Chapter 25: The Final Project

This is sadly the last time I'll be saying this... What's Up! Welcome back!!! After a long ride, I've finally finished my A Level portfolio project. It was fun, stressful, and an experience. I hope you find some type of entertainment from it.

Escapism

Chapter 24: Critical Reflection

Welcome back! This post will cover my critical reflection of Escapism. The inspiration, ups, downs, and what I got of out of this experience. I hope you enjoy my last blog post!

Critical Reflection

Chapter 23: Scheduling Post

 What's up and welcome back! In this post I'm going to be talking about a certain type of post I've been creating for the Instagram.

I saw this type of post from kpop groups when they're going to have a comeback (the period of time where they release and promote new music). They'll post a sort of schedule of what they're going to be posting. 

Here are some examples:

I decided to post something similar, just for a film instead of a comeback. I used Canva to make the post and used the font and elements tools to keep my consistency. 

I'll definitely post more of these types of posts too because I think they're cool and they keep me organized. Well that's all for this post catch you in the next one.

Chapter 22: Introducing the Stars

 What's up and welcome back! In this post I'm introducing the actors since I already have on the Escapism Instagram.

First we have Perseus(played by me). I've mentioned in Chapter 11, but Perseus is a 18 yr old senior in high school that has a toxic relationship with their parents and has the bad habit of sneaking out, stealing cars, and partying too much. I changed Perseus' age from 17 to 18 just because.

Second is Iris. Iris is being played by one of my close friends Ana Sofia. Iris is a 17 yr old senior in high school that has an alcohol addiction. Iris is frequently blacked out, hung over, or intoxicated, and they rarely show up for school. I also changed Iris' age from 18 to 17 just because.

The third main character is Ares and they're being played by another close friend Ella. Ares, like Perseus is an 18 year old senior in high school who struggles with severe depression and anxiety and has a past of self harm. Ares uses sneaking out and doing rebellious stuff with Perseus and Iris as a way to feel something since they're always so unmotivated.

Welp that's the cast, and the end of this post. I'll catch you in the next one.

Chapter 21: Voice Over Pt.1

What's up! Welcome back, in this post I'll talk about the voice over and how I started recording.

I decided to include voiceovers in the trailers because I find that they really help to move the piece along. My voiceover is going to include the voices of all three characters, and they're going to finish each other's sentences. I feel like using all three of their voices shows that they are the three main characters and focus; I also think that the finishing of  each others sentences reinforces the bond they have. Like they share a brain cell or something.

 

I started recording my part of the voiceovers. I downloaded Adobe's Audition, which is an audio editing software. I was a little confused at first but I watched the provided tutorials and some things were cleared up a little bit. I'm still confused but with more practice I'm sure I'll be able to do what I need to. So far my audio is already recorded and cut up, I just need to make it clearer and get the voiceovers from my other actors.

Chapter 20: Fonts

 What's up! I'm back with another post and I'll be talking about the font I chose for my graphics and title.

I'm using Canva to create my graphics and titles, so when I was first creating my graphics, I originally chose the add a heading option and picked the font with the drop down bar on the left of the white editing screen. However, from first glance I realized they were boring, so I just ended up going back into the text tab and scrolling through the font combination section instead.

Scrolling through the Font Combination section, I found a lot of fun options like the "Chill" one. However, I wanted to go for the same vibe as The Breakfast Club's title font. I found ones like "Dapper" and "Film Fest" that could be good options, however they just weren't "the one".

I continued scrolling through the fonts and I finally decided on the font called "turning 22". I'm pretty sure it was the hot pink that called my attention, but the font just has this teen drama vibe to it that was perfect for my project. 

I cut out the "22" and then just changed the color of the font with the color picker option. I changed it from a hot pink to more of a magenta. I also made note to always use the hex code #bd1b94 for consistency.

Anyway, that's how I chose and edited my font, and I'm pretty happy with it. Well that's it for this post, see you in the next one.

Chapter 19: Making Posts

 I'm back, welcome again! In this post I'm going to be discussing my experience with making Instagram posts with Canva.

Straight off the bat, Canva is fire. They have so much to work with, from the templates to text fonts they really came through. This sounds like an Ad but genuinely, it is super easy to use and I can make nice graphics and posts with it.

I made a couple of Insta posts with Canva already using a blank Instagram template, as well as edited some photos that will all be posted on the Escapism Insta. I used their provided text fonts(which I'll go into detail on in a later post) as well as the elements section.

In the elements section I used something like a background that blends blues and magentas as an overlay. I adjusted the transparency so that the background acts almost like a color grader. With the font I changed the color using the color picker tool. I'm going to consitantly be using the background overlay technique so that most, if not all, of the posts I put up on Insta will be cohesive.

Here are a couple things I've created already(I don't want to spoil everything so this is just a sneak peek):

That's all for today's post, catch you next time!

Chapter 18: Social Media Pt.1

What's up and welcome back! I made a social media account for Escapism.

I chose to use Instagram because I'm more well versed on that platform, and you can include fun things like stories, story highlights, filters, as well as posts.

Chapter 17: Group Meetings

 Welcome back!

Today in class we did group meetings. We did this before in AS level virtually, and it's where we were put into groups to get advice and help for our projects. This time in person it was way better and didn't feel as awkward.

A majority of my group chose to do the short film option, and they all had great ideas. One of them is doing animation and another is doing an experimental piece. It was fun and interesting  hearing everyone's ideas and how creative they are. I was also able to help one of my peers come up with some filler content for her short film, and it made me feel pretty important not gonna lie.

I told my group about my project and about my issue of needing a third actor, and luckily one of the girls in my group, who also happens to be a close friend, offered to be the actor (bless Ella's soul). Ella filling that third spot lifted a lot of stress off my shoulders, so I've very happy about that. Now that I have all my actors, It should be pretty smooth, despite my whole spring break situation.

Overall, the group meeting was successful and very helpful for all of us I would say. I was able to fix my problem and help others with their ideas.

That's all I have for this post, I'll catch you in the next one.

Chapter 16: What’s Happening

 What’s up! Welcome back, this post is going to be a recap of what’s been going on.

I’ve already addressed in my last post about the actor situation, so I’m going to move on to talk about my filming situation. I found out that I’m going to be out of the country for a but of my spring break, so I have to schedule around that time frame and give myself enough time to film and also edit. I also have to schedule some posting for this blog and social media page. 

It’s pretty frustrating losing some production time since I’m going out of the country but I already have a lot scheduled, so I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m taking these next couple of days to prepare for the days I’m MIA, I’ve been writing some mire posts for here and creating drafts on Instagram for the movie account.

This next couple of days I’m also going to record some sound and some scenes that don’t require people in them, like the door shutting, blood in sink, and such.

Anyway, that’s all for this post, that’s for reading and I’ll catch you later.

Chapter 15: Actors

 What’s up and welcome back. 

I’m going to be honest, it’s been a struggle with finding actors. I already have 2 set, but the third is frustrating. I had a third actor but they’re not very good at communicating 😀. So I decided to just find a new one.

It’s honestly very frustrating considering I am supposed to be filming by now, but I’ll push through it. I’m sure everything will turn out fine. I at least know that my other 2 actors are ready for filming and understand their roles. I was also able to get another friend to just help me film, not an actor but like a PA.

Other than that third actor, everything else is going pretty okay. This post was just a mini update on how production is going, I’ll see you in the next post.

Chapter 14: Choosing a title

 What's up! Welcome back, in this post I'm going to walk you through how I chose my title.

While creating my idea, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to title the film. I was honestly going to wait until I had an idea hit me, rather than actually thinking about something. But then I realized I had to start with my social media page for the movie, so I had to figure out a title. Before this realization though, I had actually tried thinking of a title, and since I was inspired by music, I tried looking into the lyrics to see if something would spark. However, nothing did, and that's why I was going to just let the title come to me. 

Anyway, getting back on track, when I had the realization, I spent almost the entirety of my class period trying to come up with a title. I once again went back to look at the song lyrics for inspiration. I was aiming to incorporate the word "dilemma" in the title because it correlates with the album 2 of the songs were in as well as the content of my trailers. However, I ended up not using it. I also thought about titling the film "the unholy trinity" because one of my previous chapters that gave background on the characters was titled that, but I didn't like the idea of it being the title of my whole project.

Another thing I tried to do was incorporate Greek mythology references because the names of my characters do so. I was thinking of using the theme of 3, so like the 3 fates or the big 3 gods, or being more specific, in the Percy Jackson series, when a prophecy is given for a quest, only 3 can go and any others would most likely die. I thought of using this 3 fates thing seeing as I have 3 characters. I thought of titles like "Prophecy of the 3" or "Fate of 3", but I honestly hated them. They were just not fitting the vibe. I literally couldn't think of anything, no thoughts, head empty.

When I finally did think of my title, I wasn't going to choose it at first, but then I just decided eh, why not? It made sense and fit with my idea to a T. So the title I chose was, "Escapism". It didn't come to me on a whim, I honestly just thought "oh they want to escape reality, what word/words can describe that? escapism sounds cool". I also double checked that I had the right word, in case I get the definition wrong. The definition of escapism is, according to google, the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy. When I read the definition, I was like yeah that's definitely what my characters and story represents.

So that's how I ended up with the title Escapism. I think it's cool, simple, and straight to the point. That's all for this post, catch you in the next one.

Chapter 13: Story Boards Pt.2

 What’s up and welcome back! I’ve done a couple more storyboards so I’m here to share them with you again.

This is a scene in the conflict trailer that is going to continue the bathroom scene of C3(whom I’ve now named Ares). The scene shows Ares getting a text from Iris and Perseus and then follows Ares as they go to meet them outside. This scene is going to be the last scene in the conflict trailer. I’m going to use a variety of eyeline matches, following, pov, medium, and close-up shots.

This scene is also going to be included in the conflict trailer. I drew this to highlight a transition I want to do. It starts from the end of C1’s solo scene where their parent is yelling at them and C1(whom I’ve named Perseus) gets up and walks out mid scolding. The transition is when Perseus slams the door shut and then the next scene starts where C2’s (whom I’ve now named Iris) friend/sibling opens a door to find Iris blacked out. I’m going to use medium, long, following, and close-up shots for this transition scene.

Alrighty, that’s all for this post. I’m going to be honest I’m really proud of that first storyboard in this post. I did it pretty quick but it looks kinda swag for some stick figures. Anyway, thanks for reading and I’ll catch you in the next one.

Chapter 12: Trailer Outline Pt.2

What’s up! In this post I’ll be sharing the outline I made for the conflict trailer(finally😋).

Conflict Trailer: Showing the personal conflict of each of the teens.

First 5-10 seconds: 

As screen fades in.

[VO: You ever just want to continue living in one moment.]

a very fast cut montage of the friend group doing their stupid stuff

[VO: Where don’t have to return to your shitty life]

*black screen*

Fade in on Perseus’ parent’s hand aggressively shaking car keys. Close up on the mouth of Perseus’ parent yelling at them. Muffled yelling in the background. Cut to a slow zoom on Perseus who’s seemingly out of it. 

[VO: Us too]

*Voice yelling is clear now*

“You good for nothing garbage excuse for a child!”

*something is seen thrown past Perseus*

Cut to Perseus as they get up and silently walk out of the room.

Shot of a door slamming

Transition to a door opening.

[VO: We can’t though.]

close up pan of messed up room.

shot of one of Iris’ friends shoes running and crouching down to Iris’ body.

Close up of Iris as they’re getting shaken by the friend.

“Not again. Iris! Iris! Wake up!”

Iris POV shot showing a close up of the friend as they shake Iris.

[VO: It’s so sad it’s almost funny.]

Shot showing the friend lowering their head.

Transition to Ares lifting their head to looking into the mirror.

Cut to a pan showing sticky notes stuck onto the mirror.

[VO: How we choose unhealthy ways to cope.]

Medium shot from behind Ares so we see Ares’ back but their face in the mirror.

Quick cut to a scene of Ares having a mental breakdown.

Cut back to a close up of Ares as they look into the sink.

Cut to a close up of something red washing down the sink drain.

Cut back to Ares.

Last few seconds:

[VO: But at least those moments help just a little bit.]

Voice over as we see a text show up on Ares’ phone from Perseus saying “Here.”

Quick few cuts of Ares walking out of the bathroom, down the stairs, and out the front door to see Perseus and Iris waiting.

Fin?

That’s all for this post, thank you!

Chapter 11: The Unholy Trinity

What's Up! Welcome back, in this post I'll be giving some information about my characters. I finally picked their names as well so that's fun. Let's get into it.

I chose the names Perseus, Iris, and Ares for my characters. I chose these names because they're related to Greek mythology, and I just think they're cool to be honest. I haven't given them gender identities as of right now, but they have ages and grade levels.

Character 1: Perseus

~Senior in high school

~17 yrs old

~Has divorced parents

~Toxic relationship with parents

~Frequently sneaks out, drinks, and smokes as a coping mechanism

~Likes to steal parent’s car

~Second oldest out of the three friends

~Somehow gets good grades in school

~The more chill one

Character 2: Iris

~Senior in high school

~18 yrs old

~Inattentive parents

~Has a drinking problem

~Frequently parties and sneaks out with Perseus

~Has a fake ID to supply her addiction

~Likes to drink until they black out

~Doesn’t care about school

~Just want to have fun and drink

Character 3: Ares

~Senior in high school

~17 yrs old

~Struggles with depression and anxiety

~Has a past of self harm

~Used to have frequent mental breakdowns, but they slowed down

~Also likes to sneak out with Perseus and Iris to feel something

~Unmotivated in school and life in general

~Always stuck in their thoughts

These are my characters yayyy; I think they're pretty swag. They definitely have issues, but that's what I'm going for. Anyway, thanks for reading and see you in the next post!

Chapter 10: Story Boards

 What’s up! Welcome back, in this post I’m just going to share some story boards I drew in class.

In this page I have drawn two different scenes, the first being the scene where character 1 is being yelled at by their parental figure. C1 is blank faced, just waiting for it to be over. I want a zoom into their face to capture the emotion of just being tired of the situation. This scene is short because it’s going to be included in the appealing trailer where I’m not focusing on the conflict as much. The second scene drawn is the scene where character 2 is blacked out and one of their friends/siblings/someone is trying to wake them up. I want to include a pov shot and extreme close ups to capture the worry on the extra character’s face. This will also be included in the appealing trailer.

This second page includes one scene that will be included in the appealing trailer as well. It’s where character three is looking at the mirror trying to compose themselves and stop themselves from reverting back to harmful coping mechanisms. There are sticky notes on the mirror that I want to emphasize with close ups, so that the scene doesn’t just look like C3 looking in the mirror.

This is what I have for now, but I’ll be continuing my storyboarding. I just drew the scenes that flashed in my mind first. These scenes I shared here are scenes that will be in the middle of the appealing trailer. I’ll probably end up including some form of these same scenes in the conflict trailer for cohesiveness, and to make it easier for me.

Anyway, that’s all for now, I’ll see you in the next post!

Chapter 9: Trailer Outline Pt.1

What's up! In this posting I'll share the outline I made for the appealing trailer.

Appealing Trailer: Showing the reliance and the euphoric escape the group gets when they get together.

First 20-30 seconds: The group having a chill conversation about what they should do. “We should bla bla bla” “Nah I think we should bla bla bla” “How about…” The character pulls out car keys from behind their back.

After stating the last idea, include a variety of shots that show them coming to a shared consensus. With an overlapping VO.

[VO: We’re always looking for an escape]

Cut to the group running out of a house stealing one of their parents cars.

[VO: Anything to just forget about reality]

About 20 seconds: Montage of them after stealing the car driving, blasting music, etc.

[VO: Sometimes we don’t have very bright ideas]

A couple seconds of faded parents yelling at one of the characters. The character however is zoned out, seemingly used to and not phased by this. 

A couple seconds of another character blacked out and someone scared trying to shake them awake. 

A couple seconds of the third character, in the bathroom, obviously distressed, staring at the mirror and writing can be seen “Days Clean: *insert tally marks*”

[VO: But anything works right?]

Last few seconds: Show the car parking, them hopping a fence. And then a small montage of them night swimming. During the montage you hear the VO.

[VO: Even if it’s just for a few moments]

Fin?

As I film I'll probably change some things but for now this is what I came up with, but that's all for this post so bye for now!

Chapter 8: Small (and messy) Outline

What's Up! Welcome back, in this post I'll be giving you a look into where my head is at with my idea. 

Idea: A group of friends struggling with their own darkness but find a salvation/escape in each other.

I'm still thinking about how I'm going to map out each trailer, but I know I want one of them to build up the appealing aspects of the production (so this would focus on depicting the friendship) and the other to develop conflict.

Appealing trailer: I think I would want this trailer to open with some sort of conversation the main friends are having, probably them planning to do something like go on a car ride or late night swimming or something. Then it would cut to a montage of them doing that planned activity. I would want it to embody the vision people have when they think of teenage years. I would want the montage to pause and introduce brief conflict, like maybe the camera could show each character and a cut or voiceover or something to just barely introduce each problem they're dealing with as if they start thinking about it; and after that, I would want it to show how each character snaps out of it and just focuses on living in the moment and escaping reality.

Conflict trailer: For this trailer, I'm not sure on whether I want it to focus on one of the friends or all of the friends. I'm leaning towards all of the friends. It would start similar to the appealing trailer, where the friends are just hanging out. Then I want to indicate them parting ways to go home or something, and this is where I would cut from character to character introducing each conflict. I would probably end it by each character sort of paralleling each other by an outburst of anger of frustration and then they meet up to escape their problems.

As you can probably tell, this is pretty messy, but it honestly sums up the jumbled ideas in my head. I think as I develop each character and the conflict, as well as a full story outline, creating the trailer outlines will become easier.

Chapter 7: Title Fonts

What's up! Welcome back to another post! In this one I'm going to be showing some titles/fonts I like based on some drama movie posters.

The first title font I found and liked was, to no surprise, The Breakfast Club. I think it really follows the drama norm of simplistic but bold titles, and the red against the white is eye catching. I also think that the title itself is well chosen. It's not cringe and ropes in the potential viewer to wonder what "The Breakfast Club" is/is about.

 The next poster I found is yet another one of my favorite movies [if we remember from AS level ;)] The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I liked this font because, once again, it is also simple. I liked the boldness of the more important words, as well as the style; It looks like the title is actually being drawn on the wall. I also really like the all lowercase for some reason. 

This is poster is for a movie I have never seen, but I still like this title font for The Diary of a Teenage Girl. It's another simplistic one, but I like how it looks a little bit like ink, tying into the "diary" portion of the title. The maroon color is bold yet not overpowering, and the center placement of the title are things I like as well.

Chapter 6: Royalty Free

What’s up! I’m back and I’m going to recount the frustration that was ✨looking for music✨. Spoiler alert: I haven’t found anything yet.

Once upon a time… I was in 3rd period. I decided to start trying to find background music for my trailers because, as can be gathered from Chapter 5, music has heavily inspired my idea. I need music that matches the vibe that the songs I previously shared gave me, and that’s very difficult. I was thinking that I should get this part done early because without good music, this is not going to fulfill my vision. I looked through my notebook because I had remembered a classmate recommendation a website to find non-copyrighted music; and I found the note which said “chosic.com”. Now don’t get me wrong, I found a lot of nice potential bgm on chosic.com(background music), but only for specific moments. 

I spent a good chunk of my class period scavenging for something that fits, but nothing was satisfying me. It was honestly pretty frustrating, but I kept looking. By the time the bell was going to ring, I still hadn’t found anything. However, even though I didn’t find the right music yet, I learned which genres/tags to avoid on chosic. I went on the tags “adventure” and “fast”, and the pop genre and I couldn’t find anything I liked because everything was too chill or just weren’t what I was looking for at all. Despite my frustration I’m not going to completely give up on chosic, but I’m still going to try and find other sites that can hopefully help me out. Sadly I haven’t gotten my “happily ever after” yet, so for now I’ll say “to be continued”…

Chapter 5: Music Inspiration

 Don't you forget about me, don't don't don't don't. What's Up! I'm back again and in this post I'll be talking about the music and other things which have inspired me for this new portfolio project.

When T-Stok first introduced the portfolio project in the beginning of the year, I had already been thinking of ideas, I just wasn't set on it yet. But, one song that inspired me was "Tamed-Dashed" by the kpop group Enhypen. The song just gives summer vibes and I imagine friends having their movie moments together: late night drives, beach days, blasting music, those moments. I think this song really inspired me with the friendship aspect of my idea. Even if kpop isn't you're cup of tea, you can tell that the song is upbeat and fast paced and gives summer vibes (they literally say the word "summer" in the the chorus).

Tamed-Dashed (friendly reminder to turn on subtitles)

This next song is also by Enhypen, and it's titled "Attention, please!". This song also inspires me in the way that I imagine strong friendship when listening to this song. When I listen to "Attention, please!" I see a group of troubled teens letting loose and letting their worries go, living in the moment with each other. On the other hand, when I read the lyrics I feel like it would be cool to have the personality and inner thoughts of the song become a character. The song is about this person having a lot of attention and popularity, but the one person they want to give them attention just doesn't notice them and gives no care at all. I think that would be fun to play with, if I made a character the embodiment of this song. Just a thought though.

Attention, please! (another subtitle reminder)

The last song I was inspired by was released very recently, less than 2 weeks ago actually, and it's titles "Stay Alive". It's by 2 BTS members, Produced by SUGA of BTS and performed by Jungkook of BTS. The song helps inspire me to think of the conflict I want to represent in my trailers. The song's lyrics also match up with my idea. The song is very emotional, representing the feeling of darkness but the speaker of the song addresses "you" as their salvation, someone who keeps them going and in turn the speaker helps keep them going. I think this song really encapsulates my idea of a relationship where even though they're dealing with their own darkness, they are each other's salvation. This song helps put me into that creative mindset where I try to play out my story in my head.

Stay Alive  (I usually try to link music to the original artists however, the full version of the song is only on Apple Music, Spotify, etc. I will link the original promotional video released for the song which is the shorter version of it.)

Stay Alive Original Webtoon Promo

That's it for today's post, hope you enjoyed! BTW if you caught that Breakfast Club reference in the beginning, I give you a firm handshake. Byeeee.

Chapter 4: Basic Tropes

 Welcome Back! In this posting, I'll be mentioning some basic Drama tropes that relate to my idea, and some tropes that I want to avoid. 

My basic idea still surrounds the troubled group of friends so one of the tropes that I've found that's popular with Drama and ties in with my idea is troubled youth. The troubled youth trope is exactly how it sounds, young people dealing with their personal issues whether that be familial, school related, mental health, addiction, etc.

Another trope similar to troubled youth is misfits. I don't think I would apply this trope with my idea because I don't plan on making my characters outcasts (at least for right now). However, I do think this trope would be a good one to come back to if needed. I mean some great characters have been the embodiment of this trope, like John Bender from The Breakfast Club; so I'm open to this trope.

One trope I will stay away from is teen pregnancy. I find that this trope can sometimes be included in teen dramas, mostly TV series but still: the show Glee is one example. I'm staying away from this trope because, I can't relate to it in anyway seeing as I'm not pregnant lol. Although this is a great topic to bring to light, the fact is that I have no knowledge, experience, or relatability with this, so I would feel uncomfortable having it be a trope.

That's all for this post! In some upcoming posts I'll delve deeper into my ideas and outlines for the portfolio project. 

 

Chapter 3: Key Art

What's Up! Welcome back guys, in this post I'll be sharing some key art I've looked at pertaining to dramas.

I find this first one very cute. Although I have no clue what this film is about, it's clear that it sis about some type of close relationship. I think the two hands is a simple yet straight forward choice, and the pose of them holding each other by the pinky represents that close bond. The background is minimal and brings the hands into focus. Overall, I like this key art and I think it can be a great source of inspiration for me.

If you've been with this blog since the beginning of its creation, than you know that The Breakfast Club is one of my all time favorite movies. I can watch it over and over again, never getting bored. So, it probably comes as no surprise that I love this key art. Sure, it may be a tiny bit biased but critically looking at it, I like how we can see each character. This poster shows the opposing personalities of each while also posing them in a way that shows the friendship created between them. The simple white background brings attention to the characters and it just has that drama feel that I love. I like how the title is red and the font makes it pop. This will definitely be a source of information for me.

Welp...ya know it's not my favorite. I understand the concept but it's just not hitting the mark for me. The choice to have one of the characters face appear in the 16 ties in with the title, but honestly speaking I just don't like it. The tagline is...interesting. It's not bad, it's just not great. This will be something I'm avoiding. 

Moving on, these were some of the posters I took a look at to get inspiration. I'll see you guys in the next post!

Chapter 2: Target Audience

 What's Up! In this posting, I'll be talking about the target audience of the genre of drama and the target audience for my project.

I know that generally drama is targeted towards females, teens, and young adults, but after some research, I've found out more information about the different target audiences drama can have. 

First off, the genre is pretty broad with a lot of subgenres, including but not limited to crime drama, historical drama, docudrama, sports dramas, and period dramas. Because of the variety of subgenres, there are different target audiences. Historical dramas, for example, may appeal to older male audiences (30+). On the other hand, crime dramas will rope in younger audiences and the niche group of people who like true crime(me). 

As we can see with my examples, Drama can bring a wide variety of people due to its various subgenres. But the content that drama entails also plays a part in bringing in a wide array of audiences. They portray real-life scenarios, making the content relatable to the viewers.

After researching the various subgenres and their target audiences, I've come to decide that my project will be a teen drama and target both male and female audiences aged 14-23.

https://prezi.com/9wa20igfsyqc/film-marketing-drama/

Chapter 1: Mystery or Drama

What's up! In A Level, we've started our portfolio project. This year I want to go for a mystery or a teen drama type of thing, so I've been watching some trailers as a part of my research on the genre. To briefly cover my jumbled thoughts, I want my story to center around a close knit group of teens who rely on each other to escape from their personal issues. If I were to go with mystery, it would be about the disappearance of the friend group. However, if I were to stick with the drama it would just focus on the individual conflicts of the teens and their escape from reality I guess.

I’ll first discuss some of the mystery trailers I watched.

I first watched the Outer Banks trailer to get a feel for mystery, I know it’s a tv series but it had the vibe I was thinking about. If I were to go for mystery this trailer would be very helpful. I liked how one of the main characters briefly gave an introduction to his town and friends and how they transitioned that to the mysteries the group of teens are discovering. The soundtrack is also iconic.

 Outer Banks Trailer

The trailer for I Know What You Did Last Summer was good as well. I loved the fast paced editing during the end that helped build tension, curiosity, and mystery. The darker lighting and music choices were aspects of the trailer that I enjoyed as well.

IKWYDLS Trailer

Now moving on to the Cruel Summer trailer, it wasn’t my favorite. It just felt kind of boring and flat. The story was pretty understandable which was this nerdy girl who became “popular” after the previous popular girl went missing and this needy is the main suspect of the popular girl’s disappearance. The dark lighting kept true to the mystery genre, which I liked, but other than that the trailer felt empty and boring, and it didn’t have that same vibe I was looking for.

Cruel Summer Trailer

I’m now going to be discussing some of the trailers I watched for my research on the drama genre. My teacher gave me these recommendations and I loved them all, and watching them was what made me finally choose my drama option.

The trailer for Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was my favorite. I had the exact vibe I was envisioning in my head. It’s just about this close group of friends all dealing with their separate issues but relying on each other for support. I liked that each character could have their conflict introduced a little bit. 

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Trailer

I think the How to Make an American Quilt trailer was a good way to show me some more drama conventions. This trailer was helpful in showing me how I could make a trailer that focused more on the conflict to come in the movie.

How to Make an American Quilt Trailer

My original idea was just the drama route, and after watching a bunch of trailers I think I’m going to stick with that route.

Film Distribution Project

Welcome back! In this post I'm going to be talking about my most recent project in A Level. This is the Film Distribution Project.

In this project we worked with the creative writing classes at school to create a full length trailer, teaser trailer, key art, and marketing/distribution plan. The students in the creative writing classes gave us the outline of a film and us AICE Media students created the trailers and such. Of the four options my group we actually ended up choosing the story of someone who is also in our AICE media class. His concept was a thriller/horror movie where a bou who’s parents just died is attacked by creators that hunt the angered, these monsters are called Nighthawks.

The first thing my group did after choosing our prompt was do research on our genre which was thriller/horror. We researched A Quiet Place and It:Chapter One.

Next we created an outline of what we wanted our trailer to look like.

We were able to follow the basics of this outline but it definitely wasn’t the same as the final project.

Our next step as a group was creating our presentation, marketing, and distribution plan. We chose our film festivals and to release the film as a limited release in theaters and then go to wide release if it did well.

After the pre-production was done, we started filming. We filmed in two locations, my house and one of my group members’ house. We also got her brother to play our main character. After the first day of filming one of my group members had taken pictures of her door with a red led light illuminating behind it to represent the Nighthawks, she added the title and it ended up looking so cool. A slay if you ask me😌. One problem we had to overcome was how to depict the second main character of an old man. However, none of us know any old man that fit the description given to us, so we told our main actor to wear his dad’s shoes, a robe, and he used a foam Star Wars staff thingy as a makeshift cane. Filming that scene was hilarious we kept laughing in the background.

Working with my group was very fun and efficient, we got everything done in a timely manner and I believe our end product was great as well. 

I’ll link our presentation below:

Nighthawks Presentation 

The Brand Identity Project

What's up! In this posting I'm going ease you into A level and discuss one of the previous projects I've done this school year. 

This year we've done a few projects, but my favorite so far has to be the Brand Identity Project. In this project we created a brand for ourselves as people. Basically I presented myself, Biana Alexandre, as a brand. I remember being a bit confused and hesitant for this project at first because I had to actually think about myself and how I want to portray ME. It was difficult and if I’m being honest, I avoided the project for the first couple of days. 

I tried to tackle the Brand Identity Prism first when planning my project, but for some reason the Brand Identity Prism honestly confused me. So instead, I decided to come up with my logo. 

I used Canva to make my logo. I made this my logo because when I was thinking about who I was, I remembered my past self who would hide behind a smile. I wanted to present an ironic version of my past self by showing a smiley face covered by a frown, instead if a frown covered by a smile. I also wanted this to be a representation of it being okay to “frown” or feel negative emotions. Which played hand in hand with my slogan of “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay”. Now stylistically, I’ve always liked the edgy band-type logos so I thought I could incorporate that with the X eyes. I also chose my name to be the mouth because this is a project based on me after all💀.

After creating my logo and slogan, I finally started working on the Brand Identity Prism and it actually started making sense, with the help of my peers. I was able to quickly fill it out and put it into my presentation.

Creating my video was fairly easy. I just compiled a bunch of pictures of myself, friends, and memes and put it into iMovie and bam! I liked the irony I created with my voiceover that was fairly deep and serious compared to my visuals which were a majority of fun pictures. I thought it encapsulated the masking you’re true feelings with happy stuff vibe.

Creating my presentation was by far the most time consuming part. I spent hours at my breakfast table finding pictures, gifs, memes, and fonts, and that’s not even an exaggeration. However, it was also the most fun part and I loved creating the aesthetic fir my presentation and keeping its consistency. I added a lot of kpop gifs and memes in my presentation because I felt as tho they were a great representation of me. I use them on a daily basis, I post them on social media constantly, and my friends have come to just expect them from me at this point. That’s another reason this was fun for me, because I got to share a part of me that makes me feel positive even during the negative.

I’m going to be honest I kind of winged my actual presentation in front of the class, but I felt like I was able to accurately present what I was trying to say even though I was nervous. One of the only things I regret however, is not showing my “thank you for watching” slide because it was honestly one of my favorite slides (along with the opening slide). Howeverrrrrr… you’ll get to see that with my presentation down below:

Brand Identity Presentation