Group Discussion Feedback!

Hello! 

SO... yesterday in class we met up in groups to discuss with our classmates about our projects and bounce ideas off of each other. I have to say it went pretty well it was really helpful to see the others ideas and to get constructive criticism from them to better each of our projects. 

I purposed to them the idea Mariana and I had of depicting a rich girl who had it all and suddenly lost it all when her dad was arrested for being in illegal business negotiations, so she has to find a way to make money on her own. One of the group members told me to be careful because it sounded very similar to the plot of the show 2 Broke Girls and since I had never watched it she told me to do some research on it to make sure it wasn't the same idea. So, I read about it on the CBS website and its a comedy about an unlikely friendship that develops between Max Black and Caroline Channing.  They are two completely opposite young women who meet waitressing at a diner in Brooklyn. Max is sarcastic, street-smart while Caroline is sophisticated, school-smart and daughter of man who was caught up in a Wall Street scandal. Although they are strikingly different, they form a bond over one day owning their own cupcake business. The only set back is that they are broke, so throughout the show the audience sees how they overcome their obstacles and bond. 

After researching and watching a little bit of the first episode I realized I had nothing to really worry about. We do want to mix a bit of Comedy and perhaps a little Romance in our film, but we our main genre is Drama/Coming-of-Age. This show focuses on exaggerating the characters based on their socio-economic status and displaying stereotypes while we are trying to avoid that. I understand the concern that we also want our story to be about a rich girl who ends up poor and working at a fast-food restaurant because her father was caught in illegal business negotiations, but its much more than just that statement. We really want to depict how this girl's world turns upside down and has to swallow her pride and face the real world and work for a living. Since this girl is seventeen years old, at the peak of adolescence, and has had everything she has ever wanted this situation changes her life completely. She actual has to worry about school and her future rather than just waiting for everything to be handed to her. On the other hand, the show 2 Broke Girls is about how the two girls from different socio-economic statuses bond and eventually create their cupcake business. 

Well that was it for today... We are filming tomorrow! 

About 2 Broke Girls - TV Show Information. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2017, from http://www.cbs.com/shows/2_broke_girls/about/

Storyboarding

Hey guys! So here's a little update on what Mariana and I have been doing lately. We met up this weekend to work on our storyboard and talk about the location, costumes, etc.

For this post I'm mostly going to talk about our storyboard even though I am only going to show a part of it. Wouldn't want to give the story away right?! We have discussed a lot about what we want our opening to do. Do we want it to establish the tone? Allude to conflict? Create mystery? After much thinking and researching, we are thinking about focusing our film opening on establishing the setting and introducing the main character's environment. We have looked into locations and we are thinking about filming in the Brickell area of Miami, Florida. Brickell is all about wealth and luxury and they opened up a brand new mall that really stood out to us for filming.

Brickell

As it is probably pretty evident right now, we are considering of depicting someone with a high socio-economic status. Mariana and I also live in an area where a lot of wealthy people live in so we are accustomed to how these people act and their lifestyles.

Well anyways... here is part of our storyboard. Luckily, we found a website called Storyboard That where we tried to plan out the first several shots. These shots are examples of the places we want to film at. 

The first shot from left to right would be an establishing shot of a view of Miami/Brickell, the setting of our story. Then, the second shot would be of an important building that represents Miami, like The American Airlines Arena. The whole purpose of these shots is to welcome the viewer into the setting and character's environment. Next, the third shot would be of either an expensive, fancy clothing store or the outside of the Brickell mall to help us begin the plot of our story.

The first shot from left to right would be another store or a restaurant because we want to show various different types of meanings of wealth in this character's world. Then, the girl standing up with her back facing us would be the main character. The shot won't look like that entirely, we just wanted to represent her walking besides the stores most likely holding shopping bags or with her friends. The last shot is representation of the inside of a clothing store from our main character point of view as she enters it. Although this website isn't perfect unless you pay, it helped us to it map out the type of shots we want to portray. It helped us not worry so much about the little details just yet. Throughout the whole recording process, there will be different types of shots and I actually drew some of them out with a little more detail. Since we used the website I didn't worry too much about the order I just worried about different scenery we wanted to depict.




These are other examples of what we may want to depict, like her at an expensive, fancy restaurant.

Well, that is it for today, but tune in next week for more behind-the-scenes of our film opening!


Warech, J. (2016, February 1). How Brickell is Becoming the It-Neighborhood of Miami. Retrieved March 19, 2017, from https://oceandrive.com/why-up-and-coming-brickell-is-becoming-the-center-of-miami (Image citation)

Some Inspo

"FILM OPENING! FILM OPENING! FILM OPENING!" 

That is all that has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks. In my opinion, watching different film openings is one of the best ways to research because you can get so many useful ideas.

I haven't had a lot of time this week to watch different Drama/Coming-of-Age films, but I did rewatch a the beginning portion of From Prada to Nada. I focused a lot on the film opening to see if there were elements we could use and it really did help. I tried to screenshot parts of the film opening to show you parts I really liked and why, but iTunes blocks screenshots of their rented films. I was so excited to show you guys! Bummer. Luckily, I found a blogspot that includes pictures of the film opening though.

Ok so, here we go...

The opening from From Prada to Nada focuses mainly on establishing the setting. 

One of the many mansions shown to help establish setting. 

The song "California Gurls" plays in the background as medium shots of palms trees and a close-up of the Beverly Hills sign is shown.  Several long shots of fancy mansions and people playing tennis to indicate the story will begin to take place in the wealthy area of Beverly Hills, California. Then we see one of the two sisters, Mary, walking down Rodeo Drive wearing very nice clothing and high heels while carrying various store bags.

Mary walking down Rodeo Drive, shows her socio-economic status.  

Here we start to get to see of one of the main characters and the lifestyle they live. It made sense to first establish the setting, so the audience can get a glimpse into the life these sisters have. Then, they show Nora wearing glasses and causal clothing indicating that she is a college student as she studies at the library. Here we get an idea of the socio-economic status that these two sisters have that they are able to go into higher education and shop all they want at expensive stores. 

Nora and Mary, when they realize they forgot their dad's birthday. 

From watching the film opening, the way they established the setting to introduce the main characters socio-economic status appealed to me. As well as, how they edited it by pausing it at specific scenes depicting money and wealthy while showing the names of the actors and producers. The graphics worked well too since they're in bold, yellow simple letters enhancing the audiences concentration and demonstrating that the film is playful. 

Now on to more research... Bye!

A. (2011, May 30 ). From Prada to Nada (or From Riches to Rags). Retrieved March 16, 2017, from https://austenised.blogspot.com/2011/05/from-prada-to-nada-or-from-riches-to.html

Latinos in Action

Seeing the trend of different ethnicities portrayed in recent Coming-of-Age films, today I did some research on films that focus a lot on the main character's background and socio-economic status.

So, I started off by thinking about films I had seen in the past as a starting point. One that came up was From Prada to Nada. Although it isn't a film that is within the Coming-of-Age sub-genre it integrates Latino culture. Depicting Latinos of both high and working-middle class in America and how they maintain their traditions and heritage.

Nora

Mary

The film is about two sisters, Nora and Mary, who live in Beverly Hills and are left penniless after their father suddenly dies, revealing that he was in the process of bankruptcy.

They lose their house to their step-brother they didn’t even know existed, and are forced to live with their Mexican family in East L.A. Growing up in Beverly Hills which is predominately white, Nora and Mary never acknowledged their Mexican heritage. So, when this sudden tragedy happens, their life takes a very rough turn. Without any other option, they have to live with their aunt in Boyle Heights, which is immersed with Latino culture and they don’t even speak Spanish. When entering Boyle Heights they immediately receive a huge dose of culture shock. Coming from Beverly Hills where its a predominantly white and rich community with huge mansions and nice cars to a predominantly Mexican American, working-class neighborhood with dirty streets and small crowded houses.

Throughout the film, the audience gets to experience and learn about the Mexican culture alongside the sisters. At first the girls were uncomfortable and unwilling to leave their precious, wealthy world behind, but since they had not other choice but to bond with their extended family. They realize on what they have been missing out and begin to have pride in their Mexican heritage and learn to live in a world that isn’t money obsessed. Although it is not considered a Coming-of-Age film the sisters are in their early 20s and have to abruptly learn to become more independent. The audience sees them grow into independent and humble women.

Two things about the film that appealed to me:

1. The integration of a Latin-American culture.

The town where Mariana and I live is very latino populated of all types of socio-economic statuses. There are many latinos who were very wealthy in their home countries and when they came to America they had to struggle to left themselves back up economically. So that can inspire us to do research on the latinos in our town.

2. The development of the characters becoming into a better version of themselves.

Most dramas show the development of certain characters whether it is good or bad. In this story, they were selfish and self-absorbed, and the idea that even though these girls had a tragic situation happen to them they changed for the best.

I also looked at the film opening to get some ideas, but I guess you will have to read it tomorrow!

A. (2011, May 30). From Prada to Nada (or From Riches to Rags). Retrieved March 15, 2017, from https://austenised.blogspot.com/2011/05/from-prada-to-nada-or-from-riches-to.html

Fandango (Ed.). (2011, January 28). From Prada to Nada (2011) Synopsis - Plot Summary. Retrieved March 15, 2017, from http://www.fandango.com/frompradatonada_137858/plotsummary

IMDb. (n.d.). From Prada to Nada (2011). Retrieved March 15, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0893412/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt

Orndorf, B. (n.d.). Blu-ray Review - From Prada to Nada. Retrieved March 15, 2017, from http://www.brianorndorf.com/2011/05/blu-ray-review-from-prada-to-nada.html

The Lovely Teenage Years

I’m back!

My day consisted of researching Coming-of-Age films to have a bit of a backbone of what we should consider when creating our film. I researched a couple of more recent ones like The Edge of Seventeen and Moonlight. As well as older ones like Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You to really see the progression of this sub-genre through the years and to get inspiration.

When researching about the older films I came across this slideshare about Teen film conventions where our sub-genre is present and examples of how different films handled the typical conventions. It explained the typical characters and setting this films usually follow. For example, in Clueless it followed the popular rule that most teen films follow like being set in high school, a teen’s bedroom, and parties. The characters in Clueless are the very stereotypical characters presented in teen films like the pretty and rich blonde girl, skaters, goths, ‘ghetto’ black boys, etc. Another example was 10 Things I Hate About You that also follows the stereotypical characters and set locations. Although these types of films are not what Mariana and I are going for, something that appealed to me was the mixture of the sub-genre we are aiming for with Comedy and Romance which are things to consider. But, both of these films lack the real, authentic stories we eventually want to portray.

                                                                                 

Unlike the older films, the recent ones like The Edge of Seventeen do not follow the typical rules of teen films. This film is pretty unique on its own because it is the first teen film in a while that really steers away from the stereotypical premise they are usually based on. Mean cheerleaders or cringe-worthy nerds aren’t portrayed like they usual are. It depicts a more realistic representation of what high school is really like. Besides that, it portrays a real and honest perspective of being a teenager and growing up and how we make a big deal out of anything and everything. The Edge of Seventeen is about an awkward, sarcastic seventeen year old girl, Nadine, and how she is at this point in her life where she realizes she’s pretty much alone in the world. She goes through a lot like losing father, her best friend betraying her with her brother and her mother ignoring her. She tries to cope with everything that’s happening as well as hormones, but her stubbornness and impulsivity get in the way. We see her at her best and worst, but see how she grows as a person. The director, Kelly Fremon Craig, mentioned in an interview that she interviewed tons of teenagers in order to make Nadine more realistic among her target audience. That is something that Mariana and I really want to accomplish because part of Drama depends on the development of realistic characters that the audience can engage with.

I still need a lot more to go, but its a work in progress. See you next time!


Athenadl. (2013, December 18). Genre and Convention (teen film). Retrieved March 12, 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/athenadl/genre-and-convention-teen-film?next_slideshow=1

Clueless. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2017, from
http://www.impawards.com/1995/clueless_xlg.html

Frosch, J. (2016, September 16). 'The Edge of Seventeen': Film Review | TIFF 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/edge-seventeen-review-927214

Mendelson, S. (2016, November 16). Review: Hailee Steinfeld's 'Edge Of Seventeen' Is A New Coming-Of-Age Classic. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/11/16/review-hailee-steinfelds-edge-of-seventeen-is-a-new-coming-of-age-classic/#18b83e6b181a

Suzanne-Mayer, D., Pickett, D. S., Kaye, B., & Shoemaker, A. (2016, November 16). Film Review: The Edge of Seventeen. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/11/film-review-the-edge-of-seventeen/

The Edge of Seventeen Movie Poster (#1 of 2). (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.impawards.com/2016/edge_of_seventeen.html

10 Things I Hate About You Movie Poster (#1 of 2). (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.impawards.com/1999/ten_things_i_hate_about_you_ver1.html

Gen Z? Coming-of Age?

These past few days I have delved into researching the target audience we had in mind: Generation Z. Upon researching the target audience we thought that it would help us narrow down the genre we should do. People in this Gen Z range from ages 5-19 and are part of the largest demographic group in America (25.9% of the population). In an article I found by Motive Val Morgan, it mentions that in a report by Millward Brown: ‘AdReaction Gen X, Y and Z’, Gen Z are the ones who enjoy cinema the most. They are constant followers of movie celebrities and with filmmakers offering a strong lineup of movies each year which forms part of their socializing activities over the weekend. According to the Theatrical Market Statistics 2015, “In 2015, 12-17 year olds had the highest per capita attendance (7.3) and largest increase in per capita attendance, up nearly one ticket per person from 2014.” Since Gen Z is such a broad age range we are guiding more towards ages 17-21. So, mostly targeting teens and young adults.

Like I mentioned in the first post we were thinking about Drama or Suspense, and we are sticking with Drama. I looked at the AMC Filmsite to look up sub-genres in Drama where it could relate to our target audience and I saw Coming-of-Age.

We are interested in Coming-of-Age sub-genre because it relates to our target audience and it is very popular right now. I found in this LA times article, that there is a rejuvenation of Coming-of Age movies where they are steering away from the typical cliche movies like “Mean Girls” or “Clueless.” But, instead are depicting kids and teens in a more real and authentic way. These new movies focus in explaining a new generation or telling the truths about older ones like “Boyhood.” Movies that show pains of growing up, but it's unique because every character’s story depends on their background and socio-economic status. We see this in “Moonlight” where we are presented with a story about a poor gay black teenager living in Miami and how he deals with constant struggles from his childhood to adulthood. As well as in “The Edge of Seventeen”, where we are presented with a middle-class white teenager who’s awkward and impulsive and how she deals with the problems at this peak point in growing up. The main characters are based off of point-of-views of real people.

This idea of Coming-of-Age really stood out to me because I defitnely feel like we can do a lot with this sub-genre. Being a teenager in high school I can collect a lot from research from my peers and get inspired from real and true stories. 

Now I have to do more research on a few of the recent popular Coming-of Age movies and older ones.


Bedgood, L. (2017, February 17). Marketing to Gen Z: The Massive Generation That will be Coming to Age. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://www.datamentors.com/blog/marketing-gen-z-massive-generation-will-be-coming-age

Dirks , T. (n.d.). Film Sub-Genres Types (and Hybrids). Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres2.html

Motion Picture Association of America (Ed.). (2016). Theatrical Marketing Statistics 2015 (Rep.). Motion Picture Association of America.

Motive Val Morgan. (2017, February 27). Gen Z: A Growing Target Audience For Cinema Advertisers. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://motivatevalmorgan.com/2017/02/07/gen-z-growing-target-audience-cinema-advertisers/

Zeitchik, S. (2016, October 21). The coming-of-age movie is reborn, with fresh stories and characters. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-coming-of-age-movies-edge-seventeen-moonlight-20161010-snap-story.html

Just a Little Hello!

I’m Vanessa Chiquito! Yes, my last name means small, just in case you were wondering.

But anyways... I am about to take you on a not so small journey through the process of my AS level Media Portfolio Project. Where you will have the first look, behind-the-scenes on my ideas, struggles, failures and successes.  

I am working alongside Mariana Ontiveros and we decided to do the two-minute film opening. I’m a little apprehensive about this whole project because it seems like a pretty big deal and time is ticking. With only five weeks to spare and a lot of ideas running through my mind, I hope this blog will help me to organize my thoughts in order to create something successful.

Although a part of me is a bit frightened, I truly am excited to take on this journey because I can’t wait to see how much I will grow. I have learned a lot in this class and to be able to show what I know and to learn more about myself and what I can do through this project is something I look forward to. Although I may not want to be a filmmaker, I do want to learn more about the film industry to enrich my knowledge and gain experience.

At this point in the journey, my partner and I will be fully focused on everything research and planning related for what’s left of the two week research/planning process. We are interested in doing a drama or suspense film, but I guess you will have to wait and see.

So, with that being said... I hope you tune in to my blog to see this project evolve!