Adding a Face to the Name

     As I am getting closer and closer to the filming stage of production, I wanted to talk about my thoughts on RAQUEL as a character and who I would want to play her in my opening. RAQUEL was inspired by a influx of people in my life, including parts of me. This character has a special place in my heart as they go through lots of mental and emotional obstacles that are very relatable to me or loved ones. I see this character as an outlet to touch on these things and bring more light to these normal, but shadowed, situations. 

Actress Rachel Zegler

    When developing my character, it helped me to think about who I would cast to play RAQUEL if this was being produced, and I believe Rachel Zegler would be a perfect choice. Though she is a newer actress, her work shows that she has so much emotional depth and brings so much vulnerability to her characters that makes the performance unbelievable. I feel like this would be perfect for my character. It is also a plus that she is not as popular as I really don't see an A-List actress fitting this movie. It would bring too much attention onto the presence of the actress rather than the story itself. 

Gabriella Bongiovi

    The person I have casted RAQUEL to for my opening is Gabriella Bongiovi. I met her in my theatre class and I strongly believe she has the acting skills and the emotional connection to play this character. I'm very excited to work with her and see what she brings to the character.

Inspiration photos for the costume, hair, and makeup of RAQUEL

In terms of the mise-en-scene for my character, I want her to have a very messy but put together look. I want her to wear her to wear lots of oversized jackets and clothes, acting as like a shield, as it covers all of her body and doesn't expose anything like she is hidden under the clothes. I would want RAQUEL to have a bare face, no makeup, as I really don't see her character caring about that sort of thing. Her hair I want very natural and out of her face, something messy but still presentable. This could either be something like a messy bun or away in a clip. Nothing that shows that she puts a ton of time getting ready, but enough that she isn't neglecting herself.

    

Group meeting #1

     

    We had our first group meeting today! We were broken up into groups so we could have a chance to talk to some of our fellow classmates and discuss our individual ideas. This gives us a chance to get unbiased feedback on our projects so we can adjust accordingly. Since we are only a week into our project, my group took this time to review each other's blogs for the first time and focus on the topic of pre-production. 

    Going into mine, I had a broad idea but I wasn't too confident about it.  When I got to discuss my project with the group, they gave me such great feedback that made me confident about pursuing my idea. They loved the character development and the outline I had been thinking about for my opening (storyboard coming soon). They gave me some cool ideas for my production setting as Im soon moving into the production phase of my project. I can't wait to have more meetings throughout this process!

Cinematography

      With this being my first time creating content in the psychological thriller genre, I am not used to its standards and customs. I've made content for years for my past TV and film classes, so I am relatively familiar with shot composition and angles. However, I wanted to research the specific cinematography that is often used within the genre. Camera shots and angles are significant factors in psychological thrillers as they help set the film's mood and create tension, making it more believable. The goal is to incorporate these shots into my project to guide the story and fit the genre. 

Close UP/Extreme Close Up

ECU from film Psycho (1960)

Closing in on a subject can show more emotion. The closer the camera, the more emotion is captured. They can also be used to engage the audience in the mysterious plot as if they were figuring out clues as the close-ups can give away key elements. These pieces of information help build the suspense in the film. 

Dutch Angle (Canted)

              

                  Dutch Angle from film Jaws (1975)

A dutch angle is a shot that is slightly slanted. These shots can be used to portray feelings of madness or distress of the character. The composition of these shots are used to cause disorientation for the audience and leaves them with an uneasy feeling.

Long Shot (Wide)

         

                 Long shot from film It Follows (2014)

A long shot can be used to show entire subjects or figures and sometimes even parts of the setting. They are used in thrillers to emphasize space and give the audience a sense that someone or something is isolated. 

Planning Process

     This last week I have dedicated myself to solely conducting research. Research is such an important process of brainstorming that can really make or break your idea if not done properly. I've spent this time getting to know my genre and developing the characters in my story. With this new week about to begin, I've started to open my mind to all the other aspects now that I have my idea and have created a schedule. This schedule is a rough draft, but it's how I going to try to approach my project as of now. Here it is!

SCHEDULE FOR (UNTITLED)

Week 1 (2/13- 2/19)- Brainstorm/Research

Week 2 (2/20- 2/26)- Pre-Production (creation of storyboard, shot list, etc.)

Week 3 (2/27- 3/5)- Continued Pre-Production

Week 4/5 (3/6- 3/19)- Production (filming and foley recording)

Week 6 (3/20-3/26)- Re-shoots and beginning of post-production (editing)

Week 7 (3/27-4/2)- Continue/finish editing and create CCR

4/4- SUBMISSION DAY!!

Plot Development

     Though I am still in the early stages of brainstorming/pre-production, I have a pretty good idea of the structure of my opening. I want the opening to almost serve as the exposition of RAQUEL's mind. the way she thinks and acts on a day-to-day basis. I then would like to introduce a "change" or conflict into the story, being a text from a private investigator who has claimed to have found her mom after 10 years of being gone. From there, if I were to continue developing the movie, I would move time back to about 6 days before so characters can get more backstory that leads up to the moment shown in the opening and introduce the character MALIA. Once the audience is caught up, RAQUEL will continue the pursue her absent mother and figure out the real reason she has been gone for so long. 

Storyboard of my opening coming soon!

Character Development

     Upon lots of thought over the last few days, I want my opening to be focused on the main character of the story, RAQUEL. In the spirit of the genre, psychological thriller, I don't want the audience to be exposed to too much of the storyline in the beginning. To help this I only want to introduce a maximum of 2 characters in the beginning. 

    The main character the story is going to revolve around is RAQUEL RAMBOE. RAQUEL is a 22-year-old girl, fresh out of college, who is very independent and is just starting to get a feel for the real world. Her dad passed away when she was a very young age and her mother has been very in and out of her life for reasons she has never understood. Her older sister, MALIA, has always taken care of her as though she was her mother and would often "shield" her from the troubles of her mother. 

    RAQUEL, having done most of her growing up by herself, sees the world in a very unique way. She hasn't really experienced love other than from her sister, who was not always around from the constant working to support her and Raquel, and her father, who she barely remembers now. This lack of love and feeling of abandonment from a young age has caused her to grow up very emotionally absent. 

I can't wait to continue to develop this story with time. More details to come!

Choice of Genre

     When first introduced to this project, I was overwhelmed by all the ways I could take it. With only really producing content that was dramatic, I had no experience with any other genres and I wanted to take this opportunity to step out of my comfort zone. Once I started to do research, I became very interested in psychological thrillers.

    I have recently watched the movie Don't Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde, and fell in love with it. This movie, which is a psychological thriller, was so well-written and engaging from opening to end. I was so amazed at how the story keeps you on your toes all the way to the very end, which is not an easy thing to do as most storylines in movies are very predictable. After watching it, I was so inspired and wanted to try to create something with the same effect. 

Don't Worry Darling (2022)

    Originally, I wanted to pursue more of a narrative structure film. However, I then switched my research focusing on psychological thrillers, and I realized I can carry out a narrative story while still staying in the genre. Psychological thriller is a diverse type of fiction that holds the key characteristics of a mystery but is still its own thing. It is very plot driven towards solving a conflict but also explores the human mind. The narratives within the stories are typically told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator or a psychologically stressed character. This allows me to be super creative with the storyline and development of characters while also being able to use things I've learned in AP Psychology, a class I took and loved so much. 

    I can't wait to continue developing my opening and eventually see the final product!

New Beginnings

    The time has come! It is now the time I get to start the process of creating my film opening and I couldn't be more excited. In the past, I've created lots of content like news packages, music videos, and trailers but I've never done something like this. This new experience is allowing me to branch out and step out of my comfort zone. 

    On the occasion of trying new things, I want to maybe try a psychological mystery-type genre for my opening, as I've never done something like this before and l would love to explore it. I took AP psychology last year and I loved the content that the class taught me, especially about cognitive memory and the brain. I am going to try to loop this into my idea in some way. This next week I am dedicating this next week exclusively to brainstorming and research to develop my idea. I'll come back soon with updates!

Music Marketing Reflection

     Now that everything has wrapped up, I can confidently say that this project has definitely been my favorite activity of the class so far. From pre-production to post-production, everything about this project was extremely memorable in the best way possible. Since the first day we were assigned this project, I knew this would be a project I was going to have a lot of fun with and enjoy. It provided my group and I an outlet to be as creative as we wished while working with a medium I knew the smallest about, music. 

    Pre-production was by far my favorite part of this whole process. From the jump, my group was bouncing back and forth with such vibrant ideas. If anything, the only challenge we really had was narrowing everything down to one idea because everyone was so into it. The research expanded my knowledge of not only marketing and distribution but the music industry in general. The storyboarding allowed us to really break down the message of our music video and understand it on another level as we had to plan out every shot and make sure there was a purpose to the shots.

    Once we reached production time, we really understood how tedious this process can be. Originally, we separated 2 days in our schedule to dedicate to filming the music video, but once it came to actually filming, we realized how much that was an underestimate that was. We ended up having to use 4 days to film the music video, causing us to make changes to our schedule. One reason it took us so long to film our music video was the idea we decided to pursue. An instant theme we picked up on when listening to the song was isolation and loneliness, which was ironic because the song is upbeat for the most part. When it came to developing our brand when decided an artistic style music video fit best with what we wanted our brand and artist to represent. To convey this, our video consisted of graphic match shots of our main character over time. In all of these shots, as time would pass by, the character was completely alone. Filming these types of shots made our margin for error very slim, meaning each shot took a lot more time and tries than normal, as everything had to be perfect.

    Finally, once in post-production, half of our group worked on editing the music video while the other half conquered the presentation. Within our presentation, we talked about the aspects of our brand/artist, genre, target audience, and how we planned to market/distribute the content our artist released. Our research really helped us develop a solid plan as we had knowledge now of what strategies were successful. My group's presentation went amazing, as we all took the time to practice our slides and everyone put in the time to make it as good as it could be. It received amazing critiques from our teacher and fellow classmates.

    Now that the project is complete, I don't think I would really change much that happened. Even though I have learned things that I will definitely apply to my next project, there was nothing that really happened that impacted my group and our process in a negative way. Overall, this project was a great experience and resulted in great content I will always be proud of.

    

Part of our presentation

Link to music video:

musicviceotonight 1.mp4