AICE MEDIA A BLOG

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Welcome to my Journal

Since before this project, I have kept a journal that serves as my planner, sketchbook, and diary. I had begun with adding tasks dedicated to this project in my regular planner, but I realized that I needed separate pages to plan this extensive project.

I began with an overview of the next few weeks regarding this project for me. I included when I would like to begin filming, editing, some research ideas, and main tasks I would like to achieve within these weeks. I don't know if I will strictly keep to this schedule, but it was a good exercise in visualizing what I have left to do and how much time I have left to do it. I also decided to "overload" these coming two weeks to give myself more leeway towards the last few weeks to tweak and perfect the film opening when it comes to filming and editing. Then, I decided to create a page that goes into each week in detail. I have started only with this upcoming week, week one, and have planned what tasks I want to get done and begin.

A method I use within the rest of my journal, and have decided to incorporate here, is the bullet system I have created for myself. Seen in the general overview, open bullets are more general tasks and events. Stars, or asterisks, are notes to the side. They mainly represent a sort of inner dialogue with myself, noting just ideas I am not set on. In the detailed week, the small, closed bullets are specific tasks that I want to get done. Not pictured are other aspects of the "key". For a completed task, I cross the bullet out. For example, "• begin storyboard" would become "~~• begin storyboard~~". If I decided to move a task to a different day, I would cover the bullet with an arrow and rewrite the task in the day that I move it to.

I will be posting more pictures of my journal throughout this process, as it is essentially my brain on paper, but this is all I have set for this project as of right now.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Brainstorming the Plot

As mentioned in my last post, I have been keeping a page empty in my journal to write all of my brainstorming regarding the general plot of my film.

Originally, I focused on my favorite episodes from the British anthology series Black Mirror. I then created a table of sorts to narrow down my own original ideas. I knew that most storylines of this genre use what they know, as do storylines of every genre, and create an exaggerative society from a possible "solution". Even though I did rule out technological control as an aspect of my story, after writing the issues I saw the most, I realized most had to do with technology. An idea I gravitated towards in the beginning was the idea of literal control over someone's life through apps and features of a smartphone, coming from the concept of the Life360 app many parents today use. To those being forced to use the app, it may be seen as am extreme invasion of privacy as the app notes your speed, location, driving history, when you were on your phone while in the car, abrupt stops, and more features meant for "safety". I became really passionate about the idea, noting details I wanted to add and possible mise-en-scene and sound elements until I came across this article.

Images from MBC

Here, VRScout tells of a new use for virtual reality (VR) technology being developed in South Korea, which reunited a mother with her seven-year-old daughter who passed away back in 2016. The VR experience allowed the mom to have a final birthday party, take pictures with the 3D model made of her daughter, hear her child's voice call for her, etc. What connected this new revelation in technology to this project was a comment the author made in the article: "Though the technology used in this project is still in its relative infancy, it’s abundantly clear just how powerful VR can be when used by the right team for the right cause." I began to think about how the technology could be wrong, by the wrong team, and maybe even for the wrong cause.

I immediately connected my previous ideas stemming from smartphone applications that exist to the bullet point I had boxed at the bottom, summarizing my last and final concept.

Instead of virtual reality, there would be an app that allows people to "talk" to their deceased loved ones, originally developed to help people grieve with their loss. My storyline will follow a teenage girl who had recently lost her high school sweetheart in a car crash, and downloads the app to help herself. As she continues to use the app, she starts to "meet" and "fall in love" with her late boyfriend again, prohibiting her from completely grieving.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Creating a Story

Now that I have narrowed down the genre I want to work with, it is time for me to fully develop my story idea to be able to create a successful introduction. First, of course, I wanted to research the dystopian genre, less specifically in films, and more generally in storytelling and it's elements to give me a starting point.

Research

In dystopian fiction, there are a few typical features:

A background story of a climactic event that shook the world to point of drastic change. These are typically backgrounds of overpopulation, war, or a revolution of sorts.

The governing body or regime of the society uses one of four types of control: corporate, bureaucratic, technological, or philosophical/religious control. I explain examples of each of these types briefly in my previous post.

Lower and middle classes suffer a lower standard of living than in our contemporary society. If it not in material items, it is a loss of individuality, free thought, or emotion.

As mentioned before, the quietly rebellious turned hero protagonist who deeply believes there is a fundamental ill in their society. Sometimes, the protagonist is a part of a group who is not under complete control of the governing body, with people who share similar ideas.
And, if destruction of the status quo is not an option, escape is the next best thing for the protagonist in the end.

When it comes to the characters, there is the anti-hero protagonist who is often joined and supported by a trusted individual or group. The side characters often fall into one of these categories:

A specialist in their field who is asked out of retirement or vacation to help support the protagonist's cause.

Someone who is painted as a criminal in their society because of the working regime; this person is usually framed for the "crime" they have committed.

And, someone who makes an unbelievable discovery, and goes through extreme lengths to prove it.

Reflection

One of the main issues I have been facing with creating a concrete story and concept is the idea that dystopian fiction revolves around the exaggeration of a current event. For George Orwell's 1984 book written in 1949, which later inspired the film, the story is an exaggeration of a future society that resulted in poor government, war, and authoritarian/totalitarian regimes; since the book talks about a future Great Britain, and was written shortly after World War II, Orwell probably wrote about his own fears that surrounded his contemporary society. For my story, I want to exaggerate a rising unknown but can not decide on how my "future" will pan out, and what specific conflicts my story revolves around. Therefore, the "background" aspect of my story is yet to be determined.

However, researching conventions of dystopian fiction have helped me narrow down some aspects of my story:

When it comes to the society the protagonist lives in, I don't want any images of extreme poverty or loss. I would like to focus more on the loss of freedom of individuality, expression, speech, and thought.

I want a lone protagonist who often feels like an outcast from their society. I want this character to not have any support system, like a group of friends or secret organization, at least not for the beginning, to further the idea of their chosen and involuntary isolationism.

I have also decided to eliminate bureaucratic and technological types of control used in the story, and want to focus on corporate or ideological control. This allows me to focus more on the loss of free thought and individuality and leaves my protagonist for no way out other than destruction.

I would like to develop my concept as soon as possible to be able to focus on production and post-production to perfect my technical skills, so for my own personal homework, I will be keeping a page blank in my notebook to write every single idea I come up with, even the ones I may think to be stupid, until I land on my final concept.

Dystopian Fiction Musts

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Sources:

“Dystopian Fiction.” Dystopian Fiction - DDAT, www.jochenenglish.de/misc/dystopian_fiction_ddat.htm.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Dystopia In Films

Previously, I talked about Science Fiction and it's conventions, considering the genre for my own film. Upon further research, I realized I had to narrow down what subgenre of sci-fi I wanted to focus on, to better develop a narrative and maintain genre conventions. There were many subcategories to choose from, ranging from alternate horror and mystery to alien invasion and apocalypse. Out of all of them, the one that drew me the most was the dystopian science fiction genre.

As defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a dystopia is:

an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives

To me, dystopian stories often reflect some ill in our current society. They don't try to offer a solution, they merely exaggerate an aspect of the status quo to enlighten the public, similar to how the main character does in most of these films.

The Light in the Dark

The protagonist in dystopian films is typically a rebellious one. At first, they are docile, and simply feel trapped and alone with their disagreement with the current state of their society. Through small rebellions, they challenge the current societal or political systems in place that they believe is the ultimate ill of their world. Because of this, the protagonist is the director's tool to portray the negative aspects of this alternate universe through his or her perspective. As Vanity Fair describes, this is the character that will eventually break the shackles and come out triumphantly.

The Black Hole

On the other side of society, there is the collective antagonist, typically the government that created the society depicted. These types of films tend to focus on the head of the political system as the main villain. Typically a person high on the influential pyramid of this world, the antagonist uses their power to sic an army of loyalists against the main hero. All of their actions are justified to themselves and their peers by claiming it is all for the greater good of the systems in place, and for the people.

Intended Utopia

The antagonist of these stories is devoted to their cause mainly because the systems in place were originally meant to fix a former ill (human error, overpopulation, poverty, etc.) However, the ways they incite their power often become too much like an authoritarian dictatorship, creating the illusion of a utopia, rather than a true one. In these films, society is controlled through corporations (advertising, products, media), technology (computers, robots, futuristic technologies), bureaucracy (mindless bureaucracy through regulations and red tape), or philosophically (an ideology enforced by a dictatorship). In general, society is controlled through relentless propaganda, restriction of freedoms, and the worship of a figurehead or concept.

Through these methods, a society in fear of the current system is created. Many of the citizens believe them under constant surveillance, by a figure like Big Brother, and refrain from expressing individuality in fear of consequence. As a whole, society experiences the extremes of a spectrum. They are either severely overpopulated or underpopulated, extremely sterile or dirty, etc.

Reflection

For my own film opening, I want to incorporate current trends, establish a quietly rebellious protagonist, and enforce the idea of a society in distress. I will have to think of the type of control I want my government to use (I'm leaning more towards corporate or philosophical control) and create micro-rebellions to incorporate into my opening to allude to greater control.

Dystopia Watchlist:

1984 (1984)

Matrix (1999)

V for Vendetta (2006)

Brazil (1985)

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Music Marketing Project

For the past few weeks, two friends and I have been working on a lengthy music marketing campaign project, in which we had to create a new band, knowing only the song and genre of their initial release, and create a marketing campaign for the band

First, we focused on the genre. Our genre was Alternative Rock, to the likes of the Killers, Cage the Elephant, and others. We researched two main case studies - The 1975, and The Killers - to learn more about the genre's target audience, typical marketing techniques, and distribution.

Album Cover Art for The 1975

By studying them, we noticed common themes of a simple color palette, societal rebellion, and the marketing technique of "going dark" before the release of a single, EP, or album. Despite the young target audience, distribution methods within this genre were not limited to famous streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music; the genre with the most record vinyls sold is the alternative rock genre, following the fad of using "vintage" ways to listen to music.

Cover Art for The Man by BLKHONEYMOON

After our initial research, we began to develop our band: BLKHONEYMOON. Similar to The 1975, we kept with a color palette of black and neon pink, incorporating those colors into our logo, merchandise, and marketing products. As with the colors, another consistent decision we decided to make was to follow a theme of eyes being covered with the iconic pink paint splatter, hoping that it would become iconography for the band with marketing. The "icon" of the band would also appear through posts on the band's social media - specifically Twitter and Instagram - and website.

We decided to use the website as a hub that links to all other marketing techniques, taking advantage of technological convergence of all services being accessible through smart devices and laptops. The website links to each social media page, as well as displays an email for audience interaction - a feature that many bands of this genre utilize to engage fans and maintain a loyal fanbase. The website also includes a page that acts as a merchandise shop:

Merchandise includes stickers, vinyl records, pins, shirts, shoe collaborations, and more.

On the homepage, we decided to start off with promotional pictures of the band members, which were shot in the same style as the music video to maintain continuity and brand. Then, we decided to make the website have a simple layout, with easy accessibility to all other distribution and marketing tools; for example, as the audience scrolls through the homepage, sections are previewing upcoming show dates, merchandise, and ended with a contact form.

With the genre, we found that constant communication between artists and the audience was important to growing a fanbase. Our forms of audience interaction mainly revolved around posting teasers on social media, specifically utilizing Instagram's story feature, as well as giving fans frequent opportunities to communicate one-on-one with band members. Shows in local areas contribute to creating and then maintaining a loyal fan base, as frequent shows in iconic local venues establish a band presence.

When it came to the music video specifically, we decided to stick with a common alternative theme of teenage rebellion, also appealing to our target audience of teenagers and younger Millenials. The storylike video relied on a variety of shots and editing that matched the fast-pace of the song to engage audiences and secure their interest. The main obstacle my group faced while shooting the video was working around our schedules, and the schedules of the people who volunteered to act. However, we were able to overcome the obstacle, giving all of us valuable skills in group communication, accommodation, and compromise.

Stills from the Music Video

Monday, November 25, 2019

Representation Analysis

As time progresses, and the media is in the hands of various groups, representation of those groups better. A stark increase in representation in popular media is a trend that my generation, Gen Z, is experiencing firsthand. There are more shows that have casts with the majority being people of color, rather than the normal white people. A few examples would be Netflix's On My Block & Dear White People, ABC's Black-ish & Fresh Off the Boat. And well representation is not only being shown in productions targeted to older audiences: Disney's Andi Mack showed a young boy's journey coming out as gay on their Disney Channel. However, the majority of "good representation" is not accurate and is still largely based on stereotypes.

Reliance on stereotypes undermines the purpose of a movement towards representation, as it does not always accurately portray a certain group. Gay men are still largely depicted as flamboyant, Hispanic and Latinx women are still depicted as scandalously dressed and loud, mental illnesses such as depression are often romanticized and are typically shown in an extremely inaccurate manner. The show Thirteen Reasons Why, based on the novel with the same title, was supposedly produced in an effort to increase awareness of suicide; however, the show featured the idea of leaving cassette tapes, instead of a typical suicide note, to personally blame other characters for the main character's suicide. Not only does depression lack a definitive cause most of the time, but the way the high school age characters were portrayed depicted my age group as vehemently malicious.

This 2006 Axe commercial is an example of inaccurate representation. The ad depicts a stampede of women, dressed only in bikinis, running towards one mad on a beach that is spraying Axe body spray; it ends with the tagline “Spray More – Get More – The Axe Effect”. While there is evidently more women than men in the commercial, they are all depicted as animalistic, desiring the man with the body spray. Not only are they depicted in such a manner, but the body types the women have is also an inaccurate representation of what typical women in the world look like - they all fit the cookie-cutter, extremely thin and toned body type that is praised by media. Women do not pine after men based on their scent, and not all women look the same.

An amazing example of well-represented media is H&M's "Close the Loop" commercial. The ad promotes the company's sustainable efforts in fashion through recycling, but the real star is the large variety of groups that are shown, and how they are shown. People of all races, religions, able-bodiedness, genders, sexualities, ethnicities, and ages are shown breaking what has been marketed as the rules of fashion. Women over 40 and men are shown wearing skirts, blondes are wearing yellow, people are dressing in "outrageous" fashions, etc. Combatting the representation of women in the Axe ad, women are shown of all ages, body types, forms of self-expression - even with their hair, everywhere - and backgrounds that are not seen as "conventionally" beautiful, but nonetheless are. Just like there are no rules to fashion, there are no rules on how a person can express themselves.

Representation Watchlist Musts:

Mona Lisa Smile [2003]

Ramy [TV Series 2019-]

Sense 8 [TV Series 2015-2018]

Silver Linings Playbook [2012]

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Sci-Fi Research

With a father who obsessed over the Star Wars and Star Treks films, science fiction has grown to the genre of my childhood, and the one I admire the most. With such a large variety of subgenres, each with their own conventions, it was interesting to analyze the genre as a whole, seeing if this is what I want to base my film on. The research also helped me realize what made science fiction films so successful and loved by huge fandoms. This is what I found:

Conventions

Popular themes of the science fiction genre in film include good versus evil, supernatural, paranormal abilities, time travel, alien races/invasions, etc. With the genre also comes the ideas of the setting being a futuristic place of innovations, with technologies that do not exist in the present world, like hoverboards. These ideas often lead to the audience inquiring about what the future holds, few may even work to make these technologies realities. The setting, however, is not always clear cut as the director may choose to play with time, often seen in time travel films like Back to the Future. Also in Back to the Future, the narrative follows the main character, Marty McFly, throughout the different time periods, another convention of the genre. The most common theme, good versus evil, often leads to the film focusing on the main protagonist and the main antagonist. The Star Wars franchise focuses on Luke Skywalker, the protagonist, working to fight the evil that is Darth Vader, the antagonist. The protagonists are often underdogs, expressing the ideas of a revolution or rebellion and often leading them; for example, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and Tris Prior in Divergent. The narratives tend to focus on the development the protagonist goes through in order to be “strong enough” to defeat the antagonist.

The science fiction genre in film uses similar techniques to the horror genre, except they are used to incite different responses. For example, establishing shots used in both genres often show a large expanse of area. In science fiction, the camera shot usually sets the setting as an area that is unfamiliar to the audience: futuristic cities, different planets, etc. On the other hand, horror typically uses the same, expansive establishing shots to emphasize the loneliness of a character or characters. When the setting of a science fiction film is set in an unworldly, all of the sound used in non-diegetic. By definition, it is nearly impossible to have a diegetic sound of an extraterrestrial landscape or creature. Another convention that correlates with the strange setting popular in sci-fi films is the iconography and mise-en-scene that goes along with it. Typically, prop designers emphasize the creation of a weapon or object of great power, that enhances the futuristic quality of the film. However, the science fiction genre also includes dystopian films, in which the film may be set in a more regressed era. For those cases, prop designers often look to the past for inspiration on the “object of power”.

Marketing

Currently, the craze of marketing heavily relies on social media. Alex Garland’s 2015 Ex-Machina tells the story of Ava, an artificially intelligent humanoid played by Alicia Vikander. A programmer, Caleb is sent to test Ava and becomes infatuated with the machine. The marketing campaign relied on dating apps, such as Tinder. Tinder users in the Austin area were matched with a user called Ava during the SXSW Festival in the city. With a profile picture of Vikander and using lines from the show, the bot began to woo users across the city before redirecting them to the film’s Instagram page. Additionally, Marvel created a 90s style website to promote the nostalgiac aspect of their new film Captain Marvel, 2019.

Embodiment of Sci-Fi

Back to the Future, the 1985 film directed by Robert Zemeckis follows the protagonist, Marty McFly, and his old, eccentric, scientist friend, Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown through time travel to the future. The leads use Doc's time-traveling car, the Delorean, to go to the future, where they encounter new technologies, like hoverboards, flying cars, self-adjusting shoes, etc. The film becomes iconic for its time period and the car. Establishing shots often establish the time period the characters are in and shows how different the world is in the futuristic 2015. As fans look back in the current times, years passed 2015, they see how hopeful the directors were on which technologies would exist in the coming years, and some go as far as to recreate iconic props: the Delorean and the self-adjusting shoes.

Another classic Sci-Fi film is any of the Star Wars films. The original trilogy follows Luke Skywalker, representing the Rebellion, on his journey to becoming a Jedi, strong enough to defeat the Empire. Skywalker is not the creator of the Rebel Alliance, but he becomes the face of the movement for the audience as he is needed for one of the "plot twists" of the trilogy, he is the son of Darth Vader, the leader of the Empire. The series represents a questioning of the tyrannical governing body, an idea that can be a comment on any society, past, present, or future. The series also takes place in a futuristic time period, with large spaceships, all with the ability to travel lightyears in the span of seconds with hyperspeed. Contemporarily, the series has grown to have a new face: Ray. Ray represents the same ideals as Luke Skywalker, however, she is the new face for a new generation of Star Wars fans. The fandom, at it's origin, consisted of teenagers mainly. As the franchise grew older, the fans stayed, but the target audiences expanded. In order to intrigue new possible teenage Star Wars fans, and keep the existing ones, Star Wars expanded the series with a new face, but similar issues, allowing the marketing to be extremely simple due to its current fame.