Music Planning

 As much as I would love to incorporate a song I truly love, which I also feel would work well within the opening, like an Elliot Smith song, it turns out that getting permission to use a copyrighted song is more of a headache than I previously understood, so today I'll be deciding on what music to use in my film opening.

(RIP these two bangers)

While scrolling through bensound.com, a royalty-free music database, I discovered this gem:

"Sleepless" by Diffie Bosman captured me when I first heard it. It's ambient, somber, and reflective, and sounds like your listening to it played in a giant dining hall. It honestly reminds me of some of Thom Yorke's solo ambient stuff like "Dawn Chorus".

 I can just imagine having this play over the title card after the poem is read, and I know it would work great. Thank you, Mr. Bosman for creating this absolutely beautiful piece of music.

As for the more eerie, sinister sounding music to go over the poem that Belle reads at the very beginning, I believe bensound also has us covered. Me and JD were looking for something unsettling, atmospheric, and dissonant.

"Hollow Eerie Whispers" by FoePound is very atmospheric and unnerving, and it can serve as a template for layering more suspenseful dissonant sounds. For example, samplefocus.com offers a bunch of royalty free suspenseful, fiercing sound effects to layer.

Overall, I feel excited to have finalized our music choices and I can't wait to actually get some footage to edit on top of it! I'm happy with our choices and excited to see how the music and footage clash together later on.

Costuming

 I am by no means a fashion designer, but I have a vision for the two character's costumes, and today I'll share them with you. They might be good, or they might be bad, but I think their good. I'm pretty sure they're good.

Belle will be played by me and JD's friend, who looks like this:

For the opening Belle will wear a dark green dress. This green hue represents her purity and innocence, while the dark tint represents her trauma and depression. We still have to get our hands on this dress, but for now here's what we have in mind:

Belle will also be wearing a cross which her mother gave her, highlighting her relationship with her mother and God at the beginning of the film.

Belle will also wear these slippers I stole from my mother (thanks mom) as they would fit in with the vibe of the outfit perfectly.

Belle's green dress acts as an extension of her internal state, highlighting the clash between her trauma and innocence, and therefore will work well within the opening.

Christopher will be played by another one of me and JD's friends, who looks like this:

Yes, he can grow out a beard and will look much older in the opening. All I really had in mind for Christopher's costume was something mature and professional, like a white dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes. The white dress shirt highlights his relationship with God, while the blandness simultaneously highlights Christopher's dull life. The dress shirt would likely be wrinkled and not fully buttoned, highlighting his disarrayed and chaotic emotional state. Something like this:

Luckily, the actor has shared that he has clothing which meets this criteria, which greatly saves us the headache of buying clothes and finding his size. Overall, I feel that these costume designs find healthy balance of practical and effective, despite the fact that I'm not a fashion designer. I feel that we are right on track to filming on time due to the completion of the vast majority of our mise-en-scene planning, with my partner focusing on set design. However, we desperately need to take family pictures to frame for the credit sequence, and most importantly FIND AN ACTOR FOR THE MOTHER. Her role is very minor within the opening, but nonetheless we need her for family pictures. JD has already communicated that he has two potential actors he is thinking of, so I'm not too worried, but we still need to get this figured out.

Pamphlet-ing

 I love Canva, but I also hate Canva. I utilized the program to design 2 potential flyer/pamphlets for the "cult" in the opening, and why the HECK did they have to come out so good? So now I'm tasked with choosing one, and saying goodbye to the other forever :( Come along with me as I try to decide which one I like more.

So right off the bat, there is an obvious difference in the two flyers . The first one, we'll call it "mono", is far less colorful and vibrant than the second one, we'll call it "purple". Mono is far more moody and less warm and inviting than Purple. It's almost sinister and discomforting. Purple kinda feels like it could be an invitation to a karaoke night at a bar, and that's not quite the vibe I'm going for. Additionally, the Mono emphasizes the church, which is a key aspect of the film and tells the viewer everything that we need them to know. The dad is planning to move to a Christian retreat in a far away, remote area. Purple does not do this as effectively as Mono.

While I think the flyer should serve to provide context, I think it should also importantly provide some subtle foreshadowing and establish tone. Mono excels in this aspect as well, as the monochromatic look helps establish a bleak tone early on, and the small size of the church helps to foreshadow Belle's eventual separation from Christianity.

With this in mind, I think it's pretty clear which one to choose. While Purple looks nice and does it's job, I feel that Mono is just so much better and would fit in almost perfectly with the opening, providing much needed context and also establishing tone. Thank you Canva.

Character Developement

Christopher is the father of the protagonist, Belle, within They Lay In a Pool Of Blood That Is Not Their Own! 

While the sudden passing of his wife deeply affected Christopher, he elects not to show it and instead tries his hardest to move on. He does this by taking down family pictures, blocking out memories from his mind, and eventually deciding to move to the remote village named Lake Geneva Community of Christ. Christopher thinks the only way his daughter and him move on is by escaping any attachment, instead of mourning. Belle does the opposite, going mute as a result of her mourning, and this very conflict drives the plot of our film and opening.

Christopher is so desperate and motivated on being progressive and moving on, rather than what he considers as regressive, he decides to burn a picture of his wife, epitomizing the idea that his wife ceases to exist in his mind, and he is desperately trying to move on, as he fears what mourning the awful loss will do to him.

Christopher may seem evil and emotionally abusive at first glance. However, in his head, he is protecting his daughter, and doing what is best for his family. As the story develops, Belle becomes a victim in the village, bullied and tormented due to being mute, eventually leading to a resentment towards Christianity. What was supposed to be a trip to get closer to God, led to the exact opposite. As a result, Christopher becomes deeply reflective and regretful, realizing that his ignorant, overprotective, and progressive ways led to the destruction of his family.

The Script

 After finishing the storyboard last week, we decided our first course of action was completing the script that would accompany the shots we framed, so here it is!

Storyboarding...

 Here's a quick showing of the storyboard my partner JD and I developed for our two minute film opening entitled They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! 

This truly helped bring the sequence to life in our minds and we're excited to further develop our planning through mise-en-scene elements and eventually film!

My Idea - They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own!

 After 3 weeks of brainstorming with JD and yelling at each other and ripping each other's faces off            (metaphorically), we have come to a final decision about our project. Here's the rundown.

Place yourself in an 80's suburban neighborhood. This narrative, called They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! follows a father named Christopher and his daughter, Belle as they navigate through the unexpected loss of the mother, Erica. After the traumatic experience, Belle has gone mute and desperately clings on to anything that attaches her to her mother, whether it be pictures or necklaces. The father has done the opposite. The family has long practiced Christianity and to run away from attachment to his deceased wife, the father has decided to move to remote village in which a Christian cult-like society dominates, after seeing an ad in the newspaper. The mute daughter who refuses to show any passion in Christianity is immediately exiled and excluded upon arrival. This exclusion increases as time moves on, and eventually leads to the daughter developing a hatred and resentment towards Christianity, and burning down the village in which she was raised.

The opening will highlight the last moments of the daughter and father in their longtime home before moving. The excerpt will start with a poem being shown on notebook paper, with eerie, atmospheric nondiegetic sound in the background - in which the last line is: They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! A credit sequence will follow over a montage of pictures of the family before the mother's death, with the transition I discussed previously linking the montage to the present moment through a zoom out. The processes of the daughter and father packing up will be illustrated, and the dad's glancing at an old picture of his wife will make it clear that he still holds an attachment to her, and a showing of the cult's pamphlet titled Embrace Christ - Start a New Life will hint towards where the film will end up in the future.

Overall, through many trials and tribulations we have a finalized concept that we are happy with and can't wait to get to planning and filming!