Group Meetings 

Hey bloggg it's Kat. So earlier today in class we had our group meetings to discuss our portfolio projects. Originally, I thought we were going to be seated with our whole group then paired with one or two more and go from there, but we were all separated. Honestly, I liked this much better because we got to receive feedback from everyone in the class as well as hear more opinions. My group and I sat in a circle kind of like a Socratic seminar vibe and all took turns pitching our ideas and sharing our blog post. I really enjoyed giving other people feedback because it allowed me to be more creative which is refreshing at times. Once it was my turn, I pitched both the ideas I mentioned in my previous post and I got an anticipated reaction. I went into detail about how Ale's parents met and they thought it was a very romantic concept and honestly wanted to see it as an entire film. But, when I pitched them the apartment idea, they seemed to favor it more just because it fit the theme of our project a little bit more. They said it would be more clear and more Rom-com instead of a deep romance.

I got a lot of feedback that will definitely alter the outcome of my project. One girl suggested that I could combine some aspects of the apartment idea with the beach idea. For example, after he compliments her eyes and flirts with her, a few seconds later his girlfriend comes back from getting ice cream or something along those lines. It adds the shock element that I like so much from the second idea.

I also shared my concerns with the group about filming equipment and my fear of the camera quality looking unprofessional. One of the girls in my group works for CBTV and she suggested reaching out to Cypress Bay shortcuts, which I believe was the name. She said that the teacher who runs it would lend me any equipment I need for my film and if I told him my film theme and location he would give me the equipment best fit for that scene. That would solve my concerns about the beach idea and it would elevate the apartment complex tremendously.

Overall, this group meeting inspired me to think about so many other things I was not thinking about. I hope we get to do another one in a few weeks because I value the opinions of my peers. It is easier to share my opinions with them and it gets the wheels in my head moving.

Alright blog I am exhausted so I am going to sleep and will update you tomorrow!!!! Goodnighttttt

( Here are some inspo pics on what I am describing)

WERE SCRAPPING THE IDEA..

Hey blog it's Kat. SooooOOOo we changed our whole plot. Like I mentioned in my previous post, our teacher did not like our characters to be cute. At first, we were just going to change the plot but keep the beach location. One of my group members Ale, was telling me the story of how her parents met and it was literally the plot of a Rom-com. It was the cutest meeting I have ever heard, and so I had the idea to possibly recreate it. Her mom was with a group of friends on the beach and she and her best friend got separated from the group and needed a ride home. Her friend recognized a group of guys that she knew so she forced Ales's mom to go with her to talk with them. She was standing there uncomfortably until a guy reached over and took off her hat. She was caught off guard and annoyed and asked why he did that. Ales now dad, proceeds to say "Your eyes are too beautiful to keep them covered". He then goes on to give her other cheesy compliments.....so basically her parents lived a Rom-com. Now for the really crazy part. After that, the group of guys gave them a ride home and two weeks later Ales's mom walked into a bar and guess who is sitting down on a stool... Ales dad. So he asked to buy her a drink and the rest was history. 

Our main concern when filming this is our equipment and materials. We would have to film this opening around sunset and don't feel like an iPhone camera would do it justice. We would also have a tight filming window because once the sun sets it would be extremely difficult to get good shots. 

Now one of my group members suggested an alternative path. The plot is basically a young woman moving into a new apartment and she is unpacking her thing and realizes she needs to go run a few errands. When she returns from those errands she accidentally tries to open the wrong apartment. A tall young man answers the door and our lead is in shock and instantly finds hi attractive. She drops her things but then the guy's girlfriend pops out of nowhere behind him and asks, "Who is this"? It is leaving off the opening on a cliffhanger but there is still so much that can happen, therefore we believe it is a solid "opening".

So as of right now, I think we are leaning towards the apartment concept and I will continue to try and develop it. I am kind of sad the beach thing is not happening because I think that would have been a fun filming process but realistically the cinematography of this idea will turn out better.

 Hey blog it's Kat. So little update.....We're scratching the beach idea. I'm not 100% sure if it's completely scratched but our teacher Mrs. Stoklosa said she did not like our meet cute being our lead getting hit by a football, then the jock coming over to retrieve it. So my group and I started rethinking the whole concept. This genre is difficult because most Rom-coms are cringy and cliche but we don't want ours to be disgustingly cringey. So this means we ultimately need to come up with a new script. Thankfully we had a lesson on scripts today in class so I have a much better idea of what we need to incorporate. Here are some of the things I learned.

• Brainstorming: think about stories or characters that engage you 
• consider how genre can be developed
• Outline: Develop spine of production
• Create major points and characters
• Screenplay: focus on developing the story through dialogue and visuals
• Revisions: Get feedback and make revisions

• -I need to ask myself what the one thing is I want my audience to leave with 

   

• Writing Dialogue:

• Unique voice: Speaking voice
  Distinct voice
• Show don’t tell:
• Consider what is necessary
• Can you show the words instead of saying them

• Formatting:

-Dialogue: centered on page
-Character names: Name typed in all capital letters
-Character actions: important character actions in “()”
-Scene Heading: location of scene all caps left aligned
-Action: Described actions that can be seen or heard

These notes were super helpful, and I am going to use them as a guideline when making my final script! Tonight, I am going to Facetime my group after my dance class because we need to figure out our final plan. I’ll keep you posted blog!! Byee

 Script Ideas

Hey blog it's Kat. My group and I have come up with our first draft of a script. It has many kinks so it is not nearly done but I am happy with the progress. With any romcom, it is a given that it will be a little bit cringy or cliche, but we don't want our opening to be too overbearing. We want the genre to be expressed accurately, while also keeping our audience engaged and not bored.  So this is our very rough rough roughhhh draft. You can envision the concept we have in mind but we want to elevate the idea. On Tuesday I meet with my group and we are going to go over the script and continue to edit. So like always, I'll keep you posted!

 Hi, Blog it's Kat.  So I am currently researching what characteristics I want to incorporate in my opening. Our idea is not set in stone so my opinions can change but I want to have an idea of what I am open to or not. I watched the opening of " She's The Man" which is a popular early 2000 rom-com starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. While watching the film opening I realized that it is the opposite of the vibe we are thinking of wanting to portray in our opening. It incorporates an upbeat pop song with saturated clips and a heavy use of filters. It is very vivid and chaotic because it introduces the actors while they are playing Soccer so it fits what is being shown, but our opening will be more laid back and less of a high school fun vibe. I could not find access to just a video of the film opening so I provided a link to check it out yourselves.

 Click here for access to the opening of She's The Man.

Now the film She's All That is a 90's rom-com that has a different style of film opening. I have noticed most rom-coms do begin with an upbeat son so we will definitely include something along those lines. This opening wasn't necessarily calm but it wasn't chaotic like the previous opening. It utilized many clips to show what the girl in the shot was doing. if we choose to go in a different direction than the beach scene we will want to use this quick shot method to show our lead actress doing whatever task she may do in the beginning. It goes with the fact that our actress is a teenage girl so if she is doing a anything, it is bound to be a little chaotic.

Click here to watch the film opening of She's All That

Again, I could not find a clip of the opening but the link should bring you to a page where it is accessible

Alright blog, that is all I have for today but tomorrow I am going to call my group members and we are going to work on our script. Goodnight!! I'll keep you posted.
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Hi Blog it's Kat. So my group and I have decided to have our actors meet at the beach with some type of meet-cute. It will be two best friends who are having a tanning day at the beach then all of a sudden are rudely interrupted by a jock and his group of friends. Instantly Chloe, ( the main character) can tell that he has a flirty personality and is not sure if she likes that. She is recovering from a previous relationship so she shuts it down immediately. Justin ( male lead) invites her and her friend to a party in Miami. While Chloe declines, her best friend is eagerly interested. We think we are going to leave them off on a cliffhanger of Justin passing his phone number to Chloe's best friend without Chloe realizing it. Knowing she would not accept. We are working on our script because there are still a few changes that need to be made, but that's all for now blog. Keep you posted!

Planning

Hi blog, it's Kat. My group members officially agreed to do our film opening based on a rom-com. We have brainstormed some ideas about how the opening will commence and in class we watched some samples that really inspired us. We like the idea of doing a short montage of the filming location we choose. Kind of like an establishing shot but there will be multiple, from different perspectives. We will find the time during the weekend that works for all of us to come together and film. We have decided that we want to use outside actors for this project. Our last big project in class was to make a music marketing and distribution campaign which included creating a music video. It was a rock music video in which I was the lead. It definitely forced me out of my comfort zone and I surprisingly enjoyed it, but I have decided to retire my acting career and choose someone else to have the spotlight. My partner and I have a mutual friend who also takes this media course. She and our other friend Justin will play the aspiring couple in our production. We are not sure exactly the plot of our opening yet but we are on the verge of something good. Like always, I will keep you posted blog!

 Plot aspects

Hi blog, its Kat. Today I am gonna discuss the different types of introductions typically used in romcoms. There are many different options that we can choose from for the opening of our film.

1#. Meet cute: a meet-cute is described as an amusing or charming first encounter between two characters that leads to the development of a romantic relationship between them. Ex. Serendipity. In this early 2000 film, two people are at a very packed Macy's during holiday shopping and coincidentally grab the same cashmere glove at the same time. This then leads them to kindly offer each other the gloves and end up going out to get ice cream once the gentleman allows her to take the gloves.

2#. Enemies to lovers: The name enemies to lovers is self-explanatory. It entails of two people who meet and despise each other but eventually, they grow interest in each other and ultimately fall in love. Ex. The Ugly Truth consists of two people with different morals who do not get along but are forced to work together and in the end... you guessed it, they fall in love.

3#. Best friends to lovers: This idea can be portrayed in a few ways. It could begin with two best friends who grow to have mutual feelings with one another and everything works out. Or, someone in the friendship catches feelings while the other person does not reciprocate those feelings. Eventually, there would be a resolution, which typically is that the person realizes they do have feelings for their best friend and they fall in love.

Click here: for further examples of rom-com films 

 

 Genre

Hi blog, it's Kat. So my group members and I  got to talking and we believe that Rom-Com is the route that we want to pursue. Initially, I was a little skeptical about how we were going to create a 2-minute film opening of a romcom that is final project worthy. Don't get me wrong, I love a good rom-com once in a while. How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, When Harry Met Sally, and Notting Hill, are all great examples of classically known films, but my concern is how am I supposed to re-create that feeling that these films portray in a 2-minute opening with such limited resources. 

Did you know that Shakespeare originally came up with rom-coms? A romcom is defined as "a movie or play that deals with love in a light, humorous way." Plays like Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream gave the basic setup of early (and many modern) romantic comedies: Two people meet, have a conflict in their way, and reunite to live happily ever after. I did not realize that these cringey films ( not always) had such a sophisticated past. When someone says Shakespeare your first thought is most definitely not romcom. When you think about it, romcoms are like a mirror of society. Society uses romcoms as an outlet for their perfect fantasies. The target audience may usually be teens and young adults but who's to say the middle-aged single ladies can't sulk over Mathew McConaughey falling in love with the most annoying girl on Earth?

 

We will see what I end up doing about this genre. I love these movies so I know I would have a blast creating something similar. Once again, I'll keep you posted! 

 Hiii my name is Katerina Valdes, and this is my first blog post documenting my  AICE media final portfolio project! I am very excited( and nervous) to do this project. Before taking AICE Media As level, I had no prior knowledge of anything to do with the media atmosphere. This class has taught me so much more than I ever thought was possible and I enjoy it constantly. It has allowed me to connect with a creative side of me that I wasn't sure I had and I have adapted skills that will be useful no matter what I do in life. Anyway, let's get back on track to the real reason we are here.... the project. I plan on working in a group with two other people from my class. We have all worked together before so I think it will go pretty seamlessly. I hope. I plan on taking advantage of the long period we get to put together our film opening because the last thing I want to do is procrastinate which I have a nasty habit of doing. Next class, we are going to brainstorm our ideas and get the wheels moving so I will keep you posted! I hope whoever is reading this enjoys my blog and whatever I end up creating at the end of this. (Let's hope it's good fingers crossed).

 Music Marketing Project

For our marketing campaign, my group and I were assigned rock as our genre. Initially, I was a little concerned about how we were going to pull off a grungy rock video considering I do not listen to the genre, but in the end, I was proud of our final product. Our band After Hours, is a young group that caters to grungy, careless teens.

Research

A part of our research consisted of watching different rock music videos to get a better grasp of some of the key characteristics that I would want to incorporate in our video.  Our research on different music production companies like Warner Bros Music Group and Universal Music Group allowed us to learn about marketing and distribution techniques that we should incorporate in our brand development. It also opened our eyes to how our relevance in the music industry relies heavily on our social media presence. Because of our case studies, we decided to create many social media accounts on a wide variety of platforms. Especially on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. We all agreed that we wanted our video to be reckless/carefree considering I was the performer, and being a teenage girl helped fit that role.

Storyboard 

 We utilized a storyboard to guide us in planning the sequential shots for our music video. The locations we agreed upon were Town Center, a local plaza with an outdoor amphitheater, abandoned hallways/stairwells, and an under-construction dead-end road. The storyboard helped plan some of the specific shots that we wanted to stick out in the video. Low and high-angle shots were commonly used among rock videos so we made sure to include them in ours.

Production

My group and I gathered at the Town Center plaza. I came in black, 90's baggy clothing to fit the rock aesthetic. We used a  tripod stand as a microphone holder on the stage to give the audience a more professional concert vibe. The video was shot on both an iPhone 13 and a Cannon digital camera. We decided to use the digital camera to portray an early 2000s vibe and because our target audience was more of a rebellious/careless group, so we decided that crystal clear quality for the duration of the video wouldn't adhere to the vibe we wanted. We then transitioned to multiple locations but mainly focused on the stage and abandoned road. The stage represented our band's passion for performing and allowed us to promote a performance experience is viewers. The dead-end road symbolizes the rebellious side of our band. It symbolized teens and their careless nature.

Presentation

Our presentation was a total of 20 slides and we used Canva to create an artistic presentation that highlights the essence of our band. We included samples of our merchandise and social media accounts to show what our fan base would interact with as well as our key distribution methods like streaming, digital purchase, and listening parties. Our campaign gave a clear viewpoint on what we stand for as a band and what our overall goal is.

Overview

Overall, I believe our project accurately represented our band as a whole. We focused on our digital presence, and effective engagement strategies to connect with the target audience and build a loyal fan base. We highlighted the band's main elements and explained the target audience and how we worked to cater to them. I learned how to direct and produce a music video which will help me tremendously when I need to create my film clip for the Cambridge Portfolio. I also learned elements of editing and marketing techniques that I would have never guessed I needed to use to reach wider audiences. I also got to step out of my comfort zone by being the lead singer for the music video, it allowed me to embody a character that I would not typically have an interest in and that will help my creativity in future projects. 

By: Katerina Valdes