Below is the schedule for how I will complete my project. Keep in mind that this is sorted by Pre production, production, and post production. Scheduling for things could change if things do not go according to plan.
As I mentioned in the previous blog, No GTA is a very fast paced song. Alan raps very quickly over this beat and gives off an energetic feeling that keeps the listener hooked. After listening many times I realized that to keep the viewer engaged I would have to make the video just as fast paced as the song. This meant finding components that would fit the style that the song takes. I believe that using the following three components will help me achieve this goal:
Cars
The component of cars in this video is essential to be able to match the pace of the music. My idea regarding cars in this video was to base one of the shoots around a fast car. This would include shots of the car going being driven fast down a highway or down a regular road. By simply driving the car I can film a variety of shots like some close-ups of Alan driving and rapping and the car by itself on the road. Other than shots of Alan driving, there are many other ways in which Alan can be shown around a car. An example is a shot of Alan performing in front of a car with his friends surrounding him. This would be used as my A-roll for the car portion of the video, and can definitely be a transitional element into the scene that follows. I have taken inspiration from a few different music videos that provide similar visuals to the ones I would like to shoot.
The Weeknd- Blinding Lights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NRXx6U8ABQ
Bad Bunny- Vete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5aDUB1NCnk
Migos- Motorsport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v_rtaye2yY
2. Motion
The component of motion in this music video is very important. The use of constant motion throughout the music video not only aids in keeping the viewer engaged, but it gives the video the same fast paced feeling that the song has. The Weeknd recently used this technique in his Blinding Lights music video, using quick shots with motion in them to add to the madness in the video. Some ideas that I had for this video regarding motion were close ups with quick motion in them. These shots not only add to the energy of the video but they serve as good transitional elements and B roll.
In order for the video to be engaging and not drag on with the same visuals, I believe it is important to switch the scenery. Moving from cars to a party works well because it keeps the same energy and provides new visuals that keep the viewer hooked. My idea for this was to throw a fake party at my house and film Alan and other people as if they were at a real party. This would include B roll of people dancing and having fun at the party as well as Alan by himself, with friends and with girls. While the first part of the video is very centered on Alan, the party scenes revolve much more around him and his closest friends that have helped him achieve his goals. For inspiration regarding cinematography and set design I have turned to Dave Grutman, owner of LIV and many other clubs. If there is anybody that knows how to make a party look good it’s him.
LIV Miami- Art Basel 2019 at LIV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpPeNy4ftfg
I know I want to be there.
I strongly believe that if I use these three components in my music video everything will fit together well and will look good. I’m super excited to continue planning and further developing these ideas.
For my A Level portfolio project I have decided to tackle the music promotion project. I am very excited to announce that I will be working with rapper Alan Trujillo also known as Lil Tru. Alan is a senior at Cypress Bay who began developing his rap career in mid 2019. He mainly uses Soundcloud to distribute his music and has become an icon among the Cypress Bay class of 2020 and some of Broward having reached up to 30 Thousand streams on one of his songs.
My original plan for the music video portion of the project was to use two songs in one video. After speaking to Mrs. Stoklosa I found out that I was limited to only one song. Having listened to all of Alan’s work on soundcloud, I narrowed my list of songs for the music video down to 3. I believe that these are his best three songs so far and I have been able to come up with ideas for each one, but some I have been able to develop more than others. I have attached the link to each song.
Woah Woah featured Alan rapping over a generic rap beat. I found that the song could have potential to become a music video due to the amount of streams it received. Having 30.2 Thousand streams, the music video would have potential to match the song's numbers. Woah Woah is a song that enjoy listening to, but it is difficult to come up with ideas for its music video. While listening to it I visualize nighttime shots in a city, but not much more than that. I don't think the song has enough versatility to transform it into a music video. Turning this song into a music video could be powerful on the marketing end, however it does not exactly match the style that I want the final product to have.
Long Time was a took a similar style to Ugly God's Back to the Basics from his Sophomore record Bumps & Bruises. This song was mainly led by hi-hats and included the use of ad libs, a technique that has been used more recently by artists like Ugly God and Migos. I found this song to be more laid back and slow. Given that, the ideas that I had for this were very different from the other two songs. For Long Time i had imagined something that took A$AP Rocky’s style, particularly projects like A$AP Forever or L$D. This song gives off a more relaxed vibe, so I had pictured the use of different colors, aesthetic scenery, and effect led by cinematography. Alan has good flow and lyricism throughout the song but similar to Woah Woah, it was not the style that I wanted to take for my final product.
No GTA is a very fast and straightforward song. I found that while listening to this song I was able to come up with more ideas and really develop them. Although the track uses somewhat controversial lyricism, it is easy to cover it up and make it subtle with the use of visuals. While brainstorming for this video the thought of cars constantly came to me. Personally I liked this song and thought it was unique song of his to turn into a music video. The idea for this definitely needs to be further developed, but I believe if it is done correctly it will result in a good screen debut for Lil Tru.
Right off the bat this was a project that intimidated me. However I felt confident in my group because we were each good in specific aspects of the project. Gustavo planned events to promote the census, Valentina made print pieces for our campaign, and I made the videos. For our campaign we researched the 2010 Census campaigns for New York City and Boca Raton. To be able to reach out to large groups of people we wanted inspiration from the New York City census. Knowing this was such a large city, we had to research places like Boca Raton to understand how we could take inspiration from New York’s campaign and distribute it the way it was done in a smaller city like Boca Raton. The goal of our advertising was to 1) bring people together and 2) inform the community about the upcoming census. I think both of these went hand in hand with each other. Our Census Night/Noche Del Censo really does a good job in bringing people together to inform them about the census. Another way we went about promoting was through videos. Each video covered a different topic of how the census could affect weston. The first video covered education and the second one covered quality of living in Weston.
I think this project is really going to help me with my portfolio project. This project has definitely taught me how to choose what my short film will be about. I concluded it is best to choose a target audience and find what that audience is interested in. The marketing project also taught me how to take a big idea and adjust it to something small. This means if I were to have an idea for a large scale production I could dial it down and still make it work knowing the real circumstances I’m working with.
Although this project will help me in my portfolio project, it is also scaring me. I am very strong on the cinematography and editing side of film. As for writing and coming up with meaningful stories, not so much. Knowing that I only have myself for this project, it scares me that I can only rely on myself. Unlike being in a group, I have to come up with the idea, I have to write it, and I will gladly shoot and edit it. I am excited to see the influence that this project has on my final piece.
I only have one semester left until I graduate! Since my last post, I have moved on to A level media studies, a class that really seemed like a challenge, but one that I was very excited to face. I was scared about a few different things going into the A level class. Knowing this was a more serious class that I would have to prioritize, I was skeptical about how prepared I was for this. I had heard about many of the projects that are assigned in the class, and I had a moment of intimidation where I asked myself, "Am I capable of doing this?"
In the last semester, I have realized that I am more capable of putting pieces of work together than I thought.
There were a few differences that I found between AS and A level. I find that every lesson taught in AS level set the foundation for projects that we have been assigned in A level. AS level projects are the training wheels for A level projects. An example of this was our marketing project. In AS level our music industry project focused on making a marketing campaign for a made up artist. Through experience gained in this project, I was able to help make a marketing campaign for the city of weston census in A level. Another project that serves as an example is my film opening. Having made that, I now have the experience on and off the set to put together a five minute film and advertise it for my final project. Having had restrictions on most of the projects we did last year, I really enjoy that we are given so much creative freedom. Although coming up with ideas can be hard for me sometimes, it is helpful that I can choose which way to go with my projects rather than having to adjust to it like I did in A level.
This is one of the classes that I have enjoyed the most in high school. It has taught me so much and I am very excited to finish the rest of the year in A level strong.
-How does your project use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
Our project mostly followed conventions rather than challenge them. We kept males in the ring rather than females. However we still did challenge some conventions, like the way we wanted to make the viewer feel. Rather than writing a sob story, we challenged conventions of the genre by writing a film that inspires and motivates the viewer.
By making Vincent and Booker come from low income areas we can show and teach the viewer that anything is possible no matter the obstacle. Our project DID represent social groups. Our main character Vincent Montoya, as well as his opponent, Booker Cannon, both play minorities. Hispanics from a low income area. They are both fighting for the same cause: to support themselves and be able to provide themselves a better life. Although our characters do represent a specific race their story is what becomes relatable to any viewer.
-How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as real media text?
Our product engages with the audience by following characters through the fight, seeing the fight as if they were in it as opposed to seeing it as a spectator. Giving the audience this point of view brings them closer to the characters, allowing them to see every punch more closeup and overall providing a more exciting viewing experience. We were also able to engage our audience by making relatable characters who can prove that they can succeed. Today there is an abundance of ways to distribute video content so it is important to choose where you want to distribute it wisely. On a larger scale, I would first look into distributing the film in theatres, and later distributing it on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu. Having been almost 20 years since the DVD was created, I have decided to rule that out of my distribution methods considering a large portion of the world population has moved on to newer ways of watching movies. Since we do not know anybody in the film industry, we would approach small scale distribution by using platforms that we have access to, and that other people including our peers have access to. Submitting our film to local and state film festivals would be an ideal way to get our movie out there. Distributing it on sites like Vimeo and Youtube, as well as social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
-How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
After an entire day of production I can definitely say that I learned an abundance of new things from this. Throughout the making of the film I saw my skills and my entire groups skills improve in regards to planning and keeping a production going. Having had a role in every part of the film’s making, I gained skills and knowledge in planning, storyboarding, scriptwriting, cinematography, directing, and editing. We were able to wrap production in just 24 hours, however those 24 hours were a rollercoaster.
We shot our production out of order, meaning we shot our hospital scene before we shot the fight scene. For our hospital scene we had access to a Trauma room at a nearby hospital from Rafa’s dad, who is a trauma surgeon. We shot the scene at 3:00 A.M. after waiting an hour and a half to shoot. One thing that was made clear to me during that part of production was that a lot of waiting has to take place while shooting on set or on location. And this applied to all of production Whether it be a patient in the trauma room, the makeup people working on the actors, waiting for the rain to die down, trying to get our lights to work, we spent about half of the time waiting to shoot. We were able to wrap the hospital scene in 3 takes, having left at around 3:30
The next part of our production was our fight scene. We started production at around 8:00 PM. At around 8:30 we got shut down by security at Markham Park, who told us the park was closed and that we had to leave. Poor planning on our end. On our way out of the park it started pouring and I had to text everybody helping out that we would have to cancel. About an hour later we got back together, called all of our extras back and shot the fight scene at our friend Armando’s house. During the shoot it started to drizzle again, however we kept going with the shoot. I learned that a crew with more than one person is very useful as we were all multitasking to get a shot (Arianna held an umbrella, I held a bag over my camera as I was filming, and Chris held the light to move it around while filming). For my first time being on set, this night of production felt like a rollercoaster, but it was also a huge learning experience
Having shot the entire film, I learned as a cinematographer to control the camera better, tracking subjects better, and working with different frame rates to make editing easier. I shot the hospital scene at 24 frames per second, but I shot the fight scene at 60 frames per second to be able to speed up/slow down shots to make it look more realistic/dramatic. For this production I used my Canon 7D Mark 2 with a DJI Ronin for Stabilization.
I definitely saw my entire process of production as a learning experience. I learned something new in every aspect of filmmaking throughout the making of this opening and they are things that I will definitely apply to the work I do in the future.
-How did you integrate technologies-Software, hardware and online- in this project?
As far as softwares go, my group used Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2019 and Adobe After Effects to edit CHAMPION. The fight and hospital sequences were put together and color corrected on Adobe Premiere. Graphics by Arianna were made on Adobe After Effects. All sound mixing was done on Adobe Premiere by me. A huge part of our film was reliant on sound to establish and help further tell our story, for audio we used a Rode Shotgun microphone to record natural sound during each shoot (Hospital and Fight scene) as well as to record all Foley sound. For our camera we used a Canon 7D Mark 2, mounted on to a DJI Ronin-S for stabilization. I also used a Feelworld 4k camera monitor.
