Marketing Research

A point that I wanted to research and just get better at in general is marketing. This is no surprise to me considering the half-baked sideshow presentation and music video I had to present under said unit. It was a disaster but a disaster that I've learned from and if anything the work I have to get done will hopefully make this project better than anything I've done as well as make it appealing enough to make it to a film festival. 

The First video I watched was incredibly informative and I think this should be feasible in advertising the short film. There is a lot of information and a lot that needs to be done especially with a one woman marketing team. Some of the things it brought up was reaching out to bloggers for reviewing your short film. It also brought up more about the director's statement and the cast list involved. 

This video offered techniques that were a lot simpler and a lot easier to-do. I also never thought of using forums in such a way to not only receive criticism. But to reach a community that can further open up my social- circle of like-minded filmmakers. 

This is such an important part of this film because this makes it a well rounded project.

To be honest I've got high hopes for this and I might just experiment with another short film I'm working on. Marketing is everything in making sure that your film is seen.

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Props- 👺

I mentioned before how I had plans to use a mask to identify the ‘antagonists’  in this piece. Now I have a number of masks but none that I have in stock fit my vision for what I want so I think I might have to create them. A style that I think inspires the future design would be something like this:

Now of course the little girl isn’t included but the uncomfortable expression on her face is exactly what I want to capture with the main character. 

On my quest to find ways I can make this mask I came across these videos: 1, 2, 3. All that told me is that I must summon and relearn the art of paper-mache. An art long lost from the days of my youth according to video 2 this is definitely the easiest cheapest way for me to do this.

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Research Key Art

Key Art!!!

This is one of the most important parts of a film in general. Not only is this the first impression, it's what would hypothetically be what associates everyone with this film. Before I commence the actual research I already know one of the colors I want to have a major part in this film is blue. Although it can be the color of serenity and control I want it to demonstrate the feeling of loneliness. I’ll worry about the technical difficulties with that later but for now that's the plan. 

For the first video it wasn’t exactly ‘a how to’ but more so of a ‘what to’. It did give me ideas for the key art and the social media promotional posts in the future. Playing with the lighting and overlapping voices definitely aligns with the film’s experimental nature and can cause people to gain an interest early on. 

The next resource was a school’s website: that mandated that posters must be at least 32" x 44" in size, but no larger than 36" x 48." Other hand, the rest of that stuff was for the students so I figured I’d look for a better guide.

Found it! This website was a lot more direct with their information and had the dimensions I was looking for–more or less. I really want something that will tell me the correct dimensions for the credits and whatnot. But this was probably the most helpful: it offers a template, the dimensions for different social media platforms, and other websites that can work with photoshop.

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Research on Editing

One of the edits that was used a lot in Shapes and Colors. was datamoshing which is the glitchy-looking transition of two clips into the other.  It truly makes for a trippy feel that many experimental films have. To learn how I could do data moshing I watched 

4 TRIPPY Ways To Blend Footage (DATAMOSHING) | Video Editing Tutorials which did a wonderful job of giving me a general idea on how to do this. In the video the commentator went over a lot more than just datamoshing but newer ways I can blend images in adobe premiere, which I find very helpful, all of which are being considered for the future. 

After watching that I felt as though my editing was important for me to try and expand the power of the shots I take. So just to refresh on my abilities I go to the video I watched in the very beginning: My Review. Further on I watched the 13 Creative Film and Video Editing Techniques in hopes of adding a bit more to expand my knowledge about Adobe and editing there. 

Overall I think maybe blending as a transition is going to be majorly important for what's to come. Now all that's left now is for me to craft actual substance for my portfolio project.

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More Research on Experimental Films

 Both The Crash Course History of Experimental film and the Beginners Guide to Experimental Cinema

were helpful in understanding the past of experimental films.
For instance Warhol’s Empire which was simply a static image of the Empire State Building for eight hours and five minutes. While I have no intentions of just filming a single object for hours on end I don’t think I can create something as elaborate as David Lynch though there are some elements I plan to use. Similar to the formerly mentioned director, the elements of

Un Chien Andalou creates more of a feeling rather than a concrete story. The supernatural traits that are utilized in David Lynch’s pieces but the loose narrative in Un Chien Andalou  is what I want to inspire my creation.

In terms of the validity of my resources do bring into question the information I did attain. For instance the Beginners Guide had very opinionated diction like: ‘best’ and ‘in my opinion.’ Whereas crash course kept things very informative by letting the chain of inspiration and innovation amongst film makers. It also talked about the history of the experimental genre’s origin or the “Avant Garde” style of film. Apparently this was sort of a protest against conventional film; the absolute opposition to what is typically done is accepted. As I mentioned briefly before these films were all about what it made you feel or think about rather than a story that needed to be told. 

One last thing–the crash course video talked about how documentaries use some abstract elements to deliver mostly nonfictional information. 

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Research on Genre

 

Two short films I originally found on Youtube were Catharsis and Shapes and Colors. Both are experimental and demonstrate an underlying tone but nothing set in stone. It left so much up to interpretation that the artful creation and direction of the piece shines through. Something about both these pieces is that they seemed low in production value as the effort was focused on simply the appearance of props or the editing/musical factor. With no specific structure rhyme or reason this doesn’t come off as some nonsense put together to make you think of a specific story but more so a collection of factors that make this artistic short film

Something else I learned while doing this was that there is another place I seem to have neglected for posting videos and getting your name out there: Vimeo. Catharsis had a link to the creator, Robert Machado, and his profile allowed you to hire him and look at more of his work. I really appreciated this as another outlet to expand my reach with my portfolio.

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Final Decision & Moving Forward

I’ve finally decided that I would go with the short film in hopes of adding more finite short films into my portfolio. Although the trailer would be easier to film I know from the last project that it is something I’m not the best at. Maybe if I spent more time on it I guess I should be able to improve but I don’t think that's entirely possible with a schedule as tight as mine.  That being said, it's time to begin the next step of preparation is completing research!!

For research I figured watching what past students came up with as well as what can be found on Youtube should be good inspiration. I also figure researching how to independently produce and film one would also be good. I mean I know what my limitations are but how to expertly maneuver through this can be improved upon. As well as research about how to create good props and to improve my script writing to fit into the time frame of 7 minutes. Just thinking about the plan from here on out. I plan to know everything about anything when it comes to this film.

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Here we Go Again

Now that the time has come for another portfolio project since we were told I already had ideas circling in my head, the only problem is that now I don’t know which to choose.

Out of the three decisions: Documentary, two trailers, or a short film. Seeing as I want to be a screenwriter, director, and head of story the last two are ideal but now the question is which one? At first I only had one idea for the trailer that I love but the feasibility of such a piece would be a real challenge. 

The story would have been for the trailer. Where a character meets and fights alongside her multidimensional doppelgängers. She would have discovered that through some unidentifiable reason herself from other dimensions are convening in her dimension. There would be light banter as they each introduced themselves: One who is similar to a Victorian noble, one who is a wild card, one who is a quiet kid that's just socially awkward, and finally another quiet kid who is secretly a skilled swordswoman.  Together they would discover another version of her who collected everyone there to kill at the same time. Of course the versions band together and fight as the plot of every team action movie. The genre would be an action/comedy where certain versions of her would bring most of the comedic relief. In terms of  actors all that would be needed would be me and that works great seeing as I’m working by myself. My worries though is how long this would take considering a lot of time for planning will be lost due to family situations. 

On the other hand my idea was for an experimental piece about loneliness. Essentially the main character will have interactions with masked people. The masks would begin to chip pieces away before the protagonist responds the wrong way and the mask comes back. While witnessing this version of the protagonist will help try to rationalize this phenomenon. The ending would be the main character settling to watch TV to escape the rationalizing and relax. 

Either way I don’t know what exactly to start planning for both have their ups and downs. On one hand the trailer idea is a lot of work but is much shorter than a whole short film. The short film will also take long but is a lot easier to shoot and less physically taxing. I will attain the opinions of many before making a decision.

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Parody-Pastiche-Psycho

While I’ve definitely completed something for my Media Studies class I’ve been able to spread my creative wings a lot more in my Film class. That's not to say that the skills I’ve acquired from Media Studies haven't helped but the lenient nature of the assignments really lets me have fun and push myself to complete what I want to the best of my ability. For this love-project I created a parody/pastiche piece to 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Watching the movie was inspiring as it reflected the power of suggestion through multiple shots, enticing sound, and fast edits. I realized how much I loved the tragic but suspenseful nature of the film. I attempted to recreate the shower scene but with my own twist. 

Here is the my Psycho Parody:

Now I know there were, again, problems with the sound being too high or faint but the actions and story all followed a specific plan, a vast juxtaposition from the project in my last post. Either way I did learn that my dog probably will not always be as cooperative as he was in the picture and when delving into deeper topics not having your camera person be your mother who can demand you put a warning. Of course I doubt she’d ever go looking for it but better safe than sorry. Of course there are some other issues with mise-en-scène and sound as well as story line. This I’m slightly more proud of , granted should anyone every play it on a big scene I will divert my eyes but still. 

PS: I've been told by quite a few I have an accent, is this true?

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Old beginnings

I’ve grown a fair amount since the last time I posted. One of the products of my growth was the result of a project focused on distributing. With a story written by a student my group was tasked to create a distribution plan and create a trailer for a romantic comedy. I focused mostly on the editing of the project as my teammates dominated the acting, directing, and the creation of the key art. Other than editing I did a majority of the hypothetical marketing and focus on what the conventions for romantic-comedies are in general. It may not have translated well per my social ineptitude but nonetheless I found I was quite proud of that. 

Here is the folder filled with the distributing contents for “A Project for Disaster”

In all honesty there were a multitude of issues with the preproduction, production, and post. There was an insane lack of planning when it comes to knowing exactly what was supposed to be shot. Let alone the major factor of there being a lack of audio and shots for moments that truly needed it. Editing without a plan was like pulling out my own tongue and then trying to reattach it, an action done without a clear direction on where to go next. What’s worse is that the prompt of distribution was lightly grazed and didn't help the impact this could have-in theory-had.

Looking at it more positively it helped me realize how bad I am at sound design and how I can learn from this to spend more time truly planning out every step of mine. 

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