First I gathered my materials. I used my Canon Macro Zoom lens, my Tameron F2 Macro lens, and after years of begging and pleading my sister's AMAZING lens (the quality was so amazing and had a perfect aperture range for the types of shots I was trying to gey). Then I gathered and noted sculptures and prints that I had mentioned in my storyboard and placed them throughout my setting. I had "visions" for a lot of the sculptures already, so much of it was just recreating what I had already thought up in my head.
#2: PRODUCTION PROCESS
It was actually a very chill day today. I think it all took me approximately 4 hours to film everything, but it was nice because it was all on my time with no rush. I really focused on staging the pieces, framing everything correctly, and nailing the lighting to enhance the power of the art. It was fairly easy since the majority of the shots were still, but the low to the ground shots had to be done with books and erasers instead of a tripod. The moving shots were a bit of a hassle since my "tripod" did not have the ability to pan left to right to me and my sister would have to hold it and drag the stand on the bumpy tile floor with as much control as possible- a tricky feat that we definitely fought over.(she was being bossy)
Dang! Things are moving fast! Friday we had our first day of filming!!! It took around 6 hours to film the scenes that I had allotted for today. We started around 4:10 PM and ended at 10:00. Not going to lie, it was EXHAUSTING!!!!!!
Preplanning:
I was sure that I wanted to separate my filming days into 1. Acting/ Action shots and 2. B-roll/ still shots of artwork. I wanted to separate the time I had to work with my actress that way I can occupy her once, and then not have to waste much of her time afterward. I actually loved how a lot of the shots turned out and am sooo glad I had everything completely preplanned and drawn or else our really long filming day would have possibly been longer and not as successful. I started the day by gathering my props, laying out my lenses and running through the scenes I had planned with my mother.
1. Key Moments
Here are my top 5 stills of my favorite shots that we got that day!
2. Challenges
#1 Lessoned learned: DO NOT EVEN TRY TO FILM A STILL SHOT WITHOUT A TRIPOD! ITS NOT WORTH EVEN ATTEMPTING! I tried to get the first couple of still shots that last a long time going completely handheld and later using a gimbal stabilizer- a huge mistake. Some of my first shots are very shaky and you can see visible movement. Unfortunately, I did not notice this until after I transferred a lot of my video to my computer so I just have to do my best to slow the shots down in post to minimize the video's "energy" as much as possible. I THANK THE LORD that I ended up discovering that I could screw my camera onto my ring light stand and get my sister to hold the lighting instead.(I was going to borrow the tripod of a friend but could not due to social distancing) It was definitely a hassle though since it was not a typical tripod: I had to physically crew the camera onto a screw at the end of the stick, couldn't tilt, pan or angle the stand since it was meant to only light, and could only get so low
#2 Lesson learned: HAVE BACKUP BATTERIES and MEMORY CARD READY TO GO! My battery gave me a lot of trouble this time. I don't know why it kept dying every 30 minutes, even when we took a short break to charge it, the battery drained rapidly, disrupting the filming process. I know it is an old battery (since 2015), but I didn't anticipate it's flakiness. Near the end, my memory ran out as well. Just as I was getting one of my favorite shots, my card filled completely and the camera stopped :( I had to ask my sister for her SD card in order to finish filming and had to clear mine before the next filming day.
3. Changes To The Project (+why)
At first, I had planned a scene in which my artist knocks the easel down in frustration. My mother refused to do this scene. In her words... "Nadie hace esas cosas, me vas a poner como una histerica desquiciada" (Nobody actually does that, you're making me out to be a hysterical, deranged person). Now that I think about it, she is probably right... It's a little bit over the top and probably would have ruined my new easel. I decided instead to make her throw the towel at the painting in frustration and I feel like I got the same amount of drama without having to be so violent. It is also a nice way to tie in the rag she dried her hands on earlier in the project.
As I have mentioned before, my mother is actually an artist in real life. She wears paint coveralls all the time and has many protective paint jumpsuits. For that reason when she suggested she wear her beige long sleeve suit, I knew it was a realistic choice for my character. I specifically chose this color and style because it looks a lot like a uniform. I think it could create prenotions in the viewer's head as to who this character is. On a more shallow level, it shows that art is an activity she routinely takes part in and her employment. Going in a little deeper, it symbolizes a lack of freedom in a way. The jumpsuit slightly resembles that of a prisoner or mental institution patient that could give undertones of how her sanity will be tested throughout the length of the film or the extent to which her art will ultimately consume her.
Green= seconds of the song + brief scene explanations in case my drawings are too sloppy.
Basic Scene shot names and angles:
1
Credits - first 40 seconds
2
still medium shot (from behind canvas)
3
medium shot, pan w/ ripping plastic
4
over the shoulder close-up
5
series of medium + close-ups
6
close-up (shallow focus)
7
Close up w/ pan right
8
Long/lingering focus pull from legs to head
9
medium/close-up (both still)
10
series: Close-ups + extreme close-up
11
Close-up still
12
Medium shot (Both pan and tilt following the brush) profile angle
13
Insert action and eyeline match: Extreme close-up
14
close up tilt down/ still medium shot/ still close-up (side/profile angle)
15
focus pull long(ish) shot
16
behind the canvas "over the shoulder" angle with still medium shot/ action match over the shoulder shot with shallow focus
17
series: close-ups
18
identical still medium shots
19
Close-up still
20
Jumpcuts: close-ups of face
21
still medium shot
22
high angle: long shot
23
focus pull medium shot/ over the shoulder action match: close-up
24
Series: Most are close-ups, sigh is a medium shot
25
Medium shots (differing angles)
26
Longshot/ action match: low angle medium shot
27
close up, handheld + shaky movements follow erratic hand
28
Series: close-ups, extreme close-ups
29
Series: Medium shots
30
Close-ups, extreme close-ups, medium shots, still, pan, low angles, profile angles... etc.
31
Low Key Light: still extreme close-up
32
Low Key Light: still close-up
33
still medium shot
34
Still long shot
I pulled a Todd Phillips... (Aka: I worked backward from the score)
My sister Charlie and I went to sleep around 1 am yesterday cutting up the song and determining which scenes would suit the energy of the song. We also watched multiple artist/museum videos of artists at work to get a feel for which shots are the most used and which elements of the setting the character most interacted with. My twin sister is the cinephile of the family and has watched so many movies that she was able to give me very useful advice, despite not having much experience in filmmaking. Below our initial rough draft storyboard can be seen. This served as a starting off point for the storyboard above. It is very messy, so I would recommend whoever is reading this doesn't try to actually read it. I wrote it and I am still not entirely sure what I was thinking at the time.
Here is a Time-Lapseof me and mother disassembling my living room and turning it into the art studio it will be in my movie. I wanted to build the set before completing my storyboard because it allows me to visualize and personally practice and try some of the movements I will request my mother to do.
To achieve the messy, too busy creating to clean, a little bit insane look for the studio we did a variety of things... starting with research
Here are some art studios that I found on Pinterest and analyzed to prepare for this.
Takeaways:
#1. The floor needs to be covered in canvas tapestries, preferably dirty, paint-stained and splattered to add texture and show that she does art every day.
#2. She needs to have abundant materials. Paint and paintbrushes need to be stacked at every surface that is empty to create a messy look. I brought the desk down from my room, draped a white sheet for more texture and covered it is dirty napkins, empty pasta sauce jars I found around the house, sketches, stray paint bottles, spray paint and tin cans full of paint brushes
#3. She also needs a lot of storage. Paintcarts or cabinets full of paint show that she is a professional and has a lot of materials accumulated. Luckily, my mother is an artist in real life so she was a stockpile of her favorite acrylic paint at my house already so it was not difficult to recreate.
#4. An easel is very easily recognizable by non-artists as a tool used by visual artists and painters, so having one would be essential in allowing all viewers to make that connection as early as possible. Unfortunately, I did not have one in this house, and going out to Fort Lauderdale to get it out of a storage container in the middle of a pandemic seemed problematic; however, Michaels was having a HUGE sale and I was a able to get the easel we are building in the video for 75% off! Building it was kind of hard because we had to do the majority of the building based on pictures since we could only find instructions in French.
5. A lot of completed and unfinished pieces of work from the artists. Turned Canvases, sculptures, and sketches scattered all across the floor are common in art studios. To do this I moved around 15 of the sculptures that can be found all around my house (mostly created by my mother) and scattered magazine remnants, past sketches of mine, as well as markers and colored pencils. I like how they create a subtle chaotic mood.
Changing my actress has caused my entire production to turn around completely. Now that my mother will be playing my main character, I have made the decision to completely change my project and the premise of my opening. I wanted to make the opening more mature and serious to compliment her age; people above 35 tend to be cast in non-comical, sophisticated roles and felt as though my past idea could not have been well adapted to a more mature character. Additionally, my mother laid out a couple of conditions for me, if she was to agree to film: #1. I did her make-up before and got her best angles. #2. She did not want to speak or have dialogue (English is not her first language and she was adamant that she did not feel like memorizing any lines). The first one was easy; even though I don't often wear it, I am pretty good at creating the no-make-up, natural make-up look. The second one... made me get a little creative. I looked at various non-dialouge scenes to get a feel for what I wanted to do; they were mostly dramatic, action-related, and rely heavily on music. For that reason, I officially decided to change my genre one last time to a DRAMA. I know last time I said it was official too but this time I'm serious. It is the last time. I promise.
I am kind of sad that I spent so much time and energy on my past idea, but I don't think I would have gotten to my new one if it weren't for the experience of coming up and endlessly considering how I would render my past idea.
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Okay, now that I have updated you guys on the major change I have decided to make, I will redo some of the research that is necessary for me to move on.
Genre:
-Drama
"Serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between." -https://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html
Subgenre:
-Psychodrama/ physiological drama
"A type of drama that centers on the characters' inner life and psychological problems. Oftentimes, this formula dictates that characters strong in their convictions are usually pitted against each other. In Hollywood, psychological drama is usually used as an approach, merging with other larger genres that stress mental struggles over the physical"
-https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/psychological-drama-d542
Typical Target Audience: Gender:
-Preference strongly skews towards women
-Drama films are often marketed towards women; however, since the genre is so large a lot of men still watch and enjoy dramas.
Age:
-Scores almost equally across age groups 15-65
-Gradually more popular amongst older generations
Genre Conventions: Content:
-realistic settings, plot, characters
-emotional journey (ups and downs)
-inner conflict/struggle
-Overcoming psychological pain, tragedy, challenges, etc.
-Audience can sympathize and relate to struggling character
-develops the character dynamically, includes multi-faceted individuals that add to the plot
-protagonist is relatable
-plot twists/ intricate plot
-women typically have a love interest
-Overall goal: Move the audience, change the way they see something, leave them thinking about an issue, make them feel different/ charged after watching
Production techniques:
Shots/Angles
-Low/High angles show superiority
-Close-up shots create intimacy with the viewer and allow them to more clearly see their expressions
-2 shot: lets the audience understand the relationship between two people/characters
-long shot: establish the setting or let the audience see the character's full range of motion or what they are wearing
-Iconic imagery used to make the location obvious
Mise-en-scene
-settings and costuming is oftentimes used to portray the inner feelings of the character
-creates shapes/lines that have emotional meaning
-Low key lighting is used to pack a punch/ create a very dramatic and strong atmosphere
-realistic costuming (nothing over the top)
-Regular 3 point lighting
Editing
-the pace of the editing depends on the energy and movement of the character
-shot-counter-shot for conversations
*fast-paced when there is a conflict or argument
*slow-paced when a low-energy interaction takes place
-Eyeline match to show important objects/ actions to the plot
-editing pace can also be adapted to the energy or psychological state of each character
Sound
-music that matches scene energy
-ambient noise
-diegetic and synchronous /asynchronous sound creates a sense of realism and depth
-sound bridges that smooth transitions
-narrations that tell the inner thoughts of a character
Common Themes:
-drug use
-romance
-love triangles
-grief
-death
-illness
-inequality
-crime
-good vs. bad
-coming of age
-perseverance
Dramas that have inspired me to make my opening- Here are 4 scenes of dramatic movies that inspired my film opening idea. I tried to pick scenes that were art related, heavily reliant on classical music, and had little to no dialouge. Film Opening #1: Call Me By Your Name- Luca Guadagnino
All
Film Opening #2: Fake- Gregory Friedle
1:30-2:40
Scene #1: Pollock- Ed Harris
1:30-4:53
Scene #2: Basquiat- Julianne Schnabel
All
P.S. I also watched the opening of 3 billboards outside of Ebbing Missouri (it did not let me embed it for some reason) and LOVED it. I want to recreate that same kind of abstractness in my film, where you know something powerful just happened, but still know nothing about the movie. I hate when you can tell the whole movie from the very beginning.
Claindelune, By: “What Is a Genre Convention, My Proposed Genre and What Makes a Drama Film.” Collettealevelmedia, 20 Jan. 2012, collettealevelmedia.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/what-is-a-genre-convention-my-proposed-genre-and-what-makes-a-drama-film/.
Red Rock Entertainment Ltd. “How to Uncover the Proper Target Audience for Your Film.” Medium, Medium, 12 Dec. 2018, medium.com/@red_rock_films/how-to-uncover-the-proper-target-audience-for-your-film-bfbb101d078.
Wühr, Peter, et al. “Tears or Fears? Comparing Gender Stereotypes about Movie Preferences to Actual Preferences.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 8, 2017, pp. 7–13., doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00428. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82882411.pdf.
Dirks, Tim. “Drama Films .” AMC Filmsite, 2012, www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html.
Statista Research Department. “U.S TV Show Binge Watching by Genre and Age 2015.” Statista, 23 Mar. 2016, www.statista.com/statistics/431170/most-binged-tv-show-genre-by-age-us/#statisticContainer.
Tripp, Poppy. “Generic Conventions of a Drama.” Prezi.com, 6 Oct. 2016, prezi.com/fopljvvnn_cr/generic-conventions-of-a-drama/.
Ward, Caleb. “How Low-Key Lighting Can Instantly Make Your Film Dramatic.” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 7 July 2015, www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-low-key-lighting-can-instantly-make-your-film-dramatic/.
Hey!
Unfortunately, none of the offices and sync representatives that I contacted to get song permissions ever got back to me. So, I decided that for this new project would use royalty-free, non-copyrighted music. I was reluctant to try this before due to the fact that I have struggled in the past to find good, quality, music pieces that don't 'sound' free. In other words, most royalty-free music is not very well or professionally produced and I did not want to ruin my movie with a bad audio track. Thankfully, My sister is really into music, specifically instrumental and classical music, and found me a very interesting song that really inspires me. We went through hundreds of songs on her classical music playlist and landed on Zigerwuensen by Spanish composer Pablo Saraste. It gave me very strong Godfather vibes, I was immediately intrigued. I went to Wikipedia and found that it was published in 1878 and due to its age was in the public domain. Then, I found a free, downloadable version online. I think this would be great for a dramatic opening full of intense emotions. My twin-sister, a GarageBand genius, helped me cut the song up and reduce the piece from around 9 minutes to 2, as well as slow the ending, fix a few sounds, and modify the audio.
“Saraste Sheet Music.” Free Sheet Music : Sarasate, Pablo De - Op.20 - Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) (Piano Solo), www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=75432.
“What Is the Public Domain?” Copyrightlaws.com: Copyright Courses and Education in Plain English, 6 Jan. 2020, www.copyrightlaws.com/what-is-the-public-domain/.
Ok... Sooo I didn't film on Monday :( My mom made me cancel my filming day because of the COVID-19 outbreak. My older sister came back from college a couple of days ago because they have established remote learning for the rest of the school year, and on Monday morning, her roommate informed us that she has a high fever and cough while testing negative for the flu and whooping cough. My mother does not want us to be the indirect cause of an older person's death so, she has banned me from physically being around people, assuming that if my sister has it we all do. My sister's roommate tells us that her results don't come back for another 4 to 5 days, so I am afraid I will have to change my entire idea since I am not allowed near my actress/friend. I am getting very close to the due date and I don't like to rush when it comes to creative projects.
I begged both of my sisters to act in my friend's place but both refused strongly. When I actually got my older sister to agree, she would not take any of my directions, got mad that I was telling her what to do and stormed off. That caused my twin-sister to feel bad for me, prompting her to give in, and let me film her instead. I think She did a great job on the first scene, but she claimed I didn't know how to film her in a flattering light, and later told me that she did not consent to me putting that video on the internet because she did not like the way she looked in it. My mother is the only potential actress that there is left in my house, and she is not at high school age, like my protagonist. I am afraid I might have to change my idea one final time to accommodate this shift. I will try my best to plan this week, so that next week, spring break, I can produce to the best of my ability.
A very important prop that introduces the political and societal views of my character is the Donald Trump dartboard. I was planning on doing it in the morning, but I couldn't sleep and am a little bit anxious about filming tomorrow so I might as well use the energy to be productive.
1. First, I bought a dartboard from a store called 5Below, which is kind of like a dollar tree. They sell items for really cheap prices. My mom suggested that it might have one, and thankfully they had 1 left in stock! It is not the best quality, but it does the trick.
This is the exact model I bought
2. Next, I found a copyright/royalty-free picture of Donald Trump and used Procreate- a digital design application to draw red markings on top of the picture. I wanted to alter the picture to show how my protagonist perceives this person, yet not change the photo to the point to which he was unrecognizable.
3. Last, I went to Office Max and printed the picture in a 11*17 poster material and used heavy-grade elastic tape to stick the poster on the dartboard. The last thing I did was arrange the darts in random order on top of the picture and hang it up.
Finally!!! I completed my storyboard! Yay! I wanted to make it once I had everything done and my room was ready and rearranged so I could accurately block it out. I have tried out a few of the shots with varying lenses and angles to pick out what is best for filming day. I am so glad Its almost ready :)
Tomorrow is my planned filming day!! I want to at least get the rooms scenes completed. I have everything that I need for the scene, I just have to complete making the Donald Trump dartboard and I should be fine. All of this coronavirus stuff is making me nervous that filming the project will become difficult in the future.
