Class discussion

    Hey blog! In this post I'm going to go further into detail on the things my group suggested on Friday in class. They gave me ideas regarding the screen plays that may help to improve the story. Instead of implementing the idea of using the flashback at the start of the film, some suggested that we do it at the end and not include the war scenes in order to cause more suspense leading to the actual film. I believe this may be a good idea. Because this is a film opening, catching the eye of the viewers is exactly what we aim for and I feel like putting the flashback later on in the opening would cause more suspense.

  

  They also told me that suspense films should really begin with a strong start. I was kind of confused on what they meant and they said that the first scene should be kind of eye catching and that the film should start very strong in order to catch the attention of the viewers. I talked to my group members (Alejandro and Artur) and they liked the idea of not really including the flashback and instead attempting to catch the attention of the viewers with a strong start and end the scene with a cliffhanger. However, these were just casual talks and we haven't fully decided whether we are going to switch to this or not.

  

Godfather

  Hey blog! So last class we talked about our project ideas with different groups and we got some very useful ideas. The people in my group told me that I should focus on checking out different films within my genre so in this blog I will talk about that. Even though our film has a bit of suspense in it, it's mostly a drama regarding the life of the war veteran.

So I was researching drama movies and found what's arguably one of the best films of all time, The Godfather. I was reading an article which describes everything that the film did right which helped make it such a classic. One thing was the quick, swift, movements implemented throughout the film. I want to include this during our war scenes because I believe that this can create a sense of urgency and suspense.

Another thing, which I previously had talked about, are the soundtrack that, "does not allow the tension to cease." I think that including this drastically helped the film as it created a sort of flow throughout the film that wouldn't go away. I also believe that this constant sound and avoiding silence would help attract our viewers. That's all for this post, see you next time!

Godfather

Foley sounds

   Hey blog! So I've been thinking about sound and I realized I haven't really talked about that but, don't worry, I have some good ideas! So I was thinking about using foley sounds and I feel like we can use that and get some really perfect sounds. To start the scene with the start of the flashback, I feel like it should just be a normal conversation between the main character and someone else and then have a dramatic shift when it comes to the actual transition to the flashback we should have something sounding like a swoosh or something like that ( link below to some examples)  

  Furthermore, once the war scene begins, I have some really good ideas. For example, I think that we should have branches rattling and breaking as the main character is walking through the scene. To make it sound more like a war scene, I think we can use loud banging sounds from the banging of a shoe falling. This would make it sound like a gun. Also, I think that we should have loud talking and yelling in the background.

I was just watching a youtube video (link below) and it has some perfect sounds that I think would fit on perfectly with our video. Another idea would be that when the person says something that leads to the flashback, the main character should, in a way, blank out of the scene for a little and then the flashback would occur. Check out the videos below to see the things I was talking about.

Youtube sound ideas

Foley gun sounds

Good ideas

Group: Artur, Alejandro, Dio

   So I've been researching into the best film openings and why they made it there. Because it is the first scene of the film, it's absolutely crucial that it catches the viewers attention and gives them a glimpse of what is to come. The first scene will set the tone of the film and give an insight upon what to expect. Upon talking with my peers, I think we have come up with a good idea that we could use during our scenes.

  We think we want our film opening to be primarily on the past. We want the flashback to occur pretty early on in the film and focus the remaining time left we have on to be on the past and not on the present. We have decided on this because, if we were to continue on our film, we believe that explaining the backstory from the very start would help the storyline of the film. Also, putting the flashback at the beginning gives us more time to tell the story we want to tell in the short amount of time that we have.

 I found a great article that talks about what we want to do on our scene and it was very helpful in guiding us to decide on what we want. Lawrence of Arabia is the film talked about in this article that begins with a scene and then transitions into a flashback, even though this flashback was not our favorite as it's not going to the past but instead to the present, it was very helpful to check it out.


Opening Scene article
Lawrence of Arabia

Flashbacks

 Group: Artur, Alejandro, Dio

 So I've been researching the do's and dont's of flashbacks in films. Many articles highlight the same details, such as, "don't interrupt the film." or, "don't make them too repetitive." However, I think I found a great auricle that lists very helpful ideas and examples of great flashbacks (I'll put the link below if you want to check it out) that we can really benefit from. The article states that we must make sure that we don't interrupt the flow of the film, therefore, I want to make sure that we build up to the flashback and instead of interrupting the story, it creates it.
 
   I've been thinking about how we should cause the flashback, for example, in Casablanca, the character is sitting alone with music in the background when the camera zooms in to his face and into the flashback. Even though many films use this method of a couple of seconds of silence and then zooming into the face and into the flashback, I believe that we should take another route. I had the idea in class of someone saying something like,  "Can you hold this?" to the character, which would create a flashback of a similar question asked to him when at war, however, this was simply just an idea and no set plan has been decided on yet. I believe that we shouldn't use the traditional way because I think we can lead it into more by going the other way, however, we'll just have to wait and see.


Flashback examples article
Casablanca Flashback
Flashback suggestions article

Location scouting

Group: Artur, Alejandro, Dio

  For this research, I have been looking into another film that uses a flashback to progress the story. In this case, It was Forrest Gump, the flashback is used on the bench scene bringing back Forrest to the doctors office when he was a young child. Even though the flashback was not related to war at all, it was very helpful to see. During the scene, leading up to the flashback, the camera angle shifts from a two-shot into a close up of Forrest's face. Forrest sequined and showed a face of fear while this was occurring. I believe that this was done in order to highlight the negative of these flashbacks. We want to make sure that our flashback highlights the negative and not the bad. Furthermore, we have more insight on the shot and the facial expressions that should be used leading up to the flashback.

 Furthermore, this film also gave us insight on location for our film. After watching a war scene during the film, I noticed that it was shot in something that seems like a jungle. I have been thinking and I think that I have two very goof locations that can be used as a filming location for our film. My first idea was Vista View Park, however, after thinking about it, I realized that there isn't many trees or bushy locations at that park. I believe that Markham park, however, would be absolutely perfect for what we want to accomplish. Markham Park has a section that is meant for wilderness walks and it can closely resemble a battery field. Because the battle scene will be pretty much the most important scene of the film, the location must be absolutely perfect and I think that Markham Park will be more than enough.


Flashback
Battle Scene

Markham Park, Weston, Fl.

UPDATE POST!

Group: Alejandro, Artur, Dio

   I have been doing much more preparation in order to better prepare myself for our initial filming days. As I've come to find out, flashbacks are a function of a character, not of a story.  "Waldo Salt, great screenwriter of Coming Home and Midnight Cowboy, told me that he thought a flashback should be thought of as a "flashpresent," because the visual image we're seeing is what the character is thinking and feeling at that present moment, whether a memory, or fantasy, or event; a flashpresent, he remarked, is anything that illuminates a character's point of view." As stated by Salt, we have to focus on making the flashback as relatable as possible with the character. Our flashback will be used to show and to give an insight on the life and story of the character.
   
   I was analyzing the opening scene leading to the flashback in the film Saving Private Ryan and have talked about it with my group. The film uses an extreme close up of the characters face in order to build up to the flashback and we think we can, without copying them, do something similar that would hopefully work just as well. Furthermore, we have decided that we will be focusing on a war veteran, however, it will not be a World War veteran. We want the actor to be young, approximately 30 years old. Our plan is to use my brother as the actor and he would be the main character.






IMDB

Saving Private Ryan opening scene