Madhu Ganga: Assignment 2
Film Research
Mia after a disastrous audition
Mia and her friends heading out to a Hollywood party dressed in colorful dresses
Sebastian playing piano at the Lighthouse cafe
The iconic scene where they both dance and sing in their favorite place overlooking the city
Sebastian talking to his successful childhood friend (John Legend) about Sebastian joining his band and tells him that his style of jazz needs to adapt to modern days and suit the crowd
Sebastian during one of the songs where he is contemplating his career and his relationship with Mia
"Dream Sequence" at the end of the movie of them imagining how the two of them could have been if they were together
Essay
The movie is about an aspiring actress Mia and an aspiring jazz pianist, Sebastian struggling to make it big in their respective careers, for which they’re extremely passionate about. Both characters are drawn to Los Angeles by the lure of fame and the magic of film and television. The movie is filmed in old-time musical style and follows that style almost throughout the movie. Mia has grown up watching movies but is tired of going for auditions to be rejected or not given enough attention. She finds the need to go to big scale parties in hopes to land up with good contacts at the party.
Sebastian is a traditional jazz pianist and wants to do his part to preserve that tradition, especially as he knows that that style of music is dying. He has trouble emotionally playing music at gigs, just for money if he doesn’t like their music. He gets fired from a restaurant for disobeying and playing jazz out of frustration instead of monotonous music under the manager’s commands. His dream is to open his own jazz club, most specifically in what used to be a famous jazz club that has since been converted to a tapas bar cum salsa dance club.
Mia and Sebastian eventually become attracted to each other largely because of the passion each sees in the other for what he/she is striving for in life. But they are soon faced with various obstacles put forward by their respective struggling career that they are ardent about. But as success comes by, they are faced with decisions that begin to fight what holds their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
Words to Idea + Thesis Statement
5 Words: Retro, Musical, Romantic, Upbeat and dramatic
The movie is a musical drama about two intensely career passionate characters who fall in love and get challenged when their respective careers pulls them apart
Visual Research (Inspiration Board/Collection)
Exploration/Formulation (Style Board/Examples/Studies)
Exploration/Formulation (Motion Tests)
Story Board
The lines come in from different 2 directions simultaneously by alternating
The circle comes into the picture and the lines move out of the frame towards the top and bottom diagonally.
The circles represent spotlights and merge together and zoom in to show the effect of spotlight.
The rectangular blocks represent piano keys and flow in from the right top corner
The keys move up and down and interact with the type accordingly
They finally settle and the type comes into a straight line
The piano keys rotate to a horizontal formation
The pink piano key pushes the name outside the frame towards the right which is followed by the rest of the keys
The second name is revealed once the pink key moves to the right as it was under the key
The keys move again to form into a vertical formation
The keys move up and down to reveal and push out the type on both sides similar to the horizontal formation.
The stars represent hollywood walk of fame and rotate around.
The lines represent music notes and come in from 2 directions diagonally alternating. The type interacts with the lines and music.
Once all the lines come into the frame, the lines rotate to form horizontally onto the screen, lining up with the type and title.
Final Film Titles
FinalFinalSeq_Madhu from UIC DESIGN on Vimeo.