DAY 7: Research of other films

 As my partner and I have been undergoing research for our film introduction, we have found 2 films that gave us an idea on how we want ours to be and how they have inspired us in the drama genre. 

Things We Lost In the Fire is a drama film. The movie discusses how a woman deals with the loss of her husband and has no idea how to cope. She then tracks down her husband's childhood friend. This character portrays a drug addict, knowing this the woman still invites him over to her house as they develop a relationship throughout the movie. Although this story has a romantic twist, it stills represents what the woman went through as she didn't know how to cope with the loss of her husband, similarly to our character. As they just lost someone important to them and are feeling guilty for it. Additionally, the movie also represents the struggles with addiction and how it affects not only the person but the people around them. 

The next film is Gia. Gia is a movie about a young girl who travels to Newyork in hopes of becoming a fashion model. She soon meets an agent that helps her reach her dreams. She soon becomes the top model in the world. But when the agent dies of lung cancer, the model turns to drugs; her whole life goes down hill from there. This movie is very similar to what we were hoping our film intro to be. Gia represents the loss of someone very dear to her, so she seeks drugs to numb her pain. It also shows how fast a person spiral due to drugs. 

DAY 6: Representation

 For my film introduction I plan to shed light and display representation for those who struggle with loss and/or addiction. The film represents how people can deal with loss. Not being able to confront their feelings, looking for closure at the bottom of a bottle, each person deals with it differently, and its okay to mourn. However, this film will follow what the girl has to deal with as she is mourning the loss of a loved one and how it turns her world upside down. 

 We want to show the shame the character feels and the numbness that they constantly pursue. 

DAY 5: Character Background

My film introduction is focused on one character. Since our film introduction is more on the sad and drama side, we wanted our character to match the same tone. The main character is a girl who just recently lost someone very dear to her. It shows her struggles within herself, as she feels guilty for the loss of this person. With this guilt is when she turns to drugs and alcohol to blind her thoughts and emotions. She is 18 years old which allows to make the film to be more sensible as she will be away from her parents. 

We plan to have her with dark under eyes to show she lacks sleep and wearing baggy, lazy clothes to show she has no motivation to even dress nice.

DAY 4: Target Audience

 

 For my partner and I's film introduction our genre is drama. Our film intro surrounds a person mourning the loss of someone close to her and in her way of coping she turns to drugs and alcohol. This specific genre and film will target teens to young adults; the main character in the film is very young and turns to reckless decisions. Teens and young adults are more susceptible to turn to drugs and alcohol to feel better, causing this age group to feel the film introduction to be relatable. 

According to https://amplifyxl.com/target-audience-for-drama-films/ the reason for being more interested in drama isn't about the age group, it is about the person. Many people love to feel something when watching movies, people want to feel for the character as if it is a real person, and they also want something with deeper meaning rather "than just light entertainment."

This is why my group chose drama as our genre, we want a thought provoking story, that will allow viewers to feel for the character as if they were a real person.

DAY 3: Scouting

 It is Day 3 and my partner and I have already figured out what we are going to film and how (thanks to the story boarding).  All we need to do is location scouting and figuire out where we’re going to film. Since we agreed on filming in front of a cemetery we wanted something that’s near us. However, we didn’t not realize until we got there that the place was closed. So, we had to get to one that’s 30 min away from us. 

Additionally, We wanted to have our film opening to have a gloomy and dream like look to it so we decided to go at certain times to get the right lighting for it. Our other location where we would film is at Hollywood Beach. We would wake up at around 5:30 in order to see the sunrise and film with the orangey hues. 

Initial location for cemetery :

DAY 2: Story boarding

 This is Day 2 of our film opening project and we laid down a plan. My partner and I created a story board to organize our visions and follow it when producing the film. 

We first would draw boxes to describe every scene and its shot type in each box. We also drew pictures to it to further elaborate and make it clear on how we envision it. 

This story board will hopefully give us an outline when we are out filming. So, we don’t have to improvise and rely on winging it. 

Story Board: 

DAY 1: Brainstorming ideas

 My partner and I agreed to have our genre as drama for the film opening. We wanted our character to have a rough back story and yet have a soft side to them. Although we wanted our film opening to include background information about the character, my partner and I also wanted it to be artistic and have symbolic features to it. 

My first Idea was to show a girl hitch hiking on the side of the road, to create a sense of mystery on why she is by herself and where she came from. However, I didn't know how to display this in an artistic way. 

My partner's first idea was doing a film opening on the life of an immigrant family. However, there were a few flaws to that as well. It would be hard to portray the idea that the character wouldn't be able to understand English, especially if we wanted the film opening to be solely on the main character rather than including other characters to it too. This production would also lack the artistic quality that we wanted. 

Finally, we both agreed on having the film opening to be about a girl who has lost someone dear to her and has began coping with drugs and alcohol to try to forget about her past, we decided to shoot some of the scenes during sunrise at the beach and in the afternoon right before it gets dark in front of a cemetery. We would not enter the cemetery to avoid being disrespectful to the grave's and their loved ones. We want to portray the contrast in settings and also have it symbolize what the character is going through.

Our next step is to begin our planning with story board, schedule, and location scouting. 

Partner's Ideas:

                                                  

My Ideas: