Project Components

Instagram Link: 

https://www.instagram.com/alettertomymomfilm/?next=%2F

@alettertomymomfilm 

Movie Trailers:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EL-xHoFxr3Dtcf5bI_txEhaUAFuXJHPa/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rSB6S96NmWGvCIxpi8RYFDndW9kZJBgD/view?usp=sharing

Posters/Thumbnails:

If it doesn't work, here's a folder with everything:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19Ts91vDdX_sfHSmw9rW6oElKj0QcYMkS?usp=sharing

Here's our final products! Thank you for being a part of this journey, I hope you guys enjoyed!

 Luisa, signing off. 

Critical Reflection

     The hypothetical film A Letter to My Mom, is a film meant to bring awareness to mental issues, depression, and survivor's guilt that happen way too often than people realize. It's supposed to show a realistic approach to these societal problems. The trailers made with this project were meant to convey the emotions and situations these suffering people have. For example, the writing of the letter, the staying in bed, the lack of smiling in the aftermath shots, all contribute to this message. Did you also notice that the shots from later on in the "movie" are also darker than the first few, symbolizing how our protagonist, Liz, sees the world now versus then? The fact we used a 15/16-year-old actress also shows how serious depression is even in kids that aren't even old enough to vote or even drink yet. That is how young a lot of people suffering are. My partner, Tai, and I put our all to try to represent the people suffering that feel as if they have no way out, in the most realistic way possible. We didn't try to sugarcoat anything. We chose to incorporate the ending most people choose to add on to this. Hopefully when people see this, they will see the impact their actions have on others as well as themselves when they go down this road. Maybe they could even see the happiness of what might have been. 

     To add on to the little details we added, the font we used for most of the social media is supposed to mimic a typewriter letter font. Usually, the notes these people leave behind are handwritten. However, I felt like making it one of those journalistic fonts would have made it seem silly in a way, kind of like a middle school, coming of age comedy.  The topic at hand is a very serious and important one, and I felt like the typewriter font just portrayed those elements as well as keeping the essence of a note. It also symbolizes production and pre-production. In the old Hollywood age, people wrote screen writes on typewriters and even now, scripts are in that font. This font contrasts the actual title font to not only make the title and posters pop out from the social media, but also to show the difference from the marketing to the actual movie. Staying on the subject of social media, the color I chose for most of the branding was also thought out. I chose blue to represent not only tears, but also subconsciously tell people how smart she is. This further characterizes the character as well as gives people a feel of what this movie could potentially make them feel. The posters and thumbnails also show simplistic pictures of the relationship between Liz and her best friend. With there being not much else going on in the poster, their relationship is visible and clearly understandable. I feel like the overall branding of the movie when it came to advertising was clear and concise when you think of all the elements that came to play in the making of the social media and posters. Even the trailers fit in with the other components and further create the brand by giving the social media a satisfying "end." The only thing I wish I'd done was collaborate with other "movies" on social media which has proven to gain followers with other projects. 

     The products we made engage with our audiences in a number of ways. The trailers were made with our target audience in mind. In this day and age, Generation Z spend a lot of time on their phone, especially on Tik Tok and Instagram. Spending too much time on these apps leads to short attention spans, and if something isn't connecting to them or not moving fast enough, they will scroll right there and then. Both trailers were meant to be fast paced while also touching the emotion that would connect with anyone who could sympathize with Liz's situation. With the social media, the consistent colors when you look at the Instagram page as a whole, are meant to be pleasing to the average human eye. Subconsciously, these types of pages are the ones who make people stay and make people follow the page. The captions and content on the social media are meant to connect with the language of my generation. The use of emojis and of short captions aren't meant for the audiences of older generations who prefer paragraphs with correct grammar. This goes back to attention spans being and people not being engaged if something isn't "nice and shiny" or short. I also made sure people knew what was going on at all times. I specifically made a post where it answered questions potential followers might have about what the film is and where it may be found. 

     For this specific project I did a lot of research including watching other trailers and stalking the social medias of films such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Lady Bird (2017), and Eight Grade (2018). All these films have similar premises and some of them were limited releases as well. We followed a lot of the inspiration of each when it came to shot compositions, trailer looks, and trailer structure. I did see however, that all the movies ended on a good note, but that isn't always the case in real life. I think that we challenged convention norms for the teenage angst dramas in the sense that sometimes, in a person's mind, not everything is okay, and we displayed that. It isn't a side character that does the deed, it's the main character. We also challenged conventions by not only having a limited release but also a streaming release. We did this for the best interest of our film, but for a lot of these films it is one or the other, usually never both. 

     Throughout the journey of this project, I learned so much and I have made many mistakes. I ended up learning how to fix these mistakes and how to adapt to several situations. I learned how to do the best for my film and how to interact with my target audience. This project means a lot to me, and I hope it means the same for other people. 

Reshoots!

 So today we had to film some shots we were missing and/or shots that didn't come out great the first time.

I basically followed Lynda, Liz, around school getting shots of everything and her having interactions with others. I even got her with her mom! It is kind of sad this was the last day of filming, but hey it means the final product is almost here. 

Anyways, I got Lynda doing all kinds of things like getting an A+, getting an F, her happy, her sad, etc. I tried to get dynamic shots to show the audience what a dynamic and complex character she is and the intensity and confusion of her feelings. I also got an establishing shot cause gosh we definitely needed one of those. I don't know why but a trailer isn't a trailer without that classic establishing shot. 

(Also FYI, I got the old footage sent to me again so we're good, no need to worry!)

Um...

 So long story short, my footage is missing.

I'm going to have to get Tai to send me the footage again or see if I saved it on another flash drive, because my hard drive decided to malfunction. I don't even know what happened. Like some videos were straight up black frames and some had the red missing footage sign. I guess I'm starting from scratch again... yay...

It's ok though. I've had to edit whole news packages in less than two hours basically every Saturday this school year and I've always turned it in on time. This time I have three days left to finish this trailer, which is not much considering what the other teams had, but I can make it work. I don't have any homework tomorrow night so I can just spend all afternoon editing the trailer. I was also planning on doing a teaser, which might have to be put on the backburner, but I'm still going to try and shoot for. Through problems we problem solve! (hopefully). 

So How Do We Watch?

 Some last-minute changes in the works people!

So, I know I said this film was going to be released as a limited release in theatres. Tai and I were going back and forth whether we wanted to change it to a streaming release on Netflix. After much discussion, we decided to keep it a limited release (that way our hypothetical movie could be nominated for a small Oscar category if good enough) and after a 3-week run, move it to Netflix so people can enjoy and rewatch if they want to. I think with this not being like a huge blockbuster movie the change is significant. If I were an actual director, it would give me the satisfaction of theatrical release but also keeping revenue coming. 

I know that if I've never heard of a movie, I probably won't watch it in theaters because you don't know what you are getting into for such an expensive price. (Like tell me why watching a movie at AMC is $14 dollars a ticket?!?) Putting it on Netflix after allows for people bored on a random Tuesday night to scroll and find it. With it being a movie that is accessible at home, the people themselves could promote it if they like it. For example, people promote a bunch of different mediums on Tik Tok. With Netflix they can easily rewatch to know what they wanna say, they can promote it as "free" if you have Netflix, etc. Speaking of which, having the movie on streaming gives for the illusion that it was free. If you don't like it at the end of the day, if you spent money on it you're going to fell more contempt that you wasted money on it. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that it would be beneficial on both ends, viewers and crew. 

Last Group meeting :(

 And the time has come for our last meeting of the year. Yikes that's scary. 

A lot of great feedback was given, and I thought I'd share the last thoughts of my peers that will influence our project. So basically, as you guys know we switched the plot of the story around to include Liz's best friend more and honestly visually get rid of the mom character all together. We were going to assume she was a big influence in her life, because it's her mom. But the group didn't really like this idea. They think that since the title is "A Letter to My Mom" to include the mom character a bit more just to establish the depth of their relationship. Basically, to show just how much more meaningful the note is. I was thinking of having me play the mother, but honestly, it's just easier to have Lynda's mom play the role, especially now that she doesn't have to pretend to get in a crash, which I know she'd be unwilling to do. Maybe a shot of them hugging or talking here and there. 

I also had questions on where we should be on the social media aspect. Let's just say, I am more behind than I thought, but stories count as posts apparently, so get ready to see a lot of that. I'm going to have to post multiple things a day, and since we don't have professional interviews, and little time left till the deadline, we're going to have to treat it more as a short film social media rather than a full-length movie. I know this isn't usually done, but it gives the little homey feeling that limited releases usually have. It shows it's not a blockbuster and it's indie in a sense. 

Lastly as you know (Well I knew but I don't think I ever mentioned it on here) that Tai and I split our work up to make it as efficient as possible. We each work on one trailer, I'm in charge of the social media and Tai creates the posters. We each still help each other out with our stuff, and we talk out our plans, but if we don't have assigned roles, we'd most likely not get anything done assuming the other person had already taken care of it. 

But yeah, the countdown has started. T -8 days.

Posts!

 Ok yes. I know I've been lacking with social media posts; however, I can explain.

Before filming, we didn't have much content to go off of. All I could post was literally the title and... nope that's it.  Now that we had at least one day of filming and we have our cast selected, I can post so much more. I haven't posted in the last week because I was in Chicago, and I honestly didn't have time to do much. However, I have already posted the meet the cast posts and I will be posting a BTS post and Insta story later today. It is important to show the process of our short film because considering that we aren't actually making a film, it all stops once the trailers and poster are out. That's because well, the next step would be the film. 

 

Once I post the BTS stuff, I plan on posting things that the audience can interact with, like facts about the characters and little teaser pictures with the caption "coming soon" and the little eye emojis. I want the essence to be dramatic yet, not too dramatic that people know what is going on until the trailers. I also added a bio that states what the account is and the release dates. I've seen many movie accounts do this, so I just wanted to make it as professional as possible. 

Editing Pt. 1

 So, editing time!

I'm writing this at like one am here in Chicago. It's spring break and I can't do much because we sight see all day. However, I am trying. I started editing the first scene of my trailer together! I talked about my structure before, so you guys probably know what I'm talking about. I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2023 (It's better than 2024 for me idk why) which I'm certified in, so I know my way around it. So far, I've used a piece of music I found titles "coming of age intro" and I'm going to cut it later on to make it sound more dramatic after the crash. The shots are framed right, but like two of the intro shots are out of focus so I need to sharpen them. I also need to color grade and fix the exposure, but I'm going to do that after I finish adding everything to the timeline because if not it's going to drive me crazy.  Finally, the two actors really do have great chemistry and I'm really excited on how this will turn out. 

Here's a picture of what my Premiere tab looks like. As you can see in the effects panel I had to add denoise on the audio because the background noise was too loud when dialogue was being said. I imported all my clips that we've filmed so far and added the copyright free music onto the timeline as well. It's going pretty well, and I can't wait for all of you to see the finished product!

Equipment

 To add on to my last post. 

We needed equipment to film our project so here's what we got:

-A DSLR camera

-DSLR camera battery

-A mini zoom lens

-50 mil lens

-28 mil lens

-A tripod

-Shure rode mic

-boom pole

-RGB three-point light kit.

The first three bullet points were equipment I had prior. We were good with that. However, how were we supposed to get the shots stable? How were we supposed to light it? How were we supposed to get audio? This is when we decided to contact our county news station that Tai and I actually interned at last summer. They actually give out equipment rentals for free to all TV/film kids in our school county.  That's where we got all the other equipment on the list, and it was actually a huge help. It made the prosses of filming run smoother, and it will make filming day 2 run smoother as well. 

Here's the name of where we got the equipment.

Filming Day 1

 So today was day one of filming for the movie trailer. We filmed basically every shot we needed minus the school scenes because we're currently on spring break. (That will get done the week we get back). I think we did pretty well, and we honestly had a lot of fun filming so :). 

We started off the shoot, by going to a semi secluded area of a local park. The purpose of going here was mainly to get shots of our two actors in character, not only to make them comfortable with their character, but to film their relationship, that way audience members will be able to understand what they mean to each other. We got long shots, medium shots, close ups, and a couple lines of dialogue of their interactions. We later got a tracking shot of them heading to a secluded parking lot where they will eventually get into the car and you know...

We then got all the car scenes. We got what happens inside the vehicle as well as on the outside, not only to have a variety of shots, but also just to give context to what is happening and what is about to happen. We even got Lynda to scream so that was cool. As you can see in the picture Tai and I are holding a Canon camera and a boom mic/pole to capture everything. 

I don't have photos, but we later went to my house to get all the shots of Liz being depressed in her bedroom and writing the "letter to her mom." These shots took some time because we had to get the perfect lighting without having the shot be too grainy. We also had a hard time figuring out what to write on the note considering it is a heavy topic to discuss and we didn't want to get it wrong. We didn't want to make it in any way comical or make it in a way that it isn't taken seriously. 

Finally, as a group, on a well-deserved break, went to go watch the sunset. However, when we got there we thought, "Why not get shots here?" So, I filmed Liz and Jackson (Lynda and Pombo) having more moments together to establish their relationship. I don't know if we'll use these as actual scenes or flashbacks, but we'll see. 

As far as social media goes, I did get behind the scenes content, but I'll need to edit it before it can go out. 

ACTORS :)))))

Photo credits: me :)

Our Liz 

 Lynda is the Liz of this movie. She used to be an actor at her local theater program, and I’ve seen her act. Trust me…she’s good. She also is in Tai and I’s TV program, so she know all about working with cameras, how long shoots can take, and how to follow critiques from the director. That’s what made her the perfect choice for our lead. Lynda is such a sweet and energetic person and hopefully that portrays on screen as her initial personality. 

Change 

So, we decided to change up the characters. The movie is going to be called a Letter to my Mom because the note is going to be actually meant for her mom. Like her mom is alive. We realized that the notes are usually meant for their parents anyways, and it proved difficult to get an adult willing to act into our film. So now the person that does in the car crash will be Liz’s best friend, Jackson. He will be a childhood best friend and someone Liz thought she could never live without. Having it be someone Liz’s age, makes the survivor’s guilt more real in a sense but it shows the frailty of human life no matter the age. The twin flames in the title will be meant for the two friends. Same meaning, different people. 

 Our Jackson 

Pombo, as we call him, is a great Jackson. He is very charismatic and has amazing on camera chemistry with Lynda. They complement each other well. He also is in our TV program, so he knows all the ins and outs of filming. He is willing to do anything for the shoot including pretending to crash a car.

IDEAS

 Ok so...final planning time.

Since we have to create two trailers for our film, Tai and I decided we were each going to come up with the concept of one of them that way we have different approaches to our promotion. 

Structure

So here's my concept/structure:

Boom

-Start off with an establishing shot

-Go into the car crash scene

-Title sequence

-"I was a normal girl" (school montage)

-Text

-Final Montage

-Ending credits

Each "scene" (both montages and the car crash) lasting 30 seconds. 

I think that starting off with the car crash will hook people's attention the most and it will engage viewers to watch to the end. It would end with the montage cause c'mon, what trailer doesn't end with a really cool/fast-paced montage? The text parts will quicken the pace and make it seem almost, more high stakes in a way. It will also give more context to what's going on along with the VO that will be included. 

Shot List

I know I said I was going to make a story board, but I forgot how bad I was at drawing. I also am better at thinking for montage shots on the spot, so here's my shot list mostly complete, it's just the montage shots that are iffy. During shootings I like making them up (for movie trailers, in an actual short film I'd have it planned down to the bone) because I like to see what the actors are good at portraying (just for montages): 

I WON

 So as you guys know I went to the STN National, well now international cause there was a school from Wales there, Convention. My two competitions were News Magazine where we placed 3rd in the nation and guess what….

I competed in the Movie trailer category and I won 4th place in the nation. THAT’S CRAZY! For the competition we had 6 hours to write, film, and edit a movie trailer to the prompt “Fine Line.”

I learned so much about making a movie trailer, by making it this this weekend and that was crazy. Let me explain. So, I’m not usually a big film gal, I usually do more news stuff and before this competition we only practiced once. My team and I asked for critiques with our practice trailer and our main issue was not including the studio credits or saying when it was coming out. We also did too much of a story per say and it lowkey told the story before watching the movie. It gave too much away. We took these critiques to mind and during our competition day we made sure to correct them. And let me just say it came out amazing. Instead of making it a cohesive story, we made the first few shots be from a scene in the climax of the movie, then we cut it to a scene towards the beginning, and then we made a 30 second montage of the best scenes. The montage included running, hugging (for that emotion you know), and VO. I will definitely use these tips with tai in making this segment especially since again, WE WON 4TH PLACE IN THE COUNTRY! (I would share it but I don't know because of copyright so far)

Another thing I learned was working as a team. Like yeah, I work well with other people, but sometimes I let other people walk over me because I think they know better. That happened at the practice. However, for this competition I took initiative and it felt...good. I think I'm liking having my ideas heard. 

Anyways

I’m also almost done with the shot list/storyboard so stay tuned 👀

Print Components

 

-summary of content

Poor Things was released in 2023, a recent movie, and has had many Oscar nominations in the most recent award ceremony. However, it started off as a limited release, which is why I chose to research this poster in full. It helps me get an idea of what poster would be appropriate for our type of release.

-analysis of techniques

This poster includes the protagonist being the key art and the main focus. Emma Stone’s character is in a pose, where half her face is still visible to give a semi-mysterious look. The costume she wears is yellow, represents hazard and might explain a bit about the character. The background color is white to match the font. It makes it more visually appealing and gives it a sense of not too much text on the poster. They have production credits on top of the top of the title. The brain at the top ofher head is artwork that might symbolize something later on in the film. 

 

 

-summary of content

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was released in 2012 and it is a coming of age/teenage angst piece. The poster was chosen due it being so similar to the genre of what we want to do.

-analysis of techniques

I like how they are in a friend group, instead of an individual. I might not do that just because the main protagonist is, well, main protagonist. It's not a group thing. You don’t have to use everyone, don’t worry. The background is green, showcasing the how the protagonist's friends are nurturing for him and want him to grow. The characters are all in non-teeth smiling poses to talk about the seriousness of their purposes. The font of the title is kind of like an old typewriter that shows a whole other dynamic to the poster. It makes the audience feel simple, like the title is a fact. The "slogan" in a way is "We are infinite." Not much attention is wanted on it so to not take away from the general poster it is big enough to see, but small enough to be well...small. 

 

-how these examples have inspired you

Both posters have inspired me to follow their little aspects and make a poster that follows the aspects and makes sense for our film. I realized color and font choice especially advertise and tell a story as much as the film itself. We have to be careful with that. 

Filming Schedule

So, due to us being at STN this upcoming week, Tai and I decided to postpone our filming until the week after: the week of the 18-25th. That would give us sufficient time to pre-plan everything and have a week where we aren't busy preparing and competing in this competition. The main issue would be the make-up work considering it's the end of the quarter, but we also have the start of spring break during this week so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. 

Here's how the next two weeks looks like in my mind:

Week of 3/11-3/17

• Post on the social media
• Possibly create an unofficial poster
• Research how to make said poster
• Storyboard
• Create lines of dialogue we want the characters to say (for characterization)
• Pick the music (or around what type we want so we can create the shot list)
• Finalize our actors
• Possibly research the genre more

Week of 3/18-3/25

• 3/18-3/20 make up workdays probably
• 3/21- on filming being done (It shouldn't take more than two full days)
• I'm thinking most likely the Friday and Saturday of that week. 
• So, 3/22 film all the house scenes (Like the scenes in the protagonist's room, etc.) and the car crash.
• 3/23 all the rest. 
• And begin editing :)

Social Media Time :)

 So we decided to open an Instagram account!

Reasoning

Due to our target audience being in their late teens, the easy accessibility of it, the different formats we could incorporate (pictures, videos, and stories), and the effectivity it had to similar projects like on my social media research post, it is safe it say it is our best option. I know most of these films also had Facebook, but I'm a late teen and I've never even had a Facebook account and that says a lot in this generation. Instagram is the perfect mix of the older gen Z and the newer gen Z, and I love it. Plus, the newest of these films was 8th Grade which came out in 2018 which was 6 years ago. Times change. Social Medias change. We were also thinking of creating a Tik Tok account, due to the popularity of the app, but that only works with video components, so it would be rather tricky. Maybe once we get our trailer done?  

 Link

https://www.instagram.com/alettertomymomfilm/?next=%2F

Posts

       So far, I've created the profile picture and the first post. I used the font of a typewriter not just for the aesthetic, but because whenever I think letter I see typewriter. Plus, it mimics the font of The Perks of Being a Wallflower poster title. I used the color blue to give it a more teenager feel instead of black and white almost "antique" feel to it. I wanted it to resonate with our target audience.

       For the profile picture I decided to incorporate two candles. To me candles represent instability. They can either go out, flicker, create a small fire, create a city-wide fire; you never know until it happens. I feel like Liz's life is like that, and that event was the car crash. The reason I chose two flames was because, even though the story is about Liz, her actions were because of her mother. To her they were inseparable. They kept each other's flames lit in a way. I don't know, I found it a little cutesy reference.

Following

I saw with most other social media accounts regarding similar films that they follow similar films, studios, and their actors/directors. As we have not finalized our actor list we haven't followed anyone of that nature yet. However, we followed Netflix, A24, HBOMax as well as Tai and I's Instagram accounts. It makes our page that much more professional. If we were just following our friends, it would look like a random, maybe even hacked account. Plus, with this following list, we can show people we are promoting a film. It would attract the attention from just the right people (other filmmakers and studios).

Characterization

I love that word hehehe

 So, our main character is called Liz and she's very complex. Before the said accident, she was a very outgoing in a way "normal" girl. She had a friend group, she hung out with her family, and whatnot. After the accident, her mind took a different turn. However, on the outside though at times you could tell she was a bit down in the dumps, she seemed the same. Alone however, she most definitely was not. I'm a visual person and in order to actually imagine the trailer and what I could storyboard, I needed to put it in pictures. So here are the mood boards for the character I created:

I mean just look at the difference! Now we're talking! Now I'm thinking of some cinematic shots we could do of her crying (With a GVM RGB light kit and with different make up I have lying out in my house) and maybe I could have her do yoga or something like that (Isn't the yoga so her?) But yeah, these mood boards really helped me visualize who I wanted the character to be. Plus, it'll help me scramble less when it comes to production.

It also helps with communication. Instead of having to be at a loss of words when I tell Tai about the character, which has been happening a lot recently, BOOM. I can just show her!

Group Reviewsss

 

So today in class we had group review/critiques, and they were actually really helpful! You have probably seen with a lot of my posts, we have an idea, but like we are still a bit lost in certain aspects. Like what do we name the film? What specifically does the protagonist do? What is the character like? Where are we supposed to be at with the whole project?

Plot Details

I was fourth in this group to present my film promo idea and got a lot of feedback. They all saw how dark the idea was, but they understood the necessity of what we are trying to accomplish with this piece. Nati, one of the people in this group, suggested that the main character should do boxing as a sport, as a way of getting frustration out. I honestly thought this was a good idea at first, but I currently don't have the budget for that. Like just look at these prices...

     Maybe I can buy those 20-dollar ones and have them hit a wall, or go to an arcade and film that little punch bag game? However, I do believe it will look tacky. Plus, even though it would have made for cool shots and a cool subplot of sorts, I continued thinking on it and decided otherwise. The whole point of the main character is that she can't get her frustration and thoughts out. So maybe boxing isn't the best. Either way, Nati's suggestion made me really think of the importance of the character's portrayal. 

  

Title

Also, thanks to the help of the group and talking to Tai, we finally decided on a name!

A Letter To My Mom  

   The mother will be the family member in the car crash, and in the end the letter will be dedicated to her and the justification. It's a subtle hint at the ending. At first as up we decided something to do with the character's name, (not that we had one picked out officially but we like Liz so far) like how Male's film is going to be called "The Ballad of Bobby the Blob" put it just didn't sound right. It was too goofy in a way for our film. 

Social Media

 And lastly, I realized that we need to get started on the social media. The other person in our group also working on the film promo, Riley, already started on her social media so we need to get started ASAP. But now that we know our title and we have a solidified story and essence, we can actually start so yay. 

    

Overall, I loved this activity. It really got my brain gears turning while helping others and others helping me. 

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. 

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