Group Meeting #1 Reflection

 I know what the hell to do now!

This group meeting helped me out a lot. My group members gave me a lot of insightful ideas and contributed to my decision on which genre to do. In my blog post before I did not know what to do. But now I do.

At the beginning of our talking, we all discussed each of our ideas for our film openings. Everyone shared their ideas and we gave feedback so that they could improve or expand on their idea. When it came to speaking, it was different than the rest because I was not sure which genre to choose, but I didn’t know the story that I wanted to convey for both genres. I explained to my group members what I wanted to do first for my gangster film. I said I wanted to do an Italian mafia type of film focused on a character who would do anything for his family. They told me that it would be a good story and it would be cool to see a gangster film, especially because nobody in the class is doing one. But they said that doing a film like that would be hard due to the conditions that we have as high schoolers. Usually, gangster-type movies are shot more professionally, and even though I have a professional camera, it still will be hard to pull off. Then I realized another thing which was that gangster films use a lot of special effects like when it comes to gunshot wounds and other violence, and those types of effects are very hard to copy. They still, of course, supported my decision if I decided to do gangster films, but they felt that it would be much harder to do compared to my other genre.

For the film Romance Drama genre, I told them my idea of having a couple that is going through a rough patch and wanting to show the struggles of each person in a relationship to demonstrate why they are going through that rough patch. My group members instantly said that this genre would be better and that this story would be more practical to pull off. They liked the story especially when I compared it to the movie Waves which focuses on an African boy in a relationship who struggles through many things. I compared both movies saying that I wanted to do something similar to mine, but instead of focusing on one character, I wanted to focus on both. I said I would like to make the film start with them arguing. My group members told me that there are many things I can do with that type of film. One of the suggestions they made was to start off with a black screen and mumbles of voices. Which I thought was a good idea. Then I said that I would like to show the emotions of each of the character characters after the argument. They said at first that I could show the characters reminiscing, but also being mad at the others after a breakup, but I did not want the relationship to end in the story I just wanted them to have a rough patch. So I expanded on their idea and instead of showing a breakup I would show the emotions of the characters after the fight so that I can show how each person in a relationship feels after this type of conflict. They said that that was a good idea and I should implement that.

Thanks to this group meeting. I was able to decide what genre I would be doing. As much as I wanted to do a gangster film about an Italian mafia because those types of movies are my favorites and I feel that making one of those films would be amazing. On the other hand, I do love Romance Drama films and I would love to make a film about one as well. However, my group members helped me realize what is practical and what is not. A gangster film would be hard to make compared to a romance drama. This doesn’t mean that I am giving up on that, but I feel that I can be more successful and not run into as many problems if I were to do a romance drama. And now that my group members are expecting me to make a romance drama I, of course, cannot let them down. My blog post before said that I did not know what to do but now I do and I found it in a way that I feel is better than coming to the conclusion myself. Thank you to all my group members who gave me insight into my decision and gave me great idea ideas that I can implement into my film opening.