Aice media Madeline

From my last post to now, i have struggled to come up with new ideas to improve upon my plot ohm are it more interesting, mysterious and in depth. I like my ideas but there is a certain opening I'm going for with certain feelings and research concerning psychology involved yet I can't seem to get to what is it. I feel with each passing post, I get closer to what I'm going for but today I took a step backwards. I feel a little stuck and brain dead, so in order to get my creativity juices flowing again, I'm going to continue watching murder mystery movies for inspiration and read some articles to give me insight. I will then continue my story boards, finish them and being filming. Due to this break in productivity, I will have to be more efficient in the future to make sure that I don't fall behind and that my work comes out exactly as I'd like with all my effort shown. It has been difficult to get motivated to do this project at some points due to the fact that m...

Since coming up with a basic plot line for my opening, I'm going to being sketching out ideas and places for where I will film. I have come up with a filming schedule as well: 3 days of week of filming for at least an hour each time. It is difficult for me to come up with precise dates as my family and myself included all work and sometimes hours vary. It is easier to acknowledge that for an hour 3 times a week is mandatory for filming so that dates are created and abandoned or ignored due to dynamic schedules.  Some of the places that I have considered filming are in my house, a park, a sidewalk near a lake, and maybe a store. For the memory aspect of my opening, I decided my house would be the best fit as I have imagined the memory to be a child getting abused by a parent which would point to his/her later abusive actions in the future. The part after the memory and maybe a little bit before, I imagined the future killer to be doing a very steady, patient and laborious job such a...

So far, I'm still playing around with a few ideas for the plot line. Some of the ideas include: - Having the 2 minute opening be shot completely from the murder's perspective so that the audience is puzzling together what is going on without realizing it is the murder right away. This idea allows for insight onto what the murder is doing and his/her motives. I like this idea a lot because often times murder mysteries are from the victims perspective or the victim's family/friends perspectives. This would give me a chance to really get into the psychological lens and show my creativity. However, it has been difficult for me to come up with a plot line that isn't too abstract nor too open with information. I want the intro to set up somewhat of a cliffhanger so that the audience is tuned in and intrigued to see what follows and I can't do that if the into doesn't make sense or gives too much information away too quickly. - I have considered different ages for t...

In this post I would like to discuss my characters over all and what their role may be in the project. The first is my mom, Nadine, she will be most likely playing a mother and wife in the movie as she does in real life. Either as an observer or victim I am not sure of yet, but she is one of the main characters. The second character is my brother, Jason, who will be playing the son and is a possible killer or victim, which is still undecided as well. And the third character, my father, Isaac, would be more a background character and observer, his role is not quite defined. I am trying to work with their personalities as is right now and my ideas for how the opening should go before i truly define any roles yet. I too may be included in this opening a mother character, however I am beginning to story board and consider my environment when making these decisions.

I have started jotting down some notes about ideas for how everything is going to play out and I realized my resources are limited. Working on this individually leaves me to find actors and a possible camera operator in order for a successful opening. As of right now, my lovely and willing family will be acting in my presentation. By using some of my research and ideas from professional openings and now knowing who my characters will be can help me further along the plot line as I can visualize how it will look. There are so many different emotional approaches to consider and so far that has been my most difficult decision to make. Do I want the opening to be scary, optimistic or mysterious? Each perspective offers an interesting and creative plot line but I have to focus on which will offer the best results. A tactic I have been using lately is working backwards and thinking about how my movie would end and what types of details would I want to include such as romance, betrayal, a...

The past few days I've been continuing to do research on cold cases for ideas for what kind of set up I will be doing for my opening. http://www.forensicscolleges.com/blog/resources/10-cold-cases-solved This webpage showed a few examples that really got me getting creative, especially the fisherman story as something like that is plausible in my town. I've been watching two minute openings of a bunch of different murder mystery movies to understand what their opening's purpose is and how my opening will be able to reach a similar level of meaning. So far I watched The Lovely Bones which I mentioned in my previous blog posts and gave me ideas for the approach that I will be taking to the plot. Possibly having it be form the killers perspective watching the victim or something of the sort to have some mystery involved. Other movies like Shutter Island, Gone Girl, and Sherlock Holmes have also been providing different ideas and perspectives for how I should approach my openi...

I'm continuing planning and I know that there is a lot of research to be done. I feel as though I'm getting somewhere and then I'm 30 tabs deep into understanding the complexity of a human brain and even harder, one of a murderer. I already can foresee future challenges with my project as I will overload on information and ideas that just can't all fit into a short two minute opening despite my stubborn passion and disagreement. I've decided to start story boarding and getting more into depth with my characters and figuring out the specifics like roles and setting to narrow in my focus. Instead of jumping form one idea to the next, I'm going to create a sturdy platform form which I can work up form to keep everything organized and making sense. In my previous blog post, I stated my appreciation for the freedom of working individually, but now I am appreciating the times of compromise in partnerships because at least a focus was created. At this point, I'...

The first thing that popped into my head when I though of the genre murder mystery is the movie "The Lovely Bones," twisted, dark, and meaningful. The characters in that movie are all symbols and have a lot of depth. There is the perfect amount of suspense, thrill and story line to make the film enjoyable, but not too comfortable. I left that movie feeling queazy (and extra cautious towards my neighbors) and I decided that I want to keep those feelings in mind when planning out my two minute opening. I learned something about people and society after that viewing, my goal is to create the same sense of fear and wonder within my audience. It isn't easy to get people to think or feel a certain way so I know I have to be meticulous with my research and shots.  I have planed to use my family members as actors in the opening and to keep the technology simple with an iPhone recorder and imovie editor. This is due to lack of money for more high tech tools. The tools I hav...

Hello, My name is Madeline Brik, I am working on this project individually and my mind is currently spiraling out of control with new ideas and content for this two minute film opening. With so many different directions to go in from superheroes to my favorite soap opera dramas, I knew I had to choose a route that would speak to people on a different level beyond the superficial. I want to open minds and spark conversations. Growing up, murder mysteries were something I never truly considered my favorite. I found them scary and confusing. Memories of me nagging my parents to understand are running through my head when I think about murder mystery movies "Mom, why did he do that?" "I don't get the ending, what does it mean?" The themes were beyond my comprehension, but now as a 18 year old senior in high school, I finally have a grasp and I'm excited to give it a shot.      Choosing a genre with commentary on the social condition is my main goal in this p...