Overall Plot

 First, I would like to disregard something in my last blog post. I do not think that my film promotion project would fall under the coming of age genre. This is because I want my characters to already be of age. I still want them to be teenagers, but I do not think that I want them to be younger and growing up. I want my main character to go on a journey of self-discovery, but not in the way that coming of age films do.

Now, onto the plot:

Recent high school graduate, Jonathan, plans to begin his career as a musician. He is in a band (something Strings) with three of his good friends from school. The only issue is his friends are kind of the worst musicians ever. His friends sense Jonathan's growing frustrations with the band so they suggest going on tour. While on their way to their first venue they make a couple stops and get in some trouble. Once all of that has passed they make it to their venue and it is not at all what the others expected. Jonathan reaches his breaking point and blows up on the group going home on his own. While ordering his ride he realizes that he is broke. He sees someone playing a drum and making money. He asks the guy to take his place and sits down with his guitar and begins playing his song realizing that this is what he is meant to do.

Right now this is a basic outline. It will take more research and planning for what will happen during and in between each of these scenes. This also is not a full movie on its own yet and there is more detail and thought that I need to add to this very basic idea for the film.

Final Decision

I have decided for my A-Level portfolio that I will be doing a film promotion package. This would entail the creation of two full-length trailers, a full social media page, and the creation of a movie poster. I thought that this would be a good choice because it was the project we most recently did as a class, and I feel as though that is something I would enjoy doing again. I like the aspect of trailers that you get to reveal smaller parts of a larger scheme. It makes the audience create predictions subconsciously when the creator really knows what things lead up to. 

My film would fall under the comedy genre with hints of coming of age and drama in it, but very lightly. The story would mainly follow a talented artist in a band with a couple of his friends but he is the only one who is a good musician. His friends convince him to go on a road trip as a band to the music capital of the world: Nashville. While on the trip they get into a couple different troubling situations that lead the main character to question whether this is the right dream for him and why he ever agreed to do this in the first place. It is a story of learning about one's self while life keeps throwing challenge after challenge at you.

With this basic idea for plot I can begin to come up with scenes and how I want the overall structure of the film's trailers to look like. I think that while it may be difficult to work out many aspects of the film there should not be too much difficulty in the production and post-production process because of my vision for the project. 

My Project Timeline

 Week One (2/12-2/18): 

• Decide which project I will be doing
• Come up with ideas for the film's full plot
• Create a planned timeline for the project

Week Two (2/19-2/25)

• Begin the storyboarding process
• Continue the research of the genre
• Finalize ideas

Week Three (2/26-3/3)

• Continue planning process/research
• Create dialogue/script
• Create the social media pages

Week Four (3/4-3/10)

• Begin posting to social media pages
• Recruit actors
• Reserve location, equipment
• Begin production

Week Five (3/11-3/17)

• Finish up production
• Post on social media
• Document production process

Week Six (3/18-3/24)

• Begin the post-production process
• Document any problems that come up
• Continue to promote on the social media pages

Week Seven (3/25-3/31)

• Complete post-production process
• Document post-production
• Release one product on social media and blog

Week Eight (4/1-4/7)

• Finish up video component completely 
• Research/create final reflection
• Wrap up posting on social media

Week Nine (4/8-4/10)

• Final postings on blog
• Reflect on blog

Transition Into the Final Project of A Level

 After our first few projects, most recently practicing film distribution by creating a distribution package for a pre-written story, it is time to transition to the final project. Similar to the one from last year, I will be documenting and blogging the events of my Portfolio Project. The upcoming blog posts will focus on what style I decide for my project.

As of right now, I am still undecided. I think that the two options that resonate with me most are the Film Promotion and Documentary. There are many things that come into play when deciding between these two options. 

For a Film Promotion project, I have just done one and I know strategies that could benefit me and make the process easier. The main issue that is presented with doing Film Promotion is that I would have to come up with my own individual concept. Unlike the practice where I was given the plot, characters, genre, and many things necessary to create a distribution plan and trailers, I would have to think of all these aspects myself and come up with my own vision and idea.

I have already done a documentary too, but coming up with a concept for another one would prove to be difficult. Another difficulty is the constraints of the project. The time needing to be around five minutes makes it difficult to create something that is only a section of something else. Normally, you would want a shorter amount of time to create more room to tease the rest of the documentary. It also must be episodic so I would need to come up with an overarching theme for an episodic series. On the other hand, there is some kind of freedom with being able to choose the concept and what section of the episode the five minute segment is from.