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