Editing progress

Folks, we did it! We have finally made some progress on our editing, thanks to Isabella! Once she came back from Paris, Isabella and I spent hours finding the perfect song for our trailer, royalty free of course! After finding the perfect song, we were able to start editing.

Unfortunately, the file of our trailer is over 100MB and will not upload to blogger. Isabella and I both agreed that uploading it to YouTube is not the best idea since it is not the finished trailer. All we are missing from trailer one is static scenes and camera footage lenses. Therefore, you will just have to trust our word for now and wait until we can get the file under 100MB to show you guys a preview!

Isabella was an absolute hero when it came to editing our first trailer. She took this task under her wing and went for it. Of course, I was there to offer her guidance and help when she needed! Isabella incorporated muliple cinematic conventions in the trailers to make it more real and conventional. She added cinematic bars to the whole trailer, to make it look like the trailer had thick black margins on the top and bottom of the trailer. Isabella also added the vignette filter to the found footage, which makes the image look more vintage.

The audio of  the trailer consists of voice-overs, which Isabella strategically placed, back-ground music, which we both agreed aided in conveying the romantic mood and vibe, and audio from the clips that we filmed. Though Isabella was faced with the tough task of matching our voice overs with the clips that we filmed, she powered through and the result is amazing!

I'm just so happy we are making progress and that we are catching up from being behind! I can't wait to start editing trailer two and begin researching on poster conventions!

Stay tuned for more...

-AC

Work, Work, & More Work

Welcome back guys! 

It's work time!! Isabella is officially back home from Paris so it is now officially time to work! 

Here is an outline I created for what Isabella and I have to work on in the next couple of days:

Today, Thursday, March 29:

• Research Royalty Free Music Sites
• Find background song for our trailers

Friday, March 30:

• Begin to edit Trailer 1
• Insert voice-overs
• Insert background music
• Match audio
• Level out audio
• Etc.
• Begin to brainstorm ideas for our film poster

Saturday, March 31:

• Finish editing Trailer 1
• Start editing Trailer 2
• Insert voice-overs
• Insert background music
• Match audio
• Level out audio
• Etc.

Sunday, April 1:

• Research film poster conventions
• Brainstorm ideas for our film poster

Stay tuned for our editing progress!

-AC

Behind Schedule/Trouble in paradise

Uh-oh.. guess who is slightly behind schedule again.....

You guessed it.. its me! :(

This week has been an absolute roller coaster for me. Since it is the last week of the 3rd quarter in school (in America most high schools use quarter schedules, not semester schedules), I have been running around like crazy making sure i have the best grades I can possibly earn. Not only did I have to work three times as hard this week in school, but I am also balancing family and personal issues that have taken a bit of a toll on me. Because of this, I was not able to begin editing this week. 

But don't lose all hope fellow blog readers! Guess what this week is??? SPRING BREAK!!! 

I am finally on break so I will absolutely get right on track. Isabella, my project partner will be in Paris, France (so lucky, I know!) during the majority of the break but I on the other hand, will be sitting on my bed working my editing magic. For now, it's time to relax, but stay tuned for my magic!

-AC

Recap: Filming Day 2

Check it out! Here's some of the footage from our second filming day!! Once again, I have put together a short clip of some footage from day two, without any editing, hope you enjoy!

Now that we have all the footage, it's time to start actually editing!

- AC

Recap: Filming Day 1

Welcome back blog readers!

As promised, here is some of the footage from the first day of filming! In order to make this post as efficient as possible, I have put a short clip of some footage from day one, without any editing! I can't wait to actually begin to edit!

- AC

Filming Day 1&2

You know how I mentioned how I think Isabella and I have super powers?

Well, now I know we do!!

Earlier this week we had promised ourselves that we would finish our storyboards, dialogue, and filming by the end of the week; and guess what? We did it! We filmed 95% of our project in the last 2 days. Though we are missing one or two scenes left to film, I am so proud of the hard work we have put in this week. Hopefully, since we are now caught up on our schedule, we are able to stay on track and keep this project flowing smoothly. Stay tuned for some footage from our filming days! 

- AC

Dialogue

I'm starting to believe Isabella and I have super powers... we finished the dialogue with no problems! Check it out down below:

Spencer’s Dialogue:

Trailer 1:

• Frame 3: “Hey my name is Spencer”
• Frame 6: “What’s your your name?
• Frame 12:
• Eliza says: “On a scale of 1 to 10, How was my cooking, and be honest, i won't get offended”
• “As you can clearly see, I hated it.”
• “Why are you making dad jokes when you aren’t even a dad…”
• (Turns and whispers) “yet….”
• Frame 24: “...And this is for you”

Trailer 2:

• Frame 8: “Stop splashing me, I’ll slip and fall in!”
• Eliza says, “That’s the whole point love!"

Young Eliza’s Dialogue:

Trailer 1:

• Frame 6:
• Spencer says “What’s your name?”
• “Eliza”
• Frame 11:
• Ryan walks through the door
• “Hey sweetie how was school?”
• Frame 12:
• “So did you like it?”
• Spencer says “As you can clearly see, I hated it.”
• “Why are you making dad jokes when you aren’t even a dad…”
• (Turns and whispers) “yet….”
• Frame 18:
• Spencer knocks on door with flowers, chocolates, and teddy bear”
• “He was sweet like the chocolates he used to get me every Valentine’s day and adorable like the teddy bear he would always bring me; oh and those roses, oh they were my favorite, and his favorite too”
• Frame 22:
• Car Screeches, Spencer gets run over
• “Spencer!!!”

Older Eliza’s Dialogue:

Trailer 2:

• Frame 8: 
• Spencer says “Stop splashing me, I’ll slip and fall in!”
• “That's the whole point babe!”
• Frame 14:
• Doctor: “Congratulations! What are you gonna name her”
• “Ryan.”

Ryan’s Dialogue:

Trailer 1:

• Frame 10:
• Teacher: “Reflection of video due monday...Ryan are you even listening?!”
• “Mhmm”
• Frame 11:
• Eliza asks “Hey sweetie how was school?”
• “It was whatever i guess..”
• Frame 16:
• Ryan walks to Spencer’s grave and lays roses down
• “Hey dad, i heard you liked these, mom told me, and i wanted to bring them for you….*sigh*....i really wish i couldve met you”
• Frame 17:
• Ryan is sitting with older Eliza
• “Mom...what was he like?”
• Frame 19:
• Ryan finds For You file
• “Why didn’t you tell me about this?!”

Trailer 2:

• Frame 16:
• Ryan is sitting with older Eliza
• “What was he like?”

Doctor’s Dialogue:

Trailer 1:

• Frame 22:
• Car Screeches, Spencer gets run over
• Eliza says “Spencer!”
• Heart rate monitor beeps
• “Eliza I’m so sorry, he’s dead”

Trailer 2:

• Frame 14:
• Audio of baby crying (Ryan being born)
• Doctor: Congratulations! What are you gonna name her?”

Friend Dialogue:

Trailer 1:

• Frame 15:
• Clouded voice in Ryan’s head
• “What are you getting your dad for Father's’ day?"

Teacher’s Dialogue:

Trailer 1:

• Frame 10:
• In class, Ryan is sleeping.
• Teacher says “ Reflection of video due monday...Ryan are you even listening?!”

- AC

Storyboards: Trailers 1&2

Welcome back, guys! Guess what?

We did it !! Isabella and I finally finished our new storyboards! Go take a look: 

Trailer 1:

Trailer 2:

As you can see, Isabella and I decided to make trailer 2 more theatrical, and shorter than trailer two because we agreed that our first trailer would be advertised to our younger target audience, women ages 13-25, while our second trailer would be targeted towards women ages 30-50. Our first trailer would be distributed through social media, while our second trailer would be displayed in theaters and on television.

Now that we finished our storyboard it is time to write our dialogue! Until next time...

- AC

New Ideas

As you know from my last post, Isabella and I have had trouble casting actors/actresses for our roles of Spencer and Ryan. During our Aice Media A Level class, we began to storyboard our trailers but could not fully focus since we knew we had another issue that we were putting off and ignoring.

Our Aice Media A Level teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa, fortunately, met with Isabella and me to discuss our project. During this meeting, we explained our conflicts with casting and how we have not been able to find a male in his early 20s that would be willing to be in our trailer. We also explained that we have not been able to cast Ryan, Spencer and Eliza's daughter because we did not have an actor for Spencer to rely on for Ryan's physical appearance and looks. 

Without giving us exact ideas, Mrs. Stoklosa suggested that we rearrange our plot to accommodate our conflicts. Isabella and I looked at each other and knew it would be the best thing to do, even though we had already started our storyboard and had spent days trying to figure out our original plot. Mrs. Stoklosa ended our meeting with one statement that made us realize what we had to do. She said something along the lines of, "What if Spencer never appeared?" and then told us to go figure it out on our own.

Are you ready to hear what our new idea is???

Well, Isabella and I realized we could accommodate our conflict without changing the plot in any way. We decided to restart our storyboard and take out all shots of Spencer in the trailer. But after realizing it was somewhat necessary to show Spencer, we agreed on only showing shots that did not show Spencer's full body. With this idea, we knew we could cast any male with male prominent features, without having to be around 20 years old, that could be in our trailer. I instantly thought of my younger cousin, Matias Morales. Since we decided to never show Spencer's face, we agreed that using Matias in our trailer was the best idea.

Now, all we were missing was casting Ryan, but since we were using my family from my mother's side, Laura Morales (young Eliza), Patricia Morales (older Eliza), and Matias Morales (Spencer), I offered to play to role of Ryan in order to provide consistency with casting appearance. Hopefully, I can overcome my camera shyness and showcase my acting skills (if I have any....)

So, we began to storyboard again, but this time, had no conflicts to interrupt us. Finally!!!

Though we are a bit behind schedule, Isabella and I knew we wanted to push ourselves to finish our storyboard, write our dialogue, and film this week. It'll be a long week, but I know we can do this!

Stay tuned for our final storyboard and dialogue!

- AC

Film Outline

That short break from our plot hole really payed off! Not only were Isabella and I able to fix the plot hole, we were able to come up with the name of our film, our charachter's names, some casting, and our production company logo. All of that information can be found down below in the outline i have created for our film. Enjoy!

Film Outline

• Production Company: A&I Studios
• Logo:

• Film title: For You
• Character Names:
• Husband: Spencer
• Wife: Eliza
• Daughter: Ryan
• Casting:
• Eliza: Laura Morales
• Ryan: (Haven't casted yet!)
• Spencer: (Haven't casted yet!)
• How they come up with the daughters name:
• Dinner date/lunch date
• Spencer: “Do you see yourself having children?”
• Eliza: "Of course."
• Spencer: “What would be our child’s name?”
• Eliza: “Ryan?"
• Spencer: "That's perfect! I love unisex names."
• Plot:
• Spencer documents his life
• Films meeting Eliza
• Films relationship milestones with Eliza
• Eliza gets pregnant
• Spencer begins to film his reaction
• Spencer dies
• 17 years later...
• Ryan is in highschool
• Super unmotivated, no purpose
• Ryan finds her parent's love story footage
• Ryan notices there are pieces of the footage that are broken
• Static screens
• No ending
• Ryan finds her purpose
• Fix her father's film and become a film maker
• Ryan decides to apply to film school in New York University (NYU)
• Ryan gets accepted to film school because of her father's film that she fixed

As you can see, Isabella and I have made a lot of progress regarding our film. Now all that's left to do is finish casting, storyboard, write the dialogue and begin to film! We are a little behind schedule, but I know we will work everything out!

- AC

Production Company

Often times in life, taking a break from something you are stuck on can help tremendously in the long run. So, before our brains explode, Isabella and I agreed to take a break from the plot hole and focus on another aspect of our trailer.
Since we have to create a production company that is producing our film, we decided to brainstorm logo and company name ideas. Both of us knew we wanted the company to include our names, in some way or another. So, we played around with the use of our first name initials, A and I. 

As you can see on the right, we created around 15 different logos for our production company. However, none of them fully captured the true essence of our friendship and project goals. Ever since Isabella and I met, we had a connection with triangles, I know it sounds weird, right? As weird as it sounds, we both felt that a triangle was the perfect shape that represented our bond and friendship. So, it only made perfect sense that we used a triangle in our production company logo. 

We completely scratched those 15 logos and started designing new logos that incorporated a triangle. After drawing out two triangles on top of each other, we came up with our final logo and added on our company name, A&I Studios.


Here is the final sketch for our production company logo: 

Now all that is left to do with this logo is create the actual digital version based on our sketch.

Stay tuned for the digital version!

- AC

Plot Hole

Welcome back blog readers!

As promised in my last post, I will discuss our final plot ideas. But upon talking to Isabella, we came to the realization that there is a hole in our plot. 

After brainstorming off of each other's ideas, we concluded that the found love story would revolve around a young couple in college. Without figuring out the exact details, we agreed to portray the boyfriend/husband as an aspiring film-maker who vlogs/films all aspects of his life. 

• One day, in his college class, the guy, which we have not named (and should get on top of that soon), decides to vlog himself in class discussing how his day is going. 
• He will notice a girl walking through the doors and instantly turns the camera to show her beauty. Then, he will talk about the giant crush that she has on this girl and will make it a point to talk to her next class.
• Since he is a vlogger, he will begin to document their love story and film their first conversation, their first dates, proposal, etc.
• After a couple of years, the boyfriend/husband will come home from class/work and will begin to vlog from inside of his car.
• The girlfirend/wife will run out of the house and surprise him.
• He begins to vlog her
• The girlfriend/wife will be shown with a pregancy stick that reads positive
• He jumps out of the car, vlogs the pregancny stick and yells "I'm gonna be a father!"
• He tells the girlfriend/wife to wait there as he runs across the street to pick up a flower from the neighbor's yard.
• On his way back across the street, a car will not see him, and will run him over
• He is vlogging the whole acident
• Camera falls and you hear the girlfirend/wife scream
• Fade to static

This overall plot is a great start to our project, but we soon realized that there is no resolution. If the filming of the love story is the rising action and his death is the climax, what's the resolution? We can't create two trailers for a film that doesnt have a resolutio, it's impossible and incomplete! We have hit a plot hole, and now we are stuck. 

Hopefully Isabella and I will be able to create a resolution to our plot and will find our way out of the plot hole. 

Until then.....

-AC

Target Audience

Hello blog readers, welcome back!

Since I have concluded my research on conventions, it is time to now move on to researching the target audience for romantic dramas and then coming to a conclusion on the target audience for our movie! Here we go!

Romance films are typically targeted towards women, with certain films targeting different ages. 

Some romantic films are target towards older women, around the ages 35-50. These films are generally made to portray the struggles an older woman faces in her love life.

One romantic drama, with an older female audience is the film The Time Traveler's Wife. This film explores the theme of a husband time traveling and how it affects his marriage with his wife. This romantic drama with a hint of fantasy and sci-fi, aids in targeting older women as their target audience by demonstrating the struggles and complications of marriage and love in general.



Another film that targets older women is the film P.S. I Love You. This 2007 romantic drama revolves around a young widow dealing with her death of her husband, who has left her messages to help her move on and begin a new life without him. Before researching this film, I had no idea how similar it was to our plot! However, this film focuses more on the effect the death has on the wife's life rather than the child's life, like our film. This film targets an older audience by illustrating how the death of the woman's husband affects her life as an adult.




However, Isabella and I decided it was best to target a younger target audience, since our film revolves around the love story of a young-adult couple and the effect of the husband's death on their young daughter.

Romantic dramas with younger women as their target audience usually target the ages 13-25, such as the films The Last Song and LOL.


Based on the romantic novel written by Nicholas Sparks, there is no doubt that the romantic drama film, The Last Song, is targeted at young women. In the film, A rebellious girl is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect. The target audience for this film is young women in their teenage years.  






LOL, a 2012 romantic drama, revolves around the main character, Lola, and her relationship with a boy in high school. This love story captures the attention of young women since it explores the wave of emotions Lola is feeling, thanks to her growing hormones, and other young love story lines. Though Isabella and I agreed that the relationship we portray in our film is based in the couple's college years, this film is a perfect example for our target audience, since it targets younger women ages 14-20. 




Thanks to this research, Isabella and I have come to the conclusion that our target audience is young women ages 13-25. Since women in these ages are typically high school students living with their parents or college students, are target audience expands to young women ages 13-25 in the upper-middle class. Though ethnicity may play a large role in target audiences for certain genres, Isabella and I believe the target audience for a romance genre  is not centralized on ethnicity. 

Now that we finally have the basis down for our film, it is time to create one last outline, regarding the plot, characters, and other technical elements regarding our film. See you soon!

- AC

“The Last Song (2010).” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt1294226/?ref_=tt_rec_tt. 

“LOL (2012).” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt1592873/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. 

“P.S. I Love You (2007).” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0431308/?ref_=ttls_li_tt. 

"The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)." IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0452694/?ref_=ttls_li_tt.

Genre Conventions: Romance

General movie trailer conventions that I discussed in my last blog post are usually the same for all trailers. However, each genre has different conventions within movie trailers that help appeal to their target audience. Since the trailer I am planning on creating revolves around found-footage of a love story, it is evident that the genre I am working on is Romance.

As promised in my last blog post, I will research the desired time length for a trailer within my genre. Before I do that though, I have to research on the romance genre in order to gain a better understanding of my genre.

The romance genre is a broad genre that consists of multiple different sub-genres:

• Romantic Drama Movies: The plot of romantic drama typically revolves around two people – to date, predominantly a man and woman – as they overcome obstacles which prevent them finding true love. An emphasis on the film’s score is deemed to be common in the genre, as are happy resolutions at the end of the movie. 
• Examples: 
• Casablanca (1942)
• A Walk to Remember (2002)
• Rom-Com Movies: Traditional romance blended with elements of comedy, often seeing the leading love interests placed in bizarre circumstances or being subjected to gross misunderstandings. Nearly always resolves with a happy ending. 
• Examples:
•  Clueless (1995)
• Love Actually (2003)
• Chick Flick Movies: Often seen as a derogatory term, the phrase ‘chick flick’ denotes any romance movie perceived to be aimed predominantly towards a female audience. Romance may not be strictly necessary as a central theme. 
• Examples:
• The Notebook (2004)
• The Fault in our Stars (2014)
• Romantic Thriller Movies: The romantic thriller sub-genre, as the name implies, mixes tropes common to both action movies and traditional romance. The romantic plot is usually set against high-octane action or adventure – as a result, it can cross over into numerous genres. 
• Examples:
• Knight and Day (2010)
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

Out of these sub-genres, the found-footage love story falls under the categories of Rom-Com, Romantic Drama, and Chick Flicks. Isabella and I have decided that for our idea, it is best that we fall under the Romantic Drama genre. 

Romantic Drama often centers its narrative action on a romantic conflict. In our story, the conflict we have chosen to portray is death. Isabella and I have decided that the husband is going to die, and how his death affects their love story and the footage that is found by their child.

Moving on to trailer times, the romance genre typically has regular length trailers, averaging to around 110 seconds, or one minute and 50 seconds. Stephen Follows, the british film producer that i discussed in my last post, created a graph, showing the average length of each genre's movie trailors. 

As you can see, the romance genre sits well in the average times along with various different genres.

Knowing the average times of romance trailers really helps kickstart this project, but i'm not 100% ready to start creating this masterpeice. In the next blog post, I will research the target audience for the romance genre and how that effects romance trailers, and will come to a conclusion on my film's target audience, so stick around!

- AC

Zeke. “Ultimate List of Film Sub Genres.” Student Resources, 17 Mar. 2015, www.nyfa.edu/student-  resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/.

“How Long Is the Average Movie Trailer?” Stephen Follows, 17 July 2017, stephenfollows.com/long-average-movie-trailer/.

Movie Trailer Conventions

Now that I know the overall idea of what I am going to create, it is now time to work! But, success and an amazing project does not come with work alone, it requires research. Though I have some overall foundation of knowledge over movie trailers, further research would help me immensely. Let's start researching!

So what exactly are the typical conventions of a movie trailer?

Thanks to an educational source, Film Education, I was able to play a matching game that taught me the essentials for movie trailers. As you can see if you click the link, I had to match each phrase with each trailer convention, in order to fully understand movie trailer conventions. In case you were wondering, it took me a couple of tries to get it all correct, but hey, it really helped me learn!

All movie trailers, if not most, incorporate the use of voice-overs, characters, key points, dialogue, dramatic angles, action, music, the title, and montages.

As the Film Education mentions:

• Voice-overs are used to tell the story and give credit information
• The characters, usually the main ones, are showcased throughout the trailer
• Key points are sometimes conveyed through on-screen words
• Conversations between characters, or dialogue, usually consist of one-liners
• Dramatic angles aid in showing dramatic events or characters
• The action is interspersed with actor or director credits on screen
• Music plays an important role in creating the atmosphere
• The title may not appear until the end of the trailer
• Montages are often used to highlight the most dramatic, humorous, or fast-paced aspects of the film

These are all aspects of a film trailer but in order to include all of these elements, there must be a time limit. With that statement comes the question: How long are film trailers?

Well, based on a study done by Stephen Follows, a British film producer, the length of each movie trailer differs, ranging from as short as 11-second teaser trailers to much longer eight-and-a-half-minute-long trailers. According to Follows, the average length was one minute and 54 seconds long. This information was based on a chart, which Follows had created, shown below. 

>

Without knowing this information, I would have been completely lost when making my trailer! As you can tell, research really is important! Now I know that my trailers should be somewhere from one minute to two minutes long. But does each genre have a different average trailer time? We'll have to find out! See you next time!

- AC

“Teaching Trailers Spring 2013.” Film Education, www.filmeducation.org/teachingtrailers/secondary/conventions.html.

“How Long Is the Average Movie Trailer?” Stephen Follows, 17 July 2017, stephenfollows.com/long-average-movie-trailer/.

The Inspiration

Behind every masterpiece, there is an inspiration. Fortunately for my group mate and I, we discovered our inspiration almost a week ago while watching movies together.

On Saturday, February 24,  Isabella and I decided to get together for a movie night at her house. After spending a few hours scrolling through YouTube videos and random films, we gave up and just chatted the night away. After an hour or so, her mother came home and joined in on our conversation and had mentioned that she was in the mood to watch a romantic comedy. I had suggested watching the film, Home Again, which I had seen previously with my mother. Knowing this romantic comedy was the perfect movie for the night, we sat down and began to watch it.

The film, which I will not explore in too much depth, revolves around the life of a 40-year-old woman and how her life changes when she crosses paths with three young men, all looking to pursue a career in the entertainment field in California. Our inspiration directly came from one of the scenes of this film. In the scene, the three young men are sat down with a producer, who is giving them feedback on their film script and theme. The producer was not fond of the men's movie idea and pitched them the idea of a found-footage love story instead. As soon as my group mate and I heard that idea, we sprung off the couch and yelled, "THAT'S IT!"

After discussing the pros and cons with Isabella, such as the genre of this idea and how well they work with the traditional movie trailer conventions, we decided it was a perfect overall idea. After spending hours over discussing the possible plot ideas, we decided that we wanted to portray this love story through footage found from the lover's child. Now all that's left to do is further research the typical conventions not only for movie trailers but for romance films. Let's get this show on the road!

- AC