CCR question #1

 How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? Well, our opening isn’t actually convention at all. Our goal was to make it as something never seen before. Something very different and not following the usual rules of a thriller or romantic.

We have a male lead, yes that is one thing you see most often. But he’s a POC and older then the expected late 20s character with an obvious disorder of some sorts. Something we did differently is not incorporating violence of any kind instead making it almost creepier how there’s none. My partner and I noticed the bare amount of Latino culture represented, unless they’re wearing a goofy dress and singing songs there isn’t a lot of representation so we decided to have a Latino family be the representation of the Latin culture.

Target audience

Now after discussing with my partner we found out that our opening doesn’t really have a target audience. For example, we don’t believe it can only be duplicated into one age group. At least I believe that if you are a person who would enjoy a physiological thriller then this is the movie for you. Another thing is that we also don’t believe I can only be directed towards one gender.

I like to think of our opening as an opening that most thrill seeking people can enjoy. But alas,I do think I have to choose. So my partner and I decided that our opening can be directed towards Woman and Men who we’d say are  20+. I also believe this opening can also be enjoyed by teens like myself who enjoy horror.

Editing pt. 2

Throughout all of spring break I worked on editing our opening. It was kinda difficult considering the fact that I wasn’t there for shooting and it was hard to understand what shots were being filmed and in what order we wanted things to be. This was because we had made a storyboard which I believed my partner would’ve gone by but she instead took various shots of different things. This made it harder to know what type of opening this was now going to be. 

Soon after I told her which made us work things out and I placed things by the storyboard. So, the storyboard isn’t an exact replica of the opening now but they are both familiar. As mentioned I would send in the work I had and receive criticism from my partner who would have me try something different. This allowed us to use iMovie to our advantage and play around with filters, voiceovers, and adjustments of the videos.

Editing pt. 1

 So, editing… Well it’s not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I mean at times it’s fun, I get to play with the sound and different clips and overall get to know what vibe I’m trying to for. Since my partner is currently traveling, I’ve been doing most of the editing by myself. Making mostly executive decisions and calls and trying my best to making this opening very mysterious and leave the viewer with wanting more. 

Now it’s not that I am doing this part of the project all by myself. I do make sure my partner and I are putting as much effort as the other. For example, when making a decision on one part of the opening and finishing up with that I send it to my partner and receive as much critical points as she can give me and once that’s done I send her the version in which both our ideas are incorporated making it fair gain. So, although it’s challenging at times, I can always have my partner to give me the points that I need making the opening much better!

Filming: second attempt

 Ok so we filmed… again. As I mentioned the first time filming was fine but not what we wanted. Now although the actors were great and everything went fine, we were still missing something. But we were both later informed that our original actors could shoot later in the week.

There was a problem though, I had already taken all the props which were going to be very important to filming. But since I had the props we didn’t feel the need to set it up all over again. So, we improvised! Instead of using the original old phone which was gonna represent the old fashioned couple were used a regular modern phone because I thought it still captures the message that is lack of  communication l. The speakers which was originally going to be a record player but then we decided since the speakers don’t look exactly new they could still substitute for the record player. And lastly the roses which Ana had handy which was perfect and we made sure when filming, that they have an important message that the audience understands.

Filming: first attempt

 As mentioned in my last blog we set up props and filmed. All went well but we did have to resort to our last option. This was because our original actors couldn’t make it to shooting. But we made use of ourselves and tried our best to fix our problem.

As you can see, we had it all how we wanted it to be set up. But both me and my partner felt like something was wrong. As if it wasn’t giving the same I guess you could say “vibe” which what was really throwing off our setting. And it’s not that the actors were bad it was just that the essence in which we were trying to capture wasn’t captured. And this is one challenge that we had to face and thought we gonna have to deal with.

Balloon ring

So we faced troubles. In our opening we want our couple to be wearing rings in order to signify their marriage. Which as most know is most commonly shown through wedding rings. But we had to get a little creative with ours…

So, my partner’s father had lost his wedding ring and we want the wedding ring to be a big part of the opening, showcasing that they were a married couple. In order to improvise my partner cut out balloons from her brothers previous birthday and used that instead which actually worked very well when it came to filming.

Props

 We gathered our props for our opening today. Obviously they aren’t the only ones that will be participating in the opening but they are the most important. I like to believe that each of these props have a true meaning to them and are those little details that the viewer should focus on. My partner and I are going to focus as much as we can on these props in order for the viewer can understand the relationship of all them.

The phone

The phone would represent the relationship between Pablo and his child which is distant but still close in a way. Now, we all know phones are used to communicate and that’s exactly what will be lacking in the opening, communication.

Roses

The roses will represent Pablo and his wife, Rosa and their currant status. Which is one being dead and the other being alive. Not shown in the picture but in the opening we plan on using one flower to represent Rosa and another flower which is very much alive representing Pablo.

Record player

We wanted our characters to have a special bond and music will signify this bond. Although, it’s not throughly shown in the opening the dancers will be dancing to music which will represent this love and the record player will represent the old fashioned couple themselves.

Group meeting

 Well, we started off our conversations with explaining each and everyone of our openings. When doing this we would receive feedback and help each other  to improve the opening. Once introducing the idea we would talk about our struggles with it  and how we could fix it. When it came to my opening I was given feedback and told what I could to point more to the hint that the husband killed his wife.

We started off with my peer, Balthazar, who's using a horror as his genre. He seemed to be struggling mostly with audio and what type of sound he wanted to use so, we told him he could find different sounds on different websites such as "Purple Planet" and also gave our personal suggestions as to how he could incorporate sound into the opening. So, we would basically focus on one person, go through their blogs, and give feedback.

Location

 My partner and I decided to make a remote place for our setting in order to have an image of what we want to setting to look like. Luckily both me and my partner have similar home setting in comparison to the drawing. We decided to use my partner's home when it came to filming. Not only do we want our actors to feel comfortable but we want everything to match up with our imaginations. 

One problem is that, in the drawing there seems to be little to no furniture and house decor at all. Obviously since this was a rough draft it wasn't going to be very detailed. But when filming we are going to include more furniture and decor in order for the opening to feel more realistic. We still do want our main pieces to make an appearance of course because some of these pieces are the biggest parts of the opening. 

Representation in our opening

 So we decided to make our characters Hispanic. We decided to make they’re nationality known once we were writing the script. The actors are Hispanic so naturally we decided that this could be an opportunity for representation. Since my partner and I are Hispanic we also wanted to incorporate that into our opening and think of how it can help the opening and make even more of an impact.

So in the script we decided that the characters wouldn’t only speak English but also Spanish as well. Most refer to it as “Spanglish”. This is when one is speaking both English and Spanish in between their sentences. As I mentioned before our actors are Hispanic which inspired us to make an opening in which incorporates that. As you can see in the script the son/daughter and father are having a conversation in mostly English but they do switch languages at times. I also believe this will have an effect on our Latino community because speaking “Spanglish” with my parents is something that I don’t feel is represented enough in media and should be shown more. For example, in “West Side Story” they speak both English and Spanish when speaking with each other.

Rosa's mood board

  When it came to rosa's character my partner and I didn't really know what we could do. We didn't know how much she could contribute to the opening and if it was relevant to make a mood board for her at all. Seeing that her husband, Pablo already had all the things needed for the opening. But my partner pointed out that Rosa is a very big part of the opening and seeing her mood board can show how she feels thinks and the energy she will give during the opening.

So in her mood board I decided to make the background color a grey to represent her death and how she's passed unlike Pablo's who is blue, representing his aura. Then the image of an older woman shows how we imagine her to look and give us a visual representation of what we want to be working with. The jewelry is to simply point out that she's older and she will perhaps have jewelry in the opening. Now, the rose is something especially important because in our opening we want one dead flower like so and one alive representing the state of the couple. The few other images are just a representation of what type of person Rosa was when she was alive and her relationships and interests.

Pablo's mood board

My partner and I decided to give character's names in order to specify which is which. Pablo is the father and also the main character, Rosa is the mother, and Mateo or Gina is the son/daughter of the two. We decided to give Pablo and rose mood boards in order to present their "vibe" and how they should be perceived. Showing what color we want them to give off or why they are the way they are. 

First we're starting with Pablo's mood board. So, in the top left corner is shown a father and child which represents his relationship with his child which is pretty close, next to that you see some mugs staked on top of each other which is actually hint to Pablo being a messy man due to his mental health. Then in the top right corner you can see how we are pointing towards his mental illness and under that is a couple dancing which portrays his relationship with his wife. We decided to make Pablo and Rosa old fashioned hence the record player next to that is another hint towards his mental illness stating "Creative minds are rarely tidy" which I want to believe is saying that he just has a very messy and distorted mind. The last three images which is, a middle aged man and distinct drawing and a broken heart. The middle aged man is to show what I kind of want the man to look like, the drawing is just something to show he's creative but a kinda crazy, and the broken heart which represents all his current relationships including his wife's and son/daughter.

 

Music

 So my partner and I were originally going to use jazz romantic music in order to build the mystery in our opening. Our opening consists of two slow dancing. Although, it seems wholesome and warm hearted theirs actually something more going on which is later developed as the story progresses. But for this part we wanted to use music, not any kind of music but one that had no words and was kind of soft jazz. When we couldn’t find that we turned to classical music which actually worked in our favor. 

My partner had found all these great classical songs that would work. One reason we actually didn’t use jazz is because we couldn’t find ones that fit our opening. Another reason is because most would be considered copy right if we used it. Hence, why we turned to classical. We found that music made before the 1930s is not considered copyright so it was very easy to find music that would fit our opening before this time. 

We both agreed on the song, “Wedding Suite” by Sergei Prokofiev. We had listened to the other songs prior and although they could’ve very well fit the opening this one really stood out. It was best to imagine our opening with this song and seemed like the best out of all the others we had listened to.

Setting/ Costume Design

 My partner and I decided to go into the setting of our opening and how our characters would be dressed in these scenes. We thought having an idea of what we envisioned for our opening can show what the other is thinking, luckily we both had similar thoughts in when it came to that. So, the setting, My partner wanted to incorporate a lot of antiques in order to show that this is a very old fashioned couple. We also thought I would better if we made sure light seemed bluish almost like a distant memory and tried to find a tight setting in order to focus on the two dancing.

So our opening is set in modern just to make it a bit easier. But we are going to try to make the setting more old fashioned for this older couple. Not only will they have old antiques all over the home but we want to add many pictures and their frames. We also wanted to dress them old fashioned. For example, Rose (one of the dancers) will be perhaps wearing a dress, pearls, a cardigan, and her wedding ring. And just to make another hint to the fact that she’s not alive we decided not to have her wear shoes.