A New Plan

        We met with groups again, and I got some helpful pointers. One of the reasons I am feeling overwhelmed is because I am trying to film too much. I need to cut down on what I want to show. So, I am starting to go back to my original idea, in which I imply that fighting has been going on for a while by playing fighting noises over the production company credit roll, then show a little bit of fighting, play the flashback, and then have the quick stabbing sequence, show Mariel looking at the notebook, and, finally, show the title. I have made a storyboard, which I will post later, that clearly outlines what I want to accomplish. Oh, and I won’t be filming at night.
        I will be filming today, and I will be editing tomorrow and over the weekend. I will have to use extreme focus and put in a lot of consecutive hours; but, I have enlisted the help of a friend who has been editing for around three years and can show me tricks to edit efficiently (which I will definitely post about). This way, I can begin my CCR sooner as well, and hopefully when I intended to in my original outline calendar.
        I can say with confidence that I have learned from this experience. Always plan to the max: don't skimp on the storyboard, and don’t try to film anything you have never attempted before (such as a night scene) without extensive trial and error. For big projects with limited time, it is beneficial to stick with what you know.

Stress

        This is not how I wanted today's post to go. I filmed today, and I thought that all of my ideas were spot on and going to look great. I was very wrong.
        The low key lighting backfired. Big time. It is very hard to see any detail in the majority of my shots. The fighting silhouettes look like floating heads and limbs. Some things were filmed in daylight and perfectly useable, others are much too dark. I also feel like I did not get a good variety of angles. I had an outline, but it was much too vague and I had too much faith in myself to get all the shots I needed right on the spot. Honestly, I am very disappointed in myself. Things would have gone so much better today if I hadn't tried to do something so difficult and prepared more. I am pretty upset, to be frank.
        Now, I am very stressed and concerned. This mishap throws off my entire schedule, and is going to cause me to have to take away much more time from my other classes. My actors also have to come back and film with me during the week, and we seem to have conflicting schedules. We may have to film on Friday, and I'll have to cram all editing in on Saturday and Sunday. This is not good and I am kind of freaking out. I have to think of a solution, because things aren't looking so great as of now. I am sorry for such a negative post, I'm just a bit beside myself.

Audience and Statistics

   I spoke briefly in my first post about the basics of the action movie genre and the audience it generates. Now that I have a more solid hold on what my film is about, I can speak specifically about my target audience and the probability of this being a successful production.

       As I stated before, this is an action movie. The conventions I will be embracing include non-stop action, a central character going against all odds, and the idea of an extremely powerful and evil antagonist. I will be going against the common use of a male protagonist, the idea of a plot driven rather than character driven plot, and the use of a deep bond between two characters (Mariel and Jamie, and the other teens with their younger siblings), not a generic “superficial” relationship seen in most action flicks.
       Since the core values of the genre are still being upheld, my target audience

will consist of the 61% of American moviegoers that enjoy action-adventure films. Because “African American moviegoers (aged 12 and older) are 26% more likely than the average to name action and adventure as their favorite genre,” (Marketing Charts), the film must be appealing to them; but, action is enjoyed by so many, that as long as it follows conventions, like it will, I have a broad audience. Moviegoers will most likely be members of the middle class; and because the protagonist is a teenage girl, the age range can go from about 15-45. The movie appeals to teenagers because they are represented, in a powerful stature, by Mariel and her gang of teens trying to save their siblings, and it appeals to adults because of the touching story of finding the one you love by any means.

       In terms of revenue, my film has great potential, with action movies raking in a total of $2,296,781,414 in the Box Office as of 2016. The action adventure genre holds great promise, and my film has the prospect of success.

Dercksen, Daniel. “Genre and Genre Conventions.” The Writing Studio, 3 Nov. 2015, writingstudio.co.za/what-type-of-story-are-you-writing/. Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.

February 22, 2013 - by MarketingCharts staff. “Action Adventure The Preferred Genre For The Movie Theater Experience.” MarketingCharts, 22 Feb. 2013, www.marketingcharts.com/traditional/action-adventure-the-preferred-genre-for-the-movie-theater-experience-27250/. Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.

“Box Office Performance for Action Movies in 2016.” The Numbers - Where Data and Movies Meet, www.the-numbers.com/market/2016/genre/Action. Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.

First Draft Story and Basic Filming Directions!

Taking Back Jamie

       All across the United States, an unknown organization has been taking kids away from their families abruptly, sometimes violently, and always without explanation. While a full blown government-run investigation is underway, the kidnappings have been happening for almost a year. Mariel Leight, a teenage girl, had her younger brother, Jamie, “stolen” from her three months ago. She is fed up with waiting for the government to find her brother, and decides to take matters into her own hands.

       Mariel musters her courage and goes to a place where kidnappings often occur, children’s playgrounds. She is there at night, so it is empty. Sure enough, she finds an agent for the organization idly waiting for a kid to show up. Mariel has a flashback and remembers the agent taking away her brother. She becomes enraged, and attacks the agent. They struggle and fight, she is constantly asking where the agent took her brother, the agent never responds. Finally, she unsheathes a knife and stabs the agent.

       She rests for a moment, calms herself, and begins to look through the agent’s jacket. She finds a small notebook with pictures of children in it, and flips through it, clearly looking for her brother’s picture, while still remarking on all the poor kids that have been wrongfully taken away from their lives. She lands on a page with her brother’s photo and a number next to it. She exclaims his name and swears to find him.

       Mariel is then shown at her home, looking through the notebook. She looks at all the children, and begins to cry. She doesn’t understand how something so cruel could happen. As she looks through the images, she has an idea. She pulls out a newspaper and looks through the missing person’s section and starts calling the numbers of people who lost their younger siblings.

       Mariel and three other teens she contacted decide to band together to not only save their siblings, but all the kids who have been taken. The group realizes that the numbers next to the kids in the notebook have to do with the area they are being held in, because all their little brothers and sisters have the same number. They look around town, interrogate agents they find, and try to figure out where this place is.

       Finally, they figure out where the kids are being held and head there. It is a desolate warehouse, and the teens use brains and brawn to save their siblings. As they are leaving the facility, something goes wrong and they are being chased by a myriad of agents. They are all scared, but run for their lives with confidence. Mariel scoops Jamie into her arms as they run away. He looks at her, afraid and in need of reassurance. Mariel smiles slightly, and she runs even faster. The screen then turns to black, and the viewer can imagine they escaped to safety.

       

I plan to make my film opening the scene where Mariel confronts and kills the agent on the playground and finds the notebook with the picture of her brother. The flashback will be included.

       The scene begins with the sound of a playground swing as the production company graphics flash onscreen. Then, a close up of feet is shown, and the camera tilts up to reveal an agent from the organization, clad in black barely swinging on the swing. The agent looks like they don’t belong there. A shot of their face is seen on the left third, which becomes a focus pull, and a very angry person is now seen clearly. The angry person is Mariel. A close up is then shown of her eye, which cuts to a black and white scene. She is on the same playground with a little boy. She is pushing him on the swing. Suddenly, the same agent appears and takes the boy, Jamie, away from her with force. The flashback ends, and Mariel runs to the agent, and attacks.                                                  

       They fight, mostly shots of silhouettes and close ups. Finally, Mariel takes out a pink comb. This confuses the agent. Mariel reveals that the comb is a knife, and stabs the agent in the stomach. The agent falls to their knees, blood pours out of their mouth, and they die.

       Mariel rests in a dazed shock, sitting sweaty with her makeup and hair a mess, blood on her face. She then composes herself, gets up, and begins to dig through the agent’s jacket. She finds the notebook, and close ups show her flipping through it. The notebook is full of pictures of children, and she is saddened. Finally, she sees Jamie, and declares her mission to find him. The screen then turns black, with the title, Taking Back Jamie, filling the frame.

Group Observations

        Earlier this week, our class was split into groups and we discussed our progress on our individual projects. I talked about where the inspiration for my project came from, what the basic storyline is, and how I plan to execute the idea. The critiques and suggestions I received helped me move my project forward immensely.
        One of the most helpful suggestions involved the combat situation. Since I was hesitant to include actual fighting, someone suggested that I use silhouettes. I thought this was a brilliant idea, and much better than implied combat. Plus, it will fit in with my idea to use low key lighting. The use of music during the fighting scene was also brought up, and I am glad it was, because I had almost forgot about that. Further, I asked if any of them knew of a good filming location, such as a desolate warehouse. Once I found out the complications of getting there; however, it made me realize I needed to change my location. Now, I plan to film in my very own neighborhood. Thankfully, they all said they thought my idea was good and entertaining, which is, obviously, very important.
        I am taking all of these critiques into immense consideration as I write my script and create my storyboard. I can’t wait to see how my final ideas pan out!

Researching

In my production, I want to capture elements that I have never attempted before, such as successfully filming in low key lighting and following someone on a bicycle. Rather than winging everything on the day of filming, I knew research would have to be done. This is a catalog of all my findings and what I will use come filming day.
My first thought went to lighting the feature. I imagined the setting to be a dimly lit, suspicious looking space. In order to capture this, I have to use low key lighting. Of course, I don’t have key lights at my disposal, so I researched how to use low key lighting in photography (which I can transfer to film, and a brief article about colors in low key light. I found that the best way to get the low key lighting effect is to use only one bright light in a dark space. The light must be behind the camera, off to the side, shining on the subject of interest. I think I will do this by having an iPhone, with the flashlight enabled, held by another person who is aiming the light at what I will be filming. I also learned that warmer and brighter tones look better in low key lighting than cool tones, so my characters will be dressed in vibrant colors, and the items they are working with will have a strong hue as well. Since I am shooting on an iPhone, I looked into tips on using an iPhone camera in the dark. I thought the best tip from this article was to change the exposure level on the camera. I simply have to tap the screen until I find the best focus in the limited lighting I have, and the image should appear much nicer than if I had simply begun shooting. I will also edit my footage with a filter if it appears too dark.
I also knew there would be the struggle of filming a person on a bike in motion. I decided to read articles about making your own camera dolly, and tips on shooting someone riding a bike. Since I own one and it is convenient for me, I found the idea of sitting in an office chair with a camera to be a great idea, as I could be pushed around next to the person I am filming at their pace, faster, or even slower, to achieve a dolly look. The little tips I read about shooting a biking scene proved useful because they pointed out that I could include many closeups, such as feet on the pedals, the bike wheels, and the subject’s face, so I will not have to run, or be pushed in an office chair, alongside the bike for too long.
Since I am creating an action flick, I wanted combat to be present. I obviously don't have professional actors who can feign fighting, so I must use sound foley to do so. This video showed me an effective ways to achieve the noise of punching, such as punching raw meat, and lightly hitting raw meat or cabbage with a baseball bat. Other elements, such as the noise of shuffling feet and a struggle, can be captured by standing on a box and banging your feet around, as well as falling on the box. Of course, I will also need to record my actors making grunting noises, showing they are exuding force.
I plan to test all of these techniques before the time to film comes; yet, I have high hopes that these will prove to be successful!

“The Complete Beginner's Guide to Shooting Low Key.” Photo & Video Envato Tuts+, photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-complete-beginners-guide-to-shooting-low-key--photo-3427. Accessed 18 Mar. 2017.

“High Key Low Key Color Lesson.” Sensational Color, 30 Apr. 2015, www.sensationalcolor.com/understanding-color/theory/high-key-low-key-color#.WMvfIpH3ahA. Accessed 18 Mar. 2017.

Bentum, Kwe. “9 Essential Tips For Amazing IPhone Night Photography.” IPhone Photography School, 10 Mar. 2017, iphonephotographyschool.com/shoot-at-night/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2017.

Renée, V. “Get Pro Quality Camera Moves with These Household DIY Dolly Hacks.” No Film School, 13 Aug. 2014, nofilmschool.com/2014/08/pro-camera-moves-household-diy-dolly-hacks. Accessed 18 Mar. 2017.

“How to Shoot a Scene of Someone Riding a Bike?” Filming - How to Shoot a Scene of Someone Riding a Bike? - Video Production Stack Exchange, video.stackexchange.com/questions/14852/how-to-shoot-a-scene-of-someone-riding-a-bike. Accessed 18 Mar. 2017.

Noisysid. “Sound Effects - Foley Fist Fighting Family Feud! Pt 2.” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Apr. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ing8N16rXwk. Accessed 18 Mar. 2017.

An Idea Strikes!

At last, I have come up with a direction to steer into for the opening. Today’s post is going to be rather minimal, since I am still allowing this idea to form completely, but I wanted to document my first thoughts.

As I discussed previously, I want to create an action based production with a female lead. I decided I want to make her a teenage girl, who is on a quest to save her little brother, who was taken from her a few years prior to the story taking place. I want to create mystery and establish conflict in the opening sequence of the film.

Initially, I am imagining opening with a black screen, and noises of conflict are heard. When images flick onto the screen, a man will fall to the floor, insinuating he has been knocked out. The protagonist will then reveal herself, disheveled and fatigued, trying to compose herself after the implied combat. She will then search the man, who has a notebook on his person. She will flip through the book, which has images upon images of children in it. She will suddenly stop and acknowledge a specific picture of a little boy. She may mutter words of excitement, such as “I found you,” or something of that nature. She will then mount a bike, maybe a motorcycle, and begin to drive away. She may have a bit of a monologue here to give the audience context. At the very end of it, the title will flash onto the screen.

Obviously, there are issues with things I have to change and elaborate on, and I have to work on specifics, such as my protagonist’s name, a filming location, and a storyboard. I will be doing all of that and extensive research over the next two days. Like I said before, I simply wanted to establish my first visions for the production.

                                           

https://i.imgur.com/WABDx.gif

“Imgur.com.” Imgur.com, i.imgur.com/WABDx.gif. Accessed 15 Mar. 2017.