social media stuff part 2

The Instagram page is a work in progress, I've posted a few videos/photos but I am still trying to think up of captions, a marketing "stunt" to tie all of the posts together. 

One notable film that had used social media accounts to their advantage through the marketing of their film was last year's, "Irishman" by Scorsese through social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. 

I am still debating whether to use Twitter to promote my film and I'm leaning towards yes, possibly creating a teaser exclusively for Twitter to gain traction and interest in the film by providing little information, just glimpses on what the film will look like to get people interested in the movie. The Irishman also utilized their characters and props through marketing, posting the infamous rings worn by Pesci and De Niro. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/thealtosfilm/

monikers

I didn't want to use "names" for the title of this blog and monikers sounded cool.

Before I go farther into my social media research and starting the actual page, I need a name for my film. 

Contenders

The Many Saints of Staten Island: inspired from the upcoming prequel of The Sopranos, except it's not filmed in Newark.

The Fauxpranos: The Sopranos, but a fake copy. Extremely clever.

The Altos: One of the vocal ranges in a choir, just a notch lower than the Soprano. 

I'm personally leaning towards The Fauxpranos and I even made an account on Instagram with the name in case I do go that route. Even though it's no longer a direct homage to The Sopranos, it is based on a crime family in New York.

ethical manipulation

Might have forgotten about this part of the project but better late than never. 

"A promotion package for a new film, to include two trailers (major task), together with an official social media page for the film and a poster for the film (minor tasks)."

Marketing for a film, just like the film itself has to aim for a target audience. The primary demographic for crime/gangster genre films are males, usually from the age of 15 to 30 years old due to the themes of money, crime, power, and immorality and a cast of mostly male roles. 

Instagram, one social media platform, is extremely popular among 18 to 29 year olds, which is essentially my entire target audience. Using Instagram can help reach this audience, especially in the U.S which is where the film will be mostly advertised and featured. 

Since the homage to The Sopranos idea is pretty much dead since I didn't get to film at any of the locations I planned to, my idea to target the audience of viewers of The Sopranos through Instagram can't work. (Will be discussed further in the next blog)

last day

Filming Day 2. 

I wasn't with the same group of people I originally filmed with on Sunday which was my last day to film since I was leaving Monday so instead I just filmed shots I could possibly use for my trailer to establish setting.

The rest will be filmed back in Florida, most likely consisting of close up and mid shots in order for the location to stay the same throughout the trailers. 

< one of the filming locations 3/21

pine barrens

Day one of filming and it was probably the worst day I could have picked to film, 35 degrees and extremely windy. 

I didn't get alot of filming done since I had a pretty late start to the day and we lost light pretty quickly, maybe have 12 or 13 shots that I could really use. Half of them were pretty much thought up in the moment and not planned out but they still came out good.

We also didn't get to go to Jersey so we just stayed on Staten Island since we only had a small convertible and 7 people. I improvised and instead of shooting at Centanni's, we went to our local italian market instead. Almost all of the locations I wanted to shoot at to make it a homage to The Sopranos was 40 to an hour and a half away so that portion of the film was killed off. But overall, the day wasn't wasted. 

On a positive note, the other portion of the trailer was pretty much completed. It was filmed inside (thankfully), with the prop money I ordered from amazon in order to make the money laundering portion of the trailer a bit more realistic. The only shots left for that portion of the trailer are the ones with the laundromat and ATM. 

i must be loyle to my capo

 I'm going to NY tomorrow morning at 5am and I'm posting this at 1am but this is the shot list I've created for my first trailer. I don't think I'm going to be able to film everything since I only really have one completely free day where everybody I'm filming with is available but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Shot list Trailer 1: 

1. Overhead shot of a duffel bag being opened with money inside 

2. Side shot of the cash being flipped in hand 

3. Shot of the duffel bag being zipped up and took away 

4. Overhead shot of (unnamed character) counting the money 

5. Overhead shot of (unnamed character) putting the money into a mesh bag and shaking it up 

6. Side shot of the mesh bag being shook and put into the laundry 

7. Long distance shot of a place of business (Centanni’s Market)

8. Interior shot of the business 

9. Shot of the cash being put into the register 

10. Overhead shot of money being taken out of the bag and put on a table (mixing it up) 

11. Close up shot of the money being put into envelopes 

12. Center mid shot of the money being deposited 

13. Mid shot of a card being put into an ATM 

14. Mid shot of putting the pin in 

15. Mid shot of cash being with drawn and then being counted 

16. Mid shot of (unnamed character) who withdrew the money walking away 

17. Then a long distance shot of shot 16

quick brainstorming session

Trailer 1:

A trailer delving into the money laundering aspect of the film, explaining how it works through a voiceover through shots that back up the explaining (e.g: a dedicated place to lauder the money, shows the meat market from The Sopranos, a reference as well as a plot point). Similar to the idea of Narcos and Ozark's scene previously mentioned in a blog below. 

There will be minimal characters in this trailer, very little focus on the characters unlike the second trailer. 

Trailer 2:

This trailer will be different from the first one through its purpose. It'll instead focus on the characters, with one main lead who explains how their life revolved around crime with scenes that portray it (theft, extortion, violence (to an extent), money laundering, etc.)

Multiple characters (5 so far), filmed in several locations, fast paced editing. Inspiration from the Goodfellas and Irishman trailer mentioned in a previous blog. 

schedule update

Looks like I have to speed up my pre production planning since I actually have to fly to New York Wednesday night instead of Saturday like I thought. The shot lists, character descriptions and script will be posted either tomorrow or the day after and filming should start around this weekend. If everything goes according to plan, editing should be started by the end of March, early April at the latest. 

trailer research part 2

The crime genre trailer portion of my research. 

Goodfellas 

The whole movie felt like a trailer and so did the actual trailer, a trailer into the life of an Italian American criminal from the 1950's to 1980's but it has a major flaw. It summarizes the entire movie, and although it definitely entices a viewer to watch the entire movie, it doesn't leave a lot out for the viewer. And although my trailer will be based in the modern day, I would like to capture the same type of feeling, Scorsese expressed in this film. 

The Irishman 

Just seeing Pesci and DeNiro in a fancy restaurant together instantly recalls old Scorsese movies but the official trailer does a great job with the marketing. The actual film is different in its purpose than the trailer. It's a 3 and a half hour movie that has a melancholy premise, an old man that looks back at his life as a hitman but they made it look more like a typical Scorsese mobster drama which definitely brought in a larger audience. They did their best to capture the essence of a three hour long movie into a two minute trailer. 

The Departed

Not an Italian American, but a crime film all the same. This trailer is a great example of targeting a mainstream audience, easy and exciting to watch through its great use of high paced editing and music. The editing with the music and sound is something I want to do with my trailer, cutting in between music and dialogue, suavely. 

Casino

Great use of music, builds up anticipation and like the Goodfellas trailer, brings the viewer into the life of a criminal, but this time in Las Vegas in the 1970s. It sums up the rise, the fall and the end of the characters in the trailer without giving too much away. 

locations

Lemon Creek Park

Everything will be mainly filmed in Staten Island and North Jersey to capture the realism I want to portray through the trailer, establishing one of the main conventions in crime films. 

Staten Island

Fort Wadsworth (South Beach) 

Abandoned Seaview Hospital

Farm Colony

Wolfe's Pond Park

Interior of the Warehouse.

Lemon Creek Park

Prince's Bay Train Station

Rossville Abandoned LNG Tanks

New Jersey 

Centanni's Meat Market

Tony Soprano's House 

Warehouse (Bayonne, NJ) 

Great Falls Park 

S1 E1 - pilot

I've finally decided on the topic/overall idea for my project.

A trailer promotion package on a crime/drama film set in modern day North Jersey and New York City revolving around an Italian American crime family and their inner workings, specifically focusing on how they finance their operation. (A indirect homage to The Sopranos)

Two trailers will created to target two demographics and have two purposes. One to appeal to a more mainstream audience, detached from the actual film itself, serving as more of a marketing tool while the other trailer capturing the actual tone of the film, focusing on the homage aspect of the film (two different aesthetics, music, editing, amount of suspense, etc).

The social media aspect of the film will be created solely on Instagram, tributing it towards fans of The Sopranos to capture that niche target audience's interest. 

Anyway, $4 a pound.

mergers and acquisitions

No longer doing a short film, but instead, a trailer promo, consisting of two trailers and the marketing for the film.

I'll focus on the finance side of my trailer in this post, researching films related to that topic.

Big Short

Two trailers, most of the same shots but different target audiences and purposes. The first one is a bit more mainstream, more relatable in the sense that it tries to make the world of finance seem interesting through the characters and high-paced editing. They definitely aimed this at a broader demographic. 

The second trailer is more technical, a bit more boring, and frankly not edited very well. The timing is off and it's like they tried their hardest to not watch the movie. Lots of comedic moments mixed with audio and sound that fits for an action film. Also, what's with the generic trailer movie voice?? 

If their purpose was to differentiate the two trailers, congratulations, they did a stellar job, but if I was looking for inspiration, I would stick with the first one. 

The Wolf of Wall Street

If Jay Gatsby worked on Wall Street sums up pretty much both trailers. The first one was classic Scorcese. Detached morality, black humor, a constantly roaming camera plus larger-than-life personalities. Very watchable and it does explain how it got a box office of almost $400 million. The second trailer was more coming of age but in terms of wealth, lifestyle and absurdity. Not that different from my perspective, both accomplish their goal to entice the viewer to watch the movie through lies, greed, and corruption on Wall Street as a comedy.

Boiler Room

Clearly filmed in a different decade than the last two and although I could only find one trailer, it still makes a pretty good piece to research for my own project. Unlike The Wolf of Wall Street, ethics are an actual part of the movie, even showing the part of the consequences of their illegal schemes on ordinary people along with the craziness of the Wall Street world in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, the trailer goes through the entire movie, summarizing it, and doesn't leave too much for the viewer not to know once they go watch the film. Great movie though.

Margin Call

What the hell is that movie spy font doing on a wall street stockbroker film??? Besides that this film is much more niche than the others. Even in the trailer, they explain terms that some won't understand and in the actual film, only people that would understand those terms would be finance majors or people who did their due diligence concerning the great recession but that's fine as the whole trailer and film's conflict and incident were that there was a really big problem in the financial market due to unethical trading practices. It still has some scenes I might want to incorporate into my film, possibly. 

criminals need to pay taxes too

New and improved idea: money and criminals. Every criminal needs to legitimize their money in order to spend it freely because if they don't, somebody is going to see the criminal living way beyond their legitimate means. 

An interesting idea but nothing new and covered in dozens, if not hundreds of major films and shows in one way or another:

Tony Soprano sending his money to the Isle of Man to wash his money

Saul Goodman explaining how money laundering works in Breaking Bad

Marty Byrde explaining the process of money laundering to his son in Netflix's Ozark

Jordan Belfort discussing the gray areas pertaining unreported money and fraud in The Wolf of Wall Street

Frank Rosenthal skimming off the casino for his bosses back home in Casino

Javier Pena explaining the economics of the drug cartels and their money-laundering techniques in Narcos

Tony Montana's money-laundering operation in Scarface

conventions

I decided on the crime genre, big surprise.

I covered this in my previous blog from last year, but since I want to specifically target Italian Americans as a social group in my short film, I'll focus mostly on media examples with Italian American portrayal, 

The basic conventions portrayed in most crime/gangster films or tv shows are the following

1. Highlighting and/or glorifying the life of a crime figure or crime victim. prevalent throughout Scorcese's "Goodfellas" (the restaurant scene especially) 

2. Power struggles and conflict with law figures, competitive colleagues, rival gangs, etc. ace (DeNiro) with his power conflict with Nicky (Pesci) 

3. Usually set in large cities to provide a view of the world of a criminal, usually providing a view of their accumulated wealth. depicted in almost every gangster film I've watched, especially De Palma's Scarface. 

4. Main characters are usually materialistic, immoral, self-destructive but smart, evading the police and their rivals. a great example of this being, Narcos, where the main character, Pablo Escobar fights to escape the law with all of his power. 

5. A rise to power while showing an ambitious desire for success and recognition usually because of their upbringing. (pursuit of wealth)