Filming Wrapped

 Aside from one shot, the POV urinal shot to show Bob's expression when he hears the screaming and collapsing from outside the bathroom, we've officially finished filming! On Monday after school we all went back to the school for what would be a short, hour-long wrap up - or so I thought. Unfortunately a few mishaps and unfortunate occurrences were involved that dragged everything out made us rush a little bit in the last few minutes of filming, one of them being that Alejandro's girlfriend, the wife actor, started feeling pretty sick that day and we had to rush to get a back up, but luckily our classmate Nina came in clutch. This meant that we had to refilm some of the teacher's wifes line which we had already recorded, but we only got about 3 lines in and it only cost us about 10 minutes

I also got some quick shots from the outside of the school building to use as either cutaways or some extra shots for exposition or the creation of a teaser later on. This flickering light would serve particularly well in creating a  sort of eerie and foreboding tone so I made sure to get about 15 seconds of footage.

Also, once I begun editing, I hadn't really planned on doing this while it is a key convention of thrillers, but the scene where the wife confronts Bob seemed it like it was screaming for a jumpscare like "RYAN RYAN PLEASE MAKE THIS A JUMPSCARE" so I added a very sharp sting in addition with loud pounding knocks which I found on Pixabay in order to create this:

                                

Additonally, we opted to create the effect of the body having woken up by Alejandro operating the camera, and me standing behind the cart in which the body bag was placed and shaking it aggresively. I also added some muffles to add to the overall comedic effect.

And finally, something I can admit was definitely my fault, but going into filming, I honestly could not for the life of me figure how I wanted to end the piece. Whether it be the tone, or action, I just couldn't figure it out and was hoping once I saw everything there I would decide in the heat of the moment. This is pretty much what happened, and because of how emotional Alejandro's acting was when the teacher passed away for real for real, I decided ending it on a more gloomy note would be best. I decided to recreate this by having him walk back out into the hall, what one can assume is a few days later, and slowly, almost painfully, place the wet floor sign in the middle of the floor. I added my song to it as well and I think it matches together quite well honestly:

Overall, now that I've gotten a rough edit of most of my piece and finished filming, I feel I now have a pretty clear vision of the brand I'm aiming to develop and how I envision my piece turning out in the end.

Postcard/Social Media production

So apparently there's other parts to this portfolio project beyond the short film and I have to do them, so in the past few days I've done a decent bit with respect to developing my postcard and social media branding/presence. 

First of all, for my postcard, remember that idea had...

Well upon further consideration, I've ultimately decided that it sucks. Why, do you ask? I feel it doesn't really serve as a creation of visual interest or even promote any sort of branding beyond the font, especially because of how dull the color scheme is.  So I decided I'll work towards creating a new one. As I'll discuss in a separate post, I've been messing around with some color grading in premiere pro, and this new scheme really emphasizes the blues and yellows within my piece so I feel the branding I should create should put emphasis on one of these two colors. Additionally, I talked in the past about my concern with postcards that spoil the whole thing, but for my piece I feel a postcard visual that avoids the central conflict would just turn out boring because - no offense to janitors- but it just would be hard to find something that would make the postcard something that serves as a source of generating interest among people I would hand it out to. Therefore, this shot below of once Bob first discovers the body would reveal there's some sort of dead body involved and create the visual interest I'm going for.

 

After all, the main conflict is separate than the 2 big plot twists, he's alive and the the whole ordeal was the teacher's wife's doing. We've also elected to make this yellow figure our logo. As I talked about in the past I've been considering making some design similar to this one below (minus the guitar), as it hints that there's a body involved to generate mystery. We made it yellow to uphold the consistency of our branding with the yellow caution sign serving as a key element of the film, and foreshadowing the climax. 

Thus, I've officially made my first teaser. I found this copyright free sound on YouTube and ultimately elected that it would be good for a teaser that emphasized the shocking and thrilling nature of the film. As I discussed in my social media research, a somewhat even emphasis on both the thriller and comedic aspects of the film in our marketing would best represent our genre, and for this teaser I opted to not really focus on the comedy behind it at all.

With Alejandro handling more of the marketing side of things and me handling post production, I figured I could best communicate my vision for the branding to him through the creation of this teaser.

CR Brainstorming

Today, I'll be doing some brainstorming and discussion of CR questions 2 and 4. 

2) How do your products engage with the audience?

Firstly, this question requires a clear definition of the target audience to answer completely. I would say the primary target audience for my piece is dark comedy enthusiasts, primarily male, and aged from 18-35 years old. Fans of shows like Barry would naturally gravitate towards my piece, because of its similar emphasis on both thriller and comedic aspects. They also gravitate towards more cynical humor-esque stories that feature an antagonist that is intelligent and bold. And finally they tend to gravitate towards a very clear style through soundtrack and cinematography. I feel my piece embodies the stylistic aspect through my original composition which I featured, as well as the repeated use of handheld and dutch angle shots to reinforce a visual style. There is certainly a presence of both auditory and physical humor as seen in Bob's confrontation with Lewis in which he convinces him not to go into the bathroom, and the jump cut sequence when Bob drags the teacher out of the stall.

 However, one manner in which One Body Problem may fall flat in convincing the target audience is through the intelligent protagonist, as the whole reveal comes about by a cliche Freudian slip in which the wife says Bob's name without ever having been told his name, revealing she has been plotting on him all this time. The cliche nature of this whole twist may be too overdone to completely retain the engagement of the audience that I gained through other aspects of my production.

4) How do your products represent social groups and issues?

First, my story basically centers around a member of the blue-collar class, and therefore naturally must develop some sort of commentary about members of this group. It reinforces the notion of these workers being widely and historically overlooked and undervalued, as that's pretty much the entire reason why he was chosen as the teacher's wife's victim. However, it challenges this traditional representation through the incorporation of this brief, yet important detail. 

Bobert's son set as his wallpaper provides logical and relatable motivation for the extreme lengths he goes to hide the teacher's body and reinforces his humanity. Through reminding others that he too has motivations and purpose beyond simply cleaning the school floors, One Body Problem clearly challenges this preconceived notion.

A further issue I am able to commentate on in One Body Problem is workplace hierarchy. Once again, Bob was chosen because no one would "believe" him and I reinforce that through Lewis's condescending dialogue with Bob. Lewis's higher overall ranking on this hierarchy reveals it to be a problem as it makes it signficantly easier, and even probable to scapegoat Bob successfully and essentially ruin his life.

Overall, the most prominent representations and issues I provide commentary on are workplace hierarchy and undervaluing of custodial staff and bluecollar workers as a whole, and through placing this comentary under the guise of purely being comedic, I am able to subtly alter common preconceived notions of these issues.

We filmed p.2

 So as I said in the last production post, I was pretty confident that going into Thursday's filming, everything would go more smoothly. And yes, while we got up into the final confrontation between Bob and the wife, after going through the raw footage I have come across a huge dilemma. Let's see if you can spot it!

yours truly as "LEWIS"

I'll give you a hint - it's not the lighting. What's that? Yep you got it! The mics are EXTREMELY VISIBLE in some of these shots. This is where its made super obvious that I'm an amateur who is figuring stuff out as they go along. Right now it looks like I'll be relying on extreme close ups through zooming in post, but honestly it might even help elevate the claustrophobia and tension I aim on creating, so maybe my ignorance and stupidity is actually a blessing in disguise! Also, backing up a few shots, you see that one shot with kind of bad lighting where Alejandro is clenching his teeth, this shot was completely improvised on the fly. I had this vision I attempted to convey in my storyboard of jumpcuts being used from an eagle eye perspective as Bob drags the body out of the stall after hiding it from Lewis.

one of the many outtakes

the final shot

 While we did remain faithful to this aspect in the end, after thousands of interruptions from either me completely losing composure or Alejandro or Lucas breaking character because of how purely chaotic getting the shots were, we also had the idea of getting a POV shot (maybe not a POV because his eyes are closed because he's "dead") looking at Alejandro's face as he desperately tries to drag the body out of the bathroom stall. I think this shot came out pretty well and also would be a cool front postcard design, something like this:

Another notable moment was the creation of the teacher's wife's contact card. I didn't think it would be that big a deal and I told Alejandro to set his phone to a black screen but he opted to use a skull emoji with heart eyes which amused him quite a bit. 

Maybe there's some deeper symbolic significance I'm unaware of but we definitely had a good laugh, which brings me to my final point: We didn't finish :((((( which means we are officially behind schedule. This is all part of the trial and error that comes with learning to effectively do something, but the time we lost breaking character and getting distracted added up and while the actor for the wife was present, we didn't get to finish filming her parts. Fortunately, this upcoming monday we are able to go back to the office building once more to film the final sequence, and finally wrap filming.

Music Production

 Today, I decided it was time to finally record the original composition I discussed into Ableton Live, the DAW I use. Because of the limited edition I have, I could only record up to 8 tracks, which kind of limited my production ability as I prefer to double track everything I record. I think it turned out really well and I even edited the first minute or so footage and put the track over it to see if it aligned tonally, and I personally think it worked great, but you can have a listen down below if you wish.

I'm contemplating adding something more to it in its reprise, because I'm planning on bringing the track back at the end of the short film after the climax where the wife is defeated. I think a good way to make it feel even more conclusive would be to add drums that don't overpower it but just drive it forward. For example, when the drums kick in at 3:30 of "Dimensions" by Arcade Fire. 

The song itself is beautiful and emotional but the drums coming in after building so well for the past few minutes feels so conclusive and impactful and I feel doing something similar in my track could work really well. I unfortunately don't have access to the materials necessary to play let alone record drums, but after reaching out to my friend Jacob, he said he would see what he could figure out. I'm still not 100 percent sure and I'd have to do the sight test after I edit everything, but exploring my options would prevent me from being too rabbit-holed into one specific tone I'm forced to end on.

We filmed p.1

 So as I previously discussed in our first day filming we just brought the 2 main actors, my partner Alejandro and my friend Lucas who's playing the dead body, as well as my friend Pedro who let use his camera. I've never really filmed a full complete narrative of this length so I wasn't sure how long it would take, but I was relatively certain we wouldn't get farther than the main set up when Bob first discovers the body. 

Unfortunately, despite being scheduled to film at the school district office from 5-9, we didn't really get started until about 6:30 because PEDRO forgot his SD CARD and I had to stop at WALMART to GET ONE. 50 dollars and 90 minutes later, we filmed for the next 2 hours and it honestly went pretty well. We remained relatively faithful to our script and storyboard, but there were some surprisingly cool improvised and spontaneous elements that I think turned out pretty well. 

To provide some examples, I knew I wanted to assert that Bob was a generally unpopular custodian, especially compared to his fellow custodian Lewis, which is why the teacher's wife would view Bob as a perfect subject for framing. While I planned on making this clear in their conversation when Bob has to get Lewis away from the bathroom, I feel like it had to be introduced early on, and with my mother on site, we figured out a way to do just that. Basically, she would play another teacher leaving the building, Bob would say "Bye Ms. Bernstein (not her actual name)", and my mom would just straight up ignore him, like Bob was basically a ghost who's not really respected by anyone. Again, this wasn't in my script or storyboard at all, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Another thing we improvised that I absolutely loved was this two shot from a sort of eagle eye point of view looking down at Bob and the apparently deceased teacher. In the moment, we all immediately jumped to the similarity to the iconic shot from the Breaking Bad episode "Crawl Space".

I like this shot a lot and I'm glad it came to us in the heat of the moment because obviously the high angle would reinforce Bob's lack of control in the situation but it also places him and a literal dead person in the same light, showing Bob too is dead in the sense that his life is kind of over as he's responsible for someone else's death and will face the consequences if he doesn't act quickly. It would be cool as the back of a postcard but it does kind of give the whole thing away about someone dying so hopefully some more shots will come to us that could be used on the postcard later on.

Also, to further establish a sort of moral grounding and motivation for Bobert's actions, because I was unable to print out a picture to put in his wallet before the shoot, I opted to just use a picture of my brother from when he was around 4 years old as Bob's wallpaper on his phone, as it works as a small detail that subtly provides some moral background to why Bob goes to such extreme lengths to hide the body. 

Overall, we only got up to around a minute or so into the film's exposition, but this first day provided much needed icebreaking and warming up to one another so that on Thursday I'm confident everything will go much more smoothly and we can get the filming process out of the way.

Shooting Schedule/ Costuming

 As I outlined in my schedule, this upcoming week is spring break which me and Alejandro plan to make great use of to tackle what seems to be the most intimidating aspect of our film. My mother who is an employee for the school district in which I attend, knowing we needed access to a school building over break, offered her office building which is literally a shut down elementary school which works perfectly. 

Whilst scouting the location, I met the head janitor, Claudia, who generously said she would allow us access to her supplies while we filmed. Up to this point I’ve kind of overlooked the prop side of things but this really fixes that hole without me having to do a whole lot of extra spending and research so I’m incredibly thankful.

Me (Lewis), Alejandro (Bobert), Alejandro’s girlfriend Claire (Teachers wife), my friend Lucas (Teacher), and my friend Pedro (Camera operator) all agreed on Tuesday and Thursday of spring break to film. On Tuesday we plan on filming from the start through Bob’s interaction with Lewis, and on Thursday we plan on filming through the end.

Alejandro's costume is a pretty straight forward depiction of a custodian, as I already own a jumpsuit as part of a past Halloween costume.

For my costume, I'll aim for something a little less stereotypical to present myself in a cooler, more respect light to make the difference in other's views of Bob vs Lewis clear.

The teacher will wear relatively stereotypical attire, with a formal dress shirt and dress pants, and the wife will wear something very outlandish to create uncertainty as soon as she appears on screen.

Cruella from 101 Dalmatians comes to mind as a sort of inspiration and I feel this can be recreated in a different light. My mother owns a leopard print fur coat which I feel would work well when paired with black glasses. Seeing someone who presents themself as innocent and clueless wearing something so bold would create an immediate juxtaposition forcing the audience to question what the teacher's wife actually wants.

Storyboard

 Attached below is the storyboard for One Body Problem. As was the case in AS level, developing the storyboard helped me get in the mind of a director and bring the script to life to visualize what exactly the character would be doing and how it would be illustrated, and even get inspiration for ideas not present in the screenplay.

I doubt that in the end the final product or even what we do on filming day will be completely faithful to the storyboard, but nevertheless the storyboard alongside the script gave me a strong foundation I can hopefully elaborate on and improve upon if more ideas come once we film.

Postcard Research

 Hello blog viewers. As a key part of this project I'm undertaking involves a print component, specifically creating a post card for our short film, today I'll be researching some do's and dont's when it comes to making one.

THE FRONT:

This short film is a thriller and revolves around a girl who shows people an image of what she claims to be a portrait of god, although no one, including the protagonist, can ever see anything besides a black void. However, one day things start appearing for her out of the darkness. I don't know if its super clear from my picture but if you look close, you can literally see the figure she starts to see later on. While it's a pretty terrifying visual that would likely intrigue an audience, especially with the consistent color scheme and bold font, it pretty much just gives the whole twist away which I'm not a huge fan of. There's a visual later on in the film of what happens after her whole encounter with the lord which I think is equally visually engaging, but also creates even more curiosity cause we don't know what the heck we're looking at. One thing I can definitely take from this post card however is the use of a concise, consistent color scheme and stylized font.

I have quite a similar issue with this one. After doing some research, I stumbled across a short film which astonishingly has the same central conflict as mine, a custodian forced to hide a body after someone slips and dies. I thought this would be a golden opportunity to get some inspiration, but I'm honestly not a huge fan of this postcard. One, I think the font is uninteresting and is hard to read against the white background. And two, it gives the entire conflict away before someone receiving the postcard even starts watching the film.

 

Therefore, the front of the postcard for my short film should make sure to find an engaging visual that leads to the central conflict and creates mystery but doesn't literally spoil the entire plot. Additionally, I should find a way to make the color scheme concise, only sticking to 2 or 3 colors with a font that matches the visual style.

This album cover for Soothsayer by the guitarist Buckethead has a cool visual of the outline of a body that I think would work well with my project. Setting it in a school setting with a wet floor sign in the background would make it clear that someone died but wouldn't completely spoil who, how, why, or when.

THE BACK:

After searching tirelessly online I unfortunately have faced difficulty in trying to find postcard examples with a front and back, but nonetheless, I have familiarized myself with the conventions and will likely use a more comedic visual on the back to create the dichotomy between thriller and comedy that my short film holds.

This template shows me the necessary info to have in a way clearly presentable way to the audience, including contact information, location, and showtimes. There's also the really cool idea of a QR code allowing for a private viewing with a password which is something I can take into account.

The Script

This has been about 3 weeks in the making. Ever since me and Alejandro landed on the idea, we've been writing out a script, as I feel just forcing myself to write as opposed to sitting around and brainstorming is the easiest way to get a complete idea of what the heck we're planning to do. 

Also, we recently did a project in class centering around film distribution, involving making a trailer, a teaser, a screenplay for a 5 minute excerpt, which yours truly assumed more of a role in, and a distribution plan for a story we were assigned. I found that after around 30 minutes or so of writing screenplays it's pretty easy to enter "flow state". You can probably imagine what this is or have heard it being used online by people who definitely don't know what a real "flow state" is as they've never seen me 30 minutes into working on a screenplay. But basically its where you get so immersed into the plot you see it unfolding before your eyes and your fingers fly and struggle to keep up with your thoughts and what your mind is imagining at that particular moment.

Once I reached about 2/3rds of the way through the screenplay, I had an epiphany to incorporate perhaps the most mindboggling plot twist since The Usual Suspects (1995), which I saw pretty recently and was pretty awesome. But anyway, instead of giving the whole twist away right now I think it's best if you read my screenplay to get the complete effect. You'll notice I took inspiration from thriller-comedies I researched like "Put Your Shopping Cart Away" as I tried to balance out even the most intense moments with some comedic inflections, but to where they still felt honest to the characters. I sincerely hope you find some enjoyment in this script.

 INT. SCHOOL BUILDING- NIGHT

A wide shot a long hallway. The only sounds heard are the buzz of the fluorescent lights and footsteps in the distance. Bobert step into frame, a middle aged custodian, mopping the floor mopily - he's a custodian after all. He looks up at a portrait of himself on the wall labeled "Custodian of the month". Reinvigorated, he mops the floor excitedly and stops in front of the bathroom for a break, forgetting to leave a sign. Melancholic, honest music plays in the background. 

HIGH ANGLE SHOT FROM BEHIND BOBERT IN URINAL CUT TO POV LOW ANGLE SHOT FROM URINAL LOOKING AT BOBERT'S RELIEVED EXPRESSION

Distant chatter and footsteps are heard in the background. A deep, raspy voice draws nearer, and then...

*THUMP* - Music instantly cuts out

He jumps, startled, and his keys fall in the urinal. Bobert's expression goes cold. He slowly steps outside the bathroom. A POV shot of Bobert slowly reveals a lifeless body laying on the floor. He starts freaking out.

                BOBERT

    SSHHHHHITT.

Bobert scrambles to the lifeless body and tries to wake him up.

                BOBERT

        (Whining, nervous)

    Come on man wake up wake up please come on

Bobert continues shaking the lifeless body, to no avail, and glances up at the employee of the month sign. He crumples to the floor, defeated and anguished.

                BOBERT

        (Defeated)

    Awwwww man.

Bobert lies on the floor, frozen and staring at the wall. He pulls out his wallet, opens it, and stares at a picture of his daughter. He begins crying. He looks next to the body to see a live phone call has been ongoing for the past minute with "Bae heart emoji". He scrambles over and puts the phone to his ear.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

        (Crying incessantly)

    Schnookums???? What happened??? ARE YOU OKAY?

Bobert hesitates, what will he do? This is where he decides who he is. He takes a deep breath

                BOBERT

        (Passionately)

    Schnookums - um - uh you're breaking up kkkkkkkkkk - I can't hear you kkkkkkk - Ill be home soon kkkkkkkkk.

Bobert hangs up the phone and sits back against the wall. He doesn't know what he just did but at least he can catch his breath. The jingling of keys and distant footsteps are heard drawing closer. Robert - back literally against the wall - only has one choice. He must hide the body. The footsteps - revealed to be a fellow custodian, LEWIS - steps into frame, he stares at the spot where the body once lied, only to see Bobert mopping the floor as if nothing has happened. Lewis heads towards the bathroom

                LEWIS

    Oh hey Bobby.

                BOBERT

    Hey Lewis, listen, I just cleaned the bathroom would you mind-

                LEWIS

    Man i really gotta go man

                BOBERT

    I know Lewis, and that's okay but we each have our own designated spots and I would really appreciate it

                LEWIS

        (Clenching, aggravated)

    Alright fine dude whatever.

Bobert waits patiently for Lewis to leave the building before walking up to a bathroom stall.

                BOBERT

    *INCREDIBLY DEEP BREATH* haaaaaaaaaaa

                

EAGLE EYE SHOT

BOBERT clasps the rag-dolled body, and jump cuts detail him desperately attempting to drag the body out of the stall. He eventually gets the body to the school door, reaches to unlock it, but remembers his keys fell in the stall.

                BOBERT

    Ahhh f-

Quick cut to Bobert using the lifeless body to fish his keys out of the stall. Quick cuts form a montage-like sequence of Bobert dragging the body back to the door. Once he reaches the door, bright, blinding headlights pull up through the window, Bobert has to act fast, but he doesn't have enough time. The Teacher's Wife bolts up to the door, pounding agressively against the closed door.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Sir! Sir! Have you seen my schnookums???

                BOBERT

    (Startled) JESUS CHRIST!

Bobert opens the door, he must remain calm.

                BOBERT

    Um uh, ma'am I'm truly sorry I think you just missed him.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Is that so? He should still be here? It says it on his phone?

                BOBERT

    (Starting to lose composure) Yea I'm pretty sure he's gone actually, he only left a few minutes ago I know phones these days are kind of slow to update especially with the locations and everything.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Oh okay Bob, thanks anyway

                BOBERT

    Yea know problem have a great night.

Bobert turns his back only to quickly turn back towards the wie

                BOBERT

        (Suspiciously)

    How did you know that was my name?

                WIFE

        (Stumbling over words)

    Um uh what? Did I say that? I just uh. I figured it respectful to know the names of custodians in town, I mean its truly a disrespected profession these days.

Bobert is deeply unconvinced, and his look shows it. The camera zooms in to his perplexed and suspicious expression.

                WIFE (O.S.)

    (Sinister tone and look)

    I had to make sure it all went according to plan.

Wife steps into the hallway, slowly inching forward as Bobert backs up.

                WIFE

    (EVIL LAUGH ENSUING)

    And it really, really did! I mean who are people going to believe? The harmless, innocent, betrayed

Wife glances over disgustedly at the trash bag the teacher's body is in.

                WIFE

    widowed wife or Bob, the janitor? Seriously!

                BOBERT

    You did this?! He didn't slip on the floor?

                WIFE

    I don't know what the hell you're talking about. This is your fault.

                BOBERT

        (Tearing up)

    Why would you do this to me? I don't understand.

                WIFE

    Who else's life would be better spent rotting away in prison, Lewis?

                BOBERT

    Uh, yea that guy sucks.

The teacher groans and starts making pained noises while moving around in the body bag, this distracts the wife.

                WIFE

    (Enraged)

    No. NO, NO, NO! He's supposed to be dead! Rotting in hell right where he-

Bobert, back once again against the wall, locates the caution wet floor sign, picks it up and hits the wife on the head, knocking her unconcious. He throws the sign to the floor and runs over to the struggling teacher, kneeling down beside the bag and fishing out his head from inside the bag.

                TEACHER

        (Lifeless, breath fading)

    Ugh what the hell? Why are my clothes wet, where am I? Is that my wife?

                BOBERT

    Hey hey teach. Its a long story, basically your wife found out you cheated on her and tried to kill you and wanted to frame me for the murder.

                TEACHER

    What? I told her I was talking to my mom. I just still call her mommy.

                BOBERT

    (Confused expression)

    You call your mom-nevermind teach you've gotta stop talking so much.

Bobert reaches behind the teacher's head, to see his hand now covered in blood.

                BOBERT

(Shakingly)

    You're losing a lot of blood.

                TEACHER

    Man I just want my mommy, tell her I love her.

                BOBERT

    (Tearing up)

    Teach, stay with me please, please!

                TEACHER

    (Slowly and finally)

    You were always my favorite janitor.

The teacher goes unconscious, life leaving his body. Bobert sits with the teacher in his arms, hugging him and crying. He's just as heartbroken as he is disgusted with himself. Cut to caution wet floor sign leaned up against the wall.

INT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAYS LATER

Bobert grabs the caution wet floor sign from the wall, and places it in the middle of the hallway. Melancholic theme music returns. He steps into the bathroom slowly, out of frame.

END

Musical Ideas and Deliberations

 Remember when I talked about my super ambitious and original idea to score my short film a while ago? I feel like I've gone long enough without really doing anything to further my journey towards completing this aspect, so today I'll be showing you guys how the sound aspect of my planning process has been coming so far. I've got 3 or so different ideas, and the goal of these pieces would be to serve as the sort of theme for my production, playing at the beginning and end. I recorded all 3 of these from my phone so obviously they are not recorded properly, let alone ready to insert directly into my film, but I hope to give you guys an idea of what exactly it is that I'm looking for.

This is probably my favorite one and in the lead right now. I wrote this over the summer and have been hoping to find a way to make something out of it, as it doesn't really feel like vocals would fit but it would be pretty boring as an instrumental track. The melancholic tone certain aspects of my piece call for however, would be perfectly embodied by this track. It reminds me a bit of duster, and their sound is distinctively slow and melancholic, pioneering the whole 'slowcore' genre and something that sounds like them would work well as a recurring theme.

This one is cool and I can definitely make something out of it if I add some more ambience and make it sound less like a solo guitar piece. It's kind of Mk.gee inspired,  and he always describes his sound as 'liminal' and sort of distant, which could have its place in the background of certain parts of my production, but I don't really see this being the main theme to my production. It lacks a specific tone to drive the melancholic mood I'd be aiming for at my production's beginning and end.

This one's also cool, but not in the lead for being chosen as my theme idea. It feels a little uninteresting and unmotivated, and I don't feel like it really works to set a particular tone. However, I do think that the chord progression itself is cool and could be used as some sort of ambient pad on a keyboard during the more dialogue heavy sequences to fill the background.

Overall, the top song is definitely what I'm leaning towards for my film's 'theme'. Not only have I been hoping to find a way to use this idea for a while, but it also is the most melancholic out of these 3, and in my opinion, the most cinematic sounding as well. Once we wrap filming, I'm planning on using a lesser quality recording to play over parts of the film to see if the piece matches tonally, and if it does which I'm fairly confident will be the case, I'll record the track for real on Ableton Live and make it sound like it wasn't recorded on an iPhone.

Group Meeting #1

 Today in class we held our group meetings. Basically, we were broken up into groups and had meetings where we discussed our portfolio projects in their current state, and offered constructive criticism, opinions, or even ideas in terms of plot development and branding for certain projects. First, I'll talk about my group members' projects, and then talk about what was said about my production.

Renn

-Making a short film about a girl who gets over her overwhelming school experience mirrored by a flower growing. It is super mise-en-scene heavy and relies upon match cuts of the flower prop to represent how no matter how much goes on in her life, she's still just an extension of the same person she always was. It seemed like Renn had a super clear idea of the story they were going to illustrate, certainly more than I do. The only real issue she faced was coming up with a name for the short film, but they said they would prefer until they get farther into the production to settle on a name.

Joaquin

-Making a short film about a girl whose tired of being powerless, and joins a satanist cult and goes on a satanist crusade, killing and tormenting different people. He illustrated the story as a dark comedy through its commentary on our desire for approval and gratification. We helped Joaquin work through different ways to carry out his vision, and he told us about his desire to blend illustration with real footage, creating a unique, stylized look. He also talked about certain costuming/mise-en-scene aspects he wished to include, one of them being one of these hats. 

Once he got more into the intricacies of the plot, we all pretty much unanimously told him that it seemed too dense, long, and hard to follow, and to which he acknowledged, but claimed it would make a lot more sense upon actually viewing the film.

Robert

-Robert is making a funny short film about a failed tennis player who is the son of a tennis legend. Upon turning on the radio one day, he hears of someone entering competitions, pretending to be himself. He then starts training relentlessly until he eventually finds himself one on one against his doppelganger in the final round of a tournament. We helped Robbie work out his vision to have the reveal of the main character be funnier, as its essentially a sports comedy, such as having the doppelganger look absolutely nothing like the main character, and Robbie claimed he had a friend in mind who would tower over the protagonist, making the reveal even funnier. The only real issue Robert was facing was how he would plan to end the short film. After deliberating with us for a while, he settled on a more lighthearted ending that added a comedic twist - the doppelganger apologizes and admits he only did it because he doesn't know his dad and has always looked up to the protagonist's father.

Zach

Zach is also making a short film, but his approach is vastly different from anyone else from our discussion. He doesn't exactly have a plot narrowed down yet, so our discussions with him were more of brainstorming and exchanging ideas, but he did have one key idea in mind. The entire short film would be a POV shot from the point of view of an actual camera, which was involved in a sort of love triangle with 2 human beings. It's a really cool and original idea, but right now, his group just lacks direction and a complete understanding of what story they want to tell. We offered ideas like how the film could be a commentary on our obsession with perfecting simulated depictions of ourselves, a sort of postmodern commentary, and Zach liked this idea, but once again didn't really know the story he would attach this to. Most of the conversations went like this:

"So like in this world is it normal for cameras to have sentience? Is this camera even sentient or is just an inanimate object?"

"I don't know"

"How are you going to make it clear we are looking from a camera's POV?"

"I don't know"

So yea unfortunately we weren't able to help with this one as much as we would have liked, but Zack has some cool ideas in his head and just needs to finish a story to implement them into.

Samara

-Documentary about hispanic culture bringing people together, where each episode highlights different aspects of the culture. We talked about how this approach would make the documentary feel too much like listing different cultures, and Samara talked about how she could fix this by deep diving into the topic of the episode, incorporating various indirect interviews from one culture sliced together to give a more complete story. However, beyond this, we even discussed changing the approach from focusing on one country at a time, and then the next, to treating each episode like a story, seeing how one aspect of culture was introduced in one country and how this created a ripple effect and how it stands in hispanic culture today, such as how mambo and cha-cha-cha turned into salsa at some point. We also discussed the availability for really creative branding because of the awesome flags made available by looking at hispanic flags.

I mean look

But yeah we talked about how she could use these flags in the doc intro like some kind of spin the wheel with different flags on it and aspects of culture, and this could be how each episode would start.

RYAN
Because I am so humble and everything I actually ended up going last in group discussions, which unfortunately meant I only had about 7 minutes to discuss my project with everyone, but the information I got was actually pretty valuable. After pitching my idea, they asked how I planned on shooting in the dark, and not being a filmmaking expert I said "I don't know", but Zach did. In his words I need to get a "Large Ass Blue Light" and a "small white light" in order to make the subject as clear as possible. They also gave me some funny slapstick ideas like the teacher waking up once Bob thinks he's dead, and Bob's first reaction being to slap the teacher across the face, actually killing him.

Renn also told me about this short film they researched called brothergirls which they felt aligned with the tone I was going for as it centers around 3 girls breaking into an exes house to retrieve a belonging. Unfortunately, this all we were really able to cover, but I got some valuable information I can definitely make use of once I finish my script this weekend.

Gaby

-Gaby is doing the music project, and decided to do it centering around pop singer Abby LeMasters. Unfortunately, a pretty big obstacle of hers is the fact that Abby lives in Nashville, so its not very possible to do a promotional music video. But, she worked around this by opting to do a storytelling music video. She told us one of her biggest issues with this is figuring out how to keep the music video engaging, to avoid feeling repetitive when each chorus comes around. We offered the solution of cutting to lyrics on screen in a stylized font, over a different setting each time so that the story never felt too repetitive, especially since there were no promotional aspects to balance out the story. Gaby also talked about how she's able to work around not being able to physically meet up with the artist, as she can send her a photo example, something she would like to post on social media or use as the album cover, and have Abby recreate the photo as she sent it.

I really enjoyed meeting up with everyone in groups to discuss our project. Last year in AS level, the conversations felt kind of forced and the feedback wasn't super quality, but this year it feels like we all really want to help each other, and therefore the feedback I gave others, and what they gave me, helped us all clear some things up and give us important info to keep in mind going forwards.

I'm the one with the thumbs up

Social media thriller research

 Today, in class we were tasked with researching 3 social media pages that would reflect the social media page we would end up creating for our own portfolio project, so me and Alejandro decided to go in different directions. He'd research comedy short film social media pages while I'd research thriller short film social media pages and we'd share our findings to create the ultimate thriller-comedy social media page synergy.

Media text: Crash Site (@crashsiteshort)

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Posts typically highlight milestones the film reached after its release, and audience reactions to the post via YouTube comments. 2 brief trailers and teasers were incorporated, appealing to the unique sci-fi aspects of the thriller production. Some attempts at behind the scenes process was included, but these were low effort and seemed to be posted for the sake of being posted rather than appealing to the audience's interests, like a picture of the characters on production day as opposed to behind the scenes video.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): This short film's Instagram marketing made it very clear what not to do when marketing my own film. To its advantage, renowned actor Steven Yeun starred in the production, meaning audiences would be naturally gravitated and the film did not require relentless, excessive marketing. The only posts working to develop any sort of branding are the trailers, and release date reveal. The release date reveal had stylized text that fit the color scheme and sci-fi styled branding of the piece itself, and the trailers each focus on separate aspects, one the thriller aspects and one the comedic aspects.

Posts such as this serve absolutely no purpose to develop branding, and instead conflict with the intense, high stakes nature of the teasers, creating branding that reads as ambiguous.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: I will certainly incorporate teasers of the production, and an original element I can incorporate from Crash Site's social media is two teasers organized very differently from one another, one emphasizing the comedic nature of the film, and another emphasizing the thriller aspects to appeal to both ranges of my genre's target audience. I will also ensure, before making any post, if it works to either further develop my branding, or serves any other significant purpose that would market my film more effectively as opposed to posting for the sake of posting and entirely diminishing the creation of a cohesive brand within my production.

Media Text: Format (@formatthefilm)

Social Media Tool: Instagram

Description of Types of Posts: The very first post took place before any production had begun whatsoever, simply announcing that the film was in it's preproduction phase, giving a brief plot synopsis and introduction to the short film. As the creators grew farther into the production process, interview-format videos with actors and directors were used to reveal more about the content of the short film as well as the process used to bring it to life. Individual posts are designated to casting decisions for each major character, and any short film nominations were given their own individual postings. Only one real post was incorporated closer to the release date that functioned as a teaser, and worked to establish tone and mood as opposed to giving virtually anything away regarding the plot.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): The branding of this particular piece did not seem to become clear until the creators were clearly far along in the post-production process. Before a clear brand was evident, posts seemed kind of random and uninspired, focusing solely upon behind the scenes images. However, branding was eventually made super clear in the later half of their postings through a consistent color scheme, visual style, and text font. Most images on the cover of posts did not make it clear what exactly we as the audience are supposed to be looking at, but demonstrated a clear, consistent style and chilling mood that would intrigue a sci-fi thriller driven audience to want to watch the production. 

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: The use of visually stylized stills from my film to accompany any important information, like new film festival screenings, or special events would ensure that as I draw closer to release day, by branding grows more and more cohesive. Additionally, my teasers can lean more into conventions of the genre and developing tone as opposed to focusing on the plot of the film to keep it ambiguous. Early on in the production, behind the scenes type content, while detracting from the creation of a clear band from start to finish, appears excusable as the intention of these posts was not to reinforce or emphasize the film's style, but rather to  humanize the production and break it down into clear phases for the audience to understand. I can mirror this aspect through making one or 2 posts highlighting the creation of my original score as this would clearly depict what effort went into the production, beyond what the audience sees on the screen.

Media text: Spoor (@spoorshortfilm)

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Jarring, uniquely framed shots from the film are set as standalone posts when announcing important information such as film festival announcements. Brief teasers that serve to establish an eerie tone through hollow sound design and abstract shots rather than outline the plot. Pictures of the cast and crewmembers at festivals after the films release. Some behind the scenes editing is included but not a lot of emphasis on the production process.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Consistent color scheme across all posts and the repeated emphasis on jarring, outright odd shots creates a clear discomforting branding. The brand being developed is made so clear by the repetition of the orange, warm color scheme and chilling shots that the story is virtually irrelevant, and the audience of abstract psychological thriller lovers are intrigued by the consistency in branding alone.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: This page served to show me just how important repetition and consistency are in the creation of a cohesively branded social media page. The other pages I researched made some attempt at developing branding, but this short film understood the vision it wished to reflect and embodied it within each post. Thus, me and Alejandro will decide on the vision we wish to reflect for our project before setting out on churning out different posts, as not only will this drive the social media page, but constantly having our branding in mind will help drive the overall look of our production as well to ensure branding is consistent across all 3 components of our project.