Conflicted Between Horror and Drama

Finding a topic to indulge in can be quite a challenge at first. My partner and I are torn between drama and horror. We feel like horror may be basic and not stand out as much as a drama film might.

Almost every horror film develops the main conflict between the character(s) and the element meant to scare the audience. If we were to choose this topic, we would probably revolve the film around either a killer or a psycho. Because of this, we would probably need to look into getting a few more actors since neither Rachel or I are very intimidating for the role of a psycho/killer. A lot more production would probably go into this as well. Such as, costumes, low lighting, higher quality camera to be able to shoot in the low lighting, and a creepy setting. All these elements would have to come into play in order to create the best product and I'm not sure if all of those are accessible to us.

Here is a list of the main things that would be necessary in order to create a great horror film opening.

Drama, on the other hand, is a little different. In this case, I feel like we can play around with this genre a lot more. Unlike horror, not all drama films are developed the same way. For this production, we probably would need only a few more average actors (which are easier to find), a basic setting based on the idea of the film, not as intense costumes, and less DRAMAtic lighting ;). We started leaning more towards drama because of a project we watched from last year which was a lot 'more engaging and unpredictable than the horror ones we watched. Although there's still some decisions to discuss, I feel like we will end up deciding to base our project around the drama genre.

 Keep up to date with my blog to discover where this journey takes us :)

Inspiration For Film Opening

This week we got the opportunity to review past foundation portfolios and it really changed my point on view on the project. Instead of the basic approach to film openings, I discovered new techniques like starting the plot from the end and resulting in the beginning of the story. This technique intrigued me a lot because I recently saw a movie called "The Upside" that used this format and it really caught my attention because the film opening provided what happens at the climax which caused me to try to  put pieces together throughout the film to figure out how they got to that point.

During a TED Talk we watched in class about film openings, I also began to ponder how I would like my film opening to come out and took into consideration some of the points Andrew Stanton was making. Considering the fact that he helped create the legendary film, Finding Nemo, I felt like he knew what he was talking about. He stated that one of the main goals of a film opening is to make the audience think and put the "pieces of the puzzle" together. This is another reason why I'm strongly for using the technique I spoke about earlier in my film opening.

Plan B, and the better technique I would could use if we decide to create a film opening for a hour movie, would model something like Scream. In the Scream film opening, lots of mystery and conflict is developed as well as some character development. These three elements are important for a horror film opening because they build suspense as well as keeping the audience intrigued and wanting more.


Between notes we took in class and my own experiences with film openings, I've developed a pretty good idea of what I want the film opening I create to overall portray. The main elements of my film opening should be character development, mystery, and engagement. Let's see how it all turns out!

Learning How To Blog

This week in class we learned a few things about blogging...and now I'm here to practice what I learned while sharing some of the tips we were taught!

One major aspect of blogging is DETAIL! Think of a topic you want to share and expand on it. For example, it's easy for someone to write about a book they read, but what makes that post more intriguing is how the book affected them and why the reader should give the book a chance. In this case, I'll be sharing every step of my journey until my final destination...the film opening!

Another important aspect of blogging is IMAGES! These are a great way to keep your audience engaged as well as helping them visualize what you're talking about. Don't be fooled though, an image is nothing without a caption explaining it. Captions are just as important as the image you provide. This helps the reader fully understand what your image is trying to portray, so make sure to include those!

LINKS make your post so much better! Links allow your audience to dive deeper into the topic you're writing about, allow you to add more info into your post, and make your post more understandable if you're referring to a specific website or video. The best way to include links into your post is a hyper link, this is a clickable word which is actually the link you want your audience to visit. This can add a lot more content to a concise post.

Lastly, is having an ORGANIZED blog! What's a blog without organization? Confusing! You want your readers to be able to access your posts easily and quickly so that way they can explore more of your content. This will also make your readers want to visit your page more often since its so easily navigable.

Those were just a few tips and tricks that I will be trying to incorporate throughout my posts and maybe they inspired you to possibly create your own blog!