Critical Reflection

 The idea for the project “Band Together” really did not come to me instantly. My first thought was to create a documentary about a company that my mom is a large part of and helped put on the map. Then it transitioned to more about my mother’s career as a whole and the multiple jobs she has. The main problem with this was that my mother works a lot with kids, especially those who have autism or other learning disabilities, so the process of getting b-roll would prove very difficult and, to me, a little unethical to use them and their lessons.

The idea for this one hit me pretty randomly and to be honest, I cannot remember where it originally came from. I knew once the documentary would not work, I wanted to do film promotion just because that was our most recent unit up to the point of beginning this project, I also did not want to create a full story. I like the magic of trailers because they make audiences create their own narratives rather than get a complete story out of what I produce.

The project represents a couple different groups. One group that is represented on the surface level is the Latin community through the casting. Everyone, from the main character to the slightly featured ones in the trailers, is of Latin descent, but I do not have anything explicitly representing those groups. The main group that I feel I am representing is a group of struggling musicians. Music is one of the most difficult fields to go into because it is highly competitive and is based very heavily on the opinions of others. These trailers are able to demonstrate these struggles by showing the struggle of finding a proper venue to perform at. Anything they find just does not work out for them, and this displays how difficult it is to start a band from nothing.
Another thing that I attempted to represent is the sacrifices and internal struggle that come with pursuing dreams. The main character, Jonathan, is a very talented musician; however, his friends are not. He thinks that he can do it alone, but he has issues leaving his friends behind in the process. He learns about the sacrifices that must be made when things fail and needs to learn how to balance his career and his own life.

For the branding, I used the look of the classic angsty teenage band in their parent’s garage to dictate the beginning of the trailers. I drew some inspiration from the band “Loded Diper” from the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” films. Their rundown, unprofessional setup was exactly what I had in mind for the characters in my trailer, and I tried to create something similar.

The main purpose of these trailers is to be funny, and that was my main focus. Most of the writing and cut scenes were dictated by what I believed to be the jokes that would translate best to audiences. The branding was to create a very laid-back, inexperienced group that consistently crumbles. Simplicity was key, as I wanted the main focus to be writing and comedy. 

The heavy focus on comedy and the style of comedy, which admittedly is a little immature, is the way I plan on engaging with audiences. The target audience is young adult men because of its R-rating, but mostly because of its story and humor. The characters also reflect this, as they are also young adults and can have a relatability factor to them.

I felt as though I challenged the conventions of a regular comedy film by including challenges that the characters go through. I think that with these challenges, these characters are more fully developed, and the story focuses on not only the plot in the comedy but also the characters themselves. I also think that the story challenges conventions by being a very touching story about friendship and the importance of following your dreams. 

The print component of my film was an easier part of the process to put together. Everything, from the image to the font, had its purpose. The image was a clear display of the branding of this film. It is an image of the band messing up, as is what they very commonly do. It took a couple takes, but eventually I got the perfect shot. 

For the background, many comedy movies will use something blank or less distracting to have the subjects really pull focus. With a simple blue background, people’s attention will be diverted toward what the subjects are doing. The background is also meant to be more lighthearted and reflect the comedy and friendship aspects of the film. 

The font fulfills a similar purpose. It has the rock-and-roll feeling while being clear and a little roughed up, which is similar to the band itself. The design and color of the font also allowed for the bit of crossing out the four and instead writing three easier and translating better to audiences.

The Instagram is also reflective of the group. For my “Meet the Cast” post, I had asked the group to send me both nice photos of them, as well as some more casual and humorous ones. With each “Meet the Cast” comes a following post with my favorite blooper while filming. This is what I wanted to do to engage audiences. When a production posts bloopers, people want to watch more and find out what those will lead to. They also create a personal connection with audiences and make the characters feel more relatable.

Overall, the portfolio project never fails to stress me out. It was a big task to take on by myself, but with the support of cast mates and friends you realize that it can be done if it is taken day by day. Looking back, I wish I had more innovative ideas for the social media, but I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do.

Finished Components

 VIDEO COMPONENT

Trailer #1

Trailer #2

PRINT COMPONENT

DIGITAL COMPONENT

Instagram

YouTube

Post-Production Process

 

The post-production process for the two trailers was one of the more convenient ones that I had ever experienced. It seemed like after filming wrapped, all the stars aligned and made the editing process quick and simple. The fact that I had everything mapped out and storyboarded made the process one that was just cutting, inserting, and audio correcting. I also found myself going overtime with both. To fix it, I had to cut out some of the unnecessary clips to get under the time while making sure that it looks almost as nice as I predicted in my head. The overall execution was exactly how I planned. 

Something that proved to be a little difficult was choosing which portions of my friend Chris' song "Home" to cut and put in place. I had to coordinate the specific shots and specific areas of the song that I felt best fit the feeling of the trailer and would connect strongest with audiences. It cuts a lot, but I feel as though it is purposeful and is a strong aspect of the final moments of the first trailer. 

Music

 It is common practice that a trailer uses some kind of music in the background to create a feeling and further develop the plot.

For my trailers the background music was more alternative rock style because of the rock band plotline. It took me a while to find ones subtle enough so that I could use them in my trailers and here are the two I used:

These two create the subtle feeling that I was attempting to get when including these two in the trailers. It fits well into the background and matches the pacing of the trailers.

As for this song:

This song was written and performed by a friend of mine Christopher Moody. I met him through theatre and he even played lead guitar in a production that I was in. He had released this song on December 5th, 2023 and I immediately thought of how I could create something around it. I thought of doing a music video, but I did not want to tell a complete story so a trailer felt best.

The song is the song Jonathan writes on the side that creates his internal conflict and the lyrics really reflect that. It is an emotional song that I feel accurately represents how Jonathan is feeling about himself and his situation in life and with his band. 

Print Component

 

Here is the Print Component for my film promo, the film's poster for theatrical release. There was a lot of thought that went into creating this poster. 

The first thing I would like to discuss is the font. At first I wanted to find some font that looks similar to that of the band "Metallica." For Canva, the platform I used to put this poster together, I could not find anything very similar without it being too big or just not fitting well. That's when I decided on the one that you see. It has the rock-and-roll feeling while being clear and a little roughed up which is similar to the band itself. 

The composition is also inspired by common comedy movie posters. Many will a simple or nothing going on in the background and have their main characters in a funny pose that fits the film's plot and genre. I tried this myself by having the group mess up, something they commonly do, and have that be the basis of the poster. The other characters are reacting to this happening and this creates a funny scene within the poster.

I used the idea that I discussed Miguel suggested by doing a very homemade looking scratch out of the four and the writing of three above it. I did this so that it looked as if one of them did on the poster. It looks like they told the people making the poster to do something, but then had to go back and change it themselves because one of the members quit. 

 

Group Meeting 2

 Today, April 2nd, we had our second group meeting. In this one we discussed a lot on the next common theme that a few of us are having trouble with.

The social media pages are something that a few of us were struggling with. The main issue we have is just deciding on what to post. At least for me, I find it difficult to come up with something that is not just a "Meet the Cast" or bloopers post. Miguel recommended that I post some bloopers with the rest of the cast posts on the Instagram account. With that in mind I came up with an idea to introduce each cast member with their full name, character name, and photos of them first and then after introducing each member.

Another great idea I thought Miguel gave me was to cross out four in the tagline. The tagline for "Band Together" is "One Band, Four Members... Zero Talent," but I had to write in one of the members quitting because he had conflicts for the day the rest of the cast was available. I thought this was hilarious as it had the feeling of very sloppy and homemade which is the idea that I wanted to come across for the band. Just unorganized and crazy. However, I decided to keep it in the trailer as the person quitting is shown quitting in the first trailer and I wanted to maintain continuity with the graphics of the two trailers. 

After we discussed some of the other group members social media I showed the group a rough draft of my second trailer. There were still some issues with sound and connecting footage with graphics, but they enjoyed it (even though they couldn't really hear.) They gave me a lot of praise and they explained how everything came across rather well. There were some filming issues with overexposure, but apart from that they seemed to like what I showed them. 

Casting Concerns

My casting had originally been perfect and everyone was able to show up to the first day of production. The only issue was spring break and with that comes conflicts. One of my cast members did not know before production began that he was going out of town and was leaving Wednesday morning. 

This would not normally be an issue except for the fact that one of my cast members works weekdays from 8:00-5:00 and there would not be enough time to film while there was still daylight. Another conflict was another cast member was leaving the Thursday we left for spring break and was only returning Wednesday evening the next week. 

This led me to have to adapt and work around the issues by writing in the character of Will quitting the band and including it in one of my trailers. While I do not think it is the best fit, I felt I had to include some context as to why he is not appearing in the rest of the trailer.

To work around this on the morning of Tuesday March 26th the person playing Will came to my house and we filmed him quitting the group. The next time production began which was Thursday I filmed around his quitting and added some reactions from the main character Jonathan. Even though it is a bit awkward due to the use of different equipment and the actors were not able to play off of each other as well, I think that I skillfully worked around the conflicts of the group and produced good context for his leaving.