tea time in tstok

 So today in class we had a group meeting to discuss our projects and get some feedback and ideas... unfortunately Cypress Bay decided it was a perfect time to do a fire drill. So for the first 30 minutes of class, we walked in the blazing hot sun but eventually, we got into our groups.  My group consisted of my classmates Martina, Juan, Max, Kat, and Isabelle. Most of our ideas were very different from one another, but it was so cool to hear what other people's ideas were. My favorite idea was Isabelle's who is doing a dystopian film that I thought was so out there for a teenager to make, she and her partner have developed the full idea and even beyond the film opening. The opening consists of a group of kids getting socially experimented on and she was struggling to figure out a way to show that, we all gave her some advice like making them follow rules, or injecting them with something and seeing how they react or just something obvious that the audience would understand. Her idea kind of reminded me of this movie I watched that I actually really liked its called The Giver, it was a mix of that and Hunger Games into 1.

After 2 people in our group talked we only had 20 mins so the rest of us had to kind of speedrun our explanations. Juan went after Isabelle and he had a similar type of dystopian film involving kids but it was still so different from the other one. It's about the CEO who runs a boarding school for kids to learn how to be businessmen, it's a really interesting idea and I've never seen anything like it.

When it was my turn to speak there were 5 minutes left of class so I quickly told everyone my idea. Everyone seemed to really like the idea and loved the musical aspect of it. One person mentioned that I should have the music playing in her headphones and that was exactly what I was going to do. 

After talking with all my classmates it made me super excited to see all their final projects because they all seem really into their project and I am sure they are gonna make them amazing.

So before I start looking for locations to film I need to do a deep dive into non-copywritten music that I can incorporate throughout the opening so I'll talk to you when I start that soon.

Script writing is so harddd

 The next step of my film opening journey is the script and this is the part I've been dreading the most. I've never written a proper script and I also never write things down like scene by scene but this is a challenge I have to overcome so let's do this. Since I want to do this properly and not on a Google document I've decided to look into scrip writing websites, after looking for a while I found one called Celtx with some good reviews. And it already looks better than anything I could make on Google Docs.

So far I have written 2 pages and it isn't as bad as I thought It would be. Writing this gives me such creative freedom and I can write whatever I want. One of my favorite things about this website is a counter that counts how long I've been writing and thinking, It motivates me to write even more.

 

So I finished writing my script and I am so excited. I loved the website and how it worked and I think I made just what I imagined.  Here it is...

Titles

Quick little blog post... Ok, so I ran into a bit of a problem when writing my script. I have finished writing everything I needed but the first page is empty because I don't have a title so I need to come up with one. So I definitely want to incorporate the concept of music and her mental health into the title so that's a start.

I had thought of Symphony of Anxiety but I don't think this captures the essence of the film well,

so back to the drawing board... 

I have two ideas that I really like but I don't know which one

Anxious Melodies or Unmuted I think both titles give some idea of what the film would be but do not reveal everything, I am going to ask around, and I'll get back to you when I come up with a decision.

So the overall census is Anxious Melodies

I think unmuted sound to creepy and like a horror movie so Anxious Melodies is it!

diving into the characters

 Now that I have an idea set in stone I want to analyze each of the characters and what they would be like.

 So first we have to start with the main character I've been thinking of a name and I really like Olivia, I think it is so calm and I think it will balance the character out since she is so chaotic. Having a name for the character makes things so much easier...  Olivia is a misunderstood character but I think she looks very put together, she speaks in a good manner while still being a teenager and using slang. Olivia doesn't seem to care about anything but if you got to know her you would see that she is a super caring girl who has a very deep side that people ignore. The only outlet she has is music, olivia listens to very unknown music that not a lot of people and it's the only thing she relates to. She understands that music means something and is more than just lyrics.

Olivia's mom will be named Claire, she is very much a working woman who prioritizes work over everything. She is a very together woman but inside she is a mess, we can see this in the scene where Olivia tries to talk to her, her work table is filled with random papers and she is very confused looking for what she needs. Claire and her husband have been struggling with their marriage for years and they have been separated multiple times but they never got a divorce. A big issue is their finances because her husband doesn't have a job and just kind of jumps from one place to another which is why she is always busy with her work, making sure her family is well off. She doesn't notice her daughter's struggles and just thinks she is like every other teen who is sad sometimes, their relationship isn't that good since she is always working but Claire sees no issue with that.

 Olivia's dad will be named Jackson,  he is a very nerdy guy who loves his family, but his life recently hasn't been easy. He has been having problems with his wife for a while but he loves her and his daughter he just has a hard time expressing it. Being the only man in the house makes him feel very awkward about everything so he and his daughter don't talk a lot. He has been jumping from one job to another and hasn't found anything permanent but this is not from a lack of trying, we see how passionate he is when he is arguing with Claire about their finances.

The mysterious person whom Olivia meets in the bathroom is a girl named Hazel. Hazel is a very basic-looking girl who you wouldn't know had anything deep to her. Hazel has been through a lot from changing schools very often and her parents' divorce she is a person Olivia will be able to connect with and find herself in. Although hazel looks very sweet and blends in her personality is quite the oppositive she is a super crazy girl but also cares about her friends very deeply, and she understands things most kids her age don't. She will be what saves Olivia from herself and her problems.

These are all the main characters for now. By talking about each of these characters I can now develop the script and shots way better because  I now get a feel of each person. By figuring out the way Olivia acts and talks I can make her shots different than her mom Claire, and even the way they interact.

figuring everything out !!!!

 For me to go any further in my film opening I need to lay out my idea and then the fun stuff can happen. So in my previous blog post, I spent some time figuring out the plot of my film opening. So to sum it up the film will focus on a girl who struggles with mental health issues and no one in her life has helped or cared enough to even see the problem, but one day as she is having a panic attack in the bathroom someone new comes into her life. After some thought, I've figured out a big part of the plot which I want to be music, I think that music is what is going to connect the main character to the person who knocks on the bathroom door. So to incorporate this throughout the opening I am going to have the main girl listen to music while her problems are happening, when she starts to cry because her parents are fighting she will put headphones on and blast music, we will also see this when she is writing in her diary, we will hear her talk and write and her music playing in the background faintly, we will also see her wearing headphones. so when she says "Being an only child is hard you know, you have your parents of course but in my family, we are all kind of alone... my mom and dad fight a lot, like every day about something new, and I've tried making things better but they do not want my help, I don't even think they really care about what I have to say" I am going to add something along the lines of " since I am alone the only that understands me is music". So to the person she meets in the bathroom, when the main character runs in having a panic attack she is going to drop her notebook which is going to have stickers of her favorite bands, so when the person knocks they say "Hey are you ok? you dropped your book, I've never met someone else who like the 'name of the artist' " here well see a hopeful look in the main characters face. So after thinking for days I finally figured out my entire idea for the film opening. Before I start writing the script I am going to create each character in depth so I can figure out how each one of them would speak and act.

Developing plot...

 Now that I know what genre I'll be doing I am going to brainstorm some ideas and find what I like best and what I can execute well. So I had an idea a while ago but I just never had time to develop it further and I think it would be perfect for a 2 min film opening. It's a girl who has very bad anxiety and panic attacks and everyone she talks to thinks she is crazy, she has no more friends, her parents don't care, and her teachers are too busy to see, a big part of this would be the main character talking to her diary because no one else would listen to her. I have somewhat of an idea for the beginning but the rest is pretty much up in the air. It would start with a wide shot of the back of a girl riding her bike and it's a tracking shot, and you hear the bike, and a couple seconds after the voice-over starts and she says something along the lines of " I don't know when it started, maybe it was when I anxiously tapped my leg in math class or when I could breathe after being called on, but when it started it never went away" and as she says this we see some shots of those events happening. When she says "It never went away" the screen goes black and the title appears. Since I want to show how other characters in the film don't relate to the main character I think the next scene after that should cut to a medium shot of the girl at home, in the back you see and hear parents fighting about their financial situation, the girl is sitting at a table doing homework and you can see a tear fall off of her eye, by adding this scene I can give the audience some back story on why the girl may be struggling with her mental health. I am thinking of adding a scene after that when it's later in the day and we see the girl walk over to her mom and start talking, the mom dismisses her because she is busy working and says that they can talk later, the girl walks away looking very upset, next I want to add another voice-over of the girl explaining what is going on with her parents, something like " being an only child is hard you know, you have your parents of course but in my family, we are all kind of alone... my mom and dad fight a lot, like every day about something new, and I've tried making things better but they do not want my help, I don't even think they really care about what I have to say" here we see her actually writing in her diary but some flashes of her family fighting and not really talking to her. The next scene I want it to be at school and I am deciding whether or not the girl has a scene with her teacher or her classmates. I think I am going to go with the girl who has a scene with her teacher, here we will see the teacher's face but it will be an over-the-shoulder shot of them looking at the teacher because I think I can get more emotion with the teacher instead of the classmates. This will be somewhat of a confrontation where the teacher is talking to the girl because she has bad grades, here will hear the teacher tell that the girl is doing really bad. Next, we'll have a shot following the girl out of the class as she storms into the bathroom where she goes into the big stall and slams shut the door, here we see the main character panic attack in the bathroom, I've seen a couple movie show panic attacks and one of them is A Man Named Otto. In this movie, we see a scene where Otto has a panic attack and doesn't know what to do. In my film, the girl will have a panic attack but I want to make it more dramatic where we see her struggling to breathe and slide from the wall after she starts crying. and then we hear a knock on the bathroom door.  So basically the plot is about a teenage girl who is struggling with her mental health and she has no one to turn to so she turns to her diary where she tells all her problems but one day while she is crying someone new comes into her life. I'll keep on looking deeper into this story to see if I can come up with any more ideas, I'll write more when I look deeper into similar movies with this kind of plot.

Genre Journey

 There are so many genres to choose from horror, sci-fi, or even musicals... but honestly, I am a classic type of girl. I've been looking into some coming-of-age films which seem like an obvious choice for a teenage girl but I have a couple of good ideas.

When researching some coming-of-age movies and shows I looked into my favorites Girl Interrupted, Words in the Bathroom Wall, and 13 Reasons Why. 

All these movies and shows are coming of age yet they are different than the typical Disney Channel Original. These focus heavily on mental health which is what I am planning on doing. By focusing on mental health these coming-of-age films have a sense of suspense to them. After diving deeper into these films I've learned a new genre that fits all the films which is Psychological Fiction.

Psychological Fiction focuses heavily on the mental lives of its characters, often it's a narrative genre that focuses on what is happening to the main character. All three of these shows and movies are Psychological Fiction because, in each of them, you get a voice-over from the character explaining why and how they feel about their given situations. Psychological Fiction allows for a deeper understanding of a character and puts a whole new perspective to the show. In my film opening, I plan on using the Psychological Fiction voice method to go into detail about the main character's struggle with mental health, like in Words on the Bathroom Wall where the main character Adam talks to the audience as if they are his therapist. I plan to have my main character talk to herself or her diary which will allow her to express all her emotions just as Adam did in the movie. Another part of most Psychological Fiction is the mental health aspect, Girl Interrupted does an amazing job at showing different characters that struggle with mental health issues like Daisy who struggles heavily with OCD and we see her go through stages of trying to get better but it's not something she can fix, in my film opening I want to show the effects of mental illness in young teenagers and I am inspired by Girl interrupted and want to show the good and ugly parts of mental health. So after researching coming-of-age and Psychological Fiction films and shows and learning how to combine the two like the films I've researched I now can start putting my ideas on a piece of paper where I can start writing the beginning of my film opening.

Something new !

 Starting next week we will be starting our 8-week-long portfolio project. This project is part of our Cambridge test and it requires us to make a 2-minute film opening. For my project I am interested in doing a character vs. self kind of story because it allows me a do topics that a lot of people struggle with like anxiety, depression, and things like that, but I am also interested in doing a character vs. technology  something along the lines of getting your identity stolen. For this project, I am super interested in playing around with coloring in the editing part and the mise-en-scene elements. Over these past months we have worked on projects to help us develop all these different skills like editing, camera, and sound so we can do good on this project, and now it's finally time to start it.