Decisions Decisions! Decisions

    After having a conversation with our teacher, we realized we're on the right track with our progress (besides the whole filming late thing). This means that a lot of the decisions we have to make about how we want to go about doing certain things comes down to us. Yay! I love making having to make decisions about things I'm completely unsure about! STN is in less than a few hours so I won’t have much time to think about this film opening which means we need to make these decisions now or never!

    Decision number 1 is whether or not the awards will glitch between first and other places or if they’re stay stagnant with 1 award being first place and the others being lower places. Both options convey different messages which means I have to decide which message I want to convey more. The first option, would demonstrate Cam’s imposter syndrome as well as his low self esteem. He’s so incased in his own perception of his work that he literally cannot see the true recognition he’s been given for it. Meanwhile, the other option would show the artists frustration with the lack of recognition they feel they’re getting. 

me asking

    Decision number 2 is whether or not to splash the artist with paint in the first shot, or have hands cover them in paint. If we splash the artist with paint, it would likely convey the artist being overwhelmed with their job. If we have hands cover the artist with paint, it would likely convey how they're art has a literally grasp on them, controlling their life in a way that's toxic and destructive. The second option I prefer since it fits with the general theme of the opening a little more and I feel it will add a bit more impact to the second artists part. But whether or not my actor would be confortable with that is debateable. So, I asked! 

    Last decision is a silly one and that's whether or not I want to use a fog machine. Now, hear me out. It would be used for the opening shot of the opening when the spotlight is on the artist. The goal is not to make it look like theres fog, moreso to create a bit more atmosphere especially since this is a void shoot. It would hopefully show the rays of light coming from the spotlight which would emphasize the theatrics of it all, making the old artist look exposed. But would this be too much? I've never used a fog machine like this before so I feel this will require further testing. I'll get back to you on this.

    So two of my 3 decisions have been resolved making the rest of this a little easier. I'll likely have the awards glitch out, since I prefer the imposter syndrome narrative. Not only do I feel it's more relatable for my target audience, but I also feel it fits the overall tone I want to set for the opening of what the story will be about. Also, (after recieving permission from my actor) will likely have the artist be covered in paint by hands to convey the art consuming the artist rather than overwhelming the artist. Fog machine is still up for debate.

The Easy Part

     We finally filmed! Wow this weekend was busy. So we knew we wanted to film Tai's parts this weekened since Tai was going away for spring break. So we decided Sunday was the best day possible since Friday we had school and a meeting after school which would cut down daylight time and Saturday we had a 9+ hour practice from 7am-5pm which we both knew we'd be dead tired from. Sunday was the only off-day. So heres how it went!

    I woke up that morning knowing I had other homework on top of having to go film. The plan was to wake up at 9am and finish one of the two assignments before having to leave at 11:30am to meet Tai at 12pm (Tai lives a half and hour away). Scrap that plan because I was exhausted and fatigued from yesterday and just wanted to sit and watch youtube and drink coffee (I didn't get any work done). An old friend came over to pick up a cake from my mom, we struck up a conversation and OH LOOK it's already 12 and I'm not at Tai's house. I say goodbye to the old friend, grab all of the necessary items, throw them in the car and bolt! I got there at 12:30 miraculously and we immediately got to work!

    The paintings didn't have signatures on them so I decided to use some of  Tai's black and white paint to quickly add a signature as well as a symbol saying "REPLICA" Then we hung up all of the paintings on an empty wall in the room as well as printed out some fake news paper clippings of the artist to hang alongside them. The actual filming process went smoothly. A lot of shots needed to be done handheld because of they're movements but I do with I had either the Ronin from school or from Becon which would've garanteed a bit more steadiness. I'm really hoping the handheld doesn't look terribly shaky, checking in camera for that is not always reliable. 

    The finaly shot of Tai looking out the window may need to be refilmed. The camera was battling between the bright sunlight hitting the window screen and the dark interior of the room. My lights weren't powerful enough to keep it bright. I'll have to see when I check the footage how bad it truly is and if refilming ends up having to be the plan. 

    Overall the day went smoothly and quickly. We did everything we needed to do in about 3 and a half hours which was one of the faster filming days I've had. I'm hoping the footage turns out well!

So? Who is Doing The Silly Funny In Front Of The Camera

    So we have everything planned! Now who's gonna act? Luckily, we only really need 3 actors. 2 main actors and 1 background actor.  This makes it a bit easier since we don't really need to rely on a whole cast of people being available at the same time and day to film. Tai and I can play two people and then we'd only need 1 more person. 

    When thinking of Cam, Tai and I immediately thought of our friend Wade. Cam needs to show a lot of expression, both in their face and body movements. We thought Wade would be perfect because he is quite good at physical expressions. Also he claims to "know how to fall" so that should come in handy when he has to collaps on the ground. He won't have to say any line of dialogue which will let him focus soley on his physicality. He is also someone we've worked with before on many other projects, and has acted in projects such as these before. so we believe he'll be a good fit for the roll, as well as someone we know we can rely on and work well with. he claims to know how to fall

    For Layla, we were thinking Tai could play that role. They're already good on camera and can act pretty well both physically and with line delivery. Also she already has a pretty strong handle on the character which helps in the sense of having to get into character. 

    For the one side character, we decided I could play that role, out of convenience and practicality. It's a small role with only one line which isn't much I'd have to be doing, especially since I don't trust my own acting abilities. Now having actors solidified, we are one step closer towards making sure everything is ready for filming.

What A Wonderful Week :(

     i've just had one of the worst weeks I've ever experienced and we're only halfway through! Wooo! Tai and I had a really lovely, totally wonderful, not stress inducing at all, and completely calming conversation about this goofiness and it totally didn’t make my blood boil and fill me with immense rage. I’m at a loss for words with sillines I’ve had to deal with and it’s honestly burnt me out. I’m tryin not to let this fatigue get in the way of the project. So here’s a progress update. 

    Painting is. . . Slow. I haven’t gotten much progress into it with the immense amount of homework I’ve had this week. The canvas’s from Amazon arrived and they were smaller than expected, so on Friday I’m going out to Micheal’s and getting the large one needed. Friday will be my designated day to finish all the paintings. Remember how I mentioned painting is a form of therapy for me? We’ll it’s really gonna have to come in clutch this 

    I messaged good ol’ Jimmy G (Jim Guarasci) the executive producer of BECON about checking out equipment with a list of what we potentially might need! Luckily, he said it should all be available on Tuesday 21st (which is the day after we come back from STN) for us to check out. This is perfect with filming set to be during spring break.

    Filming has been set to happen this weekend, but only the second half of the opening. But wait, I haven’t checked out from BECON! Good thing is, some of the equipment we need is available in the CBTV closet, which won’t  be open for spring break but is open for this weekend so we plan to snag that stuff. Tai is going away for spring break so filming at least the second half this weekend will help us avoid having to delay any more progress.

    We've done a lot to prepare for this so nothing theoretically should go wrong, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

     

    

    

Painting As A Form Of Therapy

     A part of me felt the need to procrastinate the painting process. I was exhausted from the responsibilities the week had bestowed upon me and all I wanted to do was lay down on something comfortable and turn my brain off. I knew at some point I had to get started. So while procrastinating some other class's homework, I prepped the paint, grabbed a cup of water and a brush, and started painting. 

Pablo Picasso: The Tragedy

    I forgot how much I loved the hobbie. It's been a couple months since I had really sat down to paint for leisure, so it took me by surprise how theraputic it is. I played a youtube video for background music and immersed myself in the artform. I stuck with mainly cool tones for the paintings since a lot of them are supposed to reflect the state of mind of the old artist, but I did make a few warmer colored paintings that can be both used for the old artists earlier paintings that may be up on his wall, and some of the new artists paintings. The cool blues I feel help to associate the old artist with a negative state of mind. I took inspirations from Picasso's blue period and Van Gogh's Starry Night. Picasso mostly used blue's during a period of immense depression which I feel helps to had subtext to the state of mind of the old artist. Van Gogh's Starry Night also uses a large amount of blue tones, and the style of showing prominent strokes I feel helps to demonstrate how meticulous these artist may be.

Vincent Van Gogh: Starry Night

Sam Perez: Silly Little Paintings

    

    We still have a long way to go with the amount of paintings we need to make, but at least we already have a starting point. I'm excited to paint some more!

Silly Little Issues

     So Tai and I came to a unfortunate stand-still on the project. The plan initially was to film during all of spring break after we come back from the STN trip. The funny thing is that Tai is now going to tour colleges over all of spring break so they can no longer film during those days. There is no set date yet of when she leaves and comes back so organizing filming days has become a bit of a struggle. I honestly felt quite unsure about how we were going to finish this project, now having been presented with this information, so I consulted my partner, and frequent collaborator who did it last year and he suggested two options:

Tacos Mode

    He at first said (and this is gonna sound real weird) "turn on tacos mode." Now you may be thinking, what is tacos mode? For context, during winter break, my partner and I filmed an entire short film (named "This, That, and Tacos") over the course of 5 days. How did we do this? Early start times and late end times. Our filming schedule was the equivalent to a 9-5 job, It wasn't "meet up for 2 hours and see what we can get done." While efficient, this method took a lot of energy out of us, and if this is the trajectory the film opening is going to go in, I need to mentally and physically prepare. Also, without set dates for tai's unavailability, it could potentially mean I'd have to lead at least half of the filming all on my own, which while it isn't my first time leading a project on my own, I wouldn't call myself a proffessional.

Skills USA Mode

    Option #2 and the more demanding option would be to "turn on Skills USA mode." Again for context, my partner and I also worked together on a competition called Digital Cinema, as part of the general Skills USA competition, which is basically yet another TV competition I'm participating in. The gist of Digital Cinema, is that we have 48 hours to create a short film that can be up to 5 minutes, that follows the prompt given to us at the start of those 48 hours. This was no longer a 9-5. This meant working non-stop as quickly as possible, and for as long as possible, avoiding any unnessary(this means all) breaks. The only real downtime we got was a grace period of about 6 hours for sleep, just sleep. If the first option sounded bad, this option is inhumane. . . 

   

 . . . but not impossible. I mean, if I've done this before, theoretically, I can do it again. And it would cut back the amount of time taken up in production, so we aren't as strained in the last two weeks of the project. The main downside is, I might lose my sanity in the process (ok that's a bit dramatic but the point still stands!). I think if I go about this in such a way that I can still leave room to breath during filming for both myself and the actor I'd be working with, than I think I can do it. 

Looking At A Calendar

     I’ll admit, I don’t typically like scheduling. I'm the type of person that once I flesh out the idea, I want to jump right in. However I see the importance of scheduling and given the situation Tai and I are in, I decided to actually look at a calendar. At first, I was intimidated. Looking at the quantified number of days we have left to finish the opening sparked some unwelcomed anxieties. Questions about how early we can film, how much time we have to edit, and whether or not we'll even be able to get together for production began to plague my mind. So I started with the most recent.

    During my economics class (this time I finished the classwork) I spent a good 40 minutes finishing the storyboard, labeling shots, setting up the goals of filming days, and setting up an shot list order. The storyboard helped to put into perspective how many shots we truly need for the opening (we only need 25). This not only makes the filming process feel more manageable, it will also help us in editing, knowing exactly how many video clips we need in the timeline and exactly where each clip will go.  

action v cut

    I labeled every shot in the storyboard with both a description and a number. 

The description should help with communication on set as well as with remembering the point of each shot. During the music video project, production was slightly disorganized and part of the reason why was because the storyboard was hard to interpret by the rest of my team.  I created it so I understood it pretty well, but that wasn't the case with my fellow group members. I would often get asked question about how to frame the shot, what exactly is happening in it, and what kind of movement is the camera doing. This made me realize that if i had given a shot descriptions, a lot of the issues with communication could've been avoided, and filming could've gone smoother, which is why this time I'm not taking any chances. 

    The numbering of each shot at first was just to get an idea of how many shots there were in total. Since I would draw the same shot back to back, I needed a way to destinguish between frames that describes actions, and frames that described cuts. However, while organizing the order of shots list, the numbers ended up being a really easy way to organize each clip without having to write the full description. This will definitely help in organizing the way we film, especially if multiple shots can be done with the same setup. The filming schedule is also extremely helpful because it give us a good idea of the goals we need to accomplish for each day of filming, as well as gives us an idea of how long each day will last. It also helps since we have a friend of ours acting so scheduling with him will be easier since we can give him the full scope of what we're doing, from which days and times we'll need him and what he'll be doing throughout the opening.

I've checked out from BECON-TV before

    This week, we can get started on making the props. I can begin painting on friday with the supplies I have, and Tai can begin working on newspaper props. I have already gotten the paint and have some leftover mixed media paper I can use while I wait for the items ordered online to arrive. Tai has 5 small canvases, a bit of paint, and some paintbrushes to she can use to make some of the other paintings. 

    Next week, we can finish props, I can make the fake blood, we can find the clothing each character each character will wear, and we can secure the actors. The week before we leave for STN (Student Television Network competition for our TV program at school) We can check out equipment from BECON-TV a wonderful resource for all things production (they have everything from cameras, tripods, and array of lighting equipment, and even props).

The full schedule