Main Prop!!!!

Hello Blog,

For this blog post we created one of our props. Our principal prompt is going to be a comic book period this comic book is what our main character is going to be working on during the opening and it’s gonna be a passion throughout the film. The title of the comic is actually gonna be the title of our film and we’re gonna incorporate this in the way that it is gonna be our title slate in the video. Below is going to be a Time-lapse of Lee working on the prop as well as some pictures.

I apologize for the short blog post today, I’m going on a school field trip but I will keep you posted on my progress and on my trip!

CASTING

Hello Blog,

For this blog post I had the choice of doing anything I wanted and I chose to talk about casting.

For casting week since we have three main characters opening we decided to cost three people that we fall that fit those profiles. The first person we casted is called Sam he’s going to play Atticus in the opening. In order to get him into character we are going to get him into costume and we’re gonna the greatest room which are things I’m gonna talk about in future blog posts.

The second person we casted was Lee who is in our own group. We got her to be Aurora because we feel like she fits the personality of the character and we think that she could play her really well no does she have red hair which is something we mad in afterward to help she hope somebody that character in a really specific and creative way which is why we were looking for.

The last person was Madison also in our own group. Madison will play Kai w who is the villain in our story. Madison owns a mustang which is a car that we were hoping to use for the character to show that he has a really nice car and that he uses a recklessly and because of Madison car and her driving she’s one of the people that we chose to cast.asting is very important because of somebody who’s playing the character is not fit the character well does not represent them correctly ruin the whole more of the film.

Casting is very important because of somebody who’s playing the character is not fit the character well does not represent them correctly ruin the whole more of the film.

Sound!

Hello blog,

In this post I’m gonna talk all about audio.

The main audio for our opening is our song. We chose the song because we felt like it accurately represented both Kai and Atticus. Well the song is pretty edgy it is also whimsical alternative which we felt that accurately represented both of the characters from our film opening. We thought that this might be a song that they both would enjoy to listen to and it also serves us a way to connect both characters.

Click the link below to listen to our song

MUSIC LINK!!!

We are also going to use smaller audio elements such as the sound of the car engine revving and the sound of Atticus drawing. Most of the smaller sounds are gonna be produced by Foley. 

I know it’s not much, but this is all I have for this blog post, so until next time!

Here's a picture of a music note because I didn't know what else to put :)

Props!

Hello blog,

For this blog, I’m gonna talk about all the props that we’re gonna use on our film opening.

Car:

The first prop that I’m gonna be talking about is the car. The plan is to use Kai‘s car as a way to represent his recklessness and his way to stand down in a crowd. He is supposed to be a bully which is kind of represented by the colors that he wears, but the fact that he stands out in the crowd is also represented through the car. We’re gonna be using a Mustang as the car. The car will be used as an extension of his personality, and one of the only things that he truly cares about.

Cloak:

The cloak is a very important prop as it would represent the fact that Atticus has trouble letting go of the fantasy world when it comes to real life. The cloak is meant to service a security blanket that he wears every time that he’s in his own world inside his room. When he wears a cloak, he feels safe and he feels in control of his own world as he barely has any in the real world. He usually only wears the cloak when he’s inside his room to avoid being made fun of, but whenever he’s wearing it, he feels like he’s embodying his true hero self.

Art Supplies:

The art supplies are gonna be used to portrayed the fact that Atticus is an artist. He uses this to try to fulfill his life of dream of becoming a comic book artist. His art supplies are away for him to express himself and gain some sort pf control in a world where he feels like he has none.

Phone:

The phone isn’t a major prop. It is mostly going to be used to show how the music is played throughout the film opening. However it is also used us a way to connect Kai and Atticus in a way that shows that they’re not actually that different from each other. Both articles and Kai turned on the same song the plays about the opening which shows that they really are that different after all and that they can find a way to connect without even knowing.

That’s all for this blog post I will keep you updated on my progress, until next time!

Colors!

Hello blog,

This blog post is gonna be all about color and how they affect each character. There’s many different mise-en-scene elements in a film opening. One of the most important things is color and how it represents different things such as characters feelings, or anything else that color serve for.

On today's post, I’m gonna talk about how each color represents each character and how we plan to use them in our film opening.

Atticus: 

Atticus is a very creative character who is very imaginative and in a way is very youthful. In the following, he starts out very colorful represented by color such as blue green just overall very bright. These colors are supposed to represent the fact that he is a very bright person who has a very colorful . Green is a color that is usually used to represent youthfulness in films. Which is why we plan to use this as one of his main colors throughout the film. Blue is used to represent isolation and melancholy in films. Which in a way represents him because he’s a very lonely character. We plan to show him with very bright colors of the beginning as as he develops into a different type of character. The colors will begin to change throughout the film. In challenging times he will dress with more muted colors to represent that in a way, the brightness of his personality is fading. At times where he is regaining his sense of self back. He will regain all the brightness on the color.

Blue is used in Only God Forgives to represent loneliness and isolation

Aurora: 

Aurora starts out with very dark color, so just black gray brown, which are supposed to mirror the way that Kai dresses. So she doesn’t know who she is yet she struggles to find her own colors throughout the film. As she developed into the character that she supposed to be her color, palette, including the way that she dresses, and the way that her hair is colored from dull to bright is supposed to represent her finding herself. I’m finding her personality away from being tied to another person and mirroring the colors that they use . Once she finds herself the colors more associated with her go from black to pink and red. Pink to represent in a way femininity and red to represent love. Her hair is also done at the beginning of the movie. It looks like a door red, which is supposed to sort of for shadow one of her main colors in her color palette, but it’s very dull since she’s not really herself yet. As she finds herself, she decides to dye her hair and make it feel more like her, making it brighter along with her character.

Pink is used in Dirty Dancing to represent Love

Kai: 

Once again, cause personality and colors don’t really change that much through throughout the film. As I mentioned in my last blog post Kai is meant to be the main antagonist which is gonna be represented with color such as black brown gray just overall very dark and dull colors. His color probably won’t really change much throughout the film, but they rightfully represent his personality and the type of character that he is. As black is usually used to represent darkness. This is respectfully used to represent. The guys are very conflicted and dark character.

Maleficent uses the Color Black to convey a menacing character

These mise-en-scene elements will be used to enhance the storytelling and further represent the characters. 

I’ll keep you updated on my progress.  

Until next time!

Characters!

Hello Blog!

Today I’m going to talk about character development.

So I said before there are three main characters in the film opening: our main character Atticus, our princess Aurora, and our villain Kai.

Atticus:

Atticus is a very interesting character as we see in the film opening. His biggest character trait is that he has a lot of difficulty separating the fictional world from the real world. He starts a really nerdy guy who wears a cloak as a security blanket. He believes that he is a hero in a fantasy comic throughout the film. He’s going to grow as a character and begin realizing that not everything is a fantasy story. You don’t always end up being a hero and you don’t always rescue the princess. Throughout the film, he is going to grow into the hero that he imagines himself to be even if it isn’t in the exact same way he thinks.

Atticus's Mood Board

Aurora:

Aurora is also very interesting character. In the beginning of the film, she’s dating Kai who is a very grungy and edgy sort of looking character. Since she doesn’t know who she is at the beginning of the film, she dresses to mimic her boyfriend and sort of quiet and follows what he says to do. Throughout the film she’s going to grow into the strong character that she is. While Atticus sees her as a princess who needs to be rescued, she realizes that she’s a strong character and she doesn’t need anyone to rescue her. She really finds herself through the film and has a lot of character development that is not only shown through her personality, but also in her hair and her clothing.

Aurora's Mood Board

Kai:

Kaiser third character and our villain. He doesn’t really develop that much as a character through the film. He is meant to serve as the main bully and villain that helps Atticus realize that maybe not everything is a fantasy. He’s also supposed to serve as a bad boyfriend who makes her realize that she’s really strong and she doesn’t really need anyone to tell her what to do. While he doesn’t really change, he doesn’t serve a very important purpose in the film, he is a character that leads to the other characters realization of who they are, and he further helps the other characters development as who they’re really supposed to be.

Kai's Mood Board

That’s all for this blog post. I’ll keep you updated on my progress, until next time!

Script!

 Hello Blog, since my last post was my storyboard, here is our script!

I had a lot of fun making this :)

We're still in the pre-production stages of the project so stay tuned to continue seeing our progress!

Storyboard!

 Hello Again Blog!

We recently worked to finish our storyboard, so we at least have something even though we don’t have a script yet. We are currently working on having the square finish, but in the meantime, here is our storyboard. 

Credit to the amazingly Lee and her beautiful drawings because no one else in my team can draw!

Anyway, here is our storyboard:

Stay tuned on our progress! I'll keep posting soon!

IDEA!

Hello Again Blog!

 This week my group and I have further developed our idea for the film opening. We’re going to do a coming-of-age film as we’ve discussed in past blogs, but we are taking a different direction as to what we want to do with this project. Originally, we have thought about doing something with somebody driving down the street however we thought about it, and this might be a little difficult to execute. So, we had a better idea that were all a lot more excited. Our film opening is going to be about this nerdy misunderstood kid who often fantasize about the fantasy world. He would love to be part of it, and he often draws people from his real life as fantasy characters in his comics. He is in love with a girl that lives across the street from him, but sadly she is in a relationship with the person who bullies him. Our film opening is going to be a series of shots back-and-forth between our artistic guy and our main bully. The artistic guy is in his room, coloring artwork and listening to music while his bully is driving down the street going to pick up his girlfriend. 

Something that we’re really excited to try is doing cross cutting to show how about the guy and the bully are doing things at the same time. Cross cutting is film is when in editing it cuts back-and-forth between two events that are usually happening at the same time. This is to show that both of these things are happening at the same time, and they’re probably connected. We want to start as both the bully and our main character turn to listen to the same song while credits are rolling and they’re both doing separate activities until they come together at the end of our film opening. 

Here’s an example of some films that use cross cutting:

Top Gun:

Mean Girls:

Interstellar:

We’re excited to further develop this idea even more! Stay tuned to find out how it’s going, until next time.

Character Theory!!!

Hello Blog,

In this post I'm going to talk about character theory,

For our projects, we are supposed to choose a media theory that we're going to incorporate into the project. The first theory that came to mind was the character theory. I want to show a lot of character traits, and development through the opening. We are showing three characters in our opening the "Hero", the "Villian" and the "Princess". 

The Hero

The main character is going to be the nerd who is obsessed with making fantasy comics, he is in love with his neighbor and tries to include her in the comics that he makes. We want to include many elements that represent him in the opening such as art materials and little things that represent him. As he is obsessed with the fantasy world, he often draws himself as the hero in many of his comics. In my research for characters, I learned that there are different types of heroes. These characters often suffer from misfortune at the beginning of the story but embark in a journey. In this case, our hero is bullied by the villain, this sparks the beginning of some type of journey, in this case the journey of self-discovery and the path to love. There’s many examples of the heroes in media, for example Peter Parker, Superman, amongst many others.

The Villain

Another big character in our film opening is going to be the villain. The villain usually starts some sort of misfortune at the beginning of a story. In this case it will be the fact that he bullies our main character. Not only is he a villain in the hero's fantasy world, but he is also a villain in his real life, too, which is why our main character imagine as a villain in his comics. Some examples of villains in media are the wicked witch in Wizard of Oz, Thanos from Marvel’s endgame, and a typical bully in any coming of each film.

The Princess

Another character we included her from opening is the princess. In my research I found out the princess is usually the sought for person. She doesn’t necessarily have to be a victim. Well, a lot of of the princesses and body the stereotype of damsels in distress, they don’t always have to be. The princess is just usually the main love interest, and the sort out for person. There are many examples of this in media for example, any Disney princess.

There are many ways the character theory could be used in media. It is mainly used for understanding, media and characters in films. It is useful for analyzing and understanding characters in immediate text. I’m very excited to be able to incorporate many different ways in which I can develop my characters further in my film opening. Stay tuned to find out more about my project in the future!

Group Meeting!

Hello Blog, 

This week we did our first group meeting. Our teacher made groups so everyone could get some feedback on how our film opening projects were going. I met with four other girls: Omer, Anastasia, Miranda, and Sofia S. I loved working with them and receiving their feedback. I also loved that I got a chance to share my feedback with them to help them further develop their projects. Something I found really interesting was how they are all thinking of doing Horror/Thriller film openings. It was really interesting to hear their approaches, one girl had a really cool idea about making her opening a series of visions that the main character was having. We all pitched in and helped her develop her idea even further.

They all gave me some really interesting insights to my own project. I told them about how my group was still discussing what to do but that we knew we wanted to use a car. They all suggested really helpful ways to incorporate a car such as closeups and different angles. I'm getting more and more exited to work on this project the more I develop it. They were a huge help and I'm really glad we got to work together. I loved this activity it was really helpful, and I loved getting to know more girls in my class. I hope we get to do something like this again! 

Here is a picture we took together!

Fonts! Fonts! Fonts!

Hello Blog, 

There are so many things I could have written this post about, but there is one thing I can't get out of my head about the film opening project: I can't decide which font I'm going to use. 

There are so many important elements in a film opening, but recently I've found that the font used for the title can set the entire mood for a production. The font can set up the tone of a film and give the audience something to expect. There are so many iconic film titles that fit so well with the overall mood of the film, here are some examples: 

    

    

            

Each of these fonts fit the theme of the movie perfectly. These titles have helped define the brand for these movies an define a whole franchise for their movies. A title is the first thing the audience connects to a film.  It helps reel in a target audience,  Fonts can be used to appeal to an audience, be part a brand for the movie, and it can even reflect on themes from the movie. It's so important what font is used because this can help further develop a production.

After much thought, I thought that since my group and I are thinking of doing a coming-of-age film opening, we should use a font that matches that theme. 

Below are some options I would like to use:

While these fonts are pretty simple, I feel that whichever title my group and I end up deciding on should be pretty simplistic while still fitting into our chosen genre to reel in our target audience which will most likely be young adults. The font shouldn't be too flashy since the film itself is supposed to be lighthearted.

I will keep you posted on which font my group ends up using!

Until next time!

SCHEDULE!!!

Hello Blog, 

For this blog post I'm going to talk about the schedule that my group and I made in order to stay on task throught this whole process.

Week 1: 1/29/25- 2/1/25

• Decide group

• Discuss possible Genres

Week 2: 2/2/25- 2/8/25

• Decide on singular genre for film opening

• Research opening scenes in genre

• Research opening credits in genre

• Begin planning plot and target audience

Week 3: 2/9/25- 2/15/25

• Meet with Ms. Stoklosa to discuss potential plot idea

• Research media theories to include

• Finalize plot

• 
  Create storyboard and script

Week 4: 2/16/25- 2/22/25

• Expand on characters depth

• Plan props

• Plan costume

• Plan set

• Begin deciding on potential song choices

Week 5: 2/23/25- 3/1/25

• Filming week

• Apply all previous research

Week 6: 3/2/25- 3/8/25

• Editing/ reshoot week

• Make any final details and put in audio and clips

• Begin CCR research

Week 7: 3/9/25- 3/15/25

• Finished with film opening

• Research for CCR

• Begin production of CCR

Week 8: 3/16/25- 3/22/25

• Finalize CCR

• Final reflections

• DONE!!!

I'll keep you updated on our progress so make sure to check in soon!!!

Credits!

 Hello Blog,

For this post I researched credit sequences in the coming-of-age genre. Opening credits tend to be a recurring thing in this genre. Many movies usually open with credits in a scene that allows this to be done such as a montage, showing of scenery, and many others.

Edward Scissorhands

This opening is a series of credits. Credits pop in and out in a black frame to music that establishes the somewhat eerie tone of the film. The credits are meant to be the sole focus of the opening. While there are some images that relate to the rest of the film, the credits are flat center in the screen in order to be the first thing that catches a viewer's attention.

Dead Poets Society

In this movie the credits happen during a scene in which there is some sort of ceremony going on. The credits are quite visible but unlike the previous film, they are not supposed to be the main focus of the opening. They are placed in the lower middle third in order to still be visible but not be the entire subject of the opening.

Edge of Seventeen

This film opening includes many elements. The opening credits once again are not meant to be the main focus in the scene. While the credits do start with a black frame followed by the title of the fil, they quickly change to the bottom of the screen while the main character rushes. Rather than focusing on the credits, this scene focuses mainly on the main character.

Overall, I've learned a lot of different ways to incorporate credits into a film opening. Whether the credits are taking up the whole screen, are off to the side, or both of these techniques are incorporated, I'm excited to incorporate these techniques into my own film opening.

Choosing The Genre

Hello Blog,

So, for our Film Opening my group decided to go the coming-of-age route.

I researched many film openings to get a better idea of what these openings are supposed to look like.

First film I looked at was Turtles All the Way Down.

This film opening shows a montage of the main character's childhood. It uses some foreshadowing and gives us a glimpse of some conflicts that will happen through the film without giving away too much. It uses different elements to create a dream-like sequence to establish the fact that it's supposed to be a flash back. 

Here it is:

My second one is Lady Bird:

This film opening contains a montage of various settings in the main character's hometown. This film opening plays with many colors and various settings to establish the setting and the stillness of her hometown, foreshadowing the fact that she feels trapped and alone in this place. The mise-en-scene elements of this opening make it seem very calm and colorful.

The third movie Ferris Bueler's Day Off:

This film opening breaks the fourth wall as the main character Ferris talks directly to the audience. This is something that not a lot of films do as break the fourth wall can be tricky to do because if it's not done correctly, it can ruin the whole tone of the movie. This opening puts a twist on the usual getting ready coming of age cliche because instead of getting ready to go, he is getting ready to stay home and take the day off from school.

Film Opening Research

 Hello blog,

Welcome to my second post regarding the film opening project. 

In further research for this project, my group and I have decided to either do drama or a coming-of-age film opening.

Drama:

In my research, something that I found when it comes to drama movies is that usually the movie starts with some sort of showing of scenery or a montage of some sort. An example of this is the movie, Forrest Gump.  In this film opening a feather is floating around the city while the credits are rolling and there’s music playing this feather continues floating around while we’re showing different buildings and different people until it lands between Forrest Gump’s feet. This is when we’re first introduced to the main character of the film, he then grabs the feather and puts it inside of a book. This film opening showed all the credits, it had music that said the tone for the rest of the film and then introduce the main character. Something that a lot of drama films do in their opening scenes.

Coming-of-age:

While researching coming of age movies one of the examples that I watched was the process of being a wallflower. In this movie, it opens with a black frame the sounds of a typewriter then the credit start. Once the main few people are introduced, we see the rest of the credits while music starts playing and scenery is shown until we are introduced to the main character and the movie continues to start. 

Something that’s common in both of the films that I watched is that both of the film openings have music in them and both of them show some sort of scenery before introducing the main character or the main subject in the film. This is something that I plan to incorporate in my opening. Maybe not necessarily the showing of scenery, but the way the movie and the credits are presented in the film is something that I will take into consideration when you doing my own film opening.