Group Meetings and Reflection #1

     Hello there! It's another week which means there's another set of blogs. Today, I'll be discussing and reflecting upon the group meetings we held in class yesterday. The basic gist of the set-up is that we get put into groups (aside from our own) and pitch our project and film opening to them, allowing for constructive criticism and general feedback along with suggestions. I was placed in a group with Nico, Fernanda, Chandni, and Justin. I've linked their blogs to their names, so feel free to also explore their blogs! They worked hard on them and seem super passionate about what they want to incorporate into their film opening.

    To start off, I'm going to go on a tangent about my own experience doing the group meeting, and then I'll just go down the list of people I was with and how I perceived their pitches. I received a lot of great feedback, as well as suggestions I could make within my project in order to enhance the quality. Nico suggested a lot of spectacular ideas, particularly starting my opening with an establishing shot of the protagonist's room rather than starting with a dramatic black screen, and incorporate each sound effect one after the other instead of having them play all at once to build suspense rather than just throw it straight at the audience. On the other hand, Chandni suggested I add a green filter over my opening to further enhance the mise-en-scène by allowing a sense of dread to wash over the audience, and to also make it feel more psychologically thrilling/dramatic. I really liked that suggestion in particularly because I'm all about refining how things look and overall aesthetics, and I feel confident that I can accomplish it. Justin and Fernanda also threw a few ideas at me, notably about lighting and how I'd should position it, focusing on symbolics and shadows. They also asked me if the opening will take place at night or during the day.

Reference for the filter I had in mind – note the green tint and cool hues
that make the shot more 'dramatic' in a sense – picture from Breaking Bad

    Now, onto my the pitches my groupmates made; starting with Nico. Nico's film opening pitch was very detailed, and he seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do but was a little confused on exactly how to do it. His plot opened with the protagonist holding a neutral, null face in a lively and bustling restaurant/setting, completely contrasting the character's facial expression, only for all of the people and noise surrounding him to disappear into thin air. I was then told that that was a flashback, as now at this point in time, the same character is telling this story to his therapist, trying to look for a solution. That makes up most of the pitch Nico made. Suggestions I made for him to enhance the sensory aspect of it is to increase the level of the background chatter in the restaurant just before everyone disappears in order to make the silence of the scene deafening.

    When Fernanda pitched her film opening to me, I was a little confused at the plot. She's got great ideas, but she needs to work a little bit on how her major plot points happening and why exactly they're significant, because if not, then the audience will have no clue what's going on, and we're not making an entire film so the question of "what's happening and why" ought to be answered within the film opening itself, or at least work toward that direction. Her pitch was about a girl practicing for a dance competition in her room in front of her mirror, when suddenly, the window breaks, and it's a mystery. A lot of questions were left unanswered when I first heard this pitch, and when I interviewed her about these questions, I was left with a confusing impression. She's got all the right things down, but can't find the words to express those ideas. But, overall I liked what I heard. I would've liked to hear more, though.

    Then came Chandni. She was stumped on what to do originally. She's working with a partner, and they have completely different ideas on what they want to do for their film openings. I'm saying POLAR opposites. Supposedly, they had agreed to do a rom-com about a girl dreaming about her crush, only to be woken up to her sad reality, and eventually bumping into him somewhere along the way (???). I don't see the 'rom' or the 'com' in this, personally, and Chandni's tone when talking about it seemed to think the same way! I voiced my concerns about this and she initially had told me that her and her partner would do this because it's "easier" (more like her partner said that) and then after doing my own little investigations and cross-examinations, she told me about what she initially wanted to do, which sounded a lot cooler. She went on a tangent that she sounded a lot more enthusiastic about: a psychological thriller! Just like me. Her psychological thriller consisted of something to do with a shed, secret admirer, and something trippy. My memory isn't amazing but I definitely remember looking forward to it. I hope she updates me on it.

    Finally, Justin. Justin's idea for his film opening was pretty straightforward, and one of the scenes takes inspiration from Scream, specifically the scene where Ghostface calls his victims before killing them. The scene starts off with the protagonist and his girlfriend leaving a movie theater late at night, only for the protagonist to get a caller from an unknown number. Eventually, the killer kills him when he least expects it, and it's revealed that the killer and the protagonist's girlfriend were in on it, however, what confused me is here is the girlfriend's motive. Why would she want to kill her (probably) long-term boyfriend? What's the deeper meaning of the plot? There are so many questions but so few answers. I wish I could've questioned Justin more about his film opening and the plot's implications now that I'm rationalizing it.

An example of what I mean when I say the killer

in Scream  calls his victims before killing them

    Overall, I liked this set of group meetings, and look forward to the rest of them. Although this is only the first set of these kinds of meetings, I wish I was matched with a group who also had a substantial amount of plot to their openings, because in essence, a lot of the feedback I received on my opening were things I already knew were flaws, and I wish there was a little bit more of leveling when it comes to the amount of information group members have –– I think the feedback would've been a lot better if there was more matchmaking to the groups ––matchmaking in terms of putting people of similar experience/levels together and so forth––. This was great and helped me learn things I didn't know before. I enjoyed the alternate perspectives I met.