The Opening Credits

    Hello, today's post will be regarding the credits that will occur within the film introduction. 

    One part of the introduction that is usually not thought of when viewing a movie is the opening credits. The opening credits only show some of the people who took part in the creation of the film. This is not to be confused with the ending credits, where every person/company that worked on the movie is credited.

    The people that should be featured in the opening credits are the producer, director, writer, cinematographer, editor, and the major actors. In my scenario, the producer, director, writer, cinematographer, and editor would be the same person, but it would still be beneficial to include each credit separately, as that is how it is done in more professional movies. They should never be scrolling down in the beginning of a movie either.

    The credits can't just be added out of nowhere though, because then they would appear to be forced. My idea is to have the credits appear in the time between the flashbacks. It would allow the scene to keep flowing, and the credits would not impede upon the most important moments. 

    Moreover, the use of a specific font would greatly assist with setting the tone of the movie. As a result, I have decided to use the Rokkit Typeface font. (Shown below) It is a very normal font, with no extravagant features that are used to intrigue viewers. I chose this font because it is somewhat serious. Its normality represents how drama movies work. In pure drama movies there are rarely fictional events and climactic final battles. This font represents seriousness, which is usually the tone of a drama movie. One drama movie that uses this font in its poster is "Room" by Emma Donoghue. 

The website below shows other fonts used within movies with the genre of drama:

https://postergrind.com/top-7-fonts-used-in-drama-movie-posters/

    The opening credits are often not completely looked into, so putting some thought into it is most likely a good idea if I want my movie to look good and fit the genre that I want it to be in. That's everything regarding font and credits in my movie introduction, so make sure to come back next time when I discuss the final preparations before filming. Thank you for reading and farewell!

    

Storyboard

     Hey, this somewhat acts like a second update post but instead of just being general it will have a large focus on the storyboard, which I promised last time. Due to the aforementioned personal issue discussed in the latest post, and another issue involving me getting sick at the beginning of the week, I don't have a physical copy of the storyboard yet. I will post it next time, but I will detail the full story here. Before that, I do want to mention some issues with the initial story that I wanted to remedy here.

    I got rid of the man having flashbacks with his kids, and replaced it with flashbacks of him enjoying himself in several activities. This is for two main reasons. First, I took into consideration that my siblings would most likely not follow my directions, because they're 6 and 8 years old. Not only would they not listen, but the actor of the main character would most likely be one of my friends, and having them act as if they were family would be extremely weird. This also leads into my second reason. By not having kids, we can have a reason for the main character appearing young. Thinking back, it would have made no sense for someone who looks so young to have kids. As a result, I'm happy I waited on posting the storyboard, especially with issues as big as these. 

    Anyways, here's the full story including everything except for the types of shots and drawings:

    The screen starts off black for a few seconds, and the only things you can hear are the general noises of a hospital waiting room, (doors opening and closing, people talking, quiet machine noises, etc.) and the overarching sound of a heartbeat, going at normal speed. Eventually, the camera focuses on the protagonist, a fairly average young adult, who is looking down and appears very stressed. The heartbeat slowly starts speeding up and the diegetic sounds get quieter. Zero two's theme also starts playing at this point on acoustic guitar. (See Music Part 4 for more details on song)

    This is the start of the next phase. Eventually, flashbacks of the protagonist enjoying himself with his friends and family start to appear. When these flashbacks occur, the acoustic guitar switches to piano. This happens several times, and every time a flashback ends you get another view of the protagonist, appearing more stressed after every flashback During this entire process, the heartbeat sound is getting faster and louder, with the diegetic sounds slowly disappearing. 

    All the tension builds up until the camera focuses on an opening door and the music completely stops. Only diegetic sound and the heartbeat are heard. Emerging from the door is a doctor who looks at his clipboards, hesitates to speak for a second, and then says, "I'm sorry." The main character reluctantly asks why. The doctor then says, "you've been diagnosed with cancer." The heartbeat sound would then stop. A black screen would appear and the title of the movie would follow. Then, some dialogue would be heard, but how much depends on the time limit of the project.

One shot of the man would be something similar to this, but from a different angle

    Filming starts next week and should be finished in less than two weeks. Some of my friends confirmed already and are ready to begin whenever I call, so the basic preparations are complete.

    Once again, I apologize for the lack of a visual, but what happened two weeks ago has legitimately affected me every day since it happened. It will be in tomorrow's post, however that post won't focus on the storyboard.

    I hope you all enjoyed the story of my production! It's not too comfortable of a topic, but the goal is not to be comfortable. I want people to get a feel of what it's like to deal with a cancer diagnosis. Thank you for reading and farewell! I hope to see you all next time.

General Update

     Hello! I'm sorry to keep people waiting on the storyboard, however something personal came up and I was unable to complete the sketches. In compensation, I will talk about progress I made within several aspects of the project. 

    After deciding on the song for the movie introduction, (Zero-Two Kirby theme) the main goal became to learn how to play the song. I was able to obtain the chords for the song on the application known as Chordify, which contains the chords for a large variety of songs, getting updated daily. I've practiced and so far I'm doing decently well, with the main issue being my speed. The good thing is I don't have to improve too much on my speed, as I intend to have it go slow and increase until the end, so only part of the song will go fast. Next, I need to find the main melody of the song and then I'll be done with the music.

       Another thing that I have done is successfully scouted a location to film the introduction. Obviously a hospital would be impractical due to the amount of people that urgently need to be there. We would be negatively impacting them, and conversely, they might disrupt us in the middle of our recordings. Taking this into account, I decided that I should film in my aunt's house. This is because it has white walls, similar to most doctor's offices, and is not too far from my house, so I could easily being any equipment needed over there. By adding some mice-en-scene elements, I could make the house appear very similar to a medical facility. As a result, I will film in my aunt's house.

    Furthermore, I have obtained the clothing and props for the movie introduction. I won't elaborate too much, as these would belong in my mice-en-scene and character design posts, but I do want to include a brief summary regarding them. All of the props are authentic and mine, so I can do whatever I wish with them. Continuing, I am allowed to use my dad's medical attire, which also really helps convey that the movie is taking place in a medical setting.

    

    I greatly apologize for not having the storyboard, but I was not counting on something so important happening out of nowhere. Thinking positively, I suppose I did get a taste of reality, and in the future I can't count count on getting things done on the day it's due. Expect to see future posts put out earlier in the weeks to come. Farewell, and I hope to see you next time, where I GUARANTEE that the storyboard will be posted and discussed.

The Creative Critical Reflection

     On Friday, we went over a new lesson in class. This lesson was on the creative critical reflection, the final portion of the portfolio project. I won't be able to answer any questions today, but I learned what I need to think about whenI answer these questions. (CCR = creative critical reflection)

    Before answering any of the questions, I need to reflect on my production. I would have to think about what I did well, but also what i feel was terrible, and would redo if given the time. After taking this into consideration I need to think about how I will create the CCR. It needs to be creative and there has to be two parts, which cannot use the same idea. Together, the CCR should be maximum 10 minutes long, with 7 minutes being ideal. I'm pretty sure one of them will be a presentation with a voiceover, as I'm somewhat good with creating presentations. I'm currently not sure about the other, but I'm leaning towards something like a director commentary.

    There are four main questions. I will now talk about the basic knowledge I require for answering them.

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

       The first thing I would need to do is discuss the conventions of my genre, which in this case is drama. After discussing this, I would need to discuss if I followed the conventions or not and why. It should end with talk about representation of groups, events, etc. For example, representing a certain group incorrectly could cause that group to believe the production was meant to discriminate them, thus causing them to not watch that movie.

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

        For this question, the best start would be discussing the specific target audience of the film and how I found it. After that, I should discuss how/why the decisions I made when producing the film engage the target audience. Furthermore, I would need to discuss how my project would be distributed to best suit the target audience. On top of this, I need to take into account that I am an amateur filmmaker. As a result, I can't just release my film on a streaming service or on the big screens.

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

        This question mostly serves as an overall reflection. I would need to reflect on every part of the project, focusing on things such as struggles and solutions to those struggles, especially big changes that I had to create in the middle of the production. I should offer specific details towards how I came up with the story. (Such as the inspiration) Finally, I should compare my knowledge from the beginning of the production to the end. Essentially, I need to show how i've grown throughout the project. I can even mention how knowledge from past projects within the class assist me with developing this one.

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

          I believe this last question is the simplest, as it is mainly discussing how technological resources I used within the project were used to assist me with creating the project. This would mean discussing the technologies I used (such as Blogger) and the problems that were fixed or created because of them. Another thing to discuss is if I had to learn any new technologies when putting together the project.

         There is also the final statement, In the final statement, I need to talk about everything I learned from the project. This would also involve discussing errors I made during the project and how I could remedy them. Near the end, I should give a closing synopsis on what I would improve on if given extra time.

         Finally, there are some things that should be incorporated throughout the entire project. It needs to be creative, so I should try to make everything personal, somewhat like how I've been treating the blog. I should also cite sources at every opportunity, as it not only shows that I did my research, but also shows that I'm not pulling facts out of absolutely nowhere. A script would also be beneficial when I record myself, as it just makes the entire video seems more professional, especially when I reference sources. Likewise there are some things that should never be included. The camera should not focus on a talking head too long, as it is incredibly boring and drastically decreases viewer engagement. The responses should not be boring as that goes against creativity. Finally, I should not wing anything. It never ends well and only hurts me in the end.

    With this knowledge, answering the questions should be significantly easier. Following the steps I discussed, I believe I am able to get a high score on the CCR, or at least pass. (I', still hoping for an A though)

    Make sure to stay tuned, as tomorrow's post will include the most up to date storyboard and go into depth of what I'm trying to accomplish with the introduction. Farewell, and I'll see you all next time!

The Group Meeting

     Hello! Initially I was going to blog about something else, however on Monday we did something different in class. We got into groups with other people and were tasked with discussing our projects among the group. It was a pretty good experience, and I was able to get some some very valuable information while at the same time taking some inspiration from other members of my group's projects. 

        

    First I will talk about the inspiration I received from my peers. The first thing to discuss involves the priorities of my blog posts. It has brought to my attention that I need to create a post dedicated to the storyboard. I have talked about the story of the film introduction before, but it has never been too in depth. I noticed that all of my peers had their storyboard post done already though, so I plan to have mine done by the end of this week.

    Furthermore, after seeing some of my peer's blog posts, I believe that it is time to start preparing for the filming of the project. By this, I mean that I should start buying props and get a definite location for filming. As of now, there is about one month left until the project is due, and spring break is approaching in two weeks. In other words, I have two weeks to prepare for the filming of the introduction, as that is one of the only times where my friends and I can set up a definite time for us to all meet up. Luckily, due to the hospital setting, I might have a the majority of the props I need, such as common medical equipment like stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers. (That's the thing used to measure blood pressure)

    Overall, these groups were a very creative and beneficial way of assessing my work. It gave me a good idea of how I should I divide some of the work in the future, such as an immediate storyboard and purchasing any needed items. 

    

    Tomorrow's blog post will be regarding the notes I took on our latest lesson in class: the creative critical reflection. The post will focus on how i will answer and present the questions, as it has to be unique, or as the name says, creative. Farewell, and make sure to stay tuned for that blog post, as the storyboard post will arrive this Sunday! 

Music Part 4: Music Choice

     Hello, and welcome to what I believe is my final major blog post on the music part of the portfolio project. Todays post will be regarding my final decision on the music that will be used within the introduction of the movie.

    I will start with the most broad classifications, then I will keep narrowing it down until I reach a final decision of what will be used.

    The first decision is whether the song will be instrumental, vocal, or completely diegetic. I'm not an active listener of vocal music, as I primarily listen to instrumental music. As a result I don't have much experience with that type of music, so I likely would not be able to find a good fit for the introduction. Getting permission would also be a pain, unlike instrumental music, which I will discuss later. Moving on, I don't think a primarily diegetic soundtrack would work in this scenario. I feel like a complete lack of music would not help set up the tone of the introduction. I feel this especially does not work when considering the man being told he has cancer is the major moment, and without music it would not have as much of an impact as I would like. The final option is instrumental. I have a large amount of experience with this type of music and I believe the lack of words lets people focus more on whats happening in the movie, acting as a supplement by increasing emotion while not taking the viewers attention. As a result, my introduction will use instrumental music.

    The next major thing to consider is whether the music will be created by me or if it will be a song that already exists. I've only just started learning the guitar (my electric guitar is pictured below) during the beginning of the school year, so I am nowhere near close to being the best. Thinking about this positively however, if I did it I would not have to deal with copyright issues and I would gain more experience with playing the guitar. The other option is a song that already exists. I believe this is the better choice, as the people who created these songs are most likely better at conveying emotion, and I have yet to create my own musical composition, therefore having no experience. This however, breaks down into a new problem.

My electric guitar

    The next issue involves how I will deal with the copyright of using an existing song. I can either ask the creator if I could use their song, or as a safer option, cover the song myself and give credit to the original artist. Asking the creator is a high risk high reward situation. There is a chance that the creator does not respond in time or they flat out say no, so  I would have to have a last minute backup plan just in case. On the other hand, If I covered it I would not have to deal with that issue, with the main issue learning the song in time. With several weeks of time, I think I am capable of learning a song to the point where it would seem at least partially professional in a film introduction.

    There are a few final parameters that did not warrant an entire paragraph of decision making. First, the song must have a somber tone. This is self explanatory, as a deadly medical situation would warrant a sad undertone throughout the entire movie, especially the music. Next is that the song can't be bombastic. It must carry a large amount of emotional weight while being somewhat quiet so that it does not counter the tone. Now, taking everything that I have talked about into consideration, I believe I have found a song that fits all of the qualifications. 

    

Zero Two's Theme

Zero Two's Theme (Guitar Cover)

    I have settled on Zero Two's theme from the Kirby series. I know most of you probably think I'm insane with my constant references to the Kirby series, but as I said before, its work with music is incredible. I chose this theme because of the sorrowful tone given to it by the story of Zero Two. (The giant eyeball creature shown above) While some parts seem intense within the guitar cover, it is mainly due to the choice of instruments. After choosing this song, I believe my acoustic guitar would be a better choice of an instrument. I might incorporate some piano as well, as it is also great at conveying the emotion of sadness. 

    So here's the plan of how it will be incorporated. It would play slower than the normal speed of the song, as it currently goes too fast compared to the story of the film. I believe the best way of incorporating it is by having it play on the acoustic guitar normally, and on piano during the flashbacks. It would also slowly get faster until stoping when the man is told he has cancer. A heartbeat would also be heard while the music is playing, increasing in speed alongside the music. I feel this is a unique and possibly effective way to engage the audience, but not completely draw their attention to the music. The music would not be the only thing heard though, as there would be normal hospital sounds in the background as well. (People talking, writing, doors opening and closing, etc.

    I'm very excited to see this idea through, and I plan to start practicing the song this week, starting with the chords and then moving onto the melody. I will most likely ask one of my friends to do the piano part though, but I might teach reteach myself piano if that's not possible. (I have not played it in years but I'm confident I could relearn easily)

    Thank you for reading the finale of the music section of my music section of the portfolio project. It has been very entertaining and I have learned a great deal about several technical elements of the music that goes into a movie introduction. Farewell, thank you for reading, and I hope to see you all again in my next post!

Music Part 3: The Effects of Music

     Hello, and welcome to my third blog post on the music of movie introductions. Today's post will be about how different types of music can create certain effects.

    There are three main uses of music that you can use for the introduction of a movie. The two that come to most minds first are vocal music and instrumental music, as they are good at setting tone as well as creating memorial moments. The final type is diegetic sound. It is not truly music, but it has the same affect. The lack of music can greatly amplify the weight of emotional moments, as well as increasing tension and building suspense. It does this by only showing the sounds that would occur in the situation, not including music that does not truly exist in that world.

   

Link to video that explains diagetic sound more in depth.

    Despite diegetic sound being an option, I feel it should only be used when it would sere the purpose of building tension, suspense, etc. If it's not used too often, there would essentially be an empty void of music throughout the movie. This could be well done, but it would be very difficult to pull off, resulting in music being a better option.

Japanese flute

Michael Jackson

    Another major piece of knowledge I learned is that it is a good idea to try and give a setting with your music. This probably sounds weird, but after learning this I realized how often it's done with movies. Imagine a movie taking place in ancient Japan. Do you think you would hear something like death metal or hip-hop while watching the movie? it would most likely use traditional Japanese instruments, such as a flute or other classical instruments. Likewise, there is a high chance you hear music by artists like Michael Jackson in movies that take place in the 80s.

    One goal for movies similar to those with the drama genre is to make the audience feel the impact of certain situations. The goal is to give them goosebumps. Often times, this is a critical point in the movie that is meant to carry serious emotional weight. The example I'm providing is the scene in Ratatouille where Anton Ego tries the ratatouille and gets a flashback of his childhood. This combines instrumental music with diegetic sound by having some music play in the background until he drops his fork, where the most prominent sound is the sound of the fork dropping. This is immediately followed by more light hearted music, representing Ego's happiness after trying the Ratatouille. To those who have seen the full movie, you can see how the combination of music techniques was able to amplify the already immense emotional impact of the scene. My favorite part has to be the fork dropping, because I interpret the sound as representing the weight of Ego's malevolent feelings falling when he is reminded of his past, which just gives me chills.

                                                    This is the scene talked about earlier.

    By practicing all these techniques I believe I can create a spectacular film opening. I already took some inspiration from the Ratatouille scene, as I plan to incorporate a mix of diegetic sounds and instrumental music to create a unique opening that will amplify the emotion of the big moment, which is the doctor telling the main character that he has cancer. The only technique I won't use in the opening will be the one that creates setting, as the introduction serves more as an exposition to the character rather than an exposition to the world.

    I believe I might add more part to the music part of the blog, but I will confirm if I do in tomorrow's blog post, as I don't know if the subject would warrant an entire post. Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope you continue staying updated with the blog. Farewell, and I'll see you next time!