Group Meeting #1

So today in class, we had our first group meeting and it was really great! I got a lot of positive feedback on my idea and everyone told me that they thought my plan was very creative so I hope it will come out just as good as I imagine it to be. We all helped Octavio come up with his final idea for his project. He was between a gangster film or a romance and we all each gave our own personal input so that he could come up with a decision. Most of us said romance, but gave ideas for gangster film openings if he decided to do it. 

Brianna's idea I thought was super cool. She is doing a psychological thriller about these girls who go to the beach to get drunk and one of the girls, blacks out and the rest of the girls record her and make fun of her and leave her on the beach. The girl wakes up in the beach in the middle of the night with hazy vision and then sees a dark figure walking over to her. The reason why I think this is a fun idea is because, it opens the film to a story and leaves you wanting to know more. I think that films with uninteresting openings often make people want to click off, so this twist from what you think is going to be a coming of age to becoming something more sinister, is a cool way to go about it. 

Ryan has already got his entire story down! He told us the movie he was planning on making and it seemed super creative. The basis of the story was that he was going to have a family that ends up joining a cult but his film opening would begin as a montage of all the family pictures in the house. I think this is a really good idea because it helps build context as well as establish certain kinds of relationships. Then, the camera would zoom out of the picture into the character looking at the photo. I think that although the psychological thriller that he plans on making seems a little complex, he has enough good ideas that he can establish the beginning of the story with the opening, so that audiences can get an idea of where it's going, and would want to keep watching.

Anabella had a very unique idea, she wanted to make a horror film, but wanted to make the opening start off as an argument between a girl and her father. Then, she would somehow incorporate use security camera footage to twist it into a horror. To be completely honest, I don't know how this will turn out, but I saw some of her inspiration shots from the movie 'Paranormal Activity' and I am excited to see the end result. I think it's going to be difficult to shoot, but I think she has a good plan and I think it will turn out great.

And lastly, Leela got a lot of inspiration from some of my favorite movies like Girl Interrupted, Donnie Darko, and Se7en. She wants to go down a more taboo route and talk about mental illness in her short film which I think is very important to be shown in the media so people can be aware about the struggles people may be facing, and for representation. She also wanted to begin her film opening similarly to Ryan with a montage of showing different things. I think this can be great at evoking like melancholic feelings almost like you are mourning a little so I think this is a great approach! I think her project will be fantastic!!