Social Media Research

 One element I haven’t even thought about yet is my social media. I haven’t started to think about what my social media is meant to look like, what the best way to market my genre and story, or how to reach my target audience using engaging posts. So, I have done research on a few films that revolve around a similar premise, and have studied elements of their social media.

Collateral Beauty (2016)

Starring Will Smith, Collateral Beauty has a similar theme to my short film, where a successful business man retreats from life after the death of his daughter. While his friend desperately attempt to reconnect with him, finds more comfort in his own grief by writing letters to the Past, Present, and Future. 

Social media tool: This film uses an instagram page that was updated from 2016-2020

Description of types of posts: Upon first glance, this film’s instagram page is composed of many reels with sneak peaks and trailers, and posts with reviews, images of the actors, and stills from the movie. One element that is unique in this page that I don’t see in very many promotional accounts, is the amount of “inspirational quotes.”

These quotes are very consistent throughout instagram, and create a light, yet deep tone for the movie, which is great to gather their intended target audience. 

Another element that I loved to see, because I was relatively confused on, was audience engagement. Here, the post asks the audience a question in the caption of the post, meant for nothing but getting the audience to think and interact with the film.

Description of how branding is developed (or not):

The brand is developed to be a beautiful and heart warming story for those who has experienced a recent loss in their life. The reels are similar to encouraging speeches in  the way they made audiences feel uplifted and inspired. The bright lighting, the inspirational quotes, the thoughtful upbeat music used, and the easy-on-the-eyes color working is excellent to make viewers feel welcome and accepted.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

This film seems to have a very positive message, stemming from grief. Despite the grief, the film is advertised for it’s poetic nature and theme of the perseverance of life. I think my social media page should be similar to this. I want to not revolve around the idea of the mystery of the brother’s death, or the mystery of who the writer of the notes is, and instead focus on the message behind the film, of the importance of coming together with your family for support. I will definitely also try and define a color scheme or aesthetics. However this may be hard with the uplifting message. I had imagined the majority of my film to be very dark, using a blue color scheme and switching to yellows and greens at the end, however the dark color scheme doesn’t match very well with the message, and I cannot use both the light and dark colors due to consistency. 

Coco (2017)

Taking place entirely in the land of the dead, Coco explores the understanding of death and grief, and the passage of one’s story after death.

Social media tool: Twitter

Description of types of posts: Many of Coco’s more recent posts revolve around the awards the movie has won. They also try to consistently use clips from the movie, as well as extra content. They used this side by side comparison  of the complete film and the early sketches of scenes.

The social media page is also very good at attracting their modern audience. They post in a very professional manner, however many posts use language and emojis very common with adolescents at the time. In the post below, they even used virtual reality to advertise the movie, attempting to show their viewers that they would not be just “a little kids movie.”

Description of how branding is developed (or not):

The posts used in their social media are good at reaching their target audience, which I feel was more their approach than marketing it as having deeper meaning. They hyper focused on getting their name out to the crowds by making their movie seem lighthearted and fun with great music because they are a Pixar studios film. Frankly they don’t need to push their meaning because their production company name does it for them. They utilized very brake and colorful videos and images, and music from the movie.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

This film’s social media is honestly not the best frame of reference, simply because it’s a Pixar film. Since they are so widely known, they don’t need to push their underlying meaning very hard, especially with their younger audience. However, their consistency with color was very impressive. One thing I like about the movie, which is evident in their social media page, is the consistency with colors. Coco has some incredibly beautiful visuals with bright oranges and flashy pinks. Even in the sad, more dark scenes, these colors are evident. I will keep this idea in mind when planning the visuals of my own short film.

 https://www.milanomonuments.com/blog/5-movies-about-grief-that-show-us-how-to-cope-with-loss

Starting to develop a different plot

 Originally I had wanted to do a short film about a boy who’s lost his mom, keeps getting letters from her, and then finds out it was his mother’s murderer, the one sending the letter. But this is so empty to me, it’s a story, yet it doesn’t impact its audience, it leaves no theme or message. I realized I’ve been so unmotivated with this project because there is nothing for me to say or tell in this story, and I love putting meaning into the things I create. Here are some changes I will be making:

The mother is no longer the one who is dead. I want my main character to be a girl and her brother is the one who is dead. I want it to be a story about a family who was destroyed by grief, and she is the person who wakes up and starts the change. Her mother reverted to alcoholism, her father is working himself crazy, she as a young girl is getting neglected by her parents, grieving her brother alone. Her brother is the one who used to leave her encouraging notes, and how her friend sees her struggling and starts writing her notes, or maybe it’s her mother writing them and she writes them to cope with her own abuse and grief (revealed at the end in a discussion between them) in order to try and help her, but the girl sees these notes and think’s he’s alive, or that his murderer is trying to get to her, or it’s his ghost trying to haunt her. She’s driven mad by it, and her mother or friend finally confronts her, and snaps her out of it yelling that “I’ve been the one writing you them.” “what?!” “I saw how bad you were dealing with it and thought this would bring you a little comfort. I didn’t think you’d go crazy with a bunch of theories” (friend) “i don’t know why I did it. I remember how happy it made you and wanted that back. I mean we need at least one sane person in this household” “and you expected it to be me? I’m your CHILD. How can I handle this on my own? HE WAS MY BROTHER” “AND HE WAS MY SON. MY FIRST BORN, MY LITTLE BOY.”

Basically at the end, they realized how grief has destroyed their family and they’re able to move on, with the memory of the son.

Short Film Research

    To be truthful, I don’t know much about short films. I haven’t watched very many, so I found a video on YouTube by the creator Film Courage, which gives a simplification on how short films are often composed. Kim Adelman goes into details on the versatility of short films and how creative you can be. Here are the key notes I gathered from my research::

Keeping it simple:

    Many people will attempt to write an elaborate story for a short film, however this can result in a messy and incomprehensible version of what could have been. Short films are a maximum of 40 minutes, however I only have up to around 5 minutes. So simplicity is very important. “It’s all about figuring out what story you want to tell, and then bringing it down to a simple idea,” Adeline states. According to Nick LaRover, an author for RainDance, less is more when it comes to short films. Because of their time limit, short films are also limited in the number of ideas and twists you are able to introduce. You are also limited in the structure of the story, the number of characters you can introduce. 

Some stories are optimal for short films:

    Despite the seemingly restrictive nature of short films, they give you the opportunity to address stories you wouldn’t be able to address in a full length film. Short films get right to the point, so writers are able to focus on one theme, one message, and stick to it. Some stories are best to be told in a short amount of time, while others can be translated to a featured film. I decided to watch some past Media student’s short films, and found Isabella Coronel’s films “Elle Qui Pleure” (2022). I actually knew Isabella two years ago from Congres, a french competition, so it was interesting to see what she produced.

     I really liked this piece because it is straight to the point, and the story is simple enough that the story is easily understood in just 4 minutes. Viewers are able to easily describe the story, as a girl who travels into a painting and comforts the girl who is similar to her. This is an example of a beautiful story, which is perfect for a short period of time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHXoNvq6lhE

    On the other hand, some stories are able to be extended into a full length feature film without the story becoming thinned out. Whiplash (2014) is an excellent example of that. First of all, I watched the film a few days ago and absolutely loved it. I’m a sucker for the trope of the obsessed artist, and the use of only diegetic music, no dialogue, and facial expressions was so beautifully played out in those last five minutes. However, I was surprised to learn that Whiplash was originally an 18 minute short film. Since the short film is not easily available on the internet, I watched clips of it that can be found on YouTube. Notable differences boil down to the budget. The short film used no filter or specific lighting, while the featured film used yellow and sometimes green lighting throughout the film. The dialogue was far more intense and extensive in the featured film as well.

Be mindful of your focus:

    LaRover discusses how your short film should focus on one major theme, “By limiting the information you share with your audience, you can tell your story very well without watering down their experience. So, if your idea looks like it can’t be reduced to exploring one idea… it may not be suited for a short film.” They should also be focused on one major conflict or goal for the character’s relationships.

    Essentially, every moment counts. When producing a short film, you must be able to think about whether every shot and every cut is getting right to the point and communicating the story as quickly and effectively as you can. “Does it start as late as it can, does it end as early as it possibly can…make sure everything that [makes it to the final cut] needs to be in there,” is how Kim Adeline simplifies this concept.

Sources:

https://youtu.be/tHXoNvq6lhE?si=ADwNlKdCmcbGR6Gk

https://youtu.be/iF3GlEaVszo?si=Dvj51Lb7_E7HCrwO

https://raindance.org/3-elements-of-short-film-structure-you-need-to-know/

Here's what the rest of my life will look like! (sos)

     This is a rough schedule of how I want my project to progress. I say rough because I don't often obey the rules I set up to help myself. Yay!

Blogging Schedule - Portfolio Project

Week One:

• Decide which set brief to do

• chose a story and story

• look at previous year’s projects

Week Two:

• Research genre elements

• familiarize myself in short films of the genre and of other genres

• develop an outline of the plot

Week Three:

• keep planning plot

• get started on a script

• Start creating a shots list

Week Four:

• Planning

• Finalize script

• casting

• location decisions

• create any necessary props

Week Five:

• create social media and start posting

• Production of video component

• plan print element

Week Six:

• Keep posting to social media

• Edit print element

• Production of video component

• editing of video component

Week Seven:

• Editing of video component

• Begin to plan critical reflection

• finish any necessary print element details

• Post to social media

Week Eight:

• editing of video component

• Begin to write critical reflection

Week Nine:

• Finish writing critical reflection 

• Finalize video component

• Finalize print component

• Finalize social media

Week Ten:

• Final touches to all element

• Post all to Blog

• Post critical reflection to blog

Possible Short Film Plots?

 For several, months, I have been writing down ideas for possible short stories or film plots. A couple of days ago, I read them over and…..well I don’t really love any of them. I had written them all very late at night and what I wrote did not make much sense, and contain a lot of “maybes.” I had probably just watched a movie or read a book of the genre which gave me the inspiration to write them. But anyways, two of them would be of the thriller genre. 

  Here was the first one, word for word:

“thriller/sci-fi/psychological

• Someone or something is impersonating Jimmy’s mom (names indefinite, random for now). Jimmy has no memory?

• Carter (me in idea) tries to warn Jimmy by leaving him a self tape saying something like “hi, jimmy I’m carter. You don’t know me but you’re someone very important to me. And i to you. But what you need to know is…your mom is gone Jimmy. She’s gone.”

• As video is playing, B-roll inserts of jimmy’s mom starts playing, and fake nice mom too

• Maybe Jimmy’s real mom was actually cruel or abusive? Maybe the new mom eraser all his memories of her for this fake utopia, Coraline type thing

• Could be from Jimmy’s perspective, find video or something like that, watched it, and the fake mom walks in “what’re you doing jimmy? Whats that?” And he is acting strange and suspicious, somehow able yo destroy, delete, or hide the video. And fake mom flips out because this is a threat to her reality, to her world, or to the reality she created.

• Maybe all of this is really just a work”

OKAY yeah I have no idea what that is supposed to mean either. I love Henry Selick’s 2009 film Coraline so I probably wrote that after watching it. But I don’t think this is a good plot, I honestly just do not have any want to produce this, so I am immediately scrapping it.

Onto number two:

• A persons mom dies. Mom used to always leave notes and encouraging messages for the kid, and the kid keeps finding them after she dies. Eventually they realize, these aren’t old notes, or encouraging messages. They are new, and they keep coming

• Possible ways to go with this:

• Fantasy: the mom is trapped in a book or story (somehow) and is sending the kid notes with quotes from the books shes in for them to find her, kinda like InkHeart

• Murder mystery/ghost: mom was murdered and is sending notes from the beyond to guide kid to find murderer, can still be book quotes, bc maybe the only part of her soul that stayed can only communicate like that bc she loved reading

• Murder mystery: mom was murdered and someone else, who helped the murderer feels guilty and is sending the notes to the kid to helo find the murderer, kid thinks its the mom’s ghost

I actually kind of like this one, I think I would be able to find creative ways to demonstrate how the main character discovers the notes and how thye find out that the letters aren’t old. I also just feel this idea of “then who is writing these new notes?” can be interesting to play around with.

Okay and here is the last, and most confusing one of all:

• Mental health: grumpyxsunshine trope

• The depressed grumpy character with a bad family. Childhood was good until age 9, when they got a new parent who was verbally abusive, and they lost their light

• Meets the sunshine character who has a bright personality, but trauma that was buried deep. The trauma affects their actions subconsciously but they don’t remember that any of that

• The grumpy begins to have light again, the more they confide in and share their experiences with sunshine, feeling that sunshine gives them hope and strength

• Meanwhile being exposed the grumpy’s family/conditions, their anxiety and ptsd resurface, bringing back old unorganized memories, leaving them a mess

• The two characters are parallels, but with shifted points. Ones early days were dark, the others was light. Ones adolescence was light, the others was dark. And as they get to know eachother, they trade once again

• Allowing yourself to be the person everyone confides in can be detrimental to yourself, especially when they don’t consider the impact it has on you or care about your own circumstances, even if it isnt intentional

• Could have a scene where theyre hiding from grumpy’s parents and sunshine is bordering on a panic attack, and grumpy says “well i bet your family’s not as fucked up as mine is” in a joking manner. Grumpy meant no harm, just said it as a way to cope with their own life, but saying that makes sunshine feel guilty for feeling horrible in that moment, confused as to why they have these flashbacks because the parents they live with now are kind. So they play their role of the kind sunshine again, shoving the hurt down.

• Maybe grump at the end (now sunshine) thanks sunshine (now grump) for everything and helping them get through their family and stuff, and sunshine says your welcome, whispering “you dont know what it cost me” under their breathe

• In the end, the roles still exist, but they’ve reversed

Basically what I wanted to do was play on the type of relationship people have, where depending on one person for all your person can be good for you, but be emotionally exhausting for the other. So the once bright and happy character has declined. I actually really like this trope and it has been done many times before, however I don’t think this can be shown in a short time span. 

In the end, I ended up consulting some of my friends in AICE Media, and outside of the class and they all agreed that the second one was pretty good. Unless I come up with another idea I really like and am inspired by, we’re going with that! 

Starting my A level portfolio project!

          I’ve kind of had it decided since last year that I wanted to create a short film. I really enjoyed implementing hidden meaning in the mise-en-scene elements and lighting in my film opening from last year, so I think I’d be able to produce a piece that I have fun with and like with a short film. I considered doing the music video, however I don’t have experience with editing a music video, nor do I have an artist I am able to access. 

In AS, I worked in a group during the music video project, which I honestly enjoyed so much. I was co-directing it with my friend Clover, and the two “musicians” were also very fun to work with. I considered doing the music video project, but I was not the one who edited the music video, and I don’t like to watch many music videos so I decided this was not the best route for me to take. The link to which we posted our album concept and music video (in the “videos” tab).

Marz got Barz website

The documentary project was irritating in regards to collecting b-roll, so I did not really consider doing a doc for this sort of final project. I thought we created a pretty good documentary, but it is very time consuming, especially when you need to rely on the availability of the people you are interviewing.

Visions of Venus documentary

 I recently did a project this year where I had to create a film trailer, teaser, and distribution plan for a story idea created by a student in my school's creative writing program. I enjoyed this project, however there were some difficulties I encountered. I was the editor of the trailer, and the entire project was deleted due to a computer malfunction on the night it was due. It was around 6pm, and I was nearly 1:15 in, and I had to completely start over on a different computer.  Sincerely movie trailer

            Despite having really enjoyed this project, I have long wanted to produce a short film myself anyways. Ever since I heard about A level students making short films last year, it was set in my mind that I would be producing my own this year.