Introduction
As our group collaborated on this first step towards a long journey of creating our film, we began to come up with a production company name that we would all agree on. We began brainstorming names of Greek gods, Nubian gods, flowers, foreign languages, but ultimately decided on, “Milagros,” as a simple name for time's sake (as it took a full class period to produce a name that we would mutually settle on). “Milagros” is a word in Spanish that means miracle, and we agreed on that name as we felt it would fit the juxtaposing tone of out film. Furthermore, about juxtaposition, our production team believed that the drama genre would complement our established production team name and our film’s title. To add, in previous blog posts, our storyboard in preliminary exercises six and seven established our interest in the comedy genre, and we wanted to further demonstrate our interest in comedy by coming it with drama. Therefore, our group noted dramedy as a hybrid, or subgenre that our film would illustrate. It is worth mentioning, our group figured one of the elements of comedy in commonly seen films are mockumentaries, more specifically in cult-classics such as “The Office,” “Abbott Elementary,” and “Modern Family.” Those are a few of many examples our group took inspiration from while considering which route we intended for our film to take.
Film Development | ||
Teammates Names: Marley B, Lexi M, Peyton P, Khloe R | Period (s): 5th Period | |
Production Company Name: Milagros Studios |
| Date: 1/26/2024 |
Identifying Genre | |
Identify the genre of your movie: Drama | |
Hybrid/subgenre (s): Dramedy/Mockumentary | |
Identify the iconography of your film based on your genre: Common elements of drama are exaggerated plots and situations, typically have happy/satisfactory endings, the main characters navigate the highs and lows of life, while having an ardent desire to do good and overcome adversity, incorporates relatable issues, elements of sensitive struggles/topics are explored, and are meant to share lesson about a universal theme that all can possibly identify with. | |
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Identifying Audience | |
Identify the audience type and their demographics and psychographics. | |
Type of audience (Mainstream or Niche Audience) | |
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Market Segmentation Analysis | |
Demographics (In the US) | Psychographics |
Age(s):
Race/Ethnicity(s): Majority White, Black, and Hispanic population
Class(es): (lower middle class to upper middle class/wealthy)
Sexuality: (Heterosexuality and Bisexuality)
Religion: (Agnostic and Christian)
| Goals: Gen Alpha- to forge connections, build communities, and shape their identities Gen Z- to have purpose and accountability Millennials- time, money and energy all at once.
Fashion style: Gen Alpha- bright colors, graphic tees Gen Z- baggy jeans, crop tops, oversized Millennials- skinny jeans, high waisted
Personality Traits: Gen Alpha- socially aware, technology connected, growing up fast Gen Z- competitive, financially focused, self-reliant Millennials- ethical, creative, connected
Values: Gen Alpha- honesty, egalitarianism, personal responsibility, and innovation Gen Z- experiences and purposeful purchases Millennials- authority, achievement, and influence
Favorite Genre (in film): Gen Alpha- Singing and Dancing (i.e. musicals) Gen Z- Comedy (an example is The Office) Millennials- True Crime and Drama
Mental Issues: Gen Alpha- Anxiety and Depression Gen Z- Stress, Anxiety, and Loneliness (higher than other generations) Millennials- Depression (higher of other living generations) and Anxiety
Habits: Gen Alpha- Technologically-wired and savvy Gen Z- Social media consumption and meditation Millennials- Convenience, shopping, paying bills, taking trips, eating out, online shopping. |
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Film Idea Theme | ||
List at least 3 themes for your film and why. Be specific. Think about your audience. | ||
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What does the audience should expect from your film’s opening? | ||
Key Media Studies Concepts | Representation invites audiences to understand your media text and agree with the message in preferred ways. Depending on the audience, different interpretations are to some extent possible. As a group identify the following: | |
Ideology What ideas/ issues do you find important to your audience, to illustrate in your film? Provide 3 specific examples. | -Our film is meant to reflect societal issues that are very real and are important to discuss for any hope/effort of change in the future. Three specific examples that are prevalent, and commonly seen issues that we will explore in our film are:
-Racism -Sexism -Abuse of Power (while authority, law, and order are responsible for the function of our society, at times those in high position of power may have their own agendas, ideologies, and misuse their position to control others)
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Who are the individuals/characters that you would like to highlight in your film? Think of positive or negative stereotypes ………. | Positive The main characters in the film are the ones who are warning everyone else of this controlled and horrible society. They are rebellious and are often hated and discriminated against for being different. Types of character types are: The Dreamer, The Rebel, The Peacemaker. | Negative The rest of society are the discriminators. They are the ones that are hating on the main characters for being “different”. They are prejudiced, and are racist, sexist but in a subtle way. They believe that being mind-controlled is the “norm”. |
What social groups will you be focusing on? Think of the demographics and psychographics of your characters. | Demographics: gender, age, ethnicity, class, sexuality, disability/ability, etc. Diverse ethnicity, teenagers, feminism, ranging from lower middle class-upper middle class.
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Psychographics: Attitude, interests, lifestyles, beliefs/values, and personality. Mind control, everybody is the same,
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Identifying Mise-en-scene in your film | ||
Where is the setting of your story? Think of a courtyard, classroom, grocery store, cafeteria, home, etc. | The setting is in a school; school hallway, school classroom. | |
When is the story told? Think of the period, past/ present/ future. Day/afternoon/evening/night | The story is told in the Present, most likely in the morning and the afternoon (during school hours; 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.). | |
Props | -Weapons such as scissors, rulers, staplers, pins, or books, which all signify the horror genre. -Phones -Backpacks -Computers/ Laptops -Television or large screen (for mind-control programming) -Food (for extra mind control) -Intercom (for administration to chant mantras) | |
Set Design | -Classroom settings, with desks arranged in rows to signify mind-control and order
-Vast outside settings, to emphasize the vastness of the mind-controlled population in the school, versus the small percentage (the protagonists) who are not mind controlled, and to establish how small the protagonists are versus most of the school. To add, our school is one of the biggest campuses in our area, and we could use vast stairways, our large buildings where the protagonists could run from antagonists, or where possible scenarios where the protagonists could become lost or cornered by the antagonists, because of running away from them.
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Colors (Add the meanings associated with the colors.) | Instead of following character conventions, the colors listed below are used for character archetypes that are seldom shown the following color, to further shock the audience in later scenes:
-Light blue signifies calmness and humility/ neutrality, which we would cast the antagonists of the film to wear. It is notable to mention blue in horror could also signifies coldness, death, uneasiness, or depth such as the ocean (so our production team could regularly broadcast a range of different shades of blues to complement the scenes that they are captured in).
-White would also be worn by the antagonists to not only contrast their negative, extreme personalities, but to reveal that their characters believe they are good and pure. It is worthy to note, that white is also a color of innocence, and numerous MK Ultra themed movies included white being associated with mind-control programming.
-Dark and neutral colors would be worn by the protagonists to signify balanced, and a relatable/ conventional personality type, as neutral colors are worn by modern everyday people, and these colors are not too overwhelming, nor stand out. | |
Composition
| -We plan to mainly use shallow focus, as our location is crowded with many students, and it would be challenging to capture shots without students from our school in the background (to add, we want to respect the privacy of those who may be uncomfortable being recorded on camera).
-Deep focus would be used for intense scenes, so that the audience could pay attention to details in the surroundings of the characters, and to see the characters more clearly (for instance, their costumes, hair, and other physical attributes).
-Symmetrical balance for shots that have the characters doing casual everyday activities (going to class, going to the park, or in a classroom setting doing their work).
-Unsymmetrical balance for dominating, or intimidating scenes, that are meant to highlighting shocking or devious actions from the film’s antagonist, which would establish the film’s horror genre. | |
Tone of Film (Describe in full sentences and why would you use them.)
| The tone of the film would be eerie. This is meant to subconsciously unsettle viewers to take the issues discussed in the film (such as a mind control, sexism, and racism) more seriously, while adding a suspenseful tone to keep the audience engaged/ interested.
-Upbeat tone in the beginning of the film to juxtapose the message of the film, to further contrast how disturbing the true meaning behind the film is.
-Comedic/ Humorous tone to establish our films partial comedy genre, and we could make characters from the main cast comedians or make the antagonist do embarrassing or extreme actions (for example, chanting to themselves awkwardly in silence, while staring into the mirror) that would shock the audience to laughter. | |
Camerawork (Shot size, angles, framing and camera movement.
| Shot sizes: Establishing shot, master shot, wide shot, full shot, medium shot, medium close up Angles: Low angle, high angle, Dutch angle, eye level, shoulder level, knee level Framing: point, lines, shapes, space, balance, deep focus, shallow focus Camera movement: Static, Dolly in, dolly push out, zoom out, zoom out, tracking, | |
Well-known iconography seen in the dramedy genre include dramatic scenarios, colorful, exaggerated wardrobe palettes, incongruence/juxtaposition, and bizarre, yet realistic events. These conventions establish the drama genre in film clearly to audiences, and our team considered that while deciding what our film's main themes would convey. To briefly explain, our team picked ideologies that both us and our generation (our peers) find important and after deep consideration, we chose to highlight societal issues of controlling individuals, malicious motivations and intentions, wanting to be wanted, authority, mental health issues, teens who experience anxiety, jealousy, which are issues many teens can resonate with. These factors can be summed up to our film’s main themes which focuses on a coming-of-age, socially aware story on sexism, assault, mental illness, imbalance of power, and control, which are themes that are sure to evoke strong emotions in our audience. As our school campus is known for its cultural and racial diversity, our group seized the opportunity to include unique backgrounds of people to be represented in our main cast and supporting characters. More specifically, the main character, Mercedes, and her friend Lizzy who is cautious around Christine due to their previous friendship with her, and awareness of her obsession with Mercedes and jealousy/ anger issues. Both Mercedes and Lizzy place a spotlight on anxiety, safety, and strong friendship, while being cast to represent their distinct nationalities on-screen. On, the other hand, “Through Her Eyes,” included a gut-wrenching, extreme, obsessive stalker trope through the lens of a lesbian woman of color, Christine. Christine is a blatant antagonist as her selfish-driven, obsessive nature which we intend to highlight in our upcoming film.
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