FINALLY

 I am finally ready to explain my film opening to you. I feel that when representing certain groups in media we see a lot of pieces dealing with social injustices related to sex, race, and religion. I wanted to venture off that path and shed light on a more niche group of people. For my film opening, I will have two main characters, a mother and a son. The mother, Elyssa has Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. Munchausen syndrome is a rare psychological disorder and behavioral condition in which someone makes up for the fact that they are sick. People who have Munchansens convince themselves that they are sick.

Research on Munchansen: A person with Munchausen syndrome constantly and purposefully acts as though they have a physical or mental ailment when they are not actually ill. This condition is known as a fake disorder. Because it is linked to significant emotional problems, Munchausen syndrome is regarded as a mental disorder. Munchausen syndrome patients can intentionally induce or intensify symptoms in a number of ways. They might fabricate symptoms, harm themselves to cause symptoms or change test results.

Munchausen Symptoms : 

         - Inconsistent medical history 

         -Manipulating test results

         -afflicting symptoms upon self 

         -Traveling from hospital to hospital 

Source: https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/mental-health/munchausens-syndrome

psychological thrillers research 333

Now that I have decided what my film is going to be about, I decided that I would do some genre research. Readers of psychological thrillers have the chance to look at people's intentions from above in these books. This enables readers to predict how characters confronted with impossible decisions would behave in actual circumstances. The innermost thoughts and motivations of the characters are explored in psychological thrillers, enabling us to analyze how the characters' actions drive the plot to the outer limits of human ethics and morality. The genre makes us reflect on our own and other people's sadness.

Of course, the climax and subsequent conclusion are psychological thrillers' most crucial elements. Once the tension is relieved and the riddles are ultimately solved, usually, with a twist or two, all of the characters' decisions and actions trigger a cathartic conclusion. Psychological thrillers are made or broken by their conclusion. There are numerous subgenres available to readers that are interested in thrillers. Legal thrillers take place in courtrooms or behind the closed doors of powerful institutions; adventure thrillers follow a hero on a life-changing journey; and spy thrillers entice you into a high-stakes game of international secrecy. Crime thrillers focus on the inner workings of criminal investigations.

(the silence of the lambs)

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/O-zone/why-are-we-obsessed-with-psychological-thrillers/

Lockdown Epiphany

I am currently writing to you all in the midst of a lockdown. I am in my group meeting in AICE Media studies. We have been held back and have had an incredible amount of time in this class today. I decided that I would take that time to blog because you will never believe what just happened. I really found our first group meeting (pictured below)  helpful with the development of my movie opening. I have been really stressed out lately, especially with college decisions. It’s been making me emotional thinking about hearing back from UF because it has been a college that I dream of going to. The group meeting was able to help me really destress from all of that chaos going on. I was able to talk it out and really grab a hold of reality. 

(photos from group meeting)

For the past week and a half, I have been struggling with this portfolio project. I have been back and forth between genres, ideas, openings, etc. I have been doing the most to gain inspiration. I think that I finally have an idea! My fellow peers were able to help me add to an idea that I had and reassure me that it was an amazingly creative one too. I have had this idea all along but I just thought it was not the best. Talking to others who are trying to develop an idea enabled me to think more outside the box.

(photos from group meeting)

Film Opening Research

 Today was another research day! I decided to research more about film openings:

The purpose of the opening scene is to draw you into the world of the main character and place you in that person's shoes. Opening scenes can be suspenseful, frightening, intense, or just plain funny. They serve as opening scenes, introducing characters and setting them up as they would be at that specific point in their lives. Long after a movie has ended, viewers' perceptions of it can be affected by an interesting opening sequence. A strong beginning scene can frequently identify the genre to which a movie belongs; for instance, horror movies always begin with a spooky opening scene that builds to a shocking conclusion. 

Since practically everything on screen speaks for itself, including the setting, the time of day, the lighting, the costumes, the camera movement, the blocking, the lenses employed, the set dressing, and any potential messages sent by the juxtaposition of all those elements, finding clever and creative ways to convey important information to your audience is actually not that difficult.

(Stanley Kubrick's 2001: Space Odyssey)

Research: https://mythcreants.com/blog/five-essentials-for-an-opening-scene/

More Movie watching...

    Here I am again with yet another blog post. Do I have anything to update you guys on? Honestly no. It has been a slow couple of days and school has been kind of wonky. I had to miss a few periods of class because I was getting my boot taken off. 

                                                                                (Nope)

I don’t have much to say although it is the beginning of the week and on Sunday night I decided to watch another one of Jordan Peele’s films. This time I decided to watch Nope (2022 dir. Jordan Peele) , and I found it to be pretty bad. This movie is definitely a step down from his other outstanding movies that I have seen. I felt that he got carried away with the plot of this movie and, to me, it all was just one big convoluted mess. Don’t get me wrong the cast did an amazing job and I think that Keke Palmer stole the show. I needed a more focused plot to be engaged, this seemed as if there were too many themes running through Mr. Peele’s mind. If anything, this movie has taken my eyes off wanting to do a psychological thriller.

(Keke Palmer in Nope)

    

                                                             (Nope)

Research

 I feel like I am going in circles, and I am honestly helpless. I have never had this much trouble coming up with an idea for a video or film ever. I came up with better ideas quicker for my television production 1 class, freshman year, than this project. I know I have to make it great, I want to utilize all the time that I have, but I can’t move on until I set my head on one single idea. In the meantime, I have been researching more in-depth about how to make a great film opening. 

In a film opening, the main character should be introduced through their interactions with other characters in their regular lives, whether at work or at home. If viewers regularly observe your primary character interacting with their surroundings, it will be easier for them to connect with them. In this section of the screenplay, writers attempt to emotionally engage their audience and introduce them to the story's ideas. Films can have a significant impact on our lives by revealing new viewpoints and by telling a tale.

I feel that giving myself a break from thinking was the right decision to make. I need to allow my creative juices to flow so that I can get back on track, but I feel that I was able to take this time to increase my knowledge about the technical aspects that go into creating a film opening. Hopefully, the next time I am writing here I will have a solid idea!

Resources: htps://filmlifestyle.com/screenplay-opening-scene/#:~:text=The%20opening%20scene%20should%20be,will%20hook%20them%20right%20away.

CMBYN

 Hello there! I am back again with yet another update on my week. It is a complete mess. I am trying to bounce around ideas but I am still waiting for something to come to my mind. As a creator, we run into these periods of time when nothing is flowing. I’m having some sort of creativity block where I cannot generate original ideas. All I can do is look into other movies and genres that I could possibly do a film on. I took a leap of faith and said, why not watch a romance film, maybe I could do a romance opening. My favorite romance movie has to be Call Me by Your Name (2017 dir. Luca Guadagnino) so I decided that this would be a good place to start.

(Actors Timoothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name)

Call Me by Your Name (2017 dir. Luca Guadagnino) is such an outstanding film as it blends together the themes of forbidden love, intimacy, and adventure. This movie showcases the beauty a human can experience as they fall in love. This film focuses on the connection that a person can build with another in which ways they can see themselves through the eyes of the other. True love often involves recognition of oneself in someone else. This film captures the essence of what is like to grow close to another person, even if it may end up not going as planned. The film is a beauty in itself. 

(Actors Timoothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name)

This film has made me think differently about the weeks that are coming ahead. I want to create something that I want to have fun doing. I need to create something that reflects my character and how I want the world to be perceived. How can I plan to create an opening for a film when I can't even come up with an idea for a message? I want to produce something that speaks to others just like this film has spoken to me. That’s all for today :[[

(Call Me by Your Name)

Get Out

 I’m back again to update everyone on where I am mentally with planning this film opening. Over the past two days, I have had time to watch two psychological thrillers. I know what many must be thinking. Yes, I am back on the phycological thriller bandwagon. I don’t know why but for some reason these movies just pull to me. Yesterday I watched Get Out (2017 dir. Jordan Peele) which is a film that falls under the psychological thriller genre. I decided to choose this movie because I knew that this was a well-liked film.

(Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out)

I honestly have fallen in love with Jordan Peele after watching this film. This film embodies the idea of what a psychological thriller is supposed to be. It mends together different elements of suspense and shock to keep viewers locked in. The film does an amazing job of layering underlying sarcastic tones throughout the dialogue of the movie. Peele is able to blend dark humor and dramatic irony into a chaotic, stomach-clenching masterpiece. Watching this film has motivated me into furthering my research on psychological thrillers, with the possibility that it will be chosen for my film opening. I will update you guys soon :))

(Get Out)

Genre Searching

 I had to come on here because I am honestly really struggling. Just a couple of days ago I said I knew what I wanted to do for my film opening, but if I am being completely honest, I have no idea what route I want to go down. Finding a genre to do my movie open on is going to be a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. At first, I wanted to go down the path of psychological thriller, however, I don’t have a clear idea of what I would even do. My plan, for now, is to watch different movies from different genres to get a feel of what I could see myself producing. 

I think for now I am going to focus on what really makes an amazing film opening. So for this week, I am going to be focusing on researching through that and gaining more knowledge for this project. As I was researching this past weekend and I stumbled across this youtube video that I found to be super helpful. Through this video, I learned that it is very important that one establishes all of the elements of their movie. The film's opening should give the viewers an idea of what this movie is supposed to be about. The audience should see the main characters and details of the plot being released. 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ2UtHMtOZk)

The opening of the film should set the tone for the entire plot that lay ahead. I learned that the film opening needs to be engaging, because sometimes it may seem as if the audience is just being spitballed with facts. The opening needs to play into a story that is being developed. Dialogue between different characters to establish the setting, establish time, and establish roles. This enables viewers to understand the film better moving forward. I really learned a lot from this research; I will be spending the next few days indulging in more movies for the time being. 

Portfolio Announcement

I have exciting news for the next coming weeks! I will be transitioning to working on a film opening for my portfolio project. I have decided to work alone on this because I want my full artistic ideas to come and shine through. I have a good feeling that I would be able to produce an amazing piece if I put my mind to it. As of right now, the plan is to establish a genre of film that I have been into, and then come up with a film opening idea. I have been gravitating to doing a psychological thriller opening because, recently, those movies have been very eye-opening to me.

This past year I was obsessed with the movie Don’t Worry Darling (2022 dir. Olivia Wilde). It is a psychological thriller that takes the audience on a soul-sucking, jaw-dropping, seat-clenching experience. Florence Pugh did an outstanding job in this movie and I feel that it did not get enough recognition. 

(Don't Worry Darling Poster)

I’m honestly not sure what I will end up doing for my portfolio project, but I am super excited to bring you guys along for the ride! 

Tonight Cont.

 

Hi there! I am back with another update on how our music video ended up turning out. I was given the task of working with my group to write a narrative for the retro genre. From there, we decided to base our video on Phoenix's song Tonight. Since this music was more energetic than the others sent to us, it best suited our brand. I was particularly pulled to this song because I had a strong emotional connection to the words, and when one can feel the music and the lyrics, it changes how one feels about the song. The majority of the people in my group and I both insisted that this song be used for our video. In order to have a more seamless filming experience, we decided that it would be best to construct a thorough storyboard. During production, the storyboard proved to be the most practical planning tool for us.

                                                           

                                                           

We had to use our time wisely and be very planned for this to all workout, especially with only the five of us. In order to keep track of time during filming, we decided that it would be better to first make a schedule. After that, we focused on locations and planning where we would shoot each scene so that we wouldn't have to rush on the actual shooting day. We started by making an action list and outlining in detail what would occur in each shot. Not every suggestion on this list—which served as a free-form brainstorming list—was used for the finished video.

                                                     

The combination of all the strong personalities in my group had to be the hardest hurdle. Everyone had a different idea of how they wanted the music video to turn out, making it incredibly difficult to find a clear path. Because I had some fascinating ideas about what we should do for the film, I found it challenging when I couldn't make my points clear to the rest of the group. We were able to all come to an understanding in the end because it worked out. For this one, I'm pleased I just went with the flow because I'm really proud of the outcomes we've been getting throughout the filming. 

Filming was honestly very fun and I think that I learned a lot. We spent four days in total filming this music video. It was very exhausting but I am extremely happy with how the music video turned out. We went around from location to location filming the different shots that we had planned out. I think that the storyboard was a big help while we were filming because all we had to do was look at the storyboard and it would tell us exactly where we needed to be.

Last what we had to do was edit. Editing is always the easiest part, because if you have a vision of what you want for the ending result, then it should be smooth sailing. We also had to do the presentation and we wanted to make the theme similar to our video. We decided to go for a purple, retro theme for the presentation because it matches our vibe more. The presentation was also a fun part of the project because this is where we got to explain all of our ideas.