Critical reflections

this is my critical reflection ;)))))

hope you enjoy it!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12QgboSGU7EvKNVPEIcO8fqHoSskgrZ2g/view?usp=sharing

https://youtu.be/dXAwak0dUlg

 

Film Opening

 Here is my film opening Anxious Melodies.

I am proud of how it came out and I enjoyed this learning experience. I am glad I get to put this out to the world so teens can relate and understand more about mental health.

 ( https://youtu.be/sO33L0W86PY )

CCR reality show

 CCR 2 is about this reality TV show house where I am getting interviewed as one of the contestants. I'll be answering questions 1 and 2 in this.

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

My film opening titled Anxious Melodies challenges conventions of the coming of age films. Coming-of-age movies that focus on teenagers focus a lot of teens finding love, climbing the social hierarchy but my film focuses on a part of a teen's life that doesn't get shown. From what we learned this year lots of shows and films tend to steer away from mental health topics, especially with teenagers. Mental health in teenagers gets labeled as a sensitive topic that most films think is too deep to talk about. Although in my film the main character Olivia does find her best friend which some coming-of-age movies also do it's more than her finding a friend, it's about her getting into a better place mentally. It's all about the deep relationships you can form over a similar interest, it's about how being around the right people helps you become who you really want to be. I think it represents a lot of teenagers who struggle with anxiety, depression, and just any life problems, being surrounded by movies about finding the perfect boyfriend or getting popular doesn't accurately represent current teens. The reason I wanted to stay away from the cringy stereotypical coming of age is because I relate to the story, the film is loosely based on my life and what I struggle with. I've seen movies about mental health but they aren't popular and not made enough, showing people what it feels like to be a real teenager has a bigger effect than the typical teen movie. By representing this group of people it shows teens that it's ok to struggle with mental health and that it happens to a lot of people, it even helps other people understand the situations some people are in. 

On the other hand, the film does follow the conventions of most psychological fiction movies where we get to connect to the characters and understand what they feel. I think the psychological fiction genre does a great job of depicting mental health issues and that is why I wanted to make one. By understanding the character you form a connection and you almost feel the way they feel and I wanted to do that to make people understand mental health better.

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My film's target audience is teenagers, with the combination of a coming-of-age film and a physiological fiction the film would interest teens and young adults.  Since the film revolves around the life of a teenage girl and her issues the target audio will most likely be teenage girls but it's not restricted to that. People who would watch this film opening are most likely aware of mental health problems and may even struggle with it, when watching they can relate and find comfort that things can get better. When beginning to work on the film opening I thought of what I watched and why I appealed to psychological fiction coming-of-age movies. It was because of the connections, I loved how the character connected deeply with one person who helped them with what they struggled with and that's what I did in my story because I wanted the audience to see how people can change you. When it comes to distributing my film I thought about it a lot. Since this is my first ever film I would distribute it on platforms that are easily accessible by lots of people for me to reach as many people as possible which will help me grow as a filmmaker. I would use platforms like YouTube and websites made for other amateur filmmakers; I would also submit it to competitions and film festivals for it to get recognized and gain more viewers.

Let's get to writing

So everyone in this house is insane, we've been here for 8 weeks and everyone hates each other the only thing that everyone likes at this point is blogger.com

 producer- so do you think yours is better than everyone else i don't want to start drama in the house again but I personally think my film opening was better than most

producer- and why is that

come on please my film opening challenged the conventions of coming-of-age movies which no one would expect from a teenage girl. And the film itself is about a deep topic that doesn't get talked about enough which is mental health

producers- why do you think that is?

well, coming-of-age movies are all about being popular and finding love they don't actually have deeper meanings to them because they are afraid to talk about pressing teenage issues which as mental health. In my film, i combined a genre that usually never gets into mental health issues with one that does very often, which is psychological fiction. psychological fictions get a look into what the character is thinking and makes mental health an easier topic to bring up

producer- why did you make your film about this

i wanted to tell the untold story of many teens in a way where they could see that things get better and that mental health is someone a lot of people struggle with. After being in this house I see that people don't think it's a big issue with teenagers but in reality, it is, and since people don't think it's an issue they don't address it.

i basically made my film to show people that they aren't alone

producers- is that who the film is for teenagers

yes but also no, the target audience is obviously teens because it is a movie about a teenage girl but it can honestly be for anyone

producer-how is that

well to educate them to show that teens are struggling too but in general when I made the film I made it with other teens in mind, this story is very close to my heart and I think a lot of other teens would connect with it.

producers-do you think you did a good job at appealing to teens

I sure did, since I kept them in mind while making the film I made sure to add elements that teens have in their day-to-day lives like music

producers- do you like music

I love music which is why it's a big part of the film, being in this house full of other teens I've seen how much people feel from music and that's why music was a way to connect with teens in my film.

after the show here is what you plan to do with the film you made while being on Top List island

Since Top List Island was my first time ever doing something like this film opening I want to post it on YouTube and social media, which hopefully all the show watchers will follow. I'm also thinking of submitting to competitions and film festivals and you never know maybe come back for top list island season 2.

CCR phone call

 My first CCR is a phone call between myself and I where I am going to be talking about the last two questions of the CCR. 

so change of plans I'm going to be making this into a cringy YouTube tutorial where i give advice while aesthetic music loops in the back. so I'm going to paraphrase what I wrote in these paragraphs

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

My skills have developed through the year in general. Throughout the year we have been learning 

all types of different camera movements, editing techniques, mise-en-scene, and audio elements that I have never known of, I have learned through the project to develop meaning in what I do. The whole project itself is about what I learned, how meaning has to be deeper than just because it looks pretty and that is exactly why I chose this genre. By doing a story with deep meaning I was able to dive deep into my filming choices and the music especially. Since the film focuses a lot on how music makes one feel I got to understand the power of audio through my film, when editing I realized that I couldn't just add any song over this dramatic scene, it needed to relate and have a connection. Throughout the film opening, I learned to be open to new ideas, to try new things I had never thought of, and to understand why I am doing this and how other people will feel when watching my film.

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

Throughout the project integrating technologies was one of the biggest parts of it, without all these tools I wouldn't have been able to do the film at all. The biggest software I used was Premiere Pro where I edited the entire film opening, I'm familiar with the way it works and I even learned new things while making my opening. Some other software I used was Celtx which is where I wrote my script, I really used every tool this website had to offer and it was a great tool to have now forever, i have never written a script, and finding this website made the whole writing process a lot easier. Overall the biggest software I used is the one and only Blogger.com this place has been a dream and a nightmare combined, I've experienced every high and low of my project here and I am so glad I have. I think blogging the process of making this has helped me look back and see what I first imagined come to life. Hardware was provided by cbtv thanks to them I was able to use a T7i camera that made the process super easy since I am familiar with it, i also used phone lavs when recording all audio. To make my shots stable I made sure to also have a tripod. Online tools were super useful when looking for music, i used Spotify to search for an artist and actually download the songs I needed. I also used YouTube when searching for sound effects even though I only used one throughout the film.

Now it is time to film see you later.

CCR what??

 So a huge part of the project is our CCR which is a creative critical reflection and I am worried about it. We basically need to create two creative ways to reflect on our project. In those two ways, we have to answer these questions

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

So I've been listening to what other people are doing and they all sound really good, like someone is reading it like a bedtime story, someone is doing it like an interview. So I think for one of them I'm gonna do a phone call, where I split the screen and have me talking to myself.  For this idea, I think im going to answer the last two questions.

For my other one where it answers the question, I am going to do it like an interview from a reality TV show. The idea is that I'm surrounded by people who are competing against my film opening and we have lots of drama. I think I could make this really fun because I am a huge fan of reality competition shows. 

before I actually script the questions and answers I'm going to just answer them as a question and not add any "creative" aspect to it which will hopefully make both CCR's easier since I know what my answers are to each question.

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

My film opening titled Anxious Melodies challenges conventions of the coming of age films. Coming-of-age movies that focus on teenagers focus a lot of teens finding love, climbing the social hierarchy but my film focuses on a part of a teen's life that doesn't get shown. From what we learned this year lots of shows and films tend to steer away from mental health topics, especially with teenagers. Mental health in teenagers gets labeled as a sensitive topic that most films think is too deep to talk about. Although in my film the main character Olivia does find her best friend which some coming-of-age movies also do it's more than her finding a friend, it's about her getting into a better place mentally. It's all about the deep relationships you can form over a similar interest, it's about how being around the right people helps you become who you really want to be. I think it represents a lot of teenagers who struggle with anxiety, depression, and just any life problems, being surrounded by movies about finding the perfect boyfriend or getting popular doesn't accurately represent current teens. The reason I wanted to stay away from the cringy stereotypical coming of age is because I relate to the story, the film is loosely based on my life and what I struggle with. I've seen movies about mental health but they aren't popular and not made enough, showing people what it feels like to be a real teenager has a bigger effect than the typical teen movie. By representing this group of people it shows teens that it's ok to struggle with mental health and that it happens to a lot of people, it even helps other people understand the situations some people are in. 

On the other hand, the film does follow the conventions of most psychological fiction movies where we get to connect to the characters and understand what they feel. I think the psychological fiction genre does a great job of depicting mental health issues and that is why I wanted to make one. By understanding the character you form a connection and you almost feel the way they feel and I wanted to do that to make people understand mental health better.

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My film's target audience is teenagers, with the combination of a coming-of-age film and a physiological fiction the film would interest teens and young adults.  Since the film revolves around the life of a teenage girl and her issues the target audio will most likely be teenage girls but it's not restricted to that. People who would watch this film opening are most likely aware of mental health problems and may even struggle with it, when watching they can relate and find comfort that things can get better. When beginning to work on the film opening I thought of what I watched and why I appealed to psychological fiction coming-of-age movies. It was because of the connections, I loved how the character connected deeply with one person who helped them with what they struggled with and that's what I did in my story because I wanted the audience to see how people can change you. When it comes to distributing my film I thought about it a lot. Since this is my first ever film I would distribute it on platforms that are easily accessible by lots of people for me to reach as many people as possible which will help me grow as a filmmaker. I would use platforms like YouTube and websites made for other amateur filmmakers; I would also submit it to competitions and film festivals for it to get recognized and gain more viewers.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

My skills have developed through the year in general. Throughout the year we have been learning 

all types of different camera movements, editing techniques, mise-en-scene, and audio elements that I have never known of, I have learned through the project to develop meaning in what I do. The whole project itself is about what I learned, how meaning has to be deeper than just because it looks pretty and that is exactly why I chose this genre. By doing a story with deep meaning I was able to dive deep into my filming choices and the music especially. Since the film focuses a lot on how music makes one feel I got to understand the power of audio through my film, when editing I realized that I couldn't just add any song over this dramatic scene, it needed to relate and have a connection. Throughout the film opening, I learned to be open to new ideas, to try new things I had never thought of, and to understand why I am doing this and how other people will feel when watching my film.

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

Throughout the project integrating technologies was one of the biggest parts of it, without all these tools I wouldn't have been able to do the film at all. The biggest software I used was Premiere Pro where I edited the entire film opening, I'm familiar with the way it works and I even learned new things while making my opening. Some other software I used was Celtx which is where I wrote my script, I really used every tool this website had to offer and it was a great tool to have now forever, i have never written a script, and finding this website made the whole writing process a lot easier. Overall the biggest software I used is the one and only Blogger.com this place has been a dream and a nightmare combined, I've experienced every high and low of my project here and I am so glad I have. I think blogging the process of making this has helped me look back and see what I first imagined come to life. Hardware was provided by cbtv thanks to them I was able to use a T7i camera that made the process super easy since I am familiar with it, i also used phone lavs when recording all audio. To make my shots stable I made sure to also have a tripod. Online tools were super useful when looking for music, i used Spotify to search for an artist and actually download the songs I needed. I also used YouTube when searching for sound effects even thought I only used one throughout the film.

After answering all the questions I am now going to use that to help me while scripting my CCR's.

Graphics

 I am not a big graphics person, I usually ask other people who actually know what they are doing to do it for me but this time I'm gonna do it all by myself. Instead of doing it in Photoshop which will definitely be harder but better I'm going to be using Canva only because I know how to work it better than Photoshop.

The first graphic I'm gonna make is the title graphic so I need to pick a font which is gonna be so hard. I really want a font that looks handwritten to match the diary she writes in so here are a couple options I like

After much thought I think the best-looking one is Schoolbell i think it's cute and matches perfectly with the theme. After choosing the graphic I started with the title of the film, and this was honestly so hard. The making of the graphic wasn't hard, I just made a heading on Canva chose the font, and added a green background to it like this

the problem came later when I added this graphic to the timeline, for some reason every time I added it it kept giving me a black frame when I would play it.

I tried moving the graphic, rendering the project, and changing the clip of her riding the bike and nothing worked so I went back to the drawing board, where I decided to change the background color to blue and the font to white because maybe the black font was making the black frame so this is what I made.

This time the graphic actually worked, no black frames. So now on to the credits, I wanted to make them black to blend in more so I was hoping it didn't do the black frame problem again. I made all of them in a small schoolbell font in black and it worked. 

After this, I added them to the timeline and this went great, I wasn't sure where to place them but I kept most of them on the top or bottom of the screen.

I think the graphics worked well with the overall story, although they are quick you can still see and understand.

editing

 Hi so after shooting I'm starting to edit. I honestly am not a big fan of editing, I personally like shooting more but I've surprisingly found editing this really relaxing. I really love seeing things come together and bringing my visions to life.

 So I use Premiere Pro to edit, I use Premiere all the time because of TV production so this is not new to me. The first thing is that I am doing a line edit, where I basically just put all the best clips together to form the first cut of the film. Line editing for me is hard because I am very nitpicky but for now, I'm just putting the clips together, and then later I'll deep dive into each frame and make them perfect. I started the line diting with the panic attack scene because that was an easy sequence shot that I had to put together.

The main thing I am worried about when editing is time, I know when shooting I definitely overshot just in case but now as I edit I think everything might be too long. I just did the line edit for just the panic attack scene and it's 40 seconds and the entire thing has to be 2 min so fingers crossed everything works out.  When I finished the line edit the video was 2 minutes and 9 seconds which I am so happy about because I was scared of going over.

After doing my main line edit I went into the nitpicking mode, trimming all my clips to exactly what I wanted and making sure to fix audio mistakes, like someone saying go or to start. After this, I went in and added the sound effects I needed and my music. 

So when it came to the music I looked up on YouTube how to make muffled sounds on premiere because I want the music to sound like it's coming out of her headphones. I found this quick video here that explained it in literally a minute or so and it made my audio just what I wanted.  The tutorial helped me a lot and it was super easy, I messed with it until I got just the sound I wanted.

After all the audio and nitpicky editing it was time to color the project. So the way I usually color my videos is by adding an adjustment layer on top of the line editing and changing the settings until I get the colors I want. Of course, this does bring some problems because some clips are darker than other so after adding the adjustment layer I went in and corrected the ones that were too dark or too light. The overall adjustment layer had pretty simple setting, I turned up the vibrance and turned down the exposure to get that gloomy film look but also having lots of colors.

After all this, the only thing my video is missing is the voiceover from the parents and the teacher which I'll be getting later today, I'll check in with you after.

Music Choices

 A huge struggle during my project was music.

A big part of the story itself is music, and how it can help someone with their problems... the problem is I can't find music. I've been searching up down, sideways, and upside down for music that is non-copywritten. I found lots of non-copyright music but it all sucked, most were background music, with no lyrics, or if it did have lyrics the artist wasn't someone I could easily reference in the film. So after searching for a while and only coming up with songs like this I took a break to work on the shot list.

After I finished everything and even shooting I desperately needed an artist to use for the opening. Then I remembered my friend Ava has a friend that makes music. Which I thought It would be perfect because she even talks about mental health in her music. Her name is Mckensy and her music name is Tired in Pink. She is not a huge artist but she makes great music, she has 16 monthly listeners and has 16 songs on Spotify. After I listened to a couple songs and heard how good it would go in my film opening and decided to DM asking her for permission, obviously it wasn't a super professional text but here it is.

As you can see she said YESSSS. So as soon as she texted me back I  listened to all her songs and I picked 4 that I really liked. Those were Best friend, Skyler's pov, Nathalie, and FAKE.

The reason I chose those specific songs is because they had similar vibes, chill, and soothing music that could help Olivia thought her hard times. I specifically chose Best friends as the last song she would listen to as she is having her panic attack to foreshadow that the girl she meets will become her best friend.

Audio problems and solutions

 Since there weren't many people to help me during the actual filming process I needed people to do a voiceover for certain clips.

I needed to do a voice-over of Olivia reading her diary, this was pretty easy since I did it by myself. I checked out a phone lav from my TV production class, and I recorded it on voice memos on my phone inside my closet so I could get the best quality audio that had no background noise. I just read the script I had previously written.

After doing my part things got a little harder because I had to rely on other people. I needed a man and a woman to play Olivia's parents and I also needed someone to play the teacher. So for the parents, I texted my classmate Gabi because I know her parents, so I gave them a set of lines to do. And they said YES!!

When they sent it back it was perfect and just what I needed. So I added it to the timeline. Since I wanted to make it sound like it was coming from the room next to Olivia I added the same effect I added to the music.

When adding these audio clips I made sure to make the sound quiet when she put her headphones back on. 

After doing the parents scene I had to do the teacher scene. I had first asked my friend Zain to ask her mom to do it. She had said yes and Zain said she would send it.

After waiting a day... she didn't send it to me. I then asked my friend who also helped me film Mateo. I asked him to do a deeper voice to sound older.

Although it's not exactly who I wanted to do it I think he did a good job of sounding older and like a teacher. For his audio when I added it to the timeline I did not make it sound like it was coming from a different room since you could see Olivia and the teacher's shoulder.

I think the hardest part of the project was relying on other people. The technicals is not hard because its something I enjoy doing, but when it comes to getting other people's help something always goes wrong, i think everything is a learning experience and makes me want to do another project like this.

shooting

 So I shot Anxious Melodies, and it did not go horribly.

So since I told you guys I did play the main character, SO when shooting it was me and my friend Mateo because no one else was able to help. This was a big struggle since it was just the two of us and honestly really annoying because I am always able to help everyone when they need but when I need help no one is available to help me. That's why I love Mateo so much because he is always able to help me and I appreciate him very much. I am grateful that Mateo was able to help me and I think it turned out great. I would have liked it better if I wasn't in it and instead behind the camera but I have to do what I got to do to get this project done. 

Ok so to the actual shooting part, I wanted to shoot in 3 different locations. The first location is at school, Here we shot in a classroom, the hallway, and the bathroom. Then we shot in my house where we shot in my room and dining room. And lastly, we shot in my street, on the road, on the sidewalk. 

We did not shoot in chronological order because since we were already at school, we shot first in the classroom. Here we shot the scene where Olivia gets confronted by the teacher, since this was after school there was no one there to play the actual teacher so we positioned the shot behind a chair to make it over the shoulder, so it looks like there is a person there and I am speaking to them; here is one of the shots that require a voice-over which I'm going to ask one of my friend's dads, or mom to do it for me. The next shot we shot was Olivia walking out the door of the classroom after talking to the teacher, here we see her start to have a panic attack and drop her notebook. After she walked out of the classroom, We got a shot of her dropping her notebook and walking fast to the bathroom, so for most of the shots we decided to go handheld and the reason is because it adds to the stress she is having, it makes the viewer feel the panic attack and feel how Olivia feel, we did this for the majority of shots except ones where we wanted to show some stability. In this shot, we made sure to get the front and back of the same action of her walking so we see both the notebook fall and her facial expressions. After this, we started to shoot the scene which I think is the most important scene which is the one of Olivia having a panic attack. We first got a shot of Olivia walking and I thought we could be creative I took some inspiration from a shot we saw in an excerpt in class the other day from the show killing eve where the camera is positioned through a mirror where we see the main character, so in my shot, we positioned the camera where it points to the mirrors and we see Olivia walking into the bathroom, we also got a shot of Olivia back walking into the bathroom stall, and we see her slam the door.   

The second location we shot at was at my house we first started in my room, where we shot the shot of Oliva writing in her diary, this is one of the shots I wanted to add to the opening because I thought it would look cool. The shot is a bit shaky in a bad way cause it required Mateo to walk around the bed but I think it turned out good. Afterward, we went to my living room where we shot Olivia doing her homework as her parents fought, we got multiple angles just in case; for these shots, we used a tripod because we thought it would be too shaky otherwise. 

Lastly, we filmed the beginning of the film which is outside on the street. We had a lot of fun with these shots because we got to use my bike and run around my neighborhood. Here we just got every shot we could imagine, I rode the bike up and down the hills, we went on the sidewalk, the street, the grass. I made sure to tell Mateo to get a variety of shots, like one of my feet, and one on ground level. We spent the most time here to get the shots perfect because it is the first scene of the film so I wanted it to look good.

After this the next day I did have to make up one shot that I was missing, which was the shot of Olivia writing the name of the artist she loves on her notebook, this was a quick shot that took about 5 minutes to do, it was handheld and it had people talking in the back for the classroom effect.

Overall the shooting process was very stressful but I think I got everything I needed to edit a great film opening. I know I'm going to struggle to edit and look for clips, so I made sure to mark the clips I liked after filming to make things easier when I started to edit

problems...

 Hi... it's been a while things have been hectic but that's a different story. So I've come to a few problems with my script. 

The first problem is that I don't have anyone to play the characters, I knew this would be a problem because with 5 characters and 3 being adults casting was definitely rough. So I cut out the scene where the parents argue and instead of showing them arguing and well just being able to hear them, It will fully focus on Olivia's reactions and what she is doing while listening to them argue rather than the parents while they argue. I think this also works well with the piece because at the end of the day we want to see how her parents arguing affects her.

My other problem is the casting itself, unfortunately, I am going to play the main character which I desperately did not want to do, but I needed someone to do it. So this means I need someone to record, which I got my friend Mateo to do. Since I am in the film and not behind the camera things aren't gonna end up exactly how I want them, but that's just what happens sometimes.

So because of these issues, I changed lots of things. I figured out a way for only one person to be in the entire thing. For the shots with the parents I am going to VO the fight and make it seem like it's in a different room. I am going to get rid of the shots with the entire classroom filled with students, and instead, I'm going to give the context to Olivia's bad grades by showing them in the scene where she hears her parents argue and then cut to black and the school bell rings and we see Olivia talking to her teacher. In this scene, we will only be able to see the teacher's shoulder, which I can easily fake with a chair, and I will also VO the teacher talking to Olivia. The only concern is that the VO won't sound real, but I'll make sure to record room tone when I film the scenes and then add them on top of the VO to make it sound like it's actually happening in that moment in that room.

dates

 So I am behind on the blog post because I've had a very stressful week, cried a couple times today but it's all OK. I want to set out the whole schedule, there are basically 4 weeks before the project is due and I need to film and edit. So let's break it down week by week.

3/4 - 3/10

So this week I need to finish my storyboard ASAP

research small bands and artists I can use in my opening

I want to research some short films that are psychological fiction.

Cast character + figure shoot days out

I need to do some scene changes because of character issues

3/11 - 3/17

Work on character wardrobe + coordinate with actors

Work on mise-en-scene elements of the project like her notebook with her band drawings and such.

Create a shot list 

Research credits and title cards and find right fonts

3/18 -3/24

Check out equipment from BECON (Beacon is a Broward County station where they run news, radios, and shows, and they offer free equipment to South Florida students.)

Shoot days 19, 20, 21(for reshoots)

19- shoot all the school scenes

20- all the house scenes and outdoor shots

3/25- 3/31

EDITING (my least favorite part)

Dive deep into colors when editing

Create credits and title card

Final edits and changes

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.