Decisions

I need to come up with a tittle! I have a few ideas that I like but I don't love.

Broken Ties

One of my peers gave me this title idea and I really like it because it basically explains the movie. Sicily knows she's doing something bad but doesn't want to think about it. She knows her family is not on the right path, but she also knows that she can't try to change her family or get out of it because she has been taught by her father that family is always over all. So I like how the title fits with the story and it gives away a bit of what will happen in the movie. (Her finally realizing it and breaking ties with her family) 

Family Business

This title also caught my eye because it has the same effect as the one above, it tells the audience what this movie will be about and what I like most about this one is that I am literally showing you the family business in the trailers and the role that each member of the family. However, I feel like the tittle seems a bit raw and doesn't sound as appealing 

Affari di Famiglia

I feel like this title will give the movie the true Italian mafia feel, affari di famiglia means family affair and although it sounds cool I don't want my audience to think this is an international movie or a movie thats all in Italian. But it also gives the movie a bit of mystery, maybe people will wonder what it means and look into it and once they see the trailers it will attract them. 

The Benedettis

This title indicates that the movie will be about a family, I like the way it sounds kind of interesting and the way it doesn't give anything away, which fits into how Sicily is explaining the roles in her family and the contrast between what she's describing and the actual reality. 

Updates!

Today we met up in groups and I feel a HUGE relieve. After talking to the girls in my group I realized im pretty ahead and although it won't take the stress away I feel relieved. 

We talked about the problems we were having with our projects and I feel like my only problem is sound. I have to do a voice over of Sicily explaining her stuffs and I have to put music and sound effects in top of that. If you know me you know I absolutely love to edit, thats my thang, but when it sound.. I feel like thats my weakness. Obviously im going to try my best but finding good royalty free music is annoying because many are too cheesy or they'll start off good and end up sucking etc.. So lets hope ill find something thats worth it. I've been thinking of a few really good songs I could use, but since they're actual songs by actual artists I have to ask the record label permission which might take a while. To be honest im a bit scared they'll reject my request so im going to leave that as plan B. 

In the other hand my website is coming out pretty cool, I just need to add pictures and content but besides that it looks neat and intriguing. I also like how I found this buttons where when you put the mouse on them it looks like you're pressing down, and a few little details that give it the touch! I need to do the photoshoot next week so I can add the pictures on the website as well as Start brainstorming the poster! 

More shooting!

Yesterday I filmed Anthony's scene and what happened was really funny.
We all met up in the back of Publix and we went right to it. I got shots of Anthony driving his car towards the man he was going to meet up (which didn't come out as cool as I imagined cause of the lighting) and shots of Anthony driving from inside of the car (which came out super cool). Then I had my friend Jordan stand by his car as if he was waiting for him and right after I got a few shots of Anthony getting out of his car and walking towards the man, three big Publix workers came out and started screaming at them to stop! I guess they didn't see me cause I was behind the car setting up to shoot and the men probably thought they were dealing for real! Keep in mind that Sebas aka Anthony was holding the "drugs"!! After I explained my project and showed them that the pills were just calcium pills they relaxed but were still a bit sketched out. Luckily I got the shots I needed and we were on our way soon after that happened.
BUT my problem is that although I shot at night, the big lights that were there made the scene look really bright, and I really want the low lighting to give it that sketchy feel. Im going to play around with color to see if I can darken it up, but if not... then my perfectionist little tush is going to have to film this scene again.

mise-en-scene

Today I filmed some more and it took a lot of imagination. For Frankie's scene I needed a dark creepy place with low lighting and a work table that resembled a cheap lab. Anyways, we used my friends garage and for some reason we found many weird detergents and things that could work for what I was going for. For they lighting I did the same thing as my last years project and just had my friend hold her phone light while swing it around to create that low lighting, and finally I had my actor wear an apron and some plastic gloves. In person the "lab" looked a bit silly, but with closeups and good angles I think it looked believable. Its funny because the audience is going to see Frankie making this potion looking thing and somehow it transformed into pills... *movie magic*

I also started working on my website and I want to make it simple yet intriguing, I used "The man from UNCLE" movie website as reference and for my website im going to create tabs for the trailers, a gallery, background story / meet the characters and social media. I want my audience to feel a connection with the characters so i want the website to give the audience a chance to explore aspects of the movie.

The man from UNCLE website:
http://www.manfromuncle.com/#videos

Finally

My plan worked! I asked my friends aka my actors to come over so we can hang out, when they were all here I pulled out my camera and told them that we were going to film and they had no choice but to go along with it. After we shot some scenes they realized how fun it was and all of them got super into character and gave me ideas. 

However I ran into some problems... My camera died and I had to film with my phone which sucked because the quality is not the same, so im gonna have to redo some scenes. Also, the lighting which is not that big of a problem because I think i can fix it with color correction but I still want to redo some scenes that came out a bit dark. And finally, my last problem was that in a few the actors where laughing or it just didn't look series like I want it to look so we are going to redo the ones that look unprofessional. ( they're going to unfriend me for being so demanding) 

I want contrast between Sicily and her siblings to represent their differences. Although she is in the family business she is a good soul and she doesn't want to hurt people, she's basically brainwashed by her family so her scenes are all bring and colorful to show thats she's somewhat good. While the other scenes are dark and mysterious to represent her families dark and intense life. They do it for money and power and have no mercy or shame, however Sicily is blinded and knows in the inside they are bad but doesn't want to think about it so she goes along with what her father tells her to do.

Updates!

Good news! We got an extra week to finish our projects and thank every holy thing in this world because i did need more time! So thank you Ms. Stoklosa

Its funny how things change, I had this idea for my trailers and after editing and having some problems, trailer #1 totally changed. Instead of having Sicily talk to her target im just going to show them together while she's narrating. Since I didn't use a mic when I shot those scenes, you can barely hear what she's saying, and trying to voice it over will be too hard. SO I just cut out a lot and I like what it come out to be.
In the other hand, Im still waiting for the other actors to be available and yes I know I could use other people, but they're perfect for the part and I really really want them to do it. Hopefully we will meet up this weekend and film.

Also, I was searching for more complex editing software since imovie offers very basic tools and luckily one of my peers introduced me to an editing software called Final cut Pro and its amazing! It has more things than imovie, such as: different editing tools, transitions, cool titles, color correction, sounds effects, and much more and since I got the 30 day free trial I have plenty of time to play around with it and use it up.

Final cut Pro reviews:

"IMovie VS Final Cut Pro: Which is The Better Video Editor For You." IMovie VS Final Cut Pro: Comprehensive Comparison between iMovie and Final Cut Pro. N.p.

Chadwick, Danny. "Final Cut Pro Review 2017 | Pros & Cons | Professional Video Editing Software." TopTenREVIEWS. N.p., 09 Feb. 2017. Web. 25 Mar. 2017.

Research

Relying on people for projects is frustrating! My actors can't meet up today for their reasons and I really wanted to finish filming.. oh well...

I found this awesome youtube account called Film Riot and here, Ryan Connolly gives you tips and tricks in order to make your production better. In the video How to shoot a fight scene Ryan shows an example of an action short film he did and he goes thru the steps showing you how he filmed it. I found this very useful because I want to have a short fight scene in my trailer (lets hope my actors don't actually beat each other up). Also Ryan has videos on how to improvise with props, editing software reviews, filming techniques and ideas and much more that I've found super helpful. 

In one of the videos, How to Make a Trailer, Ryan demonstrates how he created a trailer for one of his short films and I found it interesting that he first chose the soundtrack and then built his trailer off of it. I started looking for royalty free tracks I could use for my trailers and luckily I found a few that I liked. Im a bit nervous on how the ambience sound, voiceover, sound effects, and soundtrack are all going to come out (sound is my weakness) but hopefully it will sound "professional"! 

I went on websites like purple planet and Freeplay to look for the tracks and I really liked parts of some so Im thinking of mashing them up into one. After all real trailers have different songs according to the scenes. 

Film Riot vids and Royalty free websites:

Filmriot. "Realistic Guns for Cheap!" YouTube. YouTube, 21 Nov. 2014. 

Filmriot. "How to Make a Trailer!" YouTube. YouTube, 12 Mar. 2015. 

Filmriot. "How to Shoot a Fight Scene." YouTube. YouTube, 02 June 2016. 

"P u r p l e  p l a n e t." Rock - Purple Planet Royalty Free Music. N.p.

Freeplay Music | Welcome | The best music library on the planet! N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.

Progress!

I filmed part of trailer #1 on Wednesday and it went amazing. The lighting was beautiful and everything went smooth. (they're not professionals but they tried their best)

My film is set in Miami and I filmed in my city's town center. Its very colorful and has many palm trees so it helps establish the setting and back in January I traveled and got a beautiful shot of Miami's skyline so I'm going to use that to further establish the setting.
My only problem is that while shooting, I didn't have a mike so the actors voices are very low, and also, you can hear the different music the restaurant we filmed at had playing. And its no the same song in each clip so I think i'm going to have my actors recite their lines on a mic in a crowded place to get the ambience sound and so you can hear the information the actors will be giving.
I also got ideas for my second trailer, and its going to begin with the ending of the first trailer and I want to add some of the same clips from the first and add a bit more of story. My first trailer is basically meeting the characters and my second will emphasize on what the movie is about.

Im hopefully going to finish shooting by tomorrow so i can start editing and have time just in case i have to reshoot again!

Storyboard

This is trailer #1's storyboard!

Today I'm going to begin filming and Im nervous yet excited, I feel like I have this huge image in my head ready to burst out and I want to make it as professional as possible!
Below is a rough draft of what my guidelines look like. When you zoom in the pictures, you can get a glimpse of some of the shots I'm going to get, as well as composition techniques, mise-en-scene, and transitions. I want the scenes to have quick cuts and be somewhat fast paced to get the audience hyped. And between every scene I want to include a black transition to show how every member has a main role in the family business. I'm going to add the titles at the bottom so I can credit the actors but not distract the audience from what they're watching.

I'm a bit confused with what I want to do with my second trailer, either way since I have to use most of the same footage I'm just going to film A LOT and start looking for what fits and what I need, I'll do another story board for my second trailer after I finish with my first. 

Trailer research

I started my storyboards today because i wanted to start shooting tomorrow, but some of my actors wont be able to film tomorrow so I think i'm going to leave it for next week. Besides this can give me an opportunity to perfect the storyboards and make changes.
I also researched trailer codes and conventions and like every trailer, i need the disclaimer and production company at the beginning, then comes the names of the actors and etc. and for me the hardest element of the trailer will be the sound. Sound is everything on a trailer, it creates the mood and provokes emotion. Since we can't use copyright music I will have to dig deep into royalty free websites to see what I can find.
Also in the powerpoint I found about trailer codes and conventions, it talks about the hypodermic needle theory which is when the trailer manipulates the audience into watching the film by "injecting" them with information from the film. And then there's the audience reception theory which is when the audience interprets the information from the trailer in their own way. Im going to apply the hypodermic needle theory to my first trailer by giving the audience character and plot info. and i want to apply the audience reception theory to my second trailer by giving the audience a bit of info about the story.

Trailer codes and conventions:

Ameliabird Follow. "Conventions of film trailers." LinkedIn SlideShare. N.p., 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.

Ideas

Yesterday in class we got into groups and shared our ideas, and I got really good feed back that will improve my trailers.
I had the idea of having Sicily introduce herself as she's describing her family through narration, but instead, one of the girls in my group gave me the idea of having Sicily explain to a costumer or even her target about her family. And instead of her knowing about the "family business", her dad is going to be the one that's going to tell her about it.
Also, Im debating weather this family should be involved with drugs or be a hitman family, either way they go hand in hand and I want to show the violence and illegal aspect of being in a crime family. I was also debating if I should make my trailers center around the romance between Sicily and her target or Sicily's morals and how she doesn't want to be bad and after thinking about it I'm going to do both.

In the other hand, I have my actors! My dad is going to play Sicily's father, my three guy friends will play the brothers and my best friend will play Sicily!

Sicily the youngest member of the family and the main character will be played by Annette Hernandez

(from left to right) Gino the youngest of the three and the one that takes care of billing (hurting whoever messes with the business) will be played by Giancarlo Petrone and Anthony the middle brother is in charge of sales and he will be played by Sebastian Gillaranz

Frankie the oldest brother and the one who is in charge of produce (drugs) will be played by Carlos Mesia

Genres, genres and more genres

I've been researching different types of genre for my trailers and I feel like my project won't have a definite genre but multiple that will make it.

Action/ Thriller
In action thrillers theres always a protagonist and an antagonist, however, in my trailers everyone that the audience will meet are antagonists. Sicily's family are criminals, her target is a criminal and she will become a criminal as well. But since this film will be telling a story from their point of view, the audience will be rooting for the characters despite them being bad. Im going to use some conventions of thrillers like montage of shots, low lighting, tension music and shadows.

Gangster Crime
For my trailer, I'm using many aspects of gangster crime in the mine-en-scene such as: weapons, drugs, money and wardrobe. I want my characters to represent gangsters but in a modern way and to show typical "gangster representation".  

Comedy 

Although my trailers are about bad people doing bad things, I want them to have humor, so I'm going to incorporate Black comedy by using irony and foreshadows. Also, the characters personalities will add that little pinch of comedy.

Romance
Im a bit skeptical about the romance component because I don't want to label it as romance. However, Sicily will be romantically involved with her target and I want to create a sort of romantic comedy vibe between the two characters.

Genre conventions and codes:

Arul Anand, Photographer at Jagriti Yatra 2012 Photographs Follow. "Types of comedy." LinkedIn SlideShare. N.p., 24 Nov. 2011. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.

CIdos21 Follow. "Film repertoire.pptx jjcc." LinkedIn SlideShare. N.p., 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.

JasonsA2Media Follow. "Codes and conventions of the thriller genre." LinkedIn SlideShare. N.p., 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.