Research:
      For our thriller film opening, we want to create an instant connection with the main character and the audience. For this reason, throughout the first minute or so of the film opening there will be a voiceover of the main character narrating her thoughts directly to the audience. Lucia and I thought this would be an interesting approach that would spark curiosity in the viewers since this is not done a lot specially on thriller films. We took our inspiration of narrating in the first scenes of the movie from films like The Prestige and Lovely Bones
      Lovely Bones is about a little girl who is kidnapped and then murdered by a man. Throughout the entire film, she comments on events that are happening, after she is dead. In this way, the audience is able to connect even more with the main character and get to know her inner thoughts, making the story of what happened to her even more compelling and sad. In our film we intend for the viewer to be able to understand the main character more and feel sympathy for her and why she did what she did. I feel that this idea is a unique yet it will keep people interested without telling too much about plot of the film.

Research:
      I really want this film opening to be able to exactly represent this genre, even though we are stepping a little outside the usual by making the main character a teenager and the serial killer. My partner, Lucia, and I started looking for films that also centered around the idea of a woman serial killer. One of the films that constantly came up was the movie Carrie directed by Brian De Palma in 1976.

                       









      This movie presents a teenage girl who is very shy and who is constantly being controlled by her extremely religious mother. One day she discovers that she has this supernatural powers,and the day of her prom she unleashes these powers after being humiliated in front of the whole school.
      Carrie, is a thriller film with a main character who is a girl. She is presented as this innocent soft girl that is bullied by other students. In films that are thrillers, horror, or suspense, a woman usually gets to have "rich emotional lives". Most of the times the play victims who are incapable of saving themselves and most of the times the end up getting killed. However, in this film, Carrie, uses her powers to dominate over those people who had humiliated her, and even ends up killing some of the students at the prom.
      For our film opening, we want to first show a delicate girl that no one would think anything wrong about her, but towards the end the audience finds out that she has murdered several people. By researching about this film, Carrie, I now have a more clear image in my head of how the storyline of the opening film will unfold, and how to show the main character in a way that will leave the viewers on the edge of their seats, and wanting to keep watching.

Citations:
Jeslip. “Horror Movies With Female Killers.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 1 Aug. 1969, www.imdb.com/list/ls031962008/.

Berlatsky, Noah. “Carrie at 40: Why the Horror Genre Remains Important for Women.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Nov. 2016, www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/03/carrie-stephen-king-brian-de-palma-horror-films-feminism.

I am back! :

      My apologies for not being able to post as often as I should have, I have had some trouble with uploading my posts and with the internet, but I kept all of them on a google docs document, and now I can finally post them.

      After meeting with my partner we have finally decided what we want our story line to be for the film, and more specifically what we want to show during the opening scenes. We decided that we want to base our story about a series of murders of a serial killer. After researching about thriller films, we noticed that most of these films that presented a serial killer were mostly men. For example, American Psycho, Seven, and  My Friend Dahmer, however, we wanted to branch out of that stereotype, and for that reason we made our serial killer a teenage girl. In addition, we want to make the serial killer the main character, and show everything from the perspective of this character, and make the audience sympathize with this character.

      In order for the audience to be able to feel sorry for this serial killer, and try to not make the audience hate her, we want to create a connection between the audience and the character. For this reason, we thought a voiceover about her expressing her thoughts directly to the viewers will create this effect. However, to be able to execute this idea properly I need to do a whole lot of research that will allow me to fully learn how to create this project in the best way possible.

Planning:

     To be able to have a everything in order and not to fall behind in any aspect for our project, I took the liberty to create a calendar with a schedule specific for our project. To be able to do this efficiently, I asked my partner about her schedule, so the calendar could fit both of our daily schedules and we could both follow it. This calendar is on "google calendar", which means I can share it with my partner, so she can also access it anytime she wants. However, I did add personal events such as blog postings.
      I color coded the calendar so it would be easier to follow: AICE Media (referring to the days we have in-school time to work on the project), Meeting (meetings with my partner outside of school in order to discuss about important decisions regarding the project, Filming (usually during the weekend, those are the days we plan to use to film the video), Editing (these days will include working on "Wevideo" together, choosing music, and other important aspects to create the video), and finally Blog Postings (this category is mostly for me, and to remind me to keep posting on my blog to keep everything updated).

March Calendar

      I felt creating a specific schedule would be very helpful, since there is so much my partner and I must do in a small amount of time. In addition, this will make sure we do not leave anything for the last minute, and we have time to go back and edit anything that we could be missing or we might want to change.

Choosing our Project:
My partner Lucia and I have decided to make a film opening. This will the the opening scenes to a thriller movie, which the name is yet to be decided.  In order to make the opening scene as well as possible, my partner and I will conduct a research about the genre.


Thrillers:

In order to truly incorporate thriller elements into our film opening, I went ahead and did some research if my own about the genre. This genre is based on promoting feelings of intense excitement, suspense, and anxiety on its audience. The thrill usually occurs when the main character is placed in an uncomfortable or menacing situation. This creates a the feeling of keeping the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats'. As the plot unfolds, the main character is constantly faced with these types of situations, which create even more thrill. 
      Since I will be only doing the opening scenes of a film, it is important to be able to create that suspense on the first few minutes, and making the audience want to continue watching. In addition, based on some recommendations made by our teacher, we have to make sure we do not make the opening scenes feel or look like a trailer, so we have to be really careful of how we plan to film and edit the video.

“THRILLER - SUSPENSE FILMS .” Most Influential, Significant and Important Films in American Cinema - The 1960s, AMC Network Entertainment, www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html.      

Music Marketing Project:

 Summary:
      In this project, my group and I had to create an artist based on a song previously selected by our teacher. We had to create a marketing campaign in order to be able to make our "up and coming"artist famous. To be able to properly market our artist, we had to research about marketing trends conducted by similar artists. Since our song was alternative rock, we has to familiarize ourselves with bands and artists that produced the same type of music such as Panic At The Disco! and Twenty One Pilots. After our research was done, we had to create different social media accounts in order to promote the artist. We also created a website to incorporate technological convergence. Furthermore, we made our own merchandise: t-shirts, hats, and sweaters, in order to  advertise the musician, and to create a connection with the fans.
      Finally, we created a music video of the song. The video represented the tone and mood of the music. Due to our research we learned what the message original band was trying to portray through their music, and with our music video we also tried to demonstrate a similar message. We utilized different techniques to be able to do this. For example, specific lighting, props, different shots and angles, all of these in order to be able to make a great music video for the artist.

Research:
      In order to be able to create and market an artist, my group and I had to conduct a research to learn more about the music industry and the genre of the song we had. The genre of the sonf we had was alternative rock, and through our research we learned different things that helped us with our final project.  For example, alternative rock is music that refers specifically to the punk/new wave-rooted style that emerged in the 1980s. It is influenced by folk music reggae electronic and jazz., and the catchy tunes and lyrics about situations that young adults usually go through. For this reason the target audience is 16-30 years old.
                                                                                                                           In addition, we had two case studies were we learned even more about the alternative rock genre. Panic At The Disco!, which they focus on highly produced concerts and live shows with direct fan interaction. Also, they elaborate guerrilla marketing campaign prior to the release of new albums including hints of release dates, teasers, social media posts, etc. They distribute their music in different ways: on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Radio, physical copies, Live shows, etc. Similarly, Twenty One Pilots has created a website where fans can purchase merchandise, look at videos, get informed about the latest  and future live events, and purchase concert tickets. They also have social media accounts such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter. Both case studies helped us learn how to market our artist. For example, have social media accounts, and post daily to create a connection with the fans. Create a website is another important part for the artist, and having merchandise. Finally, we learned that our artist should have a care-free attitude because that is was the fans of this music genre relate to and like.

Marketing Creations: 
       To be able to market our artist "Agord" we created different social media accounts were people can be constantly updated about the artist's life. In the Instagram account, "Agord" posted images about upcoming events, merchandise, and the new music video. We utilized Instagram because based on our research 16-35 years old use Instagram more than any other social media, which is that age group is exactly our target audience. Instagram became the most important social media account.                                                                                                                                                                                                               
      In addition we created a website where fans can easily access the latest news about "Agord". In this website one can find the single "Badfish", which is the song we were given. Also, one can find the music video, upcoming tour dates tickets, a "learn about me" section where one can get to know "Agord" more, merchandise purchasing section, a "contact us" section where fans could send gifts and letters to the artists or can win give-aways. Finally, in the same website, there is a specific section for a blog. In this blog, "Agord" talks about his life and what he is constantly doing. This way fans can get to know him on a personal level. In addition, he talks about the releases of new singles and music videos. The website is the perfect way to market, and distribute the music and the artist.

https://marianaanzola02.wixsite.com/website     ----> Agord's website

Analysis:

      By doing this project, I learned several techniques I could use for my portfolio project. For example, I learned how to properly create a marketing campaign for any medium. Also, as my group and I created the music video, I learned new editing techniques that I could incorporate in the project. I learned how to work with colors and lights. Finally, I learned how to keep a whole theme throughout the video, and marketing campaign in order to have consistency and be able to keep an audience interested. 

Romantic Comedy
Genre Conventions- content: Romantic comedy films, also called "rom-com", consist of films that usually end in happy endings. Usually ending in marriage or two people ending up as a couple. Also, they are centered around the idea of finding "true love", where the main characters overcome many obstacles to become the perfect couple. The comedy content of these films derives from how the partners meet. For example, in unusual or comic circumstances. In addition another comedic aspect to these films is the existence of various obstacles between the main characters such as miscommunication or misunderstanding, and when the two individuals are separated the realized they are "perfect" for each other.  In the end rom-coms show a "meet-cute", which means how the characters meet, and the plot line for them to end up together with a happy ending.
Genre Conventions- production techniques: In romantic comedies, one of the main aspects is having the main character being a woman. Also, these films have usually smart, humorous, and snappy dialogue. To keep the audience happy and the film enjoyable, usually these films have a predictable happy ending. Finally these movies combine sexy and funny. The films must have scenes about love that include a comical dialogue to ease the tension.
Film Sample #1: Clueless directed by Amy Heckerling in 1995. Tells the story about Cher who is a spoiled rich girl that lives in Beverly Hills. When a girl named Tai transfers to Cher's school, Cher and her best friend, Dionne, give Tai a makeover. Cher decided that all of them should find Tai a boyfriend. During these quest, Cher realizes she wants a boyfriend of her own. She finds a guy named Christian, and she invites him over to his house, but while watching a movie it is clear that he wants nothing more than a friendship. Cher is told by her friends that she has been misunderstanding Christian, as he is "obviously gay".  In the end, Cher realizes that she was in love with her father's ex-wife's son, Josh,  all along who had always been there for her when she needed him, and they become a couple.
Film Sample #2:  The Proposal directed by Anne Fletcher in 2009. The main character, Margaret Tate, is a well known senior editor from Canada who works at a New York publishing house. One day US immigration officers come to her office, and tell her that she will be deported due to the expiration of her work visa. In that instant, she lies and tells them that she will be marrying her assistant, Andrew, who is american. The officers give her a certain amount of time to get married before she is deported. The two characters travel to Alaska where Andrew's family lives. In the time there, the couple ends up actually falling in love. The fake wedding is called off, but the fake couple become a real couple, and they go back to the US. In the end, the two characters end up engaged.
Other Film Examples: Pretty Woman, 10 Things I Hate About You, Never Been Kissed, Crazy Stupid Love, Princess Bride, 13 Going On 30.  

     

        During this project, there are several points I will need to address. In this case is about representation of a group of people. In films, different groups of people have  set characteristics that fit their identities. Sometimes these descriptions do not truly achieve to represent a group correctly. For example, in many cases women not represented well in films. Making sure women are represented well in films is an important point for any film.
        Women in film are, in most cases, portrayed the same. They are shown as delicate over exaggerated people that need a man to save them from trouble. For example in the film, 13 Going On 30, describes the story of how a young girl travels into the future. She is portrayed as this defenseless woman who finds out that in the time she grew from 13 to 30, she became a writer who only cares about money and sleeping with men. In addition, all her female friends are just like her. In the end of the movie she realizes she is in love with her childhood's best friend, and goes back in time, just to go marry him instead. This film is a perfect example how films do not represent women well. Films do not show any depth into a female character, and shows them as shallow. In these film, and many others, woman need saving from themselves, and need a man to make a life changing realization. In addition, in the film Pretty Woman, describes the story about this young woman who is a "lady of the evening" in other words, "hooker". One night she meets a very wealthy man, and he takes her to his hotel room and asks her to be his pretend girlfriend for a week. In this period of time, the two characters end up falling in love with each other, and she ends up with him, and no longer is she in the streets. All these examples demonstrate how poorly woman are represented. These characteristics are not fair, since all woman are different and have more depth than what is being shown.
        Even though most women are represented poorly, there are ways they have some representation. For example in Pretty Woman, works extremely hard to make some money, and  during the film, one gets to know the reasons why she ended up doing that job. Also in the film, The Proposal, tells the story of a woman who wealthy senior editor. There are several films that demonstrate hardworking woman who are successful. These characteristics should be retained. The only characteristics I would challenge would be how women are demonstrated as shallow. This is completely incorrect, and more now a days films should address this problem and portray women having real issues more than just needing a man. In addition, demonstrating how hard a woman works without any help, and becomes successful.