We Have a Little Problem

Now I was supposed to start editing on Thursday and I went to turn on the computer and it was not loading. So I waited some hours for the computer to load and it still wasn’t loading. I thought that if I left the computer on at night that at some point, it would load. Well fast forward to 6:00 AM, it was STILL loading. I told my dad if he could fix it. When I came back from school, the computer was turned off. So I turned it on and this time it took about 15 minutes to turn on. Then I ran into another problem I needed the local items keychain password and I had NO IDEA what that is. So again, I asked my dad and he was as clueless as me. So we decided to change accounts and we waited and waited and waited. After trying to log in and set up the computer for half an hour, it finally worked. Then I got myself into ANOTHER problem. It feels like technology really hates me today. It is such a beautiful Friday evening and night. This is a short post and I hope to update on the problem of trying to open iMovie. Really, WHY DOES LIFE HATE ME!!!

But anyways, the update will hopefully come on Saturday and hope that the computer and iMovie are running smoothly and I have the chance to start editing.

P.S. I did click Report as well as Reopen about 100 times, but I hope that there will be some answers, or I will need someone to do some voodoo magic on the computer to make it work.

Meeting Two

We had another group meeting. Now it was very interesting because I got some critiques that were very useful to accomplish my vision of the film opening. I had an idea of what my film opening was going to be about in terms of color. I was thinking of doing it in black and white to show Alice’s emotions, that she only has two parts to herself. The side that everyone sees and the side that no one sees, that no one knows. The group was very helpful and they suggested to utilize colors like blues and greys to create a tone of depression, and not make is so cliché. I told the group that I felt like I didn’t have enough shots that will be sufficient in time and be able create a sort of short story that is coherent in understanding the main idea of the film opening and the short film. One of the people in the group suggested to start her routine, maybe even do a long shot of her and what she is doing that will connect with the tone and main idea. Now this can be confusing because you can have so many ideas of what to do for this shot, but it is a work in progress. Now with the long shot of her doing her routine, it shows her everyday life and then it transitions to that depression that she feels. This might work, but I’m not sure if I feel like it would be useful in the film opening. This creates a transition and  I feel like the best transition for me is the use of colors. So I will have to work on that. Now this really got me thinking because I asked them the question of what would be best to show why she feels the way she feels. This question is difficult to respond to because the answer lies within you, not others. (By the way, the use of 'you" means me.) You can get ideas from others, but in the end, what matters is that you take their criticism and ideas and make it your own. I hope to start editing today and see if I have to re-film or add more shots that will make the film interesting. I am also in the process of choosing music and writing the voiceover.

Film Day

Friday March 24, 2017 was filming day. Now there are a couple of things that happening  during the process. The first thing was to get everything set up. I utilized the Nikon D3400 and a polaroid tripod. These were helpful in getting the necessary footage that will allow for the film opening to be successful.  I utilized most of  notecards that were used in my storyboard. Not all of them were used because it didn’t fit the idea or it didn’t work with the acting or camera. Now it was difficult working with a mirror trying to get the camera not to be seen.  Everything was going good, until I got hungry. It  was solved when I ate pasta, but that is beside the point. I was struggling a bit about what other shoots will be good to incorporate and my actress helped me a bit. Now I hope that I have everything filmed and I just have to edit. I will most likely know, when I start editing next week. It was also a little bit of work to try to remember to film in black and white as well as in color just incase. I was thinking of doing the entire thing in black and white, but when I start to edit, it  is when I will make a decision.

Costco Wholesale. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.costco.com/Nikon-D3400-
     DSLR-Camera-2-Lens-Bundle.product.100313565.html


Robot Check. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-72-inch-
     Carrying-Additional-Camcorders/dp/B003LTB8GM/ref=sr_1_2? 
     ie=UTF8&qid=1490564892&sr=8-2&keywords=polaroid%2Btripod

Meet with Me

I had a group meeting with some of my classmates and it was very helpful to think that people do like my idea as well as asked questions of how the story will be developed. The opening will be developed through the use of voiceover. It was very interesting to talk with the others and see how they  pitched their projects. It gave me some ideas that I could utilize in the opening. Now, i don’t know if they will work,  but I could at least try. Maybe start the voiceover before you see anything or start with the music, I’m not really sure. That will most likely be established when I start editing the footage. There were also some questions that were brought to my attention that I am still thinking about. For instance, why should the audience care and what makes this story different? Now those two questions got me thinking. Yes, every teen at some point feels depressed and we can blame it on the high standards imposed on them by society, but I am trying to tell that this young girl is just depressed because she has to live with these high standards and there is nothing wrong with her. She knows that what she sees in the magazine are unrealistic standards of what most women look like in the world. Those standards don’t really affect her. She just feels the ways she feels for reason that are unknown. She goes on with life as if nothing but that is not true. Being aware of this situation is something everyone should know. It is important to try to understand the importance of mental illness. The other question of why this story is different is the one that I have difficulty figuring out. This difference will help me develop the story of the film of why she feels the way she feels. The reason why I had difficulty is because I didn’t really want to make the story really different  I wanted it to be relatable to some teens and wanted people to understand what teens feel. I did think about a story or a reason why she feels the way she feels. I was thinking about the main character, Alice, having an abusive boyfriend during the summer, but I was not sure. If I do end up doing this idea, I would need to use another character and my main actress to film on another day.  

Show Don't Tell

I have been putting together a storyboard to put some of my ideas together. I had a hard time trying to put together the order that I wanted to put the shots in. I just had ideas of what I wanted to do with no particular order. So I started drawing the end shot of the film opening in which shows the title of the film with the use of body art involved. Then I just started to create shots that will be utilized when the opening credits are added. When I don’t know what shot to do, I grab my camera and try to put myself in the position of the director and the character. Now I know that some shots will not be used but the storyboard is a rough draft of the film opening. So here it is...

These are the ones that I didn't use, but still created. (the ones below)

Stained Body

Your body is the only thing that will forever stay with you. You are the only thing that will forever stay with you. There is such a beauty in the curves of the body, the color of the eyes, the length of the hair. These characteristics physically make you what you are but not who you are. I wanted to utilize the body as a way to express the main character’s pain. I got the idea of body paint when I was bored one day and I started to play around with makeup and wrote the word LOVE on my neck.

That is when I thought that I could utilize makeup and the body as an artistic way to show her inner feelings of herself with no dialogue by the character. I wanted to further research about the power of body paint. That was when I stumbled across an article called “Body Painter Beautifully Destroys the Damaging Labels Women Face”(Pittman, 2016).This article written by Taylor Pittman, talks about a Youtuber and Body painter, Jordan Hanz, who created a video called “Unattainable Woman” about the labels that women face. When I watched the video, it gave me goosebumps and that feeling is what I’m trying to achieve with my film opening.

The video expressed the labels that women face with words that women are named on an everyday basis painted on her body. The article goes on to talk about the inspiration that Jordan got in creating this still motion video. I found  it beautiful, sending a powerful message to girls and society.  I searched about the power of body painting and to be honest it was a struggle finding what I was looking for. When I finally did find it, I came across this blog talking about her experience in creating art and one sentence caught my attention. “Throughout history, body art has captured how humans relate their experiences to their physical body”(Art Simplicated, 2016).


The Art of Painting the Human Body. (2016, August 14). Retrieved March 18, 2017, from

http://www.artsimplicated.com/blog/?page%2F213493%2Fload%2Fblog_detail

2Fitem%2F6268

Pittman, T. (2015, September 21). Body Painter Beautifully Destroys The Damaging Labels

Women Face. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jordan-hanz-body-painter-beautifully-destroys-the-da

maging-labels-women-face_us_560010efe4b0fde8b0ceeac0

(2015, September 11). Retrieved March 18, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubcOx1JfLto

Tell Her Story

A teen girl is living the perfect life in which no one knows how she really feels. She is a high school student who has the pressure of getting into college, keeping her grades up, and have a social life. Alice feels the pressure of being the best. She is very well known in her school: smart, intelligent, beautiful. Alice looks like she fits in but she doesn’t feel like she does.

The opening shot will talk about the main character, in this case Alice. The character will be introduced with a voice-over done by her best friend ,who will be part of the narrative.

After the two minute film opening, the story would start at school. Alice being with her friends and enjoying her time showing how her life is put together and how  everyone  thinks she has everything under control.  The film would show Alice’s everyday life at school and after school hanging out with her friends, but it will also show those times in which she had difficulty falling asleep or how she would stare too long in the mirror causing her to have a panic attack. It will show both the dark and the light in her. She masks what she really feels, writing down in her journal to feel free and relief. At the end of the film, she will try to harm herself at a party, but her best friend finds her in time before she is completely dead. She is taken to the hospital and her parents decide to take her to New York to get the healthcare  she needs. Her best friend ends up hearing about how happy and healthy Alice is when she gets a call from Alice’s mother saying that she is doing okay and that if she wanted to visit her in New York City.

One of the drama conventions in films are happy endings. At first I was thinking of not following this convention, but I decided that making it a happy ending would portray the idea that even in the darkest of times, people can get through anything.

                                                                                                                                                                  

WHO IS SHE?

This will be a short post giving an overview of the main character that will be shown in the film opening.

The main character of the story is Alice a 17-year-old teen girl. She is very well known by many in  her school. She is kind, beautiful, creative. She loves to watch videos and movies, loves to write for  herself, and enjoys spending time with friends. She has a well established group of friends who love her dearly as well as supportive and loving parents. But what she feels on the inside is chaos compared to the calm composure of how she looks on the outside.

Alice hates who she sees in the mirror. Trying to hide herself with a mask. Now I wanted to see how young teens feel like. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was difficult for me to find a film talking about hating your body that was not a documentary. So instead, I found a character who is young and feels insecure about herself.

In the movie American Beauty directed by Sam Mendes, the character Jane doesn’t like who she is. She is very insecure about her physical look. This can be seen at the opening shot of the movie in which the characters are introduced and Jane is seen looking online about breast augmentation.It then  follows Jane where she is looking at herself in the mirror and she doesn’t like what she sees. Then throughout the movie, we see Jane talking to her boyfriend Ricky in which she is talking about the amount of money that she has saved to get a breast augmentation. This shows how she feels the need to change who she for people to like her. She just wanted to feel like she fits in, have the attention that her best Friend Angela gets.

The difference between Jane and my character Alice is that Alice developed hate for herself with no family problems while Jane’s environment with her family is toxic causing her not to like herself. Jane is also a more complex character shown with her clothing and dark vibes. This goes well with who she is, but I have decided that my character will look fresh to show that her image is her mask by making her look beautiful and youthful. The makeup will show her composed on the outside and not transparent.

P.S. This post was longer than expected.

Motion picture. (1999). United States: DreamWorks Pictures. Retrieved March 18,

      2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IritGy3Txl0

Live to Inspire

Being a women is hard enough. In the past women have jumped more obstacles than necessary and today we face an obstacle that should have never crossed our path. That is beauty.

Now you may be wondering why I am creating an opening about beauty. The standard of beauty has been modified for generations and today more than ever women have a part time job in modifying their beauty.  We are all beautiful and we tend to forget that. The beauty industry, the fashion industry and the cosmetic industry strive from the insecurities of women. Being a 17 year old female is hard, especially when social media rules my live and other people as well.

Now, in my previous post, I talked about the genre of drama and how I took inspiration from personal experience, as well as videos and article, to pick the topic of beauty, in which fits well in the drama conventions.

This is tough for me to write or even talk about. But here it goes.

I feel embarrassed of my skin. It is something I have had to live with since the small age of 11. I was told by a boy that I had something on my face. That hurt but not as much as it hurts now, those thoughts and that person will never escape my mind. That was the start of my hate. My acne did get worse in middle schools, especially in 7th and 8th grade. It has been better, but the reflection in the mirror is still a constant reminder that it is there and that it hasn't left. I felt alone. Everywhere I looked, kids had clear skin and that is still true  to me today. I could be half way across the world and still  feel alone. I never felt like I fit in. You see, what is on my face is a disease. I am a disease. I feel like a disease.

My main inspiration for this film opening is to capture that feeling that self-hate is something I and many women face. I will not just be talking about skin, I will be talking about the dark standards of beauty in the 21st century. I got very inspired by a short film posted on YouTube.

The video came to show how the only way someone can feel beautiful is becoming the mask that everyone wants to see. Reading a blog from the Huffington Post about beauty today and beauty in the past through the use of advertisements have opened my eyes to the objectification that women face in the past and the present.  The advertisement article talks about how the beauty industry changed the ideals of what beauty is and as mentioned advertisement played a huge role in that societal change.

I hope to live to inspire individuals to be the best version of themselves and that it is ok to have bad days because in the end, you know that you are as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside.

I'm Beautiful - Short Film. (2015, December 20). Retrieved March 12, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jnWjkmSHRE 

Huckeba, S. (2016, December 21). Beauty and the Beast. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stacie-huckeba/beauty-and-the-beast_3_b_13519380.html

Scherker, A. (2014, April 29). 7 Ways The Beauty Industry Convinced Women That They Weren't Good Enough. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/beauty-industry-women_n_5127078.html 

I Might Have a Clue

Now  I was in the process of researching the genre of my film opening and I had numerous ideas to create.

Since the beginning of the school year, a young-ish girl walked into a class not knowing what to expect. She found a world filled with magic, research and creativity. She never imagined how fascinated she would be by the class. By the way she still is. That young-ish girl is me. When I found out that we would be making a film opening towards the end of the year, I was thinking of ideas before I was even born.

I found it difficult yet easy to brainstorm what I wanted to do. In the beginning of the school year, I was thinking of doing a film about gymnastics and I had already had shots running through my mind. The angle of the camera focused on the feet of a young girl on the beam or even having someone run towards me, and in that case I hope I would not be run over and die. But that idea kind of, not completely disappear, but was put in the back of my mind. Then, December rolled in. It was the time when I travelled to Spain. I thought that I might do a film surrounding the topic of travel. I love to travel and the idea of learning about new cultures and TRYING to make new friends. But most of all I enjoyed the time with my family and of course,  FOOD. (IT WAS TO DIE FOR). But anyways, that didn’t work out because it would have mostly likely turned into a documentary and well I’m not allowed to non-fiction adaptation, A.K.A. a documentary. So then I rolled around in my thoughts.

Being a person who usually zones out in the middle of History or even math class has its benefits. I am telling you, it really has its benefit. But anyways, I have decided to do something personal, something emotional. That is where the genre of drama comes in. I have no drama in my life for now, ( I should find real wood to knock on) but it follows many conventions that my film would have. “ Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between”(Dirks). Being such an emotional topic as well as personal, the genre seemed to fit perfectly. Now I would tell you about my idea but I will be talking more about it on my next post of where I got my inspiration and why I will film something so personal.

Thank you for reading my somewhat cohesive thoughts, as you could tell I might have gone out of topic a little bit.

Dirks, T. (n.d.). Drama Films. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html

28 Days To Go

Having only a month to create a 2 minute film opening can be stressful, especially when you are doing it by yourself. I am trying to organize myself to be able to make a well produced film opening, but with school it can be a little complicated so i have decided to  create somewhat of  a schedule.

Week One: Planning: I will be planning about the genre, the character/ Story, and Inspiration.

Week Two: I will mostly likely be working further in the planning. Maybe do a storyboard to organize my thoughts and if more research is necessary, this week would be the perfect time to further my understanding of my topic.

Week Three: I will take this week to film and start editing as I go to make sure that it is turning out as I want.

Week Four/Five: I will mostly likely be editing the footage. I’m a beginner in the editing business, but having this time will allow me to play around with different techniques. I hope to record the voiceover as well as the find the perfect music that will fit. Though the music search will be tough as I am very picky when it comes to finding the music that will convey the emotions perfectly, I have enough time to  find the blends of melody that will tell a story.

Now, this is just an overview of what is to come,  and I know that things occur and not everything will go to plan, but all I can do is hope that everything will turn out great in the end.