CCR!!!!

Id, like to thank everyone who's helped me along this process here is my final component to the portfolio project!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q-VLO40gMR10CCFTGImEbyiPWGeWvRmX/view?usp=sharing
Bye forever

The final product!

Expression, The Short Film- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1StgVZdL6uSn6rDxDO5L-ZiggdWkqu4Q2/view?usp=sharing

Website- https://layladubreucq.wixsite.com/website

Post Cards- 

Front of Postcard

Back of Post card

Reflection

After nine weeks of working on this project, its bittersweet to see it done. The outcome is not exactly what I was expecting when originally starting this assignment back in February but I can definitely say it still ended well. 

This project was way more challenging than last year's portfolio project but also gave me much more creative freedom in telling a story. Last year I was working in a group with two other members and we often found it difficult to all agree on a certain shot, the music selection and even the plot of the film intro. But this year, working alone I was able to be in charge of everything. Though the control freak in me likes the sound of that, it also meant that anything that goes wrong is on me and that id have to find a way to work through that no matter how hard it may be. Developing the story wasn't that difficult as I adapted it from a different story that I was going to do with my partner before we parted ways. 

With this project, I have learned a lot when it comes to planning, production, and editing. The most important being how important planning is. While I was filming I felt as though I had more in detail storyboards because as I was shooting I either didn't understand what my past self had written down or I just didn't like the idea of the shot anymore. I also learned to have more patience within production. Since I have to act in it, it was difficult to prop up my phones on certain items or find a specific angle for my intended shot. But as I kept filming, I realized that I can either keep trying or find a new approach to the original shot which helped me lower my frustration. Then as editing time came, I found myself in the depths of youtube videos searching each function in wevideo to see how I can utilize the platform to my best ability. In doing that, I definitely feel more comfortable using the site and would be inclined to use it again for our next film-related project. 

Overall, I'm happy with all my components within the project. Though I feel like I could have done better, I'm sure we all did the best we could given the circumstances in the worldright now. 

Last Update!

Hey, blog!

Remember when I said I should be finished editing my film by Tuesday? Well....
Hear me out, I have everything edited together but I don't know if I want to add music during the scenes where the main character is painting. I personally feel like it isn't needed but I don't know if that opinion is too popular. I asked my mom and one of my friends and they both agreed on no music, probably because they didn't like the song I chose.

It's crazy to think that by next post, I'll be all done with this project, those nine weeks sure flew by fast.

Sorry this is such a short update, I just don't have much to tell you guys. Overall I'm happy with how this project is coming along and I can't wait for it to be all done hahaha. Were almost there!

Sound

So since I've been editing yesterday, I forgot how important sound was. Big mistake...

I was going through the sounds in wevideo and found a couple that I thought I liked, in which I inserted it into the editing in my last post. But as I keep rewatching my first edit so far, the more I am not liking it anymore.

 I've been going through Free Music Archive and their choices. Nothing seems to be exactly what I want and I'm already on the 8th page of the Instrumental tab... But I stumbled across this sound and I think I'm kind of into it. (Just wait until I listen to it over and over again until I hate it like the last one) I plan on only using that instrumental during the painting scenes to create a sense of peace and catharsis that the daughter gets when painting.

I also need to find a more "triumph" kind of instrumental to put in place near the end of the short film when the daughter begins to reach her most confident point. But this site has so many options that I'm most definitely sure that ill find something close to what I have in mind.

Current mood, Dwight

Editing

So I've begun to start going through and editing all the footage from yesterday and so far, the footage is falling nicely into how I've previously storyboarded it. The empty spots are where I still need to film the scenes of the daughter inside of the house and the mother, along with their arguments.

I plan on finishing filming this weekend when my mom isn't working online so we can wake up early and utilize natural lighting. She's not that great of an actress though but neither am I so hopefully we can balance each other out hahaha. With that being said I would like to be done editing the film entirely by Tuesday the 14th so that I can use the rest of that week to put finishing touches on the website and postcard.

Crazy to think that this will all be done soon. Sorry for such a short posting ill leave you with this.

filming day 1

Hi blog!

So my mom went to do some grocery shopping for my grandpa today since he can't leave his house and she was able to pick up the paint for me. In case any of you were wondering, it smells very bad. With that being said I decided I could start filming most of the scenes needing paint today. They mostly contained close-ups of paint being poured, brush strokes, and just painting the 4-5 pieces that I plan to incorporate into the film. (Saying 4 to 5 because one of them was just so horrible that I could do without it but I may just reshoot that to have some backup footage.)

I have a problem where I overestimate what I can do and get very discouraged when it cant be done and that happened today. I had specific angles in mind like overhead shots that I wanted to use within the piece but it's difficult when you're filming alone. This had me super frustrated so then I decided I could get that effect by trying to paint with one hand and hold my phone up higher with the other.

As you can see by the end of this video, I was getting super frustrated hahaha
But I was able to keep a steady hand and continue to film shots similar to that. So now I've got like a little bit over 60 recordings of various shots of painting and the different paintings I made.
Heres my favorite one!

Location "scouting"

So I've decided that I'm going to conduct the scenes where the main character is painting and being away from her mother in the porch of my apartment. During the day it gets really good lighting compared to the yellow tinted lights in my apartment that I don't think look that good. Also because everyone is self quarantining, there is little to no noise outside so I won't have to worry about that too much. The only noise that would be heard would be like the wind moving the trees against the porch which I could collect as foley and purposefully put in to make this porch seem relaxing like a "safe space". Actually, now that I write that, I really like how that sounds like juxtaposing the comforting and peaceful environment of the porch that the main character created compared to the hostility and the arguments that take place inside the actual apartment.

 This is the little workspace that I made for the main character. A little paint cooler if you will haha. I am going to buy more art supplies like actual wet paint that comes in a tube to make the character seem more artistic. But so far I just stacked a couple of magazines on top of each other, the only one being visible about painting to highlight how much the character cares about art and her improvement. Then I have watercolors open along with a little container of coloring pencils and markers, other art supplies just to further show the porch as an art room.

Updates

So originally I was going to have my friend Kayla play the main character in my short film but she is now unavailable. Like any other person self quarantining shes taken up more exercise like going on walks and just 3 days ago she was roller-skating around her neighborhood, fell and broke her wrist.

So now that means I'm just gonna play the part which is better because I can work on my own schedule and I know when I'm free so If I need to do any extra shooting it would be very easy. Plus my mom was gonna play the part of the mother anyways and now we can work together in this which would probably make her more comfortable since I had to practically force her to help me LOL.

With this being said, I still plan on starting filming next week, I just need to buy some painting products if I can't find my old watercolors. Also, I need to figure out where in my home I will be filming. But I'm very excited to start filming and seeing what I'm able to produce!

                  hehehehehe my mom hates this pic but its very funny to me, enjoy blog

Development pt.3

So the last 2-3 minutes of the short film is meant to have a resolution to the conflict that had just been developed within the middle 2 minutes. I don't want my resolution to be anything major like the daughter and mother getting over their differences and living happily ever after, never to fight again because one, that's cheesy and two, unrealistic.

Instead, after the daughter slowly defending herself in one of their arguments, I want her to snap back causing the mother to be speechless, like 0_0. Like it doesn't have to have any screaming or over exclaimed anger, just something that catches the mother off guard which causes her to finally realize that her daughter is standing up to her. Then the mother could just scoff and walk away in silence which makes the daughter smile and go right back into painting. And this last painting will include green for growth and purple for wisdom, what shes finally gained, knowing that she's allowed to stand up for what she believes in. A light blue will be incorporated into the art to represent where she started, and how her art expression has changed as shes gained more confidence.

(I feel like talking about these arguments makes no sense but they will be petty arguments about like leaving a dish in the sink, being "too" loud or distracting from her work, making a mess in the room, just small arguments that grow a larger picture that affects the daughter's confidence in herself.)

The short film will end with the daughter hanging up her last painting directly next to the one she first painted in the short film and then a medium shot of a growing smile. Its a very simple ending but it is very effective in revealing the progression in her artistic expression. Because as the film goes on, the subtle changes are not as noticeable as between the few art pieces created compared to putting the first and last pieces together.

I hope to begin filming next week and I plan to take about 2-3 days to film. Editing will take place after each filming session to see if there is anything that needs to be reshot or discarded and replaced by something else.

I leave you with this gif that perfectly depicts how online schooling is making me feel!

Devlopment pt. 2

The ending of the first two minutes will reveal her in wanting to stand up to her mother, I haven't figured out how I want her to yet, but she will. Within these next three minutes, the arguments will persist but she does not right away talk back to her mother. For example, she may start out as simply saying something under her breath that her mother doesn't hear, but just knowing that she partly stood up for herself makes her feel good. The shot may show her starting to speak under her breath in a medium shot then into a close up of her mouth as she finishes saying it, then back to a medium shot of her face shocked then cracking a slight smile. This will aid in revealing her starting to stand up for herself. 

This will be translated into her art by going into more earthy colors like green. She will continue to have the blues as a base since she isn't fully sticking up for herself but as she begins to stand up for herself, her art will become more bright. This can be shown through a short montage of painting with all the blue paints then following a close up of her face looking at something specific then eyeline matching to a close up of a light shade of green. This will emphasize the importance of the green by focusing on it while just montaging through the other blues and how that one incident of standing up for herself aids in breaking her out of her artistic comfort zone. 

Example of how the green may be incorporated

This will be the first time she begins to stick up for herself and she will continue to do so, the next time she does her mother will hear her and continue to argue which causes the daughter to not want to talk back, setting her back in a way but doesn't completely stop her from wanting to express herself. 

That is how I will develop the main growth in her character during the second act and her main conflict being staying strong and continuing to stand up for herself as her mother keeps bringing her down when she tries to. 

Developing the character

I've shared the new plot idea with both of the potential actresses and they are both still interested in the role but are further wanting more information on the character and how to portray her.

I want the character to be very timid at the beginning, very stiff body language, answering to her mother with a very low voice and overall just not appearing very sure or confident in herself. This will be done through the actor's portrayal but can be further exaggerated with a couple higher angle shots of her while having a conversation with her mother. This will be able to reveal the mother's domineering attitude and the overall relationship between the two. A shot counter shot can also help in revealing their contrast by going back and forth from the daughter's timidness and submissiveness towards her mom to the mother's angry tone.

Example of how a high angle shot may be incorporated

In class, we learned to break up the film into different acts that help establish the character and their development through the film. This portion will be used during the first two minutes of the film when establishing the relationship between the mother and the daughter. It will highlight her lack of confidence and self-assurance that causes her to make her feel upset. The audience will be able to see her hurting through facial expressions but also through her art, in the beginning, she will mainly be painting with various shades of medium to dark blues as mentioned in the color psychology posting,

The arguments between the mother and daughter do not have to be of anything crazy. In fact, I would prefer if her mother was to blow up over very minuscule issues to further reveal her negatively as a character. For example, like the daughter having 2 empty water bottles on her nightstand and the mother comes in yelling how her room looks like a pig stye because of it.

So far this is how I want to start the short film, next posting will go into further detail of the next 3 minutes.

Continuing on

I feel the quality of each of my blogs diminishing as I continue to write them with all these changes. I find myself having trouble trying to come up with substance or any research to write about. But that is my own fault for allowing myself to change the plot of the project so many times.

Today my instructor had scheduled a meeting to discuss further changes within the class and project. And I scheduled an alarm to wake up for it, but my half-awake self, sabotaged me by turning it off and going back to sleep until 2pm. Thank you past Layla. I contacted a friend who had joined the meeting and disclosed how despite Cambridge canceling all exams, we will still be continuing with the projects. Bummed to hear that exams are canceled because I was working on receiving the AICE diploma but they will give credit based on other factors which means that I have to put much more effort into this project now to ensure a decent grade for the course and exam completion.

With that being said, I haven't had contact with my partner for a week. The last message I sent was asking about which actress we should use and I never got a reply, I will continue to try and reach him but I will not let it affect my grade or blog postings. If need be, I will make decisions without him and continue this project on my own.

At the moment I still like the idea of the story being about a girl using art to grow and find her inner peace through it but I feel like it needs more flavor. But that can be another posting, I leave you with this picture to give you motivation during this coronacation.

Postcards

Because we are going to need to change the store, romance will be very unlikely in this new plot in order to limit actors. This changes how postcards and the website will be conducted. Our website heavily relied on warm tones like reds, pinks, and oranges to convey the romance in our last plot.
Instead, I think we should focus on colors of growth in our website and postcard because the main premise of our story is how the main character uses painting as an outlet due to her familial distance.

Color psychology plays a large role in this and we briefly learned about it last year in the AS Level.

We can aid in displaying the character's emotion through the colors of paint she uses. She may start out drawing with various shades of blue (creating a somber tone), progressively getting darker as she comes closer to realizing the severity of the abuse in her family. But as she grows and learns to stay away from the arguments and control her anger she begins to paint with more earthy greens that relate to growth and healing. Purple can also be incorporated to reveal how that growth has brought her wisdom in becoming a better person through the painting. 

The more I think about this plot the more I seem to enjoy it because it is something so simple, just someone finding their outlet of escape. But it highlights how everyone may be going through something and how you can find peace in simple things you enjoy such as painting.

Online meeting

Since class has been canceled due to the Corona Virus, our instructor and my classmates were able to have a virtual meeting. She told us that we were given an extra week to work on this project now making it due April 19th rather than the 12th. As an extension is nice, I am worried as to how we will continue one with our project.

My partner has not yet responded to my messages from Monday about casting and we haven't talked since. So I guess I will be the one making decisions, realistically filming at the beach does not seem doable anymore as the state of Florida is beginning to shut down non-essential businesses. Filming should be done at home to make it easy for our actors and to keep away from public areas with potential crowds.

Instead, our story can be about a girl who paints on regular canvases rather than faces and finds joy in her finished products rather than the kid's reaction to getting their face painted. We could instill a background story that she has a difficult relationship with her family and locks herself in her room where painting is the only thing that keeps her happy. The nondialogue aspect would not work in this scenario as we would then be focusing more on the girl rather than the development of attraction. By doing this, we'd also be able to keep our original idea of incorporating nice visuals of the paint and matching it with foley.

visual example

example of a close up that could be incorporated

In the meeting, our instructor suggested that we have at most another week to make any changes due to the virus but urged us to start filming as the deadline is coming closer. 

Casting

Since we have our story down, it’s casting time! I don’t know yet who would play the male lead but for the the face painter character, I have two options.
First is my friend Hannah

She is a senior in high school like us and i’ve known her since elementary school and I know she’s a very good actor. She’s been doing theatre since Middle School and has participated in many school plays and has recently acted in a short film. I also know she wants to study theatre in college so I know that she would take this project seriously as she is very passionate about this subject and that she may use the short film for reference. I don’t have any cons with her as she is a close friend, she drives so she’d be able to come to our scheduled filming and that she acts well which is essential for our lead.
Second option is a girl named Kayla

Though I am not close with her, she is a theatre friend of Hannah and is also very talented. She models and is signed for acting with the Steller Talent Agency. Though we don’t need a model to play this part, I thought that was a good skill to have since she has been taught how to manipulate expressions and emotion on her face which will be in our benefit since there will be no dialogue. I believe she also wants to study theatre which conveys her passion for the role and how she will take this project seriously. 

I would like to meet both of them separately for brief interviews to see which of them gives off more of the vibe we are looking for in the face painter.

Filming Implications

Firstly happy Pi day!
As the Corona Virus has become more of a serious issue, I have a feeling that filming will become much more difficult. My mom, an avid facebook user, relentlessly forwards Corona articles she finds on the site and one being beaches in Miami starting to close for the time being. Though I had previously posted we would film at Hollywood beach, I have no doubt something similar may occur as more people are found to have the virus within the county. Today I was having a nice picnic with some friends and just after a little bit my mom called that she was on her way to pick me up because she doesn’t want me out considering the growth in cases. (Even though we were practicing social distancing, similar to the image below)

The only time I have permission to go out is to walk my dogs and go to work which is going to impact our filming. We may need to create changes within our story in order to accommode this, but I really hope this will not be necessary and things will go back to normal.

Postcards

I began to start researching different kinds of postcards and how to get the most traffic from them. I feel like these postcards will take us a little while to develop because we need to ensure that we are putting all the necessary information needed while keeping it engaging, you know enticing someone to actually pick one up.

I found a blog called "No Budget Film School" and went into their tab "The No Budget Report" which dissected the postcard and how to make sure you hit all the necessary points to create the most impactful postcard. 

I'm not sure how much I like this diagram because the back seems a bit crammed which may overwhelm a reader. Instead, I will go along with their front cover suggestion of an eyecatching still with the title of the short film and what film festival it is being played at. For the back, we will probably keep the same layout but remove the festivals/ awards since we don't have any, quotes and billing block. Also, this example looks more like a list of information and we want our information to look flowier to match the effortlessly romantic vibe from the short film.

Here is a rough outline of how I would like our postcard to have the information displayed. The front containing a still with the name of the film festival in the top left corner with the date its taking place on the top right corner with the name of the film at the bottom. Then for the back, it will have a background image of the paints and different fingerprints just for an aesthetic shot. With the title again but not as large with credits, then a brief synopsis with different showtimes during the festival so those who pick it up know when they can watch this. I drew inspiration from a past A-Level student's blog who had this same idea. Then it would have links to different social medias connected to the film with the website link for more in-depth information and again the name of the film festival. I feel that the compromise between these two examples are able to give out all the essential information without the card looking too compressed.

Website

So as we’re still contacting people to be actors and scheduling shooting dates, here is the front page of our website! We decided to make the sit look very romantic with pinks, purples and a photo using a silhouette of the couple. For the time being we will keep that photo in place, but one we finish shooting we will select a still to replace it with in order to keep everything original.
I really like the idea of the silhouette shot because it also conveys attraction and comfortability between two people without having to reveal too much about them, similar to our plot.

I’m not sure how to screen record from my laptop, but here is how it looks through mobile. Once we start making the postcards, I will create tabs to view them and how to acquie then if someone wasn’t able to get one during the screening of the short film. Overall, I really like the color scheme of the site and the effortless feeling of love that it is trying to convey.

Story boarding

As we’re still working out the kinks in the plot and how we’d be able to portray certain emotions through our shots, we decided to start storyboarding to see how our short would come to life. This excerpt here is after the establishment shots of the beach and as soon as the kid comes off of the chair from getting his face painted.

We really want this sequence of shots to have a very friendly and heartfelt feel to it which is why we will be using mostly medium and close up shots. This is essential since there is no dialogue, we have to heavily rely on the actor's facial expressions. After each action one of them do, like the man going up to sit on the chair or picking his face paint design, we will always cut back to the other's reaction. This helps to develop the progression in their relationship and how they will become more comfortable with each other as the short continues.

I will make sure to add the rest of pages of the storyboarding to the blog (once I find them hahaha) but here is the basic idea for our opening shots.

Perfecting Location

When we were discussing the idea behind the face painter, we had a dilemma of where would this all take place because it's not every day you just see a face painter setting up camp in front of a local supermarket or school.

We decided that Hollywood Beach would be the most realistic place to film because it wouldn't be too odd to see someone face painting young kids next to one of the vendors along the beach. Ricardo sent me photos of Venice Beach and described the vibe there and how lively it is while celebrating fun with its carnival aspect, making it realistic to have a face painter.

We prefer this beach over others because of how lively it is and family-friendly, making it similar to the atmosphere in Venice Beach but a bit calmer. This beach also has a lot of pastel colors like yellows, greens, oranges, and blues which could create some beautiful visuals.

The only issues I have with this is because it is a public area, we are subject to more things going wrong like people walking in front of the camera, bumping into us, messing up the shot and just overall unknowing of what could happen since we cannot control the entire setting. Sound will not be an issue since we will be muting the track and overlaying it with some foley and a score, so the birds can cry as loud as they want while the kids are screaming over some melted ice cream.

Screenplay fun

Starting from Tuesday, my partner and I have been contributing to our screenplay doc and this is just a sneak peek until we have put the finishing touches on it. Because there is no dialogue, we have to describe almost every action and expression for our actors since it carries the entire piece. This would not be done in a regular short film since actors are able to give their own interpretation to the screenplay but we have decided to limit this.

We had issues between the screenplay and how to wanted to reveal the conflict and symbolism within the short film, and this is how we plan on conveying these.

ISSUE: We established that she leaves him in the end because she is afraid of commitment and feels undeserving of his affection. We need to create a background for this throughout the story… or at least hint at a reason for her leaving at the end.

1. So we've decided that the face painter comes off as a very enthusiastic person when it comes to face painting but we plan on inserting a few shots of her after the clients have gone. She will look much more down when shes alone, that immediately as the child gets off the chair, her smile leaves with them. But as soon as another person comes to get their face painted she again is shown with a large smile. By countering these shots, it'll be visible that face painting is what brings her joy. Along with the sequence of the man coming back to visit her, it will be shown that she dedicates all her time to face painting making it clear it is the only activity that she enjoys. In revealing she's afraid of commitment, that can be established by each time the man visits her, she progressively becomes more comfortable with him but never fully. At first, she is very wary of him before they briefly touch hands, then the next time she may smile at him and begin to stand much closer to him and just have much more relaxed body language. Making it seem as though she only thing she is committed to is face painting. She is afraid of becoming too intimate with the man because she is scared of the outcome of it and feels as though the only true happiness she can get is through seeing others happy in her face paintings.

ISSUE: We need to add some kind of meaning to each of the face paintings that she gives him. They cannot be entirely random.
2. Each time the man visits her, the face painter will paint something different, the first time can just be something simple that the man requests from a pamphlet of options. He will choose a simple pirate face painting with an eyepatch, mustache and a scar, this can work to highlight that he is a let loose kind of guy, whos still in touch with his childlike nature, just generally carefree. The next time he can motion to the woman and mouth out "surprise me", again emphasizing his unworried character while allowing the face painter to show a bit of her personality by just coming up with a new design. She could paint something like a sun with yellows and oranges which represents the warmth and happiness he brings when he sees her but in a friendly little sun painting. Then by the third time, he can again say "surprise me" and she could paint a dove that symbolizes love and romance. By doing this, the viewer will be able to see the progression of her comfort with the man while understanding that he appreciates her work and trusts her despite practically being strangers by allowing her to paint whatever she feels.

ISSUE: Create a better understanding of what kind of people these characters are e.g. hipsters, homeless, college students, etc.

3. When I envisioned these characters, I imagined them as pretty average looking people like nothing too different about them, just looking as realistic as possible. The face painter can just be dressed in some light blue cutoff shorts with any kind of monochrome tank top, preferably white or gray, something pretty basic and some beat-up sneakers with her hair up in a ponytail. You know just a typical beach look. Then for the guy, since he's a bit more adventurous, he can be wearing one of those graphic shirts that are meant to be funny, but only the people who buy them think they're funny with swimming shorts and sneakers. By making them seem so average, I feel like it just creates more relatability within the characters and takes away from the seriousness behind what the face painter is actually dealing with and what others can't see, just how she wants to be seen.

ISSUE: I want to make the film with no dialogue, so their intentions need to be communicated nonverbally and there needs to be a good score to accompany it. 
4. Since there will be no dialogue, the actor's expressions and body language, as well as movement, will be very crucial. When they first meet, by the man's intrigue to the face painter we will have him just be sitting very comfortably in front of her while she's painting, he'll be very smiley as shes painting and even more so once he sees the finished product. This will be contrasted to the woman as still friendly, but a bit more stiff and keeping a small distance between her and the client. But when the man goes to pay her and they brush hands, a close-up shot of her face can be inserted to reveal her beginning to blush then countering with his reaction, highlighting the growing attraction between them. As he continues to visit her, she becomes less stiff and more relaxed around him, an example being her just admiring him and he can look up and make eye contact with her then she quickly looks down almost embarrassed. Overall just progressing their comfortability with each other as the man continues to visit the face painter, until she realizes she can't get too close to him.

The new plot... we promise

So my partner and I have finally decided on a new story. We haven't decided on a title yet but it will fit within the Romance genre. We started off by naming random occupations and activities and we went from a face painter causing someone an allergic reaction to this...

A man (20’s) is walking on the boardwalk at a beach and spots a face painter who is finishing painting a child’s face. He is intrigued by her and we cut to him sitting down and getting his face painted.

She’s very enthusiastic about her craft and they share a couple of laughs while she paints his face.
She shows him with a mirror what he looks like and they exchange smiles. He goes to pay her and their hands touch. They are very clearly attracted to each other.

We cut to another day at the beach and he shows up again to get his face painted. We go into a montage of him coming back a bunch of times and getting his face painted. Their relationship clearly begins to grow stronger and they get more and more comfortable with each other.

One day, he stays with her after he gets his face painted and they hang out at the beach. He proposes to her the idea of him painting her face for a change. She is a little uncomfortable with it, but she lets him do it.

He shows her what he painted on her and it brings her to tears. The guy tells her that he has a present to give her and that he will be back. She stays and ponders what he painted on her face.

He comes back and has a new set of face paint for her, but she isn’t there. He anxiously looks around for her, but she is long gone.

My partner drew inspiration from Steven Spielberg's short film Amblin.

Though I found it very difficult to sit through this entire film, which made me very against the idea of having no dialogue. But as we further discussed our ideas, I realized that the biggest difference from ours and Speilberg's (besides us definitely not being Steven Spielberg) is that our short film will be at most 6 minutes. By cutting the time down so much, it makes the piece not feel as dragged on. I think the idea of having no dialogue is very unique and will make us stand out among other candidates but also creates a lot of pressure on us to perfect our storytelling. We will have to do so by meticulously picking body language, movement and certain expressions for our actors to convey in order for the audience to understand their emotions. This will be the ultimate test of "show don't tell" and I think if we are able to do this correctly, it will come out very nice. 

Change of plans

Remember when I said my partner and I have decided on our story being "The Chef'? Well, not anymore. As much as I like the idea, my partner and I's ideas continued to conflict and we decided to just scratch it out entirely. I'm a bit disappointed about this considering I really liked the story but the negatives seemed to out way the positives when discussing filming and screenplay.
First being lighting, Ricardo and I disagreed on the approach to the film. I wanted it to have much more of a darker scale, making the piece more suspenseful but he did not want to because of the time and difficulty that comes with filming during the night or with very low key lighting.

Then our instructor offered the idea to take a completely different route where we go with very bright coloring and lighting, making the piece more quirky as if eating human meat was a normality and the kid was the only one who was against it. Similar set design to the show Pushing Daisies.

Though that would have made us really stand out from other candidates, we found it to be nearly impossible due to our time constraints and the difficulty that comes with meticulously designing the set, especially one so different from a "reality". 

Our current criteria for the next idea is something

• much simpler and meaningful
• preferably outside, or within daylight
• more focused on realistic visuals and sound elements
• limited actors

Decided!

After discussing various holes between each of our stories and the pros/ cons between them, we have finally decided on which plot we are going to develop, The Chef.

Though the story is not about a chef, we are just going to refer to our short film as that until we have agreed upon a new title. 

So now that we already have the outline created, we are going to focus on the color palette we want to achieve in the short film along with its mise-en-scene to set the tone of the piece. I found an article where Art Director Roxy Radulescu was analyzing different films and stills, creating their color palettes and explaining how they convey the tone of each scene.

Color palette for the film 'Se7en'

Specifically, this palette really drew me in and I would like to incorporate the darker colors and blues into our own piece. I feel like the darker blue is able to reveal the depth within our story and how the child is questioning the morality of their mother and the length she would go for them. The darkness would also help portray the mystery behind the whole situation, keeping the audience in suspense along with the child. Until the beginning of the third act when the viewer finds out the truth of the meat's origin, unlike the child. The hints of blue can also create visually pleasing shots and we could be able to play around with different lighting and filters to create these blue tones and shadows. 

The Chef

As mentioned in the previous blog post, we needed to change the execution and plot of our short film ideas after the instructor meeting. For the chef, we realized that the piece would rely HEAVILY on mise-en-scene elements at the restaurant and its atmosphere. I'm sure no restaurant would allow us to film there in fear of being seen as a place that serves human meat, and it would be extremely difficult to create our own restaurant props and set design for the short film.
So the new plot is a low-income family of a single mother and child struggling to buy necessities like food, and the mother reverts to feeding her child human meat that she is able to attain at her job as a hospital custodian. The child becomes suspicious of the meat but never comes to a conclusion of whether it's animal or not because they could never imagine their mother doing that to them. This is supposed to have each character question their morality and the extent his mother would go for the child.
Here is how the new plot of the short film would be developed.

Instructor Meeting

 Today in class, we were taught a lesson on writing screenplay. It was very helpful in further developing the ideas that my partner and I currently have, which brings us closer to our final decision of which plot we will be executing for the short film. Here is the outline that I created for the Lemonade Mules story and how it would be executed.

Major Plot and Character Description

After the presentation, our instructor called everyone up to discuss our progress and blog postings to ensure they are meeting the needed requirements. Her and I decided that our final two picks should be the Chef and the Lemonade mules story, but she offered advice on how to execute them properly.

How the short film would be developed

After writing these, she said that it may be best to do without the drugs as the conflict since we do not have enough time in the short film to properly develop the conflict. That instead it should just be focused on the age difference between the two, how they come from different times and how they may be willing to compromise. But I'm not sure how we should execute that with it still being engaging. Personally, I wouldn't want to watch a 5-minute film on kids debating with an older man about a lemonade stand, but I trust her judgment when she said that simpler stories are much better than trying to cram a larger story into such a short frame. To make it entertaining, we could be able to incorporate some comedy to the piece by having each of the characters go back in forth like the man pushing their stand away and then he begins to walk away and as he gets back home to turn around he sees that the kids are already back. I will need to further discuss this with my partner, but next post will be regarding the changes made to the chef story. 

Our ideas and genre conventions

So while my partner and I are still decided on what storyline we want to go with, we decided to do some more research on each of the ideas genre and what limitations they may have on us. Essentially helping us decide which story will be the most realistic to convey with our time frame while still being interesting to the audience.
1. Lemonade Mules
This short film would definitely fall in the crime genre and we'd like to embrace typical conventions of this genre rather than challenging it due to our limited familiarity with it. We'd probably play around with lighting and the brightness of the actual footage to make it seem much darker and mysterious when the shots are focused on the children to symbolize the danger they're getting themselves into. Along with this, we'd contrast high and low angles between the man and the actual children to express the man becoming suspicious of them. The High angle would signify his power over them because he could easily tell on them and the low angles would establish that despite them conducting serious crimes, they are just kids. Along with this, our mise-en-scene would be heavily focused on their wardrobe to reveal the kids are low income while the man isn't, to relay a theme of social class differences and how they are just trying to make ends meet. This could be done by casting an older white man and have him be dressed in a blue button-down and a nice pair of jeans while the children are contrasted with darker, faded and worn-out clothes.

2. The Book Club
Though the idea is not so comedic (in my opinion), Ricardo wants to classify this as a comedy. So most comedies tend to have a natural and realistic vibe to it when it comes to wardrobe, lighting and the actual camera work to make the characters feel more real rather than actors on a screen. Which is pretty ironic since the people we would be portraying aren't some you'd hope to be real. We'd probably rely on mid shots and two shots to reveal each of the character's relationships with one another. Each guy within the book club would be a different typical character in comedy movies like one who's socially awkward, another who's overly confident, the one all of them make fun of, maybe throw in a super nerdy guy, you know like every other character in a Seth Rogan movie. The wardrobe would be extremely casual with jeans, a graphic tee or a polo shirt for the nerd, and some basic sneakers to further emphasize how they want to be seen as normal when society may look down on them. And not much creativity will be had with the lighting, just enough to portray natural sunlight throughout the house.

3. The Chef
This short film would be in the horror genre and we'd probably have this film be more on the eerie side. We would definitely utilize close-ups and extreme close-ups especially during scenes with the chef touching the ground human meat and the reactions of the high-class characters eating the food, being unaware of its origins.  Low key lighting would be used throughout the scenes inside the chef's kitchen and cooler while more natural and yellow hinted lights could be used in the restaurant to juxtapose the portrayal of the normal restaurant to the unknowing that goes on in the kitchen. And though I didn't touch on sound for the other topics, in order to create a more horrific and dramatic sense to the film we will have to carefully pick stings to use. These would be used to build tension and drama from what is actually happening during the cooking of humans to it then being served onto a plate of an unknowing customer.

Plot ideas

As mentioned in the last posting, we have a few ideas of storylines for the short film.

Each of them is very different from the other, making it a bit difficult to chose which one we want to go with especially because my partner and I have different biases. The three highlighted options were the original three I had favored but only two of them were mutually liked by both of us. 

The three we decided on choosing between are Lemonade Mules, The Chef and Sex Offender Book Club. So I'm just going to give a brief description of each one of them along with a personal ranking. 

3. Sex Offender Book Club

Genre: Comedy

Yes, you read that correctly. An overview of the plot is that within a community, a group of male sex offenders begin a book club because they find it is the only way they can come together without being looked down upon by others. Then one day a female sex offender joins the club and a variety of reactions are had by each member causing them to deliberate whether she should stay or not. Though I have to give Ricky points for creativity, I believe this will be extremely difficult to portray especially in a comedic way without coming off as too inappropriate or distasteful. Also, it makes me just a bit uneasy to imagine helping film in a room of 5+ men acting as sex offenders. 

2. Lemonade Mules

Genre: Crime

Here, a group of kids would have a lemonade stand along the street of another man's house, close to his yard. Annoyed, he asks them to move and even offers to buy out their stand, but the kids ultimately refuse because they are selling drugs from the stand without seeming suspicious. Now, the man is unsure of what to do as he just became involved with their activity and faces a battle of morality. I really like this idea and I believe it wouldn't be as difficult as #3 to portray. The only thing I am worried about is casting children because they are restricted as to what their parents will allow them to do and many may not feel comfortable with the story. 

1. The Chef

Genre: Horror

My personal favorite out of all the stories, The Chef. A chef in an upscale restaurant becomes very distraught because of the difference in class between himself and the people he is serving. So as a form of revenge he switches out his animal products, to those of humans, like human flesh and meat. We are not yet sure about how the customers would find out of this scheme or if they even do, but I really do like this story. It just seems very intriguing to me and could create some very nice visuals especially with dim lighting and some red-tinted shots.  Our only dilemma is having to construct our own makeshift restaurant or finding somewhere to let us film. 

So these are our final ideas, and by next week, we should have chosen which one to film! :D    

scheduling

As we start our portfolio project, scheduling needs to be taken into account to ensure that we don't create a rushed product and ensure that we will be proud of the work we create. Ricardo and I discussed early in the year how we should approach the project but now we have a legitimate timeline of how the project will be conducted. 

So for this week, week 1, we decided on narrowing down the short film plots we had come up with into our top 3 contenders and researching different genre conventions within in them and how we would adapt them into our films. 

For the second week, we will have already decided on our storyline and begin to establish a script outline. By doing this we will be able to contact different actors and see if they are interested in helping us with this project. Hopefully, by the end of this week, we would have all the actors we need, as well as the locations we plan on in filming in and specific mise-en-scene elements we need for the plot. 

By the third week, we will have all the finishing touches done on our script and location scouting so that we can finalize our storyboard and begin filming!

In week four, we will finally begin the filming and editing process along with creating different title sequences like finalizing the name of the short film. 

Then in week five, we will begin the second component to our portfolio project while wrapping up the film editing with some general sound adjustments. When capturing footage during filming, we will also be taken photographs that may be used for our postcards and website. 

And lastly, week six will be completely dedicated to our CCR so that we have the appropriate time to construct all of our reflection and are not stressed out to make any last-minute changes to the actual short film. 

Wonder Paws Reflection

So before we dive into this portfolio project, let's reflect on the last major project we just had. So I worked in a group of 4 to develop a brand and marketing scheme for a local pet rescue called Wonder Paws Rescue. So we started with some research on recognized organizations such as ASPCA and PetCo Foundation and based our decisions on what has worked to help these rescues gain engagement. We quickly began to approach the fundraising aspect of this project and sabotaged our branding since we made the foolish decision to just split up the work and come together in the end. But we soon realized this was flawed when we had a meeting with our teacher to check up on our progress, so back to the drawing board we were. All of the work we produced was inconsistent and reflected on how we did not properly conduct thorough research. But as we started over we were able maintain a very clean yet inviting brand. We created fundraising ideas like new shirts, a calendar and even a Pet matcher to play off of Tinder, to match with your perfect pet. Though our grade is still pending, I believe we did well and created a nice brand and some good marketing ideas for the rescue.

You may be wondering why I am even mentioning this project but it is actually relevant to the upcoming portfolio project. Along with creating the short film, we have to make a marketing plan and describe how we wish to advertise and distribute the short film. So this was essentially a practice project before the real deal. Some things I will take away from this project is to take things one at a time and to do as much research as possible. This past project could have made a better grade with much more research and having even more evidence based decisions. Here is our standalone in case you want a better understanding of the finished product.

Miss me?

Almost nine months have passed and here we are, back on the blog. But I am coming back as a Media Studies A Level student now😎. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. I really enjoyed the AS Level of the course and decided to continue with it into A Level. So far this year has been more fun because I really enjoyed the projects we have been working on, even though I do miss the AS Level sound project. This time around I am more motivated to create something that I am proud of and know that the efforts put in will create a wonderful outcome. Last year, my group and I did not put as much effort or thought into what was needed to make an exceptional film opening, but this year will be different. This year I am woking with a dear friend Ricardo on a short film, who is extremely passionate about this course and really excels in it. I have seen him at work and he truly knows how to create something amazing which is why I want to do better this year in order to not disappoint him or myself. He is already talking about how we need to start our planning process and have our script finished, AT LATEST, by the end of January, whew. But nonetheless I am very excited to finally start this, with the experience and what I have learned this school year, I am sure we will be able to produce something MUCH better than last years film opening (no offense past Layla).