Machinima/Screen Play Inspirations

There were multiple things that inspired me in these machinima films and screen plays. Most of the machinima films I watched had some sort of music in them, and the movies that I was able to connect with the most were the movies with music that fit the tone of the plot.When characters were angry, there was angry music playing in the background. When characters were feeling emotional, there was music that had deep emotional undertones to it. It really set the feelings of the characters and gave off vibes that allowed the audience to better connect to the characters and scenarios.

Another aspect that I admired was the short flashes of video clips/pictures in the beginning, middle, or end of a film. When there was a variety of clips quickly shown, it helped set the tone, as well as provide insight to the actions of characters. When these montages of video clips were at the beginning, they gave a good introduction to what was going to take place in the film and they set the scene up nicely. When they were in the middle of the scene, they provided a good background of what had taken place and what was going to take place. When they were at the end of the film, they really tied the whole film together and acted as a nice conclusion to the film.

The sound effects and music choices were always things that stood out. The videos that were really effective were the ones that used sound effects to highlight and emphasize certain words and/or actions. It helped focus the audience's attention to what the creator wanted you to focus on and pick up on.

The camera angles and viewpoints were also inspiring. There were numerous viewpoints that I saw, and the one that I found to be very effective when used at the appropriate times, was the viewpoint of someone above the characters and the set, looking down on what was taking place. It gives the audience an interesting perspective on the entire situation taking place at one time.

The screenplays that I read were interesting, and having never read a real screenplay, I learned that much of them is description of the scene and characters. I really enjoyed the Forrest Gump screenplay and the Field of Dreams screenplay because the descriptions of the settings were very detailed. It was cool to see how the flashbacks in Forrest Gump were written.

After watching a film where different people were betrayed, bullied, defeated, or beaten down, I had an idea for my remix of Little Brother. One idea that came to mind was to film Marcus and his crew during various interactions with the DHS, his parents, school officials, and each other. He could be shot in times of personal struggle where he was arguing and losing, being defeated, and betrayed by his friends abandoning him. These different clips could be partly narrated and then have angry, sad, or frustrating music fade in while the actions of his interaction were still being shot. Throughout the video, the scenes of struggle would gradually ease up, slowly having Marcus win and overcome his struggles. As he moves toward overcoming them, the music that accompanies the scenes would become more and more triumphant and glorious sounding.