That's a wrap

     And just like that, it's over. Okay, guys here is my final portion of this project, my ccr. This is kind of sad but at the same time, I am so happy to finally be giving you guys every piece of this assignment. Thank you for sticking with me for these past 8 weeks and I will talk to you soon <3

Here it is :')

Hey guys, it is extremely bittersweet to be typing this up but after weeks and weeks of work, our film opening is done. I am so happy to announce that the name of our film opening is 'By Your Side' and you can watch it here. This experience was one I will truly never forget and I am super grateful for everything I learned. Thank you guys for being on this journey with me since the beginning.

Time to reflect

     Hey guys, as you all know my team and I have wrapped filming so I just wanted to come in here and talk a little bit about everything. This project has really been an experience I am so grateful for; Grateful to have made new friends, to have learned so much, and to have grown in the process. An example of something I learned was actually how to use Adobe Premiere as one of the actors from my opening was nice enough to give me a crash course and show me the basics.Honestly writing this blog was such a blessing as although at times it stressed me out, I am now able to see every little change that my opening went through. This project really tested my communication skills as weeks where I was struggling creatively I did not reach out to my teammates but rather let myself get into a deep slump where I was extremely unmotivated. I now realize the mistakes I made during this entire process and am able to confidently say I can learn from them and change my thought process for future projects. Alright guys, this is technically my final blog post as my next two posts will just be links and a few quick words. I am super grateful for everything this project has provided and am excited to see what the future holds!

The car scene (and others)

     Hey guys, this blog will be similar to my last one as I will be explaining the process behind the other scenes in our opening. We started by shooting the scene of Betty getting ready as we were using my sister's room and were unsure of when she would come back home. Everything for this scene went pretty smoothly honestly, that is until we had to film Gaby leaving the room. My sister's door is broken so unless slammed it will not close but when we had Gaby slam the door it looked very strange as Betty goes from this tranquil figure who is getting ready to slamming doors. We did a few takes where Gaby just closes the door with normal force but it was very obvious that the door was not closed correctly so we also scrapped those shots. We were honestly not sure what to do at this point until I had an idea, I would stand behind the door and when she pushes it in order to close it, I would continue to push it until it closed. We tried this method and it honestly looks perfect on camera. Next was the car scene, this one was a bit nerve-wracking as I have no experience with acting but the second Gaby, Dani, and I started practicing our lines everything came super naturally and we all made our little tweaks to the script and I honestly think only a line or two from the script remained as is. We filmed this by having Larissa outside of the car with the driver's side window being down and Lorena was in the trunk of the car, we did this in order to have two different angles each focusing on different characters. I believe that we ended up doing three takes of the car scene just so when we are editing we can see whichever looks best.  Heres a picture of Gaby, Dani, and I after we wrapped the car scene! 

After filming this scene we all just stayed talking for a little bit and even took a little snack break and then everybody went home. Guys, it is crazy to me to be talking about having filmed everything as it seems that just yesterday I was writing the treatment for this film. Anyways, I will hop back on here soon and talk about some other elements of this project.

The shower scene

    Hey guys, I am super happy to announce that the shower scene for our opening has been completely filmed! This experience was extremely fun as I was able to finally meet Larissa and Lorena in person, as we have been getting to know each other virtually for a long time now our interactions were very natural. We started the day by making fake blood, we blended a lot of powdered sugar together with cocoa powder and red acrylic paint (Thank u Sara for the recipe I love you :,) ) This recipe was absolutely perfect as it looked extremely realistic and washed right out with water. Here's an extremely flattering picture of me covered in blood.

I picked my three vinyl, each record having been pressed on the color I needed for the scene; A yellow one, a red one, and a blue one. Gaby was the first to film her scenes so she got in her bathing suit and I began spraying her with our blood mixture, we got our main shots such as when she has to yell but we also filmed short clips to insert in between the cuts during the shower scene. We repeated this with Dani and then with me, this process was not super tedious as everything washed out super easily and we already had everything planned out so we knew exactly what we wanted to shoot. After each person wrapped their scenes they would wash out the blood and change back into their clothes as they prepared to leave. While filming my scenes Lorena had to leave but as Gaby and Dani already filmed they were able to take over for her in case Larissa and I needed any extra help. That is all the insight I wanted to give you guys about the filming process of this scene, my next posting will touch on every other scene so I will talk to you guys then!!

Some roadblocks

     Hey guys, just wanted to update you about some issues that my team and I have run into. The first thing that happened was one that may throw everything off track which is Dani who is portraying August made some not-so-smart choices which led her to get grounded for a few months, here's how that happened. Dani was bored one night and decided to leave her house, through her window, without telling anyone. About an hour later her grandmother decided to check in on her and to her surprise, she was gone. This led to Dani being grounded until probably our graduation and her car being sold which led her to having no ride to my house and no rights to do anything. Finding a way to get her to my house is the least of my worries as she only lives around 20 minutes from me and I can pick her up but as she was just grounded her mother is not loving the idea of her going to a friends house, even if it is for a school project. Hopefully, her mother realizes that the best choice is to let Dani come to film and help me with this project. The final is less of a roadblock and more of a last-minute change to one of the character descriptions, I may have forgotten that I am cast as the character of James and my hair is very purple currently as shown below. 

So this is an official announcement that the character of James has purple hair! Gaby has also been going through some things as her dad was recently injured but I do have hope that he will be recovered soon and Gaby will be able to join us for filming. Worst case scenario we have to recast Betty and August, but I really do think everything will ultimately work out the way it is supposed to. Alright, that is everything I needed to update you guys on but again I am hopeful that everything will solve itself!

The script (no, not the band)

     Hey everyone, today I am going to discuss the script for our film opening. At first, I did not want a script at all as I thought it would just make everything seem too unnatural but then I realized that no script would just make the final product extremely messy. It took me a little bit to think of what conversation being had could really show the personalities of all the characters until I decided on the one below. 

This script is not one that the actors have to stick to, it just lets them know the conversation that is happening and how their characters feel about the subject matter. There are specific elements in the script that are extremely important to me which are; Betty saying sorry and really wanting August to have a good day,  James being a really private person and August being a sad person. As I have touched on before Betty has very religious parents who are extremely hard on her so she says sorry to every little thing such as being ready a few minutes after she said she would be, the second part is just to show how much she truly cares about August. James being a very closed off person showcases his youth and how he has not found comfort in himself yet therefore he does not open up about experiences and/or his feelings. Finally Augusts lines do not show her being a sad person but moreso how she delivers them and how they are extremely short, this is due to loneliness as she is somewhat new to town and her only friends are her cousin and his best friend. That is all for today guys, everything is really taking shape and I am super excited to have the final result!

Second Group Meeting

    Hi everyone, as you may remember a few weeks back I mentioned how I was a part of a group meeting where we all just talked about each others film openings and gave feedback. This meeting consisted of five members and was a bit different than the first one as every participant sent their blog so while they were telling us a little bit about their work we could read about the entire process; This was super helpful as everyone could see specific challenges that others faced and how they overcame them. It was honestly super refreshing to see what others were creating and how different everyone's work was from one another. As talked about last week, I was having some trouble finding the excitement within me but when I talked about my opening I went on effortlessly for a good amount of time and realized that my passion for this project never left. I truly love what my group and I are creating and am very ready to begin filming any day now. When I was talking about the opening the other members kept pitching ideas on techniques to use but I had already discarded all of the ideas they gave as they ultimately would not have matched the mood;This was until one member gave me an idea that I am honestly super excited to incorporate. As you know the shower scene will have colored lighting and each character will have a specific color assigned to them and someone pitched the idea that the characters should be wearing those colors for the rest of the opening and I loved the idea. I think doing this will add an elaborate element that only some will catch but will impact those who do; This is also a way to tell the audience more about our characters as they only get to see two minutes of them. Alright guys, that was all for today but I will be coming back on here again this week to give you some updates!

Just wanted to talk

    Hey guys, this week has been extremely stressful for me and I just wanted to come on here and talk. I know that this blog has been dedicated to only my film opening but my personal life is also a big part of this project as it affects my work ethic and I do not want to come on here and say "Everything is going just fine and I am not nervous at all!!" as that would be a blatant lie. For the past few months, my family and I have been working on opening up an accessory store at the mall and we finally opened last weekend so I have been working like crazy with everyone just trying to get things in order. The communication my group and I had earlier this month was also beginning to fade which was caused by all of us being extremely busy and honestly burnt out. We have been working on this project for over a month and I had a stable balance at the beginning but recently everything just overtook me. I have always been one that doesn't look to healthy coping mechanisms and instead keeps stressing myself out until I am so overwhelmed I drop everything I am doing. These episodes always last for different periods of time and I am so thankful that this one is already going away as I am slowly gaining motivation to get back on track with everything. With a project like this one, there will undoubtedly be slow periods when not a lot is happening and I have to find a way to not let unmotivate me. This week my group and I should begin filming which I am so excited for; I shared all of this as this project is a part of me and if I am not doing well neither is this film opening. Anyways, thank you for just listening and I hope you see where I am coming from. I do not want to just come on here and share all the highs that occur. Once again, thank you for listening. Click here for an article that really helped me that touches on coping mechanisms, and just how to face different types of emotions. 

Final cast !!

    Hey guys, I am super excited to announce that we have officially cast all of our characters. Before I reveal all the actors I wanted to let you know that there has been a minor change made to the characters which are their ages. Instead of having the two-year age gap between characters we have decided to make Betty and James 16, almost 17, while August just turned 17. This minimal change was made as these ages fit the characters and what they are going through better and the dynamic between them would be less tainted. You guys already know that Gaby is playing Betty which I am super excited about but now it is time for me to let you know who else is starring in our opening. August will be portrayed by my amazing friend Daniela Valerio. I have known Dani for at least six years now and when I asked her about being in the opening she was immediately super enthusiastic about it which is exactly what I wanted from the actors. Here is a picture of Dani :)

Finally is James. At first, I was getting frustrated as I have barely any male friends so thinking about who could star as him and do it right was a process. I was really trying to think about who to ask until I had an aha moment, I know the person who is passionate about these characters and this opening and will pour their heart into this project; Myself. Since the beginning of this project, I have been saying that I was not going to be in the opening but then I realized that nobody will care as much as I do when it comes to portraying James. Another reason I cast myself was due to the fact that I did not want my dialogue to seem too forced. Gaby, Dani, and I have been really good friends for many years and now we will be playing three best friends so there were no better castings in my opinion. I am going to close this blog out with a picture of myself now! I am honestly super nervous to introduce these characters to you all and now the entirety of James is in my hands, no pressure though. 

Gathering materials

    Hey guys, today I wanted to let you guys know all of the equipment and props my team and I are gathering before we begin filming. First of all, I wanted to talk about how I am planning to produce colored lighting. Before I begin I want to give some minimal background info which is that I own two studio lights which I use for my photography and I collect vinyl. A few weeks back I was doing a shoot in my room and playing a record when I realized that I own many different colored vinyl and if I hold one up to the light it will produce colored light. Records should never be exposed to too much heat as they will warp so it was a trial and error process of trying to find the perfect angle that would produce the perfect lighting while not damaging my vinyl and below is the result.

My group and I still need to find the best fake blood to use. We have been researching for a while now but we need to find a brand that will not stain our actors' skin or my bathroom. We are at a point right now where we may just make our own, if we find multiple recipes and keep altering them until we get the perfect mix of realism and cleanliness we would be good to go. Alright, y'all that is all for today! 

Some updates!

    Hey guys, today I wanted to give you guys some minimal but important updates. First of all, my group and I are planning on shooting next weekend. We made this decision due to the fact that none of us are extremely skilled editors so we wanted to have as much time as possible to focus on perfecting the editing; This decision does come with a complication though which is casting. As of now we only have the role of Betty cast who will be played by my best friend Gaby Carstens. (I attached a picture of us that brings me lots of joy)

This casting choice was honestly made very suddenly a few weeks back, I was at a cafe with Gaby and was just talking about this project and how excited I am for it and was explaining a bit about every character when she just blurted out "Can I be in it?" The answer was a no-brainer as I know Gaby will be able to take this seriously (and who doesn't want to work with their best friend?) The plan is to use all of spring break and everyday after that to edit our film opening as the editing of the shower scene will be what makes or breaks it, but anyways back to casting. I have a friend who I am talking to daily now to see if our schedules will align in order for her to portray August, I really want her to play this role as I think she shares some character traits with the personality but most importantly she is friends with Gaby in real life which would definitely make the dialogue flow better and seem less scripted. Overall, I was really excited tell you guys that we casted Betty and have no doubt that I will be letting you know the rest of the cast super soon !!

The storyboard begins !

    Hey everyone, I am just popping in quickly to show you some of the storyboard for our opening. I recently received this image and wanted to show you guys what my teammates have created so far.

I have touched on the significance of storyboards before but wanted to bring it up again. Storyboards are essential in my opinion as one has an idea of what they want and can plan everything out but it is not the same until you can visualize it and I believe this is especially true in a team setting as sometimes when describing a scene your teammates may still not have the same grasp on the idea as you do. This specific section of the storyboards shows the entirety of the shower scene and although it is just a drawing I can really see our opening coming along as now I actually can see the shots I have only ever previously mentioned being brought to life on paper. Lorena did a really good job at capturing the shots we will be utilizing, especially the close-ups as those are pivotal to the scene as they really show the blood on the face but somehow the expression of the actor is more important at that moment; This is especially true about the scream scene as although there is no blood now and she is finally "clean" the scream shows just how tainted her mindset is. This actually juxtaposes the previous close-ups as the characters are quietly dazing while covered in blood but it is not until she is "presentable" that she shows her frustration with the entire situation. Alright, guys, that is all for today!! 

The shot list

     Hey everyone, today I wanted to show you guys the shot list that my group and I created for our opening; Below I included the shots for the first scene.

The scene begins with our character already in the shower but first, we will do a tracking shot of sorts from the showerhead to their face to the drain and then back to the face but this time the camera stays on them for a few seconds. The shot changes suddenly and we see the face of the second character also in the shower and then the same thing happens again but with character three in order to create a juxtaposition. Now, I know that reading the rest of the shots may seem weird but it will make way more sense after editing. Here is where we plan to begin using quick cuts and including random clips of either a character's face, blood, the showerhead, etc. between the cuts. The cuts will begin to get very fast and when they abruptly stop it will land on one of our character's faces and that character will just scream; This transitions into a black screen that will say "4 days prior" Below are the shots for scenes two and three.

The first couple of clips from scene two are going to be of either one or two of our characters getting ready. We chose to include this in order to really show their dynamic to the audience as friendship and relationships, in general, are an important element for our film. This scene also tells the viewers that two of our main characters are family. The tracking shot into the car and the scenes in the car might also function as a POV shot for one of our characters as it could be a good technique to really make the viewers feel like they understand the dynamic of the friend group. The final shot of our opening is from outside the car and we see it at a stop sign and two hands holding a camera appear in the frame and begins to take pictures of our main characters in order to establish that there is a villain.  Alright, that's all for today! Making the shot list kind of made me realize that this whole project is real and any week now my team and I have to begin filming and I am going to be able to watch something I poured my heart into come to fruition.

How to make it horror?

    Hey guys, today I wanted to talk about some elements I’m including in my opening in order to alter the mood. As I have previously established, the first scene in my opening will consist of horror elements while the following scenes will touch on the coming-of-age aspects. I have been doing some research in order to figure out how exactly to bring all the horror elements I can, so I wanted to let you know about some techniques I will be utilizing. I am going to start with two that may or may not be used; The first is when shooting the shower scene, instead of having the sliding glass shower door be open in order to get a clear shot of the characters face I may leave it closed in order to give it the feel that somebody is watching them. Obviously this is not a POV shot from the stalkers perspective but since this is a stalker piece using this technique may give it that feel. The next trick I may use is using my fog machine in order to make the shot extremely hazy, this one I am mostly unsure of because I do not know if it would make the shot look good or unnecessarily blurry. The "fog" would make sense as it could be played off as vapor from the shower and could make the shot more ominous especially in combination with the next technique I am going to mention. Lighting is obviously super important and I am going to utilize colored lighting; I am unsure of what color to use as I want this scene to be eerie but at the same time the facial expressions of the characters are important as they all just went through something traumatic. I do believe I will most likely end up sticking to red lighting for the sake of the shot but another idea I have been toying around with is giving each character a different color that best matches their personalities. Now onto the editing, the plan for going from one character to the other in the shower scene is to just have cuts that keep getting faster and faster and faster and then they abruptly stop and land on one of our characters who begins to scream out of the frustration, the quick cuts represent how the characters are feeling in that moment as they are meant to make the audience very anxious. During the entire shower scene, except for when one of our characters scream, the background sound utilized will be a Shepard tone. First of all let me clarify what a Shepard tone is, it is a sound that creates an illusion that it is constantly either rising or falling in pitch so it is great for creating suspense; Here is an example. We plan on using a Shepard tone as we think it will work perfectly along with our quick cuts in order to induce anxiety in our viewers and build up for the scream. The scream is not meant to be a jump scare or something that scares the audience at all, there are no elements meant to actively scare the audience during the shower scene but we want to create an uncomfortable environment so the audience knows that they are not watching a regular coming-of-age film. That is all for today and I hope I was able to explain a bit about different elements going into the shower scene, talk to you soon!!

Maybe social media isn't all that bad

    Hey everyone, if you read my first posting of the week, you may have noticed that some of the letters throughout were in bold. If you were to line up the letters in bold the word ‘Silversphere’ would have appeared and to many that word will have no meaning. Now, you may be asking “okay Thiago why did you do that?” And I am here to explain why. Silversphere is actually the stage name (Birth name being Sophie Cates) of one of my favorite artists of all time, she is a 21 year old pop singer who I have admired for many years. I began listening to her music around 3 years ago when I stumbled upon the music video for her song “Drinking Games” I instantly loved the song and followed Sophie on instagram where I messaged her telling her how much I adored the song. Something happened to me that never had happened before which is an artist that I messaged responded to me. Ever since then we have been messaging back and forth and she even follows me on instagram. I instantly knew that I wanted to message her about including a song of hers in my opening and i’m so thankful that she answered almost instantly and was super on board with the idea. I know this is an opportunity that not everybody is able to have and I feel so lucky to be able to utilize her music to elevate my film opening. Please check out her Instagram and her Apple Music page. Below I also included some images from her latest “all my boyfriends” era, the first image is a still taken from the music video for her song “ghosts!”, which I encourage everyone to checkout. That’s all for today! I really hope you guys are all as excited about this news as I am; and please everyone check out sophie’s incredible music!

 

Group meeting + Feedback

    Hey everyone, this morning I had the opportunity to have a meeting with members of other groups also creating a film opening. Our meeting consisted of six members all working on creating separate openings and it was honestly an amazing experience. We all went around telling the others what our openings consist of and our creation process, when it was my turn to tell the group I got a lot of positive feedback; This felt amazing as I (like many others) love being reassured about my work, especially a project like this that I am super passionate about. I did get a few pieces of advice, some I have already been thinking of and others I haven't. I have been playing with the idea of using different lighting during the shower scene than in the rest of the opening as the shower scene is more ominous and should make the audience feel stressed in a way. My original idea was to have very dim lighting for the shower scene to the point where the characters were indistinguishable but now I am definitely leaning more towards the idea of using colored lights for the shower scene as I believe it could really elevate the scene and bring more emotion to it; I want it to bring emotion to the scene as I want it to be more about what the characters are feeling in that very moment rather than what they did or the fact that they are covered in blood. The following scene will be a character rushing to get ready and then gets into a car with our other two main characters and an idea I was toying with was following the character from their bedroom to the car but the feedback I got during the meeting was that if I do intend on doing this I should definitely not utilize shaky cam. If you don't know what shaky cam is, its basically a technique where the camera is being shaken in order for the subject to appear distorted in a way. Using shaky cam was an option but not what I was set on doing but after discussion during todays meeting, I am going to scrap the idea as a whole as I received feedback signaling that the use of shaky cam will only make my opening messier and less professional. Alright guys, that was everything I had for ya'll today! Check back in tomorrow for a fun announcement!!

A little research never killed nobody

    Hey everyone, how are you today? I've honestly been having a great week but that's beside the point. If I am being completely honest todays blog may not be the most entertaining to sit through which is because  I am going to touch on some more of the research I have been doing. Although I do feel confident in what I know and my teams and I plan for shooting, researching a little more never hurt anyone. The first resource I used was an article all about planning the shooting of a film, this article was honestly really informative as it went in depth about the three major things to focus on when shooting; Breaking down the scene, having a shot list, and creating a schedule. I will admit that there was a lot of information given that would have been more helpful to a professional with access to expensive equipment rather than an unexperienced 16 year old with an iPhone. The breaking down of a scene chapter of this article was honestly something I needed to read as it highlights the importance of every single detail in a scene and everything that goes into shooting just a single scene; This isn't something I was unaware of but I know that having read such a detailed article about it made me realize how important every little detail truly is. An aspect I loved even though it didn't really help me was how the writer included examples of everything to really put in perspective how large scale some filming processes can be. The second article was one on how to plan a film and although I definitely felt that I learned less from this one there were a few key takeaways. One thing I realized is that I don't have a full story done and by that I mean that I can't imagine what the climax of the film looks like or even the ending; I realize that this is due to the fact that I only have to film the first two minutes of a film but having the entire story planned out will affect how I want characters to move, what I want them to say, and what their surroundings will look like. I also plan to create the shot list and storyboard with my teammates in the upcoming days because although we aren't starting to film yet we want to have everything go smoothly once we decide it is time to begin shooting. That is all for today guys but I would keep my eyes peeled for my postings this week as I have an exciting announcement to make.

Who does what??

 Hey everyone, I hope today has been great! Today I wanted to loosely touch on how my team and I are going to split up the work. First of all, I want to say that nobody is purely in charge of any aspect of this films creation as we are a team and are communicating throughout this entire process. I am focusing on the writing and treatment as I tend to write often in my free time and it is something I love to do. As the genre of film we are creating is one of my favorites and I am really passionate about it, the treatment for our film is going to be made by me. I am really excited to start on the writing, but if I am being completely honest I am a little scared; I usually write poetry but have written some short stories, my biggest task with the writing is to make sure that the dialogue sounds real and to convince the audience that what they are hearing is an actual conversation that would occur. Lorena and Larissa are more artistically inclined than I am so they will be in charge of creating the storyboard. Prior to them creating the storyboard we still have to host a meeting where we create a shot list for the opening. The filming and editing we are actually not planning on splitting up but rather finding a covid safe way in which we can all edit and film together. If we ultimately find that it is not possible to collaborate with these, we will host many meetings to tell the person filming exactly what everything should look like and when it comes time to edit we can host a Zoom meeting in which the person with the footage will share their screen so it is sort of like we are able to edit together. That is all for today! I just wanted you guys to have a clearer idea of how some aspects will be divided among us.

What our opening consists of

     Hey everyone!! Todays blog will be a little shorter than usual as  I wanted to talk to you guys a bit about what the film opening will look like and what scenes we are going to show as of now.  The first scene we show will be clips that line up perfectly compiled together of our three main characters in the shower. You see only their heads and some of their necks which are covered in blood, we might also show blood going down the shower drain in order to make the scene feel more dramatic and eerie. We then see our lead get out of the shower (Head only) and as they begin to dry their hair they scream into their towel, the scene then gets merged with clips of our other two main characters yelling into their towels. The screen then goes dark and the film title, which is yet to be decided, appears. We then see one of our characters getting ready, this scene is important as their surroundings and their daily routines are going to reveal a lot about them to the audience. I want to include a shot of the three leads in a car so that the audience can get a glimpse into the dynamic the friend group has with one another. The few final shots are going to reveal the villain of our film. We wanted the big bad to be a killer and not a supernatural entity for a few reasons, the first being that we were unaware of how to make a supernatural villain make sense within our plot. The second reason is one that I have for a very specific reason which is that killers enjoy killing and that's why they do it, there has to be no big reason on why the target is exactly that, a target. The 2008 film The Strangers touches on this take with the tagline being "Because you were home" This is a really interesting dynamic not often shown in horror movies with the villain usually attacking a family member of a specific group of people when in reality murderers are just insane and usually do not have reason behind their madness. Alright guys, that is all for today and I really hope you're excited for how this is gonna turn out because I know I am; Till next time!!