Friday, February 28, 2025

Week 5 day 2 post!

  Cambridge Portfolio Project

Hello again people, It is time for yet another blog post, this will be highlighting some details about my production process! (and so will the next 2) 

This blog post will be centered around the location used, and some workarounds I needed to do.


So as I specified in one of my previous blogposts (GO LOOK PLEASE), I was planning on filming at my friend's house (BTW I will not be namedropping or showing his face since he wants privacy, so I'll just refer to him as my friend), and that I did. 

BUT

AS ALWAYS

SOMETHING HAD TO GO WRONG

(Dont worry, I still filmed a little bit of stuff, just really limited on what i could do.)

so originally, I had planned to film on thursday (yesterday), but THAT got delayed (Friend unexpectedly became busy) so now it had to be moved to today (Good thing or I wouldnt be able to make this blog post in time). Despite this issue, and the fact that im currently on a foreign computer as we speak, Im making this post.

When I got to my friend's house, I ran into a few issues that I knew I would run into.

Here you can see behind the blinding
light a portion of my friend's
collectibles n stuff.
#1. Friend's room has many MANY collectibles, figures etc. (I only have one bad picture I was gonna use to talk about lighting in the next blog post with, but since the idea of taking a picture to demonstrate skimmed over my head, it will have to do)

The issue is I dont want any of these in my film, since yeah colorless lifeless yeah yeah tell it to the judge type stuff.

The workaround for this was pretty simple tho! Make it dark as hell (not really) and try to push stuff out of frame or into an area too dark to see.

You may be asking "Well, wouldnt that affect your recording?"

yes.

It will.

But its minimal, it will be just fineeeeeeeeeeeeee.



Issue numero dos!

People

My friends house has a lot of people roaming at once (not really his familys just really active idk) which was slightly annoying

the only real fix I had was to wait until a later time do try and film this stuff, it was simple but effective.

anyways, the location itself was fine, once again following my stupidity, I forgot to actually take a picture of the room, nonetheless, I still have an image of his bed, which is where some of the shots are going to take place, also idk if a full image of friend's room woudlve been something he'd agree to.

ok buh bye!

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Week 5 day 1 post !

 Cambridge Portfolio Project

New title format I totally didn't steal from metallicaisbetter.blogspot.com 

anyways...

This post will be dedicated to... Costume Design!

I HATE THESE
SO MUCH
GRUHHIFHNJRHF
OPTION 1: Black and Red PJs / sweatpants:
Despite it being against my liking, due to time crunch I will have to use red plaid pjs (I HATE RED PLAID PJS ODISJOKSMCOK).

On the other hand, I have a little bit of creative freedom with shirts, but I mostly want the shirt to follow a more black than red color (since originally the pants were supposed to be more black than red but 😔)

I do have SOME designs in mind, which will definitely show up in a later blog post (PLEASE BE PATIENT IM TIREDDD AND THERES SO MANY ROADBLOCKS PLEASESESAE)

Now, why might I be sticking to this color scheme religiously?

The answer to that is....!

OK SO I CANT FIND ANY GOOD EXAMPLES 
BECAUSE OF SCHOOL INTERNET AND STUFF
SO THIS IS SIMILAR I GUESS, BUT THE
GRAPHIC WILL BE DIFFERENT




Black is a color that can either represent power or rebellious energy!
Oh and reds there too....
Only joking, red somewhat symbolizes courage

which... kind of... represents my protagonist....

ANYWAYS!

I was also thinking of maybe tossing that idea and choosing a gray jumpsuit to like correlate the outfit with dystopia, but then I remembered thats super boring and I'd rather have my character be atleast somewhat colored.

yeah

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Audio elements !

 Hello people !

This time I'm going over a few audio elements I wish to incorporate into my film opening, most of these are going to be to emphasize aspects of the film (obviously), but some are going to be more passive as well.

Onto the more passive side, I don't know if I want to incorporate music, I want the opening to feel slow and weighted? If I do incorporate a song into the film, It will probably be something simple and quiet, something lazy and/or tense.

Onto the more important stuff,

Foley !
If yall don't know what Foley sound-work is, then go search it up, it's really cool. For those too lazy to do so, essentially Foley sound-work is the process of creating sounds that mimic the usual sounds of another item using random items at your disposal (that's a really bad definition but picture someone sliding a book across their floor whilst recording audio in an attempt to mimic the sound clothes makes when you move against something. [Giving examples is always easier])

For my project, following the storyboard I can already come up with a few uses for Foley in mind

some of the sounds I need to recreate may be:

fabric moving (multiple instances, but mostly for when our protagonist leaves bed)
door handle opening and closing (I could be lazy and just use an online sound, but its better to personalize a bit!)
walking noises! (self explanatory)
(maybe) lamp button flicking?

That (I think) is all, though obviously as I work the list could change.

Now! My beloved readers (aka Robbie and like no body besides my teacher [Hi btw]), I also have to decide on general sounds needed! 

Something technology-esque for the mirror (might use a text to speech for that because it would be funny)
Recurring motif 
mumbling or dialogue audio (probably just mumbling, I don't really want my protagonist speaking too much, or at all)
door swinging audio because I dont know how to replicate that squeakyness :3

some techniques I may use (if not already mentioned)

Sound bridges
Sound perspective
Both non diegetic and diegetic sound (obviously)
Motif
Synchronous sound (obviously)
Sting (maybe)
Music (maybe)

thanks for reading!

yeah

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Setting !

 Hello yall!

Today I'm gonna go over a few possible filming locations (2 filming locations that I've pondered)

Before that though, I wanna give you guys my thought process for what makes a good set that will match the lighting, character, and more.

So for the set, Originally I wanted little color as to represent the bland world our character lives in, but then I started thinking "Would this protagonist really like to live in a house with NO color?" and now I'm conflicted with this aspect, as removing color would be more of a "ooh the government controls everything !" type of vibe, but really in my story, they don't completely control absolutely every little aspect. on the other hand, color would highlight my protagonist's personality, but also it would make it seem like my character's above the governments control, which (kind of) isn't true? But it also is true at the same time, but that's later in the story and not in the intro... Though I do have 2 locations in mind regarding these factors.

The lighting does affect this color scheme issue I'm having, if the set is too colorful, It will be very hard to achieve the cold lighting I originally wanted for the setting, If the set is too bland, lighting will be more clear, but the character wont be represented too well.

Looking in the protagonist's direction, Color will represent our protagonist well, but it would interfere with lighting, lack of color could be a workaround to represent something else whilst making lighting more possible, but the character would be left in the dust.


Anyways, onto my two possible filming locations, 

Location 1!
My own house

Pros:
Can access anytime
Complete control over movement of stuff

Middle ground:
Smallish sized (could be a good thing or a bad thing)
Colorful

Cons:
Have to work around family
Lighting might be hard

Location 2!
My friends house 

Pros: 
Likely chance my friend will help me
Not far away

Middle ground:
A lot less colorful
Larger sized

Cons:
Limited visiting time
Have to get permission to be there (most likely a yes though) and have to get permission to move stuff around if necessary(essentially there's limitations)


Overall, I still have to think about what I'm going to do, but as of right now I am slightly leaning on the idea of filming at my friend's house.

Thursday, February 20, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Lighting !

 Hello again !

The lighting for my opening is going to be really straightforward, I want the whole scene to look cold (aka dull colors with light blue ish lighting or something similar, basically the house that I want to film in is going to look downright depressing.

On the other hand, anything representing the protagonist's character (for example the sketchbooks that I mentioned in my previous post [If you havent read it, read it now.]) is going to have warm colors around them, most likely accented, or something similar. I plan to do this with whatever light sources I can easily achieve (Though I do want to keep that minimal as that may lead to inconsistencies) Since I dont have any professional lighting equipment.

On top of that, the character themselves will have the occasional highlight of warm light (Like during the first scene where said character's eyes are shown in an extreme close up, or maybe also during the mirror scene, where Bob [read last post if you dont get this] discovers his hint left by himself [Maybe it could have a way of representing a feeling of familiarity]).

I do love the Idea of a lack of color, but this may be hard to pull off since my own house is far too colorful (though I could try asking a friend to film at his house)

anyways that is all for now !

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Storyboard

 Hello guys,

I've been working on my story a bit and now I'm creating its storyboard, I have some experience creating these before from previous projects in this class, so here we go!
I had some slight changes to my original interpretation, but I'm pretty set on what I'm doing.













I had to do this on IBISpaintX (phone drawing app) which is unfortunate, I hate how pixelated the images are, but they're legible enough so...

yeah

Monday, February 17, 2025

Cambridge portfolio project - Character development

 Hello!

Originally, I was going to dedicate this post to 2 specific things, my protagonist's name, and stuff representing them / stuff in the opening representing them, but unfortunately, I cannot find a non cheesy symbolic name that works with a dystopia about memory and oppresion, so I will be solely focusing on the second element I intended on looking over.

Onto the actual details...

My character is meant to be an unordinary charcater, driven  by creation that is limited tremendously by the central government's laws.

Some ways I want to represent this (as previously mentioned) is with items. A great example of a general item I can use is books, not just books, but stuff like journals, sketchbooks, music compositions, art supplies, all of these fall under that category and can be shown during the 2 minute opening as a form of character building. Also, certain lighting (like orange, warm lighting) can be used to create an emphasis on creativity, so can general colorfulness, but I will go over that more in a specific post about mise-en-scene later.

Our beloved unnamed character (who I will be referring to as Bob until I select a name for them) is also somewhat rebellious by nature, although I found this a bit harder to implement compared to the last element. The proposed way of including this specific element into my opening is to focus on disorganization and a disorganized form of living (this can also go somewhat hand in hand with the book items relating to the last element, as some of those can be used to give a feel of disorganization.).

On top of that, semi long hair (especially around younger individuals) can sometimes be seen as a sign of rebellious energy / nature, so that can also be implemented-ish ( since I myself may be acting, and my hair is sort of long )



Friday, February 14, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Media theory

Media theories are cool

Sometimes a media theory can be inserted without even knowing it, I went over my idea in the last post (go read it if you haven't [ Yes I will be saying this every post, you cant stop me :3 ]), but what I didn't realize was that I already kind of incorporated a media theory into it (I didn't build on it though, so that's why I'm here) .

So in my idea summary, I mentioned the central government of the story spewing propaganda to discourage creative and "out of line thoughts" (as a way to like ensure no one finds out the awful things their doing and figure out a way to stop it despite the mind wipes) which is kind of hypodermic Needle Theory (The theory that says media has a direct and powerful influence on its audience). Though, there's a reason I wrote "kind of" 

Building off of the Hypodermic Needle Theory !

So the way I want to push this theory into my overall story and opening is by basically turning the already established propaganda being displayed in the mirrors (I mentioned in the last post that these mirrors were government mandated) and making it known that the government is in control of the media, I may also include some extensions of this idea, like including a broadcast of similar content, all with a way of knowing its from the government (like a little statement bottom right, etc.).The masses will be influenced directly from this (Though I'm not sure exactly how to show this) and to outliers the mind wipes and propaganda will still be seen as something normal because of how frequent and how long it has been done (Which correlates with the Cultivation Theory [I'm pretty sure]).

I can tell this projects going to be much fun !

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Summary of my idea !

Hello ! 
I finally have my project idea pretty much thought out, I will say, I had a hard time deciding on how to include coming of age aspects in a film introduction, but I think I have it down.

So the entire story (or at least the basics) is a world ruled by one central government, this government is allegedly doing some bad stuff (haven't really decided on what though), so they force citizens to do daily mind wipes and use propaganda to discourage creativity and "out of line" thoughts. The protagonist (whos name I still need to figure out) allegedly sees something and tries leaving hints of what they saw, in the end result of the plot the protagonist figures out the awful thing the government is doing and starts revolution, of course, not much of this is going to be incorporated into the actual film opening.

Film opening
what I was thinking for the opening was black screen before like sudden waking up, character stumbles around a bit to the bathroom of their house ( cold lighting ), the camera kind of drags in rotation to focus on the protagonist, in the background you can see some like sketchbooks and other things that signify rebellious behavior (kind of coming of age aspect??) , in their bathroom, the mirror is government mandated and displays propaganda and is the "mindwipe" machine. The protagonist notices some pencil marks on the side of the window that serve as a hint to them knowing something (or something similar I'm still moving stuff around), title (RECOLLECTION) pops up for a good few seconds the main character notices this and starts questioning / acting confused before a robotic voice from the mirror alerts them of their actions and notifies authorities, main character acts confused for a few seconds before a doorbell is heard (end of opening) 

I feel like this idea could use some polishing and tweaking, especially since I feel like some parts just dont make too much sense, but for now thats the idea, I will keep yall updated !

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Group meet 1 reflection

 Today in class since its the third week we had to have meetings with random people from other groups for feedback, suggestions and more.

Since my idea wasn't fully created, I couldn't fully articulate it, as a result, there was little to no feedback on it. One of the students here did tell me about a book with a similar idea (The Giver, Lois Lowry), and suggested I read it to

1. not copy its plot accidentally (for the most part) 

2. get certain ideas from the novel.

One student suggested to all of us we use an audio motif.

One of the students in the meeting shared a lot of great sources to use:
SimplyScripts (Scripts of many many movies.)
Pixabay (sounds for download)
Adobe Fonts (self explanatory)
Bensounds (worse audios and sounds but can be more specific)
Splitter AI (I dont like AI that much but this can *allegedly* edit out certain aspects of videos or images that would be non editable to the average person [like voice in a video])
YoutubeToMP4 (mostly self explanatory)

This meeting was pretty fine, but the only real benefits might've been the provided sources as most of us were pretty well established (besides me mostly).

anyways, about the groups and stuff, check out their blogs, I will also tell yall about their ideas.

aicemediawithlucia.blogspot.com

elksnotes3172.blogspot.com

saraheevdawg.blogspot.com

gigixcurr.blogspot.com

londonlaysitout.blogspot.com

Sorry if these descriptions aren't too accurate, I'm not going to lie, I couldn't hear everything since the whole class was talking.

Aicemediawithlucia: Lucia's Idea was unique, it was a horror film relating to amber alerts where amber alerts would make people disappear (I'm pretty sure), Lucia had the clever idea to name her protagonist Amber, and had a few ideas on building suspense for the film, she also said she was planning to film some of the opening (or most) on a golf course.

Elksnotes3172: Her idea was a coming of age film, she said that she was inspired by the film "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer". She also stated that she wanted to film in the school hallways, but was worried that the setting might create problems.

Saraheevdawg: This idea was a zombie apocalypse, the sequence was meant to be: Learning about the zombies, running away from zombies, and then cut to location change future. This was confusing and it was stated by multiple of us, so we told Sarah to not do the location change and instead focus more on the part where the protagonist learns of the zombies, that way the whole intro feels unresolved as it should.

gigixcurr: Probably my favorite idea right here, gigi decided on a mystery dedicated to an insane doctor who would keep his patients sick for money, on top of that, she decided to have a jar of marbles represent the patients well being, its a really cool idea.

Londonlaysitout: His idea was the most completed out of all of us, he was creating a western and had the majority of his audio ready, most of his story done, and was already filming. The idea was a standard western following the protagonist (which i cant really remember) and a standard antagonist. He planned on recording very scenic shots lined up well with rule of thirds stuff, it was really cool.


All these ideas were really cool, and I hope to be able to see some of them in the future, as for my idea... 

I will be explaining my idea (fully thought up) next time !



Sunday, February 9, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - 3 Film openings research

So relating to my last post ( If you haven't read it go read it now ! ) I'm still doing things related to the genres I researched last time.

Today I'm checking out some film openings to analyze what ideas could come from them, and ( more importantly ) the techniques used to build story, character, and anything else I missed.

 Mad Max ( 1979 )
Due to limited resources, this may not be 100% accurate but honestly all I can do is hope.
The introduction to mad max introduces the viewer to the police force of the film, the majority of the introduction is a chase scene that adds to the worldbuilding of the film and its story. This is done through the display of scenery, character interactions and behavior, and even the method of policing used.

Although, about twice, the main character ( Max Rockatansky ) Is shown getting ready for pursuit in a slow fashion that kind of tells the viewer that Max is cold / cool ( Commonly reffered to by our generation as "Aura farming" and reffered to in other generations as "Badassery" ). This isnt just done by the character's slow actions, the camera angles ( like the reflection off the mirror of the car ) and the costume design choices ( main characters sunglasses ) give off this impression aswell.


 Fahrenheit 451 ( 2018 )
This movie's intro is not the greatest, the film opens with a credit sequence that displays glitchy transitions between books burning, and bland placement of the credits ( as mentioned in the past post [ If you havent read it, go read it now :3] ). After that sequence theres a scene that displays the main character, Guy Montag, presenting to a room full of children and his peers the rules regarding books. The scene doesnt build much of Montag's personality, but it does show cocky-ness among his actions and words, what the opening does much better is establishing an ( although not book accurate ) understanding of the general world ( worldbuilding ) and focus, it can also touch up on some themes of mandated information commonly seen in dystopian genres ( the kids being taught disliking books [almost forcibly] when Montag holds one up ), but thats pretty much a given.


Since I mentioned that I would be looking at openings related to "the genres I researched last time."
(plural), obviously I cant forget a coming of age film.

As much as I wanted to review back to the futures opening since google told me " Yes ! Yes ! Back to the future IS a coming of age film " The crappy Google AI cant convince me to go against the lawful word of my glorious king Wikipedia. Soooooooooooo... I will be looking over the 2017 movie Wonder ( Wikipedia approved ! )

Wonder ( 2017 )
The opening of this movie starts off displaying the main character ( Auggie, full name August Pullman ) 's love for space in a short 10 second clip, before shifting focus to building on character through dialogue and clips relating to the dialogue, August is displayed as an ordinary kid who is revealed to have frequent hospital visits and many deformed aspects. There is also a reveal of the foundations of the plot in a scene in which August's parents are discussing school, but not much else is of notice besides the mention of August's deformities ( not completely confirmed up until now and August's dialogue directly after ). August is then shown reflecting on his looks and his experiences, and then reveals his face. 

Though it was hard to reflect on what may build character ( besides the obvious dialogue ), the astronaut helmet ( besides displaying the main characters love for space ) can also give the viewer a clue about how August thinks about his own looks, as the use of the space helmet is also technically a cover for August's face.


What I got from that:
In the opening I will create, I could take a few things for inspiration and guidance. For example, both Mad Max and Fahrenheit 451 focus a lot more on worldbuilding over building / displaying character, it makes sense, the dystopian genre ( and / or aspect ) of the opening could be represented through the environment and behavior. On the other hand, coming of age focused a lot more on the character, obviously, the whole point of coming of age is to show maturity in character, so the coming of age aspect of the film opening I will create could be reflected through direct dialogue or character based interactions / actions. 

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Fonts !

I know fonts (and the title) are SUPER important as they are literally the brand of the film and its opening, though I wanted to explore some general fonts that might match different types of dystopian subgenres, so that I can have an already complete option as soon as my Idea pops into my mind !

So for fonts I will be looking in Google Fonts ( Even though it kind of sucks ) 


Oswald font :  I kind of like it, its simple and bold, allowing a very generalized use of the font. It could be used for something with a serious tone, but its also kind of bland.

 Kumar One: This font kind of gives off (and I genuinely cannot tell if I'm delusional) luxury? Either that or technology, but I'm kind of lost.
Monomaniac One: The font has rounded edges which kind of make it seem simplified and possibly futuristic, that futuristic aspect can go either way (good or bad). Honestly, this is probably the most solid choice out of the fonts I've taken a look at, maybe I'm just way off.


Bebas Neue: This font is really bold and gives off a serious tone (I guess its something to do with the capital, sharp letters). But honestly the Y looks really really off. 

Okay, after looking through Google Fonts, I can conclude... Google Fonts kinda sucks. ANYWAYSSS
looking on some other places, I can find more specific fonts, I do believe the Google Fonts research was justified though as they're more general, that's besides the point right now though, since I'm pulling out the more specific fonts.


Cyber Gloom: Its name literally displays all that the font represents, Its futuristically messy, in a way. This font effortlessly functions with a technology based dystopian film / story


Respire:  Respire also inherits the futuristic look that Cyber Gloom has, but it does it in a way that, instead of being messy, is DIRTY or STAINED. It kind of makes a difference as (made up scenario) Cyber Gloom could be used for something relative to technology leading to chaos among society, whilst Respire could relate to technology leading to poor living conditions to bloodshed among society.


VTKS storm: This font's lack of cleanliness also could be used to reinforce a world condition of bloodshed or poor living conditions, as does Cyber Gloom (above). HOWEVER, this font's use of shadow (the funny 3d effect we all tried as kids) kind of looks "classic" leading the basis of the story away from technology, maybe in a story war plagued the lives of people worldwide, this font could be a good representation for that, though I'm not 100% sure.

All of these fonts are great basis on what to do, I will probably do more research on specific fonts later, but for now I still need a basic story complete to get the full idea.


Friday, February 7, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - Planning !

 There is a lot to do within this project.

Within this project I have to come up with ideas, collect or make sounds, decide whether or not I need actors, find said actors, researching, location planning, filming, editing, etc. etc. ( I definitely missed SOMETHING within that. ) 

Anyways staying on topic, already ending week 2, I will account for the following weeks up until around week 6.


Week 1 (passed)
Research on the genres for the film, and certain films with said genre
Try and come up with an idea (failed)

Week 2
Continue trying to come up with an idea (possibly failed)
Continue research
Try creating a storyboard if an idea comes to mind ( Or at least like a basis )

Week 3
If I cant come up with an Idea its over (most likely I have)
Determine the need for Foley sounds and publicly available sounds
Determine the needs for actors
Find location to film
Possibly start filming?

week 4
Definitely start filming if haven't
Start editing too
If Foley sound creation is needed then start making them now

Week 5
Revise editing and clips
Hopefully be near done filming and editing
Pay actors ( I wont ;3 )
If needed, Re-do Foley sounds or pick better sounds from a sound bank online
CCR research near the end of the week in preparation for next week

Week 6 
Post production phase apparently
Revise work, re edit if needed
Do some more CCR research (do this early in the week) and also do the actual CCR thing (midweek) including a revision (near the end of the week or next week)

Week 7
If anything isn't done, or I'm behind schedule in any way, make sure to use this week for completing everything.
Finish CCR revision

Week 8 
Everything should be turned in by now, but obviously if I'm THAT behind then I should use this week for finishing stuff too.

I'm not gonna lie, its over (not really)

This schedule is PACKED with a bunch of necessary things that I must do regarding this project, honestly I hope this project helps me learn to manage my time because I have to balance this and my other 6 classes at the same time (which is going to be really tough [at least I think?])

Overall, I do hope I can stay on schedule, If I'm ever behind (which is probably gonna happen one way or another) , I'll probably try to catch up on the following week and hopefully I can even be ahead of time incase of any major problems. 


Thursday, February 6, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project - 3 Credit sequence analyzations

 Ever known how bad restricted school wi-fi is for the research behind these blog posts? I cant really look at the resources I need to be looking at until I get home.

Similar to my last blog, this time I'm going to be looking at the credit sequences of the same exact films.

Mad Max ( 1979 ) 

Whilst the credits to Mad Max use the standard 

Black screen with bold white letters and a score

the one special thing that is done during the opening credits is the syncing of the appearing names with the music. While I don't think I will use this technique ( Since the specific type used was relative to older movies [since its and old movie]) it does have me thinking of creative ways to have credits appear.

I could try syncing the credits with SOMETHING ( I don't know what exactly, though.) But (since its an older movie) there was not much to learn off of.


Fahrenheit 451 ( 2018 )
Im not gonna lie, I should've selected my movies more carefully, it was hard to watch this, I had to spend money.

anyways for the credits in this film, they just kind of place names in "asthetically pleasing" areas whilst showing close ups and sequences of books burning, which I guess is related to the film but nothing really special.

I guess the thing I could learn from this is that I should place my credit names in my film in "asthetically pleasing" areas, though again, nothing real special to learn from this.





Very interesting picture I found from the 1996
film, special effects were certainly something
(they were most likely actually good for 1996.)














 

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Cambridge Portfolio Project- Genre research

 Hello :3 ! 

For the Cambridge Portfolio Project, I desperately need to do some research on possible genres for the 2 minute film opening, so here is a rundown of my research !

I will research 2 genres today !

Starting off with the genre of Dystopia !

I've liked Dystopian literature for a while and coincidentally have been learning more about it in my English class,(subsequently led me to reading "The Electric State" [Simon Stalenhag] and "Ready Player One" [Earnest Cline]) so here's my research on the genre

What exactly is dystopian genre?

Ready player one ( Steven
Spielberg)
Dystopian literature and film follows the decline of a society that is usually caused by some common topics including: Oppression, Control, and  Disaster. (Though these are common themes, many bits of literature prefer to scope out their own topic, and simply include one of the main topics as a basis.) The whole point of the genre is to take a question regarding a current society and asking the question "What if (random aspect) was perfected? What effect would it have on the other aspects of this society?" Etcetera etcetera. This genre usually serves as a warning, or serves as an attention grabber.

The only real downside to following through with a Dystopian film opening would probably be the difficulty in the creative process, however its probably not a huge problem, so chances are I will follow through.


Another genre I've been looking into recently is Coming of age !

If I'm being completely honest, I never knew what coming of age meant before I started taking this class, but coming of age is a vastly reappearing genre throughout many, many films and stories. Whilst present in most movies, usually it isn't the full focus ( a side genre of the film, probably ) , which seems interesting because building a character development adds a lot to a story. 

What is the Coming of age genre?

High School Musical
(Kenny Ortega)
Coming of age is a very common genre throughout various films, books, and general bits of media. It follows a simple process of the growth of an individual ( usually the main character, but sometimes its a side focus on a side character. ). Coming of age is usually the main focus ( or one of the main focuses ) of youth themed films, like High School Musical. ( I wish I didn't have to include this because I majorly dislike musicals, but its one of the most known so... ) Coming of age is also known to have various emotional aspects to it.


If I were to incorporate this genre into my film opening, I think it would most likely be a side topic used to build some character, whilst still keeping another genre in the spotlight.



Sources:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_and_dystopian_fiction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming-of-age_story

NOTE: I didnt realize till after but I feel like I need to clarify it better, Ready Player 1 ( Steven Spielberg ) is NOT ONLY a dystopian film. Yes, it is one of its main genres, but it also follows many other genres ( such as science fiction taking up more of the film and book )

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Transitioning to cambridge portfolio project...

 Hello ! I wanted to let yall know that I will be transitioning my posts to only relate to the cambridge portfolio project, so far all the other 9 or so posts have been on topics related to the portfolio project, but have been more research and informing yall about the research.


Very basic rundown of the project, 2 minute film opening that has to be original

I need to be ontop of this project as it is very important, so I plan to get things done possibly early (not including these posts unfortunately) so that I can have time to revise my work.

in terms of structuring, depending on my genre, I want to have a buildup of whatever main character's personality is, or whatever the antagonist / obstacle is. These options really allow for creativity to shine as theres many different ways to build up a topic, whether it be with camera movements, dialogue or the environment, it would also make the creative process be a bit easier on me, and more customizeable.

Goodbye !


Special Meet up day!

  Cambridge Portfolio Project Hello Today in class we had group meetings!  We were instructed to visit our teacher's website (tstok.net)...