The Art of Dreaming

CCR In depth analysis of production processes, decision making, strategies utilized, and overall effectiveness of film opening of the movie The Art of Dreaming.

So... this is it! I am glad to have had you as my personal audience throughout this journey, but now its time to say goodbye. I hereby present the final product of this project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrCjGoTyREk

KEY QUESTIONS How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? For my film opening I decided to portray the thoughts of a young boy and the way in which different in modern society is constantly considered out of the norm or weird in a non-acceptable way; I illustrated this through the main's character perspective of the world and his abnormal views of life and nature.  How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?  My film has the hook feature of leaving the audience in suspense, asking for more because of the way that it shows a magical or supernatural elements right before the end. This hook appeals to a range of different audiences, from teenagers to young and mid adults. However the target audience I had chosen for my movie was teenagers of ages 13 to 19; because I believe they would be the ones greatly identified with the main character and his story depic...

It has been a struggle to start recording. I had focused so much on the theme and the narrative of the film opening that I forgot to plan the logistics on how to get it done. I already had an idea of who I was going to use for my main characters and extras. My brother is twelve years old and I had in mind using two of his best friends, Santiago and Juan, as my main characters and some of his friends from the neighborhood as the extras or minor characters for the background. The problem arose when I asked my brother to contact his friends and the fact that they are kids became an issue, I had to ask for their parents phone numbers and call both of their mother to arrange to pick them up and have them participate in my project. After providing a thorough explanation of what the project was about and why I was asking specifically their sons, the parents gave me permission and we schedule the recording to take place the week before spring break.  Another issue I had, was the fact...

It is time for me to explain the idea that I have settled in for the movie opening. After the long and exhausting process of brainstorming what to do, something that leaves the audience wanting more and creates a sense of mystery I decided to add a Snapchat editing filter of bubbles and visual illusions to convey a contrast between reality and fantasy. To make it dynamic, I will include a fast-forward and a flashback consequently to each other by only depicting the main character but at three different stages of his life: adulthood; childhood; and adolescence. This movement in time back and forward will add action, confusion, mystery, and overall dynamic to the film opening. NARRATOR I made the decision to have a narrator voice-over to add a sense of deeper meaning to the life of the main character, and to the occurrences in his life; as well as to invoke reflection through the young and immature voice of the speaker talking about insightful topics. INSPIRATION The idea prev...

Good news!!! after a long brainstorming session in company with some friends and me pitching various ideas for the film opening... I have already developed the complete idea of what it is that I will be doing for this project. However, before explaining the plot and everything else to its complexity to my readers, I have decided to do it through segments to reveal each feature of the idea properly and make it easier for the public to comprehend. I will begin in this post, in which I will illustrate my main characters that will be portrayed in the film. First I will provide examples of I would want or have imagined the person to look like; and then I will demonstrate the chosen candidate, his/hers background history and importance in the film. CHARACTER #1 & 2 tanned skin: Latino background average height skinny simplistic look short/ messy hair audacious rebel kindhearted young: 8-11 years old

For the first seconds of my film opening, to portray the credits and present the production company Cascade Studios I will be doing the previously discussed domino effect circuit. After thinking about this scene thoroughly and analyzing the best approach to record this, I have reached the conclusion of utilizing a illumination and special effects box. I will be the one responsible for the creation of this box. In this post I am merely to discuss the step by step process that will constitute the development and creation of this box and later on in the blog I will provide photographic evidence of the results and move on to using the box. Cut out the top of the box and the front, leaving a bar across the top to help your box keep it’s shape                                                                       ...

Now that I have advanced with my thought process to the point where I have an almost solid picture of an idea of what I am going to be developing for this project built in my head and the initial storyboards are already done... I felt it would be appropriate to produce an initial recording schedule to create and establish some structure based upon time measurable goals, into my next steps. Therefore, I present my first draft of a recording schedule: Sounds exciting right?! Then stay tuned and don't be doomed!

Since I had already decided on what the introduction of the film was going to be like, I began working on a storyboard to visualize the evolution of the film and to help me remember all the details of my though process to follow up on it more accurately. These drafts of my storyboard are still raw and do not have included the types of angles, shots, or camera movements yet because I am still trying to figure out how am I going to want to present it. However I had some thoughts on this:                     *For the first shot I want the domino centered on the frame for it to be the main focus for the viewer and I want it to look two dimensional only.                     *For the domino effect I want the camera movement to be hand held kind of shaky and from a dutch angle; following the fall of the the pieces and edit this part to be in slower motion than the original effect. ...

I wanted to save up as much time as possible for the actual scenes of the film being portrayed in the opening, therefore I came up with this idea to use as a credentials introduction for the film in a more dynamic, interesting, but quick manner. The name of the company producing the movie will be called "ONE Cascades Studios" which I choose this to play with the concept of having videos start with the typical 3-2-1... and it will be presented this way: The film starts and all we can see is a complete black background with a plain white domino piece standing centered in the frame On the top of the piece three dots appear Then on the bottom two dots appear Below the domino the phrase "ONE Cascades Studios" appears in the frame centered. That's all I've got for the introduction so far... Stay tuned and don't be doomed!

I have decided I'm settling with the genre of science fiction and drama. the number one reason why I've choose to do this is because utilizing this genre will aid me in having my film opening capture the audience on action, which I think makes a far more exciting opening because it's more dynamic and entertaining. Moreover, I also believe it would make a more effective opening by hooking the audience with suspense and the desire to know what's next after that active, full on motion introduction. Coming from the idea that I want my opening to drive people in through the few minutes I have to promote my project, I want to make the opening of the film one of the most interesting and differentiating pieces of the film. To do this, I have been brainstorming a few ideas on how to make this happen: Use an out-of-space factor/element- aliens, meteorite, etc- in an out of context and unexpected way. Include a portal, create contrast between reality and fantasy, or a new dime...

I have been thinking intensively about what could I do to capture my audience in the very few minutes my film opening is allowed to be. I cannot stop imagining what technique could make the trick of enticing the viewer of the fact that they are about to watch something really amazing and different without proving enough information to make them aware of the possible occurrences that will take place in the film later on. I have narrowed it down to the following wants: introduce the audience in the middle of action provide main character traits before establishing the setting convey the idea of enlightenment, change, or revolution... or all combined use of flashbacks to provide information of pre-revolution/change status begin with Close Up shots of main character's face or Extreme Close Ups use jump cut shots to evoke time passing and dynamic start I elaborated my first storyboard draft to picture this moment of brainstorming into paper and be able to remind myself of wha...

I used to believe inspiration came from all kinds of sources around the daily objects we touch, to the daily elements we see, and all things that are captured by our senses. But now that I need inspiration to guide me in the process of starting my film opening project... Mr. Inspiration seems to be H-I-D-I-N-G. Perfect timing, am I right?! But well if life gives you lemons make lemonade... and life gave me the internet so I spent a whole afternoon researching famous productions and figuring out what genre was my piece going to be. The following video  Top Film Openings  was extremely helpful in providing me a initial idea on what I should look out for in my project to have: hook innovative appealing to target audience interesting angles/shots quality image I decided to follow my own taste and found inspiration in my favorite movies for the genre science fiction and drama.  Keep tuned and don't be doomed!  

It's so easy to get excited about something when we start think about it; picturing the future outcomes and all; but it becomes so hard to actually slow down one's thought process and develop a step by step analysis of how to achieve that previously pictured dream result. So, at this point I'm extremely excited to start working on something that I visualize as amazing, but do not know when are my brain cells going to activate and give me that creative totally appealing idea that I need for the production of my film opening. I was so stressed out about finally figuring out the idea for this project that when I started thinking about what exactly was a "fiction film" my mind went blank. My next step, if not obvious, was to research some examples of fiction movies and define the concept of fiction as used in the movie industry: A fiction movie is a  film  that tells a  fic tional  or fictionalized story, event or  narrative . In this style of film, believable nar...

I thought it would be useful for my public to understand the origin of my posts and the purpose of their overall existence. So, to begin this journey I am about to explain the objective of the posts that I will be adding on to this blog. I will be recording my though process, which includes but is not entitled to: creative ideas general brainstorming storyboards illustrations, pictures or images inspiration sources etc I will be doing this with the objective of keeping track of the evolution of the creation of a film opening. For the next month or so, I will producing and directing from scratch a movie idea/pitch and actually recording a finalized film opening for that piece with an almost complete composition of original material. Beforehand, I will begin this journey by sharing some incredible knowledge I encountered through my initial research on film openings and effective approaches used for these; some words I thought wise, from Ken Miyamoto (screenwriter, former S...