Finalizing Our Ideas

When my group and I were coming up with pitches it was really tough. We had to think about the circumstances and limiting factors that would not allow us to film certain things. For example, the location has to be correct once we start filming. If there was an idea of having a horror film in the middle of the woods, it would be easy for us to meet at a park. However, establishing the plot as to why the characters would be in the woods was what we found difficult. We did not finalize certain pitches until we all agreed on the ideas and the sentences were written officially. While brainstorming, writing down the sentences made it easier to visualize what we could film. One of the three pitches involved using a pool as the setting for most of the scenes. However, the context of the movie did not really sit well with one of the members. It reminded them of another cheesy movie they have watched and preferred to do an idea that was a thriller or romance. Our first pitch is about a teenage girl who is ready for her night out with friends, and she decides to hitch a ride with a complete stranger who offered. The second pitch involved the idea of a love story between a boy and a girl and his only interest was to get good grades from working with her.

I believe that the first pitch would be good for the assignment because we have already discussed how some scenes will be recorded. The final clip would be the victim being taken away by the stranger. This way, it would leave the audience wondering what will happen next. New shots will be incorporated into the film, for example, close-ups and a pov shot, possibly. Editing would also be much easier, for example, cross-cutting will be involved because it will display the characters getting ready for their day. The young girl will be doing what a regular teenager does before she goes out, while the stalker will be getting his items ready for his new victim. The viewers will have an idea of what is going to occur for the rest of the movie, after realizing the mistake the girl made when she got into a car with someone who she does not even know. The film will be edited to evoke tension in between scenes and have the audience want to watch the rest of the movie.

The second pitch does not really work with this assignment because we cannot film on our school campus. Also, the beginning needs to establish who the characters are and where the film will remotely take place. The conventions with this type of genre explain the background of the main character, and how he/she meets their love interests at school. The love interests can also be presented as the sweet jock or the intelligent class president. It would be difficult to do this without the setting at school and not having more friends to make the person seem popular. The topic of love can also be a little awkward because my group and I are just sophomores, and do not really find interest in recording scenes that will not have cringe-worthy energy.

The thriller seems like the pitch that we have chosen for the journey of creating the final task. We all agree with the idea of having similar shots and being able to build a plot from the opening scene in a movie. We look forward to working together on a new topic and seeing how much we can accomplish in the next few months.

Start of the Final Task

   Hello, my name is Darwin Rodriguez. I am a student at Fort Lauderdale High School. I am in 10th grade, and currently taking AICE Media Studies. I want to take this course to learn more about the filming process, which may help me in the future, since I haven't decided what career it is I want to pursue. My hobbies are playing video games, watching TV and movies. My interests consists of designing (clothes, architecture, website/app, graphic, etc.), psychology, technology, and more. I also enjoy videos and photography. Whenever I am watching a movie or looking images online, I analyze the image/video and appreciate it. I hope to learn a lot more in my Media Studies class.

   As of now, I have been in AICE Media Studies for about five months. In those five months in this class, I have made a commercial and a music video with my different partners. These two projects have taught me many things about the film and editing process. With the commercial introducing me to it, and the music video helping me gain more experience. In the commercial, we first tried out the basic angles and camera movements, learned how to work the camera, and how to edit. When we began doing the music video, we learned about more camera angles and movements. Since the music video is 1 minutes and 15 second, we had much more time, so therefore we had to shoot more scenes and try out different angles and lighting. I'm most excited to try out new angles that I hadn't used before, as well as new movements, lightings, sounds, and more. Because this final task will be 2 minutes, I hope to utilize this extra time by making a great film, using new features and qualities.

   A pitch is a term used with movie producers where it describes an idea for a film, and it's usually summarized in the most 25 sentences. Most pitches are done with one sentence. We came up with three pitches for our final task:

-Pitch One: A group of friends hang out by a pool, when two of the friends jump into the pool trying to retrieve a phone that fell into it, when they realized they have swapped bodies.
-Pitch Two: A teenage girl is getting ready to go out with her friends at night, when she decides to hitch a right with a complete stranger.
-Pitch Three: A teenage love story between a boy and girl where the girl thinks they have a nice connection and feelings, but in reality he is just using her for her smarts.

Below are some images of us discussing our pitch ideas: