Group Meeting #1

  Our teacher gathered my class into groups so that we could receive and give out constructive criticism to our peers. I got to hear about the projects that my classmates are planning on doing, and the different ways they're accomplishing it. I thoroughly enjoyed this process because everyone's ideas were unique in their own ways. I also got inspiration for ideas and it was very refreshing. Here are some of the things that my classmates shared! 

Most of them shared that their chosen genre was thriller or drama. Sebastian's idea was really interesting, he wanted to create a film opening showing this mysterious object that puts people who looks at it in a trance. I can definitely picture this taking place in a thriller/mystery film, but he shared some challenges he faced, like creating the "mystery" effect and finding a way to show the "tranced" look. Andre provided a solution to this by suggesting a fog machine, or something else that could create a smokey look. I thought this was really creative and it would work well. 

Julia wanted to create a drama film based on grief and/or loss of a loved one. However, one of her biggest challenges is discovering the plot. She was very unsure of how she wants the film to play out, so we offered her some suggestions. I remember a story from a book I read named If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin, it was about a young couple whom's love story is as complicated as their past. This relates to Julia's idea of grief because the male main character dies in a car accident, causing the female main character to feel overwhelming sadness and grief. However, she did mention that she didn't want to incorporate romance into the story, but I think that the loss of a sibling could also work well in this plot. 

When it was my turn to share my idea, I got a lot of wonderful and creative suggestions back. Even though my idea for this project isn't set in concrete, but I do know that I want to create a sci-fi film. Although no one else in my group was doing a similar genre, they were very helpful with some ideas I could include. I shared that I wanted to do something that happens in a post-apocalyptic world, with a pair of siblings living together in the natural world, trying to survive their new reality. Here are the things that I wrote down from their suggestions: 

- News flashback (to show the TV or radio broadcasting), so that the background of this new world is established. (Suggested by Juan)
- A disease (that caused the apocalypse), or a natural force (because aliens and foreign enemies are hard to create). (Suggested by Juan and Sebastian)
- Inspiration from A Quiet Place (2018), a horror/sci-fi film: starts with a quiet environment (only natural sounds, because there's little to no people around, then ends opening scene with loud sound to create suspense. (Suggested by Andres)
- Finding an old piece of newspaper on the floor while foraging for resources. Shows the title of the opening scene on the front cover of the newspaper. Burn newspaper in fire as fuel later on. (Suggested by Andre)

I love all of these ideas, and I think I'll try my best to incorporate all of them because the suggestions matched my idea very well. However, I'm not sure if I want to leave off my opening scene with a loud noise because I'm not that interested in creating suspense that early into the film, but the quiet environment idea is definitely something I want to use. I think I have a well-constructed (enough) idea of my film opening, and this meeting really helped me solidify and join my ideas together. I'll be sharing more of my plans soon!