Addressing my absence

I am very aware of my recent absence this last week. I know you've missed me and longed for my blog posts. I've been really busy this last week especially with filming. Not only have I been helping Martina with hers, but I've been also filming my own. I have also been working until really late, well early depending on how you look at it. So that is why I've been very inactive recently, but I'll be really active throughout the week and weeks to come. I do apologize to my future self, who will be getting yelled at by their mother. But other than that, my productiveness through the week. I filmed 98% of my film and started on my CCR, which I also need to film and edit over the weekend. I do wish I started my CCR earlier so I don't need to crunch over the next 4 days. I did have some issues for filming since the times never worked since I was working.

Me on the verge of tears at work.

Me about 5 minutes before the disaster.

As you could tell I was exhausted, but I did pull through. I ended up getting my filming done and got my sounds. I went back and forth with Martina asking for when she's able to let me come over and film. Eventually, I got everything done and all I have to do is get 3 more shots then I can finish editing, and get ready to export. 

Us filming with Martina's terrible camera quality (I'm only dissing her because I know she reads these and we're good friends)

That was my spring break summed up in about 2 paragraphs. Again, I apologies for my absence, and I know you've missed me. I was just too busy being a gamer!!

My day off!

I've been working so hard recently and I really needed a break. I was drowning myself in school and work that I have had 0 me time, so I decided to take a day off. NO WAY, YOU TOOK A DAY OFF? YOU NEED TO BE DOING YOUR PROJECT. Well mom, I have been since February and I really need a break to reset and give myself breathing space. With that being said, IT WAS THE BEST DAY OFF EVER. I didn't have work, so I had the whole day for myself. I already had a concert I was going to today (which is where I'm typing this.) which was planned since November. I also went to the renaissance fair with some of my friends and purchased a SWORD. Yes I am aware I am way too young to be in possession of a weapon, but I couldn't help myself.

me with my sick sword.

Once I made this purchase I felt unstoppable. I felt like I could take over the world, and nothing could stop me. As of right now my sword will be hanging out in my room until I make some space to put it up. 

Once I got home, I got ready to go to the concert. Man was I excited! I went with my sister and her boyfriend (I know I was third wheeling but it's fine because I made friends) to go eat before we went to Miami. Now so far this concert is A-MAZING! We bought some merch and are now waiting for the main act to start

as you can tell I'm very photogenic.

That so far was my day off, I need to make plans with my actor to finally film. Other than that I'm pretty on track for this project.

Group Meeting/Reflection

 

My AMAZING group

(3/14/22) Today I got some outside input from these very smart, and talented people. For my project they liked the idea but the title was the issue. Sebastian gave me a really good name which shows the plot, and reason, of the story way better. His recommendation was to name it "Too Much of a Good Thing."

(3/16/22) After this meeting I had a lot of time to reflect on my idea and the way I'm going to be shooting the production. I was thinking for the majority of the start it would be a lot of tight, sharp shots with a lot of loud sounds (which would be diegetic) to make the audience feel anxious and uncomfortable (which is what the character would feel without music). I thought that diegetic sounds would be the best to really throw the audience into the film and make them feel like they're really there. I want them to feel like they are the main character and are part of the journey. I want to start off the film with a bunch of sounds with the black screen and the production credits, then cut to the room with focus on the stool with the guitar. That's what the first, like 10 seconds would be to start off the film. The filming isn't going to take long, it's the time my cameras is going to come in. I bought a DSLR camera and am still waiting for it to come in so I can film. If it doesn't get here by this weekend though I'll just film with my phone. I didn't buy the DSLR jut for this class though, because that would be a bad financial decision, I also bought it to vlog my senior year to be able to look back on it in like 5 years. I think the biggest issue I have right now might be just getting the sounds for the film. But that's all my thoughts for right now. So again, I changed my title to something objectively better, I am thinking about sounds and editing, and I need my camera to come in for me to film because I don't want to use my phone.

Film Location & Extending my story

 I have come to the realization that my story is not as long as I need it to be. I really don't want to come up with a script but I might have to. I was thinking about it, and I'm going to re-draw my storyboard and make it in my image. On top of adding things in my project, Martina is getting annoyed at me since I sound "too much like a California surfer bro" and not "gay and alone" enough. Even though I have to work on my voice for her project, I need to get a filming location for myself. I found this motel that is EXACTLY what I've had in mind for this project, but... you know a 16 year old and a motel at like 11 pm isn't the smartest idea. Which kind of sucks because it's pretty empty and has that feel of, "I'm at rock bottom and I'm going to get to the top.

FILM LOCATION!!

This is the perfect place to film, since it's in a noisy area and it looks depressing. The reviews are bad too, which is terrific for me! It's cheap too so I won't have to take out a whole loan for this. I just need to run this by my wonderful actor, just to make sure she's ok with it and so are her parents. If anything we'll film at her house, my house, or a friends. 

Start of new story board

    I take full responsibility for me being indecisive and re-start my storyboard. I think this would be more effective and also help me hit the time limit better. Also I've been wanted to work on my blogs so I've been posting longer and more in-depth to bring you guys into my mind while I'm writing these. I learned that I enjoy writing these a lot more (obviously since I'm not writing 3 lines and calling it a day) and I'm incorporating my personality in these a lot more. On Monday I'm going to ask Mrs. Stoklosa if she likes these better than my other ones and get some feedback for what I need to work on. I'm also going to need to get in touch with my actor, which would've been start to get her contact info earlier, to ask when she's available to film. If anything I can also film over the break so I have something to do.    

ACTOR FOUND!!!!!!!!

 I'VE DONE IT!!! I'VE FOUND MY WONDERFUL ACTOR. Her name is Mica and she's a bassist in my photo class. She was super down for it too; when I asked her if she played an instrument she said "yea I play bass" and I responded "Perfect I need you for my project" and she said yes almost immediately. 

Now I needed to think about the clothes she's going to be wearing during the shoot. I was thinking about an overall darker reds, and black. Since red represents desire and passion, which is what I wanted this character to represent. Also with the mystery aspect of the start of the film when we don't see their face at all at the start. Also the dark theme and cool blue tint at the start represent the sadness this character will go through.

I also wanted to look for places to film. I was thinking about a empty room, or apartment or hotel building. I wanted to do it in a highly populated area with a lot of sounds happening all at once to really symbolize the chaos going in the mind of the character that is eased by music and their obsession. As of right now that's all I got right now, but I will start filming this weekend and continue through then next week and a half.

Actors and Title building.

 Today I am on the search for my actor. I just need someone who who can play an instrument. The gender doesn't really matter but the instrument does. I would prefer someone with guitar skills or that can play the bass, but I would take someone who can play the piano or drums or something like that. I am so desperate I have started asking random people in the halls if they could play instruments... no luck yet. Although I haven't found my actor yet I've been thinking about the title a lot more. I have come up with one so far and I think it's pretty good.

It's called "The Musician", which right now is my favorite. This one, I think, works well with my plot and story as a whole. It gives the audience an idea about what the movie is kind of going to be like without telling too much. I also feel like I should come up with a thumbnail/Poster for it. I was thinking of having the instrument center of the frame as only illuminated by a spotlight.  As of right now though I'm just going to focus on the actor and start of filming.

Kind of like this

But minus the 

floating heads

and Micheal Keaton

  

Story Board, Script & Meaning and Actors

 Last week I was a little inactive... I did finish everything I needed to do before filming besides my actor and title. This week I finished my story board and my script, kind of, it's weird. I was thinking about if I even wanted any dialog in my film opening at all, since it's musically centered. I was conflicted because if I had dialog, would it have made sense, would it portray the type of feeling I wanted it to, would it be as effective? After considering all of this, I decided not to write a script and just to let the natural sounds to show how this person kind of shuts off the rest of the world through music.

 As shown here in my story board; this person closes the door, window and focus into the guitar. For this opening I wanted the audience to feel concerned, and bad for this character. The whole area will be with a blue tint and the character is going to be wearing muted colors to show the unhealthy and lowkey depressing aspect of the character. 

I really liked this idea, and portrayed feeling in my film, I just needed someone to execute it perfectly. This part of the of the pre production is still being worked on. I need to ask a couple of people if they want to do it, and if they can play an instrument. Worst comes to worst, I just hire someone to film for a couple of days. 

Again, sorry for the inactivity I was gone from Friday- Sunday competing. Thankfully it's over now, so I can put my 100% focus into this project.

Sunday's weekly recap.

  

This blog was posted on Sunday, but on the wrong account (whoops). I realized this just now when I was reading my blog, so I'm posting it right now. So enjoy!!

Here's Proof!!!!

 

This week was… intense since I restarted my project. At the beginning of the week I started my script and totally scraped the idea of a coming of age film and switched it to an obsession based one. Over the course of my extremely busy weekend I got my research done and my visual representation of what I want to do. Although I am working on my storyboard I was out pretty much all day with a really bad migraine after dance. I couldn't see and I felt nauseous until I passed out on my couch for about 5 hours. After I woke up I had 10 minutes to get ready to go to work and I just got back and wrote this blog.

This was me today with my headache

 

 So today wasn’t my best day for physical work, but while I was trying to fall asleep I was thinking about how I want the opening to look and feel for the audience. I was thinking about all the little things like the lighting and the yellow tint it gives off. The slow zoom into the room until the subject walks through the door, where it cuts to a close up of their hand on the aux cord plugging it into the speaker, then another close up of the subjects hand closing the window muffling all the sounds from outside. Finally cutting back to the subject walking over to the instrument picking it up and the camera pans up to show the subjects face, the face of a true perfectionist. As they start to play all they hear is the instrument then when they stop and walk away the camera follows them back to the same door where the screen turns to black and shows the title. This is all I have as of right now, as this new week goes on I'll have more to go off.