Production Timeline

 Introduction

Hello, today I will be talking about the production timeline that me and my partner have set to keep us on track and to keep our thoughts more organized. This production timeline turned out to be essential when it came to being prepared for the future. Additionally it did require me and my partner to meet up and have a good talk to make sure we were agreed on our production timeline- this did take us some time.

Week of 2/16-2/20

That week is a planning week and it was also a short week which meant me and my partner had very limited time together to do our blog posts, therefore we decided we will be doing 2 blog posts that week. Furthermore that week is our last planning week and there were still things we still needed to post about, and that's how we chose what are blog posts will be about.

• Title & Font + Color Type 

          - This post was necessary as we we wanted to show the planning process of picking our tile, what     font and color it should be, while also talking about the timeframe all the text will be coming out.

• Story Board and Script writing

         - Since both of these posts go together and both of them are short posts, the logical ting to do was just put them together especially since they are a crucial part of planning and we hadn't had posted about them yet.

Week of 2/23- 2/27

This week was the first production week we would be doing, hence these posts would be shorter and talk more about the process of production. My partner and I knew that we would be posting 3  new posts, and since this was the week before we started filming we wanted to make sure that we would have all the essentials down.

• Cast List

         - This post would be about the cast me and my partner chose for our film opening and a brief reason for why we chose them for our characters.

• Script Share

         - This post would be about us sharing our script to our actors and seeing the reactions to our script. And it will also allow us to hear the comments our actors will have on our script.

• Items were buying

         - Now this post would be about the items we will be buying to use to film our film opening such as the equipment we will be using and why we chose to buy it.

Week of 3/2-3/6

This is the second week of production and it's the week that we film meaning that these 3 blog posts will be about the preparation for production day.

• Timeline for Production Day

         -  This post will be about the timeline we will have for Production day. Like from what time to what time we will be filming each scene, example from 12:30 - :30 we will be filming scene #1.

• Practice for Production Day

         - this post will be about my partner and I practice for shoot day, an example is where we try some of the shots prior to day of shooting to be prepared and to be more efficient when it comes to day of shoot. 

• How Film day went

         - This post will be about the day of shoot and how it went, whether it went well or whether it went bad.

Week of 3/9- 3/13

• Editing Scene #1

         - This post will be about the editing process of scene # 1 

• Editing Scene #1 Part 2

         - This post will be a continuation of the editing process of scene #1

• Editing Scene #2

          - This post will be about the editing process of scene #2

•  Editing Scene #2 Part 2

          -  This post will be a continuation of the editing process of scene #1

• Editing Scene # 3

          -  This post will be about the editing process of scene #3

•  Editing Scene #3 Part 2

          - This post will be a continuation of the editing process of scene #1

Week of 3/16- 3/20

This week  is the week of spring break, and my partner and I both won't be in contact as much during this week especially since we will both be enjoying our break. There fore we will only be one major that week.

• Final Product: Our film Opening - OFF BALANCE

         - This post will be our Final Product.

Week of 3/23- 3/27

This week will be mostly about working on the CCR's for this project which means this might take me some time to do.

•  CCR posts 1-4

Week of 3/30- 4/3

This week is the last week before submitting my portfolio meaning I will probably spend some time fixing and correcting any mistakes I made throughout all my blogs before submission.

Conclusion

Now these blog posts are subject to change based on any factors that might present themselves in the future but overall this Production timeline was helpful to keep my thoughts organized and have a structured plan for the future.

Costumes

 Introduction

Today I will be planning what costumes and props we will using the day of the shoot. This is crucial as costumes and props add an extra depth to a movie or show. In addition, this is valuable because it provides a good layout for me and my partner ideas, as  it allows us to organize our thoughts clearly.

Emily's costume 

To start, the character Emily will have two different outfits. The first outfit will be from the very first scene where young Emily is playing and having fun learning gymnastics. And for this outfit me and my partner envisioned the she would be wearing a fun and colorful leotard with colorful shorts to emphasize the child like sense of wonder where there are no responsibilities or pressure.  Examples are shown in the images below.

 

Now, the second part of young Emily's costume is her hair and makeup. Hence, me and my partner wanted to show a progression in Emily's character from a carefree little girl to a young teen filled with pressure and expectations. The best way to do this was to give Young Emily a hairstyle that had a greater meaning behind it. Therefore we decided that young Emily's hair would be in a high but messy ponytail in that scene, this signifies that since she is young her life is carefree like the ponytail and it's messy because she isn'y taking anything seriously yet. To add on, since she is a little girl she will be wearing no makeup what's so ever. This just helps amplify that she is young, especially since most young kids don't wear any makeup. Examples of this are shown in the image below.

Hair

   

Next we can continue to present Emily, who will also be waving a leotard as t is the uniform for gymnasts. But we wanted the color of the leotard and shorts to have a meaning behind that led us to pick the color Dark blue as it signifies seriousness and loneliness but also signifies control which is a key skill for gymnastics because if you have no control then you risk injuring yourself. 

Finally, we can discuss Emily's hair and makeup. Now like I. said before, we wanted to see some progression in Emil's hair from before to now. So, before when Emily was young her hair was carefree like her but now that she is serious about gymnastics and has a lot of pressure on her , her hairstyle will now be more tight and restricted. An example is a slick back tight braid or a slick back bun. This shows that she is no longer free spirited instead she is tense and tight like her hairstyle. Now, moving on from hair, Emily's makeup will be very natural since she is going to practice and having make up on while you are sweating is not ideal. And it's a natural convention for her to have some makeup on as girls her age are starting to be introduced to makeup. Examples are shown in the images below.

Hair                                          Hair                                    

      

Makeup

Laura's Costume

Lauras costume will also be very simple since it will be athletic comfy clothing. This is because Laura is a coach, and since she is a coach she will have to be showing her athletes how to do drills or skills correctly, plus she will be spotting and moving around to help her students meaning she has to be comfortable while doing this. Hence her outfit will be leggings, socks with comfortable sneakers, and a hoodie since most gyms are cold to keep their students from overheating and having heat strokes. Now just like how Emily's costume colors have meaning so will Laura. My partner and I discussed which colors would best contribute to Laura's character, and as I said in one of my previous blog post, Laura is Emily's coach who expects more from Emily especially since she knows Emily has more potential than she thinks she has. This makes her serious and demanding at times, so me and my partner choose the color black since black shows those characteristics the best compared to other colors. Examples of outfit shown below.

Now, moving on to Lauras hair and makeup will also be very simple.  Especially since she is working at a gym and possibly sweating, she will be wearing everyday natural makeup. And then for her hair me and my partner imagined it being in a low pony tail or a messy bun. This is crucial in coaching because if you have your hair in your face it can blindside you to any mishaps that night be happening and or anything that may cause an injury. Images of examples shown below.

Makeup                                                Hair 

      

Hair

Veronica

Now our last character will be Veronica, Veronica is the mom of Emily and we envisioned her to be in some stay at home clothes as she is driving Emily to and from gymnastics. That means she will probably be wearing some comfy jeans or some sweat pants, and a comfy shirts with some sneakers. Now since the mom is the antagonist she needs to be wearing some colors that portray that but that also still show some vulnerability because she still loves her child but she just doesn't know that she is hurting her daughter. The best color to portray that is the color red, because the color red shows antagonist energy, and a deep red shows vulnerability. Hence, we will be using a deep red as we don't want to introduce her as an antagonist right at the start instead if we were making a film we would like her to have an arc of where the audience can realize she is the antagonist. plus another color we can add is black as it shows seriousness since Veronica is serious about her daughters career in gymnastics. Below are some images of what the outfit could look like.

  

Veronica's makeup and hair are just like Lauras makeup and heir. It's going to be very simple and natural makeup look like Lauras, especially since she is just wearing the makeup she wears daily or less since she is just driving Emily back and forth from places. And then for veronica's hair  we imagined it  in a tight low to mid pony tail to show how uptight she can be, plus it also shows how serious she is. Examples shown below.

    Makeup                                                    Hair 

   

Setting/ Locations

 Introduction

Hello again, now that my partner and I have the characters we will include, plus a loose plot, we can now  move on and plan where and when the story will take place.

Setting #1

The first place are story will begin is at a gymnastics gym. The gymnastics gym is crucial for our story since it's the place where most of the movie will take place and it's also the place that induces the most stress in our character. The gymnastics gym is also crucial for our audience as it shows the audience what sport environment the movie is about. For the film opening there are 2 scene's that will take place at the gymnastics gym. The first one will be the opening scene, where it shows young Emily playing and having fun learning gymnastics. In addition, the second scene which comes after the opening scene will show present Emily now much older, doing gymnastics and suffering a mental block.

Now that we know we are using a gymnastics gym, we now had to find one that would let us film at. Since I am a gymnast, I suggested to my partner that we should use my gymnastics gym. Hence, I scheduled a meeting with the gym owner of my gym to ask her if we were allowed to schedule a day to film. And the owner of the gym said yes as long as the day that we filmed wasn't a Saturday or Sunday, as there are private lessons happening on those days. So, me and my partner settled for the day March 6th from12 pm to 3 pm to film. And this worked out great ,especially since we will have to leave early from school the day of shoot and the gym is only 5 minutes away from our school.

Here's  an image of the gym.

Setting #2

The next place we will be using is a car. The car scene is the last scene of the 2 min opening, and this is where Emily and her mom Veronica will have a conversation about how practice went, and it's where we see the antagonist side one Veronica. This is a key moment in the film as introduces the main character's mom Veronica, and also gives the audience background information on why she is not having fun at gymnastics. 

Now since we want to film this scene in a car while it's moving we have to make sure we pick a car with enough space to film in. Now this scene in general will be hard to fit especially since there are lots of moving parts elements in it. This idea of the car moving may be changed to the car parked then it slowly rolling out of the parking lot depending on how we feel once making the story board. But back to. the car model, our best bet would be a SUV as it's spacious and a normal car anyone would have. To add on, since this film opening is low budget, my partner and I want to use something we already had at our disposal. This led us to chose my partners car as it's a spacious SUV and can fit everyone we need inside of it.

 

This is an image of the car, a Land Rover Defender 2023

Project Proposal

Official Project Proposal 

Hello and my name is Noemy Buenaventura, and my partners name is Melanie Justo-Chong and we will be working on a Film opening as our product. 

The genre we chose was  Sports with the sub-genre of Drama and Coming of age.  And the reason we chose Sports as our main genre was because we wanted our film to revolve around the pressure a sport can produce therefore our film fell into the sport genre. In addition to that we had to chose our. subgenera and since we were going to base it off of a character who people can relate to that is going through intense emotional and personal conflicts, we knew that it fell into  the drama category thanks to the researching we did prior to choosing. And to add on we knew from the start we were going to have our main character be a young girl who goes through this conflict to find herself better leading to an extra sub-genre of coming of age since the definition of a coming of age movie is a young protagonist’s psychological, emotional, and moral growth.

Our potential target audience will be young pre-teens and teens, from the age of 10-18 and this is because it's a coming of age movie which means adults won't really be interested to watch as they are not still finding themselves unlike teens who sometimes want something to relate to. Plus our main character is young which means people who are close to our characters age will be more interested to watch the n people in their mid-40's, unless they have children who want to watch the movie with them. Since this movie's main character is a young girl, boys aren't going to be as curious to watch the movie- so the gender of our potential viewers will mostly be females. This film will do fine with any audience from any place in the world, in addition people who play a sport or like to watch sports will also find this movie to be a great watch.

The issue we will address in our film is how a sport can be demanding, and especially how rough it can be for a young child's mental health, as it can lead to difficulties to perform due to the need for perfection.

The software we will be using to edit our film together is adobe premium pro, as it's provided for us from the school. And we hope to become well aquatinted with this software by the end, eventhojugh we may need to ask for help or watch videos to b able to use the software to its complete ability.

The basic plan for our film is to create something we are proud off that includes all the elements we have researched so far, like color theory, camera shot/angles/movements, mise-en-scene, and etc. And to that some additional practices we will have to do is watch more videos on how to navigate adobe premium, try to schedule more consistent days for my partner and I to meet up to plan, and keep researching if we ever find something we don't fully understand.

Character types and Narrative Research

Introduction

Now that I have done most of the researching part plus a mood board for my partner and mine's film opening I can now focus a little more on then planning side for my film opening which can still include some research. So today I will be planning what character and narrative types I will be using in our film opening.

Character types

Protagonist 

A protagonist is the first type of character type I will be researching today to better plan what character types I will be including. A protagonist can be defined as the main character of the story, in which this character goes through all the central conflict and grows from their experiences. This character is supposed to be someone the audience can relate to in a way. An example of this is the character from "The Godfather" called Michael Corleone as displayed in the image below

Antagonist

An antagonist is usually the person who creates conflict with the protagonist in the story. And an antagonist is not always necessarily the villain in the story instead they just create obstacles that the protagonist needs to overcome. This can be vital in many shows or movies. An example of this is the character from "The Godfather"called Virgil Sollozzo as displayed in the image below

Supporting Characters

Now lastly there are supporting characters and a supporting character can be anyone like a friend, a family member, or a mentor who interacts with the protagonist and the antagonist in the story. And they can help create depth in a story and can be very meaningful.

Although there are different types of supporting characters such as a round character that is a well developed and complex character that goes through different experiences to create personal growth, and these characters can also be the protagonist. And the other one is flat characters and they are the opposite of round characters, they lack depth and complexity and generally serve a specific purpose for a story. 

Link:https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-character-definition/

Ideas for Film opening characters

After doing this research I was able to have a a talk with my partner about what were our ideas for our characters. So we came up with 3 characters we will be definitely be including in our film opening such as our main character, a coach/mentor, and a mother figure.

Like every movie we will be including a main character/ our protagonist and in our case our main character is going be named Emily. Emily is going to be a 13 year old artistic gymnast who is dealing with some mental struggles about always being perfect due to the pressure she feels from her mom, her coach, and everyone else who is depending on her. 

Now her coaches name is Laura and Laura is going to fall in that side character section although she may be perceived as an antagonist she is only doing her job which is giving corrections to Emily and applying pressure for her to succeed at competition even though the pressure may be to much for Laura to realize.

And finally our last character we will be introducing is Emily's mom Veronica. Now Veronica will be the antagonist in this film but the only thing is that she doesn't know or understands that her actions are hurting her daughter's mental health. Instead she will be thinking that by putting more pressure on Emily, she will ultimately be able to rise to the challenge. This will lead to more emotional depth throughout the movie.

Narrative Types 

There are two types of main narrative types the first one is Linear, and the second one is Non-linear.

Linear 

A linear narrative type is when everything goes in order and there is no jump in time forward or backwards. This sis good for movies that want to tell a story in chronological order and it make sit easy for the audience to understand what's happening clearly. Most films are usually done in a linear narrative type. An example is the Disney animated movie "Winnie the Pooh".

Non-linear

A non-linear time line is when things are not in chronological order and there are jumps in time. More frequently the jumps in time are shown as flashbacks from the past although some movies do add some visions of the future to create some suspense. But in the case of a flashback can be utilized to give background information on a character or on a situation, this can create depth in a scene. An example of this is the movie "Manchester by Sea" which I used in a previous example.

Link:https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/types-of-narrative-structure-in-film/

Ideas for Film opening Narrative Types

After having a discussion with my partner we decided that we wanted to do a non-linear narrative form for our film opening. Since our loose plot is about Emily and the struggles she faces from pressure that make her sport no longer enjoyable. Hence, we want to show the audience how her sport used to be fun and pressure free. So that's why we have chosen to add flashbacks of her childhood of when she was having fun at gymnastics and when her mom wasn't putting pressure on her.

Conclusion

Thanks to this research me and my partner were able to  better understand character and narrative types making it easier to determine what we will be including in our film opening and even though there was some bickering over what would fit best for our film opening, in the end we were able to pick something we will both be proud of in our final product.

Mood Board With Loose plot

 Introduction 

I have pretty much finished the researching portion for my partner and I's film opening. So now we can start easing into a planning stage for our project. Hence, we have decided to discuss a loose plot for the first 2 minutes of our film, plus I will be creating a mood board on what's the environment/ the vibe we will be trying to portray in the first 2 minutes.

Loose Plot

To start my partner and I spent around 45 minutes to an hour just discussing how we were going to approach this, especially since we both want to tell the story to the best of our abilities. Our main idea that we were going off of was about how a young girl as dealing with some mental blocks in gymnastics due to  the pressure to be perfect for her mom, her coach, and any else who was counting on her. 

So, we wanted to start the film off with a 5 year old girl who would be portraying a young version of our main character and show how she is having fun doing gymnastics and is smiling. Next, it would transition to our main character now in the present and the audience can see that she isn't really having fun and instead she is stressed while her coach is yelling her the corrections she needs to make causing her to forget a key skill in her routine. Then, obviously she will be frustrated and now she has to head home so her mom picks her up and asks if she did good today and when our main character says no the mom responds saying that she has to try harder evade she has cured to much time and money for her to succeed. Finally, the film opening will end with the main character I the car gang home and she looks sad especially as she passes by a park of kids her age playin and having fun.

Mood board 

The mood board showed below demonstrates the vibe we are trying to portray in the first 2 minutes of the film. Which includes some isolation felling when she is practicing, and some warm colors when it's the flash back of her as a kid having fun.

Conclusion

All in all, my partner and I were able to better envision what we will be including in our 2 minute film opening. This will make it easier for us especially since we can come back and look at this if we ever forget or just want to be reminded of what our idea is. Well I'll see you in the next one when I look into character and narrative types.

Color Theory

Introduction

Color theory in all is overlooked, yet it is the one thing that can demonstrate a mood or tone the scene may have. There are a lot of  different aspects that come with color theory for one each color describes a different tones present. In addition, there are different hues, saturation, and brightness or darknesses that contribute to the overall ambience of a scene. 

What do colors mean in film?

Every color has its own meaning and philosophy behind it. In addition, each individual color can have different meanings, here are some example of every color's meaning.

RED – fury, intensity, wrath, longing, enthusiasm, vitality, quickness, force, might, warmth, affection, hostility, risk, flame, life force, conflict, brutality

PINK – affection, purity, wholesome, joyful, satisfied, sentimental, enchanting, fun, gentle, fragile, womanly

YELLOW – insight, intelligence, calmness, pleasure, delight, positivity, idealism, creativity, aspiration, warmth, summer, untruthfulness, fearfulness, treachery, envy, greed, falsehood, sickness, risk

ORANGE – wit, vitality, equilibrium, heat, eagerness, lively, broad, extravagant

GREEN – restoration, tranquility, persistence, determination, self-reflection, dignity, constant essence, surroundings, wellness, fortune, rejuvenation, vitality, renewal, abundance, jealousy, naivety, covetousness

BLUE – belief, spirituality, satisfaction, allegiance, completion, serenity, peace, quiet, steadiness, balance, togetherness, trustworthiness, honesty, assurance, traditionalism, safety, tidiness, organization, atmosphere, liquid, chill, innovation, melancholy

PURPLE/VIOLET – sensual, regal, noble, spiritual, ceremonial, enigmatic, change, knowledge, illumination, harshness, pride, grief, strength, emotional, closeness

BROWN – pragmatic, tactile, soil, residence, nature, dependability, coziness, resilience, consistency, straightforwardness

BLACK – No, authority, sensuality, refinement, seriousness, grace, affluence, intrigue, dread, obscurity, discontent, intensity, fashion, malice, sorrow, regret, rage

WHITE – Indeed, safeguarding, affection, respect, clarity, straightforwardness, tidiness, tranquility, modesty, exactness, naivety, adolescence, creation, winter, frost, virtue, barrenness, matrimony (Western societies), demise (Eastern societies),chill, antiseptic, unblemished.

SILVER – wealth, stylish, refined, grounded, organic, polished, sophisticated, advanced

GOLD – valuable, affluence, opulence. radiant, fortune, success, splendor

And even though colors have their own meaning there are still factors that contribute to the overall meaning given on the screen.

Conclusion

After researching what each color means and how the intensity of the color can attribute to its meaning I now have aa better understanding of what colors I will incorporate such as blue to show some isolation feelings, and what colors I will be skipping such as pink especially since this is not a romance or bubbly type of movie.