Blog posts #1- My final idea

    My name is Briana Welch and I'm a 16-year-old girl taking AICE-Media studies. For my project idea, I want to make some sort of opening movie of the reality of a teenage girl in high school. High school in this generation compared to high school in past generations are different. In this generation we have phones and social media. Back in the early 2000s for example social media wasn't as toxic and uncontrolled. I want to make some sort of creation that demonstrates what it feels like and what things are left unsaid. I want to make this coming-of-age movie opening and what it's like growing up. This would include boys, heartbreak, drama, gossip, jobs, social media, sports, friends, family and neglect. Ageing and changing into a different person are scary and difficult to explain. I have the intentions of this movie opening to be my way of explaining it. 

  One of my favorite music artists is Taylor Swift. Taylor and her music were one of my biggest inspirations for this movie idea. She has such a big impact on me and her fans all around the world. Taylor Swift writes all sorts of music. Her first debut album was country, folklore and evermore were a mix of indie-folk and her other albums are a mix of pop, hip-hop and country-pop. The songs that inspired me the most are "This is me trying" and "Mirrorball" from her album folklore. Throughout these songs she sings about trying and doing your best and it still not being enough. The line from "This is me trying" where she goes "I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere fell behind all my classmates, and I ended up here pouring out my heart to a stranger". And the line from "Mirrorball" "And I'm still a believer, but I don't know why I've never been a natural all I do is try, try, try." These two lines from her popular songs word so perfectly what being a teenage girl feels like. She as an artist is so misunderstood. Deep down a part of me relates to her music. I want my main character to relate to the words she says to demonstrate that kind of feeling. 

    The 2023 "Barbie" film starring "Ryan Gosling" and "Margot Robbie" played a major impact on my movie idea. Day by day Barbie was this perfect doll that didn't have any flaws. As the movie continued, she realized that she wasn't perfect, and she was living her whole life believing an unrealistic truth. Towards the end of the movie, she took a second and just felt everything. Barbie was always forced to feel a certain way and act a certain way that she was never given the opportunity to be herself. This made an influence on my movie because it's almost like growing up we're always being told the expectations we're held to. In some situations, you're told who you're supposed to be, the person you're supposed to become and what you're supposed to do with yourself. The "Barbie" movie did such a phenomenal job of expressing that feeling. I want people to watch my movie opening and realize that they're not the only one who feels that way.

     My timeline for completing this project is organized. For this first week, I'm just brainstorming ideas on what shots I can do, what the sound will be like, who I want my actors to be, how I want this set up, what I'm going to do to make this movie look continuous, the dialogue along with the setting. After a week or two I'm going to start picking my actors and who I want doing what. I'm then going to test out different areas to see what scenery will demonstrate my story better. I want to split my filming up by pieces. I don't want to cram it all into one or two days and potential miss something. During filming I want to do multiple takes, have multiple cameras and take it from different shots. I want to test out the scenes with different dialogue or different outfits. I want to start early so I give myself more time to edit, reshoot and fix the little errors before my submission. After filming I want to give myself time for a reflection and to complete my remaining blog posts. Then I want to review my film just a few more times before the due date to make sure I'm proud with it. 

         For my film, I inspired myself a little to. For the longest time I've felt so misunderstood and would never stand up. So, making this project will heal a little bit of me and will make me as a person proud. Maintaining a high GPA, playing a varsity sport, drama, anxiety, living up to my grandparent's expectations, making my parents proud, having a job, social media and making yourself happy is all just the beginning of coming of age. Growing out of your teen years and maturing is such an odd concept for me to grasp and I choose this topic for my film to try and help me understand it a little more. For the majority of my life all I've known is school and that academic validation. One day, it's all going to be this distinct memory of someone that I used to be. Maturing, growing as a person and coming of age is such a beautiful thing and that's what I want my film about. 

 

       The romance movie genre is my favorite genre. Movies like "The Notebook", "10 things I hate about you", "Forever my girl", "The fault in our stars" are all some of my favorite movies because of the romance. In my opening scene, I want there to be some conflict over romance. I want to show the heartbreak of love rather than the positives. Love is such a beautiful thing but it's not only good. It's hard and can be sort of complicated. In "The Notebook'' they do a good job of demonstrating it all. The good, the bad, healthy, toxic, breakup, heartbreak and all the meaningful lessons. There is so many ways heartbreak of love can be demonstrated. This can be through distractions, no motivation, not eating, low patience, etc. This effects high school students because they're under this impression that if they don't find the person for them during this time period they never will or that love is all healthy and easy. But there's more to it than just that, it's not always easy and there will be times where you have to fight. Throughout my film opening I want to demonstrate a little bit of that feeling. 

       As time before shooting my opening begins, I do expect to make minor changes throughout my film. I do have the general idea of what I'm expecting from my film and what message I want to demonstrate. I don't plan on changing the theme of the video and I expect the final result to be good and meaningful. When filming I plan to cut and redo scenes. I also plan on filming extra that way I have more to work with and I can be flexible with it. This project won't be easy but I'm excited to see how it will play out.