...

     I am still currently in Argentina at the airport getting ready to fly to Patagonia. Since I have two hours before my flight, I decided I should brainstorm for the last time before we start filming. The last thing that we are missing is how we are going to display the movie title. I want it white, in big font and bolded. Our movie title is "Evanescent"and below is an example of how I want it to look.

  
     I was thinking of something like this except with the scene going on in the background. I want to fade out in slow motion. This acts as a transition between scenes. So far, I think we are doing very well although we are a little held back. We are starting to film soon and I am super excited for that!

What to do...

     It's been hard to get anything done this week since I'm in Argentina and I get back on Sunday. I realized that I had forgotten a very important part of the film. The credits!! The whole point of the film is to be able to make the credits blend in the film while fitting the theme. Many audiences don't really notice the credits either because it's either at the end of the film or blends in very well in the opening. I was thinking of something plain but catches the audiences eye. 

     I wanted each credit to be displayed during the jogging scene individually. Picture this, there will be music playing in the background(a pop song), and a teenage girl will be running in her neighborhood. Different names will be displayed one at time at different areas of the screen.  

     This is a good example of what I am looking for. Obviously it would  be a totally different background but the font would look similar. I like this font because the movie is a murder/mystery and the font gives off a spooky vibe. White should also be used because not only are most credits displayed in white font, but we didn't want to take too much attention from the scene itself.

titlesss

     This is SUPER last minute but we decided to change our short film title. After a big discussion we agreed that "How It Started" wasn't the title that we are working for. It doesn't sound as mysterious as it should. It sounds more of like a light film maybe even a comedy so after a lot of thought we narrowed it down to a few choices.
"The Disappearance"
"Grabbed"
"Gone"
"Evanescence"
     After discussing during class, we had both agreed on Evanescence coming from the Latin meaning "Disappear" or "vanish" which is basically what the film is about. Most people don't realize the importance of a title because it is often overlooked. But really, the title is what sways the audience towards a movie. I mean yea the title isn't everything. But a catchy title is more likely to stay on one's mind rather than a long dragged out title. We like it short, simple, and to the point.

...more actors?

     My partner and I have been thinking about the different characters in the film. I know we're suppose to be passed that stage but it came up in conversation and we were intrigued by the concept of having more than two actors. Maybe we could have the girls parents in the film? I feel like two minutes isn't enough time to incorporate more actors but at least it's up for discussion.

     If we do add parents, I think my parents could play the roles. Or maybe the female could have one parent? I feel like that would be easier because my dad works a lot so if we need last minute filming, my mom would be home. She's also a good actor(...and drama queen). 

     Another thing that we discussed was have maybe a best friend of the female lead. I have  a lot of friends who would be up for that. I don't know. I just feel like it would be better to have more than two actors. Then again we literally don't have time:( I'm at the airport right now but when I get back I'll let you guys know what we have decided! 

XOXO

LIST!!!!

     Unfortunately I am struggling this week because I was planning on working on the project during spring break but I am going to Argentina for a week and a half. I am trying to decide how we are going to get things done on time and work efficiently. I am upset that I can't use the abundant amount of time provided to work on the film. When I get back, we are going to start filming so we have time to edit. Below, I provided a list of steps in order that we are going to do it:
1. Ask permission to borrow camera equipment
2. Go to the store and buy props
3. Go to my house and do hair and makeup
4. Get into costume
5. Drive to the houses that we wrote down
6. Start filming the jogging scene
7. Film the conversation scene between the girl and the kidnapper
8. Film scenery to incorporate in the film
9. Film the house that is the female leads(with permission)
10. Film other things that we haven't planned
11. Gather all the footage that we have
12. Start editing the footage
13. etc...etc...etc
   

houses:::::)))))))

     Yesterday, Veronica and I met up and drove around my neighborhood discussing good areas to film. As we were driving, I wrote down the house that we were going to film at. I tried to find houses that have an old-fashioned look and that would be found in Kansas. I like the house to the left because it has a family feel. I found a few houses in my neighborhood that fit the look.
     We didn't get to work on the film for that long only because I had a meeting to go to after school. However, we did get a lot done. I was able to find an outfit to wear for the jogging scene. It's old-fashioned looking and has a sense of innocence involved as well. We want the female lead looking as innocent as possible making her an easy kid-nap victim. We were also talking about hair style and I was telling Veronica how my Mom's friend is a hairstylist and she could style my hair for the specific role I am looking for. We wanted old-fashioned curls in a high pony tale. It does seem a little extreme to get my hair done, so during the break Veronica is going to test out the hair style on herself and let me know how it turns out.



We wanted to find a street in my neighborhood with no palm trees and this is the street we found. It ended up working out really well because the lighting was perfect.

...equipment

     As of now I am having a brain block and I can't really think of anything else to add to the film at the moment. However, I was thinking about how we are going to film with high quality resolution and loud enough sound when there is dialogue.

     I was thinking about borrowing equipment from the CBTV room because my partner is an officer in the class and club. At first I thought that there is no way they would let us take their expensive equipment from their room but, I had talked  to a former student of the class and he said he was allowed to borrow various different equipments for a previous project he had for another class. This is a great idea because they have a good camera, microphones, and a stand. I know this because I took one year of CBTV and have used their equipment for a class related project. I also know how to somewhat use the equipment but I'll definitely have to do some research on that.

     Although the camera will help with the quality, we can't control the natural lighting of it. I feel the best lighting is during what is called "the golden hour." It adds a nice yellow, bright tone that we are looking for. Edits can also be made to adjust the lighting. I recently downloaded "Adobe Premier Pro" which is an app used to edit videos. In the next couple of days I'm going to mess around with the different affects and find that lighting that we are looking for.

This is a good example of "the golden hour". I has a clear yellow tone which, if you look at my previous posts, is what we wanted for the opening to add a happy tone.

Sound:)))

     In my opinion, the sound effects and music are the most difficult in terms of making the film. The reason sound effects are difficult is because its hard to make it sound realistic and part of real life. I mean, in real life when someones about to be killed they don't have suspenseful or scary music in the background! I had already discussed how I am going to make the folly sounds in one of my other posts, but now I need to make the music for when the female lead meets her killer. This may be confusing for you guys because I hadn't really discussed how I wanted to end the two minutes, but I'll tell you now:

     I wanted to end it with the mystery murderer saying "hey, will you give me a hand." The thing with this is that we either need a voice over of a grown man saying this or we can find a man to feature in our film. I was discussing it with my partner Veronica, and she said she likes the idea of the murderer not being shown to establish more mystery. I agree because the whole point of our film is for the audience to ask questions and wonder.

     So, to continue on with sound, I wanted to find a sound(maybe 4-5 seconds long) to play after he says his line. I also thought it would be a good idea for the video to finish off cutting to a black screen with scary music. Not too extreme though.

If you listen to the sound attached, it displays a very uncomfortable sound. The screeches make it very hard to listen too which is what we want in our viewers. We obviously don't want them to cover their ears because of that sound, but we want their hearts to race as would happen in every other horror film.

     We also need a song for when the female lead is running and listening to music. What would a teen around sixteen years old listen to while working out? I have been looking up hit work out songs but I haven't found a song to fit the theme or setting of the film. The only songs that came up were the hit songs of today and when I think of applying that song to the movie, they just clash. 

     The biggest problem with finding a song is that we can't use any of them! There are several rules with using some one else's music due to copyright reasons. I don't really know how we are going to get a record song approved. The only thing I could think of right now is that my sister sings and recorded a few songs. The other problem is that none of her songs fit that specific scene of the movie. Her songs are very slow and would not be placed in a workout album. She does play piano though so maybe she could mess around and play a few chords for another part of the opening. 

     As of now, I am going to talk with my partner to figure this problem out. The film opening is due pretty soon so if we want to use someone else's song, we need to decided who's to use now.

Critiques!!

     Hello again. So today in class each student was put into groups of four or five and we gave critiques and complements on each students project thus far. I really enjoyed this exercise because not only do we get to see other peoples project to get an idea of where we are suppose to be at right now, but we also get to hear other students opinions on how to better our film ideas.
 
     During this exercise I tried to give as much input as I could to help the other students. I liked the fact that we were in groups of four or five because a lot of the time, it helps to get more than one persons opinion. We also pretty much agreed on everything which is good because it prevents a lot of arguments.
   
     When I showed my blog consisting of my ideas and current work, I got a lot of help on what to pursue from this point forward. First, they said that instead of narrating the location and time period, I should have it written on the screen in big font to avoid confusion and wasting unnessary time. They also said that I should change the time period because not only would it be too difficult the find clothes, but we are filming in my neighborhood which consists of cars of current day. We would have to have old fashioned cars from the 1970s in order for the scene to come together and that is way too extreme.

     I was going to ask how to make my film different from "The Lovely Bones" considering the fact that they are too alike, but no one in my group had watched it which was a problem for me. I couldn't even ask them if the movie was going to be too similar to my project. I am going to continue discussing this problem with my partner to see what we can do but so far.

One word: Foley

Hi again,

     honestly the process has been getting along great. At first I thought that with two people, creating ideas for this film would be impossible. But, as this process has been moving along, (slowly but surely) I realized that it isn't as hard as it sounds. I also thought that with two people working on the opening we would have a lot of disagreements but we have actually been working really well together and have many similar if not the same ideas. This is irrelevant to what I am going to discuss on this blog post but I just wanted to let you know how everything is coming along. 

     So in this post I wanted to discuss sound. Sound is a very important but very discreet part of film. It goes unnoticed among audiences but little do they know the amount of work that's put into it. The opening seen starts with jogging and obviously in the film it is very hard to hear the sound of jogging when background noises such as wind and birds are present. This is where Foley art comes into play:) In my garage I have a 6 feet by 6 feet piece of a hard wood floor. My sister always used it to tap dance because the tapping sounds were so eminent and powerful. I think that I could record my self jogging in place(obviously matching to the rhythm of my movement in the film).

     We can't forget the breeze! I was searching up ideas online to make a breeze sound that's easy to do. I found one idea that I think can be easily accomplished. The first step is to get a newspaper and fold it into a quarter size. Then, cut up slices from the bottom nearly to the top. Holding it at the top sway the paper near the mic or recorder. However, you can't touch it or it will ruin the allusion.

     The last thing to do for the opening scene is the chirping birds. This doesn't require much because I have a very close friend that can do perfect chirping noises mimicking the birds. What I'll do is record her making the chirping noises, and then when its places on adobe premiere pro I would lower the volume of it to make it seem more natural and part of the background.
   
     I don't think the background sound is as important because the main focus would be on the song playing in the background. I decided to start with diegetic in the females headphones to non-diegetic when she takes them out because it creates a smooth transition. There's nothing else really behind it other than the fact that we don't need to figure out a way to change the sound and the audiences moods. It's really just an easier approach to a hard concept.

Some thoughts

     I was thinking about the opening for the film and what I'm envisioning and I just wanted to share some thoughts/ideas:

-Takes place in the 1970s in Wichita, Kansas
-The undertone is yellow
-Maybe the scene opens with a young female lead taking a jog in her neighborhood listening to music with earphones
-The music should be a pop, upbeat song showing that shes in a happy mood(Diagetic)
-She starts to narrate introducing herself like her name, location, time period or maybe the location and time period can be displayed on the screen. My partner showed me an idea of how she thinks the setting should be displayed. I'm also still debating on whether the time period should be displayed or just hinted by the wardrobe, setting, and hair style.
















-I was thinking that the lead should narrate her life at that time and then say something like "..and this is how I was murdered". The only problem with this is that I feel it would be too similar to the hit movie "The Lovely Bones" considering the time period is similar and the female is also narrating as a young girl. But, as I said these are just ideas so were probably going to change some things up to differentiate the two films.
- I was thinking that when/if it shows how she was murdered the undertone could change to black setting the mood of evil and fear

     So that's all that I have thought of thus far. Maybe as we continue on with the research our ideas will change but as of now I am pretty confident with these ideas. I admit that we are going out of our comfort zone a lot with the setting, color tone, and time period but I do feel that when the film is finished these will all work well together in establishing the mood and message.

????

     So for the film opening I was thinking about color tones and what colors would be good for the base of an old fashioned murder mystery film. I did some research and this is what I found:

Yellow: youth, fun, joy, sunshine and other happy feelings
Blue: creativity, intelligence, calmness and tranquility
Brown: serious and very down to earth, with properties like stability, structure and support
Gray:  detached, neutral, impartial and indecisive
Green: growth, nature, money, fertility and safety
White:  pure, fresh and good
Red: passion, lust, sex, energy, blood and war
Black: evil, depressing, scary and even death 

     I like the idea of having an undertone of yellow because I feel like it gives a false sense of happiness and joy making it scarier and more suspenseful. Like the film would start off all sunshine and happiness until the female lead announces her death and maybe the undertone could change to black representing evil and death. 

Here is an example of a yellow undertone that I'm looking for but maybe a little less drastic. 

     This is an example of a black undertone. I like how it makes the individual colors stand out less with out it looking black and white. 

“Black Color Meaning – The Color Black.” Color-Meanings.com, 2 Mar. 2018, www.color-meanings.com/black-color-meaning-the-color-black/.

“Rachel Lazatin Lightroom Presets.” FilterGrade, filtergrade.com/product/rachel-lazatin-lightroom-presets/.

Zeke. “Ultimate List of Film Sub Genres.” Student Resources, 17 Mar. 2015, www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/.

“Black Color Meaning – The Color Black.” Color-Meanings.com, 2 Mar. 2018, www.color-meanings.com/black-color-meaning-the-color-black/.

“Rachel Lazatin Lightroom Presets.” FilterGrade, filtergrade.com/product/rachel-lazatin-lightroom-presets/.

Zeke. “Ultimate List of Film Sub Genres.” Student Resources, 17 Mar. 2015, www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/.

Zeke. “Ultimate List of Film Sub Genres.” Student Resources, 17 Mar. 2015, www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/.

“Black Color Meaning – The Color Black.” Color-Meanings.com, 2 Mar. 2018, www.color-meanings.com/black-color-meaning-the-color-black/.

“Rachel Lazatin Lightroom Presets.” FilterGrade, filtergrade.com/product/rachel-lazatin-lightroom-presets/.

“Black Color Meaning – The Color Black.” Color-Meanings.com, 2 Mar. 2018, www.color-meanings.com/black-color-meaning-the-color-black/.

“Rachel Lazatin Lightroom Presets.” FilterGrade, filtergrade.com/product/rachel-lazatin-lightroom-presets/.

Zeke. “Ultimate List of Film Sub Genres.” Student Resources, 17 Mar. 2015, www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/.

“Black Color Meaning – The Color Black.” Color-Meanings.com, 2 Mar. 2018, www.color-meanings.com/black-color-meaning-the-color-black/.

“Rachel Lazatin Lightroom Presets.” FilterGrade, filtergrade.com/product/rachel-lazatin-lightroom-presets/.

Zeke. “Ultimate List of Film Sub Genres.” Student Resources, 17 Mar. 2015, www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/.

“Black Color Meaning – The Color Black.” Color-Meanings.com, 2 Mar. 2018, www.color-meanings.com/black-color-meaning-the-color-black/.

“Rachel Lazatin Lightroom Presets.” FilterGrade, filtergrade.com/product/rachel-lazatin-lightroom-presets/.

Time period ??

     I was thinking about the location and time period that this film should take place in and I feel like it should be around the 1970s maybe in Wichita, Kansas. We chose Wichita, Kansas because it consists of a high crime rate. My neighborhood resembles that type of look so we would already have the location to film. I also find the 1970s to be a perfect time period because that was when the term "serial killers" started to become known.



 

 I wanted to make the quality of the film old-fashioned as well as the wardrobe. I find these outfits perfect for the wardrobe of the female lead. I love the color scheme. I also want the female lead to be portrayed as innocent and sweet so these dresses really fall into that category. 



 

hmmm...

     Throughout the week I have been brainstorming ideas that the film could potentially be about. I have always been fascinated with the suspense and thriller genre, so I was leaning more towards that. I like the idea of having the main character being a narrator throughout the movie so the audience can really have a connection to her/him.

     According to Baily Pribbenow, "Thrillers are characterized by suspense—a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement over what is to come next, mixed in with apprehension, anticipation, and sometimes even, fear". We hope to somehow accomplish that in our film like the feeling of not knowing what would happen next.

     Some movies ideas that i thought of were "The Lovely Bones" and "Gone Girl".



     "Gone Girl" is a thriller about a murder mystery. Most parts were narrated by the female lead which is what we wanted to have in our film. We want to have the same impact on the audience that this movie has. It leaves the audience questioning everything and everyone.




     "The Lovely Bones" is one of my favorites(and is now on netflix). It is mainly about a murder of a young girl. This girl is basically narrating everything leading up to her murder and everything that happens after her murder. I like the idea of a strong female lead and having the audience feel a strong connection to her.

Pribbenow, Bailey. “A Brief History of the Thriller Genre.” Our Blog, blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/a-        brief-history-of-the-thriller-genre.
Seitz, Matt Zoller. “Gone Girl Movie Review & Film Summary (2014) | Roger 
     Ebert.” RogerEbert.com, 2 Oct. 2014, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/gone-girl-2014.

...:)

     Hellooo!  I'm Shira and for the next few weeks I will be talking and discussing the process that will eventually lead to the opening of my film. My partner and I have always had a fascination towards the film category because we both are extremely interested in movie making and are obsessed with movies. My partner is also extremely skilled with editing and the use of adobe premiere pro (an editing and production software).
     We are currently discussing film genres that attract both of our interests and that aren't impossible to film or edit. We do however plan on challenging ourselves and going a little bit out of our comfort zone. We are extremely excited to take you guys through the amazing process of film making! Hope you enjoy the journey:)