Back Again!

Good news everyone! Onil and I have FINALLY chosen a genre that we are sticking to. We will be going about the realm of the heartwarming genre: romance! One of the main reasons we chose this genre is because it includes techniques and tools that we love to utilize, as well as room for us to explore our imaginations. 

         To further elaborate on the techniques that we would utilize, I will talk about the shots we will focus on capturing. Close-up shots are important when showing/displaying a character’s emotions and facial expressions. This will help us overlay the character’s true feelings to the viewers as they are up-close and personal with them on-screen.  An additional shot we will be focused on taking is over the shoulder shots and medium shots. These kinds of shots can help to establish a strong relationship between our two main characters, who will be in love. We believe that it is more effective when both characters are shown together, rather than separate. 

         A very important aspect that we must indulge in is character development. If we do not create a good foundation for the main character's relationship, our story will not be understood by the audience. We believe that including details will help to display an intimate relationship, showing a real connection, which is what romance is all about. I can’t wait to get started! 

So excited,

Amanda

Happy Friday!
  I am currently driving up to Orlando to check out the campus and visit some of my friends. This week Onil and I are working hard to create a storyline. I know in one of my latest posting I said we would be doing comedy-drama genre, but when I spoke to Onil in class, we both decided that another genre would fit us best. We are currently doing some research and we hope to make a final decision soon. 

       Beyond our busy schedules as we both have school and work, I wanted to talk about when we would find the time to work and meet up with each other. Time management has always been something we have struggled with, but with a proper plan, we hope to overcome it. 

To start off, I work Monday-Friday, and the times vary from what I am doing that day. I am a certified lifeguard and a swim instructor, so depending on if I get shifted to guard the pool or teach classes, my schedule does alter. Onil works on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 9am-6pm, and Sunday from 10am-3:30pm. As explained, we both work a lot and on top of our outside school activities, we both take advanced courses. To resolve this conflicting issue, we have decided to work mainly as Sundays together, during the week in class, and over the phone (facetime/text message/phone call) as much as we can. 

Keep you posted,

Amanda

Happy Sunday!

Onil and I have finally started our process to create our best yet portfolio project. We don’t quite know what story we want to capture, so we started to do some research. To start off, like our project from last year, we felt that it was most helpful to find a genre that we were mostly interested in. So, for this year's project, we have decided that we may want to create something relating to the comedy-drama genre. We picked this genre as we want to be able to have fun with it, hence the comedy, but we also wanted it to be dramatic, as we both know how to go over the top with things. A movie that inspired our vision is ‘The Breakfast Club’ a classic at it’s finest. 

Onil and I want to capture a story alike to The Breakfast Club. This film is about the day-to-day teenage life, which we know best. We believe we have the most resources to develop a cinematic-worthy short film. I am excited to come up with a storyline and share any new information with you guys. Keep you posted!

Have a nice week,

Amanda :)

Hello again!

I felt that it would be helpful to see what I created for the trailer project. I did work with another student in my class named, Jonathan Casaverde. I am referring to what I briefly mentioned in my last posting. My intention is to write a reflection to further explain the change in Onil and I’s decision for what profolio project option we chose. So let’s check it out.  

Key Art:

picture

Jonathan and I created a poster displaying our actors, the release date, credits, and a symbol. We wanted it to be mysterious to foreshadow the plot of our movie.

Teaser:

video

For our teaser, we wanted to film a first person point of view, all in a tracking shot. We believed that this would be suspenseful and also grab the audience's attention. Without showing the face of the character, no details were revealed, making the viewers inclined to watch to watch the soon to be released film. 

Trailer:

video

For our trailer, we wanted to stay in the realm of hand-held, self recording, as we did that in our teaser. We had the main character (the one from the teaser) record himself in his motor vehicle explaining his story. While shots of him speaking were displayed, we recorded footage of some of the things he was referring to. The one thing I wish we would have done when looking at the final product was to add more sound effects. With only the audio of the speaker, and a song playing in the background, the emotions were not fully captured. Other than that, I was happy with what my partner and I created. 

Talk soon,

Amanda :)

Week #1!

Hooray, Onil and I are finally starting our portfolio project! Although I wish I had more details, we are moving like turtles. We have made an initial change so far, so let me start there by updating you guys.

In the beginning, Onil and I thought Option 2, which is the film promotion package, was the way to go for our project. This includes two trailers, together with a website for the film and a poster for the film. Then, in class we created trailers with other partners and began to realize that this option may not be the best one for us. The length is short and requires lots of technique in all cinematic aspects, for example, music and shot manipulation. We work better with more time to develop a story and progess. 

Moral to this post, we have decided to do Option 4, which is the short film package. Lasting a total of five minutes, we believe this is the perfect option for us. We can’t wait to start developing a story and later putting something new and refreshing together. 

Stay posted for more updates, 

Amanda :)