Film Opening: Character Background

 Character Background

Personality:

My character's name is Violet, she's 19 years old, attending Georgia Tech, studying computer science. She enjoys spending her time around technology. When she's not coding, she moderate's streamer chats, and when she's not doing that, she's playing video games whilst faking her identity and her gender. Growing up as a female in the gaming community, Violet would often get harassed or sabotaged in-game, because she was girl. after many awful experiences, Violet nearly gave up this hobby. Instead, she coded her own voice changer, helping her hide her true identity. Violet is logical, stubborn, witty, and tough. 

Physical Traits:

Violet is 5'2", 108 lb; she's on the smaller side. She has brown eyes and long brown hair. She wears black framed glasses. She wears comfortable clothing most of the time, cotton fabric, fluffy socks and hoodies. 

Film Opening: Mise-en-scene

 Mise-en-Scene (Set & Props)

For my set design, I will need a lot of neon LED lights as it is typical in the gaming community. I will add figures from popular games and anime. And display manga as the anime and gaming community often overlap. Most importantly I need a PC setup. For the main character's room, I want it to look comfortable and a little emotional. For this, the lighting will come in handy. 

For this design I have an LED light bulb that can change colors, RGB lighting on my PC. Another idea for lighting is using my TV, going on YouTube and using a heart tunnel video to add cool lighting or background. (I've used this once before ex. figure 1.1) Being a gamer myself has supplied me with many of the props. I have a PC setup(figure 1.2) thus, it won't be too complicated to film. I also own figures from popular video games. Using a close up on the figures will show more characteristics of the main character, by showing a hobby of theirs.  Another set of close ups on the physical game copies and manga will also help develop the characters personalty. 

figure 1.2

figure 1.1

Film Opening: Organization

 What I have So Far

Title: Violet Visions

StoryBoard:

Plotline:

Female gamer accidentally reveals her gender via blackout and software malfunction.

Song Request: 

• Visions by VALORANT (pending)
• Introvert by Rich Brian (pending)
• Last Option: simple beat a friend made.

Locations:

• My room.

Props:

• PC setup 
• Figures(anime & video games)
• Manga

 Costume:

• Cool Techwear shoes
• Shorts
• Hoodie

Editing Software:

• Adobe Premiere Pro 2023
• Adobe After Effects 2023

Time of Filming:

• Friday, March 10th, 2023

Actors:

• Mia 
• Saint
• Santos

Film Opening: Title Making

Title Making 

I've had trouble coming up with a title for my film. I will go back to my research and inspirations for my film to figure out a title.

 Falling into your smile  incorporates the main characters gamer tag, "Smiling", into the title. Whereas, Gank Your Heart, uses the gaming term "gank" in their title. These are both great ideas, yet I'm not sure those ideas would fit my film. For more inspiration I will go on Pinterest until the idea strike my brain.

It strike, I've reached my decision after listening to VALORANTS' VISIONS  on Spotify, the main character has a dream of becoming a successful streamer in a male-dominated community, thus, my film will be called Violet Visions.

VISIONS -  Spotify

VISIONS - YouTube 

Film Opening: Song Request

 Song Requesting

Ever since my brother showed me this song back in 2018, I've been attached. For my film opening, I'd like to use it. The song is called Introvert, its by Rich Brian. The song has chill vibe but with a catchy beat, perfect for people who listen to music while gaming. The song uses a little bit of explicit words but I can edit those words out, so I'm not worried. I contacted the two producers of the song, 88rising and EMPIRE, asking permission to use the song. 

There's another song, I believe fits well with the theme. The song speaks about dreams and living up to them. The song is called "VISIONS" by VALORANT, eaJ, and Safari Riot.

In the case, I don't get the permission in time or at all, I have friends who make beats and songs. I enjoy their music and believe that it can be a great match to my project. I will ask permission to use their beat in my project. 

Film Opening: Storyboard

Storyboard: 

I figured out how I wanted to represent the concept of women in the male-dominated area of video games. Thus, I started to plan the shots I wanted to use. This opening will be largely depending on close-up shots with a taste of extra wide shot and a Dutch angle. When the blackout occurs i want to use an extra wide shot to show how everything goes from darkness to booting up again. As I introduce the character to the audience, she'll be conflicted with an issue, to show that uneasiness, I want to use a Dutch angle.

Film Opening Project: Research

 For research, I watched these Asian, gaming, dramas; starting with Falling into your Smile(2021) and Gank Your Heart(2019) I noted how they represented the gaming community and the representation of women in the industry. From personal experience, as a female in a male-dominated community such as gaming, I knew first hand, how to present it in my opening. I took note of mise-en-scene elements; the set filled with RGB lighting and obviously a PC setup, two things I have readily available as a gamer myself.

I later analyzed the camera work in the dramas; extreme close-ups, especially on the eyes when the main character is staring at a screen. More close-ups on their hands as they move across a keyboard and mouse. Another shot used quite often is over-the-shoulder shot and medium-close-up shots. 

I then analyzed the editing techniques used. I saw a lot of shots cross-dissolving into another, as well as text and screen overlay. 

Film Opening Project--Reaching My Decision

     At first I had no clue what my opening was going to be about. I asked my teacher, she reminded me of my love for video games, I knew then I want to do something with gaming. I tried researching popular western film about gaming but it was no help. As cool as the concept of being trapped in a video game is, its overused in my opinion. Instead, I looked East, or west.. whatever I look towards Asia, where gaming has a popular following and where it is represented differently. Instead of films like Jumanji, we receive shows of professional E-sports players, representing the lives of real players but with a written plot. With this, I found Falling into your Smile(2021), Gank your Heart(2019),  and Go Go Squid!(2019). 

    After deciding my concept, genre, and examples, I came up with a rough draft of the plot of the opening. I wanted to point out the struggles of women in a male-dominated community, thus my main character is a girl who really enjoys video games. When she started playing, she caught a lot of attention, bad attention, because she was a girl. She decided to hide her voice and face from the internet, letting her skills speak for her. That was until she accidentally left her mic on while she was streaming; her fans had found out. 

With this information, I created a google doc to keep track of my idea and how I'll achieve it.

Music Marketing Project

 When given the genre of punk, two members with background knowledge of the subculture already knew how to portray the band. Others needed more research, and even then there needed to be some clarification of the subculture. During the research, we chose bands well known in the industry such as Destroy Boys. We studied their marketing tactics and their style that attracts listeners. 

Brainstorming and planning the band was possibly just as punk as the band, very DIY and very chaotic. The name of the band was spur of the moment and we came up with NRV. We wanted to present a band with an image that screams “I am who I am, and if that's not good enough for you then F- off.” We had members work in pairs, two on research, two on marketing with one switching and helping another with the storyline for the music video. 

Production wasn’t communicated properly, unfortunately it was too much trust on one end and not enough on the other. I worked on marketing design. I created our social media posts using Canva and tweet generators. I also made some merch for the band that correlates with the music video storyline. The music video was very rushed, I tried to get started on it before but one member couldn't make it, thus we had 15 minutes to film everything we needed. We ended up short of clips; about 12 seconds off the minimum time limit. As the editor, I did the best I could to portray the storyline and the punk characteristics, with the short clips. In the end, I decided to add some credits at the end of the video.

In post-production, we filled the presentation with similar designs. We organized who was going to present what. I would’ve appreciated it if we could’ve just presented what we worked on. This way I could go into detail about what inspired me to make the designs I made. During the presentation, I was very nervous and anxious, not for any particular reason, that is just my nature. 

Overall, I enjoyed this project but I think I could’ve done it better with proper planning or with more time. Creating the music video and editing it was fun and I enjoy doing it. With more practice and proper planning, I believe the portfolio project will be more of my better work.