Story line Completed

So we've finally decided what we're going to do our film opening on. It's going to be about a boxer who is one of the best. Everyone knows him. The scene is going to open with a drone shot of the boxing match. This is when we will have our fight scene. We will choreograph the fight and use the tips I had researched and mentioned in my last blog posts.I was doing some more research and the slides I was reading from which is called , “What Makes a Good Film Opening.”,  mentioned that if we want the viewer engaged, it's good to do fast paced editing. So during the fight scene is where I will apply the fast paced editing. I'll have a variety of shots of different throws/hits the boxers will make.  By doing this, it'll pull in the viewer's attention more. This will make the viewer more focused on what is taking place and wanting know what will happen next.

jonsaward Follow. “What Makes a Good Film Opening.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 23 Nov. 2010, www.slideshare.net/jonsaward/what-makes-a-good-film-opening-5873057.


 During the fight we'll have his opponent hit him so hard he falls to the ground and gets completely knocked out. We then want the scene to shift to our main character in a hospital room laying on the bed. We are going to see if Rafa's dad can get us a hospital room since he's a doctor. If he can't we'll just use a normal bed room and that'll be where the boxer wakes up. Once the boxer is in his hospital bed, we want the tv to be playing the news in the background. As the camera is slowly zooming in on the boxer's face, we'll hear in the background the news reporter saying something to the degree of "The best boxer out there, {boxer's name}, was unexpectedly wiped out by his biggest rival, {rival's name}. Will {boxer's name} be ready for his next fight?." And during that last line we'll have the camera at a close up to his eyes and that is when he wakes up and opens his eyes and the scene ends and it will switch to the movie name. This will set up the whole plot of the movie which will be about the boxer healing from his major injuries and getting prepared for his next fight. This film opening will leave viewers at a cliff hanger. They'll be questioning what will happen next. They'll wonder "will he be ready for the fight on time?" or "what if he loses.?"     

Audio Library

I watched a video called “FREE - Royalty Free Sound Effects for Your YouTube Videos.” to learn how to access the audio library through YouTube since I knew there was one but I never knew how to get to it. The audio library contained so many royalty free music and sound effects which is really great. I usually go on google and go through many websites to get my royalty free music and such so it's really cool to be able to access all that in one location. The music in the audio library is categorized through genre, mood, and even instrument so it's really easy to navigate through. There's also a huge list of sound effects that are also categorized. There's a search bar so you can look up any specific sound effects you'd like. I found lots of sound effects I could use for the fight scene, like punches and grunts. I also really like the free music in the audio library. There's a lot of the same royalty free music that I constantly hear in people's projects but the music in the audio library isn't over used at all and I like that a lot.

Eves, Derral. “FREE - Royalty Free Sound Effects for Your YouTube Videos.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 Dec. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFtpzKYk-6U.

Storyline/ Fight scene tips

Last class we all came together and came up with the main idea of our film opening which is going to be about boxing. We are still trying to come up with a solid story line that can fit into our action genre. We drew a little sketch of the boxing scene and how we would set that up.

We also wrote a bunch of notes of the possible directions we can go with film opening for example, after the fight he ends up being pronounced dead when he's actually been alive, hiding in his home. Or he ends up getting horribly injured and wakes up in the hospital. This would then set up the plot for the whole movie ,which is, the boxer having to heal and become the best at fighting again.

I also did some research on how to create a good fight scene. A technique I learned from the article "6 Helpful Tutorials for Filming Realistic Fight Scenes", was to make the camera apart of the action. For example using quick pans or tilts, creates more of a sense of violence. Editing is also a very important part of the process. There needs to be many sound effects like grunts, hits or tears. Also in order for the fight to look very real, it's important to choreograph everything. Also according to the article,“Production Tips: The Proper Way to Record A Fight Scene.”, by using blocking to create the actors movement, it will really make the fight scene look amazing.


“6 Helpful Tutorials for Filming Realistic Fight Scenes.” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 15 May 2017, www.premiumbeat.com/blog/6-realistic-fight-scene-tutorials/.


Janney, Robbie. “Production Tips: The Proper Way to Record A Fight Scene.” City Of Forks City Limit Sign - FORKS / WASHINGTON. APRIL 13, 2017 Stock Footage Video 28374238 | Shutterstock, The Shutterstock Blog, 19 July 2018, www.shutterstock.com/blog/production-tip-film-fight-scene.

Blog Post #4

This past weekend me and my group (Tomas, Rafa, and Jonathan)  have been texting back and forth trying to come up with a genre idea. We were at first going to do horror, but everyone keeps changing their minds. I believe horror is a hard genre to pull off since it actually has to be scary. And usually when high schoolers try to make horror films they kinda come off as funny which is not what we want. So in order to do horror we'd have to come up with a pretty solid idea. We also have been throwing other ideas out there but they're all pretty random and we still don't know what genre we want to do. I don't think our communication is at its best right now because everyone keeps answering late. Two of us wanted to get on a call just now to talk about what we're going to do for this project but the other two people in our group aren't answering so we are still left with no progress on what our genre is going to be and basically what our whole film opening is going to be about. Hopefully our communication gets better and we all agree on one story line. For now I'll just do some research myself and see what ideas I can come up with. 

Blog Post #3

We were assigned to watch previous projects this past week and I think I learned a lot from it. It was really helpful seeing the film openings past students have made. Seeing their ideas helped me have a better understanding of what I should be working towards. It also made me realize that there are so many directions that we can go with this film opening and that we just have to be original and think outside the box. Also seeing how their blogs were set up and how organized they looked helped me know what I should be putting into my blog. I'm still getting familiar on how to use this site but hopefully I'll be able to organize my blog properly. We also went over a power point in class on how we can make our blogs better and how we should always be specific and talk about the making of the film opening in depth and I think that helped a lot.

Blog Post #2

The group that I'm representing is teen drama films. Teen drama films usually represent girls as  a constant source of drama and limit people by being in cliques. Another stereotype of girls is the airheaded female shown in characters such as Karen Smith in “Mean Girls. Guy are stereotyped as well. In these movies you get the usual male characters: the jock, the geek, the bad boy. The thing about those archetypes are that while they do exist in the real world, they are usually not as cliched or dramatic as in these shows. These characters in these movies aren't really accurate to how it is in real life. Also many movies portray teenagers as emotional, overly dramatic and immature subjects who cannot make rational decisions. When in reality a lot of teens are focused in school and want to get good grades and test scores. These portrayals make real teenagers feel they are missing out on the teenage “experience” that the media likes to grossly exaggerate. Another unrealistic aspect of these shows is how teenage characters “live in the moment.” Fictional teens rarely seem to be preparing for any sort of higher education, a concept that can influence the young, impressionable audience that is watching. However there are some movies that represent teenage life well are movies like Perks of Being a Wallflower. We see characters dealing with issues of fitting in, identity and emotional trauma, and it doesn’t seem phony or fake. That movie is a good portrayal of how normal teens are because a lot of teens are dealing with their own struggles and also try to deal with the stresses of school and finding themselves. Hopefully movies will start to represent teen life in the way it actually is rather than over dramatizing everything and stereotyping typing individuals. 

Blog post #1

Genre - Teen Drama
Genre Conventions - content : There’s usually a girl who’s an outcast as the main character and she could possibly be interested in a attractive popular guy. And there is also usually a best friend that the main character confides in. This can take place in a school setting.  There will also be obstacles and problems that the main character willhave to face. Drama films also make the audience relate and sympathize with the characters. There’s a realistic story line with some form of journey and a happy ending.
Genre Conventions - production techniques- There could be low and high angle shots that portray strength and weakness amongst the characters. Also clear shots and angles that show different groups within the cast . There will also be dramatic music in the background for emotional scenes
Film Magazine sample #1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tbRlEXrysU The movie The Duff is about a high-school senior Bianca, has a rude awakening when she learns that her classmates secretly know her as the DUFF -- designated ugly fat friend -- to her prettier and more popular pals. Desperate to reinvent herself, Bianca enlists the help of Wesley, a charming jock. In order to save her senior year from becoming a complete disaster, Bianca must find the confidence to overthrow a judgmental student and revolutionize the school's social order. This represents teen drama because we have the main character trying to changer herself to fit in and we also have the popular girl who's portrayed as the antagonist that the main character has to confront and such. 
Film Magazine sample #2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDU84nmSDZY The movie Mean Girls is about Teenage Cady Heron who was educated in Africa by her scientist parents. When her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, Cady finally gets to experience public school and gets a quick primer on the cruel, tacit laws of popularity that divide her fellow students into tightly knit cliques. She unwittingly finds herself in the good graces of an elite group of cool students dubbed "the Plastics," but Cady soon realizes how her shallow group of new friends earned this nickname. This movie represents teen drama because we have the main character who gets involved with the popular girls. Throughout the movie we see Cady trying to secretly  sabotage the popular girl's life. This then leads to more craziness and drama. 
More examples of teen drama films 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWmjzCZr0Jw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5rh7O4IDc0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGiHm5WMLk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYk80K4FzkM