Screenplay

Ryan has just completed a rough draft of the screenplay. After reading the entire draft I think it is pretty solid. I think how Cole Pines acts like a parent to Keith works really well. Keith has basically given up on his life and doesn't really care if he fixes it. It makes sense to have a character whether it be a manager or a best friend who genuinely cares about Keith. Having this type of relationship can be a sort of moral compass that Keith so desperately needs. 

Towards the end of this picture of part of the screenplay, you can see how it says "Keith pulls out a flask of liquor out of the inside of his coat and drinks it." Personally, I don't think this works well. I feel like it should be more of Keith just listening to Cole but not paying attention. A sort of in one ear and out situation. The idea is that Keith does something stupid during the interview and gets kicked off the set. I feel as if it would be better if he pulls out the flask during the 10 seconds before going on air where he is standing around in a daze and looking baffled. In this situation it's an immediate red flag that could be ignored by the interviewer and people in the crowd, but this would make them feel uncomfortable and add a lot more tension to the scene.

Disco Fever

Our film is the story of a struggling actor who abuses drugs and alcohol. The story is set in the 80's. This decade is probably the mos memorable decade of all due to the disco fever that spread across the nation. People started to care more about what they wore and how their image looked, because of this people thought that having the right clothes and brands made you better than others. It was a time of materialistic values and flaunting ones wealth. 80's fashion was basically "big and bright". People had weird hairstyles and weird clothes. Spandex and other fabrics that are smooth like silk were often used.

Clothing brands such as Reebok, Nike, and Adidas became really popular in this decade. Sunglasses became a craze in the 80's especially Ray Ban Wayfarer and Aviator sunglasses. Actors, musicians, and other celebrities started to help endorse brands that sponsored them. High tops became popular due to stars like Micheal Jackson. This really helped the shoe industry and shoe companies such as converse started to be worn by a lot of people. Everyone thought that if a celebrity wore this then it must be good and everyone has to buy it. 

With fashion being so heavily influenced by actors and other celebrities, it is important in our film that we use some of the 80's stereotypes. The main character of our film is an actor named Keith Floyd, he abuses drugs such as cocaine. A effect of cocaine is sensitivity to light so it wouldn't be unusual for him to wear sunglasses even indoors. This is one part of his outfit that we could have. Jeans were very popular in the 80's also along with high top shoes. Keith could wear a bright designer shirt with jeans and high top Nike sneakers and ray ban aviators which would be a common outfit from the 80's and him being a celebrity would certainly help because he could be endorsing these popular brands. 

Source: Guestblogger. “The Complete Guide to 80s Fashion.” TPS Blog, 12 Feb. 2019, www.thepearlsource.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-80s-fashion/.

Lighting techniques

Lighting is a very important element in making a film. The lighting can change the mood of the scene drastically. There are 13 different types of lighting that one could use. They are as follows, Natural lighting, Key lighting, High key lighting, Low key lighting, Fill lighting, Back lighting, practical lighting, Hard lighting, Soft lighting, bounce lighting, chiaroscuro/side lighting, motivated lighting, and ambient lighting.

This picture from the joker movie is an example of Low key lighting. Low key lighting is used to create ominous and suspenseful moods. This would be useful in our film opening when the guest of the talk show host says something out of line and there is an awkward silence before the host kicks him off the stage. 

Hellerman, Jason. “13 Film Lighting Techniques Every Filmmaker Should Know.” No Film School, 24 Oct. 2019, nofilmschool.com/film-lighting-techniques-and-examples.

Schedule

Everyone in the group besides me is always available. I have band practice on Mondays and rugby practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a game on Saturday. On top of all this I have work so It makes it hard for us to get together to film. We are probably going to start filming in the next week or two on a Saturday night and possibly all day on Sunday.

During spring break me and ryan are going on vacation and will both be gone for about a week. The dates are March 10-15 for Ryan and March 18-25 for me. Due to this we have to find a way around this so we can all film and meet up together when we are all here.

Film opening plot idea

This Thursday in Aice media my group had a brainstorm session where we took notes about possible plot points for the film and how we should do the opening. We decided on having it be where the main character does cocaine and he gets on the air with a talk show host and says something offensive or stupid and the host gets mad and kicks home off the show. I'm going to research the affects cocaine has on the human body and mind to see if there are any special angles we can use while filming or what type of lighting we should use.

Short-Term Effects

Short-term health effects of cocaine include:

• extreme happiness and energy
• mental alertness
• hypersensitivity to sight, sound, and touch
• irritability
• paranoia—extreme and unreasonable distrust of others

on, Institute. “Cocaine.” Drugabuse.Gov, 2018, www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/cocaine.

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Dutch angles could be used to show the paranoia and mental alertness. Using bright ligths to reflect off the lenses of the camera to show something resembling camera flares could be interesting to show the hypersensitivity to sight. Brights lights and noise would probably be a nuisance to someone on cocaine. The main character could flinch or act weird when he goes on stage reacting to the loud sounds from the crowd cheering. 

Drama Genre Research

Ryan recommended that we do drama because of the different range of different film stories we could tell. Dramas do very well in the box office. For example, the movie 'Titanic" is one of the most famous films in recent years. Dramas are mostly romantic or have a lot of suspense. Though some dramas could be comedic and have a lighter tone than ordinary comedies and have a happy conclusion.




Ford V Ferrari is a drama that came out this year that was very good and grossed $117.1 million in the united states and Canada, $107.3 million in other territories. The movie is about how Ford joined the Le mans race and had a challenge to build a better car than Ferrari had at the time who was currently winning every race. Ford created the Ford GT with the help of Shelby.



Joker (2019) is an amazing movie about the mentally troubled comedian Arthur Fleck and how he is mistreated by society and becomes Batman's main villain. Joker (2019) made $96,202,337 on a budget pf $55,000,000.

Picking a genre 2/16/20

With the Aice media project slowly approaching my group has had to come up with a genre for our film opening. So far we are thinking of doing suspense or drama or maybe a mix of the two. Currently we are just watching film openings to try and find what makes a good film opening. To do this each of us are watching different film openings for a variety of movies that could have a different genre. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8OUxsMHySo

This is one of my favorite movies so I naturally watched the film opening and saw that their goal was to tell a story that was so interesting you'd have to watch the rest of the movie to find out. They mentioned a rivalry with another main character and something about the opening wants you to continue to watch to see his point of view or to see how their relationship works and develops.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ARFyrM6gVs

The opening to baby driver is my favorite movie opening of all time. I think it is interesting because of the music that is in the background. There is a young teen who is sitting in the drivers seat of a red car and you see the passengers enter a bank and start to rob the place but the whole time he is in the car with sunglasses on and listening to music and dancing. I think music is a very important part of a film opening because it sets the tone that proceeds the rest of the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwDH3BpaCQI

In Ferris Bueller's Day off a teenage around our age is faking being sick so he can skip school. This is an interesting approach because the film is trying to appeal to a specific target audience by being relatable and I thought this would be something cool to incorporate into our film opening.


We are still currently discussing genres and what not in a group chat we made on whatsapp where we share ideas.