What Do You Mean, Group Meeting?
I presented my ideas for an opening with a randomly created group to gain inspiration and improve my ideas. Alongside that, I helped them build upon their own ideas and discussed how they could improve their blogs too!
This group meeting adds value because it lets us gain a better perspective of our ideas as well as understand what others are creating. With multiple people discussing our ideas, it allows for more creativity to flow which in turn inspires all of us. We were all able to build on each other and our constructive criticism which allows for better improvement!
Group Meeting (long) Recap!
I was put into a group with Peyton, Dani, Vicky, and Matias! All of them had great ideas and gave me some great advice and I like to say we helped each other a lot!
Peyton was working with a partner to create a Coming of Age film opening about an insecure popular girl. She had a great foundation but was unsure about the direction and shots she wanted to have within it. I suggested a few shot ideas and how to begin it, with a black screen but the sound of a bell ringing. I was very happy she really liked the idea. I believe it was Vicky who suggested that the lead in the opening eventually be in the school bathroom looking at herself, unhappily. That was a great addition I thought and even reflected on how I could add some emotional shots like that suggestion into my own film. Peyton was very grateful for the advice we lent her and only had the problem of actors and how many people she wanted or even could have in her opening. That unfortunately an issue we were never able to solve.
Dani was in a group of three that was working on a horror movie opening about a murderous boyfriend. She was very inspired by an example student film opening shown to us in class. She wanted to show a teenage boy wrapping red string between pictures that all eventually led to a singular girl. That girl would then be shown at the very end with the man who was wrapping the pictures, giving the tension that she is with someone who is unhealthy crazy for her. I suggested having a dynamic shot that followed the hand of the seen as it moved to connect to another photo. I also added that she should have a lot more than just photos on the board like writings and physical objects connecting to the girl. Dani said she would definitely add that. Someone also added to make it a little more obvious that the boy and girl are indeed dating and what he is doing is very wrong. A lot of foreshadowing needs to be done to create the tension that Dani and her team are looking for.
Vicky was working by herself and was struggling a lot to create a fleshed-out idea for another horror opening. All she had for us was a girl running in a forest. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to do to create the tension that horror needs, only knowing she wanted it to be a psychological horror. We were bouncing around ideas for her, but I'm proud to say she went with my super awesome idea of the girl trapped in the forest and running in a loop appearing where she was over and over again! Great, she finally had her idea! But now the struggle was to find a location, figure out editing techniques, and overall how to execute this cool idea! Peyton was amazing and found the perfect spot for Vicky to film while I talked about color grading and other cool editing techniques I have developed. Now all she has to do is figure out how she is to apply herself when it comes to actually filming.
Matias, like Vicky, is working on a horror film opening on his own. He wants to create a slasher by having his opening show all kinds of weapons laid out by a killer. He wanted to keep things simple so we focused on discussing the props he would need and how he could obtain them or how he could create them. Unfortunately, we didn't discuss much of his project since there didn't seem much to discuss.
When it came to my coming-of-age opening, at the time all I had was loser nerd was pining after a girl in a toxic relationship and that the opening would have him seeing the two have an argument in the boyfriend's car. I talked about how my three other team members had mentioned the boyfriend splashing the nerd with water by driving through a puddle. The group members suggested that this encounter happened out in public and to make the argument very loud and aggressive. Alongside that, the topic of my credits came up and Dani was very adamant that the credits should be very artsy or unique to represent the nerd and his artistic abilities/nerdiness. These ideas are very good and will definitely discuss them with my team!
Blogging Masters
On top of aiding my group in the development of their film-opening ideas, me and Dani gave them assistance in improving their blogs and understanding what they had done wrong in their previous blogs since I and Dani were the only ones in the group to earn a 100 on all of our blogs. The main advice that both me and Dani gave to the other group members was that they had to add more. Not really more description, but more analysis and reflection. Peyton, Vicky, and Matias all did a great job at describing their different research topics but were very limited when it came to analyzing the importance of that information and especially limited in the way they described how they plan on implying their newly learned information to their openings. They had the "what" but needed to add the "why" and the "how" to their research in their blogs. Once that was achieved, their blogs would be on point!
I showed them my format of explaining the main idea of the research or activity first, analyzing everything related to the research or activity I have done, and then having my conclusion at the very end explaining how I will apply this new information to my opening.
Assessing their blogs also helped me understand what I was doing right and how I keep doing good. I will always double and triple check that my research always answers the big three of "what, why, and how" because it will allow me to get the most out of all the information I've gained and let me formulate a plan and understand how to apply it to what I am doing.
That Conclusion I Was Talking About
It's now time for my favorite part of my blogging formula, the end. I like to talk a lot if that isn't obvious, but oh boy do I love to finish talking. Something so satisfying about "The End", don't you think? Enough yapping, time to answer the how! My group gave me some great ideas, and I definitely will discuss them with my team, but I think I gained more value by helping them! While helping Peyton, I realized I needed to figure out how my team was going to do our own shots and figure out actors. My teammate Madison wants to play the jerk boyfriend and I'm planning on being the girlfriend. But how about the nerd? That is something we ought to figure out! When helping Dani, I figured out that we too need to make sure our story makes narrative sense and not just sense in our minds. Vicky made me realize that getting a setting that fits the tone of my opening was very important and required planning as well. Helping Matias with his props made me think of the kinds of props I want/need for my opening and how they represent the characters of the film. Those props also require more research and planning than I initially realized.
So, although my group's feedback for me was valuable, what was more valuable was helping them. Now I have a full grasp of the effort needed to plan such a big project and a better idea of how to develop my story better!
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