Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Reflection on Film

     Today we had group meetings in class, it was also ASL Deaf Day and as the ASL Co-Secretary and an ASL Two student, I participated. ASL Deaf Day is where all of the students in the club and class go a day only signing not speaking, some students even are wearing earplugs so they do not hear. 


Plot Reminder:

A psychologist named Patti is haunted by the memory of her dead daughter, Meredith. Meredith committed suicide by drowning. Patti feels it was her fault for not being able to help her, therefore she became a psychologist to help others and atone. The film starts off in Patti's organized and cute office with her staring at her notes, not listening to the patient in front of her, who is unnamed for psychological privacy reasons. The patient's voice is muffled to represent that Patti is zoned out, thinking of something but the audience does not know what yet. Patti the focus is surrounded by happy-looking items such as self-care books, bright colored pictures, and signs that have words such as love and hope. There are also family pictures. The opening credits would be displayed during close shots of the items surrounding Patti. An alarm goes off, signifying that the time is up, and Patti is snapped out of her trance. As the patient is leaving, we see a jump cut of the same room slightly off, a person is in the corner of the screen, and Patti gasps, obviously shaken. The scene goes back to the real room, the patient asks if she is ok, Patti says yes but looks at a photo of her daughter as the patient leaves. Patti looks shaken up and is comforting herself rocking back and forth. The scene goes back to the imagined room. Close-ups are shown as they were prior, but this time with dark, emotional items. As the different shots are shown the ghost person is seen. The noise of a door opening back up is heard as the patient enters the room due to forgetting something, jump cut to the real room. The psychologist is seen trying to calm down but still in panic so fast-paced edits from real to imagined room are shown as the patient asks if Patti is okay. Patti tells the patient not to worry and hopes that the therapy session will help her. The title "Can You Help Me" is shown as the patient leaves. Patti stands up, saying "I'm ok. Everything is ok."  She sits down at her desk to organize notes and sees a longer flash of the girl we now know is her daughter. She tries to continue doing her work, but her papers are now soaked. She quickly stands up and walks out of her office, rushing to the bathroom to dry her papers. As she walks down the hallway there is water leading to the bathroom. She bumps into someone who asks if she is ok. She says yes and walks faster. Now she is in the bathroom. She puts the papers under a dryer and goes to the sink to wash her face. She washes her face, but when she looks up her daughter is standing behind her. End. 


My Group:

    I typed up everything I wanted to be said, and my group member, Miguel Parra, was nice and read it aloud for my group to hear. Everyone enjoyed my blog, especially my vlog! They enjoyed the number of multimedia such as videos and pictures I used on my blog. Like myself, they were shocked that Asthmatic Kitty Records responded the way they did. No one seemed to have any real critiques but this may just be since it was somewhat short of a discussion due to my no talking. They did not really discuss the plot/opinions on the plot, I will check in with Julie to see if anyone in her group has more of an input and will add that here.


Julie's Group:
    Julie also received positive feedback and like me thought about reshooting scenes. She also received the idea of filming at the library, they have small study rooms that could look like an office, but I do not think this will work as we will be filming for a long period of type and have props we want to use to make the office feel real.


Editing Update:

    Well, my editing is not fully complete, but I wanted to share the current version with Tyler so he can gain inspiration and start the creation process of our music. He leaves Friday and his break ends Monday, he says he will start once the filming is done.


Tyler's Thoughts:

    Well as I said prior my brother will and did tell me when things are better. He thinks the match shots could be better and would look cleaner if all filmed on one day. He explained there are easier ways to film if we film all in one day. He loves the makeup of Meredith but thinks it should be a little more, in some of the long shots you can not really see it. He thinks the lighting we should add the difference to the imagined room during the editing process and not during the production process. He thinks our mirror scene could look like one from "Last Night in Soho" directed by Edgar Wright. I love this idea and will be attempting it!


  He also loves the blood oozing out of the sink, he thinks this hits the target of psychological thriller very well. Overall his help was tremendous, since I had to be silent during the group meetings today I did not exactly get many opinions, so I am thankful he is home. 

Moving Foward:

    I have discccused the idea of reshooting with Julie and she is not opposed. I would like to shoot Thursday, it is a school half day, but Friday or sometime over the weekend will work too.  I would like to see if I could get a friend to help us film, I think it would be easier with another set of hands. If not, we can make it work.


    Editing wise my crappy edit did help as I now know what shots look good and others that do not. I also will be able to easily direct the filming process as I know very well the order of what we are filming.

    I would like to film all bathroom shots, then bedroom, and lastly hallway.


    Wish us luck blog... we may need it!

Sunday, March 13, 2022

I am NOT a Vlogger

     Today, day two of filming did not go as well as yesterday. I have discovered a lot more goes into vlogging than what I thought went into vlogging. First off I realized half the time I was not looking at the camera. Also, I realized vlogs with just talking are boring (in my opinion) when I vlog next time I want to include images and other materials that would catch the eyes of my audience. 

The Vlog

https://youtu.be/3Sjht0VC8jE

I will be vlogging during one of my editing days, I will take the time to edit a good vlog as I want to vlog to my fullest potential.  


Planned Sets Vs Final Sets

Office

Planned Real Office


Final Real Office


Planed Imagined Office









Final Imagined Office

In both offices, we added the picture of Meredith and Patti, a cup, and a notebook. These additions made our office look more realistic.

Bathroom

Planned Real Bathroom

Final Real Bathroom

Planned Imagined Bathroom

Final Imagined Bathroom

No changes were made to the bathroom design other than the addition of the same notebooks as in the office.


Overall Filming

Overall filming was okay. Luckily, the shot I was worried about the most, the shot where Meredith turns into the coworker (who ended up being played by my dad Donald) only took two takes! Another worry of mine, lighting, was solved using my phone ring light.

Moving Foward:

I have started working on a messy version of our film opener and with all shots, we have filmed we are at three minutes, a minute above our goal of two minutes. Lots of editing is to be done and I do believe some shots may need to be redone to make the switch between real and imagined flow better. I will continue to work on seeing what I can do to our current version to get it looking the way I would like it to. I will be discussing my messy version with Julie on Tuesday and plan for when/what/how/etc to refilm and make the necessary changes. 

Over this week I will give an in-depth look at our chosen props, costumes, set, etc, and the meaning behind all of these important factors. 

Saturday, March 12, 2022

First Filming

    Hey blog, today's filming went way better than expected!! Today we filmed all shots without Meredith, Tomorrow we will be focusing on the shots with Meredith. I play to film to hallway scene last as I believe this one may be the most difficult to get perfect. 

    I will show the final sets tomorrow as we did not set up/film in the imagined office today. We filmed using an iPhone and a tripod. Lightning-wise, we were nervous, but for all shots today my normal room and bathroom lighting were used and we believe turned out to be accurate lighting. The visuals are most important to us currently as sound will be added in later. Tomorrow I believe we will be using a ring light for the imagined room. 

Editing:

    I insert all of the clips we recorded today to get an idea as to where we are and to make sure everything flowed. This also allowed me to see that one clip may need to be reshot as Julie's hand is in it, but I will discuss this with her tomorrow and we can decide.

Issue:

    We already have over two minutes of footage. I am worried as I believe we will get around a minute of footage tomorrow.

    I do spot lots of awkward beginnings and ends that will be edited out, so I believe the time will go down and or scenes will be cut out.

Screenplay:

    Minimal progress was made today on our screenplay due to the focus on filming, I will make sure this is done before editing. 


Fine:

    Okay, I will share a sneak peek. My idea came to life! I really wanted the water Patti is splashing her face with to turn red/blood and it did! I am super excited to edit this section of our opener. I also believe due to all of the red colors in our opener that Meredith's makeup can look a little bloody.


Moving Foward:

    My partner Julie and I talked post-shoot and decided we need to do the screenwriter, find a font for our opening titles/credits, and talk with Tyler (who successfully made it home in bad weather) about our music. 

    Also,  my brother (Tyler, creator of our score) wants to see what we film tomorrow along with today's recording before he begins the creation process, so post-shoot tomorrow I will be inserting all new clips and creating a temporary edited version to share with him. 

    Today's blog is a short one, as I want to rest up for tomorrow's filming but I am going to vlog tomorrow! I am super excited to take you all along into a day in the life filming the film opening edition. I will vlog the makeup application process, costume wetness, set up, introduce you to the cast/crew, and more! Maybe I can even get Tyler to briefly explain his music idea in the blog!

Friday, March 11, 2022

Film Finalization Friday

  Hi blog today is the final day of preparation for our start of shoot tomorrow!! This may be a hectic weekend, (my brother gets home for spring break tomorrow during our filming set time) but I am super excited for what is to come. 

Updated Storyboard:

Only slight changes were made to make my drawing a little less painful to look at. Thank you Julie for your artistic help!




Screenplay:

Our screenplay is our current task being completed. It is not done, little progress was made. 

Current screenplay


Introducing Tyler:

    Tyler is my nineteen-year-old brother (only sibling) who graduated high school last year (with a national merit scholarship) and now in college is pursuing actuarial science. He may not be studying media production but as a band kid and former tv kid he has lots of experience with creating music, editing music, editing in general, filming, etc.
Tyler's Senior Portrait 
Experience:

Television Production:

Television Production class in middle school for - years
Television Production class in high school for two years!

Awards Won:
Honorable mention for a podcast at the Student Television Network in Seattle, Washington in 2019

Band:

Middle school and high school band for seven years
Continues to pursue his music interest in college by taking a band class this semester
Hopes to join the Marching band next semester

Awards:

Many awards in the band were won but those aren't exactly in relation to music production, but this band experience allowed for him to have experience transcribing music for himself and other band members, which this year he has still continued to do.

    I am very thankful he said yes to creating our short music piece when I was painfully rejected by Asthmatic Kitty Records (still a bit upset). He will be creating our music using MuseScore which he has lots of experience with as seen below
Tyler editing on MuseScore

    Also, I am very excited to be able to receive opinions on our film opening from someone I know who will be honest and unafraid to say "I believe you can do better than this." Once the piece is finished I will make sure he sends me an email/official document stating I have the right to use the song!


Moving Foward:

Thursday and today (Friday) I planned out the sett and created a poster along with adjusting a few items

Props Created: 


Black tissue boxes for imagined rooms

These boxes were created by wrapping tissue boxes in sleek black wrapping paper.


Bloody soap for the imagined bathroom


This concoction was created using red food die, hand soap, an empty hand soap bottle, and baby oil.

Materials for the negative sign creation
I printed the fingerspelled alphabet to make sure I used the correct signs

The negative sign for the imagined room


    Tomorrow we begin to film!! I will show the final looks of the sets tomorrow as I want to compare my plan with how our set actually ended up looking! Nerves are starting to form a bit especially since our screenplay is not done less than twenty four hours before the shoot.  I believe (more like hope) these nerves will be over taken by excitement when I wake up tomorrow and realize the day has come.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Painful Pictures

    Well... here the storyboard for "Can You Help Me?" is. Now one may look at it and not at all understand it, but that is okay Julie and I do. I call this storyboard the "Trust The Process" the TTP for short. Drawing is not exactly a skill of mine, I will likely never have the honor to be an animator and that is okay. So just stay with me in trusting that the storyboard will come to life. 

TTP Storyboard:





TTP Storyboard Breakdown:

    To break it down the stick figure with two sides of the hair is Patti, the stick figure with one side of the hair is Meredith, and the stick figure that has hair that does not match either of those descriptions is the coworker. Also, I used color so that frames with a pink dot were the real room and frames with yellow were imagined. The scanner decided to only keep the second page in color so for the first page the first five frames are real room, then the next three are imagined and the eighth frame is real. The last frame of the opening is in the imagined bathroom

Filming Location:

    We will be filming "Can You Help Me?" in (drumroll please) my bedroom! The area we are filming as you see in the picture is very simple. We have a wall to work with so I am excited about this!! The bathroom on the other hand... while dark/great for the imagined room I will have to be very creative in props so it looks like an office bathroom.



Prop Update:

    Over this week (most likely Tuesday) I will be setting up the props we have. I want to see how my idea looks and get some opinions on whether our office looks realistic since it is my room. After receiving opinions I will go out and purchase any props I think we need. 

Props We Have:

Office-
Self-help books for the real shelves
Murder mysteries/dark covered books for the imaged shelves
A sign that says love in many different languages
Plant to go on the notes table
Dead roses to go on the notes table
Journals for notes
Pen/pencil for notes
A bed sheet to cover the chair
A pillow for the imagined chair
A pillow for the real chair

Office Bathroom-
Shower curtain (if the shower is shown in shot)
Other things you would see in a bathroom ex: Soap, Towels, etc.
Plants
Tissues

Moving Foward:
We have set filming dates for Saturday, March 12th, and Sunday, March 13th. This upcoming week will be spent creating our script, creating/buying any props we need, and finalizing costumes. 


Saturday, March 5, 2022

Sour Notes

     Today while face-timing my brother Tyler he asked about the film opener and more or less if he was going to be the one creating our short musical piece. After looking around for free use music nothing has stood out to me, and I would like Julie and me to play a role in the creation of our score, therefore, I told my brother I would be very honored to have him create it. 


Rejection:

    I won't share the exact response I received from Asthmatic Kitty Records/the record label that has the rights to the Sufjan Stevens song "Fourth of July" I wanted to use. Basically, they said they were happy we were interested in using the song but I would need to pay money in order to even be considered to gain the rights. Now I do not have the five hundred dollars they required to be considered, but they were nice in sending a link about music licensing so I looked into the website. 


Research:

    Licensing is the process of an artist/company allowing a person to use their material for a fee/sometimes no charge. Licensing earned money goes to both the writer and publisher or in some cases just the writer as they are the ones publishing their own music. To license you must have a publisher/become someone who can publish. 


Types of License:

    Sync License- Allows music to be used with visual media. Example: Chevy wants to use Olivia Rodrigo's song "Driver's License" in their upcoming car ad. 

    Master Recording License- Gets permission to obtain a recording of a song. Example: Chevy getting Olivia Rodrigo's version of "Driver's License. This license would not be needed if Chevy got Harry Styles version of "Driver's License" Note- If Chevy obtained a Master Recording License Chevy would also need to obtain a Sync License.

    Fees depend on company and usage. If a song is used in a show/movie the film's music budget will determine how much the license fee will be. Music supervisors deal with licensing. Popular songs cost more than unpopular songs. Fees also depend on how long and when the song will be used. The more important the content shown/heard while the song is playing; the higher the license cost will be. If it is just a source cue, which is a song just in a club, car, etc. the cost will be minimal. 


Research Impact:

    This research led me to the belief that I for sure should have prepared better when emailing the company, and probably should not have even asked, but I guess I would have not had any answer at all if I had not asked. 

Source:

https://www.themusickitchen.com/music-biz/music-licensing-sync-licenses-master-use-licenses/

APA Citation

Benghiat, M. (2016, November 23). Music Publishing and Licensing 101: Sync Licenses and Master Use Licenses. The Music Kitchen. Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.themusickitchen.com/music-biz/music-licensing-sync-licenses-master-use-licenses/


Moving Foward:

Our script and storyboard will soon be done! Julie and I will be deciding on a date to go out this week and find any props and costumes we believe we need, but the majority of items we already have and I will blog about tomorrow!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Prop Psychology

     Today in class I researched the affects objects and color have on mood.


Object Research:

Objects have a strong impact on mood. Ingrid Fetell, an author, told SheKnows "But my research shows that the objects in our surroundings can have a surprisingly powerful influence on our emotional well-being."

Items That Create Positive Emotions:

    Round and Symmetrical Shapes 

    Object Attached To A Positive Moment 

Items That Create Negative Emotions:

    Sharp, Angular, and Asymmetrical Shapes

        Object Attached To A Negative Moment 

    Items can hold an emotional attachment to people. An example of this in our film opener is the necklace that used to be Meredith's and is now in the imagined room around Patti's neck. Items such as this, are associated with memory especially if they engage the senses, smell, touch, taste, etc.  These memory-based items can bring up pleasant thoughts, unpleasant thoughts, or both. In the case of the film, unpleasant thoughts, of failure as a mother, are brought up by the necklace. 

    Objects stick around, a person is likely to keep something that has a strong memory hold to it. Such as their first bought item of jewelry evoking positive thoughts and the desire to keep or even a jacket they were given to by an ex evoking negative thoughts but the desire to not let go of that part of life. According to Dunn and her colleague, "They [objects] might not be as intense as experiences, but they do make us feel good," (well or bad). 

    Objects make people feel good if their mind gives the object power. For example, a child's stuffed animal protects them from the monsters under the bed. This feeling of a powerful object can make someone feel safe and secure even if the object is not really powerful. 

    Finding joy in your surroundings can entirely change your everyday mood. This is why the "real" psychology office will follow the rules of items that create positive emotions, and the "imagined" will do the opposite creating negative emotions. 


Color In Film Research:


According to Digital Synopsis " In filmmaking, color is used to set the tone of a scene before any of the actors have even uttered a word." Color pallets set the mood of the film, especially in the opening of a film this is important as it sets it for the entire film!! Our opener will have two distinct color pallets, the "real" room, and the "imagined" room. 


Color Breakdown:


Red- Power, Anger, Passion, Danger, Love, Violence, etc. 

Pink- Beauty, Sweetness, Playful, Empathy, Innocence, etc.

Orange- Exotic, Youth, Warmth, Sociability, Friendly, etc.

Yellow- Naive, Obsessive, Madness, Sickness, Insecurity, etc.

Green- Nature, Danger, Immaturity, Darkness, Ominous, etc.

Blue- Cold, Calm, Melancholy, Passivity, Isolation, etc.

Purple- Ominous, Etheral, Fantasy, Mystical, Illusory, etc. 


Photo From Digital Synopsis 

Research Impact:

    This research had led me to know that props and set design will play a crucial role in my film opener. With my knowledge of how colors make people feel and knowledge of how items make people feel, I know how to make sure the props and set pieces I choose fit the tone of each section of the opener. 


Sources:

https://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1142070/why-objects-make-us-happy/

https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/film-movies-color-psychology/#:~:text=In%20filmmaking%2C%20color%20is%20used,with%20joy%2C%20naivety%20and%20insanity. 


APA Citations:

Hogan, B. (2020, August 23). Why certain objects make us happy. SheKnows. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1142070/why-objects-make-us-happy/

How filmmakers use colors to set the mood of a film. Digital Synopsis. (2021, January 7). Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/film-movies-color-psychology/#:~:text=In%20filmmaking%2C%20color%20is%20used,with%20joy%2C%20naivety%20and%20insanity. 


Prop List Ideas:

Flowers

Positive Quote Poster

Self Help Books

Plants

Fidgets

Side table

Pens, Pencils, Notebooks,

Jacket

Candle


Moving Foward:

I will be discussing the set location with my partner Julie tomorrow. If the set I have planned in my mind gets approved I will share that here along with a collage of the props Julie and I already own!! Along with finalized filming location, I will post the storyboard.

Sad news... Asthmatic Kitty Records asked for a minimum of five hundred dollars to use the Sufjan Stevens song and well... I do not have five hundred dollars but will dream about it. I am really upset, but will find another song to use. If I am unable to I am lucky since my brother Tyler,  an ex-band kid, now a college mathematician enjoys composing music so he said he would be able to help me create something post-filming!!

Not sure which blog will come first so stay tuned...

Life Update

   Hi blog, senior year has been something. I have decided to finish my year by graduating early attending online classes. I am still going ...