Group Meeting: The Squeakquel

   

    Today, I met with a group of filmmakers in my media class to discuss our progress and current status in regards to our short film. At this group meeting, a friend of mine gave me some helpful insight on the social media aspect of the project, and some reassurance about what I would consider being behind.

   I told them what my plan was for the social media aspect of this project, it being based/from the POV of the media obsessed character in my film, and what my friend Wade helped me do was get an idea of how to incorporate the “Behind the Scenes” footage I was hoping for. Once I have all my footage recorded, I could take a picture from the POV of the character and caption it the way the character would act in the production itself. This would act as a more straightforward way to communicate this theming than merely reposting and reaching out to other popular media distributors like I had planned.

I was firmly under the impression that I was incredibly behind and everyone else, and this isn’t to say that I’m not behind schedule, but it seems now based on this group meeting that I am not drastically behind. This isn’t something that beats me from trying any harder because my progress is similar to others, it just lifts a bit of stress off of my shoulders.

Epic Filming Announcement

     

    The location we filmed our first day of footage, Natalia's house, was tricky and inconvenient given the lighting and the fact that her parents were home. Today, she notified me earlier today that her parents were going to be gone for the entire weekend and we are allowed to film in the daytime while they are gone. The convenience of this blew my mind, and immediately I said that we would do that once the weekend came. 

    However, that's not the announcement. The news instilled in me a crazy thought that seems pretty wasteful but could prove very useful:

"How about you just start filming from scratch at her house?"

    Not the brightest idea considering I filmed a lot already, but HER ENTIRE HOUSE IS EMPTY! That paired with lighting not being as big of a problem if I timed it well in the middle of the day makes this idea have some merit. I'm going to see how I feel the day of filming, but there's an 85% chance I am going to just start over this Sunday. Hopefully, I'll make a smart choice!

Filming Day!

 Today, I finally managed to get some filming done. Even though I assumed I would only need one day, I definitely I need a second day to reshoot some shots. One major problem arose during the filming, testing my ability to improvise. 

    The house we were filming in was honestly pretty horrible in terms of lighting.  The living room I wanted to shoot in had a long window- strip above a set of blinds(could be considered a skylight.) I wish I got a clear picture of it to put in this blog, but all I have is the hellish, blinding light that it produced in the picture above. 

    The first idea I had to combat this lighting was to simply close the shades and lower the amount of light in the room(the one I filmed in was the one on the right,) but doing this only made the skylight more blinding as it stood out more against the dark. Next, I decided that it would be better to just start reshooting all of my footage in the other living room in the house, but that was problematic because there simply wasn't enough light in that room. What resulted from this was a full inability to find some sort of perfect lighting in either room and a choice. I would either keep shooting in the room I had been, or scrap everything and possibly try again a day without a beating sun. Though the second choice would have been a smart "live and learn" type situation, I knew that I needed to stick it out and choose the first option. 

    The majority of the shots looked fine, but a few are slightly disjointed and regrettably a bit lower than I would have liked because the awkward lighting would create glares that would disrupt the entire shot. I filmed around 60% of what I needed to(intentionally,) and the second day was only going to require one of my actors, but in case the lighting isn't as bad on the second try, I might as well try to get some reshoots done. 

Power in Paper

    Storyboarding is an important part of the pre-planning process, and something that is necessary to evade difficulty/confusion on filming day.  The storyboards I made in preparation for my shoot are completely unprofessional, but I found them to be pretty helpful regardless of what they looked like on paper. 

    The storyboards started off pretty tame, abiding by the structure of the organized worksheet I was handed to me. Through these, I would be able to insert bits of character expression and plan detailed background elements for each shot. 

    When the times got rough and I was out of organized boxes, however, I became lazy and decided to just start doodling on the back as opposed to printing out some more pages. These shots were super lacking in detail and weren't able to paint a scene as well as the other ones, but I didn't exactly try to do anything like that in these storyboards. They mostly became a way for me to write down a digestible list of shots I needed to have (better than looking at my script and crossing off every line that was shot.)

    Looking back I kind of wish I had the paper to have drawn everything on the bigger printed boxes, but the drawn ones are still going to do me right. Plus, I had much more fun drawing on those than the printed ones. 

Filming Date

   

    I have communicated with my actors and came to the final decision that Sunday would be the perfect day to film for all of us. Though I wished it was a bit earlier this week, it seems all of us have busy spring breaks ahead of us. I am going to stick with the mentality that we don't need a second day for filming this given that the whole thing takes place in one space. Based on the results from Sunday, I will assess whether we need a second day to film. 

     In preparation of this shoot, I am going to spend the next few days making storyboards and revisiting the script to see if there are any last-minute changes I need to make. Besides that, there's not much more I can do to really prepare for this. I'm pretty excited to finally get to the meat of production, and I can only hope that my actors are ready to show up (performance-wise) on filming day. 

Script is Dunzo

     It took a while, but I finally finished my script. I went through three drafts before I landed on one I was in love with. 

A lil snippet for y'all.

    The writing process was honestly pretty rough. I needed a lot of reassurance and advice from the internet and my peers to balance and develop thematic elements of three distinct characters in ARGUMENT FORM. I needed to constantly change dialogue to make it sound natural and choose words extremely carefully to build character in a particular way. For example, a conversation that would naturally start delving into a philosophical debate is not something that would play well on film(boring and a just me type of thing,) so I had to ask my friends if certain phrases and sentences sounded normal. 

    Something kind of cool about my script is that the main inspiration I drew from the argument is stuff I found within chat logs from text group chats I'm in. I'm not so sure it plays so well in person so we'll have to wait till I film it, but I almost verbatim featured a smartass exchange about "the dictionary definition of a word" that my friend and I had in a heated little argument about something unimportant(would love to paste it here but that would be a bit intrusive.) 

    I expect the script to be even more dynamic and natural one it comes to filming, I'm probably going to allow most lines to be altered improvisational depending on the kind of performance my actors give. Even though I have a specific vision for what my actors should act like, I know I can't expect Oscar-winning performances out of them, so I'm going to be open in that regard. 

    

Equipment

 

    Before filming, I have put thought into which kinds of equipment I'm going to need to get the shots I need, and SPOILER ALERT it's not a lot. 

    The main camera I have used for all the footage I've collected in the last year has been my iPhone 13. The camera has a built-in cinematic mode that I liked playing with but I didn't/don't plan to overuse it. Another plus of using an iPhone is that all the footage can easily be exported and shared between the Mac I use to edit all of my stuff. For this project, I don't plan on using anything different, so that makes my iPhone my first item. 

    My second item is a tripod. I don't own one of my own, but I know of ways to rent them out or people to borrow them from. I don't use them as much as I should, but that lack of expertise will not ruin my shots. Pretty straightforward. 

    As for props, I'm likely gonna need a pizza box, a laptop, a pillow or blanket, and possibly some assorted snacks I could find in my pantry. The pizza box is the crux of my entire opening scene, the laptop is central to Medea's character, and the other two would only be necessary for (i expect to be) the last few shots of my production. 

    As much as I enjoyed playing with the green screen in last year's piece, I chose not to incorporate any big special effects-type elements into my piece. Considering the piece is semi-grounded in reality, there's not much of a need for any green screen techniques if it really does take place in just one room. 

    So there it is. I am glad I don't need much equipment for this film; this is going to be the cheapest/lowest maintenance production I've made this far in my production history. Here's to hoping I didn't forget anything.

Filming Ouchie

 

    Even though I expect filming to be an easy process once I have everything set straight, I am worried about scheduling my filming date. All of my actors have hectic schedules during spring break, the time I was hoping I would be cleared to film. Normally, I would have conquered this issue by recasting my actors, but it seems like it is too much of a hassle, and the majority of the people I would even consider are going to be gone as well. 

    It is disappointing that I won't be able to mimic my schedule from last year in that way (filming all of my footage across the break) but I'll just have to get lucky with the week after. In the time I would have free during the break, the only thing I could probably do before filming is finalize a concrete script and storyboard the entire film. 

Work Smarter, Not Harder

 

    In planning out the production side of my project, I have honed in on two specific pitfalls of past projects that I need to avoid going forward to make the process much easier. 

1. Limit your locations.

    Last year, I made the decision to film in multiple different locations, and all it did was make it much harder to edit and a nightmare to schedule. Even though it seemed like a fun idea to film in many different locations, it just makes your job a lot harder as an amateur. To prevent myself from going through this trouble again, I chose to have my film take place in one room. Because of this, I am able to get all my filming done in one day and my actors are not annoyed at the commitment they must make.

2. Show, don't tell

    My last project was a bit too straightforward in its dialogue, including lines that communicated what could be impressed through the camera shots and subtle acting. I haven't storyboarded my piece yet, but I need to make a specific consideration of this as I begin to outline what I want the piece to look like to avoid my piece from being redundant and a "dumb watch."

Postcard Research

 

    In researching the print component of my project, I came across some postcards I think I can take some inspiration from, starting with the one above. This postcard is very effective; I feel like speaks so much about the tone of the piece without really giving anything about the plot away. The darkness in the composition and limited lighting gives off a very "monologue-ey" type of feel that is characteristic of stage plays when a spotlight is shined onto one actor in particular. More specifically, it makes me feel like I am going to enter a very personal piece that focuses predominantly on how these people are feeling or what they are thinking. Both of the subjects looking down give an undermining hopelessness to the entire composition. Aside from the actual composition, the formal TNR typeface along with the huge attention to the accolades gives the impression that the film is very serious and professionally made. The white on black makes a nice contrast that makes for a visually pleasing and once again very serious looking piece. 

    This postcard is also relatively effective(no complaints about the composition), but it has one big problem- the text. I think the review does not need to take up an entire fourth of the text section; it should be a bit smaller font-wise and quote-wise. While the typeface is good and the title is big enough to deduce that it is the title, I think the text directly below the title needs to be a bit separated from the title. Overall, the text side is a bit jumbled, but the biggest deal because the viewer can still read and understand everything. The composition does a good job of matching the blue backdrop to the text portion with the bluish filter it has. 

    Among the two postcards, I think that the first one is a bit better looking, but the second one is more in line with what my post card will look like. It will likely be the same type of format with a still from my piece(i'd probably pick my favorite shot from the piece) and without a long review like the second one has.  

Actors

I have found the cast for my short film. The actors are comprised of close friends of mine, and I am excited to see how their roles are played considering the idea that I find that my actors inhabit the personalities of the characters I have been writing. 

In the lead role as the character I have nicknamed "Fat" for the time being...

Santiago Mason

    Santi has been a common collaborator and actor in past projects, including a small inclusion in the film opening I created last spring. He is reliable and his schedule is adequately open, which will always be a plus for me. 

Playing the second character in my film now nicknamed "Ego"...

Erick Mondragon

       This role will be Erick's first collaboration with me and, to my knowledge, his first acting gig ever.  While having no acting experience could hinder the immersion of the piece, I like this casting as he is the actor I find the most similar to the character he would be playing. 

Lastly, playing the quietest yet pivotal role in my piece as "Medea"...

Natalia Diaz

    Natalia was the star of my film opening last year, and even though I feel she could have been utilized a bit more this time too considering her acting background, I don't think she fits into the other two roles as much as she could this one. Regardless of how big her part is, I'm pretty confident she will do good in the role she was granted. 

I Made Writing Hard.

    I have made an error in my ways.

    Writing a conversation without a clear path to follow or specific beats to reach was a complete waste of time. Straying from that narrative formula has created a substanceless argument between three people leading to a lot of backtracking whenever I had a new idea. 

    A narrative is like a train (clearly pictured above.) It doesn't line of cars makes up one bigger train, they are split into discernible carts regardless and need to be individually paid attention to. I can't just pretend like making a story in parts shouldn't matter- I need to go car by car and write a story the right way. 

    I am not going to rewrite my story or completely scrap it, I just need to figure out the three stages of my conversation before I can actually reach a finished product. While writing this blog, the only real idea I have about these three stages is fittingly laying into my three characters(dedicating somewhere around 60-80 seconds per each criticism,) starting from the food gluttony character and ending at my social media character.  

Writing is Hard, Man

 

    Due to the rocky start I had in regard to picking the narrative for my short film, I delayed the writing aspect of the production. I have to write a five-minute conversation between three characters, and I never realized how difficult it would be to create dialogue, nevermind incorporate my underlying themes into it. 

    

    The way I started my writing process was by writing down who the characters were and how they interact with other characters in the world of the story. To make it a bit easier on myself, I ended up giving the characters codenames that I may or may not end up keeping as their real names(depends on if they ever even say each others names during the dialogue.) 

    The next step I took was defining the placement of the characters in the setting and what they were currently doing(almost like stage directions.) It felt necessary to know where the characters were actively standing to have a clear image of what the piece would look like if readers of the script were watching it. 

    Now, at my farthest point, I have just begun writing the conversation. The method I've adopted to my storytelling is a bit unorthodox but I want to see where it goes. Rather than writing the story in three parts and trying to get my dialogue to move through those three stages, I've thought it would be cool to just write out a conversation between the three of them and just see where it goes. This has proven pretty difficult because I don't have much experience in writing dialogue, but this is the challenge I accepted in choosing this narrative and it's just something I'll have to figure out. 

Social Media Ideas

 

    This is the social media page I have conjured up to accompany my production. I have a specific idea as to what kind of approach I'm going to take with advertising myself, and it will be in line with the content of the film.

    To tie into the universe of the short film and play with the underlying theme a bit, I think a fun way to approach the marketing of the film is to have the account be very interactive with big name movie/media distributors to mimic someone who is obsessed with social media. One of the three characters in my film is obsessed with social media and I could run with that element by almost making this twitter account a nod to that character. 

    To be more specific, I might try to retweet and tweet to big name studios with hot movies or tv shows out right now like "The Last of Us" official twitter. Every now and then I would post behind the scenes for the film as well as little promos for it, but the meat of the marketing will be done through this method. 

Inspiration

  

    My main line of inspiration for my piece is the 2022 Aronofsky film The Whale, and, in more ways than one, I plan to incorporate elements from the film into my piece. The protagonist of the whale is a 600 pound male, and the movie has many disturbing scenes of him practicing his gluttonous addiction, but that is not the main line of inspiration I plan to take away from this film. 

   

    The setting of the movie is one element id like to incorporate into mine. The film takes place in one house for the entire runtime, and in doing this it allows for the few characters featured in the film to be shown at their most human state through dialogue. I aim to play to that same benefit in having the setting not be a main focus of the feature so I can also focus directly on my characters. 

    Further, there are scenes where theprotagonist casually hammers food into his mouth during conversation and we can tell what he is thinking based on the way he looks while he does it(hesitance, regret, relief.) I plan to mimic this during the conversation my characters would have with the character representing the main form of gluttony. 

   The short film I make will not be as hopeful and heartfelt as The Whale, but there are specific elements of the movie I will adapt into mine. I plan to rewatch The Whale (i've only watched it in theaters a few months ago) to better my understanding of theway the cinematographers develop such a tragic and sympathetic character. 

    

It's Decided.

 

    I decided on a narrative idea for my short film, and it just so happens to be something outside of the two ideas I listed in my last post. I'm still running with the concept of "gluttony" from the first of my two ideas, just in a different way. 

    The original idea was supposed to be a very experimental and offsetting flick. Though the concept was wacky enough to make for an enticing watch, it most likely would have looked tacky and not had the justice it deserved without an INSANE acting performance. It was hard for me to accept this fact, as I badly wanted to play with the idea of gluttony in a context other than food, but luckily I was able to restructure my idea to make it not only easier for myself but also more effective and straightforward in its message. 

    My new film would have 3 characters having a conversation in a single room for the duration of the picture, each demonstrating a different level of gluttony. The most overt form of gluttony would be characterized by one of the characters hammering food into their mouth the entire time, the second form of gluttony would be characterized by a character who is addicted to attention or themselves(a glutton to their own ego,) and lastly, the deepest most commonly accepted form of gluttony these days, gluttony of media, would be characterized through a character who would never look up from their computer once during the conversation. The second and third levels of gluttony would be bombarding the first with insults, showing how society dismisses their own gluttonous behavior and only ever responds to the main one they interpret.

Group Meeting

     

    Today I met with some of my classmates to discuss our personal progress on each of our short films, and in it, I was blessed with reassurance that I wasn't too behind everyone else. If you are up to date in the MannySpace lore, you would know that I am still deciding between two potential narratives for my short film. In this group meeting, my friends helped me gauge between the two choices and I am closer to electing one now.

    I was happy to hear that both of my ideas were ones they liked. They said that the burglar narrative had a Coen brothers type of feel to it and it could be pretty funny, and they also liked the darkness and mind-bending nature of the "gluttony" narrative. They relayed the same type of concerns I had for both, including lighting, location, and acting performances being the crux of both projects(they would both be kind of hard to film) but they stressed that it didn't matter because they both looked fun. Of the two, however, they were impressed more by the ending and aesthetic of the Gluttony narrative, and it sparked something in me that is now pushing me closer toward choosing it over the burglary. 

    I didn't exactly receive an answer or make any big decisions in this group meeting- I didn't come to class specifically hoping for one. What I got was a lot of reassurance that my ideas were good, and no matter what I inevitably chose it would be fun to watch.