Hello! Welcome back!
This week we are starting the pre-planning process of our portfolio project. I selected my group members last week, and this is exciting to hear, as I have been looking forward to this project since the beginning of the school year. During the winter break, I have been brainstorming ideas for my portfolio project. I finally landed on that movie idea. A thriller mystery movie dealing with the kidnapping of a young girl (Kiara). Kiara's older stepsister, for the majority of the movie, resents Kiara for bringing her younger stepsister. Kiara and Cassandra went to the park, and Cassandra got distracted with a phone call when Kiara got kidnapped. This inspires Cassandra to go out and find her sister, until she traumatically finds her dead sister. At the end of the movie, Cassandra is seen attending the funeral of Kiara. This parallels the plot of "Taken," in which a CIA agent's daughter is kidnapped in Paris. After I chose the plot for my movie, I needed to find which genre it would fit into. I discussed it with my peers and ultimately decided that it belonged in either a thriller, a mystery, or a thriller-mystery hybrid. I would like to do a mix of both, by using the typical conventions of thrillers and mystery. The convention within my movie is that the older sister (Zariah) is taking her younger sister for granted, which is a common narrative within movies. During the filming, I hope to keep the lighting low-key, but due to my time schedule, I might have to improvise by making the film black and white. The low-key lighting adds a dramatic and mysterious ambiance to the shot and follows the conventions of the thriller genre. During the film, I will try to incorporate high framing into the movie, following another convention of the thriller genre. The popular movie "It" encompasses several of these conventions: the low-key lighting and the high framing. I have been going back and forth with one of my friends to figure out where I should film. She is trying to convince me that we should film in my backyard. So, I did some research to find that most thriller movies are filmed at locations in broad cities, like in the movie "Joker" or the movie "Parasite" that took place in the house. After I concluded my research, I ended up going to the park to film my movie. My movie would incite terror amongst the audience, so it wouldn’t be the best choice for young kids to watch. The intended audience for my movie is older children and teens. I feel like anyone who loves terror and thrills would love this movie. With my captivating plot and the method in which the movie is presented, I would get people to watch my movie. For example, in the movie "Childs Play," the idea that a doll comes alive and starts killing people isn't a new idea, but the way the movie is presented makes it successful. The stereotype in my movie is that the older girl is being rude and the younger girl is more vulnerable, which fits into the typical stereotypes that women play in movies like this one, like the movie "Chick Fight," which plays into the stereotypes that girls are insecure and insolent. For the planning of my portfolio project, I watched five movies: "Parasite", "Bird Box", "Unhinged", "Split" and "The Woman in the Window" to assist me on the journey. All of these movies are thrillers relating to the opening scene me and my group are trying to create. These movies gave me great inspiration for the opening scene. To begin the film "Parasite," the opening sequence starts by panning down and introducing a small boy on the phone. It starts tracking him and leads directly to what he perceives to be his sister. They start talking and eventually have dinner on the floor with minimal furniture. The following shots are of a conversation between the boy and his mother that implements the plot of the movie until the family sits down to eat. This is an "uneventful day in the life" method of opening, with 17 shots introducing all the characters. I presume a "day in the life" scenario would be ideal for the opening scene of my portfolio project, with the kidnapping of the young girl, Kiara, being unusual. Next, Bird Box starts off with an establishing shot of a forest and walkie-talkies playing in the background. It pans to a woman and two children blindfolded in a boat and a man calling out for them to take off their blindfolds; the woman tries to shoot the man but attacks him with a cutlass. "Bird Box" has 64 shots and is a teaser of the rest of the movie, with the killing of the man trying to take off her blindfold being an "Eventful Day in the Life." The next movie, Unhinged, is compiled of 53 shots, a collage of clips of people doing insane activities with the credits displayed throughout. This opening scene doesn’t follow any of the conventions of the opening scene. Split, a 36-shot long opening scene, entails a birthday party and the abduction of a child, creating an inciting incident. The Woman in the Window It is 38 shots long and is about a woman waking up and calling what she presumes to be her kids and husband. She snoops around with her neighbors and has a chat with her therapist about her not leaving the house and her depression. This is a clear example of an uneventful day in her life, with nothing noteworthy occurring throughout the duration of the opening. With all the research I have conducted, this led me to use the "Eventful Day in the Life" to create the opening scene.
Thank you for reading!
