Social Media Research

Now that we have chosen our genre, on to step two: research!

I know one of the components we have to do for this portfolio project is the social media page, so I want to start that as early as possible. Research first tho :)

So, while thinking of how to pull this off with maximum viewership and success I knew I just had to check out the social media pages of movies with similar genre's including The Edge of Seventeen (2016), Lady Bird (2017), and 8th Grade (2018). There were a ton of other great movies to look into like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and My Girl, however they do not have social medias dating to before the movie released. For these types of movies, from what I discovered, they usually didn't promote on apps such as Instagram before the 2015-year mark. 

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

Media text: A movie 

Social media tool: Instagram (because that is what their teenage target audience used the most in the year 2016). They used Facebook but after the movie had already come out.

Description of types of posts:

• The very first post posted consisted of the poster of the movie with the caption "Well, this is awkward." This not only hinted at it feeling weird to post for the first time, but also the daily feeling of an average teenage student. It drew people in from the start.
• They then posted the first trailer.
• After that they started posting Instagram reels that highlighted the characters, their wardrobes, and their relationships to one another. (Like why Nadine and Krista are best friends for example).
• Close to when the movie was releasing, they started posting where the actors were heading for press. (Like Hailee Steinfeld appearing in the Late Late show). 
• They posted critic ratings as well as Rotten Tomatoes. 

Description of how branding is developed (or not):

• The whole vibe of this page is high schooler (if that makes sense)
• The beginning of each reel and the still posts are all decorated with backgrounds and texts that look written in a notebook and almost look like doodles adding to this effect. 

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

I want our audience to feel like they can almost be friends with the character. Care for them enough to feel for them when something bad happens. For them to cray (sorry not sorry). I will incorporate that high schooly feel to our social media, maybe with the "doodles" but instead of making them comedic like they are above, we'd make it so that you can really see the despair in our main character's head. We could do like little foreshadowing where you can't tell that was what we were going for until after watching the movie, new watchers oblivious as to what is about to happen. 

https://www.instagram.com/theedgeofseventeen/

Lady Bird (2017)

Media Text: Movie

Social Media Tool: Instagram and Facebook (This movie is rated R and while still intended for young people, it's leaning towards young adults, and therefore an older audience). 

Description of Types of Posts:

• The first post shows a movie poster with the cast names. (I guess movie posters are the move for first posts).
• There were count down posts (like 1 month until it releases).
• It showed what cities the film was being shown in at the time.
• Trailers and teasers were posted
• Character spots: Like where they highlight a character.
• Pictures of the cast at different events.

Description of how branding is developed (or not):

I've never watched the film before, and I could already tell it was intended for a limited release. The pages are simple and straight to the point. They know this movie is for specific types of people and they don't try to hide it with "this movie is for everyone" nonsense. They promoted the film well enough to look good as well and allow the target audience to have enough context to be interested in the plot and characters. 

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

Our movie, because it's not a blockbuster film, will probably be set on a limited release as well. The Instagram and Facebook pages used to promote this movie were really helpful in making it clear what type of movie this is in order to not get unhappy audiences, while also actually getting audiences to the theater to watch it. It became the movie with the highest theater average ever for a limited release movie to be directed by a female. Following the techniques of not putting so much unnecessary information out and keeping countdowns and things like that will make the page so much neater. 

https://www.instagram.com/ladybirdmovie/

https://www.facebook.com/ladybirdmovie/

8th Grade (2018)

Media text: Movie 

Social Media Tool: Instagram/ Facebook

Description of types of posts:

• Similar to Lady Bird (Probably because they are both from the same company and they are both limited releases).
• Start with movie poster post
• Countdown (One month, two weeks, etc.)
• Themed posts, sort of (For July 4th they showed a clip of the band in the movie playing a patriotic song). 
• Cities where the movie is being shown
• Critic reviews
• Press actors are doing for the movie

Description of how branding is developed (or not):

It makes it clear what type of movie it is. The text for all the words on the pictures and reels of the posts are yellow and in the same font as the title of the film, making it consistent and visually appealing to followers. I don't know how else top describe it other than that it gives coming-of-age feeling. The social media makes it seem like a respectable movie. 

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence:

I want our "film" to feel like coming of age. That our character is a normal kid until something bad happens. This type of branding makes it seem that way, without making it toooooooo quirky and almost comedic. I liked the simplistic nature of the text, and even though I'd still like to incorporate the doodle style from The Edge of Seventeen this social media page made me open my eyes that it can't be too "weird" if we are going for the plot we are thinking of. 

https://www.instagram.com/eighthgrademov/

https://www.facebook.com/EighthGradeMovie/

Story Plottt

So here is the general plot of our movie that we're promoting. (We came up with it in one class period and I think, even though we could develop it a little better, it'll be impactful).

We're going to have our main character be a 16–17-year-old who has a normal teenage life. They have a friend group, they are active in school, maybe even part of a sports team. One day they are in the car with a family member, and they get into a car crash, and only the protagonist survives. They have to now live off of survivor's' guilt and they start getting negative thoughts that leads into a state of depression. They become more isolated and distant. Their friends try to help the protagonist through it, but don't understand the extent of their emotions. In the end it is going to lead up to the main character thinking there is no way out and doing the deed (obviously we won't show that in the trailer). Then it would show how it impacts everyone that was close to them. 

Yes, I know.

It is a little dark. However, we want to bring awareness to the fact that there are a lot of people out there with this mindset for various reasons. We want people to know it shouldn't be the only way out, that it impacts people around them, that there is always a way out. I don't know about Tai, but I've experienced one of these losses firsthand, and even though I wasn't extremely close with this person, it did leave a harsh impact on me. No one even knew what was about to happen. I personally want to bring awareness to cases like this and prevent it in any way possible. Maybe in this "movie" we could have a sponsor of a prevention outlook. 

But yeah, there's no easy way to put this storyline, but that doesn't make it any less of an issue that occurs in society today. 

Planning Card

Genre Selection!!!

DRAMA/ANGST

that is our genre. 

We did a LOT of tossing and turning. And tossing. And turning. 

But ultimately, we decided to do a thing that we connected to the most: a coming-of-age film (We're teenagers after all). But not like a cute one. But we wanted to have a dark twist with it. Let me explain:

Tai and I were in class trying to figure out a genre that wouldn't be too complicated, due to our busy schedules, and one that we know would fit in with what we know. One thing we learned in Mrs. Stoklosa's class is to stick with what we know in order to make the most impactful story we can. So, after A LOT of thinking, and me wanting to do thriller for a bit, we decided on teenage angst as our backbone. Tai had originally thought of this type of drama in the very early stages of planning, before I even started writing the blogs again, and we wanted to do a short film. We have since changes to movie trailer, and decided why not keep that same idea?

We want our character to go through something traumatic that alters his life and thoughts. Although, I think, none of us have gone through something like that, we know what it's like to be a teenager in this day and age with negative thoughts from time to time. We would just incorporate what we know about that into a more long term thing for this character. 

 Our target audience would be late teens like 16-19 year olds.

Scouting Part 1:

 I'll keep it nice and short but I figured out who can be our actors for the trailers.

The theater kids at our school usually are big with helping people with their films and they recently helped in a short film I was helping with. Male, another friend of ours, was the director of this film and could help us get in touch with them need be. I have their Instagrams too so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. We'd probably need around 3-5 actors. 

MUSIC

 While we are still brainstorming, I do know one important component we must include in our trailer: 

music

Music

MUSIC

Everyone always thinks that visuals are what draw an audience into a story. Even though they do help, it's really the audio components that do this. Imagine watching the UP opening sequence without music. Yeah, you see what's happening, but you'd get bored and not emotionally attached without sound. Same if the same music played over and over again from start to finish. You wouldn't really feel the pain of the wife's death. 

Music makes you emotional and makes you feel something. A trailer example would be for the new TV show, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. As a lover of the books, I had high expectations that needed to be met. Seeing the 1st trailer, with the "Riptide" epic cover as the main score for the trailer, almost brought me to tears of how emotional I got. Same with my friends. 

Basically, the trick is picking the right music that fits perfectly to the story and will resonate with the audiences the best. 

Brainstorming

Tai (my partner) and I are pretty much out of ideas.

However, I was researching genres and I want to do either teenage angst/coming of age or like a thriller. (I'm a Libra X2)

They might seem like completely different ideas but they both pull at people's emotions when a conflict arises. The main conflict to be exact. The trick is to make it relatable to the audience. 

For coming of age/teenage angst I think it's best to go the comedic route. I'm good at dramatic pieces but I can kind of make it into like a parody where their dramatics are almost laughable. One example I found that mostly resembles what I envisioned is the trailer for Good Boys (2019) minus the cursing obvi :) :

I was thinking of making it so a group of high school kids are trying to pull off a heist more or less, and they get into some sticky situations. If tai wants, we could also deal some harsher topics in there and make it more of a coming of age with negative effects(if that made sense) Like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

For Thriller I was thinking more action thriller. Like sci-fi almost. It would be challenging to do, yes, but I think with the time allotted to us it could work out. It could be a cool experience. Make it kind of like a Marvel Superhero Trailer, obviously with a way lesser budget. 

Timeline :)

As you can see, I love making lists :)

Organization and time management is a really hard thing to do. So here is my "timeline guideline" to keep my team on track. (hopefully).

 Week One: 

• (That's this past week)
• Decide what I'm doing for my component
• Find a group. 

Week Two:

• Pick the idea for the film
• Research genre of what I'm doing
• Start storyboarding or getting ideas of what shots I'd like to incorporate
• Get ideas of how I want the audience to feel.
• Communicate with my partner
• Solidify idea

Week Three:

• Finish the preplanning stage
• Scout locations and get people willing to be in the project

Week Four:

• Start the production process
• Get needed equipment
• Start social media Page now that everything is solidified
• Film things and if they don't work out we'd still have time to reshoot

Week Five:

• Neither Tai nor I are going to be in the state because we are competing for a national competition. It's called STN and we compete against other high schools in television and film categories. 
• So basically, gather ideas of shots we could do and ask professionals for advice. 

Week Six:

• Finish up filming
• Keep adding to social media page
• Start making graphics

Week Seven:

• Start post-production
• Coloring
• Social media page keep adding
• Syncing audio 
• Create Poster 

Week Eight:

• Continue editing
• Finish poster
• Add finishing touched to the video 
• Start Critical Reflection 

Week Nine:

• Finish up anything that needs to be done. (by this stage we should be done with everything and hopefully have time t double check everything is in place.)

(Confetti cause we're done and we would have done the best we possibly could)

I'm a Libra.

Indecisiveness is in my nature.

I was between the movie trailer component and the short film one, so naturally I tried to see the pros and cons of each one and this is what I found:

Movie Trailer:

Cons:

• Really Long Planning Period.
• You have to create an entire storyline that you can't even show as to not show the plot of the movie. 
• You need to make TWO trailers.
• I can't submit it for anything later. (Like awards and festivals).

Pros:

• I love to make trailers. That's it. (Ever since I was little with the little iMovie trailers and then making trailers for certain TV and Media Studies projects). Like the one I did 2 weeks ago. 
• Watching trailers get me excited.
• I know the general structure of making one. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ehq4JDsQkvaKRrgzalz_bSmbSjNvSX5a/view?usp=sharing

Short Film:

Cons:

• I've never done a short film before.
• I'm not the strongest writer. Don't get me wrong I'm decent, but not the best.

Pros:

• I finally get to do a short film!
• The major I chose in colleges was Film and I've never worked on a film, so this would give me experience before I actually study it.
• I could submit it for film festivals and all that jazz. 
• Get out of my comfort zone. 

In the end I made up my mind for movie trailer. The heart wins! 

I'm Back X2

Hey guys!

Over the past two years, I've posted my music video project, my AS-Level portfolio project, and my documentary. Now it's time for...

Drumroll please...

My A-Level Portfolio Project! 

I'm actually really REALLY excited to start this process. I aim to focus more on time management this time around and to be more creative, not limited to my doubts of what I'm capable of. I don't know which of the four options I am choosing from yet, or whether or not I'm working with a group, but I will figure this out by the end of the week. 

Again thanks for choosing to be a part of this journey!