Media Studies (Film Opening) Week 7 - Characters detailing / Intention / Detailing

 06/Mar

The teacher helped outline the storyline and advised us to add more details to it. We decided to make the shots differently. Because one that we were making was similar to a music video rather than the film opening that we’re doing.

So this is what we confirmed and wrote for our discussion. We wrote this together in class:

Theme of the movie: "Through God, anything can be forgiven." Grace

Audience: Teens (14–18 schoolgoers)

Distribution: YouTube and other social media

Emotions to be conveyed: grief, regret, anger, loss; troubled but happy at the start.

Mise en scène (look, tone, style, and feel): warm lighting, warm colors, more people around her when she is happy (white, orange, and yellow), sunny weather, lots of movement, more wide angles, more shots, more fast-paced while she is happy

Acting: Grace will be seen

She is an introvert, and she doesn't talk much until she gets to know Olivia, and Olivia is the catalyst that makes her more of an extrovert. When Grace is with Olivia, she feels safe and expresses herself, just like extroverts.

Sound design: 

fast-paced, upbeat music for when she is with her friend and they are enjoying their time together, or even in major scales for happiness, slow-tempo music for sad moments and fast-tempo music for happy moments?

and the soundscape too.

Scenes outside are where she is with her friend, so there will be more noise and people talking, and it will be livelier, whereas when she is alone in her room, there is not much sound.

09/Mar

Today, we tried to come up with new ideas, as mentioned yesterday, only starting with a completely new setting and not the characters. Decided to make the film shorter and simpler. Because our previous plan was too music video-like. We still had Grace and Olivia as our mains, but we decided to make this opening their first meeting with each other. We discussed making Olivia a transfer student, making her get used to school really fast, interact with Grace (the first step of a relationship between two), and leaving their relationship, which will be shown in the actual film, not the film opening.

Grace makes friends with Olivia, a transfer student (Grace is an old student in high school). She doesn’t have friends because she is an introvert, but one day a new transfer student named Olivia comes and makes a lot of friends in a short time by using her extrovert personality. She becomes best friends with Grace. We additionally started on planning for scene 1 to scene 2: we will have a black screen and change it to a large establishing shot that gives out information about the location of the film.

We also talked about scene 3: Grace will be alone and have some kind of private time, though this shot was not confirmed. Start: black screen (sound is already inserted in the black) to (establishing shot): the bell rings, and the kids rush out of class (noisy sound). The location will be a school. In the next scene, Grace will be shown walking in the corridor. She will walk with a shy face and nervous movements or eye movements. This will contrast with the previous loud scenes.

11/Mar

Title sequence: to get the audience's attention to your production in the opening.

What elements do we need to use to express the first day of school for Olivia?

1. The teacher introduces Olivia to the class.

2. Wearing a new uniform 

3. Olivia puts on a lot of makeup. Indicating that she isn’t yet familiar with the school makeup rules (she wants to look unique and attractive).

How do we show Grace that she is an introvert?

1. She ties her hair because she is uncomfortable and shy about keeping it untied. 2. Because she struggles to make friends, every time the class gets free time, others are socializing with their friends, and she is somewhere alone, reading a book or using her phone. 3. She isn't confident enough to speak (hesitates).

The purpose of the crosscut is to show the start of their relationship.

The shot information and details:

Olivia is shown first (both of the characters are present). Olivia is blurred and only grace is shown This shot means they had encountered each other at some other place than school, but they weren’t friends yet. They only meet at school and know each other from there. 

Scene 4: Location: Marketplace Camera angle: low angle (easily cover the camera). Focusing on Grace, Olivia comes into the camera angle and will cover the camera as the scene changes. 

The screen will turn black and continue to the next scene. The purpose of Mc and Olivia meeting each other at the supermarket is because we are showing that they have crossed paths before their encounter at school. To make it a coincidence and meet the expectations of the audience that they will meet each other, to show Grace’s introverted trait, in the supermarket, Grace will be ignored. 

Scene 5: We are focusing on showing Grace’s personality—that she is an introvert. With just her appearance, it’s hard to show her introverted personality. One suggestion is that Scene 5 will be set back in the past, where Olivia hasn’t come yet. We don't want to show Olivia’s personality because we want to focus on Grace's personality. 

Scene 6: The cross-cut. Grace's side still has nobody, but Olivia’s side has people surrounding her, indicating that Olivia has already made friends, but Grace still hasn’t made friends.

Also, John included some details for scene 6, ‘Grace is walking but not Olivia. This shows that Grace is more willing for this relationship, whereas on Olivia’s side, Grace was just one of their friends that approached her. This portrayal will indirectly suggest the mood between them and the reason behind their separation in the actual film (which is the betrayal of Olivia?)’.