Project idea

 we want to do a slasher/mystery movie. We want to begin with a chase scene for the first minute where a crazy ex decides to kill her ex boyfriend and gets a hunger for blood. We want to incorporate a lot of elements from other popular slashers such as Texas chainsaw massacres long road chase scene and jump scares like the ones in Friday the 13th, scream, or Halloween. We want this first minute to have you on the edge of your seat but also set up the rest of the story. We want to end this first minute with a group of kids witnessing this murder and the killer sees them but the kids can’t see the killers face. This sets up a timer for the kids to figure out the killer while the killer hunts down these kids

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 The next minute isn’t exactly clear what we want to do but we want the kids to be in a public setting such as school and the kids are all scared in different classes just reliving the killing and seeing the killer in all places. 

Casting

     For our project we want the killer to be a girl and the victim to be a guy who is the girl's ex. We also need the main character which is the person who witnesses this murder but doesn't know exactly who the killer is and is also too scared to say anything but they try to figure it out themselves. This means we need at least 3 actors. We think 2 of these can be Alex Gomez, Andrea Barbosa as the killer and ex. These 2 have previous acting knowledge and have acted in our music video. Their chemistry and ability are exactly what we need for this project.

 We still need a main character though. It needs to be someone who can look shy and lonely to add to the main character's personality but not frail so they can seem like they can fight back in times of need. 

Along with that right now we want to have the 1st minute of the intro and the second minute be a shift to a classroom where our main character can't focus and has dead people talking in their ears telling them to turn in the killer but they are too shy and don't have all of the details. This means we are going to need more actors to play background characters or dead people talking. These plans are subject to change since we don't have a 100% concrete script right now but we are confident and excited to do this project and see where we can take this.

Schedule

 We had to make a schedule for how we are planning out our project lined with due dates and ideas for along the way. I spoke to my partner and we came up with the following schedule for the next 7 weeks

Week 1: Research

• Analyze other horror film openings and take what you like from them and create a list of it.
• Finalize what genre your doing and start to try to develop a plot
• Start brainstorming locations you could use, props, actors, etc.

Week 2: Planning

• Create a script 
• Create a storyboard when script is finalized about the shots I want to use
• Set locations and have actors set and the days we will be filming

Week 3: Pre Production

• Create vision boards for each character that includes their wardrobe, characteristics, personality
• Get lights, clothes and props that I want to use for the day we film
• Also find non copyright music that I think will fit nicely into the scenes

Week 4: Production 

•  film
• Put all of the scenes together to get a basis of the film
• Cut down on the clips and begin to record foley audio
• Actually edit fully and determine if any scenes need to be reshot

Week 5: Post Production

• Finish editing and add finishing touches
• Analyze first edition and determine if me and my partner are happy with it

Week 6: Revise/CCR

• See my partners edition of the edited video and decide which one we would like to use most
• Work on the CCR's
• Week 7
• Look over the final project and submit

Film openings

     Today we had to analyze 3 opening scenes from the chosen genre. In my case, I analyzed 3 horror/slasher openings. 3 I looked at the 3 most popular slashers: Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Scream. On Friday the 13th something that I really enjoyed and added a creepy aspect was the way that you see a lot of the beginning from Jason's POV. This lets you see what the victims can't and makes the viewer anxious about the victims. I would love to utilize this to some degree in my opening to create that edge-of-your-seat feeling.

    The next movie I researched was Scream (1996). There were a few things I really enjoyed about this opening. The first was how they used the popcorn to create suspense and an auditory aspect that enhanced that suspense. They kept cutting back on it as it got bigger and bigger. Next was the phone convo. This is one of the best parts of any horror opening. It's because it creates that stalker/Creepy vibe off the bat, especially with Ghostface's voice. You feel anxious and scared before even seeing the killer which is an amazing aspect of this opening.

The last film I researched was Halloween. Halloween also does most of the scene in a first-person point of view adding to that stalker vibe. This instantly makes one anxious and scared for what's to come. Another aspect of this opening that really helps tie everything together is the sound. The music and audio really help with the creepy vibe and are the last push to get the intended reaction from the audience. It's what makes the entire scene scary in the end. Lastly, a smart and cool thing the director did was that when Michael went to kill his sister he picked up and put on a mask. This shrank the FOV of the camera making the killing scene easier to record without making it to cheesy.

Credit Scenes

   There are a lot of ideas that I love for our credit scenes but there are 3 that I like the best. One of these films with amazing opening scenes is Se7en. What I enjoy about the credits is the font choice with all the effects on the text. This adds to the story's theme and creates an eerie/ creepy aspect to the movie without anything happening.

another cool part about those credits is that they are small and don't take up much of the scene making it so you can see what's happening behind the credits as well.

    The next movie I looked at was Zombieland. What I thought was really cool about these credits was the way they were animated. It was as if they were actually physical objects that the people were interacting with. It creates a sense of movement and a way for the credits to dissipate naturally which creates a nice sense of uniform.

    The last film I looked at was Watchmen. The way this movie does its credits adds to its comic book superhero theme with the font and color while allowing for a story to be conveyed in the slow-motion scenes behind it. They are the perfect size and stand out because of the color.

Portfolio Project: Genre

 The genre we chose is horror/slasher. we want to start the intro with a chase scene of sorts to create an immediate intensity to setup the mood for the rest of the movie if we were to make one. The first movie I looked at for research and inspiration is the 2008 movie Prom Night. In the movie, there is a scene where the character Lisa is running from the killer but it starts very quiet and leaves you anxious the camera then pans and you see the killer in front of her.

Lisa chase scene

 I love this and think personally I can utilize this idea to some degree. I like the part of the killer just appearing and almost startling the audience but I would like for the killer to say something to the person running to add some background information on why the person is being chased. I would also like to play with lighting here so that you wont be able to see the killer's face very well if possible.

    The next movie I researched was Friday the 13th part 2. The movie is really good with sound/ music but also their chase scenes and scenes to get the audience on the edge of their chair. One of the clips that I enjoyed and would like to utilize aspects of is the scene where ginny the main character is hiding under the bed in the cabin.

Ginny hiding under bed

    this scene is amazing at creating tension and engaging the audience. it gives the audience that feeling of wanting to help and tell the character what to do. Another scene from the same movie that I would like to take inspiration from is the scene where Ginny gets grabbed by Jason through the window.(Couldnt find clip of the scene) Jason grabbing her is an amazing jumscare that was very well done. he came out of nowhere and created a very startling scene so I would like to utilize some jump scares in my project.

Another movie I looked at was the  Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974). The last scene when the girl is almost home free and is getting chased by both Leatherface and the sibling is amazing. It keeps the audience on the edge of their seat trying to anticipate if she's going to make it or not. 

TCM dirt road chase scene

I would love to end my project with a scene like this where you can see the person getting chased by the killer but instead, I would have the killer catch them and you would pan away as they get killed. It would act as a transition into the rest of the movie which would probably be a crime mysteries slasher.

Portfolio Project Introduction.

     Portfolio Project Intro

    Today we are beginning our portfolio project. This project is a project that is part of our AICE exam and it is due march 25th. We are required to create a 2 minute opening to a movie of our own creation . We are not allowed to copy any existing media and all the ideas have to be completely original making it our own. As we go along we need to make blog posts documenting our process through the creation of this project talking about our research, anything new we learn and the overall creation process and standing at that point in time. We are required to post 4 blogs a week on separate days documenting this process but this week we only require 2 because we are jus getting started. We are going to use all of our past projects such as the soundscape project, the one word film project, and our music marketing project to create this big project to the best of our ability. I'm working with a group of 1 other which is Gabriela Uribe 

 --------------------------------------------------------Past projects-----------------------------------------------------

music marketing project.pptx This project helps understand the marketing world and how company's create their products. We created a music video here which uses a lot of different camera angles and techniques that can be used.

OWF_mendez.mp4 This project helps understand how to convey emotion and feeling without the use of audio.

Mendez_Becherucci_soundscape_P1.mp4 This was our Foley project where we needed to create a scene only using sound elements that we either recorded or put together.

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    This project is just a culmination of all the knowledge I have gathered at this point through this class and I just need to find a way to put it all together efficiently. At this point in time we are not completely sure what genre/idea we want to do. I think we are going to end up doing a horror chase scene that ends has a girl chasing a guy through the woods and ends with her catching him and killing him. We don't know how we are going to do this but that is why we are conducting research on other films to get inspiration and learn new techniques