Filming

So today we filmed!!!! I know it took us a whileeee, but its ok because if I do say so myself the footage came out amazing!!!! I am so proud of the results, and how everything is coming out. Although it was a very stressing process since it took us so long to finally film, but regardless we filmed and almost everything came out according to plan. So our actors were perfect they were exactly what we were looking for and that is that at first I was a bit nervous because I had no idea who they were. We came across them because the actor is friends with one of my group members, so me and my other group member trusted her judgement and it worked perfectly although he was bringing the actress so no one in my group had any idea who she was but again they both were flawless. so once they got there they did a quick outfit change and we got shooting right away.
At first it was kinda rocky because hey were still kinda learning their lines and they laughed a lot, breaking character but once they got the hang of it, it went smoothless. the only problem here though is that it took a while for them to get used to it so we wasted a lot of time in the beginning.we finished the beginning part of the film before lunch. Then we had a lunch break and Isa took the actors to take some photos and get some content for the website and me Sofi started filming some of her parts. Once we filmed all the parts in the psychiatrist office we switched locations and filmed the rest of the film. We did another quick outfit change and started running lines once again. They were more accustomed to this situation so it was easier for our actors to get into character the only problem is that everyone was started to get tired, so it was harder for everyone to stay concentrated but once we got it. It was smooth sailing. Overall it was a good, hardworking day for everyone and I can't wait for the next step where all of our hard work will start getting put together.

Practice Run

Hi friends I know it's been since I last updated but it's been a crazy couple of days lately since it's spring break and all. But regardless we have been hard at work. So, on Tuesday I came back from vacation and on Wednesday we meet in my partner's house Isabella where we plan to use to dad's den as the psychiatrist office. Today what we did is we came up with a schedule as how we were going to shoot and were we are going to be placing the lightening, etc. We did this to make sure everything went flawless when we recorded and to make sure we had more than enough time to shoot everything. Here we also practice shoot some scenes to make sure they were coming out the way we wanted them to. overall we were pretty content with how everything was coming out and were starting to get really excited for our final creation.

Yesterday, we did the same thing in my other partner's house where we were going to use her kitchen to shoot the scene of the argument. this for me was probably going to be the most difficult because we wanted to play with lightening here a lot and create a yellow shadow throughout this protion of the film. Luckily for us it wasn't all that difficult for us because Sofia's brother has a studio light which we then put an orange sheet protect over it so we can create that yellow shadow. Here are some examples of what we want to create.










Here we tried to reenact some of the scenes sort-of-ish (clearly neither me nor Isa have a career in acting) but regardless I was really proud of how it was coming out.

So like I explained earlier we have been playing with our equipment a bit to make them more functionally as to how we need it. So for the mic we already had a regular mic that connected to the camera but yesterday we were able to use part of a vacuum to create a sort of boom mic to be used to our advantage. This is how it turned out.


But that wasn't our only diy project. Because Sofia, my group member, always had one tripod except there was a small issue with that being we only had one and that was being utilized by the lightening. So luckily Sofia's brother saw you how you can create a stabilizer this is sort off like a tripod and what we liked about it is that we can move it so this will come exceptionally handy for a pan scene we want to create. This is how it came out.



Overall I can't wait for us to start filming and to share this process with you.

Inconveniences

Well, since last we talked we have run into some inconveniences but its ok because we are going to start looking at the cup half full instead of half empty. So first off since we can’t start filming yet we decided we are going to get the outline for the postcard and the website ready so that all we have to do is add pictures when we are done. But for this we decided to divide and conquer so I was in charge of making the outline for the postcard which I did and I would share with you guys except I am on vacation and I don’t have my computer with me (I’m blogging on my phone) but regardless that’s done. 

As for the websites my other group members were the ones who were mainly going to be responsible for it so I can’t really share that with you till they are done.

But now for the biggest hiccup so far so the actors we divided to get have some scheduling conflicts to film on Wednesday so now the new plan is to divide what we film and when so now the plan is for on Wednesday to meet the actors at FIU that’s were they can film and film mainly the opening film at the psychologist office and then as for the rest of the film we will film throughout the week and the weekend. Since our filming is going to be divided we plan to edit as we go so at the end all we have to do is combine all the edited footage we have. 

On the flip side we have finally completed the script and we are very content as to how it has turned out and we hope that what we have visioned in our heads can be transmitted on screen. I’ll keep you guys updated if we pass any more speed bumps along the road.

Getting Back on Track

Hi friends, so last time we talked I was informing you how our original idea greatly resembled a Black Mirror Episode so we had to change the plot of the film so there could be a difference between them. Since that day we have put all our time, energy, blood, sweat and tears into finishing that script so we can send it to our actors and be able to film as soon as possible. But there was a small complication with that plan and that is the earliest our actors can film is Wednesday. A lot later then what we wanted to but regardless we are going to make the best of the situation and since we have already finished the film we are going to start working on the postcard and the website that way all we have to do is insert pictures once we have taken them. 

But that’s not the end of the complications being that I am going to be out of town the majority of next week so I will be missing the filming and I really wish I could be there so I can add my input but I also realize that we need to film A.S.A.P so that we don’t fall further behind schedule. 

Overall, this post was mainly to give you guys a better understanding as to what’s going on this coming week. My next post will be an update on the script and the postcard. Till next time.

Back to the Drawing Board

Hi friends, so yesterday was eventful to say the least. My group and I met yesterday and and we met with my teacher and we explained the film to her and our idea. And there was a slight problem, apparently our film is to close to a episode of Black Mirror, especially our ending. So me and one of my group members, Sofia decided a way to change our film a bit so it can differentiate from the black mirror episode without changing the entire plot of the film. Is to keep all the characters the same and we would start the film by the couple in therapy and they are in a special program where they get to choose one day to go back in time to and see if they can change the relationship. And they choose the day they had their first fight to see what went wrong and if they fix it. So then the bulk of the plot would be reliving that day and at the end of the day they will realize that their relationship just won't work. And it will end with the couple back in therapy in regular time.
This is what we thought would have been a good compromise so that it won't imitate the Black Mirror episode all that much and at the same time be similar to our original idea. But now we have to start our script all over and our story board and start catching up because we are quite behind schedule. But that's ok, I hope.

Postcard

It's me again, today I thought that I would post about another aspect of the project. I though today I can talk about another aspect of the project, the postcard advertisement.
First, let me tell you about what I do know of the most card ad. So, first of all I know that this card is going to be passed out around wherever we distrust the film. Thus, something that it must include is the exact position where they could watch the movie (such as the theater it will be featured in). Something else it has to have is the time where the film can be seen. I also know based on previous examples that most postcard advertisements show some credits. Since the postcard is so small it mostly shows the most important credits only, such as the director and the producer. Then I also know that most postcards use both sides, again this is mainly because since the size of the postcard is so small you have to take advantage of both sides. Lastly, I know that most postcards focus on the image on it and try to keep the rest of the postcard very simple.
Ok, so now here is some of the things I learned throughout my research. One of the primary things that I learned is that one of the postcards included the url where people can download the film. When I read this I had an idea for something we can include in our own project. I thought we could also include a url where people can download the film for free and after someone downloads the film they can then donate whatever they can in exchange for downloading the movie. I got this idea from a band who used this similar concept but instead of a film it was a song.
So yeah that is a little bit of the research I have learned for the creation of the postcard advertisement. I'll blog again soon with another update.

Sources:
“Case Study: Publishing Content vs. Marketing It, Pt. 2.” Vimeo, vimeo.com/blog/post/publishing-vs-marketing-a-vod-case-study-ft-every2.

Update, Update, Update

Hi friends, so last time I talked to you guys it was a bit long. So today's post I am going to keep it short and simple (key word try). So yesterday my group and I met in class and we talked about our script and we worked on developing the characters. So here is a short description of each character:

Simon Price

Simon is the protagonist of our short film. And he was mostly inspired by Theodore from Her mainly because one of my group members fell in love with this film and wanted to incorporate it in our film. So to explain him he is a person who is very shy and nerdy and is a complete introvert. 

Penelope Price

Penelope is the love interest of Simon. She is the complete opposite of Simon, yet one day at the park they meet at the park and they fall in love and after 2 years of dating they get married.

Dr. Williams

Dr.Williams is the psychologist who is there as soon as Simon wakes up from the stimulation  and is the therapist who Simon and his wife go to for consoling. 

Overall, these are the three main characters we will be using although there are going to be scenes with other people such as when Simon runs to his friend's house to see what is going on or when he goes outside and everyone is frozen. For this we are planning to use extras. That's it for today, I'll keep you updated to whenever I make progress until next time.

Details

Yesterday my group had met in classand started discussing possible ideas for the setting of the film. Since I wasn’t able to go they have filled me in on all the detailsas to what they discussed.
First they talked about the target audience; they think the ideal target aidience should be middle calss women from late teens to early twenties middle class women. They came to this conclusion based on the genre being romantic science fiction. Although, I do believe that our target audience should broaden a bit and make the age the from late teens to late twenties, more or less giving the age range 10 years. That way the age span be of 10 years, more or less. I think we should broaden the age range a bit so that more people can relate to the film, thus boasting it’s popularity. Futhermore I believe that defining the economic class for our target audience was crucial for our short film since we are playing with the concept of virtual reality throughout the stimulation. So i believe that this economic class would have most likely obtained some knowledge on this topic and possibly even tested it our. Thus they can better understand the concept of the film.
Next, they talked about the possible setting of the film. We had previously talked about the location being easily accesible to us. We also knew that we would use 6 main settings throughout the plot of the film. The first setting would be the bedroom and for this we wanted a very clean, minimal, plain room. But to incorporate a sci-fi element they wanted to include neon lights. Although I like the concept and the idea I think a better idea is to play with lightening a bit. My friend who is in AP Photo taught me a trick where you color a pice of tape any color you want and you turn on the flashlight and it projects that color. So I believe that this will better convey the feeling we want and it can easier and cheaper overall. Either way I think that one of my group members bedroom would work well although we would have to play around with the furniture a bit.
Another location which we would need is a neighborhood, we would use this mainly for the scene where he first finds out that time is frozen. For this we wanted a neighborhood that is very green and lively so we thought of a the neighborhood Weston Hills. The only problem I see with this is that the neighborhood isn’t the same one as my group member’s house so it may be time consuming going back and forth. Either way I do believe that this neighborhood would look very aesthetically pleasing throughout the film.
The next setting we would need is a living room area mainly for the scene of him getting ready after he had just woken up. Again we want a very clean and simple look, so again we are going to use one of my group member’s home because she has a very clean and simple look.
Next we also want to include overall the city of Weston. This setting would be mainly used for the small montage we are including that portrays the protagonist relationship with the girl. Being that this is going to be a series of dates we want to include various parts of Weston.
Throughout the film we will also need to find a location for the psycologist’s office. For this we will probably end of using the first bedroom again but move the furniture completely and add props to make it look different from when we use it in the first scene.
And the last setting that we would need is the friend’s house. This is probably the smallest scene so I think we might get around using the same house as before but angel the camera differently and use a different bedroom.
Lastly we talked about when we want to set the film to be and we decided that the best would be to set in the future in the year of 2150. This is mainly because one of my group members found out that this is the year that virtual reality can be reached. We also established that the time this “world” would be frozen in is 10:42. Although I believe that we might need to change the time to 8:42 mainly so that it works better with the plot since he is running late to work.
So yeah I missed a lot. But either way I think we have made huge progress and I am so proud as to how everything is coming out.

Clarification

Ok so remember how yesterday I wrote that my team mates and I decided to call each other and go over the plot for the film. Well here is a rough outline of how we plan the film will go.
 - Guy wakes up. From the moment he wakes up to the time he gets ready for work it's been 7am this whole time. (Will show this through shots of the time) (this will be portrayed with music  and sounds of what he is doing)
- He gets in his car and backs out but there is another car in his way. He gets down and realizes it's frozen and the whole cars near him are frozen too.
- He then walks to his friends house to see what's up, but sees that his friend is frozen as well in his sleep. This causes the main guy to be more freaked out.
- He then runs to his house and try's to find out what is happening. He turns on the news and nothings on. He checks his phone and there's no signal. Then he goes outside again to see the people frozen and at that pint realize that time has stopped. (He will say something that shows his realization)
- He then goes back home and tried to figure it out. He changes the time to see if it would move. But it just went back to 7am. He reads his sci fi books of when he was a child to find answers but nothing helped.
- He gets frustrated and he goes to the park. He sits on a bench and puts his head on his head as if he was tired. Then he feels a hand touch his shoulder. He obviously is like WTF everyone is frozen. But sees it's a girl.
- The girl and him share minimum dialogue and will create a close relationship with montages. (Beach, ice cream, movies, etc)
- They get back home and they fall asleep.
- That morning she wakes up screaming as she has turned old and the guy starts freaking out. This movement of him screaming and shaking her not it leave him will be graphic match and it will show him freaking out alone in a chair with a bunch of wires.
- Here a women (nurse) comes to him and says "it's okay you are back sir" "this was a part of your couples therapy"
- She says this as she staking the wires off of him. And then she says "your wife (or girlfriend) is waiting for you in the other room"
- Then the camera follows him behind (hand held) and we see him open the door to see the girl from the simulation (but not old anymore) and he gives her a huge hug and says "never leave me" and the short films ends.
But today as I was going over it and as one of my team mates shared it with her mom and her brother we realized that something we haven't clrified is hwy the couple is in therapy first of all and so we decieded to start it with a couple in a house fighting at nights but we are saying all of this through a window from the outside, but we only see shadows till the last second were we show a tiny clip of his face and then jump to him waking up. We thought this was a easy way to help the audience understand the plot without revealing to much and still have that sense of mystery of where they are and we won't revile at the beginning of the film that they are in couple's therapy.
Ok so that last paragraph may be a bit difficult to understand, but to clarify it a bit here is a picture of what we have in mind to create for the opening scene.



Kinda like that except we would be looking through a white curtain from a. window of an outside of the house.
Overall I hope this post helps clarify the vision we have in our head as to the direction we want to go fro the film.

Drum Roll Please.....

Today was an interesting day, so in class my teacher separated us into groups where we each shared our ideas for our projects and we critiqued it. The only problem is that my group spent so much time explaining all of the other projects that we only had 5 minutes for mine so I quickly explained all of the possible plots and although we were rushed they really enjoyed the simulation idea and they helped explain to me some possible problems I might encounter throughout it and it really helped me first of all realize certain problems I might encounter that I hadn't encounter before and it helped also find solutions to all of these problems. Once class ended through I met with my group and one of my other group member's critique groups also liked the stimulation idea but my other team member's critique group preferred another idea so then we decided to ask around our friends to see what they though and we were getting mixed reactions so we were a bit concerned because we were behind schedule!!!! So my other team members decided to go back to my teacher and ask her what she thought and she explained to them how we might be indecisive and my teacher believes that us having to choose a topic might be a good lesson for us to learn how to be more decisive so my group had a mini panic attack but it's ok, cause it's all solved now me and my team members decided to call each other today and go over the possible story plot to our films and finally decide on what film we want to create. So after an hour long conversation we came up with the storyline and plot for the entire film and the story we choose to film was..... THE STIMULATION. 

http://www.yourdictionary.com/excited

I know, I know I am very excited as well and although this is may be difficult to convey and we are surely going to be challenging ourselves I am very excited for what can come out of this project.

Epiphany

Hi guys. So last time I blogged I blogged about the three ideas we had in mind. Well we are scratching those because yesterday one of my team mates had an epiphany. So our new idea is about a guy who wakes up in the middle of the night for no reason but he thinks nothing of it and just goes back to sleep but to much to his surprise he then wakes up again later and it is still the same time so he goes outside and starts wondering what is going on. But all the streets are empty and he has no idea why. So he goes to his friends house to figure out what is going on and that's when he notices that everyone is frozen.  at first he is a bit freaked out and has no idea what to do but then after a while he just kinda goes with it and just keeps living his life. A week has passed and still nothing has changed, but while he is the supermarket he finds a girl who isn't frozen. They then start talking and having fun until they realize that she is aging and he isn't and she is aging at a very fast rate. So then they start this whole adventure trying to figure out how to leave this parallel universe and when they finally do they realize the whole time they had been in a couple therapy stimulation  and in reality they are married to one another. And the reason they went through this so he can figure out that he really loves her and that he has to stop worrying about the future and just live in the moment.
we came to the conclusion that this is probably the best option for us because originally me and one of my group members wanted to create this coll sci-fi type of movie. While my other teammate wanted to create a cliche love story. So I think that this is a perfect combination of all our ideas in one movie.

Progress

Monday, my group and I met in class and we talked about the research we have each independently conducted this weekend. Then we started talking about possible ideas we have had for our short film and as we disscussed we came up with three possible ideas for the project. All of which consisted of two things the first minimize the amount of actors we need. Then we also knew we wanted to choose a setting that was easy and accesible when ever we needed it.
The first idea we had was about two girls who go into a forest in look for this monster only to come to the realization that once they find the monster it turns out these girls are actually 10 and 9 and it was all in their imagination and they were playing the whole timw in their backyard.
The secound idea is about a girl who loves to draw and everything she draws comes to life. But it turns out that that she is actually homeless and all of her drawings and things that came to life was actually all in her imagination.
The last idea is that there is a man who loves to read and one day he goes to the park to read and everything he reads comes to life. But actually all of this that he lives is all in his mind.
The problem that  I fear with these films is that we don’t have enough to make a 5 minute short film. Even though these are just rough ideas. Hopefully by the end of this week my group and I would have choosen one of these to make into our short film and from then on it’s smooth sailing.

Conceptualizing

Before we get into today's post let me explain the title. The post is going to be about figuring out the idea for my short film. Except this wasn't as easy as it may same so I did a lot of brainstorming so I was going to name this post Brainstorming but that everyone uses Brainstorming so I started thinking about what I can call this post and then all of a sudden it came to me Conceptualizing.

Before we get any more side tracked let me explain to you what this post is all about. So like I said I was trying to come up with the concept of the short film but this task seemed a bit more difficult than anticipated. So I did what any good filmmaker would do what any good writer would do who has writer's block and I just forgot about all together and then came back to it. Except the only thing this helped was waste time and distract me. So instead I decided research and this actually helped me a lot and helped me look for inspiration in places I never though of looking.

The one tip that really stood out to me was to use bad granddad jokes. Mainly because I would never think of this yet how they explained it makes perfect sense. They said that these jokes have a setup, a story arc and a punch line and all of these part combined can make the whole story. This really helped open my eyes and helped me realize that there is inspiration every where.

The article then moves on to talk about other places in which you can find inspiration and other tips to help you establish your plot without wasting much time being your time is so limited when creating a short film.

Overall, my day consisted of me attempting to conceptualizing although I wasn't all that successful being that I still have no idea what I want my short film to be about. Like not even the slightest so much so that I have no idea what genre I even want the film to be about. So since, I can't enlighten you on this topic I thought I could enlighten you with a shot of the film Call Me By Your Name in honor of today being the Oscars.

Well, I guess that's it and I hope to see you soon and maybe next time I can enlighten you with what my short film will be about.

Branding

In my last blog post I talked about how I am doing a short film and how I had started the process of researching short films to see if I can gather any inspiration for my own short film. But I also decided I should research other aspects so short films more specifically how I can create a brand for my products through the short film, the website, and the postcard advertisement. As I was conducting my research I came across a statement that really opened my eyes and it was "Branded content, an admittedly slippery term, is a sort of hybrid between traditional storytelling, product placement, and more traditional advertisement.". Once I read this sentence all of sudden everything made sense and it helped me realize the importance of creating a brand and how it may not be as simple as it looks. Although this statement really opened my eyes and helped me understand branding the rest of the article itself wasn't all that helpful so then my research commenced once again.
 In the midst of what seemed a hopeless search I came across this website that broke it down into simple steps to properly craete a brand for something. First it mentioned how your brand is what helps people remebr you and your specific product, it's suppose to not only showcase your product but why your product is the best and it helps it stand apart from the rest of the products on the market. It then moves on to talk about how it's crucial to stay consistent throughout your product and how you market it. Because if you don't you can confuse your consumers and you can loose your identity.  And the last two "tips" that really stuck out to me is to make sure you connect emotionally with your audience. I think this is really important because in a way this helps create a connection with your audience and in a way rewards your audience. Which brings into a accountant the last tip which is reward your consumers, let them feel appreciated and let them feel how grateful you are for them because in the long run they are the reason of your failure or success.
Overall, although research may be tidious and annoying it really can help ensure that your end result and overall I think this has helped kinda figure out the direction I want to go and it helped me reinforce the importance of how all the products have to coincide. 

Hi again

Welcome back, to those who remeber me from last year's blog and those of you who don't know me here is a little background of me I am a senior in Cypress Bay High School and last year i was in the AS level for Aice Media Studies and I created a magazine for my portfolio project. Now I am back for round 2 with a new project and a new blog to help share with you my ups and downs as I create my portfolio project for Aice Media Studies A level. 

This was the project I created for A level

Ok now comes the exciting part what I choose to create (drum roll please) I will be creating a 5 minute short film, but that's not the end of it I will also be creating a website and a postcard advertisement to go along with it. I know it sounds like a lot and it is but luckily I am not working on it by myself this time around I will be working on it in with two other people,  Isabella Patino and Sofia Maritarena. 

So now what my shortfilm is going to be about. Well, that's a good question being I have no idea (let the freak out begin). Being I have no idea what I want to do I have been conducting a lot of research. I know what torture having to spend my whole afternoon watching shortfilms trying to gather inspiration for my own. Through out the duration of my research I have come across various shortfilms that have really inspired me and I hop I have the chance to incorporate some of these techniques into my own short film. 

Apart from researching previous short films we have been trying to create a schedule to ensure that we are able to complete the task ona  timely manner and if anything goes wrong we have enough time to correct all errors.

Overall, although I know we have just started this project and we still have a long journey ahead of us I believe we are off to a good start and I am excited about where it would lead to. See you in the next post.