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I've learned many things in the process of making, filming, and editing our film. Although we were only assigned to do an intro of a film that we had to come up with, I have learned that there are many obstacles that overcome many people and you will need to work together with group members; such as directors and editors to get out of it. I takes way longer than what people normally expect. The total time we took in the production process of our film was around 2 months, and that was just for the intro. I've learned that we will make mistakes and we will need to be able to elude and fetter them with however many obstacles that are thrown in our direction. With these obstacles that were thrown at us, we had to reshoot, fix certain parts of the script, find multiple actors, that were surprisingly harder to get than what we had imaged, fixing sound issues that sounded non-diagetic or too asynchronous, and also having to re-edit multiple things that were found raspy and not playable for the audience. Giving feedback relating to these factors not only made us better students, but helped us understand more of what we needed to and also become better for the audience and ourselves. We can therefore distribute a well made film to our target audience and also make it playable.

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan -- Faces

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan -- Faces

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1.  If you were to distribute your film independently, how would you do it? For instance, if you think your film could/should get theatrical distribution, would you try to get a film distributor (or sales agent if the distributor required one)? If so, who and why?  How are they a good fit for your film?  And what film festivals or film markets would you go to try to get a distributor or studio interested in your film and why? Now, if you are only interested in streaming (or think this is the best route for your film), which aggregator would you approach and why?  Also, what smaller, niche streaming services might you be able to approach directly, and why?

- To get my film shown in theaters and if I was doing it independently, I would get in contact with a distributor such as, Lionsgate. Lionsgate combines with STARZ premium global subscription platform with world-class motion picture and television studio operations. Lionsgate is well known with many genres such as our own and they are also a digital age company driven by its entrepreneurial culture and commitment to innovation.  Another thing that my film group would do would be to submit our film to a festival, consider an aggregator or small-scale distributor, find distributors who will support theatrical and DVD releases, and also to keep our own film rights for distribution.

2. What is the title of your film? Do you think your title works?  Why or why not (short and sweet, pithy, reflective of genre, aimed at target audience, etc.)?  How could it be improved and why?  Do you have a new title now?

- The title of our film is called "Faces". I think that our titles works because it fits the types of themes we propound in our movie and how it is made with the characters that are shown in it. Faces is a movie that shows a nonrealistic society and  how the people have to live through everyday sorrow and not being able to reveal ones thoughts to one another. It is where the characters live in a society and have to follow specific laws in order to live. The title "Faces" connects with the movie because every person's face is hidden with a mask and they have to keep it that way in order to survive.

3. Create a tag line for your poster.  Aim for familiar but fresh.  Remember your genre, and your target audience.

- A tagline for our film would be "All Masks but One Face. Survive or not."

4. Create a paragraph sketch of your target audience member.  Think about who would be interested in your film and why?  Specifically: Who is the target audience this genre? What is the gender and age of your target audience in this genre?   What is their income and education level? What are their interests, likes, dislikes, hobbies?  What do they care about?  What is important to them? What organizations are they a part of?  Where are they hanging out online - which social media platforms?  Who are they following online? What online games are they playing?  Where are they hanging out in real life? What are they reading? Wearing? Watching on tv -- what VOD platforms?  Doing for entertainment? What are they buying or renting?  Where do they shop?  Where do they eat?

- Our target audience for our film is males ages 18-35. The income and education level of our our target audience is around $50,391, 27% higher than the median female salary of $36,726. It is shown in 2021, of adults age 25 and older had completed a bachelors degree or more. 53.1% were women and 46.9% were men. Hobbies and interests our target audience usually like camping, hunting, fishing, gardening, hiking, hanging out with friends, and more outdoorsy activities. Things that are important to this age range of males would be more about there family. They usually come to realize around this age that their family is way more important to them then how they though before or even treated them before. Our target audience are preferred to as the millennials. Other information about our target audience would be that they are usually included on social media platforms; such as Twitter, Fakebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. People they may follow on these platforms would be sports, news accounts, families, and friends. This also includes what they do and what games they play online. The younger age range will most likely play video games, but as they get older they will start to do more things outside of their home. They eat foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, nuts, and other snack throughout the day. They wear basic shirts, sometimes polos, and more of athletic or caky pants. Places these males would shop for their clothes would be shops; such as Lululemon, Dicks Sporting Goods, Nike, Pacsun, Kohls, etc. Our target audience usually read books and watch movies as they get older. They are into more horror, comedy, and dystopian movies.ar

5.  Using your notes from number four above, think about how your could reach that target audience if you were self distributing your film on Youtube or Vimeo or a similar platform.   How can you use that information to REACH them?  Where will you advertise?  INDICATE, FOR EACH GROUP, TEN PLACES WHERE YOU WOULD PLACE ADS TARGET ADS/TEASERS/TRAILERS (six virtual, four nonvirtual), and WHY, and mention that you would do this if you had to SELF DISTRIBUTE.

- Knowing this information above, if our group were to self distribute our film on Youtube, Vimeo, or a similar platform we would then use the information to help us advertise.  Ways we would advertise would be by being authentic, offer incentives, make inbound marketing informative, prioritize mobile-first marketing, and using visuals. Places we could advertise could be Facebook because the amount of Millennials that have a Facebook account, Instagram also because of the amount of people that are apart of it, also other channels; such as Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, clothing brands from where our target audience shops, restaurants, having people promote the movie in a live interview, and print advertising that people may see when walking around their home town or city. Ways that we can market on these channels would be by writing engaging posts, posting so that the people would have a way to stop when they are swiping through others accounts, run contests in order to win free things such as tickets, try paid advertising, collaborate with social media influencers, and post regular updates about the movie. Why we would do these things is because it attracts lots of people in an easy way. Self distributing helps by making it cheaper to market and distribute our movie while also having a way to show it's worthy. It also can get passed on to other people by being able to tag them in things or even just verbally.

6. How would you ENGAGE your target audience online?  How will you turn passive audience members into ACTIVE, ENGAGED audience members? This is in reference to pull marketing (or interactive marketing).  How will you get them to click on your ads?  What would you offer them in the form of promotions?  How would you incentivize them to repost/retweet/share/forward your ad?  Please INCLUDE SOME OUT OF THE BOX THINKING!  Audience engagement must be addressed in your critical reflections.

- Ways that we would engage our target audience online would be mostly by email marketing. Email marketing is one of the most easiest and most effective method to engage your target audience. We would send them an email ever so often and then ask them to provide feedback about our work. Another great idea to engage our target audience would be by surveys and getting their feedback to how the felt about our film and more. These ways would help us get passive audience members to turn into active and engaged audience members. Other ways we can get out target audience to click on adds for our film would be by giving them a reward. Making adds that have rewards to them; such as free tickets, attracts more audience members. This then can give them a reason to share to others while we would be making money off the adds they click on. A cheaper route that we would be able to choose is more of on the artistic side. If some self distributers don't want to spend on a whole ton of money to provide adds for the audience, then can rely on other things. For example, making the add/poster pretty for the audience may attract more people than what you would think.

7. Do a Google search for the CLIO Key art awards online.  Think about what you could use/steal from selections there for your film's key artwork. Also take a look at Take a look at Colourlovers.com.
Links to an external site.  Ask yourself:  Can people deduce the storyline from the art? What is reinforcing the genre, and how is it different?  Will it attract my target audience?  What are the repeating elements you notice in films in your same genre, especially use of color?   Now answer: How would design your movie's poster?  How will you design it to be both familiar and fresh in regard to genre? What two or three main colors would you use? What is in the foreground and background? What iconography will be used? Type of fonts/typography?

- As I looked at CLIO Key Art Awards online I had noticed some important factors while looking through each piece of art and the studio it belonged with. Looking through the art winners of HBO I notice that the use of art and specific colors is a prodigious amount and also goes along with the movie and genre. One really stuck out to me. This was the Game of Thrones: The Complete Collection Packaging. As I was watching the short video, I noticed that there was a great use of shapes and similar cool tone colors in the video. It really stuck to conventions to match the genre and showed/spoke to me that putting a bunch of colors and shapes all in one film will not end up the way people think it would and will also  not deduce the storyline from the art. There is so much more behind the use of colors and shapes. It not only contrasts with the movie well for the audience but also resonates the audience with what the movie is trying to propound. After looking at the second link that our teacher provided for us, I also found that every color and color palate has a meaning behind it and when studios make their film with the genre they chose, they need to choose wise with the color palates that belong with it or else things will not make sense enough for the audience to follow along. Repeating elements that we notice in films with the same genre as ours (dystopian) would be the use of of blue, green, black and white tones. These colors often point to a dystopian world but also can depict a sense of isolation and calmness towards the audience. Other elements would be the use of nature and buildings/cities. Once our group comes to the point of making our movie poster we came to a unanimous decision that will use the majority of our colors being blacks, whites and greens, and the rest being other colors used for titles. For shapes on our poster, we will use more of nature elements to layout in the background/foreground of the poster to show how it relates to our genre and what goes into out movie. Iconography we will use will the pictures of the masks that the society wears throughout the film and the typography would be fonts; such as, Varietta, Identa, Hopfen, Frigga, and Elvira Serif.

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Shoot Schedule - We are going to film Sunday, February 19 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon.

A Locations List - Ext. at a local neighborhood park in one of the cast members neighborhoods.

A Cast List with Casting Ideas -
- Alex H. as main character
- Landon M. as 1st man in distance
- Felo S. as the 2nd man in distance

A Prop List -
- Masks
- makeup
- Hair supplies

A Costume/makeup/hair list -
- Black eye makeup
- Hair gel
- Masks

A Music/sound effects list -
- white noise sound effects
- soft/slow music
- heavy sound effects
- soft violin music

A List of and special technical or other considerations -
- N/A

A one or two sentence vision statement based on research and discussions with director - I hope to convey the message that our group is representing in our film. Not only for the audience to understand what we are trying to come across as shooting this film but also the effects we put it in it to resonate the audience.

A related image -
Up above.

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1.  A one or two sentence description of the first two minutes.  What happens? ~ The introduction of The Giver kind of has a whole description and foreshadows the movie. In the beginning it tells the audience the life of the characters in the movie and how they live in a utopian society where they have rules they constantly have to follow. It shows it as it is first person and goes back and forth between the characters POV. It shows how the character is different from all the others and how he can see colors and everyone else sees black and white.

2.  What is the genre and who is the target audience for this film? ~ The genre of this movie is dystopian fiction and drama. It also includes YA, utopian fiction, and science fiction. The target audience is 18- to 35-year-old males.

3.  Describe the opening credits and title sequences, including any company logos or idents.  When do they appear?  What color/font are they using? How does it "align" with the opening of the film?  Anything else you notice? ~ All of the credits and logos appear in the very beginning of the movie. The color and font of all the credits and logos is a black background with a white font for the letters. This aligns with the opening of the film not only just explaining the companies and the credits but also shows the conventions, codes, and emotions of the movies by the use of color it shows and the use of shapes just by seeing the intro of the movie.

4.  Describe it visually -- a shot by shot breakdown that includes type of shot/movement, if any. ~ The Giver started off with establishing credits through the first 30 seconds. After that, it went to a lot of wide aerial shots to establish the setting. Then there were lots of two shots, crowd shots, and with that were lots of panning, tracking, and raising. Halfway through the movie it stayed on the main character pretty much the rest of the time and showed a lot of slow motion for about 40 seconds. After it showed lots of three shots and included more aerial shots and more raising and lowering use of the camera.

5.  Describe the sound -- another "sound by sound" of the entire two minutes. ~ The first two minutes plays the same song throughout the whole time. The music in the background sounds like a mysterious kind of orchestra production in a way. There are also chimes and pianos that go in and out of the background and vibrates throughout. Not only music and sounds but the movie consists of quite a bit of voice overs.

6. Describe how you felt at the end of the two minutes.  Did you want to know more?  What was left hanging, if anything?  What questions do you still have?  ~ I felt almost a tingle feeling inside me. The ending ended with a question made by the main character. Therefore, it left me and the audience to wonder what’s going to happen and hoping that its nothing bad. It made me feel like I wanted to more and to keep watching. The questions that it left the audience, and I was obviously what was going to happen and hoping nothing bad would occur even though it most likely would. It also left me wanting to know more about their society because we don’t live how they do therefore, we almost as if live through them by watching the movie.

7.  How would you describe the editing style in this clip? Any particular editing techniques you noticed, or length of shots? ~ I noticed a lot of slow-Mo’s, medium shots, medium close-ups, panning, aerial shot, tracking, and raising. The intro showed lots and lots of establishing shots which gives the audience the knowledge of introducing the area and new scenes and also tells the viewer where and when the action is happing. I believe and most likely many others will feel that these uses of shots will help them understand the movie almost as if they are in it and where it is taken place while also having the same quandaries and solutions as them. Feeling the stress and emotions they have.

8.  How did these first two minutes adhere to conventions? ~ The first two minutes adhered to the conventions by the use of sound, color, shapes, strange devices and electronics, and buildings. Sound adheres to the conventions by the use of mysterious music in a way. Color follows the conventions by only having black or white colors for the majority of the movie and by showing how their society is. Shapes adheres to the conventions by the buildings and how their shaped while also showing the use of bicycles, trees, and roads. Lastly, the movie also contributes to the convention of devices by the drones the movie has while also showing the way each character gets their dose of medicine during the day.

9.  How did these first two minutes break with conventions? ~ The movie The Giver didn’t really break any conventions. The only thing that I would say that somewhat broke the conventions of the movie would be the use of color when it showed through the main characters POV on how he could see color when others couldn’t.

10.  How did these first two minutes represent social groups or people or issues? ~ The first two minutes represented social groups, people or issues by the people benefiting from a lack of many society’s ills such as poverty, hunger, and racism, yet are subjected to the government control in most things, including their careers and childbearing.

11. Why do you think this film was distributed on this particular site? ~ The Giver is distributed by The Weinstein Company. I think that the movie was distributed by this company because this company is one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America as well as in the United States.

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Throughout the year we have learned over 5 topics in our Aice Media Studies class. In November and December of 2022 we have learned: editing, sound, and screenwriting/screenplay format. We studied film editing concepts and created documents featuring 20 plus kinds of editing techniques. We watched a documentary on film editing which was called "The Cutting Edge" and a video on use of color. We also studied sound basics and watched a documentary on cinema sound "Making Waves" which made a connection and helped many students become closer with the topics we are learning. We read the screenplay for "The Incredibles," and learned how to format screenplays using special software. Nevertheless, our class wrote a two minute horror film opening about someone having a nightmare as the basis for your midterm film project.

There were many requirements that we had to come across and complete for our midterm. Therefore, the requirements of the midterm film included: one to two minutes; horror or horror hybrid; an "opening" rather than a finished film product; minimal dialogue (mostly music, sound effects/ambience); no wall-to-wall music; no long takes; start in black with company ident and/or logo and title and (optional) credits before straight cut or dissolve to first image; minimum of three crosscuts between actor and nightmare; edited/shot/uploaded by student; accompanying blog post.

The film must also include: one close up; one dutch angle; one high or low angle; one low key light set up or one silhouette; one pan or tilt or track/push or spinaround; one zoom or dolly zoom;  one subliminal cut or multitake or smash cut; one match cut; one  J cut or L cut; one use of slow or fast motion; one intentional use of color for story/emotion; one instance of intentional use of costume/hair/makeup; one instance of visual complexity in setting choice (color, texture, depth, lines, shapes, etc.); three sound effects; one piece of incidental music or one sound motif repeated three times. Our class also had the advantage to do extra credit. Our extra credit shots/cuts included: quick cuts; montage; wide establishing shot; split screen; POV shot; reflection shot; intentional break of the fourth wall; intentional break of the rule of thirds; rack focus or pull focus shot; intentional use of handheld camera work; use of color filters to create a dream like quality; fisheye lens or fisheye effect; company logo with high quality graphic.

Our class and myself adhered to horror conventions/codes/audience expectations and engagement on many levels. The levels we included were: applying an extraordinary use of color to our film to give the audience the emotion of how that movie makes them feel and also for the ambience, such as using lots of reds and blacks; low key lighting to give the audience the feeling of tension and what is about to happen from the light being obfuscated from you vision; usage of nightmares, violence, and flashbacks; and also other possessions, such as dutch angles, low and high angles, pull and rack focus, and many more. In my film, I stuck to the codes, conventions, and ambience that I needed to propound and filmed them the best way I could with what I had. In addition, the people I represented was the the following: Sydney James playing Jordyn, Sean playing the kidnapper, and Vivien playing Sara. Jordyn was the main character that was played in "It Happened At Midnight". Jordyn showed lots of emotion throughout the movie which spoke to the audience in a meaningful way. In the movie, Jordyn has a flashback of when her little sister, Sara, got kidnapped. After the terrible incident that happened to Jordyn and her family; you will see that Jordyn switched rooms later in the movie to show that her love for her sister is endless and that they always be together hoping that one day she will come back. Furthermore, Sara, the little sister, was a character that spoke the audience in a vulnerable way. Sara is a little girl that is shy and doesn't know much in the world or very much understand. For what happened speaks to a lot of people to what happened and for parents mostly on what they have to protect the most. Their kids. Lastly, the kidnapper. The kidnapper speaks to the audience on mostly of his looks. He shows trepidation to the audience and makes people feel tense of what will happen or what will be his next move. His character is the one that speaks most to the audience of how he connects with the genre, horror.

In our movies, there were lots of action that were propounded very nicely and lots of action that could've have been improved. Therefore, things that were successful in my movie would be the following: following the which specific conventions that were to be used, as well as codes, camera angles and where they were placed, and little things in the editing; such as lowering the exposure if needed, adding and finding the right SFX that fit with the movie, and adding in music so it could give it that final touch to connect with the audiences emotions. On the other hand, some of my movies less successful parts would have been not good camera quality, not good sound quality, and other deeds; such as cutting shots to quickly or not cutting them quick enough. The software I used for my movie was the app called Capcut. For my script my class used the software called Arc Studios. Shooting my movie the majority of our class used our phones. For sound and music I used the ones that were amiable on Capcut. Lastly, for graphics I used the software Adobe Express for my production logo, and software Canva for my title logo. Making this movie there were a lot of ups and downs and I have learned many things. Before making this movie; I believed that it was going to be much easier to make, but I was wrong. There is a lot to accomplish when you are filming, editing, writing, and directing your own movie. It takes a lot of responsibility and creativity to present a movie that is acceptable for what you have to show to whomever.

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We learned many movie genres to which this includes, dramas, adventure, fantasy, thriller, horror, romance, comedy, kids & family, animation, biographies, crime, mystery, historical, musicals, Sci-Fi, superhero, sports,  war, westerns, and Shakespeare. We studied the conventions of genres as well, therefore we studied about the stories of the genre, characters and their representations, setting, iconography, values, camera work (cinematography), lighting, editing, and special effects. For each genre in all of our classmates presentations, they consisted of three movies clips that highlighted the genre and were all from three different time periods. Another thing to add would be that some of the films we watched were hybrids. For the people that don't know what hybrids are, here is a more explicit understanding of the term: the type of films/media intersects a new mode of media/elements. Also meaning where one genre contains another genre in the clip/film that is not obfuscated by the viewers.

Once we got with our groups we came to a unanimous decision that our first film was comedy, crime, and adventure film. Then, we decided that our second film was crime, mystery, and horror. For our first film, Birds in the Hood, we had many conventions that consisted of characters lack of erudition, them trying to complete a task, and in the end a murder was done. We used various cinematography techniques, such as tracking and panning which are also commonly views in these type of films. In addition, we used sound effects that bring outa true comedic film. Audience expectations for this film would be the feeling of tension for what was going to happen to Boggie the bird after he plotted his revenge and laughter for the emotions the actors acted out for the audience. For our second film, "The Cheerful Murderer" we concurred on the genres of horror, crime, and mystery. All three of those genres are what most people potentially look for when watching a movie. Our conventions in this film was using unsuspicious events to convey the audiences attention for the mysterious act that was occurring. We used codes of camera movement which included fast dolly shots with the characters actions, close/extreme close ups, and tracking and panning shots. For this films audience expectations people may have felt suspense in the beginning as there was creepy music creating the tension and also more tension/thriller for when the murderer was near the other actors.

Personally my favorite genre in movies would have to be YA romance. This is my favorite genre because I like the feeling of being able to resonate to the actors since these movies most likely take place in high schools or at least contain the age of a teenager/almost adult. An idea I would have for a story synopsis of these types of movies would consist of something like two different types of social hierarchy falling in love. For example, a Jock and a, what they would call, nerd. In the beginning it would show a wide shot of the school that they are being filmed in and clips of the hallway and other characters talking for an establishing shot. The credits would then get put on the background as the school is being filmed in the beginning of the movie. This movie would definitely consist of some type of cliché because who doesn't love a good cliché. This movies conventions would derive lots of characters and their representations, and also lots of cinematography example. For cinematography we would have a prodigious amount tracking, over the shoulder, wide shots, close ups, two shots, medium shots, and long shots. Expectations the audience would expect would be to see younger females and males, and expect to feel as if your the character that is falling in love. Almost like a tingle feeling. Normally this is the typical YA/Romance movie that most people end up watching and love because the relation they feel.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HORi5NstMF4

My group was assigned to make the remake of the movie called, "The Cheernaper". We had to rewrite and list all of the shots (which involved 10 shots) that were included in the film. The original plot of the "The Cheernaper" was where the main cheerleader forgot her keys in a class and while she was looking for them she got killed. Once her friend noticed she had been gone for a while, she decided to go look for her. The friend found her dead and and the napper remained unknown. In our film of "The Cheerful Murder" our plot improved the storyline by starting off with two friends having a conversation. The first friend realized she forgot her pom poms and had to go get them before practice. While she was looking for them she got killed by a mysterious murder. While the cheer captain and another cheerleader were at practice they notice that she was gone and decided to go look for her. They went to the area she was killed and the cheer captain found her. Seconds later the other cheerleader came up behind her and killed the captain. The ending finished with the murder dragging the dead bodies into a place no one would find them. In our film we ended up with ten different shots that stood out to the audience where they could not be obfuscated from it. The role I played in "The Cheerful Murder" was the the cheer captains friend that was also a cheerleader on the team. My group got along very well and finished the movie pretty fast. This was also not the first time that I acted in our short films.

For our film we had many things that we did well on and some things that needed improvement. The examples of what we did well on would be the camera movements, shot angles, each of the ten shots (or more) we put into the film, and that the camera quality was much better that our first film. Things that needed improvement and what we need to work on or make better would be our sound quality, which continues to be an issue, acting, and to get more depth and establishing shots, Next, there were many shots that stood out to people. Therefore, these specific three shots include our long take, over the shoulder, and our POV (point of view) shot. Our long take was will preformed because of the tension it built for the audience. Many people were wondering what was going to happen and if the actor would be okay. When we shot the over the shoulder shot, it also created tension for the audience. To be specific, our over the shoulder shot was taken right before the cheerleader got killed when she was looking for her poms before practice started. Finally, for the POV shot it gives us another chance to look at the cheerleader from a different perspective and what she is doing. Once again it caused tension for the audience pondering on who the killer was and when he was going to strike next.

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Context
This was the first film I shot in Aice Media Studies. I worked with Sydney James and Sebastian Garcia. Our film was called "Birds in the Hood." The main characters was Boogie the bird played by Sebastian and Vince the mean bird from the hood. It was about a young innocent bird, named Boogie, learning how to fly. An archetypal plot would be innocence to coming of age. When Boogie attempted to fly for the first time he fell. When he got up he realized that his rare feathers had lost there powers. Not only that but he fell into Vince's territory (AKA the hood.) Vince was deeply upset and and didn't want him there. He knew about the feathers but not about the lost power. They ended up making a deal. Magical feathers for the ability to fly. In the end of it... the main idea would be you never know who you can trust.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Our strengths in the movie were that our words and storyline was well and sound effects stood out to a lot of people. Weaknesses that we had were the audio and sound quality was not the best, camera angles could be better with how close or far they were, and the title of the cards went by too fast. We can work and make these weaknesses better by always working hard in class and learning new skills everyday.