First group meeting & feedback

     Today we met in random groups to discuss our ideas with other people and get outside perspectives. At first, I wasn't sure how I could put my idea into words that sounded right, but I guess that was the point, to make the pitch more precise and clear. I liked hearing ideas from drastically different genres, like rom/com, action, film noir, and horror. Even though some ideas were not related to my genre at all, the discussion was still a good exercise in genre conventions. For example, Santiago talked about his group's horror opening idea. The "monster" of the movie will not be shown to create suspense, but like he discussed in his last blog post about lighting, he can use shadows and silhouettes. I particularly liked his blog for both it's design and content, as he played with the settings and goes in depth in his research blogs. Similarly, David, who's doing a film noir, really showed how invested he is in the idea by referring to examples he researched. As a group we pitched different lighting and costume techniques he could use to emphasize the aesthetic his group is going for. We talked about how something similar to the picture below would fit his story about two detectives while using his genre's conventions. 

    Another person who had a clear idea of his opening was Gabriel, who is going to do an action/spy type movie opening. I liked how he knew exactly how he wanted to establish setting and tone, even using techniques he's learned from his research like text on the screen showing date and time. He mentioned how the 'end' of his opening will be open ended, with the last moment being the police arriving to the scene and the spy having to escape. As a group we suggested costume and lighting would fit, such as putting colored paper over a flashlight to replicate the red and blue lights on police cars. Further, Brynn's opening will be a romantic comedy following a girl receiving texts from a secret admirer. She already knew what type of shots and costume she wanted to use, so the main suggestion given was to use pink lighting to add to her feminine/love aesthetic. 

                                                        

    Overall, it seems that the whole group understands the importance/influence of lighting techniques so hopefully we all use them to our advantage. When I explained my idea, we started talking about the color scheme I had mentioned in a previous blog post. I was showing them Knives Out, as I like its use of orange when explaining color scheme, and Gabriel suggested the costumes be colorful to stand out against the dark set. This could be cool and really show the more light hearted mystery tone. Afterwards, I met with my teacher to discuss my idea and she made me think about the best way to approach introducing just the main character, the actual mystery not being the main focus of the opening. I like this perspective, making the opening more character (rather than plot) centered. One of the issues I was thinking about was how to balance the mystery/dramatic tone with the "comedic" elements, but now that I am going to focus on developing the character that should not be a problem as the actual investigation is not important in the opening.