Brainstorming for our Final Project!

Welcome back bloggers! In today's post, I will be discussing some ideas me and my group came up with for what our final project could potentially look like. Some of these ideas were good, the others... not so much.

Live footage of us deciding which idea to choose:

Concept 1: Manuel y Linguini

This concept was created in about two minutes, but it still has some potential to turn out interesting IF done correctly. Essentially, this would be a comedy/drama about two brothers who enjoyed dressing up as Mario and Luigi ever since they were children, although their Hispanic mother would always call them "Manuel" and "Linguini" since she didn't speak much English. Today, however, these men are quite old to be dressing up and running around in costumes, and Linguini thinks they should stop doing this activity because of how childish it is. Manuel, on the other hand, wants to keep the tradition alive since they have been doing it for so long and in remembrance of their mother. The opening would have shown the brothers when they were kids running around in these costumes, with their mother telling them to slow down, fading into a title card. Then, at some point it would have cut to them as adults, doing the same thing at a family gathering whilst other family members are laughing along. This opening would have ended with a talk between the two, with Linguini confessing that he thinks its time to stop this tradition and Manuel getting defensive. In hindsight, maybe this idea wouldn't have been so bad after all with a bit of improvisation, but I think our other ideas turned out a bit better. Additionally, this would require us to find extras for the cast, which could prove challenging.

Concept 2: "Super"-Hero

I personally like this idea a little more because of how much we can do with it. Basically, this would be a comedy about a superhero who is... not that great at his job. The opening would have featured a robbery, with masked men robbing a house of everything possible. Then, they would hear loud stomping coming from the back of the house. They turn around, and the camera reveals a superhero, cape and all, with a title sequence occurring right then and there. However, the hero, who is physically inept and not very good at crimefighting, would lose spectacularly while confronting the robbers. The whole scene would play out like a Looney Toons episode, with over-the-top sound effects and comic-like editing. This would probably be the most fun project to do, since the plot is very unserious and would look like something you'd see on Nickelodeon. I think this idea would also be easy to film, allow for a lot of creativity in sound effects and editing, and make for an interesting enough filming process without demanding too much extra things in order for the opening to make sense. As far as cons go, superhero comedies aren't exactly the most original of ideas out there, and choreographing a fight scene to look at least somewhat realistic may be a little bit difficult.

Concept 3: Something in the Forest?

This final idea is much different from our previous ones, since it is the only one that wouldn't have any sort of comedic elements. The plot for this one is a bit unfinished, but essentially, it would have begun with a person waking up in the woods. They would have had no memory of how they got there, except for head and back pain and an empty wallet. The person would wander around the forest, completely lost and with no idea where to go. They would try to find other people or perhaps a way out of the forest only to fail. This is where the plot twist would set in. Along the way, the person finds strange things, such as old clothes on the ground and broken flashlights. At times, the person would hear twigs snapping behind them, heavy breathing, and towards the end of the opening they would hear sounds of a baby crying. The person would follow the sounds of this baby crying, only to find there is no actual baby at all. The person would have a look of pure terror on their face, and the scene would abruptly cut to a title card. As far as pros go, this would make for a very interesting film idea, be fun to film, and we would have more creative potential with this concept than with the other two. However, this would be the most challenging concept to film for a few reasons. Firstly, this would have to be shot outside at night, which may not be at all ideal to film most of the time as well as making lighting an issue. Secondly, this would require us to find some extra props to imply that people were once in the forest, which would become difficult if we wanted to get creative with the props we used. Finally, since we want to keep what's in the woods hidden from the viewer for the entire opening, we would have to figure out how to drop these hints while also making it obvious enough that something has been following our protagonist.