Dress-up!!

I was finding it difficult to find clothing from the 50s but then I realized that there was definetly more to women in the 50s than just red lipstick, bandanas and diamonds so  I decided to do some research on the matter. I found a very informative infographic on how women dressed during this time period. Circle dresses were common to make the waist appear much smaller with the use of padding. For a waitress, my character, I imagine the circle dress on with a white apron. I believe that the way she dresses is important to accentuate the setting as well as the type of person she is as well as her income status. It develops the character as a whole.

Sources:

What Did Women Wear in the 1950s? (2018, February 14). Retrieved March 23, 2018, from 
               https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-fashion-women-get-look/

Make-up !!

Today I am discussing Misce-en-scene because I am finding it quite difficult to come up with makeup looks for my main character. I want her makeup to tell a story, reveal her personality. I want her makeup to be as bold as she is. My character is a hispanic woman working at a restaurant when she's a teenager. I was able to come up with a makeup look that reminded me most of the 50s:

How to create this look:

-Primer that reduces redness as well as appearance of pores to create porcelain look

-Apply a warm tone foundation 

-A light colored concealer to highlight under the eyes and cover blemishes as well as use to help carve the cheek bone.

-Cream contour to carve cheeks, blend well and put a lot of bronzer on that area.

-Pink blush for the clear skin effect

-Move on to eyes and put black and dark brown on the crease of the eyes and blend together. Apply concealer on the top of the eye lid to make it lighter and then put a small amount of gold eyeshadow. Make a wing with black eyeshadow or eyeliner

-Add red lipstick and overline the lips to make them look fuller. Carve your lips to an heart shape with the liner. 

This look would be most likely paired with a high pony tail since the face makeup is bold in itself. The high pony tail adds simplicity to the character. 

Approved!

Today, I called Johnny Rockets to see if I could get approval to film at the restaurant and it was a success. Not only is it the best 50s themed restaurant but the manager is allowing us to film our film opening at the restaurant. I was planning on getting shots of the milkshakes and burgers because all of their foods are foods that are likely to show up in a 50s themed movie.

This is the perfect setting for the movie and it has been the part of this film journey that has been stressful for Daniel and I. We can now plan accordingly and start our storyboard after we get the details of the setting and mice-en-scene in order.

Fonts and more fonts

Today, I started to look more into the fonts I am going to use for the credits that is going to be played throughout the film. Fonts are important because it has to match with the film the producer is creating, the essence they want to capture. You can not put Comic Sans on a film about war and love or Times New Roman on a children's cartoon movie. It has to all interconnect and help tell the story. I was actually interested in one of the fonts provided by Blogger. I thought it was a great font to show a 50s feel. This is the font I am referring to and it is called Courier. This is not the only font though. There's a couple of options:

LOVE

So far, I am interested in the last font listed above. I believe it has a very romantic-teenage love story look and I am more drawn to it. 

Sources:

Romantic Fonts. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2018, from http://www.1001fonts.com/romantic-

               fonts.html

So it begins..

I am trying to find the most effective way to schedule shooting as well as editing in a mannerly way. I do not want this film opening to be rushed and I want it to be the best work I can execute during the time span we were given. A storyboard is definitely needed to be able to organize my thoughts as well as Daniels but we have busy schedules as well.

I found the perfect article on managing time for production to see the time span I need for each element of our film. When a schedule is made the rule to any great film is add 10%. There are always drawbacks to every scene during production. Maybe the lights stop working or the sound is off or maybe the shot is blurry. 10% of the calculated time should be added on because there is no perfect day and mistakes will happen.

Also, I have found a great app that allows for effective planning and it is called Shot Lister. It is specifically made for filmmakers and many professional filmmakers use it to keep on track. This app is available in the App Store.

This is what the app looks like and it is very simple to use:

I have downloaded this app to begin scheduling days to shoot during spring break. 

Sources:

App of the Week-Shot Lister. (2013, November 08). Retrieved March 18, 2018, from 

              http://garrettbrobinson.com/app-of-the-week-shot-lister/

Z. (2016, September 13). How to Plan an Effective Shooting Schedule. Retrieved March 18, 2018, 

              from https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/how-to-plan-an-effective-shooting-

              schedule/

Group Meetings

In class, we had a group meeting to get feedback on our ideas and views on the production route that best fits our resources and budget. I was immensely pleased with the feedback I received.

I was having trouble figuring out the start of my film intro as well as the end because I did not want it to be an awkward end or dreadful beginning. Daniel and I have decided to keep the route of foreign film but the group I was in suggested I do a voice over that of the present character narrating a past story. They also suggested that the character should have the same necklace with her past self and present self so the audience can distinguish the scene transition from the present to the past and use graphic match to key the two characters together.

Daniel and I have also decided where we would like to shoot our film opening and it would be at Johnny Rockets because of it is a 50s themed dining area. I have made it a goal of mine to present myself at the restaurant to ask for permission the following week after effectively planning our storyboard. If Johnny Rockets denies our request, we have two other options: Steak n' Shake and Waffle House.

Here is an image of what Johnny Rockets looks like on the inside:

Sources:

Favorite, A. (2016, March 24). Johnny Rockets. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from 

               http://www.southmag.com/April-May-2016/Johnny-Rockets/

Introducing a Story

For the short film, I believe it would be a better choice to introduce the main character of the opening film. Picture this; a young hispanic woman waiting on tables frantically but always with a smile on her face and with happy music in the background. It reminds of a movie that brings nostalgia and I believe that in film-making it is important for the audience to feel the nostalgia as well.  I read a well-written article about  character development and the connection between the character and the audience. The audience should be able to feel what the character is feeling and feel sympathy or anger or happiness. In my film opening I want the audience to laugh and when the character stumbles the audience feels the embarrassment as well. It all ties back to prior moments that we have all had in our life and we can relate. If there is no connection with the characters it is a poor movie. I want to make sure I incorporate this concept into my opening.

I was watching movies over the weekends and I could not help but feel a connection to the character in the movie A Cinderella Story . Every emotion she felt, I could remember and relive the same moment which caused me to feel the same way. This was the perfect teen based movie that describes what I am trying to convey in this blog post.

                                                        I suggest to only view 00:00 to 01:35 of this clip,
                                                           A Cinderella Story ;Via: youtube.com

Sources:

Alderson, M. (n.d.). Connecting with Audiences Through Character Emotions. 
        Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://www.writersstore.com/connecting-with-audiences- 
        through-character-emotions/

It's Music To My Ears...

My partner and I have discussed that we believe it is important to include well-produced music and Daniel, my partner,  happens to be a very talented musician and wants to produce the music for our film opening. Our film opening will be based in the 1950's which reminds me about Grease. I want to have similar mise-en-scene in my opening to convert the 50's theme with poodle skirts and vinyls. Grease was the highest-grossing movie in 1978 and the highest grossing musical movie of all time. Grease has made around 400 to 500 million US dollars which means the film has had its success. With the take on a drama movie with a bit of Titanic elements in terms of characters and the mies-en-scene of Grease, I believe our film opening will be fantastic.

Sources: 

Cellania, M., Francis, J., D., N., Soileau, M., T., & Summers, M. A. (2014, February 20). A Few 

           Things You May Not Know About the Movie Grease. Retrieved March 10, 2018, from 

           http://www.neatorama.com/2014/02/20/A-Few-Things-You-May-Not-Know-About-the-

           Movie-Grease/

Foreign Films and Their Comeback

Foreign films are the type of movies I have grown up with. My grandma and I have watched countless Turkish films and my parents and I have watched Spanish films since I was younger. It's a common style of film that we enjoy. I have recently read an article about foreign films and the decline of purchase and views in the United States market. All my life I have been so accustomed to watching these films and have never realized how in danger they are in the United States. The article states that there has been a 61% decrease of views in the last seven years of the most popular foreign films. The argument that is rapidly declining the love for foreign films is the subtitles and how many people find it irritating to have to read subtitles to understand the film. It's considered "inconvenient" when it is in another language. Moreover, Sony Classics has chosen to steer away from the foreign film making world since it is too risky in todays market.

My partner and I thought about a foreign take on our film and using Spanish as our main language. After looking at the decline of these films, we decided to go through with the production of a foreign drama film. I want to preserve the tradition that I grew up with and so does my partner.


Source:

Kaufman, A. (2014, May 06). The Lonely Subtitle: Heres Why U.S. Audiences Are Abandoning 
             Foreign-Language Films. Retrieved March 09, 2018, from   
             http://www.indiewire.com/2014/05/the-lonely-subtitle-heres-why-u-s-audiences-are-   
             abandoning-foreign-language-films-27051/

I'm STUCK

Trying to come up with innovative ideas on my film opening has led to redundant thoughts.  I guess you can call it writer's block. During work or during school I find myself thinking of a plot and it all reminds me of previously made movies. In psychology, we were presented with the idea that the mind cannot make-up a face and the faces we conjure up in our dreams are people we have seen on the train or on the streets. I feel as if the same goes for film or at least that's how my brain is understanding it.

Instead of dwelling I have come up with a mixture of all of my favorite films and television series and have decided to take inspiration and elements from all pieces. This put a positive spin on my "writer's block" or shall I say, "plot block" ? Has a nice ring to it. Here is a couple of movies and television series that have caught my attention this past weekend:

-Dexter (a classic)

-Clueless

-Everything Sucks

-A Cinderella Story 

I'm leaning towards a more "teenage" story but with drama and bringing the real "tea" to my film opening. Moreover, my partner Daniel has been gravitating towards music since that's his passion and  I would want to combine these two ideas into an amazing one. I will keep you posted on our progress but there is definitely greatness to come. 

Genre and Gender

Through what I have learned, Genre has always been directly associated with a gender and today I decided to do some research on this concept to incorporate when I am mapping out my film introduction. I was reading through an article and I was looking specifically for the genre drama just to get an idea of the audience I am trying to reach and I found out that 80% of women watch drama films and 69% of males do as well. I am actually quite surprised by the outcome of the number of males that enjoy watching drama films. This statistics are crucial to know prior to brainstorming ideas because it allows the film maker to get an idea of the audience they will be attracting so I thought it would be important for me to know as well.

Here are the statistics for the correlation of movies and gender from statistic.com:

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

Comedy
• Male	74%
• Female	77%

    

Daniel and I are getting into the details of our film opening but we are having trouble choosing our theme and tone. We want the audience to not be able to predict the plot just from our film introduction but every idea I have I feel as if it is easily predictable.  I am most interested in the genre drama because I feel as if it could branch out but a thriller is also an option for Daniel and I at the moment.

Source:

All products require an annual contract. Prices do not include sales tax    
               (New York residents only). (2016). Favorite movie/TV genres in the U.S. by gender 2016 |   
                Statistic. Retrieved March 03, 2018, from 
                https://www.statista.com/statistics/254115/favorite-movie-genres-in-the-us/

Action
• Male	73%
• Female	62% Favorite movie/TV genres in the U.S. by gender 2016 | Statistic. Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/254115/favorite-movie-genres-in-the-us/

* All products require an annual contract.    Prices do not include sales tax    (New York residents only). (n.d.). Favorite movie/TV genres in the U.S. by gender 2016 | Statistic. Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/254115/favorite-movie-genres-in-the-us/

Beginning of Our Journey...

Hi, I am Natalia Banos and I am working on a film opening with my partner, Daniel. We have 
decided to make a film opening for middle-aged women and here’s why.

The other day, it was family movie night and we were watching Titanic. I loved the idea of the main character, Rose, telling the story when she was at an advanced age in her life and the audience could tell just by her voice that on the Titanic, she met the love of her life. I was inspired by this scene and I immediately called Daniel to share my thoughts with him. We are still working out the details of the film opening but I am very excited to see how our script and theme will develop as we continue working, but we are definitely doing a rom-com genre.