to interpretation. In my view, it will be MPD but since it matches the characteristics of other psychological disorders, the audience can assume whichever disorder they think fit. I feel like not declaring a disorder would be a problem for an actual film, but since I'm only filming the opening part of it, I don't have to worry so much about the minor details which are not important in relevance to my film-opening.

Anyway, I'm very happy that I have a certain plan now with filming and the actors. I'll keep you guys updated about our filming and the other two actors. 

Genre Characteristics - differentiating the psychology and thriller aspect of my film

Like I've mentioned before, I am a big fan of thriller movies, especially the psychological kind. Every time I watch a film of that genre, I automatically assume that everything portrayed in it is accurate. Before I started this project, I didn't really think about how much of the psychology in a psychological thriller was authentic and how much of it was just dramatized. I interviewed my old AP Psychology teacher, Dr. Sugarman, this morning and one of the most important questions I had for her was that.

Dr. Sugarman explained that dissociative identity disorder (DID)/multiple personality disorder (MPD) usually starts with a traumatic experience or some form of significant trauma during childhood, or sometimes later on in life. Severe physical or sexual abuse, going to war, losing a loved one, or experiencing some type of change would be examples. A person suffering from MPD leaves the consciousness of that one individual and changes into another individual. They're only conscious of what is happening when they are that particular individual so they lose time and memory. The conscious peace and the personality are not integrated and therefore, they separate into two or more alter personalities.

She said that a lot of films in Hollywood don't correctly portray the psychological aspect of psych thrillers. In her opinion, the amount of dramatization and accuracy varies depending upon the film.

"For example, I don't think Fight Club did a good job of showing the emotional impact [on the Narrator]. It showed the cognitive impact the disorder had on him, but it didn't really capture what he was going through emotionally," Dr. Sugarman said.

When asked about a good and somewhat accurate portrayal of psychology in a film, she said:

"Shutter Island did a very good job of showing the guy's disorder. He was delusional and had several flashbacks and hallucinations which is typical of most psychological disorders. While it was dramatized, it still kind of showed the psychology part of it well."

While I don't plan on using it, she said that due to the rise of special effects and computer-generated imagery (CGI), the films have addressed the thriller part of the genre. Instead of building up the disorder through the characters, this technology shows the audience what's going on inside the character's head but also sort of diminishes the authenticity of the psychological disorder.

Keeping all of the aforementioned in mind, my plan is to create a film opening that portrays MPD as accurately as possible while still staying true to the thriller genre!

Editing Techniques

Creating a thriller film involves a lot of attention to detail on the director's part, especially when it comes to the technical elements in a film. Some of the topics that I've been researching a lot are the camera shots and editing techniques. Different directors take varied approaches to this but the overall products normally look the same in terms of the direction and editing.

While my video clip will only last two minutes, I want to incorporate the typical editing in any thriller film when the climax is nearing: quick and sharp jump cuts. This will be added at the end of the clip when the audience finds out that there is only one person in the backyard and the entire scenario just happened in A's head.

I found this brilliant interview of director and producer Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, where he talks about the direction in his popular film Psycho (1960). The video is sort of like a director's commentary, where he explains his thought process behind famous scenes from the film- for example, the shower scene- and how they affect the audience in ways he wants them to.

Hitchcock talks about using shapes and sizes of the objects within the frame to create meaning. He talks about one scene where the camera is placed right above a character and the killer, and as the killer cuts across the person's face, the camera moves down and gets a close up shot of the man's face.

"This is size of image put together to create shock. In other words, if it were music it would be tremulous on the violin and suddenly a brass instrument hits which would be the big close up."

This video was very informative for me because these are some technical elements and details that I want to know about, before I start filming my film opening.

A film that I watched this weekend, as a part of my research for this project, was Se7en (1995, dir. by David Fincher) and there were a lot of recurring shots and edits made throughout the film. When the protagonists Detective Somerset and Mills (Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, respectively) were discussing about the serial killings that took place in the film, the shots would vary from mid shots to close ups. Some times it would be slow pan shots that would let the viewer see the entire room and move from one character to another. When the tension was building up in some scenes, the shots would get faster and the cuts became jump cuts. The compilation of all the editing made the scenes very suspenseful and mysterious. The lighting is very dark and so is the color palette, making the audience feel on edge and tense. I found an article which talks, in-depth, about the different elements of the film, besides editing.

All of these are minor details that the audiences don't consciously notice but in the grand scheme of things, have an impact on how they perceive and judge a film. I hope to add some of these tricks and techniques into my film opening to make it a true psychological thriller!

Faces in my Film

Hi there!

The last time I posted a blog, I did not have any actors. But now I do! (well, I know who I'm going to ask and I'm almost positive they'll agree to help me out!)

While brainstorming and researching about character sketches in class, I wrote down a few characteristics that I want my characters to possess. I still haven't decided on the names so let's just go with the letters from my last blog.

A

• male
• late teens, maybe 18-19 years old
• archetypal introvert
• shy
• prone to hallucinations
• troubled childhood (I'm not going to go into detail with that because it doesn't really matter for the purpose of the film opening)

X

• male
• about the same age as A, 17-18 years old
• quite possibly a delinquent
• careless
• slightly intimidating

Y

• female
• 17-18 years old
• hard headed
• has strong opinions on matters
• manipulative
• sly

These are some ideas that I currently have. I know this isn't nearly enough information or description for a good film opening but I'm working on it! Once I finalize the actors and the character names, I'll make a second part for this blog and post pictures of the actors.

This is a little off topic but I found a video the other night which I wanted to share with you guys. It's a short film about DID and it gave me some perspective on the matter. I also noted the different editing techniques that were used in that film, which I wish to incorporate in mine to sort of put the audience in the shoes of the protagonist.

Anyway, I hope to settle on a few actors by next week and start filming next weekend! 

Citation:

"Character". The Script Lab. The Script Lab. https://thescriptlab.com/screenwriting/character. Accessed on 17 Mar. 2017.

Bressert, Steve. "Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms".  Psych Central. Psych Central. 2016. https://psychcentral.com/disorders/dissociative-identity-disorder-symptoms. Accessed on 16 Mar. 2017.

"Dissociative Disorder Community". HealthyPlace. HealthyPlace. http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/dissociative-identity-disorder/dissociative-identity-disorder-did-signs-and-symptoms. Accessed on 16 Mar. 2017. 

Story line!

The biggest struggle for me so far has been to write a plot. First, I wasn't sure about which genre I wanted to pick, and once I knew the genre, I could not up come with a proper plot line for this. But, my admiration for thrillers in general, has inspired me and I now have a solid plot (not the script, not yet. I'm taking baby steps!).

Plot

With my film opening, I wanted to introduce the protagonist's psychological disorder in a suspenseful way. I really liked the way Fight Club (1999 dir. by David Fincher) acquainted the audience with the main characters, Tyler Durden and the Narrator. The entire movie was very dark and tense, keeping the audience on edge for the entirety of the film. At the end of the film, when (spoiler alert!) the Narrator realizes that he has a dissociative personality, the alter (Durden) disappears. In this way, the Narrator starts to recall all the time he spent with Durden, but it was actually just him all by himself and talking to himself.

While my film opening plot is different from the concept portrayed in Fight Club, there are some similarities.

I want the video to start with an establishing shot of the setting (my house) and walk through the house and up to the protagonist's (let's call them A because I still haven't decided on a name or even a gender) bedroom where he/she is asleep. I will end the opening/title sequence at an extreme close up of A, opening his/her eyes. Following this will be the title of the film.

A will be in his/her backyard, working on a computer, when another person (X) walks into the backyard and starts talking to A. A looks visibly uncomfortable and not really interested but X ignores A's discomfort. Soon, another person (Y) walks in and joins A and X. All three of them are having a conversation and A looks more uneasy by the second. After a while of talking, X says something that makes Y snap. Soon, both of them start arguing violently about the matter. This makes A very upset, and he/she tries to get them both to settle down. The argument gets louder and more heated, with everyone yelling at each other. X and Y are yelling profanities at each other while A, anxious, is begging them to stop. B, a friend or sibling or loved one of A's, rushes into the backyard hearing the shouting and asks A if everything is alright. The scene cuts from the trio to B as he/she comes into the scene. When the scene cuts back to the original frame, A is the only person there. X and Y aren't in the frame; A is all by himself/herself. This would be the indication that they are A's alters and that A has dissociative identity disorder. The last scene of the video will show an aerial shot of the backyard and A standing there alone.

This will be portrayed in a variety of camera shots, angles, movements and composition and editing techniques, like mentioned in the storyboard.

Storyboard

This is subject to change.

 

Unfinished Tasks

- Create character sketches of A, X, and Y (finalize genders, names, behaviors, etc.)

- Find relatively good actors who will be committed to this project!

- Create a script 

- Talk to an expert (I was planning on my old AP Psychology teacher, Dr. Sugarman, about the disorder to get more of an idea about the disorder. I'll keep you guys updated!)

- Make a shooting schedule

I have a good feeling about this video! Let's hope it all works out. 😊

Sounds of my Film

Hey there! Welcome back to my blog!

So, I've been thinking a lot about a script and a plot line for my film opening and I have a somewhat good idea of how I want to execute it. I'll address this topic in my next blog and I might even post a storyboard of it. For this blog, I want to discuss the sound and the audio elements of my project.
I realize that it might a little too soon to get audio but now that I know what I want to do for the film, it's easier for me to get the music.

Having watched my fair share of horror films, thrillers, psychological movies, slasher flicks, etc. I have noticed that the music is very similar. The music is very dark and eery, and often times crescendos indicate a climax or foreshadow major events relating to the plot. The music normally starts off very mild and casual and gradually builds up. This is the type of music I'm looking to add to my video. I found an article that has examples of soundtracks from horrors films which I thought was a good way to sort of get to know the music type.

While searching the wide world of the internet, I came across something known at the YouTube Audio Library. I had read about it in a blog sample that my teacher showed us (I cannot cite it here because I wasn't able to find that blogpost) in class and I came across it again. The Audio Library is essentially a place where you can find copyright free music and music that the artists and producers have agreed to be reused commercially or for projects.*

When I found that website, I immediately started looking for dark music that suits my theme and I found a soundtrack that I really like. I don't think it's the typical music that producers in thrillers film go with, but I think this track would be a good way to start the film because it seems a little mysterious. It is called Ectoplasm by Audionautix. I'm not able to attach it to this blog, but I'll figure out a way to do it in one of my next blogs.

I feel like I've made just a little progress with the project and it feels so rewarding!

*Some require attribution so the credit for the music goes to the original creator.

Citations:
Campbell, Jack. "Music Used in Crime Thrillers". SlideShare. LinkedIn Corporation. 19 Apr. 2015. https://www.slideshare.net/s0016845/music-used-in-crime-thrillers. Accessed 11 Mar. 2017.
Otts, Kristin B. "Horror and Thriller: Walking the Fine Line between the Two Genres". Ya Highway. Ya Highway. 27 Sept. 2012. http://www.yahighway.com/2012/09/horror-and-thriller-walking-fine-line.html. Accessed 11 Mar. 2017.

Genres and Inspirations!

After two days of scratching my brain, trying to form a coherent idea or plot for my film and to pick a genre, I have decided that my film will be a psychological thriller. I truly enjoy the suspense and the character-drivennes of thriller films. One of my favorite thrillers  of all time, Gone Girl (2014 dir. by David Fincher), is a psychological thriller and even after watching it for the umpteenth time, I still enjoy it.

Psychology is something that has always intrigued and interested me (it's one of my college majors!) and I want to sort of have that effect on my audience with my film opening.

The opening scene from Gone Girl is very cryptic and rather disturbing in my opinion because the music is very eerily soothing. It creates a calm-before-the-storm aura which, in addition to Ben Affleck's character Nick Dunne's dialogue, piques interests. It also instills doubt and curiosity in the minds of the viewers which I think is exactly how a psych thriller should be. I feel like this is an excellent way to start off the film and it's something I want to do with mine. 

Gone Girl is definitely one of my  biggest inspirations so far. As of now, I want to follow the typical characteristics of a thriller to the 'T' because the rough idea that I have in my head is very suited to the archetypal thriller genre.

I found a rather interesting article about the elements of a psychological thriller in books and comics, and I want to use that (along with all the research I will do over the course of time!) as a basis to create my film. Although the article talks about reading, the audience of films are quite similar to readers of a novel in terms of their expectations from the works. 

Another aspect of the film opening that I have finalized is that I want the protagonist to have dissociative identity disorder (DID). I haven't done nearly enough research on the topic yet, but I do have some prior knowledge about this disorder. I recently watched the film Split (2016 dir. by M. Night Shyamalan) which revolves around a man with DID who kidnaps three girls. The disorder is depicted perfectly in the movie and it sort of inspired me to use the same disorder, although the plot of my film will be completely different. I'm sure that in the next few weeks, I'm going to watch this movie a few more times, so I can figure out the filming aspect of my video.

I currently feel very relieved to have a general direction to move in! Hopefully, by next week, I'll have created a plot for the film-opening and rough character sketches of the protagonist and the alters.

Citations: 

"10 Basic Ingredients of a Successful Thriller". Writer's Digest. Writer's Digest. 5 Sept. 2008. www.writersdigest.com/qp7-migration-conferencesevents/qp7-migration-maui/10-basic-ingredients-of-a-successful-thriller. Accessed 9 Mar. 2017. 

"Elements of the Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Suspense and/or Crime Fiction Genres". Word Hunter. 12 Oct. 2012. www.hunterswritings.com/2012/10/12/elements-of-the-psychological-thriller-mystery-suspense-andor-crime-fiction-genres/. Accessed on 9 Mar. 2017.

Worries of a Rookie Filmmaker

When I chose to take AICE Media Studies, I was looking forward to that "big project" that everybody had told me about. At the start of the academic year, my teacher showed the class a variety of foundation portfolio projects that were created by students from previous years and needless to say, I was, and still am, very impressed by them. I was determined to make my video better than all the brilliant samples we had seen in class. I had a few ideas as the class started but over the months, the ideas disintegrated and now all I'm left with is worry. We have a lot of time to finish this project but currently I have very little idea as to where I want to steer this film or what meaning I want to convey.

Listed below are some of the ideas/themes that I am contemplating along with a lot of doubts and concerns I have, but like I said before, these are extremely rough ideas that are definitely subject to change and my final product might be entirely different. 

- I want to make a character-driven film. I want to create a bright and strong main character. As generic as that sounds, I want to make a character who the audience can relate to. But a major problem with that is that I am not the best writer. For the purpose of this video, I feel like it would be better for me to create a rough sketch of a character and solidify his/her characteristics as we film.

- Being Indian, I really enjoy Bollywood movies. Although our film openings can only be two minutes long, I would like to incorporate some element of Bollywood (a dramatic element or a filming technique that is typical to Bollywood movies) in my video. 

- I am quite worried about not being able to pick a genre. Having researched several genres, I still have no idea as to what I want to do. I am leaning towards drama but I would also like to take the mystery/thriller route.

- One of the biggest things that worries me right now is the sound element of this project. Trying to get the perfect audio for the film, which is free of any copyrights, seems to be a really big challenge. 

- While this sort of breaks the typical mystery/thriller genre characteristics, I want my film to be very colorful and vibrant. I want to incorporate a large range of colors into my film.

I hope that with enough research and brainstorming, I'll be able to finalize on the main elements of this film.

Citations: 
Dirks, Tom. "Main Film Genres". filmsite. American Movie Classics Company. www.filmsite.org/genres.html. Accessed on 8 Mar. 2017.