Preparing to Film

    

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Filming Preparations ‧₊˚✩彡 

    ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚                         

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚                         

 Welcome to the LAST post before we film!

Today, I will be outlining our plans for filming and the preparations we have made:

1. Actors

    We do not plan to include ANY other people within the project so ALL the actors are the group members you have seen before in the group member post. As this is our project, we obviously have to have roles within it so Rafael and Thomson are the kidnappers named Stuart and Kevin respectively while Yiqi's character's name is Ivy (the main character) and mine is named Daniella (the friend). Thus, the planning of filming day is fairly easy to schedule as it is such a small group.

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2. Costumes

       For our costumes, it is easy to prepare as both Ivy AND Daniella wear normal clothes that any teenage girl would wear. Thus, we do NOT need to go out of our way to buy anything, making it effortless for everyone. In addition, Kevin and Stuart also wear clothing that could be found in any closet as in order to blend in with the dark they decide to wear all-black outfits within the story. So basically, everyone will use what they have at home as the story's scenario does not call for anything we do not own already.

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3. Props

       We had more trouble planning this out than the previous topics as some of the things MAY not be as readily available to us as we would like such as duct tape for the kidnappers. However, I think we will make do with what we have on filming day as we have a rope that we can use instead since we also plan to use a bunch of other basic ordinary household items as well to set the mood! For example, in order to set a casual tone of just lounging around I was thinking of using snacks and maybe a drink as well as some comfy pillows as all these items would be found within a normal home and be appropriate for the story we are trying to portray. Therefore, I do NOT think we will have any difficulties procuring props if we get creative with thinking outside the box and the uses of them.

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4. Locations

       This was pretty simple to schedule as MOST of the scenes either take place online (which can be done through screen recording) or at a house. Henceforth, we plan to film ALL the house scenes at Rafael's place as this is the most convenient for everyone's circumstances and the outside shots will be done at a Target near his house.

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5. Dates and Times

       The date will be based on everyone's availability through the winter break, and we plan to film in one to two days just in case ANY unforeseen circumstances arise. For the scenes at the beginning of the opener, it will be morning or midday with the sun bright and out. However, as the scenes progress they will get darker to show the differences in time and how all the events unfold with the passage of time such as the kidnapping scene which will be filmed at night in contrast to the establishing shot at the beginning which will be done during the morning. Overall, the ONLY difficulty of this is getting a day where everyone can film, but I am sure we will find a way to iron out all the logistics and details of filming day!

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6. Film Equipment

       We do NOT plan on using any fancy equipment as we can just use our phones to film all the scenes, so we did not encounter any trouble with preparing that (we will be using Yiqi's as it has the BEST camera quality). Then we will connect it to bluetooth lavalier microphones for better audio quality of the characters (that Thomson will bring). Furthermore, we also will use Rafael's tripod in order to create steady professional shots for most of the scenes, and as for lighting we just will use the ambient light that is already there as we do NOT have any other separate lighting equipment.

    Thank you for reading, and I hope you guys are just as excited about the actual filming as I am!

Initial Story Board

   

 ⋆˙⟡ Project Story Board ✶⋆.˚

                                           

    We are back with another update on my group's film opener!

Today, I will be talking about my experience storyboarding with MY group: 

Story Board

Thomson

Davina

Yiqi

Rafael

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Our Experience

  Before we worked on the storyboard at ALL, we had to create a script outlining the events that would happen in the opener. We had to scrap some ideas we had before as we realized they were NOT practical for the time restraints of this project and would not fit into the story as well as we would like chronologically. 

    The script was divided into twelve major events/points within the story. Then, we split the work evenly, with everyone doing three events each. Thomson drew the FIRST three events outlined. I drew the next three, Yiqi did the three after that, and Rafael completed the LAST three. In the story board above, I listed and separated the frames by who drew them and put them into chronological order!

    Starting with the first three events, we open with an establishing shot of the house that pans side to side to reveal the surroundings of the setting of a house of our main character (the one that Yiqi plays) as we slowly transition with a J cut into the next scene with the sounds of texting gradually growing louder... In the next scene, we cut to Yiqi lounging casually in her house on her phone as the sound finally matches up with what we see on screen. The LAST of this batch of events is when someone knocks on the door quite loudly but Yiqi ignores it to continue texting on her phone.

    In the next three, it suddenly jumps to the character that I play (the main character's friend) casually lounging in my own room also in the SAME group chat/chat room as the one that Yiqi is in. However, one KEY difference between the two characters is that when there is a knock on my door I get up to answer while continuing to be glued to my phone. Afterward, it jumps back to Yiqi still on her bed texting when a sudden text message pops up asking for a meet-up. Both the reactions of Yiqi and I are shown side by side in order to visually contrast our differing reactions (Yiqi is excited/willing whereas I am skeptical).

    Then we switch to the antagonists' POV (point of view) as tension and suspense begin to build as Rafael and Thomson look at each other with a sinister expression on their faces and prepare to make their "heist" successful, and their preparation is done through a series of jump cuts of them packing and grabbing different items in order to increase the stakes of the next series of events as things are becoming very intense right now suddenly going from 0 to 100. Cutting back to Yiqi, through an over-the-shoulder shot we see my character warning Yiqi NOT to meet up in a private message outside of the group chat. However, Yiqi does not listen as we transition to the next event where Yiqi shows up at night in some shady place where the suggested meet-up was planned AT.

Lastly, Rafael and Thomson kidnap her and in the next scene we see Yiqi suddenly waking up in an unfamiliar place as the antagonists begin to explain the plan to use Yiqi as BAIT to lure her friend (my character) into becoming the next victim. The opener suddenly cuts off at my phone receiving a notification from Yiqi's phone as the scene fades to black...

    Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my NEXT blog about preparing to film!

Final Project Mood Board

   

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Mood Board of Final Project ‧₊˚✩彡 

    I am glad you guys stopped by once again and let us get this show on the road!

Today, I will be demonstrating the mood board I made for our final project:

Mood Board

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Explanation

    The first picture that probably caught your eye was the big word MISSING on the ripped postered on a tree trunk. This goes with the main premise of our opener being about a teenage girl going missing after meeting up with this guy who she has been chatting with for several weeks now. I added another photo of a collection of missing children posters in order to further the creepy effect and dark atmosphere created by the main image to realize the horror and drama genres of our film opener. The third photo of this sort would be the one with children's faces blurred out as it illustrates the idea of how a life can be so easily taken along with the idea of a faceless attacker kidnapping the MC (main character).

    Continuing the idea of an anonymous kidnapper, I included several eerie photos of shady men with their faces obscured to help visualize how he is going to appear (the guy in the hoodie standing there menacingly, the guy on the computer with his back towards us, the silhouette of a man carrying a girl, and a shadow of a person taking off a mask). All of this contributes to the idea that our MC has no clue who the person behind the screen really is as he does his best to hide everything about himself from her and subsequently the viewer, adding to the sinister air that the whole mood board exudes. One more image in the same vein as this is the image of a default user/profile picture (the most unsettling photo in my opinion) as none of this guy's online activities can be actually traced back to the real person he is in reality.

    Since all the interactions between the two were online, there are several photos of phones and online chats. The picture with the girl on her phone in the dark and the person on the laptop in the dark both help the audience imagine the idea that these two have been talking to each other constantly for weeks and have some sort of hidden obsession with this activity. Going along with my previous point is the unsettling photos mentioning "love" as this parasocial relationship may have reached into the realms of e-dating (online dating).

    Furthermore, the way MC gets kidnapped is when the guy suggests them meet up somewhere outside for the first time which she agrees to as she has never seen his face ever and is curious about what the man she is enamored with looks like. Because of this idea, there is a photo of her holding up a phone while she stands outside some ominous building after dark. This is where the images of the creepy cars (or white van if you want to be specific) come in as this is how he gets away and where the opener ends on a cliffhanger.

    Lastly, there is an extreme close-up of a pair of droopy/drowsy eyes and hands being tied up as this ties back into the main idea of the shady guy kidnapping MC, leaving all the power within his hands. The plot twist I mentioned in my last post is represented by a chilling photo of a girl smirking into the mirror at herself, alluding to the viewer that not everything is revealed yet and that things have just started...

    Thank you guys for reading and I hope this inspires YOU to make a project of your own too!

Final Project Idea

  

 ⋆˙⟡ Final Idea ✶⋆.˚

                                           

    Hey everyone, prepare for this MAJOR update on our final!

Today, I will be talking about our FINAL idea for our film opener: 

The Other Side: Part 2

    After much deliberation, my group members and I finally settled on the kidnapping and online chatroom/dating plot which I nicknamed "The Other Side" the last time we discussed potential ideas for our final project. The plot will be roughly the same as I outlined previously with a FEW minor tweaks from everyone's input as we finally fleshed out the idea properly! This decision was pretty much unanimous and everyone was amicable during our discussions about what they wanted and did not want. Just like I figured in a prior post about why I chose to work with these group members, we JUST meld perfectly together like pieces of a puzzle. I HOPE our future proceedings and actually doing the work will be JUST as well! This collaborative experience has been very magnificent as well as informative! Every NEW experience is a learning one and just because we all have worked together before and known each other for a while does not mean there is nothing left to learn. Moreover, I think you guys could have already figured out what the genre is from reading the plot synopsis/outline I gave last time, but in case you did not know already...(drum rollll)...it is HORROR! I know, I know...what a surprise! The secondary genre classification would be drama, but that is NOT as exciting as the primary one. 

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Conventions

    So our project is obviously going to be scary, chilling, ominous, etc. Basically, ALL those buzzwords you would hear in a horror movie advertisement or your horror enthusiast friend has probably said multiple times within your vicinity while trying to convince you to subject yourself to mental torture once again for their sake! Furthermore, the drama aspects will fulfilled through typical teenage angst and behavior along with some authorities on the case near the end, leaving the audience wanting for MORE. The essentials our opener will follow are a dark atmosphere (maybe through some grimy filter we find), EERIE sounds, and police/detectives (for drama probably through the use of MISSING posters) in order to give our project a proper background within the genres. As you can probably tell, my MAIN source of inspiration for this is the movie The Black Phone (2022) which I analyzed the title sequence of in my previous post, but another movie that heavily influenced me for this was Megan is Missing (2011) as the online aspect is much more relevant in this era than a serial kidnapper from the 70s. Enough about that, let me tell you how our project will be unique and different from the generic conventions! We will add a plot twist that WILL be foreshadowed to suggest to the audience that maybe this whole sequence of events was ALL a part of the girl's plan in the first place... NOW, that will be SO fun to do! 

    That is ALL for now! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Title Sequence Research

 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Art of the Title ‧₊˚✩彡 

    ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚                         

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚                   

 Hey everybody! Welcome back to Lin's Lavish Lounge (LLL)!

Today, I will be studying and analyzing ALL the thoughts put into these title sequences in three films:

The Black Phone

https://artofthetitle.com/title/the-black-phone/#

Description: The Black Phone is about a serial child kidnapper and murderer nicknamed The Grabber who has "grabbed" our main character Finney Blake. Trapped in the basement, Finney's ONLY hope for help is a disconnected black phone that receives calls from The Grabber's previous victims. The title card is the top of one of those notorious missing child posters that most people are familiar with in a sepia filter in order to convey the eeriness of the movie and the vibe of the 70s that the movie is set in. Furthermore, the title sequence is filmed in this shaky handheld way as if to illustrate the fear and uneasiness this little suburb in Denver, Colorado is being plagued with. ALL the browns and desaturated colors along with the grainy filter help to create a sense of foreboding within the audience as they watch all these clips of children playing happily with a sinister undertone being implied as the sequence occasionally flashes "MISSING" on the screen. In the latter half, the theme of blood and misery begins to become apparent as close-ups of children being hurt pop on screen while other cuts suggest someone has abducted them through the absence of kids in places where they are usually found. Lastly, all the bad-quality shots and rapid cuts highlight JUST how quickly things can turn disturbing as dread and panic begin to settle in viewers.

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Persona 5 

https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/persona-5/

Description: Persona 5 is an RPG (role-playing game) about rebellious teenagers who refuse to sit by and endure the injustices that the world dealt them with. Through the power of the Persona, they can FIGHT back against corrupt adults and bring some light back into their bleak world. The title card has messily scattered letters against a bright red background and black splattered paint. The discordant letters represent the theme of rebellion and the way the teens refuse to conform to the bonds that society holds them to. The bright red background with spots of black symbolizes the corrupt power they fight against and their passion to save the world from injustices. The title sequence is mainly in the colors red (power, danger, and passion), black (corruption and evil), and white (good and innocence) which have the SAME purposes as the title card with a grainy filter throughout. The grainy filter just like the black paint splatter stands for their adventurous and defiant nature as the teens skate, dance, and do what they LOVE throughout the city in the rain in order to illustrate to the viewer that they reject conformity and embrace their own quirks and unique dispositions.

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Heathers

https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/heathers/

Description: Heathers is an 80s movie about Veronica, a girl who is a part of the school's MOST popular clique. When Veronica disapproves of the girls' cruelty, things take a turn for the WORSE when she and her boyfriend JD accidentally kill the leader, Heather Chandler, which spurs JD into murdering everyone he does not like, and it is UP to Veronica to stop him. The title card is in an elegant red and white font, the red representing the power and danger the Heathers hold while the white is the veneer of innocence the girls put up in order to get away with their cruel actions. The background is Heather Chandler tying her hair up as she and the rest of the Heathers prepare to hit Veronica in the head with croquet balls. The title sequence starts with the Heathers enjoying the ambiance of the croquet court as they get ready and stand up to start a game of croquet. While they are walking, they trample over the flowers around symbolizing how meanspirited nature is as they do not care WHO they hurt as long as they get THEIR way. As they hit the balls, the audience later sees that what they are aiming at are not wickets but instead Veronica's head with her body being buried underneath the ground. The next scene is of the Heathers dragging Veronica to see Heather Chandler in the cafeteria. ALL of this culminates in showing the viewer how little power Veronica has in this clique, showing the hierarchy and the dynamics of their group which later explains why things quickly begin to fall apart when there is a power vacuum left by Chandler's death.  

    See you guys until the NEXT post where I will finalize plans for my project, and thanks for reading!