Done Editing.... ish!

      I'm pretty much done editing my film opening! There are a couple of minor things that I would like to tweak here and there but the bulk of my work is done and I could not be more relieved. It took me about five or six hours, which is a lot less than I honestly thought it would take me. But hey, I'm not complaining.
     I'm happy with it. Not 100% yet, because like I said I need to change a few things, but it's pretty much there. I particularly know of a small clip that I want to film, but it would not take much for me to do so. When Natalia talks about how Luna had an amazing family and an amazing life, I want a clip of Natalia laughing. I realized in my edits that I didn't have anything good to insert there, so I want to add that. That won't be hard, I can do it at school with no problem.
     Sorry these posts keep getting shorter, as I approach the end of my little journey with this project, I am running out of things to say. But I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit sad it's almost over, I really enjoyed filming/editing this opening, and even writing these blogs.

Youtube Audio Library Saves the Day

     When I first started this project, my biggest question was how on Earth I was going to find good, royalty free music. The answer? The Youtube Audio Library! They have a wide range of songs that are completely royalty free. Even better, they divide it by genre so I did not have to search for hours.

     I immediately went to the 'cinematic' genre and I listened to a lot of songs. I probably spent a total of around two hours listening to music. Finally, I decided upon the song Emotional Love Theme by Biz Baz Studio for the credits. It has a sad mood (it's in the 'cinematic sad' category) but it's not overly sad. I am quite happy with that choice.

     For the rest of my opening scene, the song A Quiet Thought by Wayne Jones will be playing on and off. It's in the category of 'cinematic calm' but I think it does have a lot of sad tone to eat, maybe even more so than Emotional Love Theme. I'm not a professional, but I think it fits the mood and pace of Dear Lover.

     I'm really glad I knew of this tool before I even started filming, it was truly a life saver. I've struggled with finding good, royalty free music for other projects in the past. I was scared that it would be the same story for the project, but thankfully my teacher mentioned this wonderful tool before I even started struggling.

AHHHHHH!!! :(

     I should start by saying that I started editing my video today. I've spent a total of three hours and I'm 1 minute and 14 seconds in. Everything was going well. I edited the title sequence and then Natalia's voice over in the the beginning. But I just realized that ALL OF THE AUDIO WE FILMED AT THE PARK IS GONE! IT'S GONE! Pretty much all of it! :( :( :(

     I don't know if I'm angry or frustrated or sad. But I know I'm panicking. I don't know how everything is going to sound if there is no nice audio. I can't film everything again, I'm running out of time already. The audio is completely white noise. I don't understand why because I did sound check every single time I switched the mic from Andrea to Kailynn. I guess it was going too well and something was bound to go wrong.

     I'll update when I figure out what exactly I'm going to do. For now, I'll keep editing. That's all I can really do to make things better: get it done. 

Let's Talk

     I will be honest, it's Spring Break and my motivation to work on this project is not at high as it was a couple of days ago when I filmed. Nevertheless, I have to keep going.

     I have been watching the clips and for the most part, I am completely happy with what I have accomplished in terms of quality, though I haven't checked the audio recordings yet in fear that they may not be perfect. But I want to address something that I don't think I've addressed at all, and if I have it was very briefly.

     When casting Kailynn as my main character, I did not know what I wanted my story to be about. I quickly decided on drama and then decided that I would incorporate Kailynn's Puerto Rican heritage into it. However, when it came time to actually write the script, my mind went blank. I did not know what to write in general much less how to incorporate her ethnicity into it.

     I re-wrote the script about three times until I was happy and it ended up being the one I used. Truthfully, I simply could not think of a story where her ethnicity would be relevant. I decided to completely give up on that idea. I do not want to have diversity for the sake of diversity. I thought it would be unfair if I jut threw the fact that she was Puerto Rican into the story without giving anything else to it. I refuse to have a story in which a character's ethnicity is only mentioned to be diverse. If I was going to mention her ethnicity, it would be because it was relevant to the story.

     Hispanic cultures are so rich that I felt as though just mentioning Puerto Rico and leaving it like that would be somewhat disrespectful. As someone who is Mexican, I know I would feel a little bit offended if I saw a very Americanized character in a film who was claiming to be Mexican. Basically, if I couldn't do it the right way that I wanted to do it, I would not do it at all.

     Had I had more time for this project, maybe the story would be different. For now though, I am happy with what I wrote. I would love to film something with more diversity and culture in the future, where I can actually take my time to research the culture I will be writing about and filming, so I can deliver a respectful and satisfying result.

Filming Day! 2.0

     Let's pick back where we left off. So we filmed the outside portion of the film opening. Now, we had to film the scenes that were inside. It did not take me more than ten seconds when we walked back into my house to realize that natural lighting would not be useful there. I know I should've realized this earlier, but I did and what is this blog for if I don't admit my mistakes and correct them?
     So I did just that, I corrected it. I filmed Natalia's adult clips in my living room and I used this giant metal light that is not that strong but it made a huge difference. I had to hold onto it though, because it is not meant to be used as a studio light and would just drop if I let it go. It made the whole process a little bit more challenging, but it wasn't too bad.

     The fact that the light was not powerful was perfect. That, combined with the sun's light coming from the window made Kailynn's makeup look bright and bold, and it ensured that there were no weird shadows on her face.

     Then I made another mistake. I didn't realize that I need Kailynn without makeup for the part where Natalia is writing a letter to Luna. However, since the particular section does not necessarily need her to do that, I improvised and instead had Andrea go to the mailbox and pretend to be getting a letter. I don't know if I will like it, but if I don't it won't be too hard to film that one scene another with Kailynn.

Filming Day!

     The day is finally here! Today, I filmed the entirety of my film opening, all of it. It only took about... 9 hours. But we did it! Let me start from the beginning. It's all been so hectic that I did not have time to make very many blogs about the details like wardrobe choices, so I'm going to take you through the process now.

     Grades for the quarter were closing on Thursday, which meant that no matter how much I insisted, I truthfully did not know what outfit choices they would come up with until about an hour before we started filming. I understand that they were stressed out because of school so I do not blame them for being too busy to think about my school work, but nevertheless it was still frustrating. 

     I told Kailynn I wanted her to wear a gray hoodie I had, ripped jeans and sneakers for the part where she's younger and something to make her look like an adult for the part where she's older. I did not specify because I did not know what she owned, but her outfit ended up being perfect. She wore a white button up shirt, her pants and shoes were not visible. She put her hair half up half down and kept her makeup minimal for the younger part, but pulled her hair into a bun and has a full face of makeup for the adult part.

     For Andrea, I told her to wear something "cute and innocent", as that is how I visualized Luna's character. She wore a skirt and a t-shirt, which was absolutely perfect. She wore a little bit of makeup too. Unlike Kailynn though, Andrea did not wear any foundation/concealer. She does not like putting it on and so I did not ask her to, even though actors/actresses in films typically do wear some. 

     We filmed at Markham park, in a little place where there was a lake and some trees. It wasn't exactly what I pictures but we did not want to venture too far into the woods for fear of getting lost. I ended up really liking the place though, and we chose and nice little spot near the edge of the water to film. Here you can see the place, plus their costumes.

     It went well. It took us about three hours to get all of it down. It was quite frustrating to have to record audio and video separately, I already know it will be extremely time consuming to edit. Regardless, we had fun and there were minimal problems. A few were that Andrea could not say her lines with a straight face and it took us about ten takes to get them out, and I has to crawl in the mud for certain angles so my shoes are in desperate need of a clean up.

     Other than that, I think we were pretty successful and I'm really happy with how it all turned out. I had to tweak a couple small and technical things but nothing major, I almost completely followed my script word by word. Anyway, I'll continue talking about the filming experience in tomorrow's post, as this one is already getting a little bit too long.

An Actual Storyboard & Wardrobe Choices

     Heeeeello! Good news, I'm done with my storyboard. I definitely feel a lot more relaxed now that I know pretty much everything that is going to happen during this film opening. I still have a lot to do, but I feel as though the planning portion is nearly done. Anyway, here's the storyboard.

     Yeah, I know. It's ugly. But it'll do. I used this storyboard template.
     There's some other planning I also need to do. That's pretty much just costumes/hair, plus I have to work on Luna's character so I can let Andrea know how exactly she needs to act, even though she only has a couple of lines. I think I want her character to be kind and sweet, and I think I'm going to show that through her clothes mostly.
     So, clothes. I'm going to ask Andrea to wear a sundress and wear her glasses. I'll let her make her choice on how she's going to do her makeup as I know she uses light colors and little makeup anyway. As for Kailynn AKA Natalia, she needs to outfits. One for 18-year-old Natalia and one for 28-year-old Natalia. For 18 years, I think I want her to look like a troubled teenager. I'm thinking ripped jeans and maybe a hoodie. Since she's running away, she'd want to lay low. I want to do her makeup very minimally and using techniques to make her look younger. I know a few already, but I definitely have to look for more.

Sources:
https://www.slideshare.net/GregBarker6/storyboard-template-53092537

Script + I actually have a title now!!!

     Script writing is stressful. But I am pleased to announce that I am done! It was really difficult for me to actually do it. First, I do not understand anything at all about script writing. Two pages that I will leave in the sources are the ones I referenced most. I honestly cannot tell you what exactly I learned from each source because of how much I learned from both of them overall. Even with those though, I was still confused. Fortunately, I found a script template on Microsoft Word that ended up being my life saver. I am definitely a script writing noob.
     This template pretty much told me exactly what to do, what to write and where. If wanted to add something else I had this little thing that helped me with the format:

     In other news, I had to change the date of my filming to Friday, which makes me a little bit anxious. But it is what it is. I just know I need to get that done this week. Also, I am doing my complete storyboard really soon. The last storyboard that I did ended up being completely useless, because I hadn't written my script first. Now that I've written my script, my story has changed a little bit from my initial thought. It took me about two hours and lots of stress to get it down, but I think I'm happy with it and it will translate well into film.
     I titled it Dear Lover, you'll see why. I also added another character who only has one line. For that reason, I am comfortable playing her if I do not find someone else who would be willing to do so. I timed myself reading all of the lines without break and it ended up being about 1 minute and 20 seconds. I think that's good, as the first few clips will have no dialogue and will take up around another 20 seconds, plus breaks. In total it will probably be really close to the 2 minute maximum. Anyway, here's the script for the opening scene of Dear Lover. Enjoy!

Sources:   
http://www.storysense.com/format.htm
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/7-ways-writing-a-screenplay-is-different-than-writing-a-novel

A New Addition to the Family

     Today in class, we were assigned into small groups of 4 to 5 people and were made to share our progress. I'm not gonna lie, I was freaking out that it was the start of week three and I had yet to start filming. But I was pleased to see that I am not falling behind, everyone else is going at about the same pace as I am.

     So I've made a bit of an outline of my timing.

• Week one and two - planning and researching
• Week three - script and storyboard
• Week four - filming
• Week five - editing, music, etc.
• Week six - CCR and minor changes is necessary

     I have other news too! I decided to add one more character to my film opening. I have yet to decide how exactly this character is going to be, but I know that she will be female and hispanic too. That's because I found someone else to be willing to play the part. This is Andrea, my the second and only other character in my film opening.

     Although I don't know what exactly her character is going to be like, I know I want her to be Natalia's girlfriend. I'll figure out the name soon though. By the end of this week I will have a completed script and storyboard, and we will start filming Thursday of next week. We have five hours to film, and I trust that will be enough as there is little dialogue. If we don't finish shooting that day I'm still not very concerned, Spring Break starts that day so we have over a week to find another day to do it.

The Ugliest Storyboard You Have Ever Seen

     I decided I'm going to film at Markham Park, the reason being that it's close, pretty, and it will give me the nature shots that I want. It's also open every day till 7:30 pm, so if I do choose to film at sunset like I've thought about doing previously, I can do that. I can also easily find a lake and an isolated area where I can film. I'm kind of stuck on the idea of wanting in the scene, and to be honest my only reasoning to that is that it will look prettier.
     I've created a very rough and pretty ugly storyboard. It's definitely a bit worse than I thought I would have by now, but I realized that I think I want to write the script before I do the proper storyboard. For now, I just threw in ideas of what I am picturing in my head into my storyboard.

     Yeah, I know... pretty ugly. I never claimed to be an artist. But you get the gist of it. There will be an opening shot, which I think I might film with my brother's drone for a more panoramic and professional look. In the short, there will be a lake and possibly Natalia, though I'm not sure. I might flip box #1 and #4 around. I want shots from far away with voice overs but also shots close up so the audience can clearly see the distress in her expression. I think I may add a call from her mother, which I'm not sure if she's going to pick up or not.
     Tomorrow, I want to sit down and write the first draft of her whole dialogue. That way I will be able to provide a more detailed and better done storyboard by mid this week, hopefully somewhere around Wednesday or Thursday.

Sources:
“Markham Park & Target Range.” Broward.org. "Our Best, Nothing Less.", www.broward.org/Parks/MarkhamPark/Pages/Default.aspx. 

Natalia de la Vega

     A few days ago I talked about how the main and probably only character in my film opening will be called Natalia de la Vega and she will be Puerto Rican, though I don't know if I'm gonna mention a specific nationality. I mentioned before that I used New York Times Best Selling Author J.T. Ellison's article How To Build A Character in order to start the process of developing my character. I'm going to keep using that as a bit of a guide. J.T. Ellison states that the first things she decides are some physical features like eye and hair color (which I have no control over since I chose my actress before I chose my character) but also things like socio-economic status, age and level of education.
     Natalia de la Vega will be a 18 year old Puerto Rican senior in high school from a middle-class family. Since I want that dramatic alone-in-the-world kind of feeling, I need to make her stone suspenseful, dramatic and maybe sad. It was actually my boyfriend who helped me come up with the idea I think I'm going to go through with. I had this feeling that my story should be about a runaway; it's just something that has been in the back of my mind for a little while. But I needed to figure out: why would she run away? So I asked him that exactly, "Why would a teenage girl run away from home?", to which he answered quite simply: "abuse".
     A lightbulb went off in my head and I started thinking. I realized she had to be 18 to run away without being forced back into her house. I think I'm going to have her family be abusive towards her (whatever the specific abusive member it may be) as the reason she ran away, or maybe her being a lesbian in an unaccepting family. Natalia will be a teenage girl, smart, with her whole future lined up, who gives up as she does not have a good home life.
     I decided to consult yet another article about building characters, this time it is called How To Build A Strong Character In Your Writing? A few questions I found useful were "What are they feeling and experiencing?" and "Why are they doing what they are doing?" Why is Natalia running away? Her abusive/unaccepting family. What is she feeling? Loneliness and sadness. She's probably feeling alone and depressed and like she is the only person she could trust, but also powerful an independent if not she wouldn't be able to be running away.
     The author also talks about how it's important to step into the shoes of your character in order to fully understand them. I think that if I was Natalia, I would be scared. I would be terrified and lonely but so determined to make a better life for myself that I would push through it. I need to really keep her character in mind throughout all this in order for my scene to make sense.

Building Blocks

     Hello again! I'm brainstorming specific ideas for my story. As I've mentioned before, I'm sort of suffering from writer's block right now. I know I have to get over it as soon as I can so I can really get started on it. After all, I can't really plan out how my shots, angles, music, etc. is going to go if I haven't written a story and I don't know how I'm going to portray my character yet.
     So that's what I'm going to do now: build my character. I'm going to be using New York Times best selling author J.T. Ellison's article How to Build a Character as a guide. In it, she says that the first thing I should do is come up with a name for my character. The name should be pronounceable and should fit the character. I already know my character has to be a Hispanic teenager/young adult because Kailynn is a 17 year old Puerto Rican. I'm going to stick to making her character Puerto Rican too as I feel it would be easier, since I intend to ask her to speak Spanish in a few scenes and I don't want her to go through the trouble of changing her accent on camera.
     I found this list from the Social Security Administration of the top baby names in Puerto Rico in 2010, since I want my character to feel like a realistic Puerto Rican character.

     I like a few names; Natalia, Andrea, and Victoria mostly. I'm leaning most towards Natalia, but I'll see what pairing with a last name sounds best as I need the name to sound good together. I found some last names here. I kind of like the last names Castillo, de la Vega, and Hidalgo. Now I have to decide what exactly I'm gonna name her.
     I asked a couple of people for their opinions and I think my protagonist and only character is going to be called Natalia de la Vega. It's a very Hispanic-sounding last name and it goes well together. It's a little bit long but definitely not difficult to pronounce. I think it will suit the type of character that I have in mind, but if not, that's okay too, I can always change it once I'm done planning the story but before I film.

Sources:
Ellison, J.T. “How To Build A Character.” J.T. Ellison, New York Times Bestselling Author, www.jtellison.com/how-to-build-a-character/.
“Family Tree DNA - Genetic Testing for Ancestry, Family History & Genealogy.” Family Tree DNA, www.familytreedna.com/groups/puertoricansurname/surnames.
“Popular Names For Births In Puerto Rico.” Social Security Administration, www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/territory/puertorico2010.html.

Spanish?

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop." -Confucius  

     Yeah, I'm really trying to tell myself that right now. While I haven't made any real progress, I've been thinking a lot. I'm really hoping I can start coming up with a rough draft my story soon, and hopefully start on my story board by the end of this week.
     And I also have good news! I found someone who has agreed to take part in my film as the main (and probably only) character. Meet Kailynn Santos, the lead for my film-to-be's opening scene!

     Kailynn has been involved in drama and musical theatre for years, so I know for sure she will play whatever specific role I decide to give her very well. She's extremely talented. On top of that though, she has a few other qualities that makes me thankful she's agreed to this. One of them being her age, 17. Since drama films are, well, dramatic, what better age than teenage years? I feel like that gives me a lot of room to work with.

     Then there's her ethnicity, she is Puerto Rican. While I wasn't looking for anyone of any particular race or ethnicity, I'm really glad she is Hispanic. The reason being is that I can incorporate culture and the Spanish language into my film opening. Latinos are greatly underrepresented in Hollywood, in the top 100 movies of 2016, only 13% of the speaking roles were Latinos. Following the 2018 Oscars, the hashtag #LatinosLeftOut emerged on social media, mainly on Twitter as a protest to the very few Latino roles Hollywood creates.

     Even though this is only a film opening that will never hit the box office, I do want to be able to incorporate her heritage into it as my very small and personal way to protest. Kailynn and I may be from different countries (I am Mexican), but we are both Latinas and I'm confident that we'll be able to slip in some culture and the Spanish language even if only briefly.

Off to a Rough Start

     So, it's Monday morning, these blogs were due last night and here I am. I had a hectic weekend and these blogs were put completely in the back of my mind. I took a weekend trip to Orlando, trying to find a place to live in for when I attend the University of Central Florida in August. I'm pleased to announce my trip was successful and I have signed my first lease ever. However, in trying to think of my future I completely overlooked my present duties; this blog.
     But, better late than never, right? Anyway, I really don't want this to be something that happens again, so from now on I'm going to have alarms every other day remaining me to write in here if I do forget, though I will try to do most of these in school anyway.
     Back to planning out my film opening. While I did forget to write a couple blog posts, I did not forget to do a bit of further research on my intended genre. I've learned a little bit more about the specifics of what drama films contain. This site has helped me a lot in understanding all the details of the drama genre. I've noticed that a common theme in drama is realism. I have to keep that in mind, that my story and character(s) both have to be completely realistic if I want to stay true to my genre. I've started brainstorming some ideas, though I'm not sure I'm ready to open up about them yet until I have at least a couple more solid thoughts in my head.

     I've also found yet another video for inspiration, that really captures the kind of feeling I want to give my movie opening. It's the opening scene for Love Story (1970). It features the same idea as I had before, shots outdoors, and a voice over telling a sad, dramatic story.