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