Menace: Issues

 I work on Fridays and this has provided me with an issue for today. We were supposed to film a bit Friday and a bit Saturday, with Friday's shoot happening after I got home from work. Regrettably, that just didn't happen. For reasons outside my control our kitchen(I work at an Italian restaurant in the pizza kitchen) was much busier than usual and I was forced to stay a lot later then I usually do because we were so backed up in the kitchen. Thus the plans I had for this weekend have been pushed back as times have not worked out. Even now as I type out this blog post I feel terribly because I was planning on shooting earlier this year, with Spring Break(none of my guys are gone) as a time for reshoots and finalizing everything before I submitted the project. That's just not happening and it looks like I'm going to have to scramble to get more shooting done over break than anticipated. To prepare for that I'll spend class finalizing a storyboard for both trailers and I will send it to my actors so they know exactly what to expect and when, so I can get dialogue and voiceovers done as early as possible. This weekend will have to focus on what I already have and there will just be less time to film. Disappointing but something we can work around.

Menace: Filming

    This weekend is my initial film weekend. I have secured two of my actors and will start filming this Saturday. There are a few things I want to work on but the villain is my concern. Morris Ferrero must be someone intimidating. Someone who does crazy things but with a calm sort of arrogance. He must be put together in every sense of the word. So I think most of this weekend's filming is going to be figuring out what works, what doesn't, and how I can improve from there. 

There isn't much else to report aside from costumes. I plan on having my actor for Morris wear a dark grey dress shirt with darker 'jeans' to emphasize a casual yet practical look that still conveys class. Ive regrettably had to recast Morris, but I think my friend Tic Tac will do a much better job with the character, and he's been psyching himself up to emulate the overall calm that I'm going for. The villain has gained a sort of Gustavo Fring style to it, with the ruthless composure of someone who knows that they will do terrible things and who has no qualms about doing so. 

Morris also matches Fring in costume(although is much less formally dressed) and I think taking inspiration from this Breaking Bad villain will help push some of the dialogue I was working with earlier. 

Menace: Social Media

 I have started thinking about various ways to start a social media page. I took notes from a small lecture in class and plan on using those notes as something to base the account off of. I jotted these down quickly on what I need to do and spur of the moment ideas that I have.

There are various ways for people to look at how best to explore their social media growth and my focus will be on case studies that I have already taken stylistic and visual inspiration from. Accounts such as the one promoting the latest Batman film are recent and will be very prominent in this piece, because not only is the account extremely new, but also because it matches visually to the type of aesthetic that I'm trying to replicate(I'm thinking however, of leaning into blues instead of reds). 

There are a few cool ideas I have for posts, some of which are hinted at the small amount of notes to the left. The signed mask is one that I think would look/be cool to have as an auction item. The mask is one of the iconic pieces of the film and I think that there is something cool about an auction or event centered around the mask. Another thing I want to look into is teasers, because as mentioned previously I had an initial script for a teaser, and now I want to actually film that section of the teaser and have it as one of my online posts. Once I get out of school and Instagram is unblocked I will create the page and make the first post, which will just be an image of the mask by itself. This image will establish not only the logo, but will also hint at teasers and other content to come. 

Menace: The Plot/Structure For Trailers

 I’ll be story boarding the trailer in class on Monday but I have at least  an outline for where I want the plot to go. There needs to be an establishment of who the character is, something that indicates what kind of ‘hero’ we’re dealing with. There are two ways I could go about it. The first is a radio broadcast that starts talking about the hero in the third person, discussing their violent and frequent run ins with various criminal elements. The second is to show it in the opening of the trailer. I’m leaning towards the second and using other closeups to showcase some of the darker themes or traits. As far as story structure the trailer will follow this pattern. 

1. Establishment with the main character in a situation where they are able to go about solving the problem. The example that comes to mind right away is stopping a break in or a drug deal, which would be easier to shoot in residential areas near my home. 

2. Introduction to the character’s conflict, where they refuse to kill anyone. This can be done with voiceovers about not crossing lines, or by having them listen to broadcasts about their work. 

3. The challenge. This will present itself as the villain, who I have decided to name Morris Ferrero, whose name is rooted in the Latin word for death(Morten) and ‘ferre’ which means to bring, so his name awkwardly translates to Bringer of Death. The villain will be shown escaping from prison(or still in prison), speaking to the hero about how their system is ineffective

4. Action while voiceover continues. There needs to be action to fill the space in time and having snippets of the main antagonist or protagonist going to blows is needed. There will also be shots of the hero doing hero work or on the chase, as music builds and the verbal challenge continues.

5. The voiceover will climax with the music with some kind of revelation and the rest of the trailer is hero struggling, losing, and being forced to reconsider their options. 

6. Not sure what I will use for font or color for key art, but I’m leaning towards a few scary or dramatic fonts that will abruptly slam onto a black screen. 

I’m thinking of having a villain trailer and a hero trailer, where one is the focus of each, but I know the hero trailer will focus on this kind of structure. 

Menace: Batman Breakdown

 I've seen the latest Batman film. And I have so many things to break down. Here's just a massive list of things I liked and didn't based on mental notes I took tonight

• There are a lot of shots that are placed with an extreme focal length, with the camera showing a limited perspective. The extra focus was something that added to the ambiance of a lot of the scenes, however, at times it was a little hard to see certain things because the focal length almost felt like something that was off or wrong. 
• There were quite a few times where because the scenes were so dark, lens flares were a little excessive and overused. 
• There were a few overhead shots, such as the one from the trailer with Batman using the flare, as well as a scene at the beginning of the movie before the mayor is killed.
• The color scheme was also perfect. The Iceberg lounge is always full of red flares and strobe lights, the scene depicted above where Batman’s flare is the only source of light, and other masterful use of lighting makes the hero actually feel scary.
• There are a lot of closeups to emphasize people with terror or brute strength, and even in masks there are scenes that feel more terrifying because of the closeups that were chosen.
• His fights are fantastic and sets a high bar if I want to replicate any of it. That’s it. The fights were pretty perfect.
• The darkness and use of shadows was perfect as well, with Batman quite literally walking out of the shadows on multiple occasions. 
• The voiceover work was good, with Batman reading over his diary throughout the film. 

Overall the piece was a masterpiece and I loved it. There are a lot of things I can take from it to improve my own production. 

Menace: Props and Making Them Realistic

     Very exciting news: I have ninja stars! A friend of mine is extremely good at doing origami and I have moved towards making sure that all of my props look/feel realistic. This was something I struggled with a bit last year with the newspaper, and the fact that I’ve already secured a ‘realistic’ and plausible weapon is something that I think would work well. I plan on using these paper folds not in combat(because I have not choreographed anything yet) but as something to place near the hero when the opening to the first trailer appears. I’ve since learned how to make these and I currently have a couple in my possession. 

    This link has a great tutorial for the stars I’m currently working with that look like tiny buzz saws, something that matches the aesthetic and style of the hero I’m trying to build. I think it’s a really cool prop to toy with and one that makes people uneasy(a girl I know said I scared her while I was messing with one, just tossing it around)

    This brings forth my next big prop. I want the first trailer to open with the hero sitting at a disheveled desk, scrolling through police chatter until he finds someone discussing an ongoing crime. I have a friend who is willing to let me use their garage as the location for this segment, and I think that there is a high likelihood that I could set up something that looks feasibly like a vigilante’s ‘home base’. 

    

So this is the radio I’m talking about. Finding extra wires and making it look like a disheveled mess is easy(I’m not going to send a picture of my room for proof), and I think that if I play with the sound design and camera angles properly, I have a serious setup on my hand. I’m looking forward to shooting the opening of the first trailer soon, and I’ve started compiling other resources to make sure this part of the production works. 

Menace: I Can't Help Being Poetic with Dialogue

     Very recently I've been seeing news about this new game titled 'Elden Ring'. I watched the opening cutscene while my friend played it the other day and it made me realize something. I need dialogue/voiceover work for the trailers. Now before I knew what the project entailed I had an idea for a teaser voiceover that would convey darkness and ferocity. It went:

"Everyone fears the monsters in the dark alleys...The monsters lurking under their beds... The monsters that lie in their closet. But no one ever fears the monster that lives inside them."

It felt appropriate, given that the main character struggles with the possibility that they may have to kill the villain or cross lines they didn't think they could, thus hinting at the 'monster' that they had yet to release or that they feared releasing. It was an interesting bit of dialogue and that's where Elden Ring comes in. Here's the cinematic for reference. It feels like a trailer of sorts which is interesting considering it opens the game. 

It's very dramatic, but there are a few takeaways from it. One, that huskiness in someone's voice is haunting without effort, so I need to find someone who can do this with their voice because I love the sound of it. The second is that music is a must for these types of things and that I need to build music that rises as the tension does. Fortunately, I already have a list of dialogue snippets that I think would fit for this particular project, things that could be said as voiceovers that could come off as cheesy if they're done incorrectly but that could really hit if done properly. I'm going to see the new Batman this weekend but the trailer for that film does something similar with the Riddler, and I'm curious to see how it plays out. 

 But here are some of the snippets(the script hasn't been done yet but I'll work on storyboarding/scripting this weekend)

Potential villain lines:

"You're just a cat chasing rats. We scurry away the first time, but you'll never get rid of the pack,"

"Heroes are supposed to be shining warriors of light but you're in the dark just like the rest of us"

"Telling people to stay down doesn't work. You have to make sure they can never get back up,"

"You're not fixing the problem, just patching holes until they break open again,"

"If the system works, why do the police need you to do their job?"

Potential hero lines(it's hard to come up with cool hero stuff):

"I'm not going to kill you, because that would make us the same. I'll just make sure you don't come back for another round"

"The mask shouldn't mean anything to anybody. I'm just someone who doesn't want to watch people suffer"