Quick Update

I got approval from my building to film there! I was only allowed Friday of this week to film, which works out perfectly since I have no school as well. On Friday, I also hope to have a small photoshoot with certain poses that I would be able to incorporate later into other portions of the project, like the social media page and the poster. 

Also, today I will be going to a few thrift stores with my friend to find some extremely distressed clothing. My hope is to find an XXL tan, blank T-shirt because I really want to keep a consistent color palette. While I do have a lot of stuffed animals myself, none of them are extremely distressed or at least do not look that way, so I will also be looking for that prop as well. I am extremely excited to get moving along with this project. I can not stop envisioning the final version in my head, I can't wait to make these visions a tangible reality.

Setting the Scene

From the beginning, I knew I wanted a project that would allow me to film safely, either alone or with one other person, so naturally, I thought that filming in my room would be perfect for this project. However, as I look around my room and look at my vision for the trailers, I do not think my room is the best place to film.

My vision revolves around Jane being in a completely empty room. Even if I were to completely empty my room, just the presence of the carpet flooring ruins the coldness I want to portray. 

My sister actually suggested that I film in the garbage room at my dad's apartment building sometime late at night. Surprisingly, the garbage room is a massive garage and the dumpsters only take up one small portion of the wall. The rest of the room is open concrete, and at night there is only that yellow fluorescent lighting. Today, I am going to ask the leasing office if I have permission to film there as long as I do not disturb anyone. I hope I get the approval because it is honestly the most accessible and fitting setting!

Shot List for Today

As excited as I was, I am not content with using Boords for a storyboarding tool. I do have all of my ideas down, but now as I am reviewing to post it, it looks more like a shot list. Without any pictures of any drawings or existing shots, there is no other way for you to create a true storyboard. However, I do have another idea that will hopefully suffice. My dad does have one of the iPad Pro's with the Apple Pencil that he uses for work, so if all goes well, I will be able to use that to finalize a visual storyboard by Wednesday at the latest. However, I did want to still share my shot list to help give an idea of what my ideas are. I have a feeling this might change as I do have another group discussion in class on Wednesday, but I think it will be fun to show any drafts as well as final products within this blog. So, without further ado, here is my shot list:

1. MPAA Rating Screen
2. Extreme close-ups of bruises on her body and tears on her face
3. Pan around the room to show the emptiness
4. Extreme close-up of Teddy
5. Wide-shot of Jane with Teddy and talking to him
6. Black screen flash transition to indicate a change in time
7. POV shot of Jane Doe waking up
8. POV of Jane looking around the room
9. Mid-shot showing Jane bang on a locked door and crying
10. Close-up on a speaker to show the source of a male voice
11. High-angle shot of Jane
12. Montage of Jane around the room trying to find things to do
13. Close-up of the appearance of Teddy
14. Close-up of Jane talking to Teddy
15. End Screen

This is only for one of the trailers, but my plan for the second one is to reveal different aspects htorugh the voiceover and dialogue and emphasizing different portions of each shot. 

Beginning to Storyboard!

As I mentioned in my planning post, I am trying to minimize how much paper I use. One activity that I used a lot of paper and pages in my journal for was storyboarding. Not that I consider myself a perfectionist, but I tend to get extremely obsessed with my handmade drawings being perfect, which resulted in a lot of ripped-out pages from my journal in my trash can.

I remember last year, in a discussion with my fellow classmates about our projects, that one person used an online storyboarding tool, but sadly I can not remember the name of the tool. With a quick Google search, I was able to find a few free ones!

1. Canva

I love Canva, but I never thought about using it for storyboarding! I used it last year for some of the graphics in my project, so I am extreme,y comfortable using this tool. I think the way that this article is thinking of using is by using the slideshow or presentation feature and their free stickers of people and objects. This option is also free, but I do not exactly see myself using Canva for storyboarding, it seems extremely foreign to me.

2. Boords

Oddly enough, the article is from Boords and is promoting other storyboarding tools, but I do find that respectable. This option is free, web-based, and the interface looks very easy to use. I did open up an account and 'begin' a project just to see how it looks. One of my favorite features already is that it allows for notes on the image that connects to what the action, sound, lighting, and camera would be in the shot. I love how detailed it would allow me to get with the storyboard, in comparison to what my hand-drawn storyboards look like. 

3. Plot

This tool is similar to Boords in the way that interfaces look simple and easy to navigate, but the features are different. This tool allows you to still draw your scenes and connects your images to certain parts of the script. The screenshot is not from my own project but from the video on the initial page on their website showing the tool, but I think it shows the main features extremely well. One aspect I especially like is that it connects to the script and the full script is then to the side with footnotes to each image.

I think that I will begin with Boords, as it seems more simple, but as I finalize my screenplay, I will use Plot to have an extremely clear image as to what I want each of my trailers to look like. Hopefully, they work out!

Color Schemes

I absolutely love studying color and color schemes in films, especially regarding color theory. My initial thoughts on color schemes in thrillers is that there is a lot of dark, cool-toned colors, to imitate the impersonal and cold personalities within the film. However, I also find that cool-tones can at times be calming and nurturing. The duality of the cool-toned color palette is what attracts me to this genre and to incorporate it into my own project.

Pinterest has been an amazing place for finding inspiration and analysis of color schemes in certain movies. Here are some examples that attracted me.

I think I subconsciously mimicked a cool-toned palette when creating the mood board for Teddy.

The little circles in between each image highlight the most dominant tone and color in the connecting images.

A tool I enjoy using to create color schemes is Coolors.co!

While the mood board was a small exercise in investigating what colors I want to highlight, this scheme will be much more finalized and fine-tuned. The goal in creating this is to create a consistent tone and pattern between the social media page, the poster, and the trailers themselves, for consistent branding.

One tone I wanted to add because of its versatility is a red one. Not only for the pain and hurt that will be extremely clear in the trailers, but also the passion and love that precedes the timeline. 

Quick Update and Apology

 Hello,

I come bearing bad news :(

As you may have noticed, there were no blog posts at all this week, and it is my fault. I was trying to use the scheduling feature on Blogger but I accidentally clicked the wrong dates. I was so convinced that this week ended with the 20th, but I was wrong. Rookie mistake, so I have heard.

All of the blog posts that I meant to be posted this week will be up soon. Looking on the bright side, I have time to revise and tweak any mishaps within them to provide better quality posts!

Sorry again!

Organizing the Next Few Weeks

My major fault at the beginning of this project that I have yet to mimic from my last project is organizing and setting deadlines for myself. Especially with all that is going on right now (preparing for exams, end of the third quarter, college decisions, work, and regular schoolwork), I have found myself slacking on maintaining deadlines for myself and organizing my posts.

First to step to this: laying out what I need to do and my strict deadlines.

To-Do: (in no particular order...yet)                        Major Deadline: whole project due Apr. 12

• storyboard and screenplay
• beginning filming
• poster
• social media page
• editing both trailers
• further research
• critical reflection

To organize my deadlines, in my effort to reduce my paper usage, I will be trying out Todoist.com. My dad recommended it to me, and he is the pinnacle of organization and time management in my eyes. Another thing to note, similar to last year, the timing of this project coincides with my spring break, so I have decided to utilize that extra time to begin filming and finalizing editing. A major difference between this year and last year is that I now have a job, which definitely poses some obstacles to the idea of "free-time", but these deadlines will definitely be ever-changing whether it be due to work or other limitations.

Here is a small snapshot of what is to come for the next week regarding blog posts and project progression. I hope to escape the major research phase as of next week in order to get ahead of the game. Of course, this is subject to change, but I am very excited about being organized and planned again, and to use Todoist for the first time!