We Filmed!!

    So... despite the odds, we filmed! It was very good to see our vision come to life and to finally be able to put everything together! This post is mainly going to serve as a reflection of JUST the filming process as opposed to the entire project as a whole, which will be done in the Creative Critical Reflection. 

    We arrived at our filming location (Markham Park) at around 5:30, which honestly made me kind of nervous that we weren't going to film it all in one day because we were filming outside and we were depending on the sun for our lighting. As soon as we arrived, we unpacked our equipment (shoutout to Jim Guaracsi and BECONTV), and Virginia started doing Nicole and I's makeup.

    After that, we walked for a bit into a nearby field, played around with the camera angles, and we begun filming. Since the first scene has me laying on the grass, I had to lay in the grass for what felt like forever, and there were many fireflies and bees which actually scared me SOOOOOOO much. After that, we started shooting the rest of it, mainly the dialogue. However, before that, we had to film a couple of shots me breathing heavily, however, because I was wearing 3 layers (undershirt, dress shirt, and suit jacket), the sun was BEAMING in my face, and we had no water, so the filming was extremely exhausting. The rest of the filming process was pretty simple, the main issue we had just came in the dialogue, as Nicole and I were acting, we would forget our lines or one of us would speak before the other was finished saying their lines. We finished filming shortly before the sun set, and we will be playing around with the color and the gradience of the video in order to adjust for continuity. The filming process went so much smoother than I thought it would, and I'm really glad it went the way it did, and I can't wait to see the final product after Virginia finishes editing! I'll make more posts about the post-production process later this week!

Changing the Script... Literally

     Given our group's current dier circumstance, we're continuing to tweak some things about our product before we film. We're still trying to confirm a change to the shooting location and setting of the film opening. Since we, as a group have decided to continue filming with Nicole as Dainty and will be waiting for her to recover from her surgery for a couple of more days, Virginia had the idea of changing the script to better fit Nicole's situation right now. Nicole's left arm is currently in a cast, so we have made some changes in the script just so that we can play off of the situation just a little bit. It is also worth mentioning that Nicole successfully underwent surgery yesterday, and is now home making a speedy recovery! I spoke to her for a bit yesterday and she seems to be dealing with much less pain than her medical team anticipated, so I'm really glad her recovery is going well! I've attached the part of the script that we changed to now have Dainty wearing a cast.

MAN

Cute. What happened to your arm? Fell out of the bed?

Dainty sighs and her eyes widen. This goes on for a couple of seconds. She looks up and down, as if she was thinking of what to say. 

DAINTY

(gasps)

Yep. 

(hesitant)

Fell out of the bed. 

    

    For right now, we're finalizing some other details of the film. I'm finalizing some details to Steve's costume (I'll probably make a separate post next week on the costuming of the characters). I'm going to purchase a picture frame this weekend as it's one of the main props in our film, and as it stands, we will be filming on Tuesday! The past couple of weeks have been extremely tumultuous for our group and our opening, but everything seems to be figuring itself out! By the way, here are some pictures of Miss Dainty and her cast!

Changing The Setting... Again...

     Given that we've had a lot of time to think about our film opening, we're contemplating making some final changes to some aspects of the product. We want to make the most of the time that we physically cannot film, just to perfect things while we're in a period of time where so much is out of our control.

    One of the most crucial factors we're thinking of changing is the setting. When we were brainstorming the plot and the overall image we wanted to create, the all-white and monochromatic color scheme was a crucial part of the film. We thought that this would aid in creating the mysterious and almost dystopian vibe we wanted to create in the project. As of now, we're filming in a field in Markham Park. We believe that this setting helps to keep the mystery we're attempting to develop, but it loses some of the other vibes we were aiming to create in the opening. Because of this, we're still trying to find a way to film in an all-white setting so that the final product is more similar to the original idea we brainstormed at the beginning of the process. Virginia and Nicole are actively in contact with their friend Kim, and they are trying to find a way to possibly film at her house. If we manage to finalize the shift in location, I will for sure mention it in a future post, and I hope that we can do this so that we can keep the original and intended image and essence of the film opening alive well in the final product.

Complicated Matters

    Sooooo... Nicole is still waiting on a date for surgery... and we're getting worried about this. The role of Dainty was written with Nicole in mind, as Nicole is an amazing actress and she has experience playing similar roles in different short films. We were supposed to film 2 days from now, but it's becoming extremely unlikely as Nicole will be getting surgery at some point this week. We're really hoping that Nicole has a speedy recovery.

    As it stands right now, we're leaning towards just waiting to film the week of March 28th. We'll probably film one day after school. This is a HUGEEEE risk to take, given the little amount of time we would have to finally produce our film. I've heard countless stories of amazing films being produced under excruciating circumstances, so I hope this can be one of those. I hope this will end up being an amazing experience despite the downside we're facing right now. We're kind of at a point of stagnation in this process, so I really don't know what I'll be blogging about for the rest of the week, but I'll try my best to keep you guys updated!

A Huge Setback

     Sooooo... something that none of us saw happening happened. We were scheduled to film on March 24th (next week)... but sometimes things don't go to plan. A couple of days ago, one of our group members, Nicole, got into a car accident. I am extremely grateful and happy to say that she is okay. She suffered from a broken wrist, and she has to undergo surgery in about a week from now. The other driver involved in the accident is also doing fine and recovering. 

    This is obviously not an ideal situation to find ourselves in. One of our main actresses is unable to film and the completed project is due in almost Two weeks. We decided that there are two possible solutions to the problem we have encountered. Firstly, we could try and find someone new to replace Nicole as Dainty. This, however, will be difficult to do as we have to find someone who is willing to give up a whole day in order to film the movie opening. Since we are also filming over spring break, so a lot of our potential options for Nicole's replacement may not be available. Our second option is to simply wait for Nicole to recover after her surgery, and then film with her. This would require us to postpone filming until after Nicole recovers from her surgery, giving us less time to edit and deal with any other surprises that may arise. We're still deciding on what route to take, and weighing the pros and cons of each. I will probably make a post updating my readers on the situation in the coming future. 

A Small Reflection!

     Today in class, we were split into different groups with our colleagues to discuss the process of our projects. We were split by Mrs. Stoklosa into groups of Five, and we were each to introduce our idea to the other members in our group and give a brief overview of how the process is going, including any challenges we've had, and open ourselves up to critique and ideas from others. We got to read over each other's blogs, see snippets of each other's films. and gave each other advice on what to do next.

   It was extremely interesting to see all the ideas that everyone else had, I found that some of us were running into similar issues, and other people had run into some that I could not have imagined. I found this to be extremely beneficial. Not just for the sake of the project, but also for myself. Seeing how people are integrating factors that are so important to them in their everyday life into their films was honestly so refreshing to see. For example, Jaxson, who I know is very into American Sign Language, is producing his film around a character who struggles with coming of age while deaf. I also learned that Rodrigo is extremely into music production, and he's centering the plot of his film opening around a college student who tries to make it big in the music industry. Rodrigo is also producing some of the music in the film opening himself, which I think is extremely remarkable. This activity reminded me that creativity is so beautiful. Since this morning, I haven't stopped thinking about the amazing things that we as humans can do with our emotions and our minds, and it's genuinely made me very sentimental throughout the day. It was amazing to see the progress that everyone's made so far, help others out, and see everyone's ideas, and I cannot wait to see all of our pieces come to life! 

Let's Talk About Font

     In this course, we've learned that font is one of the most important factors of any piece of media. It is quintessential to developing the mood and image of anything from a film opening to a brand. In a project like this one, where credits are an essential part of the piece, the font in which the credits are written is of the utmost importance. We only have two minutes to develop the film opening, and we HAVE TO include the credits in that time, as well as develop some sort of conflict (which our script does). Our Credits will be in a Black & White color and are very sharp, developing the aggressive mood of our psychological thriller. Below, I will attach the credits that Virginia has created for the film.

'

 

   As we were talking to our teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa, and showed her the credits. One thing that we might change is that in the first picture, some are too crowded, and would make it difficult for our viewers to read. This might just elongate our film length, or we'll have to cut out some of the dialogue. I love how this font looks, and I think it presents the overall mood and image of our film.

Introducing the Characters (Part 3)- Dainty

    The third and final character in our film opening is Dainty. Dainty is by far one of, if not THE most important character in our film. Dainty was molested by Steve at a very young age, but this isn't really tackled in our opening and the mystery created leaves the relationship between Dainty and Steve up to the audience's interpretation. Dainty says that "He stole from me.", showing that she is aware of Steve's impact on her, even though the stealing is thought to be the stealing of money. Dainty, despite her youth, acknowledges her loss of innocence. Even though she has grown up, she dresses in small-fitting clothes as a way to feel and reclaim the youth and innocence that was stolen from her. Below, I will attach a character board Nicole created.

    In our film, Dainty will be played by Nicole. I think that Nicole is going to do a great job playing this part, as she has the most experience in acting. In fact, tonight, she'll be playing Maria, the lead in our school's musical, West Side Story. For the Five years that I've known Nicole, she's always been involved in acting, whether it's at drama competitions, school musicals, or short films. I have no doubt that Nicole is going to be a great Dainty, and I'm very excited to film next week!

    Dainty will be 

Introducing the Character (Part 2)- Maria

     Today, I wanted to continue the "Introducing The Characters" series on my blog by focusing on Maria, who will be played by Virginia. Most people would consider Maria to be a psycho. Much of her anger and aggression in our film-opening comes from the fact that her now ex-husband, Steve. After finding out that Steve has cheated on her, Maria feels jealous of the mistress, who is much younger and more attractive than she is. Maria envies the mistress' youth and takes her anger out on the man (Steve). Below, I will attach a character mood board Nicole made for the character. She definitely uses the most aggressive and explicit language of any of the characters in the opening, saying lines such as "

                                     MARIA

In my f@cking house. With a wh0re. "

    Virginia will be playing the role of Maria in the film opening. I genuinely think that Virginia is very feisty and blunt, so she's definitely going to do a great job playing the character. I'm confident that Virginia is going to do an amazing job at playing this part, as she has acting experience in other films she has produced, including "Critique", which I have mentioned in a previous blog.

A Change of Setting

    Sooo... We had a little change of plans... In class today, we decided that we might have to change the setting of our film. We originally wanted to have our film take place in an empty all-white room, but we've come to face the fact that it will be very unrealistic and tedious to do. None of us have a plain white room in our houses that fit the description of the set we imagined or originally wanted. The idea of using the photography backdrops I mentioned before was way too expensive and would amount to us spending hundreds of dollars, so for obvious reasons, we will not be pursuing that idea.

    Today in class, we were brainstorming ideas for where to film. We were thinking of asking our friend Kim, who has an all-white room in her house, for permission to film at her house, but figured it would be too big of a favor to ask for considering how extensive the filming process is, and we also don't want to have to move objects in her house around. 

    We decided that another reasonable setting for our film could be in the middle of a forest. This is also a more realistic option as we could film at Markham Park, which has large forest areas, is free to access, and is less than 10 minutes away from my house. I know of many students who have shot short films here, and I even shot a Music Video as part of a project for this course earlier this year at Markham Park (I'll leave a screenshot from it below). The forest setting could create the same sense of mystery we wanted to create through the all-white room, and it might even allow us to alter our script to incorporate the setting into it!

A BTS picture from the shooting at Markham Park. There is a large forest area behind where the picture is taken.

Introducing the Characters: Steve

    As we go further into this process, I thought it would be cool to introduce the characters from our film opening! The introductions will be split into different blog posts, but I thought it would be fitting to introduce the character that I will be playing in our opening: Steve. Steve is the main character in this film opening, he is also the character that our film, "STEVE", is named after. Most of the film opening revolves around Steve and the mystery and confusion he wakes up to, and his douchey personality is almost immediately made apparent to the audience. 

    Steve is a stereotypical cocky, misogynistic, rude, business executive. In the film, Steve is married to Maria, who he considers to be extremely insane, and often questions his relationship with her. He often blames Maria for many of the problems he causes or puts himself in, and is very emotionally abusive towards his wife. Steve feels as if he deserves everything good in the world, be it money, power, or love, and he will do anything in his power to get what he wants. He has a long history of manipulating and gaslighting people to get what he desires, especially women for sex. He is the complete antithesis of an empath, he is a narcissist, really, and he hurts everyone and anyone around him in his search for glory. Steve is someone who has both a savior and victim complex. His passive aggression, toxicity, and lack of empathy will be very clearly seen in our opening, both through his words and actions. Nicole developed a character board for Steve, which I will attach below. Essentially, Steve is a very fratty and macho character. If we had to compare Steve to a famous character from a film, it would be Jordan Belfort from "The Wolf of Wall Street". Even though these movies are of completely different genres, both of these characters are extremely money-driven and manipulative, and they won't let anyone get in the way of what they want.

Nicole's character board for Steve.

    As I prepare to play the role of Steve in our film, I'm definitely going to do more research on similar characters as him so I can channel my inner-douche to give the best performance possible. I'm going to try to stray away from method acting throughout this process because I don't EVER want to be like Steve... I don't think anyone wants to. I'm going to make more posts about playing the character, especially when it comes to choosing aspects such as the costume and maybe even makeup to develop the character's tiredness and confusion, and maybe even a post dedicated to how I'm practicing the lines and having some run throughs before we film.

We Have a Set Schedule!

    On Tuesday, we met up in class and we got a lot done! I think that one of the most important things that we got done was that we set our schedule for this project!

    Even though this schedule is somewhat vague, I feel like it is an effective starting plan to keep ourselves on track. We discussed what parts of the schedule should have more time than others, and this is what we came up with. We gave ourselves adequate time to complete the entire process on time and to submit BEFORE our deadline of April 4th in case we encounter any unforeseen issues in the editing or exporting/submitting process. 

    

    We gave ourselves enough time to film, as we want to film as soon as we can to avoid any mistakes that may arise. We've caught up despite starting off on a delay because of school trips and other factors, and as of now, we're right on schedule! We did acknowledge that while we want to try to stick to this schedule as much as we can, it is likely that we will have to change some things around. We all have busy schedules, and a lot of the time, we can't control them sometimes (tests, jobs, etc.) I'm really proud of how this is coming together so far and I can't wait to keep you guys updated!