Second day of production (did not work)

 

So today was our 2nd production day and well let's just say it did not go so well. We ran into two problems and basically we had to reschedule the day. So originally we had planned the production to be at 10:00 AM but a member of the grouo had a doctors appointment in the morning so we had to reschedule for later in the day around 3:30 PM and 4:00 PM. So we got to the shooting location around 4 and we got dressed and everything was ready. We started shooting but as soon as we started it started raining. We could not do the shots that we needed now because last time when we shot all the scenes were sunny and it was nice weather. If we did the shots today then it would have looked different and would have made the scene weird. The only shot we were able to get was the one inside the house and that took about 5-10 minutes. Overall, the production day went kind of wrong but the good thing is that we started editing the clips that we have so we dont get cramped with time. 

editing

 We finally began to edit and we spent more time than we should have on the beginning of the film.

The opening was the first issue. we started with the driving scene since that’s technically where the story begins, but I didn't like it. The audience doesn’t know these characters yet, so thirty seconds of them arguing feels random. Althoug the original plan was to start with the TV News Report scene, we then tried the car scene first anyway just to get a feel. Although in the end, I ended up putting the TV news report scene first

we then spent another 20 ish minutes aligning, cutting, and making sure the clips fit well together and weren't abrupt in between. It wasn't hard, but it was kind of a tedious task, although it came out well in the end.

CCR 1.

 How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? Action comedy works by breaking its own rules and also representing social groups. That depends heavily on who gets to create the stories not just who appears on screen.

We used the usual genre conventions for our action comedy genre, fast pacing, a storyline which involves crime and comedy. The case with the fraud creates tension in the movie and the comedy and humor comes the characters mistakes. The film challenges the conventions by making the characters stupid and unskilled, usually the characters are very confident and strategic. The characters in our movie solve their cases by accident which makes it different and makes the movie funny. The characters are shown as like regular everyday people, they dont look like agents so it relates to our younger target audience. The villain is a greedy and corrupt guy who is doing fraud and we have seen this in the real world before as well but in the movie it is shown in a funny way. Overall, we challenged and used the the genre conventions while mixing the action and comedy together in the best way we could. 

 

For the first and second question my plan is to do a fan meeting me (producer) and asking questions about how we made the movie and how the movie makes sense, I'm also inclined to do something like this

Group Meeting 2

 In class today we did the second group meeting where we went around and told our groups our ideas and how we're doing in the recording part of the project. While some ideas were clear and I understood them. The one I'm Hoping most to see is Guillermo's and he showed us some photos of the equipment he's going to use and it looked very cool, also about him is that he's going to study production and I hope to see a movie of his in the future.

Here's a picture of us

The second Scene!!!

 After we finished the news shot, everything else went much more smoothly and we were able to capture all the scenes we had planned. The next scene involved the agents talking in a meeting room, and we had already decided that we would film it in the library’s meeting room. Luckily, the library was not very crowded, so we were able to get the room quickly and take our time filming. Once inside, we rearranged the chairs and table to better fit our scene and set up all the necessary props. By the time everything was ready, our actors arrived, which worked out perfectly. We gave them their costumes and walked them through the script so they understood exactly what we needed. One of the lines required strong emotion and a bit of anger, and our actor delivered it perfectly. From setting up the room to finishing the final take, the whole process took about 30 minutes. It also required several retakes to capture the right emotion and get the scene exactly how we wanted it.

After we wrapped up filming at the library, we went to my house to work on the next set of scenes. We needed to film a shot of the two main characters in a car, along with a funny opening moment to match the tone of the movie. Once we got home, we changed into our costumes, which included white shirts, dress pants, and ties. We placed our prop items in the car so they would be visible in the shot. To make the scene more entertaining, we had one of our friends call the phone so it looked like the characters’ boss was giving them an assignment. We even gave the caller a funny name and added a humorous contact photo to make it more entertaining. This scene took another 30 minutes to film, but we were happy with the final result. Although we did not complete the entire production, we managed to film about one to one minute and fifteen seconds of footage. We have another production day scheduled for next week, most likely on Saturday the 28th. Overall, it was a really fun experience working with my friends, and I am excited for our next filming day.

The First Shot!!!

 We started filming our movie opening today, and it turned out to be more challenging than we expected. The process took much longer than we originally planned, and we had to redo several shots to get them just right. We decided to film using our iPhones instead, since they still have very good camera quality.

The first scene we worked on was the news report shot, and we needed to find the right background to make it look realistic. We chose the fountain at the library, along with the pillars around it, which gave the scene a professional news style feel. The dialogue came out clear, and the soft sound of the waterfall in the background actually made the scene feel more natural and authentic like it was an actual news story. We had several attempts to get the perfect take because our actor, who is one of our friends, made a few mistakes, but eventually we got the shot we wanted. Even though the scene was short, it took about 15 to 20 minutes to film. This made us realize that filming is not easy and requires a lot of patience and effort. On top of that, we had an unexpected issue that morning when another friend who was supposed to act got sick, so we had to quickly find someone else who was available. After solving that problem, we continued filming the rest of our planned shots.

In the picture, it is me (I took the picture) my partner recording, and our friend who performed the news report scene. I was also the one taking the photo and making sure his lines were delivered correctly. He held a prop microphone to make the scene look more realistic. We plan to use this shot in our opening and add news style editing effects to make it look even more professional.

Planning for first shooting

Today, my group and I discussed our upcoming production day and everything we need to accomplish. We went over the filming locations, where we will meet, how we plan to record, and other important details. One of the main priorities was finalizing our costumes and props. Since we only had about 20 to 25 minutes left in class after the CCR lesson, we had to work fast and to the point. We created a group chat with the friends who will be acting in our project, along with a separate private chat just for the partners so we could organize scenes and plan thoroughly for production day. We also made a detailed list of all the required props and costume pieces. Thankfully, with fast shipping and delivery, everything should arrive by tomorrow, which is Friday.

Here is the list we created of all the costume items and props needed to ensure our production day runs smoothly and productively. We did run into a scheduling issue because Ranveer, one of our group members, is only available on Saturday and needs to leave by 2:15 PM.  filming on Sunday was not an option as we all had something to do. We worked together to find a time that everyone could be there so we could complete the film. We will try to finish shooting next weekend

Production Company (White Hawk)

 After careful consideration and analyzing how our name could all match to make a creative name for our company we decided to use the meaning of our names in a last ditch effort to keep it personal to us. The name we picked is White Hawk productions which is the meaning behind the name gavin, which is one of our partners name. We also thought that white hawk is something that could relate to our target audience which is young men primarily

Here's our logo:

Sound

  In the action/comedy genre, the audio and the background music will be very important. This be a really important part to develop the tense and funny scenes. The sound will help to develop the characters, the genre of the movie. I have not thought so much about the sound part yet but I have some idea of what we want to incorporate. 

First in the opening I will start off with serious and fast action music. This will get the audience ready for the danger and all the usual aspects of an action opening. During the comedy moments in the opening the music will sometimes go silent, the volume will be reduced, or cut out all of a sudden. The dumb character will be loud, will speak with confidence but say things that make no sense, while the smart character will be quieter and more professional and will use a lot of sarcasm.

We will also sound effects like boots stepping loudly in a quiet mission or like dropping something and it making a really loud noise which interrupts the mission. These will exaggerate the problems with the characters as well as alert the criminals that the cops are there, they will also make the scenes much funnier and over all keep the action genre alive too. Silence will also be added to increase the comedy, such as when a mistake happens the silence will come or silence before a loud noise. These all are the some of the ideas that I have thought of and these I think will add a great touch to the opening to make it seem professional and overall be an interesting piece of media. 

An example of a movie that uses this really well is Four Lions, it mixes everything together in a seamless way. 

Character development

 Character development will be very important for our movie as the character and their actions are the main attraction and the story will be build around them in the movie. The characters will be very clumsy and visibility immature doing thing that you typically would expect from teenagers or adults who have childlike tendencies.

The first officer will be portrait as a guy who's not ready for the work he does and a severely unprepared and unpredictable person. He will make mistakes constantly and his actions will hurt their plan. He will also be overconfident and believe that he is super skilled but everything goes wrong for him.

The second officer will be the smart and actually skilled one. This will be the guy who is actually skilled and knows what he is doing. He is smart about what he does but also nervous a little bit. This character will be the guy who is super tired of his partners dumb actions and sometimes just wants to beat them up. To be funny this character will be sarcastic with his dumb partner.

A strong example of this is 21 Jump Street where the main characters. The two officers begin as former high school enemies who are not very good at their police work. When they go undercover, their lack of intelligence and teamwork leads to chaos and problems. Which is exactly what we are looking for.

Another great example of a show where we may take some inspiration from is the show Brooklyn 99, especially the first scene where Jake Peralta (the main character) and his partner are working on a robbery in an electronics store, while his partner is working seriously and talking to the owner. He is playing with the electronics in the store and being immature. This contrast between the two characters is exactly what we are looking for and hope to master.

Mise-en-scen 2

 Now that I've established the costumes for the to officer I discuss more that we will be doing in the project. First of all I think mise-en-scene will be a really important thing to develop and it will decide if our film opening was good or not. 

To make the criminal's room we will use a dark room with a big monitor ands tv. On the tv, there will be news playing about a big fraud case going on and on the monitors it will be stocks and bank accounts to represent that there is a fraud. Along with this the whole house will also be dark and very dark lighting. 

We are also gonna have to make a news scene which will kick off the film opening. For this we will probably have a character on a desk with a glass of water and paper and pen. They will be reporting and most likely we would have to add a greenscreen of a news channel in the background to make it look realistic. Another way we might do like a reporter at the house where the suspected fraud is going on, where for the prop we would use a microphone.

Another set that we would need to work on is when the government officials are speaking and we have to make it seem like an actual meeting room where two officials are having a private conversation. For this we would probably use a dining table but we havent really figured out what to do for the background and on how to make it look like a meeting room. Some props will also be a file of both officers in a yellow folder.

 

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is everything visible in a film to help create an atmosphere as well as create a story around visual element. Costume is really important for our movies as , it will mix the humor and action in a good way. The costume for the two dumb police officers will be an oversized tactical vest, fake spy like sunglasses and instead of wearing boots they will be wearing sneakers (like nike dunks). This will make the character look unprofessional and like he has no clue of what he is doing at all. This will also be funny because the audience will think that in such a serious situation theres an idiot like this who had no clue what he is doing and looks unprofessional.

The costume for the second character will be like a casual hoodie and will actually be wearing a good fitting tactical vest. He will have a backpack which will be full of random stuff and will wear boots. This characters main target is to look realistic and give more of a serious vibe but in a humorous way. The costume for the villain we have not figured it out yet but will be something with the color black to make it look evil and simple.

Props will also be key, we will use fake weapons such as  Guns, Fake knifes and we may even use the police type belts that holds the guns. Cheap walkie talkies for communication, a flashlight that does not work and for the villain we will need a laptop, phone, fake cash, fake documents most importantly a police badge. 

 

Link for the police badges:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBW413FN/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0FBW413FN&pd_rd_w=E3Z0Y&content-id=amzn1.sym.7446a9d1-25fe-4460-b135-a60336bad2c9&pf_rd_p=7446a9d1-25fe-4460-b135-a60336bad2c9&pf_rd_r=V8CKQ2JFHTFFX2FXXYEQ&pd_rd_wg=I86Kz&pd_rd_r=1ca1459b-4787-42ca-af73-3d3b1a8b5f5e&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

  We started to work on the script but have not finished yet, we discussed a lot of the shooting spots and how the story will be developed. We have started the scriptwriting and are only about 3-4 scenes in. Here is what we have so far:

SCRIPT FOR PORTFOLIO PROJECT 

Cast: 

News reporter: Antonia B. Muller 

Dumb: Joao 

Dumbest: Ranveer 

Criminal: Gavin 

 

Scene 1:  

(Extreme Close Up on News Reporter talking on a screen about the Major Fraud happening in the state of FL with a slow zoom out capturing the room with the person doing the Fraud and we can see his setup but face hidden) 

 

News reporter: “We are interrupting the regular program for urgent news that just came in, Investigators just revealed they have discovered a huge embezzlement fraud occurring right here in the state of Florida.” (Extreme Close Up)                                    

News Reporter: Agents and officials are moving fast to identify the person behind this major fraud 

(Zoom out to see “criminals” figure watching the news report) 

(News reporter keeps babbling and the sound fades out during the zoom out) 
 

Scene 2:  

(Low Medium Shot of Criminal in his dark messy room with multiple monitors and the tv screen playing the news and we can see him on the phone. Bank Accounts and Stocks on the monitors.) 
 

Criminal: “Transfer the money to my account in the next 3 hours”. (Very Low Faint Voice) 

Sound: Low intense music when camera fully zooms out, News channel still playing, Criminal Dialogue. 
 

Scene 3: 

(Medium shot of government officials in a room with low lighting talking about who to send to arrest and cuts to a close-up of the case files which shows the main 2 characters.) 

Government officials: We found the guy behind this, who are we going to send now; we must send the best. 

Government official 2:  The 2 best in Florida is already on a mission and KIA, the second option we have are these two 

Sound: dialogue with theme song as case file opens 

 

We will continue to complete this next week and plan to have it done by the end of next week.

Media theory

 One media theory we've decide will be easy to incorporate would be Stuart Halls representation theory. His idea was that representation can be shown through stereotypes and that's something we will surely use especially with us playing into the dumb cops stereotypes like the forgetful and walking into traps.

We can use this theory to also play into the cool cops type of way with sunglasses gum, and maybe even the Hollywood doughnut eating cop.

Project Idea

 The idea for our project is: there's a major crime going on and the state will use their top cops, however their top cops will already be used in another case. So then they decide to use the cops with the best track record. The two cops will be two unexperienced yet great at making arrest cops. They however are really immature and try to play the cool cops, the movie will then be the two working on the case while doing some really stupid things, and ultimately being captured by the criminal.

Here's a video of something we might work with:

Group Meeting #1

 Hello today in class we had our first group meeting and I think it was something me ad my group really needed. Our original idea was totally scraped for a whole new one. By suggestion of my group member our new idea is a 21 jump street style of comedy where the two policeman are vey dumb and work in very funny ways to complete tasks. With that being said we will also take some inspiration from movies like white chicks and even the TV show Brooklyn 99.

Another thing my group helped me with is the addition of tittles to my blog which I thought I was doing but apparently I was not. So now my blogs will be tittled!!!

 Now that I've researched how some opening of my genre are made I have also done some research on the target audience of the action genre.

From my research I learned that the genre is mostly done for late teens and young male adults. However I also learned the genre is moving towards a more female audience with people learning that women also enjoy the category.  

Here's a website I used to learn more:

https://billiepearsonportfolio.weebly.com/target-audience.html