GROUP MEETINGS!!

Class today was very eventful and productive. At first we started the class with Ms. Stoklosa giving us a lesson on social media and how to develop a brand for this project. This opened my eyes because I had completely forgot that we had to open a social media account for this project so that was added to my mental to do list for things to do this week, so keep your eyes open for some social media content. 

But nonetheless, that is not the point of today. Today we had the opportunity to break into groups to talk about our projects to get some help and let me tell you it really helped, it made me feel a little more clear headed for what we hope to achieve for this project. Here is my group...

We really had such a nice conversation and we really helped each other with our projects. I told them all about our project and our ideas and I mentioned how we are struggling on how to show the beginning, middle, end and how we can transition between the three and Sachate told me to watch the movie "Moonlight" for some inspiration because it shows three stages and it had some really cool transitions that we can do so now I plan to watch that movie for some inspiration. In addition, I told them how we wanted to play with color and have the beginning of the film just like in warm or dull colors and at the end bright color to show the contrast and the different feelings throughout the film, my group told me to at the beginning keep the color normal and it progresses lower the saturation and at the end put the saturation higher, I thought this was a great idea and plan to implement it on our film!

Today was a successful day! It is already week three into the project and time is flying by!! We have a lot of work to do!

TARGET AUDIENCE

 Target Audience

A big part of making a film or anything that has to do with media is having a target audience to target the film so it’s successful. Since this is a big part for every component of the project it’s only right that we dedicate some research on it don’t you think? 

To begin with since our film is about sports, more specifically gymnastics the film is most likely going to attract female gymnasts since they can relate to it most. Therefore, the target audience for the film would be females of all ages because the sport of gymnastics spreads throughout every age. Which is why if we were to rate the short film it would be PG that way it attracts every age. In addition to that the age range of the target audience would be any age or 8 or older. Lastly, the socioeconomic status of this audience would be low to middle class because the short film is based on gymnastics and it really doesn’t reflect any high class.

Because our short film is mostly targeted to young people I asked myself what do I need to add to this film to make it so that these young people go watch it and actually enjoy it. So I read a very interesting article let me show you what it said “I think people use stories to live out their fears, anxieties, and fantasies. Stories help them sort their feelings and cope with complex emotions that are hard to explain and live with. But as we get older, we need less help with that. We come to terms with the disturbing parts of the world, with the dreams that will never come true, and with our own mortality.” article

 

I liked this because i think it explains so well what the young audience is looking for while watching a movie or a short film. this made me think that by showing the struggles of not only gymnastics but something that happens in every sport maybe it would help this young generation of athletes understand these feelings that they go through as they grow into the sport and hopefully it would help them see that these things happens and it doesn’t have to defeat them. Lastly, since target audience is a big thing throughout this process we will need to continue researching this for the social media page and the post card because since we are planning on targeting it to a younger audience we need to figure out what those social media apps they use and what we need to develop. 

Well tomorrow is a new week which means more progress with the project! stay tuned! 

STORYBOARD

As you may have guessed this post is about planning!! This is really the most important part of the process and we want to be really organized and prepare and plan everything before me film so the short film comes out really good. Now in class we also worked on a story board to kind of sketch out the type of shots we want and kind of organize the film. But remember this is a very very rough draft this is most likely going to change but let me show you. 

Like I said before this is a very rough draft of what we want to do but we just wanted to get an idea down right away to organize our brains to see where we want to go with this and what we really want to show. As you see we want the beginning shots to be of her as a kid enjoying gymnastics. The middle part of it its when everything builds up because it is when she starts competing herself to the other gymnasts and wondering if she has what it takes, and i think like a POV shot would be cool to show this part of the film. Then it cuts to her working on her skills at home and just really putting in the work yet, she is still not good enough in her eyes. The parents try to help her get back into to it but at the end of the day she doesn’t stick with it (as of right now i dont know if that is really going to be the ending). The purpose of the shots at the beginning is to empathize what she goes to through emotionally and mentally and i really think we can use inspiration from the short films that i watched but that’s a story for another day. 

Thanks for reading todays blog, catch you on the next one!!!!!

BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END…

 Since we had class yesterday we were able to come up with the final topic as you know if you read my last blog and we also came up with a rough very rough plot line of what we want to show at the beginning, middle and end. Let me show you… 

 

Beginning:

·                main character as a little kid enjoying the sport (practice, smiling, laughing)

·                admiring older gymnasts, olympists, and college athletes

·                growing up and continuing to improve skill 

·                start comparing skill to other gymnasts

 

Middle:

·                starting to not be able to do a skill

·                practice outside of gym

·                watching others out of anger not enjoyment

·                not wanting to go to practice

·                struggle to stay positive

·                self-deprivation

End:

·                giving up on dreams

·                parents notice and try to help

·                quit to relieve stress

We want to show how you grow as a person in the sport and how everything becomes more difficult as you go. The beginning is all about the main character as a kid enjoying gymnastics, seeing herself in the future accomplishing incredible thing and just growing up in the sport. However, as you grow into the sport it is when negative mindset and all the pressure takes over, this is the part when the sport is not fun anymore and it becomes self sabotaging in a way. Now the ending is a little in the air right now because we don't know if we want to end it with her quitting the sport and show that she is happy now which we would do that with showing her with dull colors and then super bright colors at the end or have her overcome this challenge and come out stronger mentally and physically. 

The story itself it is about the progression of one person in a sport trying to becomes the best and how that affects a person mentally, physically, and emotionally especially in the sport of gymnastics where you have to be “perfect” all the time. 

Stay tunes for more planning blogs but hopefully we can get this part done super fast so we can start recording!!!

 

 

DECISION TIME

 Well, I have some good news for you. To start the week off right we have finally decided what our short film will be about. Drum roll please 🥁🥁🥁

The topic for our film is trying to be the best at sports, working so hard and giving it you all for at the end not get any results or satisfaction and fighting that mentality you gain as you progress through the sport. 

Now dont think I’ve forgotten about the beauty standard topic because we have also included the topic in our film, let me tell you how. The sport that we decided to focus on is gymnastics because this sport is so mentally draining and it can really do a number on the way you look like. Gymnasts are always stereotyped to be these tiny petite women and if you dont fir this body type then they tell you you are not good enough to for the sport. What does this do the kids that are just trying to enjoy the sport? It spirals into a whole mentality of comparing yourself to your teammates whether that is physically or skill wise, body dysmorphia etc… that is why we chose this sport because it allowed us to include both of the topics that we discussed to do and let me tell you i have lived though all these issues and expectation because little did you know that I have been doing gymnastics since I was five and was getting weighted and told to watch out what I ate since i as 7. 

Yeah i know pretty shocking but you learn how to live with it as a kid. I’m excited to make this short film about this topic and show a little bit of the dark side of the sport and send an emotional message at the same time. 

Alright we have a topic now can you guess what comes next? YOU GUESSES IT!! Planning, planning and more planning so stay tunde for that. 

GENRE GENRE GENRE

Genre genre genre... the thing that everyone loves. To make any film successful because it provides the plot and content, you need to put on your film. For our particular short film, we decided to deal with the drama genre even though we haven't decided on the topic. Nonetheless, the topics that we are debating on both will fall under the drama genre. So went to my little friend called google to do some more research. 

PLOT

Dramatic films are plot-driven and demand that all the characters and plot move the story forward. This means that the plot in the film is the most important part of the film. What I take away from this is that our group needs to spend a lot of time working and developing a fast-paced plot. Now the next important thing about the plot is that dramas follow a well-defined narrative plot that is real-life scenarios which is exactly our idea for our short film. We want to take a real-life problem as our inspiration for our short film and send a message through the short film which works perfectly for the genre. 

CHARACTERS

In the other article I read it said that the characters play a very important role in the drama genre and a brief description of each character is necessary. This is another thing to add to the mental checklist for short films. 

TECHNIQUES

I decided to do some research on the techniques used for dramatic films and I fell upon this wonderful article that explained major editing techniques for drama films. The first technique they described was faced which means that in most dramatic film scenes they open with a close-up of the main protagonist's face to show the emotions and the tone of the film. The film uses the movie "Saving Private Ryan" as an example because the opening scene is filled with close-ups of the soldiers which gives the proper emotional context to the audience. 

this is the illustration that the article used to show the faces used in the opening scene. 

The next technique they described was observations which means showing the pov of the character and what he is seeing as well as helping the audience understand how this affects them. Some key elements that the article suggests are the eyeshot followed by the POV shot and back to the eyes. 

again an example from the article from the movie "Saving Private Ryan" 

The third technique is reactions which means a sequence of cutting between the action and the reaction of the character. The purpose of this technique is that it helps the audience realize the character's motivation and it increases the tension of the scene of what is happening. Lastly, reactions can also add realism to the film. 

Here are some visual examples that the article gives you. 

The last technique is vulnerabilities which makes the audience gain empathy for the characters. and by reminding them that the characters have weaknesses and are not perfect like humans it connects the audience to the character. During these types of scenes when we are trying to reconnect the audience to the character it is important that we slow down the pace to really feel the vulnerability and the emotions. 

Well, that is it for this research, I mean obviously, have to do more research but this is only part 1 and I feel like I learned a lot. Part 2 will get inspiration from other dramatic short films or films. 

here are all the articles I read for this research...

https://medium.com/@english_grammar/characteristics-of-drama-2d42c83e9a08

https://www.filmeditingpro.com/4-editing-techniques-to-add-drama-to-a-cut/

https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/guide-to-basic-film-genres/

https://medium.com/@supriya.webfare/6-best-genres-for-short-films-db27aeb5bdf4

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-identify-film-genres

MORE AND MORE INSPIRATION

 As i said on the last post today is all about more research but this time I am researching short films that have to do with sports and everything that comes with it. The topic of sports is as broad as the beauty standard topic. From becoming obsessed with being the best to the point where it affects you mentally and physically to having no motivation to do the sport you love because of different reasons. 

The first short film i watched is called “Game Night” by Joel Fendelman and it won many film festival awards. The short film itself was very heartfelt and you could feel all the emotions as you watch it which is the goal for this project, we want people to watch it and feel a certain way. The story is that a taxi driver falls upon a football team and it  brings past memories of when he played football. The shots and techniques used were absolutely phenomenal I would love to incorporate and used these shots as inspiration for our short film if we decided to do a sports short film. 

This is a screen recording of my favorite part of the short film because in my opinion it caught the raw emotion of missing the sport you did as a kid but can’t do it anymore because of the age and physique and although this is not really the route we would go if we do a sports short film, catching the raw emotion of it all would be the ideal situation for our project and i think we can use the technique they use of fast cuts to demonstrate it as well. 

Another short film that I watched is called “LIGA” by Toby’s sports and they took a different route that I hadn’t think of when it comes to sports. Their short film was about a guy on a basketball team who has a lot of talent but since there is someone better than him he is in the shadows like the coach wont see his potential and hardwork until the best player gets hurt and the coach finally sees him but in the end the real message is that it doesn’t matter who scores it is playing as a team that matters. Personally, our ideas for the sport short film were a little different but in a way kind of the same. Like our ideas for the sport short film were mostly about pressure and how you can lose the love for the sport and I think this short film has a little bit of both because the main character was working so hard to be noticed and have his chance but that moment could have never happened which would have made him lose interest in the sport and when he finally got his chance he felt the pressure to do good so he wouldn’t mess it up so we could use this as inspiration on a different side of sports. What I really liked and i thought we could implement in our short film is the fact that even through it was about a team it focused on the main character and it had voiceover for when he was thinking and how he was feeling and i thought that was really nice because it gave us the chance to see how he was dealing with everything mentally that is a big thing in sports but incredibly hard to show and understand. 

The last one I checked out was called good sport and something i really liked the shots they used to show each sport that the kid played. For example, when the kid tried basketball they used a low angle to show the ball not going in. Like that and i thought that was really nice. I also liked the pacing of the film as well i thought it moved nice and all the jump cuts made the film incredibly nice. Lastly, this one is another one that shows a different side of sports because the kid tried every sport but the last one he tried was the one he loved which means that it takes time to find the sport you love. 

He loved dance and the shots they used at the end were spectacular and i think we could use them for our short film as well. 

These are what I’m talking about, the shots do such a good job showing how happy he is where he is and dancing. In addition, i loved how he is still the main focus and you can still see that he is the main character. 

Well that is enough about sport short films, in the next blog we will talk a little about genre :))

RESEARCHING FOR SOME INSPIRATION

 Now that we have narrowed it down to two topics (beauty standards or sports) I have decided that it is time to research short films about these topics to get an idea and some inspiration for what we could do. In today's blog, we will talk about short films about beauty standards. 

I came across this short film that I really enjoyed because I think it describes the topic extremely well and it is a good representation of the beauty standards girls and women in today's society have. 

"Not enough" a short film by Emily Liu

 The thing about beauty standards is that it is an incredibly broad topic with many things to talk about. The creator of this short film focused on the eating disorder part of this whole phenomenon and I thought she did it very well. What I really liked at the beginning is that she puts a picture of a model which is the goal of what she wants to look like up on the wall, this is important because it lets the audience know that the goal of the girl is to look like that which is why she slowly starts developing an eating disorder and she shows the process extremely well. At first, she shows how every time the character ate she would see derogatory words that would make her not want to eat yet she still did. Then she does something about which is when she starts counting the calories she intakes and exercising more which later the whole process becomes obsessive and it ends in an eating disorder. 

I feel like watching this short film gave me a sense of direction on what I could do with this project and this topic. I think it can really send a message to those girls that struggle with this to keep up with everything that they see on the internet. I saw many things that we could incorporate in our short film such as my favorite shot when she is eating her food and all we see is her eating her words but then right after we see the food like nothing happened. I thought this was a really nice touch added because in a way she is saying that she is eating her words but at the same time everything is just in her head because, at the end of the day, it's just food. 

Beauty standards are nothing new. But how have they changed as a result of social media? Annie Harmeston's fashion film

This short film was not really a short film but I really liked the aesthetic part of the video. Here are some screenshots I took of the parts I liked. 

You know I really liked the whole vibe that this part of the video had because they combined old-school women or how women were dressed in the past with modern technology of beauty which I really enjoyed because I interpreted as beauty standards have been around for a long time and they are still very relevant today. In a way, it is like they combined the past with the present regarding beauty standards which I really liked, and would love to include some aesthetics like this in our project. 

This is all I could find for beauty standards that I liked to use as inspiration for our project. Tomorrow in class we will discuss more about the topics and hopefully decide what we are finally going to do!! you will find out all about it in my next blog. 

What will it be about…

Today in class we discussed a lot about what we wanted to make this short film about before we start any research. The only thing we knew at the beginning was that we wanted to pick a real topic but make a fictional story about it if that makes sense, we want our short film to convey a real message so there are the topics we discussed…

      -        Beauty standards: 

• How to keep your authentic style yet being influenced by all the fashion trend in social media. 
• Trying to keep up with the beauty standards in today’s society with social media. 

-        Sports: 

• Women in sports (the topic that we have done all year) 
• The different factors tat makes an athlete lose the love for their sport
• The pressure of parents to succeed. 

-        Social media and their influence:

• How social media is affecting the youth taking them away from reality.  

-        How schools drain people: 

• How school can be harmful and overwhelming to kids and how it affects their mental health. 

After further discussion and talking to Ms. Stoklosa we narrowed it down to two topics which are beauty standards or sports. Now it is time to do some research on both topics to make the final decision of what our short film will be about. 

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

Following a schedule

 Today in class my group and I came up with a whole schedule of how we want these next 10 weeks to go. The importance of having a schedule or a planner is to always stay organized and stay on track. Here is what our schedule looks like…

Portfolio Project Timeline Schedule – AICE MEDIA STUDIES A LEVEL

 

Week One (2/7-2/13):

·      Choose project

·      Think of ideas

·      Create timeline

·      Research project genre

-       two blog posts (transition and project schedule)

Week Two (2/14-2/19):

·      Continue project ideas

·      Research components to project

-       Four blog posts (research, planning, class meetings)

Week Three (2/20-2/26):

·      Continue project ideas

·      Start to create script/outline

·      Create storyboard

·      Plan days to film with people in it

-       Four blog posts (research, script, outline, storyboard, planning, class meetings)

Week Four (2/27-3/5):

·      Continue planning

·      Create ideas for print

·      Create social media page

·      Possibly begin filming

-       Four blog posts (planning, production, progress)

Week Five (3/6-3/12):

·      Film

·      Print

·      Post on social media

-       Four blog posts (production, key moments, changes)

Week Six (3/13-3/19):

·      Continue filming if needed

·      Print

·      Post on social media

·      Begin editing

-       Four blog posts (production, key moments, changes, editing)

Week Seven (3/20-3/26):

·      Continue filming if needed

·      Print

·      Post on social media

·      Begin editing

-       Three blog posts (production, key moments, changes, editing)

Week Eight (3/27-4/2):

·      Edit

·      Finish print

·      Post on social media

-       Three blog posts (production, changes, editing)

Week Nine (4/3-4/9):

·      Finalize

·      Post on social media

·      Create critical reflection

-       Three blog posts (production, finishing project)

Week Ten (4/10-4/12):

·      Finish

·      Critical reflection

-       Three blog posts (final reflective comments, embedded link with short reflection, critical reflection)

This means that in the week ahead of us you are going to be seeing a lot of research post because we need that main factor to come up with the whole idea. But first we have to come up with a general idea for the short film but you have to wait until the next blog post to find out what our short film will be about.