What are we up to?

      Hey guys! This week has been hectic. Its currently the fourth quarter of the school year and I have loads of homework and tests to study for. Regardless of all of this, Stephanie and I have also been dedicating some time to our film opening (Probably the most fun I've had all week...). As I mentioned in my last post, we have been wanting to find suspense music suitable for our film and that is one of the things we looked into. We also have been thinking about possible titles, but so far only have one decent idea.

Title Possibilities

      Lilac/The Lilacs ( or anything along these lines)

Suspense Music Ideas

Songs we liked from the first site we visited:

• Lost frontier

Second site:

• The Dance of Hadin
• Wahoony
• The haze
• Isolation
• Heart beat nerve

Third site:

• Paranormal paranoia
• What lies ahead
• Psychotic nightmare

Fourth site:

• In the shadows
• Bruises

A shot showing the lilac and the first note.      Some of you might be wondering why Stephanie and I are thinking of making our film title "Lilac." If you are, you have every right to be since I haven't explained anything about it before. Well, out of the many things we used as props, the more important ones were the plastic lilac flowers. We spread these flowers out on the kitchen floor, where the protagonist's sister was killed. I honestly would have never thought of making the name of the flowers we used our film title, but the night that we filmed the murder scene Lizbeth, the victim's sister and our friend, mentioned the flower's name and jokingly told us we should name our film that. At first, we all laughed a bit, but then we realized that it might actually make for a suitable title. Upon considering it to be our film's title we also had to make sure that the film had something more to do with Lilacs otherwise making "Lilac" the title would be irrelevant. Since this was the case, we might end up making Lilacs the murderer's signature and as the movie were to develop it could also have some deep meaning/ reasoning behind why its used. Along with the Lilac, the killer would also leave a note each time he killed or wanted to send the protagonist some sort or clue/note.

"Suspense" Soundscrate. Web. 

http://soundscrate.com/suspense.html

"Score and Orchestral | Royalty Free Suspense Music" Beatsuite.com. Web. http://www.beatsuite.com/music/category/tension-and-suspense/377

Incompetech. Web. 

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?feels%5B%5D=Suspenseful

"Soundtracks | Suspense & Thriller." Yookamusic. Web. http://www.yookamusic.com/playlist/soundtracks_suspense_thriller

Progress report

      Hey everyone! Not much has happened from Saturday - Monday regarding our film, but I want to fill you all in on any details that have been discussed throughout those days. On Saturday, Stephanie and I pretty much wrapped up filming and continued editing the different shots together. While editing, Stephanie brought to my attention a small quirk in one of the car shots that bothered her. Although it's no big deal, I agree that the shot would look better without that small detail. Besides that, we also added videos to the production companies. So far we haven't found too many other problems, but we have yet to go through all of the shots we took and pick out the best ones. We are also still looking for the suspense music that could possibly be used once the protagonist gets into her house. There is one song that might be the winner, but I want to keep on looking to make sure that there is nothing better that we can find. We're going to keep looking and continue editing and I'll keep you all updated!

Fun while filming

     Hey! Today Stephanie and I got some more work done! I'm so proud of all of the work we've been doing considering the fact that it's spring break and that homework is the last thing that I would want to be doing. The more time we spend filming and working on this project the less is feels like homework because of all of the fun that we have had while doing it. On Thursday we were forced to stop filming due to the fact that my camera had run out of battery, but today we went out to buy some batteries and were able to continue our filming adventure. We got a lot of stuff done today. One of the first things we did was make a darker cup of fake blood to use along with the blood that we made on Thursday. It was pretty easy since we knew about how much of everything we needed to successfully make it. After we finished making the fake blood, Stephanie and I went out to buy some glue (to make a scar) and started filming some more, once we got home. We filmed the scene where Stephanie (the protagonist) arrives at her house and notices that everything is messy and out of place. As she walks through the house she see's more and more things that are out of place. After we finished filming that part of the opening, we had to wait for Sarah, the girl that was going to play her younger sister, to come over. Sarah arrived a few minutes later with her older sister, and our close friend, Lizbeth. This is when the fun began. Stephanie put Sarah's makeup on, we made the scar, and started to add the fake blood on Sarah and around the house. After all of this was over we began to film, making sure that we got various shots and angles for each piece filmed. Since Stephanie had to be sad upon finding her sister dead on the floor, we had to figure out how to get her to cry or just any way to make her sadness/shock believable. I then remembered how sad the series finale to How I Met Your Mother made her, so I made her watch it and shortly after, she was sobbing. Success!

      On my way home after this long day of hard work and fun I started reflecting on everything we got done earlier and realized something super interesting. A few weeks ago I had a post dedicated almost completely to Alfred Hitchcock and I mentioned a way that he worked when it came to storyboarding. That quote of his mentioned how much time and effort he tends to put into storyboarding and then disregards it completely once he starts filming. I realized that that is what happened to Stephanie and I too. We spend a good amount of time planning out exactly how we wanted each shot to look like on our storyboard and once we started filming we just filmed whatever we thought looked best. Of course we had the storyboard in mind, but there are so many different shots that we took that we didn't draw out on our storyboard and ended up liking a lot. This goes to show how much amateur filmmakers like us can gain from legends like Hitchcock.

"How I Met Your Mother." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Met_Your_Mother

How I Met Your Mother - Ending Scene. YouTube. YouTube, 31 Mar. 2014. Web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW82fRNJc84

"Alfred Hitchcock." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock

Music & Props

      Hey, it's me again! This time i'm here to share with you guys all of the progress that Stephanie and I made today. First of all I would like to mention that the storyboard is complete and we might know exactly where we want our title to be. The next thing is that once I got to Stephanie's house, this morning, we went straight to work (well we actually ate some leftovers first.. but that's not too important). The first thing we did was look for music. This part was kind of tough because I didn't know that almost all non-copyrighted music had no lyrics. I wanted the song that was going to be played throughout the first few seconds of our film to be happy... and have lyrics. We went through a few different non-copyrighted sounds and didn't really get too far, until we decided to e-mail a few artists. Since we didn't know exactly what song we wanted we decided to email two different artists to grant us permission for us to use their songs. I was surprised to have gotten responses from both, and only a few hours later. That is when we decided to use Ingrid Michaelson's "Be Ok" for the car ride scene in our film opening. Stephanie and I are also thinking of using a different song for the rest of the film, to build up the suspense. For that, we have no idea what we're going to use.

      On this very productive adventure, Stephanie and I also made some home-made fake blood. The first time was a complete disaster because the blood came out extremely liquidy and dark. Thankfully, the second time we decided to try a more simple mixture using, golden syrup, cocoa powder, red and green dye, which worked wonders. It was a fun process and a definite trial and error experience. Along with all of this we also started filming a few scenes and putting them together. I'm very happy in the direction that this project is going. I have to admit that at first I was worried that things weren't going to come out how we wanted them to, but I'm glad that I was wrong.

The ingredients we used to make our fake-blood

"How to Make Fake Blood." WikiHow. Web.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Fake-Blood

"Ingrid Michaelson." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Michaelson

Ingrid Michaelson "Be OK" By Ingrid Michaelson. YouTube. YouTube, 04 Sept. 2008. Web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpMI8Qu5fsc

Storyboarding & more

      Hey! It's already Wednesday... and that means that spring break is almost over. Breaks always seem to go by too quickly, but at least I've had some time to work on my project. Stephanie and I are finally wrapping up the storyboard. There are still a few parts that we're hoping to finish tonight, but the are pretty much finished.

This is the first page to our storyboard.

      We've also been thinking about some of the opening credits and sketched out some ideas. Do you all remember that I mentioned in my last post how I really liked the technique that Dan Trachtenbeg, the director of 10 Cloverfield Lane, used for his films opening scene? Well after I explained the idea to Stephanie we thought of ways that we could incorporate it into our opening. We thought that maybe each time we showed a room we could have the film transition to black and show some credits until the title is finally shown (which we still haven't chosen yet). I'm not sure if we've decided to go with this technique or not but we're definitely going to try that and various other techniques until we find the one that works best for us.

These are possible credits that would go at the very beginning of the opening.

      The last few things that I want to mention, once again, are casting, props, and music. Stephanie and I decided that the best route for us to go would be to make the victim the protagonist's sister instead of her mother. A close friend of ours' sister has agreed to play the part and we have decided that Stephanie, my partner, might be the best person to play the protagonist's part. It's the best option since she knows exactly how she wants the character to feel, considering me and her created the character. We have also been thinking about certain props that we might need for our film, and went out to buy some yesterday. We bought a cheap, but pretty, vase, fake flowers and need to look for some fake blood or any material that might pass for blood. The last thing I want to mention is music. Stephanie and I know that background music is one of the biggest (and possibly most important) elements for thriller films. Since this is the case, we are going to start looking for the music we might want to put into our film very soon.

This is the girl that Stephanie and I decided would be best to play the victim.
She is wearing makeup that makes her look all bruised up. (a possible look for our film)

"Dan Trachtenberg." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Trachtenberg

"10 Cloverfield Lane." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Cloverfield_Lane

Some details...

     It's finally spring break! This week has felt so long and i'm glad its finally time for this much needed break. Yesterday, I met up with my partner Stephanie and we started talking about storyboarding and other details. We have our story and know what we want it to look like, but "who's going to play the part, what will they where, and where will this take place?" are all questions that went through our heads. Both Stephanie and I clearly imagine the main character being a female, brunette, around 16/17 years old, and having a seemingly innocent appearance. Since a few of our friends fit this criteria, we need to choose the one that would play the part the best. We also need two other people to play the victim and the murderer. The murderer would preferably be a guy, dressed in dark clothing, but if we can't find a guy to play the part we might have to go with either not showing the criminal's face or the criminal being a girl (which would mean a slight change in the plot too). Aside from casting, we've also been thinking about the ideal filming locations. This part is not as complicated since the majority of the film opening takes place inside a house. We were between my house and Stephanie's, but considering Stephanie's house is larger it was the better option.

Similar look too protagonist (left).  Creepy, dark, mysterious criminal (right).

     We have also been thinking about the set design. Once the main character walks into her home, we want both her and the audience to sense that something's not right. In order to get that across, there has to be some sort of disorder within the house like broken decorations, an open door, things that are out of place, a messy bedroom, etc... Along with the set, a big part of our scene is going to be the hurt body on the floor. To make that look realistic as possible we're going to use fake blood and a technique we learned in class, to make scars and oozing wounds.

     One last thing that I want to mention, once again, is the title placement. On Friday night, I saw a movie called 10 Cloverfield lane and was intrigued by its opening scene. I loved the way they included the title within their opening, and had to share it with Stephanie. Sadly when I was looking for its opening scene yesterday, to show Stephanie, I couldn't find it. The best I could do was explain it to her, just like I'm about to explain it to you. The movie starts out with the protagonist driving her car, and as she looks down at her ringing phone, for the second time, she crashes. Instead of her crashing and that being all, the director decided to go back and forth between her crashing and a few credits. I thought it was a great way to make the scene more dramatic and show the credits and title while not making the scene seem too long. I also thought the background music that was chosen for this film was so great and that something like that would be perfect for my film opening. After I explained it to Stephanie, I showed her the trailer and noticed that they used a very similar technique at the beginning of the trailer. I'm not completely sure if this technique would be good for us to use, but we're definitively going to try it out.

10 Cloverfield Lane Trailer (2016). Dir. Dan Trachtenberg. YouTube. YouTube, 15 Jan. 2016. Web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQy-ANhnUpE

"10 Cloverfield Lane." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Cloverfield_Lane

Title sequence & Opening credits

      Hey there! In my last post I mentioned that I was going to find some information of title sequences and guess what... I did! Not only did I search information on title sequences, but I also searched "where should titles go in film openings." I wasn't too sure if it would get me anywhere since I know that there is no specific set of rules, but luckily it did.

      The first thing I found was a Wikipedia page on Title sequences. This page was very brief, but under its movie subheading it mentioned a movie called Se7en. Knowing that I need all of the information I can get, I watched the opening for Se7en and I really enjoyed it. Right from the beginning, it had a creepy and intriguing tone (since it's a horror film). Even though there wasn't too much going on, the effects, how everything transitioned and was put together kept my attention and kept me curious. I noticed that this film opening included the title in an interesting way and kept the opening going gracefully. The title was not intrusive and followed the same theme the rest of the opening followed. This is going to be a good thing to keep in mind to help my partner and I decide where the title for our film opening should go.

      The next thing I found while I was was researching was a short documentary called The Film before Film. In this documentary the narrator talks about how film credits have transitioned from "early film credits to the inclusion of digital techniques, a resurgence of old-school style, and typography in space." It helped show me various ways and techniques that I could use to include both the film title and the credits within my film opening. The narrator also mentioned that film titles could be included in a way that grabs the audience's attention and sparks their curiosity. One of the things that caught my attention was when he said that there are times when film titles share common elements with the film's upcoming setting. It got me thinking and including the title in that way would allow Stephanie and I include our title without interrupting the flow of the scene. Through this video I also found out about Saul Bass, who was best known for his title sequences and is the one who made the title sequences for many films some being Hitcock's Psycho and Vertigo.

     I know I've written about lots of information already, but there's one last thing that I know will help my film, the order of the opening credits. I started this blog post out by focusing solely on figuring out my title sequence and how to present it, but I also learned a whole lot about the opening credits. Of course there are numerous ways to put together the opening credits, but I just found out that there is a common order to presenting the basics.

1. Name of the studio.. Presents
2. Name of the production company ( A _______ production)
3. Possessory credits (A film by ____ or A _____ film)
• Could be placed before title: "Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho"
4. Starring....
5. Film's title
6. Also starring...

I'm not too sure which way Stephanie and I will go, but its always good to know the basics.... I'll keep you all updated!

"Opening Credits." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits

"Saul Bass." Art of the Title. Web.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/designer/saul-bass/

THE FILM before THE FILM. Vimeo., 2013. Web.

https://vimeo.com/60964497

Se7en (Opening Credits). Dir. Kyle Cooper. YouTube. YouTube, 9 Aug. 2006. Web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY

"Se7en (1995)." IMDb. IMDb.com, Web.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/

"Title Sequence." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_sequence

Solid Storyline

    Well today has been a good day because Stephanie and I finally decided on a storyline and I got some tips from my teacher. After various suggestions and changes, we've settled on our final story. It is still a similar story to the notes I posted yesterday, but we're going to tell it through a different approach, a simpler approach. There are some details we need to work out and of course there's still storyboarding, but we're getting there!

Storyline Notes:

• We were thinking that the film opening should start out happy, and normal
• The main character would be shown driving home, jamming to her music.
• High key lighting
• Energetic music
• The credits could be shown, they could start out in this scene, i'm not too sure where we would put them, but they would be somewhere were it wouldn't be to intrusive.
• Once the character gets out of her car the music could stop, since it was a diegetic sound coming from her car. (or it could transition)
• There would be a change in tone once the character enters her house
• She would sense that something's not right
• She would then be shown going around the house, curiously, making sure everything is ok
• She would see various items out of place and notice that something is wrong
• Back door could be open
• Broken items
• Low-key lighting
• Suspenseful music to further imply that something has happened/ is going to happen
• Maybe kitchen droplets are sounding
• Could have foley sound of the protagonist's heartbeat
• There would be different shots of the house possibly from the character's POV
• While different parts of the house are being shown there would still be credits (not intrusive, small somewhere in the shot)
• When she gets to the kitchen she sees a woman lying on the floor, and realizes its her mother and quickly goes to help her.
• As she runs towards her mother, there could be a sound and a slight view of a stranger quickly leaving the house, indicating possible murder.
• There could be a sound specific to the murderer or when something bad is about to happen/ has happened (sound motif?)
• The mother would have bruises in her face and a stab wound.
• Once she realizes that her mother is dead the camera would show the protagonist's face to show her emotions
• There could be a zoom into the character's face
• The protagonist would be expressing surprise, concern, confusion and sadness.

    Once you're done reading through our ideas, you might notice that the title wasn't included anywhere in there. I know the title is a very important aspect in a film opening and I promise that we will have one... but my partner and I aren't too sure about where and when in the film we should put it (or what it should be). We have some ideas but I want to see what else we can come up with. Since research has yet to deceive me, i'm going to look for information on title sequences and fill you guys in tomorrow. See you then!

Fixing a few quirks

    Hey everyone! Today my class met up in groups once again, but since I was performing at chorus MPA I wasn't able to be apart of it. I probably missed lots of good input, but i'll make sure to ask my partner to fill me in. Since I wasn't able to share, let me show you all some of what I would've presented to the group.
    Stephanie and I have been thinking of making our film revolve around some sort of murder mystery. The film genre would be Thriller. Here's are some of the ideas that we have for our story:

I'm not sure exactly how the ideas that we have could all fit into just the opening.. I feel like it might be too much (I might be wrong). I've been thinking of ways to simplify our opening while still exposing or giving the audience a sneak peak into what the story might/ is going to be about.
    Do you remember how I mentioned Hitchcock in an earlier post? Well he spent a grand amount of time storyboarding and since Stephanie and I have many ideas, I decided to draw out some possible shots.

This isn't the official storyboard, but it was a good way for me to express my ideas and different possibilities.

"Alfred Hitchcock." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock

"Storyboarding." Berkeley Advanced Media Institute., 08 May 2015. Web. https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/starttofinish-storyboarding/

New Ideas

    Hey everyone, I hope you're all having a fantastic Saturday night! Yesterday in my AICE Media class, all of the students were given the opportunity to get into groups and gather various thoughts on their ideas. At first we went around the table, in a group of 6, sharing our ideas, our progress, and each of our blogs. Stephanie and I shared our interest in the thriller genre and shared a solid story-line that we had. Well we thought it was pretty solid, until the group spoke up and gave us a few great ideas. Those ideas have had us thinking all weekend. We're still sticking to the whole unknown criminal idea, but there are so many different things that we can do with it that we have to put them all together to be able to finally start storyboarding. (I'll tell you guys our whole idea once its concrete)
  Within that same group, one of the girls recommended that we watch 15 mistakes beginner filmmakers make so I did and got a lot out of it. When I searched for the video, a lot of them popped up so I'm not sure if I watched the same one that the girl recommended, but either way it was still very helpful. The video mentioned a variety of common mistakes like undercooked scripts, bad sound, bad casting choices, poor lighting and so much more. Although Stephanie and I haven't started filming yet, it's good for us to keep it in mind while storyboarding. We must make sure that along with every shot we want, we also know how we are going to incorporate the necessary elements. Some examples would be: figuring out how to light the shot accordingly, making sure we know what sounds we are going to need, and planning out how to grab the audience at the beginning.

"Top 15 Mistakes Beginner Filmmakers Make." Dir. Britt Darious. YouTube. YouTube, 20 Jan. 2015. Web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1myw_0W5E8

Thriller night

 After looking through the various genres and brainstorming ideas, the Thriller/Mystery/Suspense genre was the one that stood out the most to us. Thriller films are amazing because of all the emotions they can make someone feel. The AMC film site stated that " [thriller and suspense films] are known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension." It's crazy to think that images on a screen could be so emotionally impacting, when put together correctly. Upon seeing both my partner and my interest in Thrillers we came up with a few possible ideas and narrowed it down.

1. Stalker
2. Kidnapped as a child, wants revenge, but it could be anyone...
3. Some sort of criminal, and the criminal/crime would be introduced in the opening scene (similar to Scream, or Criminal minds)

  Since Stephanie and I have taken an interest in the Thriller genre, I think its crucial for me to research "The Master of Suspense," Alfred Hitchcock. In case you don't know, Hitchcock is the mastermind behind films like Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), Notorious (1946) and many more. The reason I'm so interested in learning more about Hitchcock is so I can see the techniques he used, and how he made such memorable thrillers. He dedicated loads of time to story boarding and seeing how successful his films have been, I know that once Stephanie and I have a clear plot, we're going to need to dedicate time to planning out as much as we can before filming.

"Once the screenplay is finished, I'd just as soon not make the film at all ... I have a strongly visual mind. I visualize a picture right down to the final cuts. I write all this out in the greatest detail in the script, and then I don't look at the script while I'm shooting." Alfred Hitchcock

 I also want to mention that I just watched a few Thriller Film openings (Inception, Black swan, Sherlock Holmes, Vertigo, Blue velvet, Psycho) and although they were all very diverse they helped fill my mind with different ideas and possibilities. I'll write them down as they come to me and get you all updated!

"Alfred Hitchcock." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock#Aesthetic

Dirks, Tim. "Thriller/Suspense Films." AMC Filmsite. Web. http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html

"Notorious (1946)." IMDb. IMDb.com, Web. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038787/

"Psycho (1960)." IMDb. IMDb.com, Web.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/

"Vertigo (1958)." IMDb. IMDb.com, Web.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/