Comedy/Coming-of-Age

    Hey guys! I'm back and presenting to you the other topic that I had already promised. 

    A coming of age comedy.

    I believe that one of the most ICONIC coming of age movies is Clueless. It has so many realistic situations, while also pushing reality and creating a sort of criticism mixed with satire.

    Amy Heckerling's film Clueless is relevant, relatable, and entertaining even in society today. 

    Here are some techniques frequently used in coming of age films:

• Character Growth: 
• a character realizing their future, which makes them pass on from being innocent, to an adult.
• Dialogue: 
• interior lives of the character are focused on, and dramatic actions or events will not help to develop the character's emotions or personality.
• Social Commentary: 
• addressing issues that teens face today
• examples:
• coming out: Moonlight (2016)
• teen pregnancy: Juno (2007)
• race and violence: Boyz n the Hood (1991)

Another important coming of age movie is The Breakfast Club (1985)

References:

https://www.alltherightmovies.com/feature/utterly-clueless-the-making-of-a-coming-of-age-teen-classic/ 

https://crookedmarquee.com/how-clueless-flipped-the-script-on-the-teen-coming-of-age-movie/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies#3-characteristics-of-comingofage-movies

More About Thriller!

     As I left off before, today I'll be going more in depth on the Thriller genre and important techniques used in the film industry.

    Even though I am not a fan of watching thrillers, I am really interested in how it creates certain effects on its audience and I want to put into practice all of the techniques and ideas that I've learned throughout the school year.

    One really popular Thriller producer is Alfred Hitchcock, and these are some techniques he used in his films:

1. Hitchcock's Leading Ladies
• His leading ladies were used as a technique to create suspense. This is because they were mostly blonde, and they went against most of the female stereotypes that were popular in the 1940s throughout the 1960s. During these years lead characters were mainly men, and Hitchcock "broke" this stereotype and began to make females his lead characters 
• Like most female leads, they are sexy in a subtle, but fetishistic, way. By doing this, Hitchcock allowed for the females to easily mesmerize the opposite gender.
• Ex. Vertigo
2. Information To Create Suspense
• Hitchcock believed that information and suspense went hand in hand. He believed that revealing to his audience information that the character didn't know heightened the feeling of suspense. 
• Additionally, he uses a technique regarding camera movement to create suspicion. For example, he has the camera roam around the room, as if it were looking for something, or someone. This allows the character to feel one step ahead from the character. 
3. Montage
• Series of close-ups shown in succession (basic technique is cinematography). 
• Subtle approach, not random. This allows him to portray an event without showing the audience too much, leaving them more intrigued.
4. Keeping The Story Simple
• Hitchcock's simple storylines allow for his audience to have to think about the confusing plot, less. He believes that abstract stories tend to bore people, that is why he usually incorporates people constantly running from something, or someone. 

Here is a video that was on a website I used. Watch it completely! It is definitely worth your time.

These are some important techniques that one of the best producers of all time, Alfred Hitchcock, used in his famous films. I'll be back sooner than you think to finish informing you guys on the two genre options I have for my project. See you soon!

                                                                    - K

Resources:

https://indiefilmhustle.com/hitchcock-create-suspense/ 

Back on Track & Research

 Hey guys,

It is now the fourth week that we work on this project and I just wanted to fill you in on what I've been doing. I know I've been MIA, I was having personal problems that backtracked my progress on my project, but I'm back and ready to quickly get back on track.

    To begin with, I started researching many genres and examples of films to really capture the essence of what I wanted my portfolio project to be, and I'm in between 2 very popular genres. Thriller and a "coming of age"/Comedy.

Here are some important details regarding the Thriller genre:

What is a thriller?

A thriller film is mainly about the excitement regarding the need to avoid death and damnation. Usually, in many crime stories the protagonist either ends alive, or dead, but in a thriller, the protagonist is pushed to their limits.

Some subgenres of thriller are:

• psychological thriller
• action thriller
• crime thriller
• political thriller
• mystery thriller
• spy thriller
• legal thriller
• science fiction thriller

Core Emotion:

The core emotion in a thriller is excitement. That feeling in your stomach that goes up and down as the film develops is there to make you feel thrill without any risk involved. 

Obligatory Scenes:

• There must be a victim and a perpetrator.
• Hostages, dead bodies, missing persons, assaulted, etc.
• A clear point of no return.
• The moment where the protagonist knows that there is no going back, and the only thing that is left to do is fight. 
• The  protagonist becomes the victim.
• A scene that makes crimes personal. The protagonist becomes the primary victim.

In my next post, I'll be going more in depth. See you soon!

                                                                 

                                                                       - K

New Twist on K's Blog

     I've recently learned a lot about film openings and have come to the conclusion that it may be the most important part of a movie. Without an appealing introduction, there is basically no movie. By starting off strong, you have a higher chance that the audience member will keep watching.

    This is what my next project will be. A 2-minute-long film opening. I am completely ecstatic to start researching and working on this project because I want to see how everything will turn out. I'm still thinking about my choice of partner, or if I even want to have one, and this is a crucial part of my planning because I don't want to work with someone who does not put in their 110%. 

    Deciding my partnership is my first step in the planning process, and later I will start my research. This is definitely a big part of the project as I need to be clear on what techniques I should and shouldn't use, the types of film openings, and more tips and tricks regarding the introductory video.

    I will then get started on my brainstorming and how I will create a catchy storyline in just 2 minutes. I feel like this is a harder part for me because I am not the most creative, so this is where a partner would come in handy. 

                ( I am going to blog my whole experience with you so stay tuned!)

    I am super ready to start researching and working on this big, big project. I'll talk to you soon!

                        - K

Music Marketing Vol. 2

    As I mentioned in my last post. Some of my classmates and I were grouped together to create a music marketing campaign for an artist, that we created, who was releasing a new song. We researched many bands and groups who were in the same genre. We looked up how they released their music and different strategies they used to reach their target audiences. This was a major part of our planning part. 

    We started production that same weekend. In a neighborhood park we were able to get lots of shots, including the flower, wedding, and friendship scenes. Additionally, in the backyard we filmed the sunset shot which was, in my opinion, one of the best shots from our music video. The scenery was just spectacular and it just looked like such a raw moment. 

    Our post-production was Sabri's main job. She did very well editing and lining up the shots for our video. We put our trust into her editing skills while she also allowed for feedback on certain ideas.

    The presentation, overall, was good. I feel that, personally, I could've done better by elaborating more on certain aspects, rather than presenting an idea with expanding and explaining the topic. My teammates were also great in their presentations. They knew their information and were able to truly explain the ideas. 

    Overall, this entire project has helped me to really put my game face on and get my work done on time. I am the biggest procrastinator and I will leave everything for last minute, but this project was a raw example of how I had to get serious about my work very quickly. I realized halfway through our project that we really needed to get it together and work diligently because it was a lot of work in a time crunch. This is a lesson that will help me with many things in the future, but most importantly, for my Cambridge Portfolio Project that is coming up really soon. I have to always be on task, doing what I have to do.

Music Marketing Project

    Indie Rock. A genre I had never even thought about listening to unless it was a mainstream, TikTok song. My team and I got assigned the song "Mountain at My Gates" by Foals. I'm not even going to lie, it is a song I would never add to my playlist. Obviously after this project it's gotten catchy and I've learned to love it, but it is in a genre that I would never voluntarily listen to. 

    The day we got assigned our groups we were definitely shy and did not speak much, but after many fun and interesting events, I'm glad to say that I've made new friends in the class. We started off by brainstorming and dividing the work between each other, and at this point we were still not talkative so this made the process of coming up with ideas for our video, hard. The next class, we started throwing ideas for our video. One of us wanted to do an artistic pitch. The other one wanted to make a montage-type-thing. And the other wanted to film an impossible video. I think one of the hardest parts of working with a new team on projects is not being able to tell the complete and utter truth. I feel that if there is no friendship or relationship between two people, giving a negative opinion on their idea is just rude. We got through this obstacle, though, and were able to decide on a video theme. This was going to be a storytelling video that truly matched the vibe of the song.

    We decided to start planning ideas and made our storyboard. Julia has an iPad for school, and we decided that it would be cool for us to have the liberty of drawing our own scenes and still be able to turn it in digitally, so she helped us create a storyboard and draw out our plot. 

    With this storyboard came the brainstorming of how our shots were going to look and where we could film them. This is when I started writing notes in my agenda so that I could then remember how we were going to film each scene.

    After this, we started filming and decided that it was time to start focusing on our marketing strategies. The first thing that came up in my mind was fan merchandise. We weren't clear if we wanted to make our artist a big hit or a small and upcoming artist, so we started thinking of ideas that we could make for merchandise in the meanwhile.

Shirts, hoodies, water bottles, stickers, blankets, sweatpants, keychains, guitar picks, headphones, phone cases, and the list goes on. 

    Now what's left is to finish filming and editing our music video so that we can start practicing our marketing presenation.

Titanic or The Notebook?

Genre

    Titanic and The Notebook are both romance films that end in the loss of a significant other, but both are films that have a positive plot that gives the audience anticipation. Romance films are generally interpreted as two people who begin with problems, and later end up living "happily ever after". This cliché has been around for as long as romance films have existed, but these stories are always filled with happy endings and fairy-tales that inspire people in their daily lives. The genre of Romance includes stories that center on emotion, desire, and many different types of love. These may include: sentimental love, spiritual love, forbidden love, passionate love, sacrificial love, and the list goes on.

Content

    Romantic films consist of themes like love at first sight or platonic love. They express the, sometimes realistic, experiences of those who fall in love. A very well-used technique in romance films is foreshadowing. This approach to reveal certain parts of the plot, without directly showing the information, is in many instances, crucial. Foreshadowing allows for the audience to receive and interpret information that, most of the time, the characters in the film don't know. Additionally, it communicates details that will indicate, or spoil, a future event in the plot.

Production Techniques

    When producing a romance film, there has to be certain techniques and details that should be included to assure that the audience is captivated by its components. One way of doing this in the introduction of romance films is by integrating a meet cute scene. This means that the lead characters will meet, in a unique way, that people find to be admirable. One example of this is in the movie Life As We Know It, a 2010 film directed by Greg Berlanti, starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. Eric Messer, played by Duhmel, and Holly, played by Heigl, meet on a Saturday night when Eric arrives an hour late to Holly's apartment where he was supposed to pick her up from their first date. Right off the bat, they did not hit it off. His tardiness and her excessive need for punctuality did not become friends. This is seen as a meet cute scene because as the storyline develops, Holly and Messer are brought together to face reality, bringing them together as more than friends. 

    Another technique used in Romantic movies is the separation of a couple to bring light to a new one. This is used in countless movies. The beginning always shows a happy couple living happily, or unhappily, resulting in a breakup. Later on, one of them ends up meeting someone new and being happier than ever. 

Institutional Conventions

    Romance films are nowadays mixed in with comedy, hence the name Romcom, for many reasons, one of them being that it sells better, and faster. Plain, old romance films were cute to watch in the 1980s, but currently, nobody watches a sad, long, and boring romantic movie. Young viewers, and even adults, these days want to get a laugh out of the media they consume, in this case, romance films. So, adding in comedy and sometimes satire can bring views up, exponentially. 

    Additionally, targeting the right audience for the marketing and advertisement of the film is highly important and necessary. Publicists cannot expect to raise their movies' views by advertising a teen RomCom on Facebook. Advertisements for teen movies should be on TikTok, Instagram, and even Snapchat. 

Film Sample #1 

    The film I mentioned before, Life As We Know It directed by Greg Berlanti, is my favorite movie of all time. I am a huge fan of anything romantic, whether it be a novel or a film. This movie can be identified in the Romance genre because it involves two people who, in the beginning, do not like each other, but then they go through hardships together and have to live a life that neither of them planned. Their condition brought them closer by the minute, and created a beautiful relationship towards the middle. 

Film Sample #2 - The Notebook, a film directed by Nick Cassavetes in 2004 is based on two young people who meet, and fall in love instantly. Noah Calhoun, played by Ryan Gosling, is a mill worker who fell in love with a rich girl named Allie, played by Rachel McAdams. Many issues regarding Allie's family and his lack of money get in the way of their relationship. but this doesn't stop them from being together. This film has many ups and downs regarding their relationship, but the ending is totally worth it. The Romance genre is a perfect fit for this film because there is passion, drama, forbidden love, and many other aspects of the genre that are included.

Examples of Romance Films: