I need a plan…

Ok so it’s Valentine’s day today and since I have nothing better to do, I figured I’d start to schedule this GIGANTIC project. This project consist’s of so many different parts that it’s a little overwhelming even thinking about it right now. So, I decided I’d break it down to a weekly schedule.

I’ve used this app called Notion for everything school related, like with assignments and tests and stuff, so I figured it would be the perfect thing to organize myself with this project. 

[video of how I have my school work organized. isn’t it cool!]

Anyway’s enough of me fangirling over Notion. I figured I could use this app just like I do for school for the portfolio project. The app allows me to create a schedule on a calendar that is extremely helpful to organize myself and helps me keep track of everything I have to do.

 

Ok so I started by figuring out the basics of what I need to do, which you can see under the checklist of “major planning steps”. This helped me orient myself and know what I needed to get done specifically. I started with brainstorming/research, then storyboarding, script writing, developing story outline, and finally having a shot list. This is everything I need to get done before I can even think about starting filming. Then I wrote out everything that needs to get done on a week to week basis. Here’s a basic rundown of everything that must happen every week (which is all written in Notion, but it’s hard to see in the video)

2/8-2/11 (already did this!): start brainstorming genre

2/12-2/18: choose genre, research openings in genre, develop schedule (what I’m doing right now :) )

2/19-2/25: figure out approach and plot

2/26-3/3: storyboard and shot list

3/4-3/10: pre-production, props, setting, cast

3/11-3/17: FILMING/EDITING

3/18-3/24: editing and CCR

3/25-3/31: CCR

4/1: finalize film

4/2: DUE DATE

In my Notion calendar I wrote out exactly what needed to be done each day. Every day I did a little list of everything I would have to do for that day to keep my self on track to completing this project in time. I think this project timeline will really help with organizing myself, which was something that was difficult for me when we worked on the Music Marketing project. With my calender I will be able to stay on top of everything that I need to get done and so I won’t get behind and haven’t to rush to finish the project at the end. It also really helped me break down this huge project into smaller more simpler tasks so it doesn’t seem as daunting anymore. 

Genre?

Over the weekend I started brainstorming various genre’s for my film opening. I didn’t know at all what I wanted to do my film on, so I started by looking up genre’s in film. The ones that most resonated with me were Action/Adventure, Science Fiction, and Coming-of-Age. After narrowing down my choices a little bit, I started to research different conventions of the genres to see which ones would work the best for this project and which one’s I could come up with ideas for. 

Action films are often associated with some sort of quest or end result, typically with “combat, violence and pursuit”, as according to Encyclopedia.com’s article regarding Action and Adventure Films  (It’s linked, go check it out!). Films of this genre typically focus on character vs character conflict, which I thought was an interesting approach to this project. Some popular action films include John Wick (all four of them), any Fast and Furious Movie (there are so many), and The Matrix. However, after deeper consideration, I realized that action films typically depend on high special effects and a big budget, which is something I would not be able to achieve at this level. So I scrapped that idea.

My next idea was a film about science fiction. Action and science fiction are pretty similar, but science fiction focuses more on the mythical and more dystopian feel, rather than just guns and fast cars. Some examples of the science fiction genre in movies include ET, Avatar, and the Star Wars franchise. Science fiction seemed like a really interesting topic as it would let me explore various effects of technology and create a story from complete scratch  and build my own world. However, due to similar reasons as not choosing action, science fiction would require intense special effects and editing techniques that I would simply not be able to complete in a 9 week time period. So I scrapped this idea too. 

The final genre that I researched was the coming of age genre (P.S. this is the one I’m choosing!!). A coming of age film is characterized by the main character’s journey as they overcome adversity, typically due to the struggles of growing up. Some typical topics in these kinds of films include romantic relationships, going to middle or high school, or the struggles of growing up and wanting to fit in. Major characteristics of coming of age films include character growth, emotional dialogue, and focuses on social commentary, often to do with drugs, teen pregnancy, or bullying. Some notable films of this genre include The Breakfast Club, Boyhood, and Ladybird. I’m choosing this genre for my final portfolio project because I feel like I can create a story that people my age can relate to and coming up with an idea for my film shouldn’t be too difficult because I basically am living the teenage life. Filming won’t be as difficult either because there isn’t as much need for intense editing or special effects, and finding a cast wouldn’t be as hard because I can just recruit my friends to be in my film as the main characters will be people our age. 

Now that I know what genre I’m going to base my film off of, its time to research different films in the genre to get ideas of what my plot should be and what kinds of shots and techniques are often used in this genre. Research here I come!

References!!

“Coming-of-Age Movies: What Is the Coming-of-Age Genre? - 2024.” MasterClass, www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024. 

.“." Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. . Encyclopedia.Com. 7 Feb. 2024 .” Encyclopedia.Com, Encyclopedia.com, 13 Feb. 2024, www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/action-and-adventure-films. 

It has begun.

It is officially the beginning of my portfolio project. After copious amounts of learning and research throughout this class, we have FINALLY started working on our Cambridge portfolio project. The project will be a two minute film opening of any genre and I am so excited to begin. This project will take almost 2 months to complete and I will be spending a LOT of time working on this. But where to begin?

Throughout the past two class periods, we have started to learn about what this project will actually comprise of. Last class we discussed various aspects of a film opening and what we should include and think about including in our opening. Here’s a picture of my notes that I took while my teacher was talking about this content.

We learned that a film opening should establish tone and genre, include credits (such as director, producer, writer, cinematographer, editor, and major actors) and the title of the film (this is really important!!), develop purpose and engage the audience. We also learned about the various approaches to a film opening. These include developing context, character, tone, establishing setting, and establishing various types of conflict. The two approaches that I’m most interesting in are establishing character or establishing conflict. 

I have no idea what I want to do my film opening about, but focusing on establishing character seems interesting to me. I like the idea of creating a character that my audience can relate to or feel drawn to, yet make it exciting. This approach would allow me to focus more on this specific character, especially through developing their aesthetic through costumes, makeup and setting. This approach would also allow me to delve deeper into my character and have the film focus on their interactions with other characters and their development throughout the rest of the film. Developing character in the opening scenes builds a good basis for the rest of the film, foreshadowing for what is to come in the rest of the film. 

The other type of film opening that interests me is one that establishes conflict. There are many different types of conflict, but the ones that draw my attention are character vs. character or character vs. supernatural. These types of conflicts seem like they would be fun to explore and would bring more action to my film, especially in the opening. Having conflict as the initial scenes to my film would be a lot of fun and I think this is a great option for my film opening. 

Time to brainstorm!

Music Marketing Project FINALE

 The first part to the music marketing project was to research how other companies and musicians advertise their music to consumers. My group and I began with researching production companies, specifically in the country genre because that’s what we were assigned. We found two production companies: Big Machine Label Group and Mercury Records Nashville. Under these companies we picked two artists from each. From Big Machine we chose Dolly Parton and Florida Georgia Line and under Mercury Records we chose Chris Stapleton and Luke Grimes.

I had to research the band Florida Georgia Line and I began by finding out the history behind the group and how it formed. I found their website (https://floridageorgialine.com) and looked into how Big Machine developed a marketing campaign for them. I researched about the different marketing techniques they used such as making a brand for themselves by making personal relations with their fans and have a fun and lively atmosphere at their concerts. This research allowed me to understand how marketing in the music industry works and allowed me to use these techniques in our marketing campaign. 

After we all finished researching our respective groups/artists, we moved on to planning our actual project. The first thing we needed to do was finalize which song we would do for our music video . We were given three options, and after careful consideration we chose “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum. We listened to the song fully and started to brainstorm what we wanted to do for our music video. We had to decide between a promo, storytelling or artistic music video, and after looking at the lyrics, we decided to do a storytelling video. We then had to discuss what type of story we should tell. After figuring out the content of the music video we began to storyboard it. Here is the storyboard for our music video:

 

We then began the process of actually marketing our artist and brainstorming how we would do that. We discussed and brainstormed our marketing plan. We drew up a brainstorming sheet where we came up with ideas to push our artist into the mainstream. We took ideas from our research and incorporated them into our own marketing campaign such as partnering with a whiskey brand just as Florida Georgia Line did. We discussed our distribution plan and how we would start with releasing a single and then following it up with a release of  a full album. Then we wanted to artist to go on tour and incorporated that into our plan. The most difficult part of the process was figuring out the artists signature move/brand identity. We eventually came up with the idea of the artist having her own lipstick brand, and her brand identity incorporate that into her music. Lipstick would be her signature look, which we got the idea from Dolly Parton’s signature look of her big hair. Here is a picture of our brainstorming process:

We then began to film our music video. We went over to one of the group member’s house and started filming the various shots that we decided upon during the brainstorming/storyboarding sessions we had before. I acted as the director of the video while my other group members were acting in it as the characters. The hardest part of this part of the project was getting the perfect shot that we had envisioned while brainstorming. It was difficult trying to produce our vision, but we were able to make it work. We then went to South West Ranches, a town near our school, where we filmed everything that we wanted to be outside. This did not take long and we were able to finish it before it got too dark to film.

The next thing I had to do was actually edit the music video together. This process was tedious, but eventually I was able to put all the videos together. I had a hard time syncing up the lip syncing of the singer with the actual song in the background and I had to go back and edit each individual shot so the lips would match up correctly. This was especially annoying as I had to continuously input new videos that we had recorded on different days as it would mess up my entire editing process and the syncing up that I had already done. Each time I would have to basically start over and sync up the lyrics once again. Previously, our teacher had explained to us that a fix to this difficult problem would be to film shots where the artist’s mouth was mostly covered by extraneous things. I tried to incorporate this, like for example with the shots that were extremely dark and it was hard to see the singer’s mouth. That was I had some leeway when matching the lyrics to the mouth. 

Here is a link to the completed music video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TQPlve40J4&feature=youtu.be

During class times we worked on our PowerPoint. In the beginning we were stuck on what we actually wanted to write on each slide and how we wanted to communicate to our audience the various marketing and distribution patterns and ideas we had come up with. We divided up the presentation to each group member and began working on our various slides. I was assigned to the explanation of the music video slide and the distribution slide. The music video slide allowed me to explain why our video would be a good promotional video, especially for this upcoming artist that we had created. I explained how various aspects of the music video aligned with her target audience and how the storytelling aspect of the video aligned with the genre of the song. 

I was also tasked to help out with the marketing aspect of the project. I created a website (which was a pain to make and took a LOT of time) that acted as a hub for all of our artist’s creation, and I think it came out pretty well. I struggled a lot with figuring out how to use the website and how to add everything that I wanted to include while making it look aesthetically pleasing as well. Here’s a screen recording of the website:

Along with the website, I also created a promotional teaser trailer to our artist’s album. This was also a struggle to make, but it came out really well and I fell as if it really adds to the marketing of her album. This video will appear on her instagram, which was created by another group member. We then finalized all the marketing products and every idea we would incorporate into our presentation through discussion in class. Here is the video that I created:

Once each group member completed their slide for the presentation we began creating script for our actual recording of our slideshow. We each wrote our own parts and included information that we deemed necessary for our artist. We were then able to record each of our parts and edit them all together into one huge presentation that included every aspect we wanted to discuss. 

In this project I learned how to manage my time wisely. It was a struggle figuring out the timing of this project because there were so many components and I didn’t know how I would manage it all. The structure that our teacher gave us provided an outline in which to start, but beyond that it was still difficult to manage time well, especially in finishing the PowerPoint. I also learned about different ways artist’s market and distribute their music based on their audience and how they want to be portrayed and viewed by their audience. Even in a similar genre, many artists have a different brand identity because of the vibe that they want to put out to their audience. Dolly Parton and Florida Georgie Line, for example, are both a part of the country music genre, yet their music could not be any more different. This is because of their audience and how they present themselves. I learned that knowing your audience is the most important part of a musicians success. Additionally, I fell as if this project will be a huge help once we begin our Cambridge portfolio. Our final project will consist of a huge amount of work and managing time to finish everything in a timely fashion will be the hardest part. This project allowed us to understand the important of this and practice it on a lower stakes project. This was a great way to ready us for our Cambridge portfolio project. 

Music Marketing Project

The first part to the music marketing project was to actually research how other companies and musicians advertise their music to consumers. My group and I began with researching production companies, specifically in the country genre because that’s what we were assigned. We found two production companies: Big Machine Label Group and Mercury Records Nashville. Under these companies we picked two artists from each. From Big Machine we chose Dolly Parton and Florida Georgia Line and under Mercury Records we chose Chris Stapleton and Luke Grimes.

I had to research the band Florida Georgia Line and I began by finding out the history behind the group and how it formed. I found their website (https://floridageorgialine.com) and looked into how Big Machine developed a marketing campaign for them. I researched about the different marketing techniques they used such as making a brand for themselves by making personal relations with their fans and have a fun and lively atmosphere at their concerts. Their success was outlined by their love of risks and changing the sphere of country music and taking a different tone them other country singers. They also have many partnerships and brands that they work with such as Fireball whiskey and even their own cruise line, both named after two of their songs. Through this branding, they were able to create a name for themselves, one that is recognizable to all. This research allowed me to understand how marketing in the music industry works and allowed me to use these techniques in our marketing campaign. 

After we all finished researching our respective groups/artists, we moved on to planning our actual project. The first thing we needed to do was finalize which song we would do for our music video . We were given three options, and after careful consideration we chose “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum. We listened to the song fully and started to brainstorm what we wanted to do for our music video. We had to decide between a promo, storytelling or artistic music video, and after looking at the lyrics, we decided to do a storytelling video. We then had to discuss what type of story we should tell. The song is about heartbreak, so we decided to tell the story of a girl and a boy who had recently broken up and the both of them longing for each other. The boy would visit the girls house, without going in, while the girl tried to forget about him. Then while the boy began to walk away from the house, his phone would ring, showing that the girl is calling him and wants him back, ending the video on a cliff hanger. After figuring out the content of the music video we began to storyboard it. Here is the storyboard for our music video:

 

We then began the process of actually marketing our artist and brainstorming how we would do that. We discussed and brainstormed our marketing plan. We drew up a brainstorming sheet where we came up with ideas to push our artist into the mainstream. We took ideas from our research and incorporated them into our own marketing campaign such as partnering with a whiskey brand just as Florida Georgia Line did. We discussed our distribution plan and how we would start with releasing a single and then following it up with a release of  a full album. Then we wanted to artist to go on tour and incorporated that into our plan. The most difficult part of the process was figuring out the artists signature move/brand identity. WE eventually came up with the idea of the artist having her own lipstick brand, and her brand identity incorporate that into her music. Lipstick would be her signature look, which we got the idea from Dolly Parton’s signature look of her big hair. Here is a picture of our brainstorming process:

The next steps of this project are to film and edit our music video. This will be time consuming, but the end product will be worth the time and effort we put into it. We then must create our PowerPoint to actually present our marketing campaign. We started working on it, but there is still a ways to go before we are ready to present it. 

Representation in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power follows Adora, who can transform into the heroine She-Ra, as she leads a group of princesses in rebellion against Lord Hordak and his Horde. Adora, the female protagonist, is depicted as strong and brave, while also being awkward and unsure of herself. Adora, and She-Ra, defy the stereotype that females should be feminine and kind. While she is feminine in some ways, her power as She-Ra are the opposite of gender stereotypes. Her costume as Adora consists of a red jacket that symbolizes her power, while as She-Ra she has a white and gold suit and a red cape, again representing her royalty and power. This animated series is a reboot of an 80s TV show about She-Ra and her brother He-Man. This new series took this concept and turned it into something completely different. She-Ra previously was simply the sister of He-Man, herself having no real character development or important storyline. This show however took this character and changed her to have a personality and be the main portagonist of the story. Her costume is considerably less sexualized and her armor is more realistic, increasing female representation and moving it away from conservative versions of women. 

Female empowerment is a continuous theme in this TV show. Most of the characters are women; princesses who rule over a kingdom. For example, Queen Angela rules over Brightmoon, the main location that Adora stays in after leaving the Horde. Her status as queen shows that women can achieve anything, even rule over a kingdom by themselves. Her daughter Glimmer, one of Adora’s friends, is characterized as stubborn and powerful, again defying the boundaries that society places on women. There are tons of women in this show who are powerful, yet have distinct feminine characteristics that don’t nullify the fact that they are strong individuals. Specifically, the character of Perfuma is extremely feminine, wearing pink and even having the power to control flowers, yet her kindness is her true strength as she fights for her kingdom. 

The princesses, however, aren’t the only example of female empowerment in this series. The antagonist, Catra, Adora’s former best friend and second-in-command to Lord Hordak, uses her feeling of betrayal and abandonment from Adora leaving the Horde and herself behind to fuel her to become Adora’s archenemy. Catra is clearly an incredibly powerful individual, as shown by her ability to defeat She-Ra and the princesses numerous times. In one episode she was even able to rule over the Crimson Waste, considered to be a land full of thieves and delinquents, in a day’s time, simply because of her domineering personality and ability to place fear in the people there. Catra’s costume consists of mostly red and dark armor, representing her strength and power. Catra is the perfect example of female empowerment, even when viewed from a negative standpoint. 

The most groundbreaking aspect of She-Ra is the LGBTQ+ representation. Many background character is this series were outwardly part of this community. Specifically, one of Adora’s friends, Bow, has two dads,  and they are portrayed as completely normal. This casual representation of gay men revolutionized the media and LGBTQ+ representation. Spineralla and Netossa, two princesses and a part of the Princess Alliance, are also confirmed lovers and outwardly affectionate towards one another. The inclusion of many different gender expressions is also represented in this show. Many female characters, are extremely masculine, such as Scorpia and Huntara. Bow is also portrayed as feminine despite the viewpoint that men should act masculine. This is demonstrated through his costume design as he wears a crop top because he likes to wear it. This is important for many young audiences as it shows that you can express yourself in what ever makes you happy. Additionally, Double Trouble is a nonbinary shapeshifter, played by a genderqueer actor, Jacob Tobia. This representation is incredibly important to any LGBTQ+ individuals, specifically children, who may resonate with these characters

[Bow’s dads]

[Double Trouble and their voice actor]

By far the most groundbreaking representation is that of Adora and Catra’s relationship. The relationship between the two is incredibly complex. Raised as best friends in the Horde, their relationship deteriorated when Adora realized her destiny as She-Ra and joined the rebellion in Brightmoon, leaving Catra behind. Despite being on opposite sides of the war, Catra and Adora have engaged in scenes that have hinted at a romantic relationship. For example, in the episode, Princess Prom, Catra and Adora share a dance together that heightens the romantic tension between the two. Additionally, Catra is continuously driven by heartbreak and feelings for her former best friend as she drives herself to insanity. In Season 5, Catra goes through a redemption arc as she helps the rebellion defeat Horde Prime, an other worldly entity that wishes to destroy Etheria. It is in this season that Catra and Adora finally admit their feelings towards one another, ending in a culminating kiss that confirms their relationship and gives Adora the power to stop Horde Prime once and for all and quite literally is a kiss that saved the universe. This representation allows the queer people watching to see themselves in these characters. The representation, however, is not the only character point for any of them, they simply are queer, while also having defining character traits. This form of representation is incredibly important as it shows viewers that these type of people are normal and are not defined by their sexuality.

What is Science Fiction?

Science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi) is a genre of fiction that typically deals with topics that enhance futuristic concepts such as technology, space travel, time travel, and alien life. It often explores the consequences of scientific, social, and technological advances and its impact on humanity; therefore, sci-if is often the basis of many dystopian films. One example of this would be the film WALL-E.

WALL-E (2008)

WALL-E is about a little robot who lives in a post-apocalyptic Earth in which the humans have left because of the poor conditions of the planet due to pollution. This film encompasses ideals of a dystopian society while also incorporation techniques of a science fiction film. 

Now let’s get into the actual conventions of the genre of sci-fi. Most films of this genre are set in the future, an alternate dimension, or a historical past that contradicts historical records. The setting could also be outer space, other worlds, or alternate versions of Earth. The film WALL-E is set in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth, a key aspect of sci-fi. Many narrative elements of this genre include the development of new technology (ex: robots, spaceships), new scientific principles (ex: time travel), or new political systems (this is where the dystopian/utopian ideas comes in). The main conflict is normally between the good and the evil, questioning whether these advances in technology help or harm the development of society. These films mostly consist of special effects or futuristic props that aid in telling the story as realistically as possible, especially since this genre is the complete opposite of realistic. 

Another example of a sci-fi film would be Arrival. This film follows linguistics professor Louise Banks as she leads a team of investigators when alien spacecrafts touch down around the world. Banks and her crew  must find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial beings and in doing so must save humanity from global war. Without spoiling the ending of this film, Arrival, follows the conventions of a sci-fi film as it is set in the future and includes alien life and new technology. Here’s a picture of the film if you want to check it out!

Arrival (2016)

But how is science fiction marketed? You might think that sci-fi only appeals to the typical nerd or geek, but this genre has actually made its way to general audiences. Marketers have been able to shift into the mainstream through their advertising techniques. The kind of content is how they mainly advertise their films. If they can appeal to younger audiences (the intended audience of this genre) and the things they are interested in then their films will be more successful. Social media is the best way to advertise these films as the majority of people watching these are high school students. The posters for these types of movies mostly contain the scientific aspects such as the advanced technology or the alien intelligence to draw in the audience. Most people come see sci-fi for the special effects included, so that’s the main focus of advertising. 

Here are some more sci-fi films to consider checking out:

Interstellar (2014)

High Life (2019)

Inception (2010)

The Martian (2015)

Ready Player One (2018)

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)