Saturday, March 31, 2018

Difficulty of Some Shots

Alright, so we finished the rest of filming for the scene of our main protagonist running and then getting injured on the track. Overall, I think that all the shots that we have are pretty good. Farjad and I decided on a new shot of the injury instead of the long shot, which I think helps the viewers to connect with our main character. However, some of our shots required us to get close to the main protagonist while he was running, while trying to keep the camera as stable as possible. Naturally this was extremely hard to do because when you move quickly, the camera will always shake.

The shaking effect was probably the worst with the shot of our main protagonist running at the camera. First, I had to tell our actor to run, but as slowly as possible because I would be backpedalling in front of him. Farjad and I took turns trying to find the best way to take this shot, and one of the methods that Farjad thought might work was if we held the camera in front of our actor's face and ran beside him. This turned out to be worse than the backpedalling method, as not only was it more shaky, but when we were running the camera would start to tilt to the side, ruining the shot. As of now, we're using the backpedalling method for this shot , but later on we might want to figure out another way to get this, maybe by filming while on a bike or something.


Wednesday, March 28, 2018

We Started Filming

Alright, so for our project, Farjad and I were planning on filming the part of the opening with the track at our school, Cypress Bay High School. However, when we got there, it was under construction and we couldn't go on it at all. We both knew it was under construction, but we both heard that it would be finished before spring break. This was a problem for us because we made our storyboard with the mindset that we'd be able to film on the Cypress Bay. For example, the establishing shot was going to be an extreme long shot and we were going to take it from on top of the "home" bleachers, but now we had to change it.

After Farjad and I got to the Cypress track and realized that we couldn't go on it, we decided to go to the track at Tequesta Trace Park. This track wasn't at a school so there were only small bleachers, which wouldn't work for our shots. Also, the track had no lines or rubber on it, which took away from the feeling that our main protagonist was in high school and on the track team.

Once we figured out that the Tequesta track wouldn't work either, Farjad and I agreed on going to the track at West Broward High School. This track was much better than the one at Tequesta and we could actually go on it unlike the one at Cypress Bay. This track also had bleachers that were bigger than the ones at Tequesta, although they weren't quite the same as Cypress Bay's we still got our establishing shot and it looks pretty good. We're definitely using this track for the rest of our film opening.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Title of the Film Opening

Now that the storyboard is finished for the film opening, it's time to move on to creating some various details of the opening, like a name for the main protagonist and the title. Right now, Farjad and I came up with a title for the opening that we think is great, it's called "Redemption." I think that this title suits the film opening really well as the word redemption basically means to get something back again. In the case of the film opening, our main protagonist is getting back to the athletic form that he was once at before his horrible injury.

While looking up the word "redemption," I found out that there was a recently released movie also called "Redemption" in 2013. I was wondering if movies could share the same name if they were completely unrelated to each other, so did some research on it. An article written by Jonathan Handel (you can read it here) explains how a movie title can be the same if the it the title is one word or relatively short, such as "Gravity." However, if a movie has a title like "Harry Potter" or "Star Wars" and is completely unrelated to the actual "Harry Potter" or "Star Wars," the maker of the movie will most likely get sued with the claim that they are using a well established brand to "piggy-back" off of their success and cause consumer confusion. I believe that having redemption as our title wouldn't be really intrusive on the other film called "Redemption" because its a one-word title and isn't an established brand like "Harry Potter" or "Star Wars."

Works Cited



  1. Handel, J. (2014, August 13). Trademarking Movie Titles. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from http://www.jhandel.com/news/2014/8/13/trademarking-movie-titles

Sunday, March 18, 2018

New Ideas from Classmates

On Friday, my teacher put us in groups to get feedback on our projects so far. My group members gave me some pretty good ideas and I think that I'm going to incorporate them in the film opening. All of their suggestions I think will help the film opening to become more enticing to the audience, but there were two that really stood out to me.

The first suggestion was to not show the shot of the main protagonist getting injured, and instead show an extreme long shot of a silhouette of the protagonist getting injured and falling down. I like this suggestion as it adds to the mystery of what the injury actually is how severe it's going to be. It ties in with the what the sports TV show talks about too because the hosts are going to be discussing what might be be the cause and the severity of the injury. Also, I'm going to have to update the storyboard to show the new shot of the main protagonist getting injured.

The second suggestion was to have some diegetic sound when the main protagonist is practicing during the flashback. I think that it would be cool to have the noise of footsteps running on the track, engine noises from cars in the distance, heavy breathing from the runner, and more. I also thought that maybe including like a heartbeat sound effect that is mixed in with the diegetic sound playing while he practices.

Overall, these two suggestions could really help the project improve and I don't think that they would be that bard to include when filming and editing the opening.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Film Opening Storyboard Part 2

Ok so now Farjad and I finished part 2 of the storyboard which means that its all done. In total, we used 13 notecards for the storyboard, with 8 notecards for the flashback sequence and 5 notecards for the moment when the film opening switches to present day. I think that its a pretty good storyboard and both Farjad and I have a clear understanding of what the film opening is going to be on. The picture is kind of blurry again so I'm just going to explain notecards 9 through 13 as the previous ones I've explained in my last post.

The camera just switched from the view of the runner in pain after getting injured, to a close up shot of him in the dark laying on a couch. The audience can see the light from the TV reflecting off his face as well. The next shot is one of the injury, as the camera shows his leg (either in a cast or a boot) reclined up in the air. Now an over the shoulder shot is going to be shown. The audience will be able to see the back of his head and the back of the couch, while some of the TV is shown, too. Then, a shot of the actual TV show will be shown. The TV show will have two hosts discussing how severe the injury to the runner is. Finally, the last shot of the film opening will be a graphic listing all of the runner's accomplishments shown on the TV show. It'll include things like his recruiting rank, scholarships, and records that he holds. After this, the film opening is going to end. I think that it'll be around two minutes, but Farjad and I can definitely put something in or take something out to get it closer to the 2 minute timeframe.


Thursday, March 15, 2018

Film Opening Storyboard Part 1

So Farjad and I decided to now create the storyboard for the opening. So far, we only have the first half of the opening done, which includes the beginning of the opening up until the moment the main protagonist gets injured. We put the shots that we're going to have shown in the opening on notecards because it seemed like the easiest way to make the storyboard. I also put a picture below of all the notecards that we've done so far, but the photo is pretty blurry so I'm going to explain it too.

The opening starts with the production company being shown, then it slowly fades from black to an establishing shot of a figure running around a track around the evening time. The next shot has the camera on the ground and facing the straight-away with nothing in sight except for the track. Then, the figure passes right in front of the camera, as if the figure just stepped over it. A medium shot of the side profile of the runner's face while he is running is now shown. The camera follows his face as he runs and the bleachers and trees can be seen in the background as they pass by. Next, is a point of view shot with the runner and the only thing seen on the screen is the ground, the runner's arms, and the runner's legs moving very quickly. The camera shifts to see a medium shot of the runner again, except now his face is seen head-on. We want this shot to demonstrate how hard the runner is working by showing the sweat dripping down and a tired, but determined look on his face. This next shot is when the runner gets injured. The camera is only showing his lower body and then all of a sudden he seems bend his leg in a weird way causing him to fall down. Now the final shot of this sequence is shown and it shows the runner holding his leg through a long shot with a painful look on his face.

The second part of the storyboard is going to switch from the flashback of the moment he got injured, to the present day. Hopefully I'll be able to get part 2 of the storyboard up by tomorrow.





Sunday, March 11, 2018

More Info on the Faux Sports TV Show Idea

In my previous post I talked about how Farjad and I wanted to change the sports radio broadcast portion in our original outline of the opening to a sports TV show instead. I really like this idea because I actually think that it'll be easier to make than the radio broadcast. I was imagining that the TV show would be set up to model sports news shows like "First Take" and "SportsCenter." I think that this would be a better idea than the sports radio broadcast because it would reinforce the audience's thought that the main protagonist was an amazing athlete and one of the top recruits in the whole nation. Also, I feel more people want to watch sports TV shows than listen to sports radio broadcasts, so that means the audience may connect more with the film opening when it has a sports TV show, which is beneficial to our opening's success.

I know someone who has a green screen room in their house and if they let me use it for our film opening I really don't think that it would be too hard to make a fake sports TV show since the only that's needed is a table and a couple of actors to play the role of the hosts. To me, the hardest part would probably be making the graphics that describe the main protagonist's accomplishments because I have no experience in making them before. However, I doubt that making the graphics would actually be that hard because I'm pretty sure that I could make them in most editing softwares.


"SportsCenter"
"First Take"














  1. McCarthy, M. (2016, December 15). Stephen A. Smith opens up on Skip Bayless, new-look 'First Take' and why he yells. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.sportingnews.com/other-sports/news/stephen-a-smith-max-kellerman-interview-first-take-espn2-espn-undisputed-fs1-skip-bayless/12m8vfse87d0k1qw8d0ipo16ba
  2. Cheredar, T. (2013, January 23). Ooyala's new Twitter Card support turns your Twitter feed into ESPN SportsCenter. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://venturebeat.com/2013/01/23/espn-ooyala-twitter-card-api/

Friday, March 9, 2018

Revised Outline for the Opening

Alright so Farjad and I decided to revise the opening a little bit. We created somewhat of an outline for it on paper (which I included below) but I still want to explain it in more detail because it is just a “bare-bones” outline of the opening.

The revised opening starts out the same way as before, with the protagonist practicing running on the track. Only now the protagonist is narrating, although the audience doesn’t know it yet. The narrator is talking about all of this athlete’s accomplishments; awards, school records, recruiting rank, scholarships to prestigious universities, etc. Then, all of a sudden, the athlete seems to go down with a gruesome injury and the flashback along with the narration ends. It now shows that the athlete is watching TV in a dark room with the light from the TV shining on his face. The camera then shows the boot on the same leg that he injured in the flashback. Now, the TV channel is the only thing being shown and seen by the audience. The TV channel is a sports station that has two hosts which are talking about the protagonist and on the side of the TV is a graphic of his accomplishments along with a picture of him. The TV hosts reveal what the injury is, the fates of the other star athletes who dealt with the same injury as the protagonist (the other athletes had to quit the sport forever because of the injury), and the odds of the protagonist returning back to his normal form. After that, the opening ends.

The biggest thing missing from this revised outline the radio station in the car ride. Farjad and I thought that the radio part was unnecessary since the the TV basically did the exact same thing later on in the opening. We also think that this outline would make the opening shorter and now it’ll probably fit into the specified timeframe, unlike the last one. Overall, I think this outline is an improvement from the last one we made up in my previous post, so I want to run with this.


Sorry for it being a little messy (and blurry) but the actual outline is the one that isn't crossed out. 

Thursday, March 8, 2018

A Rough Draft for the Opening

In class today, Farjad and I came up with a rough draft idea for our film opening. Right now I think that there should be somethings that could be changed, but I think that this is a good basis for the plot of the film opening we’re producing.

Ok so, the opening starts out with an athlete practicing running on a track. It shows how hard he is working with his heavy breathing and sweat pouring down his face. Then, as he is running, he gets injured and falls down. A shot of the athlete riding in a car is shown, and now the audience realizes that the sequence of the athlete practicing and getting injured was just a flashback. While in the car, the radio is playing a sports channel and the broadcasters are discussing how a star athlete just recently has gotten a horrible injury, however the broadcasters never say who the athlete was. The radio continues to play until the car pulls up to the driveway and the car turns off. Then, the protagonist walks into his house goes to his room to drop off his backpack. As he walks through his room, the audience can clearly see many awards and trophies for track and field around the room. The protagonist goes to watch TV and he turns it to a sports channel and the hosts are talking about the same thing the radio broadcasters were talking about, like how good the athlete was and how the odds are against him with the injury. However, on the TV it is revealed that the main protagonist is the athlete that was talked about on the radio and TV as a picture of the protagonist is shown on screen. After its is revealed that the protagonist is the injured star athlete, the film opening ends.

Overall, there could be some things that could be changed and I also think that we might not be able to fit all of this into the two minute time frame, so we may have to cut some stuff out. Farman and I are going to see if we can revise our idea for the opening a bit.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

The Film Opening's Genre

Hey guys, sorry for the late post. So the film opening is going to have a mix of a sports (obviously) and a drama genre. Farjad and I want to the opening to keep a serious tone between the audience and our protagonist, and a drama fits this perfectly. Like I've said in my previous post, I want to include some elements from other beloved sports dramas, such as "The Blind Side," that use certain techniques to appeal to their target audience's emotions and make them feel invested in the characters and plot. Also, after watching a pretty cool TED Talk video in my class a week ago, in which a Pixar executive discussed the best ways to tell a story (you can find the video here) I feel like having a drama could add to the investment that the audience feels.

For the target audience of the film opening, I believe that it should be somewhat close to males ages 14 to 25. I wanted the audience to have this specific age group as I feel that they would be most connected to the protagonist who is in high school and trying to get to college. According to the 2016 Theatrical Market Statistics (you can find the entire review here), the top three age groups that went to the movies the most were 18-24 year olds, 12-17 year olds, and 25-39 year olds, respectively. Its is also possible that I could increase the age to maybe 30 instead of 25 as I feel that the original age group might be too exclusive. Overall, I think the genre and the audience that we've decided on fit the film opening pretty well.

Friday, March 2, 2018

The Film Opening Idea

Ok so, Farjad and I came up with a pretty good idea for the movie. We want to follow a star high school athlete that is the best in the nation in the sport that he plays. The athlete has many scholarships from many prestigious universities and his future is looking very bright. However, towards the end of the season, the athlete gets a gruesome injury that makes everyone wonder if he'll be as good as he was before, let alone if he'll ever be able to play the sport again.

For the particular sport that this athlete plays, I was thinking about having him run track and field. I run track myself so I already have a uniform for whoever plays this character. It also isn't that hard to find a track to film on incase we want to recreate our character winning many races. I have crutches, in case we want to include some shots of our athlete injured, too. Overall, there are so many ways we can take on this project and its exciting to think the different aspects that we could include in it. I'm going to see if I can research some techniques that are commonly used in the kind of film opening that Farjad and I are making.


Thursday, March 1, 2018

Welcome to my Blog!

Hey everyone, my name is Hayden Sasse and I'm in 12th grade at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Florida. I created this blog to show the process of me and my partner, Farjad Tambey, making our two minute film opening from start to finish. As of now, my partner and I don't have a specific idea that we've decided on yet, but we both want to make the opening have to do with sports since both of us are involved in them.

One of my favorite sports movies is "The Blind Side"(2009), directed by John Lee Hancock, and I would like the film opening that we create to try and imitate the intimate feeling the audience has with the main character. Another aspect of this movie that I think that we should include is either a "rise to stardom" or a "comeback story" element as it could add to the intimacy we want to the audience to feel when watching the opening, just like in "The Blind Side." However, "The Blind Side" isn't the only movie that I want to take inspiration from. "The Pursuit of Happyness"(2004), directed by Gabriele Muccino, also has that intimate factor to it, where the audience is vested in the characters throughout the ups and downs.

Tomorrow I'm going to figure out a story for the movie and then see if I can think of a film opening for it.

Citations

The Pursuit Of Happyness. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2018, from http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thepursuitofhappyness/

The Blind Side: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Lily Collins: Amazon Digital Services LLC. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Side-The-Tim-Mcgraw/dp/B0036BK6MW


My CCR

This is the final version of my CCR You can view it on Google Drive here and on YouTube here